In July of this year, four of Australia's senior meteorologists, David Jones [Head of Climate Monitoring and Prediction Services] , Blair Trewin [Climatologist, National Climate Centre ], Karl Braganza [Manager, Climate Monitoring Section] and Rob Smalley [Climatologist] co-authored an article for "The Conversation" highlighting 2013 as potentially one of the "hottest" on record. Warming and its associated effects is clearly the single most significant public…
Category Archives Climate Change
The greatest policy challenge of our (or anyone's) lifetime. Australia recently experienced its hottest day since records began a century ago. The national temperature is the average of hundreds of daily readings across the country and it hit 40.3 degrees. Australia's first six days of 2013 were all among the hottest 20 days on record in terms of average maximums…
The next time some-one, particularly a Politician, suggests climate anomalies and surface warming is not a [the] critical policy challenge of our time, ask them if they would bet their house or their life on tossing a coin 330 times and getting the same result? The average global temperature across land and oceans during August 2012 was 0.62°C (1.12°F) above…
Google has posted an interesting [and fun] run-down of the energy pathway of an email through a well crafted online animation/cartoon. The environmental impact on growing data centres is very real and the question of sustainability is a strategic and governance challenge that cannot be ignored. The context of the current debate about carbon-pricing and mechanisms for capture and/or attenuation…
An incredible animation of Global transport routes. An excellent visualisation. "Welcome to the Anthropocene" is a collaborative project by some of the leading scientific research institutions on global sustainability, including Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) http://vimeo.com/40940686 'Welcome to the Anthropocene' Earth Animation from Globaïa on Vimeo. This is the animation done by Globaïa for the short film…
Three years ago today, I witnessed first-hand, the unrelenting and profoundly destructive force of the fires that created Australia's worst natural disaster in recorded history. The fires that began on February 7th 2009 "Black Saturday" took many lives, destroyed many homes and buildings and most certainly altered the psyche of many that I know, including me. 1000 plus degrees is…
Should we bother trying to save energy?. Not according to the Australia Institute who today came out with a press release on the insulation package, arguing that with the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, it won't reduce emissions.The Government says the scheme will help households save energy and cut carbon emissions by up to 49 million tonnes by 2020. But the…
World faces last chance to avoid fatal warming: EU. The world faces a final opportunity to agree an adequate global response to climate change at a U.N.-led meeting in Copenhagen in December, the European Union's environment chief said on Friday. [Environmental Health News]
Global Scientists Draw Attention To Threat Of Ocean Acidification. More than 150 leading marine scientists from 26 countries are calling for immediate action by policy-makers to sharply reduce carbon dioxide emissions so as to avoid widespread and severe damage to marine ecosystems from ocean acidification. [ScienceDaily: Latest Science News]