What we learned: Sunday 19 February
With that, we will bid adieu to the blog. Enjoy your respective evenings, we’ll be back first thing tomorrow to do it all again.
Here were today’s major developments:
The death toll related to Cyclone Gabrielle in New Zealand has risen to 11 with a further two fatalities reported overnight in the hard-hit Hawkes Bay region.
The New South Wales premier, Dominic Perrottet, says politicians need to hold themselves to a higher standard after the Liberal party cut the upper house MP Peter Poulus from the ticket following an explicit photo scandal.
The health minister, Mark Butler, has declared that Australia’s climate wars “have gone on far too long” and urged the Greens and the Coalition to back the proposed reforms to the safeguard mechanism. The leader of the Greens, Adam Bandt, has declared that his party’s stance on Labor’s safeguard policy is “an offer, not an ultimatum” and the ball is in the government’s court now.
And Brittany Higgins has published receipts of her donations to a Canberra rape charity which she says show she donated all funds from her defamation case against the senator Linda Reynolds in 2021. An article in the Australian on Sunday that carried an interview with the former Coalition minister said that in the aftermath of the lawsuit Higgins “accepted the apology and planned to donate the money to charity assisting victims of sexual assault”.
Updated
Seaweed eyed for future cash crop as climate change bites
Hundreds of international scientists and industry experts will gather in Tasmania this week to discuss seaweed’s untapped potential as a cash crop including for CO2 removal and helping boost strawberry growth.
Karlotta Rieve visited more than 100 seaweed farms over the course of six months to get a grasp on the global market.
The aquaculture analyst says it’s clear climate change is taking a toll.
No matter which seaweed farm we visited it was always mentioned, some sort of affect from warming water, shorter cycles, more diseases, so it’s affecting the industry loads.
Seaweed is always proclaimed as this climate change saviour, but it’s actually a crop that’s significantly affected by climate change effects.
The conference will tackle some controversial uses for seaweed including carbon removal – a controversial subject as its unclear whether seaweed can actually sequester carbon.
Attendees will also explore how the Australian seaweed industry aligns with the Albanese government’s agenda for aquaculture development, emissions reduction and regional development.
More than $8 million was set aside in the federal budget to develop a seaweed that can be fed to cattle and drastically cut their methane emissions.
Scientific studies suggest the native seaweed can reduce methane in cattle by more than 80 per cent.
The conference will also explore a less well known application - using seaweed to grow tasty strawberries.
Recent research revealed strawberry plants sprayed with seaweed mix were boosted by up to 20 per cent. In some cases, diseases more than halved.
The role of Indigenous communities in seaweed farming will also be discussed, along with the impact of single-use plastics.
- AAP
