By Cameron Atfield4 May 2013 (Sydney Morning Herald) – The United Nations has put the Queensland and federal governments on notice that the Great Barrier Reef could be added to a list of endangered world heritage sites. In a draft decision released Friday night, expected to be adopted when UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee meets in […]
GENEVA, 2 May 2013 (WMO) The World Meteorological Organization’s Statement on the Status of the Global Climate says that 2012 joined the ten previous years as one of the warmest — at ninth place — on record despite the cooling influence of a La Niña episode early in the year. The 2012 global land and […]
Australia’s iconic marsupial is at risk from shrinking habitats, road traffic and dog attacks – and increasingly, global warming By Neena Bhandari for IPS, part of the Guardian Environment Network 30 April 2013 SYDNEY (guardian.co.uk) – Australia’s iconic marsupial is under threat. Formerly hunted almost to extinction for their woolly coats, koalas are now struggling […]
(Climate Commission) – Between 22 and 29 January 2013 extreme rainfall occurred over the east coast of Queensland and the New South Wales coast north of the Illawarra, resulting in severe flooding (BoM, 2013b). Many areas received daily rainfalls greater than 400 mm, with many breaking daily rainfall records (BoM, 2013b) (see Figure 2, Figure […]
Global Highlights The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for March 2013 tied with 2006 as the 10th warmest on record, at 0.58°C (1.04°F) above the 20th century average of 12.3°C (54.1°F). The global land surface temperature was 1.06°C (1.91°F) above the 20th century average of 5.0°C (40.8°F), the 11th warmest March […]
(Climate Commission) – Very hot days and heatwaves have a significant impact on human health, infrastructure, agriculture and natural ecosystems. Research at the Natural Hazards Research Centre (NRHC) has shown that heatwaves are the most significant natural hazard in Australia in terms of loss of life. There have been 4287 fatalities directly attributable to heatwaves […]
By Graham Readfearn15 April 2013 (ABC Environment) – On a large wooden deck on a coral cay island in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef, research assistant Aaron Chai removes the lid from one of 12 circular white water tanks. “This is the ‘do nothing’ tank,” he says, peering inside at a careful arrangement […]
THE HAGUE, 12 April 2013 (AFP) – Australia is to fire the opening salvoes in a legal battle before the United Nations’ highest court in June aimed at stopping Japan’s whaling research programme in Antarctica. “The International Court of Justice … will hold public hearings in the case concerning whaling in the Antarctic, Australia versus […]
By Tim Barlass7 April 2013 (Sydney Morning Herald) – Major changes to the food chain, weather, and landscape of Antarctica have provided stark evidence of the impact of global warming, a report on a polar expedition has revealed. The preliminary report on the research by scientists from the Australian Antarctic Division and the Woods Hole […]
By Brenda Ekwurzel, climate scientist 5 April 2013 (UCS) – You know something really weird is happening when in a single season more than 123 records are broken. That was the news from my home country, Australia, last month. The Australian Climate Commission, a government-sponsored science group, released a report confirming that the country’s climate […]
