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Australia: Murray-Darling basin water sell-off — what you need to know
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on January 20th, 2014
Guardian: The Murray-Darling basin is an enormous river catchment area centred on the Murray river, which runs along the Victoria-New South Wales border and ends in South Australia, and the adjoining Darling river, which stretches into NSW.
Covering around 1.06m square km, the basin encompasses around a seventh of Australia's landmass and is its most important agricultural region, containing nearly half of the nation's farms.
Fruit, vegetables, wool, dairy produce, wheat and livestock are produced in...
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Murray-Darling water sell-off scheme announced
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on January 20th, 2014
Guardian: The government is to sell off water allocations to farmers who operate alongside the Murray-Darling river system for the first time since a deal that aims to end two decades of arguments on how to manage the resource.
The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder, which manages the government's water licences, said up to 10 gigalitres of water allocation would be available for sale in the Gwydir valley, a region of New South Wales which forms part of the Murray-Darling basin.
The government owns...
Australian heatwaves getting hotter and longer, says Climate Council
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on January 15th, 2014
Guardian: Heatwaves in Australia are becoming more frequent, are increasing in intensity and are lasting longer, according to an interim report by the Climate Council.
The report, which will be released in full in February, finds that climate change is having a key influence on a trend that has seen the number of hot days in Australia double and the duration and frequency of heatwaves increase in the period between 1971 and 2008.
South-eastern Australia has baked in extreme temperatures this week, with...
Australia’s hottest year recorded in 2013
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on January 2nd, 2014
Guardian: Australia experienced its hottest year on record in 2013, the Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed, with temperatures 1.2C above the long-term average.
The bureau said the new high, which breaks the record set in 2005 by 0.17C, "continues the trend' of steadily rising temperatures in Australia, which has seen the country warm by about 1C since 1950.
The year saw a number of individual records fall, including: The warmest summer and spring seasons ever recorded.
7 January was the hottest summer...
Kakadu mine: risk of uranium leakage could be greater than thought
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on December 18th, 2013
Guardian: The risk of uranium leakage from filtration systems used by facilities such as the Ranger mine in Kakadu could be greater than is currently acknowledged, with new research showing that the hazardous substance is far more mobile than previously thought.
A study published in Nature Communications found that seemingly immobile uranium particles "piggybacked' onto iron and organic material and flowed into a stream that joined a wetland in France.
The Australian Conservation Foundation said the...
NSW bushfires: conservationists hopeful for healthy recovery wildlife
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on December 10th, 2013
Guardian: Conservationists are hopeful that wildlife coped better with the NSW Blue Mountains fires than first feared after a koala was spotted in the upper reaches of the mountains for the first time in 70 years.
The koala was seen crossing the Great Western Highway near Wentworth Falls, which is 900m above sea level.
The sighting is the first of its kind in the upper Blue Mountains since the 1940s. It is thought that the koala, and others, managed to escape October's fierce bushfires, which burned...
Australia Must Cut Emissions 40% by 2020 Avoid “Dramatic Climatic Shifts”
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on December 2nd, 2013
Guardian: Australia must drastically increase its emissions reduction target to 40% by 2020 to avoid "almost unimaginable social, economic and ecological consequences' from climate change, a new book penned by leading scientists and economists, including Ross Garnaut, has warned.
The book, Four Degrees of Global Warming: Australia in a Hot World, sets out a series of stark scenarios facing the country should global temperatures rise by 4C above the pre-industrial average.
By 2100, annual rainfall in...
Australia under fire for failing to protect threatened animals
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on November 26th, 2013
Guardian: Australia is failing to protect its endangered species due a "dreadful' track record in planning, monitoring and responding to threats, a group of leading conservationists has warned.
A paper published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment states that monitoring is a "critical part' of effective species conservation, but that "many species are being monitored until they go extinct'.
"Management intervention should be triggered when it becomes apparent that a monitored species...
Climate rallies held across Australia
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on November 17th, 2013
Guardian: An estimated 60,000 people have attended rallies across Australia in one of the largest ever displays of support for action on climate change.
Labor and Greens politicians, alongside volunteer firefighters and environmental activists, took turns at the Climate Action Day to lambast the Coalition government, which will table bills in parliament on Monday to dismantle carbon pricing.
Around 25,000 people gathered on Sunday in the Melbourne sunshine, with Labor's environment spokesman, Mark Butler,...
Australia on track for warmest ever year
Posted by Guardian: Oliver Milman on November 10th, 2013
Guardian: Australia is "on track" for its warmest ever calendar year, temperatures in October 1.43C above the long-term average and more than 100 heat-related records broken in the past 12 months, according to a new report.
The Climate Council study, called Off the Charts, says that the country has just had its warmest ever 12-month period, from 1 November 2012 to 31 October 2013. This is the third month in a row that this 12-month temperature record has been broken.
The report, drawn from Bureau of...