Aussie Enviro

Australia could face international legal action over its fossil fuel production and failure to rapidly cut emissions, Vanuatu’s climate minister says, after a potentially watershed declaration by the world’s top court.

An International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion published in The Hague on Wednesday found countries had a legal obligation to take measures to prevent climate change and aim to limit global heating to 1.5C above preindustrial levels, and that high-emitting countries that failed to act could be liable to pay restitution to low-emitting countries.

The Albanese government was so worried a court case could halt native forest logging in northern New South Wales that it drew up plans to essentially sidestep federal environment laws in the event of a loss, documents released under freedom of information laws (FoI) reveal.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, played a key role as the commonwealth and NSW governments worked to ensure some logging could continue in the face of any “adverse decision” and to manage a potentially volatile situation between loggers and environmentalists.

In the end, the planning wasn’t needed, because the government won the case.

Scientists are warning the wildlife impacts of a marine heatwave that has driven a catastrophic algal bloom off South Australia are likely to be equivalent to those from the black summer bushfires, and demand a similar response from governments.

Experts from five Australian universities say “one of the worst marine disasters in living memory” requires rapid investigation by federal and state governments to identify any at-risk species and fund emergency interventions if necessary.

In a report by the Biodiversity Council, an independent expert group founded by 11 universities, the scientists called on governments to commit to seven actions to respond to the “foreseeable and even predicted” event and to prepare for “an increasingly dangerous and unstable future”.

As expected, the federal Senate on Wednesday night established an inquiry into the disaster that has killed thousands of marine animals off SA. The Coalition senator Anne Ruston earlier accused the federal and SA governments of being too slow to act on the “significant environmental issue”, “allowing it to massively escalate into a serious ecological disaster”.

Deal struck in 1980s refunds about half of what the US multinational fossil fuel company paid in royalties, documents show

The Western Australian government also faces a hefty bill – estimated to be $129m – to help repair an offshore nature reserve where about 900 wells have been drilled over the past six decades.

The South Australian premier has said the state’s algal bloom catastrophe, which has caused mass deaths among hundreds of marine species, should be described as a natural disaster despite the Albanese government declining to do so a day earlier.

Speaking to the ABC’s News Breakfast program, Peter Malinauskas warned “politicians can do themselves a disservice when they get caught up in technicalities”.

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“From the South Australian government’s perspective, I want to be really clear about this. This is a natural disaster … I think politicians can do themselves a disservice when they get caught up in technicalities,” Malinauskas said.

“This is a natural disaster and should be acknowledged as such.

“There are over 400 different species of marine life that have been killed off or have had deaths as a result of this algal bloom.”

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Malinauskas said he used the words natural disaster “quite deliberately” but that the disaster differed from other emergencies, such as bushfires, that Australians were familiar with.

“This is so entirely unprecedented we don’t really know how it’s going to play out over coming weeks and months ahead,” he said.

The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says $14m in federal funding is “nowhere near what will be needed” to support South Australian communities dealing with the state’s algal bloom catastrophe.

The environment minister, Murray Watt, announced the federal assistance package on Monday while visiting South Australia to see the impacts of a toxic algal bloom that for months has caused mass deaths of marine life across the state’s beaches.

Watt said the bloom and its impacts were “incredibly disturbing”. But he stopped short of declaring the event a natural disaster, saying the catastrophe did not meet the relevant definitions under the federal natural disaster framework.

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Asked if the bloom and its impact should be declared a natural disaster, Watt said it was not possible under the existing definition despite calls from scientists, the Greens and SA’s Labor premier.

We’re having a sticky beak into the wild and wonderful world of the magpie’s lesser-known relatives: currawongs and butcherbirds. Don’t let their unassuming looks fool you. These birds have big personalities, even bigger voices, and a knack for being both vicious and sweet, often in the same breath. From haunting melodies to interesting table manners, we’re diving into what makes these Aussie songbirds so amusing and just a little bit f*cked.

One of the linked articles talks a little more about Alison Reeves concerns over the subsidies, New Plan Shows Australias Hydrogen Dream is Still Alive but are we Betting on the Right Projects

Greens leader Rosalie Woodruff said both major parties were sidelining environmental protection.

"The Liberals have promised to do nothing. The Labor party is silent," she said.

More unfolding of this story, several posts we n here about it. I guess we're now in the finding out phase after we've fucked about.

New vision of South Australia's toxic algal bloom shows scores of dead fish lying in "dark neon green" waters, highlighting the extent of the ecological disaster unfolding underwater.

In short:

A venue in southern New South Wales has been declared the first "dark-sky" lodging in Australia.

The site has been recognised for its lack of light pollution, allowing people to see a clear night sky.

What's next?

The venue's owner hopes the recognition will spark a new tourism market appealing to casual photographers and astronomers.

I've linked to the article in todays AFR but its paywalled. A few things struck me,

• the authors seeming incredulity that the only federal politcans who seem at all concrerned are The Greens.

• The second was a comment by one of the scientists that whike there are many 10s of thoisands of dead individual animals, many 100s of species will go extinct from this and this is directly related to climate chanhe

• The third, he points to the irony of the Australian Governments attempt to lobby to host the climate change COP in Adelaide, flying something like 20,000 delegates to the gab fest its becone at the bottom of the world and the enormous emissions from doing so.