The new ‘carbon budget’ has eased fears of a post-Brexit ‘coup’ by Tory climate sceptics.
The Bramble Cay Melomys is arguably the first mammal driven extinct by climate change, rather than direct human interaction.
Ian Bell/EHP/State of Queensland
Australia’s conservation laws presume that we can preserve everything in its natural state. But in a changing world, we’ll have to be more flexible than that.
Should killing too many fish be dealt with in the same way as war crimes?
Bob Williams/Wikimedia Commons
The world has global authorities for trade and security, but not for threats to the environment. It’s time the natural world got its own version of the World Trade Organisation or UN Security Council.
We’re used to abundance, but Brexit makes it all seem more fragile.
Eric/Flickr
Green and cool (reflective) roofs are effective tools for cooling overheated cities. Research in Chicago shows that their impacts depend on local conditions, so planners should site them carefully.
To reach zero emissions by 2050, we need to invest in zero emissions technology now.
Coal power image from www.shutterstock.com
Current climate pledges mean emissions will be too high in 2030 to stop dangerous global warming. But there are a number of things we can do to fix this.
A lack of differences in major policy areas such as agriculture and trade means local project funding – for roads, boat ramps and the like – reinforces the adage ‘all politics is local’.
AAP/Alan Porritt
On the big national policies affecting non-metropolitan Australia, such as agriculture and trade, the major party differences are minor. That’s why the election focus turns to local projects.
Unchecked greenhouse gas emissions would lead to a number of economic effects, including potentially more damaging storms like Hurricane Sandy.
Eric Thayer/Reuters
Making expanded fossil fuel production the core of U.S. energy policy, as proposed by Donald Trump, and backing out of climate agreements would cost the U.S. economy billions and transform the planet.
It’s quiet out there, too quiet.
Outback image from wwww.shutterstock.com
The ups and downs of climate policy since the 2013 federal election.
A mass proliferation of Noctiluca scintillans, a red tide forming dinoflagellate at Clovelly Beach, NSW. It can form dense aggregations that deplete oxygen and produce ammonia.
Gurjeet Kohli
They give us part of the air we breathe but microscopic phytoplankton can also be toxic. They are also on the move thanks to climate change so a new Australian database hopes to monitor any changes.
Fossil fuel industry-funded organisations have played a big role in climate denial.
Coal power image from www.shutterstock.com
It’s easy to attribute the wrong cause to a mysterious phenomenon. But science has some tools to help you avoid these attribution errors.
A human-dependent mosquito, the range of the disease-carrying Aedes aegypti is projected to grow in the U.S. and affect more people globally.
sanofi-pasteur/flickr
Andrew Monaghan, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
More people in the U.S. and world will be exposed to the disease-carrying mosquito Aedes aegypti, not just because of warmer temperatures but global population changes as well.
Victoria has joined three other states and territories in setting a renewable energy target.
Wind energy from www.shutterstock.com
Was Malcolm Turnbull right to say that larger and more frequent storms are one of the predicted consequences of climate change – but that you can’t attribute any particular storm to global warming?
Some informal settlements in Cape Town are located on or near wetlands.
Shutterstock
Lucy Rodina, University of British Columbia and Leila Harris, University of British Columbia
Many African cities are sites of rapid urbanisation. To ensure that such societies are water resilient, it is necessary to address formal and informal forms of development.
All countries will have to reduce emissions.
Coal image from www.shutterstock.com
Lakes contain most of the fresh water on Earth’s surface. Recent research at Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada mountains shows that climate change could alter lake chemistry, threatening these sources.
Iceland’s geothermal power plants are an ideal place to test pumping carbon dioxide underground.
Dom Wolff-Boenisch