By MARIAN WILKINSON ENVIRONMENT EDITOR, October 31, 2009 LARGE numbers of whales, dolphins, turtles and sea birds are feeding in waters polluted by the massive oil spill off the West Australian coast and are likely to be at ”immediate risk”, a new report released by the federal Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, reveals. A leading ecologist, […]
By Phil Mercer, Sydney, 20 October 2009 Australia’s worst oil slick since the mid-1980s is now tainting Indonesian waters. Fishermen in West Timor say contaminated fish are making villagers ill. Oil began leaking two months ago, following an accident on the West Atlas drilling platform, which lies about 200 kilometers off the coast of Western […]
By Ben Cubby, October 27, 2009 AUSTRALIA must create a new, expanded network of protected wetlands around its coastline or see many bird, animal and plant species become extinct as sea levels rise, the House of Representatives report says. It recommended that the Government should urgently assess the vulnerability of Kakadu National Park to the […]
By Michael Perry SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia needs to adopt a national policy to combat rising sea levels, which may see people forced to abandon coastal homes and banned from building beachside homes, said a parliamentary climate change committee. The committee’s report said that A$150 billion ($137 billion) worth of property was at risk from […]
Nine weeks after a ruptured oil rig sprang a leak, the catastrophic consequences are becoming apparent. By Kathy Marks Sea birds are dying and thousands of marine creatures are at risk from a massive oil spill in the Timor Sea, off north-west Australia, warn the first scientists to survey the isolated site. A ruptured drilling […]
By Rob Taylor CANBERRA (Reuters) – Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd warned the nation Wednesday to brace for a severe bushfire season as fire crews battled intense blazes stoking memories of infernos earlier this year which killed 173 people. … “I would urge all Australians to make sure they are fully prepared for the challenges […]
The combined global land and ocean surface temperatures for August 2009 ranked as the second warmest August on record since records began in 1880. The combined global land and ocean temperature anomaly was 0.62°C (1.12°F), falling only 0.05°C (0.09°F) short of tying the record set in 1998. Sea surface temperatures (SST) during August 2009 were […]
The salinity in Lake Alexandrina at Milang increased to 6,000 EC in April 2009 and is currently about 5,500 EC, which is significantly higher than the long term average (see Figure 7). Upstream of the Goolwa Barrage, the salinity increased to 32,000 EC in March 2009 and is now about 20,000 EC (compared with seawater […]
MDBA active (useable water) storage at the end of July was 1,470 GL or 17% of capacity (Figure 4). This is similar to this time last year (1,480 GL) but well below the July long term average of 5,610 GL. MDBA active storage has now been below average since early 2002. There was also about […]
By JONATHAN DART, October 10, 2009 MORE than 1000 properties across the state are expected to be earmarked and prepared as shelters of last resort in case of a bushfire. In one of the largest collaborative projects between the state’s Rural Fire Service and emergency services, the ”neighbourhood safer places” will be chosen, prepared […]
