Our trade talks with Europe and Britain are set to become climate talks

Climate change is set to become an inescapable part of negotiations now underway over an Australia-European Union free trade agreement, and also negotiations over the Australia-UK agreement necessitated by Britain’s exit from the European Union. 

Foreign Minister Marise Payne meets UK Foreign
Secretary Dominic Raab in Canberra on February 6.

Both agreements are needed to help shore up the world trading system which has been without an effective enforcement system following the decision of the Trump administration to withdraw support from the World Trade Organisation. 

In public, the major issue in the EU negotiations has been its determination to enforce so-called “geographical indications”, which limit the use of common names for products such as “champagne”, “feta” and “prosecco” to products made in those places, over and against our access to the wealthy EU market.

Read the story from The Conversation by Bruce Wilson and Chloe Ward - “Our trade talks with Europe and Britain are set to become climate talks.”

Clean-up after wild Sydney storms begins

A massive clean-up of branches and debris is underway in Sydney after severe thunderstorms swept across the city overnight, bringing strong winds, giant hail and heavy rainfall.

Hail wraps this suburban backyard in a blanket of white. P

Volunteers have begun removing branches and clearing storm debris as emergency crews work to restore power to about 8650 homes and businesses across the Illawarra region, Southerland Highlands and Macarthur district.

Very dangerous thunderstorms were detected near Blacktown and Riverstone, the Bureau of Meteorology said on Thursday evening, encouraging people to “bring umbrellas” as the rain is expected to continue for the rest of the week and well into mid next week.

The storms moved east with severe thunderstorms hitting the city and eastern suburbs by nightfall.

Read the story from The New Daily - “Clean-up after wild Sydney storms begins.”

Climate change is World War III, and we are leaderless

"World War III is well and truly underway. And we are losing," writes environmental activist Bill McKibben, so when Malcolm Turnbull implied that the insurgency that demolished his government was based on climate ideology, what lessons are there for Scott Morrison?

Like the US, Australia is failing to save the lives of
its citizens by prolonging the life of polluting coal-fired power.

As a child in Britain during WWII, I lived in a street of mothers and children. Every father was away fighting. Each house and garden was surrounded by a metal palisade fence.

One morning the fences were gone, mother was delighted. Then a horse and cart came and took away every metal cooking pot and pan, some treasured, but mother smiled at her sacrifice. It was difficult for me to understand.

Read the story by David Shearman from ABC News - “Climate change is World War III, and we are leaderless.”

Shorebirds, the World’s Greatest Travelers, Face Extinction

A worldwide catastrophe is underway among an extraordinary group of birds — the marathon migrants we know as shorebirds. Numbers of some species are falling so quickly that many biologists fear an imminent planet-wide wave of extinctions.

A common snipe caught in an illegal net. Thousands of shorebirds
 like this one are entangled this way along the coast of China.

These declines represent the No. 1 conservation crisis facing birds in the world today. Climate change, coastal development, the destruction of wetlands and hunting are all culprits. And because these birds depend for their survival, as we do, on the shorelines of oceans, estuaries, rivers, lakes, lagoons and marshes, their declines point to a systemic crisis that demands our attention, for our own good.

No doubt you’ve seen some of these birds while on vacation at the beach, skittering back and forth along the cusp of waves as they peck with their long beaks for tiny sand flies or the eggs of horseshoe crabs. They can seem comic in their frenetic exertions, tiny Charlie Chaplins in bird suits.

But these birds are remarkable in ways that defy not only belief but scientific understanding: They are, by far, the planet’s most extraordinary global travelers. Worldwide, about 70 shorebird species travel from the top of the world to its very bottom and back each year. The smallest weigh barely an ounce. Each species has its own story, but in every case these annual migrations are among nature’s most epic dramas.

Read the opinion piece from The New York Times - “Shorebirds, the World’s Greatest Travelers, Face Extinction.”

‘Extreme' Changes Underway in Some of Antarctica’s Biggest Glaciers

A new analysis of satellite data has found "extreme" changes underway at eight of Antarctica's major glaciers, as unusually warm ocean water slips in under their ice shelves.

Antarctica's glaciers carry ice from the interior of the
continent to the ocean. This NASA illustration shows
where the ice is moving fastest; areas in red have the
fastest flow, followed by those in pink and purple. 

The warmer water is eating away at the glaciers' icy grasp on the seafloor. As a result, the grounding line—where the ice last touches bedrock—has been receding by as much as 600 feet per year, a new study shows. Behind the grounding line, the land-based ice then speeds up, increasing the rate of sea level rise.

The new continent-wide measurements of grounding lines suggests a widespread pattern of melting all around Antarctica, said University of Leeds climate researcher Hannes Konrad, lead author of the analysis published today in the scientific journal Nature Geoscience.

Read the Inside Climate News story Bob Berwyn - “‘Extreme' Changes Underway in Some of Antarctica’s Biggest Glaciers.”

Latrobe Valley plans for diesel generator back-up power supply

Plans are underway to set-up diesel generators in the Latrobe Valley in eastern Victoria, to be used as a back-up power supply on days of high electricity demand.

The Loy Yang A power station went offline last
 month, adding to power supply issues.

The ABC understands diesel generators will be brought in to the former Morwell Power Station site, where they will be used as a back up in times of peak demand.

It is not known at this stage whether the generators will be used to power the entire state or just eastern Victoria.

There have been reliability problems at two of the region's coal-fired power stations in recent weeks.

Environment Victoria's campaign manager Nick Aberle said it was a band aid solution to potential power shortages this summer.

Read the ABC News story - “Latrobe Valley plans for diesel generator back-up power supply.”