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Australia sinks on ‘most credible’ environmental index in the world
Posted by Age: Peter Hannam on January 27th, 2016
Age: Australia's global ranking has dived on an international survey that Environment Minister Greg Hunt had described as "the most credible, scientifically based" analysis in the world.
The 2016 Environmental Performance Index, released every two years by Yale University in the US, has dropped Australia's ranking by 10 places to 13th out of 180 nations in its latest update.
The country's worst performance, though, came in the climate and energy category, where Australia was ranked 150th for its...
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As climate changes, world weather agency calls for new baseline
Posted by Age: Peter Hannam on July 10th, 2014
Age: The World Meteorological Organisation says it`s time to shift climate baselines because global warming is increasingly setting a new "normal" for weather conditions.
The widely used 1961-90 baseline should be retained as a "stable reference" for climate study but a more current data set -- updated every decade -- should be adopted to gauge changes in heatwave and rainstorm frequency already under way, the WMO said.
"Rising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases are changing the Earth`s...
Australia: March heat has forecasters wondering ‘who stole autumn’?
Posted by Age: Peter Hannam on March 12th, 2013
Age: Melbourne's March is already deep into record heat territory. With today's 30-plus maximum reached, the city has notched nine such days in a row, breaking the record for heatwave duration of eight days. All four previous events over the past 156 years happened in January or February, and the last one 52 years ago.
Where's autumn?
Weatherzone senior meteorologist Brett Dutschke said warmer-than-normal ocean temperatures and a southerly shift in the jetstream meant there was little sign of autumn...
Australia: Climate change signals raining down but proof will take centuries
Posted by Age: Peter Hannam on February 2nd, 2013
Age: For Australia, 2013 looks like being a "year of living extremely" if January is anything to go by.
The Bureau of Meteorology says January was the hottest ever month in just over a century of records.
Nationwide, the January average maximum temperature anomaly was 2.28 degrees, "a substantial increase" on the previous record of 2.17 degrees set in 1932.
And, thanks to the unusual scale of the massive heatwave that dominated the first half of January, all states and territories posted above-average...