Editing by Jerry NortonSYDNEYMon Apr 5, 2010 3:56am EDT SYDNEY (Reuters) – A stranded Chinese coal ship leaking oil onto Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is an environmental time bomb with the potential to devastate large protected areas of the reef, activists said on Monday. The ship was a “ticking environmental time bomb,” Gilly Llewellyn, director […]
By MARISSA CALLIGEROSApril 4, 2010 – 5:08PM Maritime authorities are racing to disperse an oil spill stretching three kilometres along the Great Barrier Reef. The Chinese-owned, 230 metre-long bulk coal carrier Shen Neng 1, ran aground about 70 kilometres east of Great Keppel Island shortly after 5pm on Saturday, sparking a national oil spill response […]
The Great Barrier Reef is in danger of being damaged due to a stranded Chinese ship leaking oil into the ocean after it ran aground off north-eastern Australia. By Our Foreign StaffPublished: 4:05PM BST 04 Apr 2010 The 230 metre (754ft) Shen Neng I bulk coal carrier was on its way to China from the […]
By JENNIE CURTINMarch 30, 2010 LOGGING has started in a forest containing the only known colony of koalas on the far south coast, despite warnings the work could threaten the marsupials. Forests NSW began harvesting timber for woodchipping and high-quality logs in the Mumbulla State Forest near Bega. Work is expected to continue for six […]
By THOMAS HUNTERMarch 31, 2010 Hot and wet. That’s how the record books will remember Melbourne’s unseasonal March, the city’s hottest month in 36 years and its wettest in almost a decade, say meteorologists. Weatherzone.com.au‘s Samuel Terry said the wet weather set in early, with 37 millimetres falling in damaging showers over March 6 and […]
By MATTHEW MOORE, URBAN AFFAIRS EDITORApril 2, 2010 OWNERS of houses at risk of being washed into the sea will have the right to dump protective sandbags, weighing up to one tonne each, on public beaches for 12 months without seeking council approval, under new draft laws. And home owners will also be able to […]
By Rob Gutro, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite has been called a “flying rain gauge in space” because it measures rainfall from its orbit around the earth. This week, ex-tropical storm Paul gave TRMM a workout measuring heavy rainfall the storm left behind in areas of northern […]
By DEBRA JOPSONMarch 30, 2010 SIXTY drought-affected farmers living on more than 100 kilometres of an irrigation channel in the state’s south-west, who have volunteered to stop growing rice and thirsty cereals, expect an offer this week from the federal government for their water entitlements. In a desperate move, which for many will end their […]
The number of days with record hot temperatures has increased each decade over the past 50 years. There have been fewer record cold days each decade. 2000 to 2009 was Australia’s warmest decade on record. State of the Climate [pdf] Technorati Tags: Australia,global warming,climate change,drought,flood,agriculture,sea level,freshwater depletion,heat wave
By PETER KERMarch 26, 2010 THE winds of social change are gathering speed across Victoria, after irrigators in one of state’s most drought-ravaged districts virtually voted themselves out of existence last night. More than 70 per cent of the 153 farmers in the Campaspe Irrigation District say they wish to cease irrigating. They declared their […]
