Welcome to issue #43 for August 2026.

Get involved in environmental activism…

• Parents for Climate are looking for AGL “Carbon Neutral” electricity customers to register their interest in joining an AGL Greenwashing Class Action Investigation
• Visit the Port Phillip EcoCentre events page to see what events you might like to join
• Thursday 6 August, 7-8pm – Join the Wilderness Society for their Lifting the Standard for Nature – National Campaign Webinar
• Tuesday, 11 August, 7-9pm – Go to the Lighter Footprints Protecting Victoria’s Forests forum at the Hawthorn Arts Centre
• Wednesday 19 August, 2-3:15pm, join the 5th Powering the Future Seminar – Enhancing Grid Resilience Towards Net-Zero at Melbourne University
• Visit the City of Port Phillip Have Your Say page and give feedback on a consultation that interests you. Putting forward your views on where public EV chargers should be put is especially important.
• Add your voice to the following:
• • WWF Australia collective submission calling on the government to protect at least 30% of our oceans by 2030
  • Greenpeace petition asking the Australian government to show leadership in calling for a moratorium to stop deep sea mining
  • Australian Marine Conservation Society petition asking government to make the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act stronger
  • Wilderness Society submission to Environment Minister Murray Watt to properly weight climate and conservation issues for Woodside’s Browse gas project
  • Greenpeace Animals of Emotion questionnaire survey research project
  • Solar Citizens email campaign asking your MP to unlock solar for renters
  • Make a submission to the Senate AI Data Centre Inquiry, closing 1 September

The Earth has enough resources for our need but not for our greed.

Mahatma Gandhi

We are living and working on the unceded lands of the Yalukit Willam people. We pay our respects to the traditional owners of the land and their ongoing connection to land, waters, sky and culture.

Registration is essential for Rising Waters, Evolving Risk – Learn more and RSVP here.

Speakers include the Australia Institute’s Rod Campbell, Mitzi Tuke and Mayor Alex Makin. Registration is essential for The Costs of Climate Change – Learn more and RSVP here.

Around Melbourne…

PECAN made a submission to the City of Port Phillip about its streetscape improvement plans for the area around Ripponlea Station. PECAN largely agrees with the stated aims for the project but differs on how these aims should be realized and believes a stronger focus on delivering better outcomes in the several key areas is needed.

Jointly with GECAN, PECAN also made a submission to the Federal Senate inquiry on Artificial Intelligence and Data Centres, along with letters sent to Federal and State politicians on the same topic.

As part of their commitment to reducing waste, the South Melbourne Market has phased out providing little plastic soy sauce fish with sushi and sashimi servings – learn more.

Work is starting on the Head Street main drain expansion project in Elwood and it will impact cycling routes in the area.

Recent Victorian research has found that communal access to parks, wetlands and coastlines by strangers can significantly alleviate loneliness and feelings of remoteness from nature. It created a sense of belonging among study participants.

The many riders who regularly use the bike lanes along Jacka Boulevard/Marine Parade say that the recent changes (to remove car barriers) is making them less safe.

It is not Melbourne, but the first 10 Volvo electric heavy truck prime movers have rolled off an assembly line in Brisbane. Learn more.

This Climate Council report: Clouded Future: Managing the risks of the data centre boom, is very relevant for the data centres being proposed for Fisherman’s Bend and other parts of Melbourne.

Local Heroes – Port Phillip Pickers

Port Phillip Pickers (PPP) harvests and processes unwanted fruit from trees on public land within the City of Port Phillip, equally distributing the produce among the pickers, and donating any leftovers to charity. PPP has initially focused on the many olive trees in Port Melbourne and surrounding areas, and since 2022 it has collected over 2.1 tonnes of olives and made and distributed over 250 litres of olive oil.

As well as annual harvesting events, PPP organize olive brining and other events to teach people how to use normally unwanted produce. You can learn more about their activities at their Port Phillip Pickers facebook group, which currently has 427 members.

This series of articles is about local environment related community groups that deserve our support. If you are involved with a group you would like featured here – reply to this email with your suggested content (an image, and 1-2 paragraphs of text (about 100 words).

Recently seen…

This article explaining how Tuvalu is changing as it submerges because of climate change and 65+% of it’s population have applied to migrate to Australia.

Experts estimate that the May/June UK heatwaves will be responsible for around 2,700 deaths. Separately, this excellent video explains what can be done in cities to make them better for living during hot weather – lots of shade, narrow streets and higher buildings, along with lots of public drinking fountains and toilets and air-conditioned public access buildings for use as heat refuges.

This article noting that Australian governments at all levels recognize the many benefits of getting people out of cars and into cycling and other active transport but aren’t willing to make the public infrastructure investments needed to achieve it.

It was very disappointing to read that BHP has decided to drop development of an iron ore benefaction plant in the Pilbara because it will not be profitable enough, even though it would cut global carbon emissions by 1.7 million tonnes/year. Independent Senator David Pocock says that BHP is “laughing” at us about key Australian climate policies which mean that it pays $8 million for excess carbon emissions while collecting $379 million in diesel fuel credits.

This article discussing the rise of global EV sales and how Australian sales have been rising, but not as fast as many other countries. It is also totally reshaping the global vehicle manufacturing industry. Also, other Melbourne University research interviewing new EV owners about the differences between their old petrol engined car and their new EV. And finally, according to real life studies, in actual use, the average EV battery loses only 2.3% of its operating capacity over each year.

This article about how household gas use has dropped by 20% since 2020 and companies are closing down regional gas networks, and there are serious questions about who pays for the consequential building electrification works.

This inspiring Australian Story documentary about Saul Griffith and his mission to electrify the world, one suburb at a time.

Urban trees cool cities more than we think

Recent research is showing that adding urban trees can reduce the heat island effect by 50%, or even more. This is very beneficial in hot cities where dehydration and heat exhaustion can regularly lead to deaths. As well as providing shade to stop the ground (and especially asphalt and concrete) heating up, the transpiration process by trees provides natural air-conditioning. All this explains why so many cities around the world are investing heavily in tree planting programs. However, tree planting is not enough – we need to replace asphalt and concrete with much less heat absorbing materials wherever possible, and we need to use heat/light reflective materials much more. This problem is only going to get worse, so that the sooner we invest, the less it will cost us in the long run.

The rise of the batteries

As explained in this interesting article the costs of grid connected batteries, and especially large batteries, is falling very fast – from $400+/MWh in 2016 to less than $70MWh now in the USA. They are changing the nature of electricity grids around the world, including in Australia. Batteries have outgrown their initial niche role as grid stabilizers and are now core infrastructure designed to store excess daytime electricity and release it in the evening/night. These large batteries effectively even out daily electricity demand variations, and significantly lower average electricity prices.

Australia, and especially WA, is the 3rd fastest country in the world at growing its grid storage capacity. In WA there were no grid connected large batteries in 2023 but they catered for 300 gigawatt-hours of electricity demand in the first quarter of 2026. Today there are about 1.4GW of total battery capacity in place, or about three times the equivalent power of WA’s largest coal-fired power station. The East coast National Energy Market needs to start catching up.

Finally, this article notes that the total installed capacity of home batteries is now larger rhan the capacity of grid scale batteries in Australia.

Living underground

As explained in this very interesting video about a home in Missouri, USA, there can be significant benefits in living underground. Heating and cooling costs can be much reduced and they can be much safer in emergencies. They can be more expensive to build, but can also be very long-lived so the lifetime amortized costs are low. With suitable design they can also be light and airy, and very well connected with nature. It could be good for country homes, and we all know about Coober Pedy.

Continuing to look at homes, there are a lot of financial and other benefits for making homes (whether underground or not) well insulated, air-tight boxes, but it requires a lot more effort to ensure that the indoor air quality remains good. This Melbourne University research gives several tips and tricks to ensure that air-tight houses are well ventilated and healthy, e.g. keeping it warm and reducing indoor humidity and regularly “burping” the structure (regularly opening windows to purge the indoor air).

Researchers warn green walls could pose “Grenfell nightmare”

Green walls look very attractive and can make meaningful contributions to improving our streetscapes. They can convert boring blank concrete walls that are heat traps into attractive features that help cool buildings and their surrounds. So it was especially disturbing to read new research that shows that the plastic plant pot structures used to make some green walls are quite flamable – just replacing one problem with another.

A bit of fun…

The sad tale of the RSV Nuyina antarctic research vessel that is not permitted to go under the bridge at its home port of Hobart to get to the marine depot 4kms away, and instead must travel 674kms to a depot in Burnie every time it needs to refuel. Very poor planning by somebody.

We welcome book review submissions – send them as a Word documents in a reply to this newsletter email. Follow the format we are using, and we may publish your work.