Explainer: climate modes and drought
While most people now understand that the enhanced greenhouse effect means a much warmer planet, communicating regional shifts in weather remains a significant challenge.
As with most complex science…
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Analysis and Comment
Latest animal export exposé reminds us to steer clear of factory farming
It has once again been left to an advocacy group, Animals Australia, to highlight the cruel practices involved in cattle slaughter in Indonesia. Under new rules put in place by the Federal Department of…
Droughts & flooding rains: what is due to climate change?
While most people now understand that the enhanced greenhouse effect means a much warmer planet, communicating regional shifts in weather remains a significant challenge.
As with most complex science…
Teaching kids to think critically about climate
Two recently published books suggest that the public – and school children in particular – are being fed lies about environmental issues such as climate change. The books – “How to Get Expelled from School…
A land of (more extreme) droughts and flooding rains?
While most people now understand that the enhanced greenhouse effect means a much warmer planet, communicating regional shifts in weather remains a significant challenge.
As with most complex science…
What’s in it for Germany? Sea Shepherd arrest ‘absolutely unusual’
Captain Paul Watson, founder of the marine conservation organisation Sea Shepherd, was arrested last week in Frankfurt, Germany, on an international arrest warrant issued by the Costa Rican government…
There’s nothing black or white about organic agriculture
Food is an emotional topic. Everyone cares about what they eat. Food often has a strong cultural, religious or even political meaning attached to it. Organic food is no different in that respect. People…
Set the controls for the heart of the sun: time for solar courage
John Gardner, US Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare joined Lyndon Johnson’s cabinet in 1965 to help create a ‘Great Society’ to end poverty, promote equality, improve education, rejuvenate cities…
Can Australia afford the dingo fence?
We feel we have to set the record straight after some of our (Bradshaw’s) comments were taken grossly out of context, or not considered at all (Ritchie’s). A bubbling kerfuffle in the media over the last…
Hollande may not like it, but French nuclear is full steam ahead
The recent meeting of European Energy Ministers has exposed a Germany-France rift on the role of nuclear power. Post-Fukushima, Germany is investing heavily in solar power; so is Italy. But a French spokesperson…
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Research and News
Push to quantify social impact of science goes global
Australia is preparing to join a worldwide push to map the wider social returns on investments in science.
This week Julia…
Post-1950s warming in region unmatched in 1,000 years
Post-1950s warming in the Australasian region is unmatched by any climate fluctuations over the past 1,000 years, according…
Research Briefs with Futurity
Australian coal isn’t really ‘cheap’
Long-held beliefs that Australia is “lucky” to have access to an abundance of coal are misnomers.
Government spruiks employment…
Australia must help East Timor adapt to climate change
East Timor’s inability to cope with global climate change demands is a result of hundreds of years of occupation, and no…
Queensland flood cause found to be three-fold
A quarter of the extreme precipitation that led to the Queensland floods has been found to have come from a third, until…
Is human noise ruining ‘the mood’ for wildlife?
Physiological stress and reproductive success in some species have been found to be unaffected, or very little affected by…
Even small-scale clearing and vegetation manipulation affects local wildlife
Do animals mind how densely vegetated their habitat is? Numbers of birds, reptiles and mammals have been recorded in sites…
Research penguin dies after 20 years of study and observation
A 20-year-old penguin, which was banded as a chick, is said to have provided invaluable information to the Department of…
The surface can be deceiving
Deep cracks in soil left as a result of extended dry periods can remain hidden underground long after they disappear from…
Elephants and rhinos integral to rainforest diversity
Octopus clue to Antarctic ice-sheet collapse
Probe picks up water cycle
Yellowstone super-volcano is more active than first thought
New solar technique to turbo charge cells
Take a leaf from the insurance industry to save forests
Baby coral suffering in acidic ocean
New sponge to clean up oil spills
Columnists
Editors’ Picks
Carbon
Treasure your metal: why we need to respect embedded energy
The recent furore about the carbon tax in this country has not been a celebration of enlightened debate.
I think much of the debate misses a vital aspect of carbon use, namely, that using carbon to make…
animal welfare
Terms of trade: live cattle exports in the Asian Century
AUSTRALIA IN THE ASIAN CENTURY – A series examining Australia’s role in the rapidly transforming Asian region. Delivered in partnership with the Australian government.
Today, Professor Clive Phillips…
psychology
I can change your mind about (other people’s minds about) climate change
The ABC recently ran the documentary I Can Change Your Mind About … Climate Change, exposing Nick Minchin, former conservative politician, and youth activist Anna Rose, to science and argument in favour…
rivers
Science’s stagnant thinking: our rivers need a revolution
I’ve been away in the UK for a few years – and what do I find when I come back? In the Murray Darling we are still arguing over inputs (the amount of water to be returned to the river) instead of focusing…
forests
Australia’s vast and dynamic forest cover: a bird’s-eye view
Forests spark emotional debates in Australia. Much of the rhetoric is about saving “the last of Tasmania’s wild forests” or how we must “stop logging in Australian native forests”.
Australian forests…
conservation
Island living may have been a death sentence for the Tassie tiger: is the devil next?
We have all heard at some time or another that Australia has the worst record of mammal extinctions in history, with many of our unique and vulnerable critters succumbing only years after the first Europeans…
climate change
No modest proposal: bioengineering humans for global warming
You know the situation is getting desperate when three bio-ethicists propose genetically modifying humans to reduce our environmental impact. In a bizarre paper titled Human engineering and climate change…
coral
Great Barrier Reef dying beneath its crown of thorns
The Great Barrier Reef is under attack from a range of enemies including climate change effects (coral bleaching, increased severe storms, and ocean acidification), pollutant discharge from the land, coastal…
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