Category Archives: Environment

Australian company secures $700,000 deal for carbon capture and storage machine

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AspiraDAC device can remove two tonnes of CO2 a year and store it underground using direct air capture technology

A solar-powered and tent-sized Australian prototype machine that can suck CO2 from the air has secured a $700,000 contract to capture and store carbon.

The deal, part of a project backed by corporates including the owners of Google and Facebook, is thought to be the first time an Australian company has secured a deal to remove CO2 using direct air capture (DAC) technology.

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Pearl Harbor’s toxic water caused by shoddy management, navy finds

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US military investigation points to human error after fuel leak that poisoned thousands

A US navy investigation has revealed that shoddy management and human error caused fuel to leak into Pearl Harbor’s tap water last year, poisoning thousands of people and forcing military families to evacuate their homes for hotels.

The investigation, released on Thursday, is the first detailed account of how jet fuel from the Red Hill bulk fuel storage facility, a huge second-world-war-era military-run tank farm in the hills above Pearl Harbor, leaked into a well that supplied water to housing and offices in and around the sprawling base.

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Singapore craft beer uses recycled sewage to highlight water scarcity

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Collaboration between national water agency and craft brewer described as ‘highly quaffable’

It is a beer made with only the finest ingredients: premium German barley malts, aromatic Citra and Calypso hops, farmhouse yeast from Norway – and reclaimed sewage.

NewBrew, a collaboration between Singapore’s national water agency and the local craft brewery Brewerkz, has already proved popular and has sold out on tap at the brewery’s restaurants, according to reports.

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Nation records 33 Covid deaths as Victoria reports fifth monkeypox case – as it happened

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Mark Butler urges Australians to get boosters as new subvariant circulates; nation records 33 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

Australia ‘deeply concerned by continuing erosion of Hong Kong’s rights’

Penny Wong, minister for foreign affairs, released a statement last night saying Australia remains “deeply concerned” by the continuing erosion of Hong Kong’s rights.

Australia remains deeply concerned by the continuing erosion of Hong Kong’s rights, freedoms and autonomy, two years since the imposition of the National Security Law.

The National Security Law has been applied broadly to arrest or pressure pro-democracy figures, opposition groups, the media, trade unions and civil society. The electoral reforms imposed by Beijing in 2021 have further eroded Hong Kong’s democratic governance.

This will be the fourth time the government has offered to make the changes, announced the changes, and then backtracked as a result of internal politics.

I’m just not sure where we go from here but our members are resolute. We are going to continue fighting to get these trains made safe, and we’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen.

It’s going to be a very messy day. It’ll be a weekend timetable with other trains taken out of it.

The families of the railway workers right now could be having $3,000 deposited in their account, instead of having that money spent on modifying perfectly good trains.

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Western Australia’s EPA urges 50-year extension of country’s most polluting gas project

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Woodside’s North West Shelf gas development would release more than eight times Australia’s annual emissions if it continues to operate until 2070

Western Australian authorities have recommended a 50-year extension of the country’s biggest polluting fossil fuel development, sparking condemnation from climate campaigners who warned it could add more than 4bn tonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

The WA Environment Protection Authority (EPA) advised the state government it should give the greenlight to oil and gas giant Woodside Energy to run its North West Shelf gas development in the Pilbara until 2070.

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EU moves to rein in ‘wild west’ of crypto assets with new rules

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MiCA law contains measures to guard against market abuse and manipulation

The EU has moved to rein in the “wild west” of crypto assets by agreeing a groundbreaking set of rules for the sector.

Representatives from the European parliament and EU states thrashed out an agreement on Thursday that contains measures to guard against market abuse and manipulation, as well as requiring that crypto firms provide details of the environmental impact of their assets.

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‘Talk with us, not for us’: fishing communities accuse UN of ignoring their voices

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Developing countries’ delegates at UN conference seek recognition of small fisheries’ role in protecting oceans and fighting hunger

Small-scale fishermen and women from coastal nations in the frontline of the “ocean emergency” have accused world leaders and other decision-makers at the UN oceans conference of ignoring their voices in favour of corporate interests.

More than half of the world’s fish caught for human consumption comes from small-scale fishing communities, yet their contribution to food security and ocean protection is not being sufficiently recognised, they say.

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Brand new bang: Lake Tahoe resort scraps July 4 fireworks for drones

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Pyrotechnic displays pose a heightened fire risk in a time of intense drought and cause distress to wild animals

Lake Tahoe’s north shore is breaking with tradition and will replace its Fourth of July fireworks celebration with a colorful light display of an entirely different nature.

The tourist town on the Nevada side of the storied lake will offer a night-time drone light show, a display officials at the Incline Village Crystal Bay visitors bureau said carries less danger in a parched landscape primed to burn.

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US supreme court hobbles government power to limit harmful emissions

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Court sides with Republican states as ruling represents landmark moment in rightwing effort to dismantle ‘regulatory state’

The US supreme court has sided with Republican-led states to in effect hobble the federal government’s ability to tackle the climate crisis, in a ruling that will have profound implications for the government’s overall regulatory power.

In a 6-3 decision that will seriously hinder America’s ability to stave off disastrous global heating, the supreme court, which became dominated by rightwing justices under the Trump administration, has opted to support a case brought by West Virginia that demands the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) be limited in how it regulates planet-heating gases from the energy sector.

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UK trade deal with Australia amounts to ‘offshoring’ pesticide use, MPs warn

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Select committee says ministers want to rush through deal allowing food imports that fall below UK environmental standards

The government is rushing through a trade deal with Australia that would allow food produced with pesticides banned in the UK to be imported into the country, campaigners and MPs have warned.

The international trade select committee in parliament has called for a vote on the deal, which would result in food produced below British domestic environmental standards being sold in the UK.

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New eradication zone established and 600 hives destroyed as NSW bee industry battles varroa mite

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Producers and apiarists remain concerned about future almond harvest and potential for mites to carry deformed wing virus

As many as 600 beehives and at least six million bees have been destroyed and another eradication zone has been established in New South Wales following the deadly varroa mite outbreak.

Concerns remained around almond harvest as well as the threat of the mites having a virus of their own, compounding problems for the state’s bees after the deadly parasite was discovered last week at hives near the Port of Newcastle.

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Victoria to demand governments set completion dates for energy transmission projects

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State energy minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, says investors need confidence electricity grid will be ready for renewables

Victoria will demand at the next meeting of federal and state energy ministers that governments set dates for the completion of transmission links to ensure renewable energy projects worth billions of dollars can be connected to the grid on time.

The latest roadmap for updating the National Energy Market, released on Thursday by the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo), identified five major new transmission lines requiring urgent action so enough new clean energy and storage capacity is built in time for the expected accelerated exit of ageing coal-fired power plants from the grid.

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Former Australian chief scientist to head review of carbon credit scheme after whistleblower revelations

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Climate change minister to announce Prof Ian Chubb will lead six-month probe of scheme labelled ‘largely a sham’ by one expert

The former Australian chief scientist and senior academic, Prof Ian Chubb, has been appointed to head a thorough review of Australia’s carbon credit scheme as experts escalate calls for a complete overhaul of the system.

Chris Bowen, the climate change minister, will announce on Friday that Chubb, a neuroscientist and former vice-chancellor of the Australian National University, will lead the six-month review of the scheme, after a respected whistleblower described it as a fraud and waste of taxpayer money.

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Nation records 60 Covid deaths as SA reports first monkeypox case – as it happened

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Nation records 60 Covid deaths; SA records first monkeypox case; Anthony Albanese meets Justin Trudeau at Nato summit. This blog is now closed

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has renewed his calls for China to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, declaring that Vladimir Putin “has made a strategic mistake because what his actions have done is unite the democratic world”.

Albanese – who has been in Madrid for a Nato summit – spoke to reporters yesterday after having a meeting on the sidelines with the leaders of Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.

There we discussed the important focus of this Nato’s summit on the Asia-Pacific region. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has solidified the support amongst democratic countries for the rules-based international order and a determination to continue to provide support to the government and the people of Ukraine who are suffering as a result of this breach of international law and this brutal invasion by Vladimir Putin’s regime.

Vladimir Putin has made a strategic mistake because what his actions have done is unite the democratic world and provide a real determination to make sure that the resilience being shown by the Ukrainian people is backed up by resilience and support from democratic countries, including Nato, but also countries throughout the world.

Well, what we saw is prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we saw a without-limits partnership between Russia and China. We’ve seen a failure of China to condemn any of the Russian aggression that has occurred against Ukraine. China must look at what is happening and look at the resolve that is there from throughout the world and should be condemning Russia’s actions.

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Giuliani associate Lev Parnas handed 20 months in prison for campaign finance fraud – as it happened

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• It was a mixed Tuesday for Donald Trump-backed candidates in Republican primary elections around the country. Colorado voters largely rejected most Trump-supporting candidates in Tuesday’s GOP primaries, although Lauren Boebert, the extremist Colorado Republican congresswoman, won her bid for relection.

• In Illinois, Mary Miller, who had been criticized after she declared the Supreme Court’s abortion decision as a “victory for white life” – a spokesman said she had mixed up her words – won in after she was backed by Trump. Darren Bailey, who was also endorsed by Trump, won the Republican gubernatorial primary in the state.

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Lismore ice-cream factory ‘will need to stand down 240 people’ unless flood support extended

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Norco says 44 workers who lost homes would be affected if government assistance ends

An ice-cream factory will stand down 240 workers in Lismore next month – including 44 who lost their homes in floods earlier this year – unless government support is extended.

Michael Hampson, the chief executive of Norco, the factory operator, said the decision came in the absence of further details of any federal assistance and confirmation the state government would not contribute to any further support package.

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Nations must work together through ‘conflict and crisis’ to reduce climate change risks, Albanese tells OECD

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Prime minister will say food insecurity has become a significant challenge and Australia has a major role to play in meeting the challenge

Australia’s prime minister Anthony Albanese will declare the world must raise ambition to reduce the risks of runaway global heating and cooperate amid national policy differences even when “long shadows of conflict and crisis are threatening our shared security”.

The prime minister will use a speech to a special session of the council of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris to launch a clarion call for international cooperation on climate policy, as well as practical measures to safeguard energy and food security, as the world grapples with disruptions created by the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

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‘It’s a sham’: Egypt accused of restricting protest in run-up to Cop27

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Climate activists say plight of jailed Alaa Abd El Fattah shows protesters’ voices will be ignored at Sharm el-Sheikh summit

Five months before a pivotal UN climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, one of Egypt’s most prominent political prisoners remains behind bars. Now on his 89th day of a hunger strike, Alaa Abd El Fattah is subsisting on just a hundred calories a day, normally in the form of skimmed milk or a spoonful of honey in his tea.

Abd El Fattah, a figurehead of Egypt’s 2011 revolution, has spent most of the past decade in prison. First jailed for organising demonstrations against a law that in effect banned protest altogether, he was re-arrested in 2019 during anti-government protests in which he had no involvement, and last year was sentenced to a further five years in a maximum security prison on charges of “spreading false news undermining national security”, for comments about torture on social media.

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UK to lift import restrictions on food from Fukushima

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Remaining curbs on food imports imposed after 2011 nuclear disaster to be scrapped

Food from Fukushima will be freely available in the UK from Wednesday, weeks after Boris Johnson snacked on popcorn from the Japanese prefecture hit by a triple nuclear meltdown in March 2011.

Britain restricted Fukushima imports after the disaster, the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, but has gradually lifted them, even as other countries limit or ban produce from the region.

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Government policy failures are obstacle to UK net zero target, advisers warn

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Progress report from the Climate Change Committee suggests ministers could renege on greenhouse gas emissions commitment

The government is failing to enact the policies needed to reach the UK’s net zero targets, its statutory advisers have said, in a damning progress report to parliament.

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) voiced fears that ministers may renege on the legally binding commitment to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, noting “major policy failures” and “scant evidence of delivery”.

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