VEN – Good News on Climate Action – Blog
Waste-to-energy: 2 birds with one stone? or a threat to the circular economy?
Harnessed waste heat from cremations, sewage sludge could soon power our homes By Bianca Hall in The Age September 9, 2024 Cremating bodies is an energy-intensive process: the sheer amount of energy required to cremate an individual body can generate more than 250kW in wasted heat. But what if we could harness that excess heat,…
Read MoreSouthern ocean is the world’s engine room
Image: from article Closing the Loops on Southern Ocean Dynamics: From the Circumpolar Current to Ice Shelves and From Bottom Mixing to Surface Waves https://doi.org/10.1029/2022RG000781 Notes: Carbon sink – the ocean’s dense water absorbs carbon then sinks it. Ice – the Antarctic ice sheet is the largest ice mass on earth. It flows onto the…
Read MoreWorld’s first loss and damage fund relocates cyclone survivors with direct payments
AND World bank president visits Tuvalu. From Scotland to Malawi: climate survivors are rebuilding with world first loss and damage fund This article is more than 1 month old Cyclone Freddy left a trail of destruction when it hit southern Africa last year. Sixteen months later, 2,695 households have received relocation payments with no strings…
Read MoreWind and solar energy overtake fossil fuels to provide 30% of EU electricity, more than 50% if include hydropower and other renewables
Image: Guardian graphic from Ember electricity data This article is more than 1 month old Report finds 13 member states generated more energy from wind and solar power than coal and gas for first time in 2024 Ajit Niranjan Tue 30 Jul 2024 14.00 AEST in the Guardian Wind turbines and solar panels have overtaken…
Read MoreGreat climate policies in 7 countries
Diagram from article: Climate policies that achieved major emission reductions: Global evidence from two decades (article). They identified 63 successful policy interventions with total emission reductions between 0.6 billion and 1.8 billion metric tonnes CO2. 01/08/2024 From Spain to South Korea, seven countries leading the way on climate-friendly policy Great policies: Electrify everything LED lightbulbs…
Read MoreWhy suburbia is the new green – and the saviour of sustainability
By Tone Wheeler September 2, 2024 in smh news Suburbia is unsustainable. It’s the planners’ dogma: suburbs require too much land, energy, cars and infrastructure to support too few people in oversized houses. And we are world champions: our cities have the lowest densities in the OECD. Now, through a combination of technology and design,…
Read MoreTime to invest in clean energy!
Looking for stability in a volatile stock market? Try green energy A novel statistical technique used to track global financial markets reveals the potential of clean energy investments to buffer against losses By Sarah DeWeerdt August 27, 2024 Anthropocene Investments in green energy can help optimize investment portfolios and ‘hedge’ against volatile markets, according to…
Read MoreHow climate change accelerated spring winds
By Caitlin Fitzsimmons in SMH Updated September 2, 2024 — 5.55pm Strong winds in eastern Australia this week are being driven by climate change interfering with jet streams, the powerful high-altitude winds that encircle the globe. Australia’s two jet streams – subtropical and polar – have combined over the continent’s south-east. This has caused strong…
Read More“Turning point:” Share of coal in Australia’s main grid falls below 50 pct for first time
Giles Parkinson Sep 2, 2024 4Renew Economy CHART OF THE DAY COAL WIND The share of coal power – traditionally the biggest source of generation in Australia’s main grid – has fallen below 50 per cent, averaged over a whole week, for the first time in what industry observers are hailing as a “turning point.”…
Read MoreBig 4 banks continue to fund climate crisis
Australia’s big banks lent $3.6bn to fossil fuel expansion projects in 2023, report shows Lending puts banks in ‘complete violation’ of commitments to Paris agreement, climate group says, even as overall funding to sector ebbs Peter Hannam Tue 16 Jul 2024 01.00 AEST in The Guardian Australia’s big four banks are in “complete violation” of…
Read MoreSoil biodiversity
Fig. 3. Graphical overview of the share of species living in soil. Doughnuts reflect the per- centage of species in soil versus all other ecosystems combined (e.g., marine, freshwater, built en- vironment, host organisms such as humans). The larger doughnut on top shows the total share of species, and smaller doughnuts show individual shares for…
Read MoreSodium-ion batteries could “keep the lights on”
The extent to which renewables should dominate Australia’s energy grids is a major issue in science and politics. Solar and wind are clearly now the cheapest form of electricity. But limits to these technologies can undermine the case for a renewables-only electricity mix. Author Peter Newman Professor of Sustainability, Curtin University, in National Tribune The…
Read MoreKey nickel mining plans suspended by BHP will lead to massive redundancy and loss of world leading project.
World’s biggest renewable energy microgrid suspended Marion Rae Jul 28, 2024 0Renew Economy RENEWABLES Mining heavyweight BHP’s plans for powering a new economic region with clean energy have been suspended but one outback city will keep the lights on. A recent decision to mothball nickel exploration, mining and refining operations means redeployment or redundancy for…
Read MoreAlternative career: bird migration guide
The climate crisis changed how these birds migrate – meet the man keeping them safe Phoebe Weston in the Guardian The northern bald ibis had been extinct in central Europe for 300 years. In the past few decades, conservationists had successfully reintroduced them, but one issue remained. These wild birds are migratory and none of…
Read MoreTalk isn’t enough: Pacific nations say Australia must end new fossil fuel projects
(see original article for images) Low-lying Tuvalu. Romaine W/Shutterstock Published: August 29, 2024 4.40pm AEST Liam Moore, James Cook University in the Conversation This week, one of the world’s largest fossil fuel exporters went to a meeting of island states strongly affected by human-induced climate change. Or, in more conventional language, Australian leaders attended the…
Read MoreAlternative pathway: What if Big Oil championed – and profited from – the green transition? Here’s how it could work
Published: August 30, 2024 6.32am AEST Richard Meade, Griffith University in the Conversation Like the petroleum industry itself, households are heavily invested in existing transport technologies. Getting oil and gas companies – and consumers – to switch to zero-emissions transport is a huge challenge. We can’t presume battery electric vehicles (EVs) will displace fossil fuel…
Read MoreWhy won’t politicians persuade people of the need for action on the greatest issue of our time?
Dear ministers, I am a climate crisis campaigner: nationalise me right now George Monbiot Lurking in many people’s minds, I suspect, is the thought: “If the environmental crisis were really so serious, someone would stop me. Surely I wouldn’t be able to drive this SUV, or take a dozen flights a year, or eat beef…
Read MoreKoalas or coal mines? New report
Download new report Key Findings: There are at least 26 proposed new coal mines that will clear important koala habitat, including 23 projects that are being assessed under the EPBC Act and seeking approval from the Albanese government. The 26 coal mining projects plan to clear a combined total of 11,644 hectares of koala habitat…
Read MoreClimate scientist: Global methane pledge success could save us half a degree of warming through ‘atmospheric restoration’
‘A Repair Manual for the Planet’: What Would It Take to Restore Our Atmosphere? “Optimism and hope are muscles we have to exercise,” climate scientist Rob Jackson says. His new book offers a paradigm for how to think about climate change and the health of the planet. By Phil McKenna July 28, 2024 In a…
Read MoreCharging climate polluters with homicide
EHN Curators Jul 31, 2024 Climate experts and legal advocates are targeting major polluters like TotalEnergies, seeking to hold them criminally accountable for deaths caused by extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change. Lois Parshley reports for The Lever. In short: Elisa’s mother died in a historic flood in France, prompting a lawsuit against TotalEnergies,…
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