Top scientists agree to Labor request to study Darling River fish kill

Leading Australian scientists will conduct a study into causes of the huge fish kill on the Darling River and the wider issue of water mismanagement after accepting a request from Labor leader Bill Shorten.

Days after a mass fish kill in the Darling River at Menindee
 last week, hundreds of carcasses remain , stinking and rotting.

The Australian Academy of Science welcomed the opportunity to prepare the report by February 10 in time for Mr Shorten to present it to Parliament in its first week back.

Read the story from The Age by Peter Hannam - “Top scientists agree to Labor request to study Darling River fish kill.”

South Australia’s Iron Duchess mine could be given new life as 90MW pumped hydro plant

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has today announced its support of a feasibility study to assess the potential to turn a mothballed mine in South Australia into a 90MW pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) plant.

Mothballed mine to become pumped hydro energy storage plant.

On behalf of the Australian Government, ARENA is committing $500,000 to GFG Alliance to begin the first phase of establishing the technical and commercial feasibility of bringing a disused mine site in the South Middleback Ranges, near Whyalla, back to life as a potential PHES power plant.

The $1.7 million project will investigate if the existing mine pit of “Iron Duchess North” could be utilised as a lower reservoir for a PHES plant creating an estimated capacity of 90 MW and 390 MWh of storage.

Pumped hydro works by pumping water uphill between two connected reservoirs when electricity is cheap and abundant, and running water downhill to power turbines when electricity is needed.

Read the ARENA story - “South Australia’s Iron Duchess mine could be given new life as 90MW pumped hydro plant.”

Traffic fumes in city streets 'largely wipe out exercise benefits for over-60s’

The over-60s should stick to green spaces and parks when they go for a walk and avoid the city streets, according to a groundbreaking study that says air pollution from traffic fumes largely wipes out the health benefit from the exercise.

As well as the over-60s, those with lung and heart problems should
 steer clear of areas with heavy traffic, the study says.

Walking is often recommended for older people, but the study from Imperial College London and Duke University in the USA suggests that the over-60s and those with lung and heart problems should steer clear of urban areas with heavy traffic. The negative effect may well be the same in younger people, say the authors, and it reinforces the urgency of reducing emissions in city streets.

The research compared walking for two hours in Oxford Street with strolling in Hyde Park, which registers some air pollution but far less than in the heart of the capital city’s shopping district.

Read Sarah Boseley’ story on The Guardian - “Traffic fumes in city streets 'largely wipe out exercise benefits for over-60s’.”

Australia among seven nations responsible for more than 50 per cent of global biodiversity loss

Australia is one of seven countries responsible for more than half of global biodiversity loss, according to a study published today.

Koalas are one species under pressure in Australia.

Scientists based their findings on the worsening in conservation status of species between 1996 and 2008 on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list.

The IUCN red list uses a series of categories to rank how close a species is to extinction, from "least concern" through to "extinct in the wild”.

Of the 109 countries studied, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, China and the United States (primarily Hawaii) also ranked inside the top seven as the worst offenders on conservation.

Read the ABC News story - “Australia among seven nations responsible for more than 50 per cent of global biodiversity loss.”

Small-scale solar cutting billions from electricity bills

Small-scale solar systems have cut wholesale electricity costs by up to half in the past 12 months, a study has shown.

Small solar PV systems are estimated to have generated
1540 gigawatt hours of power within NSW over a 12-month period. 

The report by consulting firm Energy Synapse, commissioned by a community-based organisation Solar Citizens Australia, found solar photovoltaic (PV) installations in NSW had saved consumers up to $2.2 billion from May 2016 to April 2017.

During this period, small solar PV systems are estimated to have generated 1540 gigawatt hours of power within the state.

The report says the volume-weighted average price of wholesale electricity would have been between $29 and $44 per megawatt hour higher than the actual average price for the period of $88 per megawatt hour.

Read Cole Latimer’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Small-scale solar cutting billions from electricity bills.”

Tigers died in drought

Drought was to blame for the extinction of Tasmanian tigers from the Australian mainland, a new study by the University of Adelaide has found.

A University of Adelaide study has attributed
extinction of the Tasmania tiger to drought.

Using DNA from fossil bones and museum specimens, the report says drought caused by the onset of El Nino weather patterns was the likely cause of the tigers’ demise.

‘‘The ancient DNA tells us that the mainland extinction was rapid, and not the result of intrinsic factors such as inbreeding or loss of genetic diversity,’’ researcher Lauren White said.

Read the Country News story - “Tigers died in drought.”

Daily Wire article misunderstands study on carbon budget

This story at The Daily Wire describes a new study that evaluates the remaining amount of greenhouse gas that we can emit before global temperature rises to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial times. The study suggests that we may have a little more room in the so-called “carbon budget” than previously estimated.

Scientists who reviewed the Daily Wire article found that it greatly misinterpreted the study by saying that it showed that climate projections have overestimated warming. This is incorrect. The study does not conclude that climate models are overly sensitive to warming, or that future warming will be less than projected. Instead, it investigates a discrepancy between the total amount of greenhouse gas emitted since the Industrial Revolution in the models and in the real world. This difference in estimated past emissions affects the study’s calculation of the remaining “carbon budget” for future emissions.

Read the Climate Feedback story - “Daily Wire article misunderstands study on carbon budget (along with Fox News, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail, Breitbart…).”

New paper points out the costs of climate change

C

limate change may have many economic impacts, including loss of crops, changes in water supply, increased incidence of natural disaster, and spikes in health care costs related to infectious diseases and temperature-related illnesses. However, hard evidence about the effects of climate change on economic activity has been inconsistent.

A new paper published in Nature takes on the ambitious task of connecting micro- and macro-level estimates of climate costs. The study finds that climate change can be expected to reshape the global economy by reducing average global incomes roughly 23 percent by the year 2100. This study is important because it solves a problem that has existed in prior models of climate change effects on economics: discrepancies between macro- and micro-level observations. This study presents the first evidence that economic activity in all regions is coupled in some way to global climate. The study also sets up a new empirical paradigm for modelling economic loss in response to climate change.

Read the Ars Technica story - “Climate change could have a significant impact on our economy.”

Great Barrier Reef tougher than thought, but it doesn't have the time

The Great Barrier Reef may be more resilient to fluctuations in temperatures than previously thought, according to a new international study.

The Great Barrier Reef - tougher than thought.

An ABC story headed: “Great Barrier Reef tougher than thought” tells us that scientists have used fossilised corals to reconstruct the sea surface temperatures on the Great Barrier Reef dating back between 20,000 and 13,000 years ago.

The story said found that water temperatures on the reef 20,000 years ago were up to five degrees Celsius cooler than today, but a warming ocean led to temperatures reaching close to modern-day temperatures around 13,000 years ago.

According to Dr Helen McGregor, a Research Fellow at the Australian National University and a member of the research team, the study shows that corals may be more adaptable to climate change than was previously thought.

The sentence that really matters is this one:

"The Great Barrier Reef has coped with temperature changes that have occurred over a few thousand years, but now we are looking at a four degrees Celsius temperature change occurring in 100 to 150 years, so it is much more rapid."

The change corals are being forced into is rapid – a couple of centuries, when nature, with the exception of microscopic live forms, needs thousands of years to adapt.

Hansen and colleagues point to uninhabitable world

James Hansen.

The phase “intergenerational responsibility” is never mentioned, but a new paper from James Hansen and his colleagues is effectively about that.

In a Climate Project article headed: “Hansen Study: Climate Sensitivity is High, Burning all FossilFuels Would Make Most of The Planet ‘Uninhabitable’”

Thanks to Beneath the Wisteria supporter, Dave Glover for alerting us to this.