RSS Feed
Author Archive
Climate change will damage Australia’s coastal infrastructure, says IPCC
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on March 31st, 2014
Guardian: Australia is set to suffer a loss of native species, significant damage to coastal infrastructure and a profoundly altered Great Barrier Reef due to climate change, an exhaustive UN report has found.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, delivered to the world’s governments in Japan on Monday, states there is “significant change in community composition and structure of coral reefs and montane ecosystems and risk of loss of some native species in Australia” as a result of warming...
Posted in 
Public Recruited to Research Australia’s Record Heat
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on March 29th, 2014
Guardian: An international team of climate scientists is looking to recruit 10,000 members of the public to help find out the exact role greenhouse gases played in Australia's record temperatures last year.
The Weather@home ANZ project will use people's home computers to run a series of simulations based on the weather experienced in 2013, which has been confirmed as Australia's hottest year on record.
The summer of 2013 was Australia's hottest. Now scientists are enlisting citizens' extra computing...
Australia: Santos investigated another ‘toxic’ water spill coal seam gas plant
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on March 28th, 2014
Guardian: Coal seam gas company Santos has experienced another spill of waste water at a NSW gas field.
The NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) said it was investigating the release of around 500 litres of “produced water” which entered a diversion drain at Santos’s Narrabri gas field on Tuesday.
The EPA said the diversion drain was blocked to prevent the water leaving the site, with the liquid returned to a containment pond. The Greens have called the water “toxic”, although the EPA said it was...
Australia: Energy companies deal allowing NSW farmers say no coal seam gas
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on March 28th, 2014
Guardian: Energy companies Santos and AGL have signed an agreement with farmers in NSW that will allow landholders to refuse coal seam gas activities on their properties.
The deal will allow a farmer to say no to coal seam gas and bar entry to gas companies if permission is explicitly refused.
The agreement, the first of its kind between gas firms and landholders, also seems to indirectly reference environmental protesters by condemning “bullying, harassment and intimidation” of farmers who have agreed...
Australian town in fear of emissions and coal dust from power plant
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on March 25th, 2014
Guardian: The coal mine and adjoining power station in the small Australian town of Anglesea suffers from not one, but two incongruities. Anglesea, in Victoria, unlike its windswept Welsh namesake, is a bucolic surf location that sees a huge influx of visitors as temperatures soar in the summer months. It's not your archetypal mining town, even to its residents. "People who visit here, or people who haven't lived here long don't know the mine is here," says local doctor Jacinta Morahan. "It's well hidden"....
Australia: Great Barrier Reef: govt faces second legal challenge on dumping
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on March 23rd, 2014
Guardian: The federal government is facing a second legal challenge over its decision to allow excavated seabed to be dumped in the Great Barrier Reef marine park.
Documents will be lodged with Brisbane’s federal court on Monday to challenge the dredging and dumping project that will expand the Abbot Point port near the Queensland town of Bowen.
The Mackay Conservation Group, which is bringing the legal action, claims environment minister Greg Hunt has contravened his international obligations by allowing...
Australia: Climate action call as ‘another angry summer’ breaks 156 heat records
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on March 10th, 2014
Guardian: More than 150 temperature records were broken in Australia during “another angry summer” that highlighted the need for deep reductions in greenhouse gases, a new report has said.
The analysis, by the Climate Council, found that Sydney experienced its driest summer in 27 years, while Melbourne sweltered through its hottest ever 24-hour period, averaging 35.5C. The Victorian capital also had four days in a row above 41C.
Elsewhere, Adelaide had a record of 11 days at 42C or hotter during the...
Australia’s Heat Wave Frequency Tops Projections for 2030
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on February 18th, 2014
Guardian: The government has been urged to better articulate the dangers of climate change after a report that shows the frequency of heat waves in parts of Australia has already surpassed levels previously predicted for 2030.
The Climate Council report highlights that Adelaide, Melbourne, and Canberra all experienced a higher average number of hot days between 2000 and 2009 than was expected to occur by 2030.
Research by the CSIRO forecast that Melbourne would experience an average of 12 days over 35°C...
Australia: Climate trends demand better response to drought, says CSIRO
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on February 18th, 2014
Guardian: Australia needs a better response to drought in the face of climate trends that will transform agricultural regions and see many farms disappear, the CSIRO has warned. The government’s science agency said that observed changes in rainfall are occurring at a more rapid rate than was previously predicted. These changes could see a continuing trend of farm closures and shift farming towards wetter coastal areas. Tony Abbott has just completed a “listening tour” of drought-affected areas of Queensland...
Australia: Inquiry into Gladstone dredging won’t stop new coal project, Greg Hunt says
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on January 20th, 2014
Guardian: The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority says the federal government's launch of an inquiry into dredging and dumping near the reef will not prompt it to delay its decision on whether to allow 3m cubic metres of sediment to be deposited within its world heritage area in a new coal port project.
Greg Hunt, the federal environment minister, is to ask an independent commission to investigate the Gladstone harbour dredging project.
The inquiry will look at whether there was a critical breakdown...