Worst bushfires in more than a decade erupt across New South Wales – Orange haze descends on Sydney as dozens of fires rage outside city

17 October 2013 (Canberra Times) – Hundreds of homes may have been lost in Thursday’s fires, the worst in more than 10 years, said the Premier Barry O’Farrell. “It’s suspected that by the time we’ve finished counting it [the loss of homes] will at least be in the hundreds,” he said. It would take days […]

Massive port projects threaten integrity of Great Barrier Reef – ‘The government is putting the interests of foreign mining companies ahead of the protection of our reef’

By Ian Lloyd Neubauer 23 September 2013 (TIME) – A dead cat in the in-tray. That’s what Greenpeace called the newly elected Australian government’s inheritance of a proposal to build the largest coal port in the world at Abbot Point in the northeastern state of Queensland. A decision is required, and the stakes couldn’t be […]

The 5 stages of climate denial are on display ahead of the IPCC report – Antiscience forces running damage control in the media

By Dana Nuccitelli    15 September 2013 (The Guardian) – The fifth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report is due out on September 27th, and is expected to reaffirm with growing confidence that humans are driving global warming and climate change. In anticipation of the widespread news coverage of this auspicious report, climate contrarians appear […]

Climate scientists fighting back against the forces of antiscience as IPCC report looms

By Jeff Goodell12 September 2013 (Rolling Stone) – On September 27th, a group of international scientists associated with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will gather in an old brick brewery in Stockholm and proclaim with near certainty that human activity is altering the planet in profound ways. The IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report offers slam-dunk […]

Australia floods of 2010 and 2011 caused global sea level to drop – ‘Only in Australia could the atmosphere carry such heavy tropical rains to such a large area, only to have those rains fail to make their way to the ocean’

By Tim Radford for Climate News Network23 August 2013 (The Guardian) – Rain – in effect, evaporated ocean – fell in such colossal quantities during the Australian floods in 2010 and 2011 that the world’s sea levels actually dropped by as much as 7mm. Rainwater normally runs swiftly off continental mountain ranges, pours down rivers, […]

2013 shaping up to be one of Australia’s hottest years on record – This year had the hottest day, week, month, and summer ever

By David Jones, Blair Trewin, Karl Braganza, and Rob Smalley from Australian Bureau of Meteorology30 July 2013 (Sydney Morning Herald) – The last 10 months have been abnormally warm across Australia and we’ve seen a notable lack of unusually cold weather this winter. Are we heading for the hottest year on record? The more significant […]

Deforestation in Australia killing and mutilating koalas – Loggers say finding dead koalas is “like a daily thing, sometimes a couple every hour”

By Oliver Milman 23 July 2013 (The Guardian) – Revelations of koalas suffering graphic injuries and death in Victorian timber plantations are evidence of a long-standing failure to properly protect the iconic Australian marsupials, according to a leading conservation organisation. Footage on Monday night’s 7.30 report showed koalas, including babies, lying dead on the floor […]

Whaling in the Antarctic: New Zealand intervenes, Australia concludes

By Tony Press, CEO, Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems CRC at University of Tasmania13 July 2013 (The Conversation) – Australia had its second (and last) chance this week to argue against Japan’s whaling program in the International Court of Justice (ICJ). But before it did, New Zealand appeared before the Court to provide its take on […]

Great Barrier Reef condition declined from moderate to poor in 2011 – ‘Extreme weather events significantly impacted the overall condition of the marine environment’

By Oliver Laughland    10 July 2013 (The Guardian) – An alarming set of reports on the condition of the Great Barrier Reef published on Wednesday say its overall condition in 2011 declined from moderate to poor, and highlights that reef-wide coral cover has declined by 50% since 1985. The series of reports blame part of […]

The coal industry versus everyone else: Who will win?

By David Ritter    8 July 2013 (The Guardian) – A mighty political struggle is dividing Australia, but it is not the mêlée taking place in Canberra. It is the battle that pitches the kids on my street: bouncy Jack, serious Cristiana, little toddling Lily and all of their mates, and every other child from across […]

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