Kevin Rudd made his first official act as new Prime Minister of Australia, ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. Well done! Australia now joins the civilised world in contracting together to tackle climate change in a coordinated and concerted effort. The US continues to dissent. This welcome news comes shortly after Australia (under Howard) was highlighted …
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Category:5 Environment
Carbon monitoring 50 years old
It was 50 years ago that a young American scientist, Charles David Keeling, began tracking CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere at two of the world’s last wildernesses – the South Pole and the summit of the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii. His very precise measurements produced a remarkable data set, which first sounded alarm bells …
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Amphibian populations face risk of decimation
Research published in the Royal Society journal shows that the fungal disease Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis is spreading. BD as it is sometimes called infects the skins of amphibians such as frogs, toads, salamanders and newts . One-third of all the losses in amphibian species recorded around the world are thought to be due to the disease. …
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Institutional support for GM is worrying
In a farewell speech to a group of senior scientists at the Foundation for Science and Technology, the UK government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir David King, remarked that GM crops could be an area in which the UK could excel. While he did not explain the scientific rationale for their use, he saw the commercial …
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Nature’s Investment Bank – marine habitats
The Nature Conservancy has published a report Nature’s Investment Bank, which examines four marine protection areas in Fiji, Indonesia, Philippines and the Solomon Islands, to assess what constitutes a successful community conservation scheme that provides sustainable economics. Research into four successful schemes showed that getting villagers involved in protection projects reduced harmful overfishing and protected …
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Another reason earth is special – its moon is a cosmic rarity
The earth’s moon was created when an object as big as the planet Mars smacked into the Earth billions of years ago and the impact hurled debris into orbit, some of which eventually consolidated to form our Moon. A study by US astronomers published in the Astrophysical Journal reports that only 5-10% of planetary systems in …
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Japan slaughtering whales, again
A Japanese whaling fleet has set sail aiming to harpoon humpback whales for the first time in decades. The fleet is conducting its largest hunt in the South Pacific – it has instructions to kill up to 1,000 whales, including 50 humpbacks. The humpback hunt is the first since a mid-1960s global ban and has …
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IPCC 4th report: Synthesis – abrupt and irreversible impact
The 4th IPCC report synthesises the three aspects of climate change that it has already discussed in reports earlier in the year. As well as the unequivocal blame on humanity for climate change some of the irreversible impacts include: 20%-30% of species assessed so far at increased risk of extinction. between 75m and 250m people …
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Financial sanctions for polluters in China
With China’s cities among the most polluted in the world, the authorities are introducing financial penalties for rule breakers and forcing firms to pay more towards the cost of emissions. Currently, firms guilty of environmental breaches are currently subject to a maximum fine of just 100,000 yuan (€ 10,000). Under China’s new “green credit policy”, …
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Another civilisation destroyed by ecological over-consumption
In August we heard about new satellite evidence that shows how the ancient Khmer civilisation around Angkor Wat collapsed when its consumption of water resources exceeded natural limits. A new study outlined at the recent Climate and Humans conference in Murcia, Spain, and appearing in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews, shows that one of Western …
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