September 21, 2011 (AAP) – A strip of dense bushland has been fenced off in a corner of NSW to create a safe haven for Tasmanian devils and rescue them from the brink of extinction. It’s not predators the devils need protecting from, but a contagious facial cancer that has wiped out between 60 and […]
By Brian Williams, The Courier-Mail13 September 2011 HERE’S evidence you do not have to be big and tough to survive everything Mother Nature can throw at you. This endangered mahogany glider survived February’s devastating Cyclone Yasi at Cardwell in north Queensland. With little cover in her tree-top home, she made it through weeks of rain […]
By Erik Jensen Health 29 August 2011 RATES of mental illnesses including depression and post-traumatic stress will increase as a result of climate change, a report to be released today says. The paper, prepared for the Climate Institute, says loss of social cohesion in the wake of severe weather events related to climate change could […]
By Nicky Phillips 29 August 2011 A THICK blanket of grass spanning the width of Australia will pose a significant bushfire threat this season, experts say. While the record-breaking rains that fell across the eastern states earlier this year replenished drought-depleted soil, they also spurred large amounts of vegetation growth, particularly grass, the likes of […]
Karl Marx was right that globalization, financial intermediation, and income redistribution could lead capitalism to self-destruct. By Nouriel Roubini15 August 2011 NEW YORK—The massive volatility and sharp equity-price correction now hitting global financial markets signal that most advanced economies are on the brink of a double-dip recession. A financial and economic crisis caused by too […]
By Timothy McDonald13 August 2011 The Queensland and Federal Government’s first report card on water quality in the Great Barrier Reef has found pesticides used in agriculture are causing significant problems for the reef. The report says some farmers need to be more careful with their chemicals, finding that nearly one-quarter of horticulture producers and […]
By John R. Platt13 August 2011 More dugongs (Dugong dugon) have died in Australia this year than in all of 2010. At least 90 of the marine mammals, close relatives of manatees, have starved to death off the coast of Queensland after floods destroyed the area’s sea grass, the dugong’s main source of food. Another […]
By Nouriel Roubini7 August 2011 The first half of 2011 showed a slowdown of growth – if not outright contraction – in most advanced economies. Optimists said this was a temporary soft patch. This delusion has been dashed. Even before last week’s panic, the US and other advanced economies were odds-on for a second […]
By Frances Adcock4 August 2011 People living on the Queensland coast are being warned to expect more marine deaths because of flooding earlier this year. The president of the Wide Bay Conservation Council, Roger Currie, says the scale of the events has affected seagrass beds from Rockhampton to the Gold Coast. He says the habitat […]
US contact: Terese Rosenthal, Tel.: +1 609 243 4339 12 July 2011 An exceptional accumulation of very severe natural catastrophes makes 2011 the highest-ever loss year on record, even after the first half-year. Already, the approx. US$ 265bn in economic losses up to the end of June easily exceeds the total figure for 2005, previously […]
