Damien Irving

September climate warming stripes. It's as if something has changed. 🤔

Asking Home Affairs about staffing for the Special Envoys - the Antisemitism envoy has 5 FTE positions (6 staff) and the Islamophobia envoy is still recruiting 👀

Reminder: Australia's only emissions reduction legislation - the safeguard mechanism - allows for unlimited use of offsets instead of requiring genuine cuts from polluters

Outrageous to learn in #estimates that most of the federal $5.8 mil allocated to truth-telling wasn’t spent, and was then cancelled, and now NIAA are not working on truth or treaties, and have just half an FTE to monitor work by states and territories.

Carbon offsets fail to cut global heating due to ‘intractable’ systemic problems, study says Analysis of 25 years of evidence shows most schemes are poor quality and fail to lower emissions

Reminder - carbon offsetting is a con. We have to BOTH stop burning fossil fuels and look after nature

#ClimateEmergency #NatureCrisis

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

When Will the Lion Concern Himself Joking memes make light of the uncomfortable reality: everyone's got a little of that post-COVID brain damage these days

Nobody has Long COVID, but everybody has brain fog, cognitive decline and memory loss. I talk about the overwhelming scientific evidence that COVID damages the brain, and the overwhelming social unwillingness to acknowledge it in my latest:

www.thegauntlet.news/p/when-will-...

Photo exhibition highlights reality of Canadians with long COVID | Watch News Videos Online Watch Photo exhibition highlights reality of Canadians with long COVID Video Online, on GlobalNews.ca

Global News: 'Photo exhibition highlights reality of Canadians with long COVID'

'The Living with Long COVID exhibition is a collaboration by the Museum of Vancouver and SFU's Faculty of Health Sciences - offering a glimpse into the daily lives...'

globalnews.ca/video/114650...

Australian bird of the year 2025: vote for your favourite #birdoftheyear in the Guardian / BirdLife Australia poll From little penguins to (very big) cassowaries, every bird has its fans. Vote for your favourite in the 2025 Guardian/BirdLife Australia poll

With no swift parrot in the running (reigning champions are ineligible), the choice for Tasmanians is clear: vote 1 turbo chook!

The Desire Distribution Substack’s revenue curve, the end of the winner-take-all media markets, and the cleansing power of money.

This is the best analysis of news media and social media I've read in a long time - with some very good news for the relatively few news outlets taking the much harder path of building subscription businesses instead of attention businesses (yes, there is a big difference).

The Lever's subscriptions are up a whopping 21 PERCENT in the last 90 days, driven by our big stories & by Lever Daily - our once-a-day newsletter filled with original reporting & scoops. Our readers love it.

Subscribe for free - and pass it on: LeverNews.com/Daily

DFAT has now confirmed Australians and others have been abused by Israeli authorities after their abduction from the flotilla.

Assaulted and injured. Deprived of sleep and medication. Still illegally detained.

The PM and Foreign Minister must urgently demand their safe release.

Israel accused of detaining Greta Thunberg in infested cell and making her hold flags Activist tells Swedish officials she has been subjected to harsh treatment, including insufficient food and water

““They dragged little Greta [Thunberg] by her hair before our eyes, beat her, and forced her to kiss the Israeli flag. They did everything imaginable to her, as a warning to others,” the Turkish activist ErsinÇelik, a participant in the Sumud flotilla, told Anadolu news agency.”+

No science required: how the media regurgitated Albanese’s climate PR The Albanese government sailed through its week of climate announcements, courtesy of media coverage that obsessed over the political fallout instead of the actual policy.

A truly excellent piece from @nickfeik.bsky.social on Labor's utterly insufficient and also completely meaningless emission targets and the media's inability and/or unwillingness to engage with the substance (as opposed to the politics) of the climate issue.

"The first time I had COVID was in 2021. 1 was [also] out of work for two weeks. My hair had thinned, but it wasn't my priority at that point. But recently, I got COVID again. When I put my hair in a true slicked-back ponytail, I was like, Whoa, this is not the same amount of hair I'm used to. My boyfriend even noticed. He had his nands in my hair and said, 'Your hair feels thinner than normal.

Reason #99 to mitigate COVID infections - the virus can lead to hair loss

Trump Cut Funding to 16 Dem States. Can States Cut His? Within 72 hours of the October 1st government shutdown, the Trump administration weaponized federal funding against Democratic states with surgical precision.

Defund Fasicsm

YouTube video by SIX News Australia Greens reveal plan for Alice Springs seats after winning council seats

After winning two seats – including the mayoralty – in the election for Alice Springs Town Council, the Greens tell 6 News what's on their agenda

WATCH: www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9yL...

Why investment in clean indoor air is vital preparation for the pandemics and climate emergencies to come Unchecked airborne infections cost billions in lost health and productivity each year – likely more than the cost of better ventilation to clean up indoor air.

Very cool to see that @burnetinstitute.bsky.social and @science.org.au convened a high-level side event on healthy indoor air at the UN General Assembly. @amandakvalsvig.bsky.social @aunz.theconversation.com

The News Corp headlines referring to the NCRA were, frankly, disgraceful. Some comments from me are included in this @australia.theguardian.com article.

Labor’s CDC lacks budget and vision Never before has Australia more needed a full-service, independent Centre for Disease Control, able to address the rising challenges of disease, both infectious and non-communicable. Medical experts f...

Labor's first term gave us a piss weak and ineffective NACC. Their second term will deliver a piss weak and ineffective CDC and EPA. All the while lamenting that people are losing trust in public institutions.

Labor’s CDC lacks budget and vision

“Now the government has produced a draft bill for the centre which hives off key responsibilities, is silent on priorities and is constrained by an insufficient budget and limited vision.”

Monique Ryan on flaws in the Albanese government’s promised CDC. satpa.pe/J6N7NxC

Or if you prefer the original / classic figure format...

The second annual Planetary Health Check from @pik-potsdam.bsky.social concludes that 7 out of 9 planetary boundaries have been breached, with all of those seven showing trends of increasing pressure. www.planetaryhealthcheck.org

If Labor ends up needing the Greens to get the CDC legislation through the senate, I hope they fight for public health as hard as they would for climate or housing, because the draft bill is woefully inadequate.

Tasmanian government punts official AFL stadium report The Tasmanian government has dismissed yet another report advising against building a stadium on Hobart’s waterfront, this time by its own planning commission.

“More than a year of intensive work – conducted by an independent panel of five, with expertise in urban planning, law, local government, architecture and finance – was passed off as a matter of opinion.” @thesaturdaypaper.com.au #politas

Seven of nine planetary boundaries now breached – ocean acidification joins the danger zone," says PIK director Johan Rockström presenting the key findings of the Planetary Health Check 2025 today. #PlanetaryBoundaries
➡️ www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/late...

We had an election where Labor benefited enormously from widespread rejection of Trumpian politics. Albanese has followed up that election result with Trump selfies and unquestioned support for a US alliance, and the Australian public seems pretty cool with that. None of it makes any sense.

Native forest logging must end in order to reach Labor’s emissions reduction target, expert says Murray Watt says ‘it’s not the government’s intention to stop old growth logging’ as Greens and academics press for total halt

Step 1: Set a piss weak emissions target.
Step 2: Refuse to take steps to even meet that piss weak target. @lisacox.bsky.social

Government required to create plan to protect greater glider in major legal win for Wilderness Society Murray Watt agrees recovery plans for greater glider, ghost bat, lungfish and sandhill dunnart were not made by successive governments

The federal environment minister has conceded that successive governments acted unlawfully when they failed to create mandatory recovery plans for native species threatened with extinction

Remember how lefties used to say "abolish ICE" back in the 2010s, and got roundly scolded by the centrists for it ever since, and now events have shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were 1000% on the correct side of history, but somehow they're still being scolded? Fun.

Sidenote: Did you know that the NACC employs over 200 people, spends over $50m per year, has 5 offices, and in over two years of operations hasn't landed a single major corruption finding?