In Brief

July 31, 2015
Bjorn Lomborg.

Bjorn again?

Flinders University is in talks with climate “inactivist” Bjørn Lomborg about hosting his unique brand of climate action denial.

Since being ejected from the University of Western Australia by outraged students and staff in May, Lomborg and the Department of Education have been searching for a university to host his Australian Consensus Centre.

While universities face funding cuts, the federal government is offering $4 million to any university willing to house Lomborg and his widely discredited assertion that the urgency of climate change action is over-stated.

Mine releases salt into Sydney’s water

The NSW Environment Protection Authority plans to grant a new licence to Centennial Coal for its Springvale underground longwall coalmine near Lithgow.

The licence will permit it to release wastewater with salinity levels 24 times higher than natural levels into the Coxs River, which flows through the World Heritage Area and into Sydney's main water supply. The Coxs River is the second largest source of water for Warragamba Dam, which accounts for 90% of Sydney's water supply.

The EPA will allow the mine to continue to release wastewater with a maximum of 1200 microSiemens per centimetre of electrical conductivity (μS/cmEC), compared to a natural salinity level of less than 50 μS/cmEC and Australian guidelines of a maximum pollution level of 350 μS/cmEC.

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