Paula 🌹

West Melbourne pop-up café creates award-wage jobs for people with disability A West Melbourne café collaboration is proving that good food and social impact can go hand in hand, with six trainees stepping into award-wage hospitality roles as part of an extended pop-up.

Shit that it's only a pop up and that paying disabled people proper wages isn't the norm @ourfairgo.bsky.social

West Melbourne pop-up café creates award-wage jobs for people with disability

www.northwestcitynews.com.au/west-melbour...

PAY DISABLED PEOPLE

Scapegoating migrants is as old as history itself Scapegoating migrants is designed to distract our attention from the truth and real issues – the abuse of corporate and media power and failure to tackle housing shortages for younger generations.

Scapegoating migrants is designed to distract our attention from the truth and real issues – the abuse of corporate and media power and failure to tackle housing shortages for younger generations.

johnmenadue.com/post/2026/02...

More details in Lisa Cox's report

Watt says he "used an existing national interest provision" in the EPBC laws

@biodivcouncil.bsky.social says, it "appears to be the first time that a commercial activity has been given an exemption on economic grounds since the commencement of the Act in 2000"

Close up photo of a small section of a crustose lichen that’s grey in places and orange in others. It looks sort of like a barren landscape with mountains and valleys.

I love how the surface of some crustose lichens can look like an aerial view of an exotic landscape. This picture covers about 5cm, left to right.
Porpidia #lichen. #Newfoundland, Canada. #fungi #fungifriends

Traditional owners won't accept big hole stuffed full of forever chemicals as rehabilitated site

This headline sucks . Should be.
Traditional owners won't accept big hole stuffed full of forever chemicals as rehabilitated site

...ie. It wasn't education that Capitalism commodified, it was accreditation.

An extraordinary new column in the Daily Telegraph (no, that's not a typo!) by Ambrose Evans Pritchard.

Yes, it includes two charts by Carbon Brief, sure.

But stay for the concluding few paragraphs about the electoral suicide of climate denial...

www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...

The year sunlight went global: how the Paris Agreement brought solar power to the world | Ember The Paris climate summit ignited the growth of solar electricity in major emerging markets and into the world’s fastest-growing source of electricity.

The year sunlight went global: how the Paris Agreement brought solar power to the world

ember-energy.org/latest-insig...

S&P Global LNG analyst Megan Jenkins gave an interesting presentation on the global LNG outlook where S&P sees the global gas surplus lasting longer than they previously forecast due to more L... S&P Global LNG analyst Megan Jenkins gave an interesting presentation on the global LNG outlook where S&P sees the global gas surplus lasting longer than they previously forecast due to more LNG proje...

I've been pointing out the coming LNG glut and how it will destroy any potential profits for the US LNG export business for a while. It's obvious at this point.

According to Keith Morrison on LinkedIn, "S&P Global LNG analyst Megan Jenkins... sees the global gas surplus lasting between 2029-36"

#AusPol

Ethiopia is smarter than we are, a tax haven for foreign owned Big Oil and Gas and tribute provider to the US oil empire.

Electric Vehicle Sales Boom as Ethiopia Bans Fossil-Fuel Car Imports The East African country is making use of cheap hydropower and Chinese electric vehicles to ditch the internal combustion engine.

“Our transition to EVs is aimed at ensuring our energy sovereignty,” said Ethiopia’s state minister for transport and logistics. “As a net importer of fuel, we are affected by global supply and price fluctuations. In contrast, EVs use electricity, which we produce locally and can price ourselves.”

Induction stoves, e-bikes, and ductless mini-splits

Child vaccination rates are falling fast, with some regions barely reaching 80% Before COVID, Australia reached its target of 95% of one-year-olds fully immunised. Now, lower coverage means more babies are at risk of whooping cough and measles.

Child vaccination rates are falling fast, with some regions barely reaching 80%
Before the COVID pandemic, we hit the national target of 95% of one-year-olds fully vaccinated. Our child vaccination rates were among the best in the world.
theconversation.com/child-vaccin...

Epstein files suggest acts that may amount to crimes against humanity, say UN experts Independent experts appointed by human rights council speak of ‘grave’ nature regarding scale of atrocities against women and girls

Epstein files suggest acts that may amount to crimes against humanity, say UN experts

Independent experts appointed by human rights council speak of ‘grave’ nature regarding scale of atrocities against women and girls

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Excellent investigative journalism from Nick.

Spirit of Tasmania may be the greatest infrastructure disaster *to date*.

But with the recent commitment to build a largely unwanted stadium in the wrong place, the Tas govt is saying 'hold my beer'.

Ship of Fools How the Spirit of Tasmania became the greatest infrastructure disaster in the state’s history

How the Spirit of Tasmania became the greatest infrastructure disaster in the state’s history. A tragicomedy:

Guest post: The challenges in projecting future global sea levels - Carbon Brief In this article, two scientists unpack some of the reasons why projecting the speed and scale of future sea level rise is difficult.

The challenges in projecting future global sea levels

www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-t...

We absolutely have to plan and, significantly, prepare for 3°C

And that means preparing to relocate and accommodate hundreds of millions of people.

And that means providing state armed forces protection for hundreds of millions of people.

3°C means violence and war. Lots of it.

‘Daunting but doable’: Europe urged to prepare for 3C of global heating Advisory board member says adapting is ‘not rocket science’ but Europe already paying price for lack of preparation

Planning for ~3C isn’t “giving up” on 1.5C. It’s realistic risk management.

Europe is already feeling the impacts. Current adaptation plans aren’t enough. The message: act now on resilience, heat, floods, infrastructure, or pay far higher costs later.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

“If the Anthropocene describes a planet transformed by humans, the Homogenocene is one ecological consequence: fewer places with their own distinctive life.”

Welcome to the ‘Homogenocene’: how humans are making the world’s wildlife dangerously samey Just one of the many ways the Anthropocene is reshaping life on Earth.

Welcome to the ‘Homogenocene’: how humans are making the world’s wildlife dangerously samey

theconversation.com/welcome-to-t...

“When people cannot find affordable housing, and when the government’s response is to build housing bureaucracies rather than houses, the far right’s narrative—that immigration is the cause—acquires a surface plausibility that reasoned argument struggles to overcome.”

The next era of conservative politics will make John Howard look woke (Angus) Taylorism is just another word for nothing left to lose

The next era of conservative politics will make John Howard look woke

tdunlop.substack.com/p/the-next-e...

South Africans are ‘off-gridding’ Research exploring off-grid practices in South Africa has defined three forms of off-gridding, with reasons for being off-grid varying depending on income background, in turn highlighting that decentr...

Same story in South Africa as in Pakistan. "... decentralized energy transitions can reproduce existing inequalities. www.pv-magazine.com/2026/02/16/s...

What the Albanese government did on the environment amid the Liberals’ turmoil: threatened species, a new coal project and carbon leakage Labor chose a day when attention was focused on the opposition to slip out a handful of announcements

Shameful, @albomp.bsky.social.

"as Angus Taylor ascended to the leadership of a riven & defeated political party, the Albanese government slipped out a handful of announcements on contentious climate & environment issues.

Excellent work, @adammorton.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The drunk uncle theory.

You don’t argue with the casually homophobic uncle at Thanksgiving dinner to change his mind; you argue so that the closeted cousin at the kids table knows there’s safe people and better possibilities out there

And remember, good people, apparently we need a ridiculous & inefficient "Nature Repair Market" to properly fund conservation, because government simply can't afford to do it. It's shameful this nonsense persists, & far too many, including some that should know better, are willing to perpetuate it.

Australia spent $26 billion on 'nature-harming' incentives in a year The federal government funds $26 billion of incentives each year that may be harmful to the environment and is yet to report on its international commitments, researchers say.

"The findings illustrate that the Australian government's spending on biodiversity protection is basically the loose change found at the back of the couch, while its investment in biodiversity-harmful subsidies is a pile of cash with Scrooge McDuck rolling on top”

www.abc.net.au/news/science...

How did Australia – better known for its beaches than snow – become a consistent Winter Olympics performer? | Kieran Pender Targeted resource allocation and investment in facilities have contributed to a record medal haul – but tougher times may lie ahead

lovely & I have enjoyed watching them.

We can learn from the strategy- consistent training of younger generations, long-term targeting funding, national celebration of success.

Australia could applied this to #STEM now, not cutting CSIRO funding, poor support for medical & other science. /1

"We don't doubt ourselves:" Fortescue's race to real zero – and the radical rethink behind it Iron ore giant Fortescue has just four years left to meet its real zero emissions by 2030 target, a mammoth task that will require it to fundamentally change how it operates. So can it be done?

“We don’t doubt ourselves:” Fortescue’s race to real zero – and the radical rethink behind it

reneweconomy.com.au/we-dont-doub...