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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.