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Stark warning of a degrading plant, with a major study involving 38 experts from 21 universities documenting the collapse of 19 ecosystems across Australia in today’s top story.  
 
In other news:
  • The Atlantic Ocean circulation is at its weakest in 1,000 years this year with climate breakdown probably the cause;
  • An increasing number of Australian sports stars are calling for climate action;
  • La Nina hasn’t broken a drought west of Brisbane making it likely farmers won’t be able to irrigate soon;
  • Indigenous owners fight a large agricultural company that wants to extract 40,000 megalitres of water;
  • Businesses have increasingly measured climate risk but this hasn’t necessarily translated into action where there is political uncertainty… to date;
  • The economics of coal is looking increasingly dodgy, making it likely coal power stations will shut earlier than planned;
  • A very good description of how South Australia got to 60% renewables in two decades while only having a target of 26%;
  • How Denmark will export energy to other countries once its energy island is fully commissioned; and
  • New data shows deforestation for palm oil has dramatically reduced in Southeast Asia.
 
 

Top Story

 
‘Existential threat to our survival’: see the 19 Australian ecosystems already collapsing | The Conversation
AUSTRALIA - In 1992, 1,700 scientists warned that human beings and the natural world were “on a collision course”. Seventeen years later, scientists described planetary boundaries within which humans and other life could have a “safe space to operate”. These are environmental thresholds, such as the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and changes in land use. Crossing such boundaries was considered a risk that would cause environmental changes so profound, they genuinely posed an existential threat to humanity. This grave reality is what our major research paper, published today, confronts.
 
In what may be the most comprehensive evaluation of the environmental state of play in Australia, we show major and iconic ecosystems are collapsing across the continent and into Antarctica. These systems sustain life, and evidence of their demise shows we’re exceeding planetary boundaries… Our brains trust comprises 38 experts from 21 universities, CSIRO and the federal Department of Agriculture Water and Environment. Beyond quantifying and reporting more doom and gloom, we asked the question: what can be done?

See also:
Illustration: Threatened Species Recovery Hub
 
 

Climate Crisis

 
Atlantic Ocean circulation at weakest in a millennium, say scientists | The Guardian
The Atlantic Ocean circulation that underpins the Gulf Stream, the weather system that brings warm and mild weather to Europe, is at its weakest in more than a millennium, and climate breakdown is the probable cause, according to new data. Further weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) could result in more storms battering the UK, more intense winters and an increase in damaging heatwaves and droughts across Europe.

The hill of Lycabettus after rare heavy snowfall in Athens, Greece, this month. Further weakening of the AMOC could lead to more intense winters across Europe. Photograph: Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP/Getty
 
 

Climate Action

 
Christchurch council seeks clarity on cost of multimillion-dollar climate change strategy | Stuff
NEW ZEALAND - Redesigned suburbs, homes with just wind and solar energy, LED street lights. These are some ways Christchurch is proposed to fundamentally change in the next 25 years under a new climate change strategy to guide the city’s journey to net-zero carbon emissions by 2045 – five years ahead of the Government’s nationwide target. The Christchurch City Council resolved on Wednesday to send the new strategy out for public consultation next month. It is the first major climate-related strategy since the council declared a climate emergency in May 2019.
See also:  
 

Environment and Biodiversity

 
There is too much emphasis on climate change | Stuff (Opinion)
NEW ZEALAND - Yes there is a climate emergency. Yes, human activities have caused global warming. Yes, actions are urgently needed. Last year, Sir David Attenborough completed A Life on Our Planet both as a book and an accompanying film. You may have seen the film but the book is much better. Its title is A Life on Our Planet – My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future. I recommend it to all politicians and CEOs. David Attenborough provides irrefutable evidence for “the true tragedy of our time: the spiralling decline of our planet’s biodiversity”. Humans have exploited nature and the environment to the extent that there are now four ‘boundaries’ committing the Earth to failure. Humans are polluting the Earth with fertilisers. We are converting natural habitats at too great a rate. We are warming the Earth far too quickly. Most importantly, humans are the cause of the ‘Great Decline’, the spiralling loss of biodiversity.
 
 

Water

 
Farmers change tack towards tourism as water levels in dams near Millennium drought levels | ABC News
AUSTRALIA - Drought has gripped agricultural land west of Brisbane for years, but to the untrained eye, it can be hard to see. Scenic Rim Lucerne co-owner Russell Jenner said there was "not good moisture under the ground". "It's just green on top from people irrigating and the bit of rain we've had," he said. Moogerah Dam, near Boonah, is currently at 13.2 per cent, down from nearly 15 per cent in January. The dam has not had so little water in it since just before the Millennium drought broke in 2008. Once the water level reaches 7.5 per cent, no farmers will be allowed to draw water for irrigation… Scenic Rim Lucerne co-owner Jenny Jenner said La Niña, a Pacific Ocean weather event that brings wetter weather, had not done enough to replenish bore water or refill dams around the region. "The La Niña's failed us in the Fassifern and Lockyer valleys," she said.

Farmers in the region are facing a year with no water at all. (Supplied: Seqwater)
 
Fortune Agribusiness bid for NT water licence challenged by native title holders | ABC News
AUSTRALIA - Native title holders in the Barkly region have said they will formally challenge the Northern Territory's biggest ever water licence if it is granted. Fortune Agribusiness last year applied for a licence to extract 40,000 megalitres of water a year to develop one of Australia's largest fruit and vegetable farms on Singleton Station in arid Central Australia, about 100 kilometres south of Tennant Creek.
 
One California community shows how to take the waste out of water | Phys.org
USA - Caught between climate change and multi-year droughts, California communities are tapping groundwater and siphoning surface water at unsustainable rates. As this year's below-average rainfall accentuates the problem, a public-private partnership in the Monterey/Salinas region has created a novel water recycling program that could serve as a model for parched communities everywhere.
 
 

Fires

 
Fiercer, more frequent fires may reduce carbon capture by forests | The Conversation
More fierce and frequent fires are reducing forest density and tree size and may damage forests’ ability to capture carbon in the future, according to a global study. Although forest fires are naturally occurring phenomena and natural forests regenerate, global heating and human activity have caused the frequency and intensity of fires to rise. Wildfires burn 5% of the planet’s surface every year, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere equivalent to a fifth of our annual fossil fuel emissions.
 
Indigenous expertise is reducing bushfires in northern Australia. It’s time to consider similar approaches for other disasters | The Conversation
AUSTRALIA - Our team at the Charles Darwin University’s Darwin Centre for Bushfire Research has been working with Indigenous land managers, conservation, research and government organisations in northern Australia for the last 25 years to find more effective ways to manage wildfires. These collaborations have led to a new approach, blending modern scientific knowledge with traditional Indigenous land management practices to reduce bushfire risk.

Reducing fuel load through a patchy mosaic of small, low intensity, burns early in the fire season cuts the risk of late dry season fires when greenhouse gas emissions are much greater. Waanyi Garawa Rangers (Jimmy Morrison), Author provided
 
 

Economy and Business

 
What comes after climate risk? | GreenBiz
USA - What started as a somewhat simple quest to understand the physical risks of exposure to storms, floods, wildfires, heatwaves and other weird weather patterns driven by climate change has morphed into something much more complex. Today, there are conversations in financial houses around the globe about climate change triggering operational risk, policy risk, stranded asset risk, underwriting risk, transition risk and technology risk. Bankers, lenders, investors and insurers are studying climate flood and fire maps while running scenarios and planning for stress tests. The fossil fuel sector has plummeted as a portion of the S&P 500, and it turns out that avoiding risky assets has been a pretty decent strategy for marginally — or sometimes markedly — improving investment performance.
Related:  
Will jobs! jobs! more jobs! make free-market case for climate action? | Yale Climate Connections
USA - icture a near-term future in which politicized and partisan shifts wither away and disparate parties come together to celebrate a victory over climate change threats, backing free-market principles supported by many. And picture too widespread middle-class and working-class populations strongly backing climate initiatives in part because of the abundant job opportunities they provide. “We will win this fight on a classical American libertarian individual-rights victory that will be bipartisan,” says MacArthur Foundation ‘genius’ award winner Saul Griffith, CEO of Otherlab, an independent research and design firm (Watch the video 6:20). Republicans “will find religion in the next few years because finally they will be able to declare that the free market has won.”
 
Budget 2021: Chancellor must 'make finance green', say campaigners | BBC News
UK - Chancellor Rishi Sunak is being urged to use the Budget to change the financial system to better protect the environment. One group wants him to impose a carbon tax and use the proceeds to protect the poor from high energy bills. A second petition is calling for Bank of England rules to encourage banks not to invest in fossil fuels. Mr Sunak is expected anyway to update the Bank’s mandate to include a greater focus on climate. But campaigners want the new wording to stop the Bank from supporting fossil fuel firms through schemes such as its £20bn corporate bond purchase programme, which involves buying debt issued by firms such as Shell and BP.
 
 

Waste and the Circular Economy

 
On a retro style milk truck, London entrepreneur chases a 'zero waste' future | Reuters
eralded by the whirr of its underpowered electric engine and the clink of bottles stacked in crates on the back, Ella Shone’s ‘Topup Truck’ started life ferrying morning milk to the doorsteps of bleary-eyed Londoners. Twenty years on, and the light vehicle known as a ‘milk float’ - once a ubiquitous sight on British streets - is enjoying a second career selling a range of goods and serving the 32-year-old’s quest to rid the city of single-use plastic.
 
 

Politics and Society

 
Australian sport stars call for more action to combat climate ‘havoc' | The Guardian
AUSTRALIA - The impact of extreme weather on sport, which has resulted in seasons being cut short and players hospitalised, has prompted Australian sport stars to call for greater action to combat the climate crisis. The growing list of high-profile athletes to call for government action on climate change includes Australian cricket vice-captain Pat Cummins, former Wallabies captain David Pocock, Olympic swimmer and gold medallist Bronte Campbell, surfer Adrian Buchan and AFLW player Sharni Layton.

Smoke haze from bushfires over the field at a Big Bash cricket match in Canberra in December 2019. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
 
This Is What We Did—When Climate Action Is Our Legacy | Forbes
USA - The climate movement has been strengthened in recent years thanks to the leadership of our youth. Yet, for the first time in our history there are more people over the age of 65 than below 5. How can we bring our elders into this movement? Meet Ashoka Fellow Jim Thompson who is dedicating his encore career to this challenge… “I developed a concept: “climate change literacy” which is the opposite of the deadly naïveté so many people have. Climate change literacy has four elements. The first is, how bad the situation is and how quickly it's getting worse. The second is the potential solutions–and there are lots of them. The third is why those solutions aren't being implemented, and the role of government inaction. And the fourth is the scale of engagement and mobilization required by our society.”
 
Government urged to factor aviation and shipping into UK climate goals | BusinessGreen
UK - Ministers are facing calls to include international aviation and shipping emissions in its national climate goals, as the government prepares to set out its plans for meeting climate targets in the mid-2030s in the coming months.  Greenpeace, Green Alliance, Transport and Environment, Possible, Friends of the Earth and the Aviation Environment Federation wrote to the Prime Minister yesterday demanding emissions from international aviation and shipping are folded into forthcoming carbon budgets, arguing the move would force the carbon-intensive sectors to ramp up their decarbonisation efforts and catalyse innovation.
 
 

Energy

 
Under pressure: coal-fired power plants feel the heat from renewables | Sydney Morning Herald
AUSTRALIA - Commercial pressure is growing on the giant coal-fired power stations supplying most of Victoria’s electricity, as experts warn of the increased likelihood of early closure at some Latrobe Valley mines and stations. A surge of renewables into the power market has driven prices to a seven-year low and is increasingly undercutting the profitability of the Loy Yang and Yallourn plants, which the state government has described as “unreliable and ageing”.
 
Against the odds, South Australia is a renewable energy powerhouse. How on Earth did they do it? | The Conversation
AUSTRALIA - Less than two decades ago, South Australia generated all its electricity from fossil fuels. Last year, renewables provided a whopping 60% of the state’s electricity supply. The remarkable progress came as national climate policy was gripped by paralysis – so how did it happen? Our research set out to answer this question. We analysed policy documents and interviewed major actors in South Australia’s energy transition, to determine why it worked when so many others fail… South Australia shows how good public policy can enable dramatic emissions reduction, even in a privately owned electricity system. This provides important lessons for other governments in Australia and across the world.

Coal workers and their communities must be assisted during the renewables transition. Dan Himbrechts/AAP
 
This artificial island will power 3 million European households | World Economic Forum
DENMARK - Denmark, the nation that built the world’s first offshore wind farm, has agreed to an ambitious plan for another global first – an energy island in the North Sea which could eventually be capable of supplying energy to a history-making 10 million homes… The initial phase for the artificial island is around the size of 18 soccer pitches. Initially, the North Sea hub will be capable of producing 3 gigawatts of electricity, but the plan is to scale up to 10 gigawatts, which is nearly one-and-a-half times Denmark’s current needs. As well as supplying other European countries with electricity, the goal is to use the new offshore island to produce green hydrogen from seawater, which can also be exported.
See also:  
 

Food Systems

 
Deforestation for palm oil reduced ten-fold in Southeast Asia, data reveals | BusinessGreen
New deforestation data has revealed impressive progress in combating forest clearances across Southeast Asia throughout 2020, with just 93,800 acres of deforestation associated with palm oil plantations recorded over the course of the year. The level of deforestation stands at just a tenth of historically high levels seen in the region, according to the figures from Chain Reaction Research, while Indonesia experienced the lowest overall deforestation rates in two decades. The progress also appears to be part of a trend with 2020 marking the fourth year that deforestation for palm oil in Southeast Asia was less than 250,0000 acres.
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