Significant changes to New Zealand’s environment and climate did not affect the population size of the now extinct moa. Researchers…
Australians generally accept that the climate is changing, but we have lost confidence in politicians, experts, and the media to guide us in what to do about it.
Flickr/spodzone
Over the past several decades, scientists have studied the climate of the world and how that is changing. These studies have built on the recognition, made over 150 years ago by John Tindall, that certain…
Tree rings from around the time of Christ suggest warmer regional temperatures than those between the 1950s to the 1980s, but this does not imply higher mean global temperatures.
Flickr/Petrified Forest Ranger
A study of tree-ring data recently found that in some regions temperatures during Roman times (21AD to 50AD) were 1.05 degrees Celsius higher than the 1951-1980 mean. The paper’s lead author, Professor…
Relax and have a drink, old chap; the planet has managed to look after itself so far without any fuss.
Flickr/cyclonebill
We are familiar with the tactics, arguments, and personnel of the denial industry. Yet there is a perhaps more insidious and influential line of argument that is preventing the world from responding to…
The sun rises on another smoggy day in China, which is now responsible for a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.
EPA/Adrian Bradshaw
Greenhouse gas cuts pledged by developed countries will not be enough to stop temperatures rising by 2 degrees by 2100, according to Chinese researchers who argue wealthy nations should bear greater responsibility…
Sign of things to come: a depleted Lake Hume in 2007, when the big dry still had a couple years to run.
Flickr/Tim J Keegan
Victoria has entered a critical decade in the race to adapt for the stresses of climate change, according to a new report from the Climate Commission. Following the release of Victorian climate impacts…
Economic modelling shows Australia’s GDP will be modestly affected by the carbon tax in the long term: but the equitable redistribution of tax revenue will be critical.
AAP
Cutting greenhouse gas emissions is like buying an insurance policy: we incur a cost to reduce a risk. Every year Australians spend millions on insuring homes, cars and their health, not because they know…
Landcare get-together: reducing our toll on nature comes in part from many of us taking steps that individually are not always so big, but which accumulate. The carbon tax is one such step.
Flickr/feral arts
A catchment threatened by salinity can’t be repaired by one or two landholders. Revegetation designed to lower watertables has its greatest ecological benefit where the plants are, but its net impact on…
Former politician and economist John Hewson speaks to ANU’s Crawford School’s Bruce Chapman and Daniel Connell.
Welcome to the latest in our In Conversation series, between former politician and economist Dr John Hewson, Australian National University (ANU) Crawford School Director of Policy Impact Professor Bruce…
Severe droughts, floods and landslides devastated parts of the world last year as carbon dioxide concentrations climbed to the highest levels in recorded history, according to a global report on climate…
What does it matter how much rain falls on the ocean? For understanding climate, it matters quite a lot.
Ines Hegedus-Garcia
Paul J Durack, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Surprising evidence from the oceans suggests they are responding to warming at a faster rate than we previously thought. These changes are expressed by patterns of freshening and enhanced salinity in the…
Climate change is only one of many pressures farmers will have to adapt to.
Pete Hill
Opinions on anthropogenic climate change vary greatly across society, and it appears that Australia’s farmers remain largely sceptical about the causes of climate change. Recent surveys show that only…
Climate change is causing the leaves of at least one subspecies of Australian plant to narrow in size, a team from the University of Adelaide has found. Their study shows that the leaves of the Narrow-leaf…
Tony Abbott has pledged to repeal the carbon tax, but it may be more difficult than he thinks.
AAP/David Crosling
What’s in a name? Well, like “Montague” and “Capulet” in Shakespeare’s play, names matter quite a lot in the tribal world of Australian climate politics. The notion of a “carbon tax” has struck a raw nerve…
Behind the times: Europe already had carbon taxes in 1992 back when Vanilla Ice topped the Australian charts.
AAP/Musicbiz
We price carbon. This is nothing new. The first time this explicitly happened, Vanilla Ice hit number one in Australia, and Bryan Adams was topping the global charts with “(Everything I do) I do it for…
This is carbon. The carbon you keep hearing about on the news is probably carbon dioxide. It doesn’t look like this.
Rui Costa
You’ll doubtless have heard Australia is introducing a “carbon tax” this Sunday to reduce “carbon pollution”. What is being controlled is not just any carbon but emissions of a specific gas, carbon dioxide…
International organisation 350.org encourages the building of grass-roots movements to combat climate change.
350.org
Bob Massie, CEO of the New Economics Institute opened the recent Strategies for a New Economy conference, held at Bard College, New York with a thoughtful response to the criticism that the Occupy movement…