A survey of 145 economists released today found that 60% believe the Gillard government’s carbon tax is good economic policy. The carbon tax package, announced on Sunday, penalises 500 heavy polluters…
Scientific debate isn’t about ‘if’, but about ‘when’ and ‘how much’.
Matti Mattila/Flickr
In 2100, will sea level be one metre higher than now, or only 50cm? The Thames Barrage is designed to protect London from flooding by storm surges in up to one in a thousand year events. With 50cm higher…
Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Climate Change Minister Greg Combet address a press conference on Sunday. A carbon tax package announced today includes compensation measures and a radical overhaul of income tax policy.
ABC News24
The Australian government announced on Sunday it would introduce a carbon tax at $23 a tonne next July, rising 2.5% annually plus inflation and moving to a market-based emissions trading scheme in 2015…
She’s got the book, but did she read it? Ross Garnaut explains the advice he gave.
AAP
Top Conversation author Professor Stephan Lewandowsky and former Western Australian Premier Carmen Lawrence were part of a group that sat down with Ross Garnaut during his recent visit to UWA. During the…
When we debate a carbon tax, how much thought are we giving to our fragile, drought-prone continent?
Raiden256/Flickr
As the old saying goes, “the road to Hell is paved with good intentions”. On Sunday, the exhausting, almost decade-long battle to put a price on carbon pollution enters a new phase, when the MultiParty…
Will Steffen (left) in conversation with academic Will Grant (right): “The misinformation campaign that’s been prominent in the media … really is having an impact.”
Welcome to “In Conversation”, our series of discussions between leading academics and major public figures in Australian life. Today, we’re In Conversation with the academic whose research informed the…
Climate researchers hoping to collect monsoonal wind data off the Somali coast have been thwarted.
Flickr
Somali pirates roaming the seas in the Gulf of Aden have claimed another victim: climate research. Climate scientists hoping to collect data on monsoonal wind patterns off the Somali coast have been thwarted…
Demanding climate data won’t provide a new window into global warming.
nasa hq photo/flickr
When it comes to obtaining research data, Canadian academic Steve Easterbrook said it best: “Any fool knows you don’t get data from a scientist by using FOI requests, you do it by stroking their ego a…
Mike Hulme of the University of East Anglia, the institution at the centre of “Climategate” and the focus of a recent data Freedom of Information request, responds to Clearing up the Climate Debate. There…
I, along with many Australians, listened to the news coverage on Monday morning of the Lowy Institute’s annual survey, with reasonable disappointment and initial surprise. This is a respected polling exercise…
Is stopping someone speaking ever the right approach?
sjgibbs80/Flickr
Is it wise to try to block a speech by Christopher Monckton? Are there other options? Monckton, a well known climate change sceptic, was invited to speak at Notre Dame University in Fremantle on 30 June…
Lord Monckton will appear at two Western Australian universities over the coming days.
AAP
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Western Australia has distanced himself from climate change sceptic Lord Christopher Monckton, who will appear on campus next Monday. Professor Alan Robson today…
Chilling effect… attacks on climate science could freeze up debate on important global issues, a leading scientific body has said.
Flickr/Martha de Jong-Lantink
Personal attacks on scientists by climate change skeptics could have a chilling effect on research that policymakers need to solve global problems, a leading U.S scientific body has warned. Climate change…
Believe it or not, sulphur emissions are keeping us cooler.
lillicomanche/flickr
The Earth energy balance – the difference between energy/heat absorbed by the Earth from solar radiation and the energy/heat emitted back to space – is currently offset by the cooling effect of sulphur…
While the debate rages, the planet is changing.
AAP
The majority of the world’s climate scientists agree: climate change is real, we are causing it and it’s happening right now. Despite the scientific consensus, Australia is still deeply divided about what…
Don’t make me tell you again: some people have been talking about climate change for decades.
Barry Jones
I can claim to be the oldest surviving inhabitant of the climate change controversy. I gave my first major speech (at least, I thought it was major) about the human contribution to climate change, especially…