Secret papers detail Great Barrier Reef Foundation's costly PR strategy

A $100 million Great Barrier Reef restoration grant would be tripled by the charity hand-picked by the federal government to administer the money and spent quickly to notch up “early wins” and boost the organisation’s public image, documents show.

The foundation sought "early wins" on its investments
 to avoid the perception it was "sitting on the money".

The revelations, which involve sensitive cabinet documents, also show how officials canvassed ways to stage-manage the government’s highly controversial funding announcement, including the possibility of recruiting children and Indigenous people to improve the “optics” of the policy.

Read the story from The Age by Nicole Hasham - “Secret papers detail Great Barrier Reef Foundation's costly PR strategy.”

BP claims an oil spill off Australia's coast would be a 'welcome boost' to local economies

Coastal towns would benefit from an oil spill in the pristine Great Australian Bight because the clean up would boost their economies, energy giant BP has claimed as part of its controversial bid to drill in the sensitive marine zone.

Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. BP said local economies
would be boosted by clean up activities if its plan to drill
for oil caused a spill.

BP, which has since withdrawn the drilling plan, also told a federal government agency that a diesel spill would be considered “socially acceptable”.

BP made the statements in an environment plan submitted to the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority in March 2016.

The company had been seeking to drill two wells off the South Australian coast, raising fears of an environmental disaster akin to BP's 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Read Nicole Hasham’s story from The Sydney Morning Herald - “BP claims an oil spill off Australia's coast would be a 'welcome boost' to local economies.”

(Only the brutal madness of a neo-liberal economist devoid of an sense of feeling for our environment could see the sense of such an argument - Robert McLean)

Victoria to turn to Tesla battery power in time for next summer

Two large lithium-ion batteries will be built and connected to the grid in regional Victoria this year, giving the state’s west a significant renewable energy boost in time for next summer.

Two large-scale batteries will be built in Kerang and Ballarat this year.

The batteries, which will store solar and wind-generated energy,  will be built near Ballarat and Kerang and will have a combined generation capacity of 55 MW and a combined energy storage of 80 megawatt-hours – giving them more than half the power of South Australia's gigantic 100MW Tesla battery.

Read Adam Carey’s story from The Age - “Victoria to turn to Tesla battery power in time for next summer.”

How Crushed Volcanic Rock in Farm Soil Could Help Slow Global Warming — and Boost Crops

Pulverizing volcanic rock and spreading the dust like fertilizer on farm soils could suck billions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere and boost crop yields on a warming planet with a growing population.

Volcanic plains tend to be fertile farmland. A new study
explores how spreading crushed volcanic rock on
 farms can increase carbon storage and crop yields.

In a paper published this week in the scientific journal Nature Plants, an international team of researchers lays out the prospects for "enhanced rock weathering"—a process that uses pulverized silicate rocks, like basalt, to speed the ability of minerals to store carbon in soil.

The team, led by the University of Sheffield in the UK and including U.S. climate scientist James Hansen, says the technique of enhanced weathering on swaths of the world's cropland could potentially offset a meaningful chunk of global carbon emissions.

Read the Inside Climate News story by Georgina Gustin - “How Crushed Volcanic Rock in Farm Soil Could Help Slow Global Warming — and Boost Crops.”

Shepparton - 'Link cycle city'

An urban designer who had a hand in designing Maude St Mall and Victoria Park Lake believes Shepparton would see a raft of benefits from a north-south cycling spine connecting key areas of the city.

Urban designer Bruce Echberg said a safer, separated cycling corridor through Shepparton would provide obvious health benefits, relieve congestion and demand for parking and boost the mobility of ageing Sheppartonians.

Bruce Echberg of Urban Initiatives.

Mr Echberg believed incorporating several kilometres of safe cycling infrastructure, well separated from traffic, linking the sports precinct in the north and Emerald Bank in the south, would go lengths to developing cycling as a viable, user-friendly, safe mode of transport in Shepparton.

‘‘There’s different types of cyclists . . . There’s the lycra types, a lot are younger males who are keen to take risks,’’ he said.

‘‘And all sorts who don’t (cycle) because they don’t feel safe.

‘‘It’s now becoming evident you have to provide fully safe cycling environments if you want others to cycle to get to work and do daily chores.’’

He said Shepparton had a good climate and topography for developing a better bicycle culture.

The designer said residential development on the city’s fringes meant future residents would be either driving to shopping centres or working, driving and parking in the central business district.

He believed Wyndham St being signalised, combined with the width of the prominent north-south arterial, meant constructing a safe cycling corridor along the route was achievable.

‘‘There’s so much space in Shepparton’s street system that’s given over to parked cars, that squeezing a bit of that back is not a big issue, you just have to do the design work.’’

Ideally, the infrastructure would be at footpath level to ensure it was well clear of opening car doors, Mr Echberg said.

He said plenty of trails existed in the region, but they proved an indirect way to get somewhere. ‘‘Often you have to drive to get on to that system,’’ Mr Echberg said.

Mr Echberg said a northsouth cycling route would enhance the network by improving access to trails.

But he said it would need to be safe, appealing to use and convenient, to make sure a cross section of the community wanted to make use of it on a daily basis.

A council survey this year found significant demand for more walking and cycling options, with just 11 per cent identifying cycling as a primary mode of transportation the Movement and Place Strategy Consultation Report and Vision and Direction Paper.

Only 36 per cent had said it was easy to cycle in Greater Shepparton compared with 80 per cent saying it was easy to drive, with requests for improved walking and cycling infrastructure such as bike lanes common themes.

Implementing strategies to make walking or cycling safer and more appealing were supported by 87 per cent of respondents.

Amid the health benefits associated with shifting away from car use, Mr Echberg cited improving transport options for Shepparton’s ageing population as one of the keys to such proposals, but said safety seemed to be a barrier.

This story by Thomas Moir is from the Shepparton News  “Link cycle city,”