By BRIAN ROBINSJanuary 13, 2010 RISING average temperatures are reducing run-off into Sydney dams when it rains, putting the future of the city’s water supplies under a cloud. As a result, Sydney Water wants to operate the Kurnell desalination plant even when there are several years’ water supply in the Sydney dam network. Trials are […]
By MARISSA CALLIGEROSJanuary 12, 2010 – 1:54PM Potentially deadly marine stingers may be blooming in unprecedented numbers off the Queensland coast, as far south as Moreton Bay. But a request by a world-leading expert to study the phenomenon has been denied by the Australian Research Council, despite mounting evidence overseas and a series of recent […]
2009 ends Australia’s warmest decade on record, with a decadal mean temperature anomaly of +0.48°C (above the 1961-90 average). In Australia, each decade since the 1940s has been warmer than the preceding decade. In contrast, decadal temperature variations during the first few decades of Australia’s climate record do not display any specific trend. This suggests […]
By SAFFRON HOWDEN AND JESSICA MAHARJanuary 12, 2010 Roads remain submerged in floodwater, ghostly rivers have risen from the dead, paddocks are a sea of green, and mosquitoes are breeding like it’s the tropics. Welcome to the drought, NSW style. Despite a surge of devastating floodwaters through parts of the west and central west since […]
By Michael PerryTue Jan 5, 2010 9:24am EST SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia experienced its hottest decade on record from 2000 to 2009 due to global warming, the nation’s bureau of meteorology said on Tuesday, as annual summer bushfires again burn drought lands and destroy homes. The average temperature in Australia over the past 10 years […]
By MALCOLM BROWNJanuary 6, 2010 WAYNE DUNFORD, 59, has copped it both ways – flooded out at his cattle property at Brewarrina and enduring conditions so dry at his home property at Parkes that the small amount of rain he has received since Christmas has been swallowed by the dust. Like many others in the […]
AAP — Koalas are highly vulnerable to climate change and face starvation, a leading conservation group has warned. The koala – an Australian icon known the world over – has made it on to a global list of 10 well-known species threatened by climate change, along with the fish that inspired the cartoon character, Nemo. […]
THERE was only one way to describe it: “Terrible.” That was the response from cattle grazier Mick Tomb when new NSW Premier Kristina Keneally asked him how things were on her first visit to drought-ridden NSW. His one word answer was no exaggeration. If it doesn’t rain in the next two months, the Tomb family […]
The Hume Dam, located near Albury, Australia is the largest dam on the River Murray and is an important part of the Murray Darling Irrigation System. It is often referred to as the Hume Weir. Lake Hume is an artificial lake formed by the Hume Dam. Because of the historic ten-year drought, it currently holds […]
By John Roach for National Geographic News December 10, 2009 A decade ago, global climate change was largely considered a problem for the distant future. But it seems that future has come sooner than predicted. One of the most remarkable, and alarming, environmental changes to occur over the last decade is the melting of Antarctic […]
