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Carbon bubble makes Australia's coal industry ripe 'for financial implosion'

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Damian Carrington - Apr. 29 (News Analysis) - Much of the nation's coal reserves will be worthless if world's governments fulfil pledge to cap emissions, warns report Australia's huge coal industry is a speculative bubble ripe for financial implosion if the world's governments fulfil their agreement to act on climate change, according to a new report . The warning that much of the nation's coal reserves will become worthless as the world hits carbon emission limits comes after banking giant Citi also warned Australian investors that fossil fuel companies could do little to avoid the future loss of value. Australia is already the globe's biggest coal exporter and "mega-mine" plans in Queensland for more extraction are identified as the world's second biggest " carbon bomb " threatening runaway global warming. "Investments in Australian coal rest on a speculative bubble of climate denial, indifference or dreaming," said John Connor, one of the new report's authors and CEO of The Climate Institute , an independent research organisation ...

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Shale mining under Great Barrier Reef 'likely to be banned'

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Lenore Taylor - Apr. 25 (News Report) - Australia's coastline mining industry undergoing a boom as rules relaxed, but Unesco site to be protected under heritage rules Mining shale oil under the Great Barrier Reef is likely to be banned by Australia's federal Labour government as tensions rise over the environmental impact of the booming oil and gas industry on the coastline beside the reef. In February, the conservative Queensland state government lifted a moratorium on the shale oil industry in most places along the coast to allow companies to assess whether the US shale oil boom could be replicated in Australia. Power firm Queensland Energy Resources is now proceeding with an onshore open-cut shale rock mine and a commercial-scale demonstration processing plant near Gladstone, before deciding on the development of huge areas where it has mining rights, and which contain up to 8bn of the 22bn barrels of recoverable shale oil estimated to exist under Queensland. The Australian Greens attacked the state decision to allow the ...

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Australia urged to formally recognise climate change refugee status

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Apr. 16 (News Report) - Refugee Council says new category would protect those fleeing the effects of global warming and warns Australian government to prepare for thousands forced from low-lying Pacific islands Australia, a close neighbour of small, low-lying South Pacific states at the frontline of climate change, should be the first country to formally recognise climate change refugees, the country's main refugee advisory body has said. The Refugee Council of Australia has told the Australian government that it should create a new refugee category for those fleeing the effects of climate change so that they can be offered protection similar to those escaping war or persecution. The key legal document that defines refugees, the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, defines a refugee as a person who has a well-founded fear of persecution in their homeland because of their race, religion, nationality of membership of a particular group. The convention – forged in 1951 in the aftermath of world war two ...

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Israelis puzzle over mysterious death of Mossad’s ‘Prisoner X’ Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/02/13/182979/israelis-puzzle-over-mysterious.html#storylink=cpy

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

McClatchy - By Frenkel - Feb. 15 (News Report) - Zygier was kept in a cell known as Wing 15 that had been designed for Yigal Amir, the man who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Ari Shamay, a lawyer for Amir who visited him once in the cell, described it as a "four-by-four room, with next to nothing inside but a bed, shower and toilet." Cameras were fixed on the room and monitored 24 hours a day. Reports in Israeli newspapers have said the room had special sensors that monitored temperature and even heartbeat, though Israeli officials wouldn’t confirm those details. Israeli human rights groups have begun asking how, under those conditions, a prisoner manages to fashion a noose and hang himself before guards are able to intervene. On Wednesday, Israeli blogs speculated that the story of Zygier’s suicide was yet another cover-up, designed to disguise a more gruesome death

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Editorial: America’s Health Disadvantage

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - Jan. 11 (Opinion) - The United States shockingly ranks at or near the bottom compared with other advanced nations.

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Australia wildfires rage as temperatures reach 'catastrophic' level

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - Jan. 08 (News Report) - Sydney suffers power outages as temperature hits 41C, with 100 residents still missing in Tasmania and national parks evacuated Firefighters battled scores of wildfires raging across south-east Australia on Tuesday as authorities evacuated national parks and warned that blistering temperatures and high winds had led to "catastrophic" conditions in some areas. No deaths had been reported, although officials in Tasmania were still trying to find about 100 residents who have been missing since a fire tore through the small town of Dunalley, east of the state capital of Hobart, last week, destroying around 90 homes. On Tuesday, police said no bodies were found during preliminary checks of the ruined houses. "We are shaping up for one of the worst fire danger days on record," the New South Wales Rural Fire Service commissioner, Shane Fitzsimmons, said. "You don't get conditions worse than this. We are at the catastrophic level and clearly in those areas leaving early is your safest ...

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Murdoch's straw snobs

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Columbia Journalism Review - Jan. 08 (Opinion) - It’s often hard to tell when Rupert Murdoch’s biographer, Michael Wolff, is merely transmitting his subject’s views or whether he believes this humbug himself, but a fairly constant theme from Murdoch-via-Wolff is that newspapers’ problems boil down to elitism. More specifically, the elitism of reporters—smug, prize-mongering, careerist—is really the problem that needs to be solved.

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Growing food in the desert: is this the solution to the world's food crisis?

Sun, 25 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Jonathan Margolis - Nov. 25 (Special Report) - Philipp Saumweber is creating a miracle in the barren Australian outback, growing tonnes of fresh food. So why has he fallen out with the pioneering environmentalist who invented the revolutionary system?

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Olympics 2012: Among the top gold winners in London ... Kazakhstan?

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Christian Science Monitor - Aug. 07 (News) - One of the world's least populated countries at around 15 million, Kazakhstan is No. 8 in gold medals at the London Olympic Games. ...

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Phelps wins 18th and final gold

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - Aug. 05 (News) - Michael Phelps won his 18th and final Olympic gold medal before he retires as the US dominated the 4x100m medley relay.

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Climate Change's 'Equally Evil Twin'

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - Jul. 09 (Special Report) - The speed by which the oceans' acid levels has risen caught scientists off-guard, with the problem now considered to be climate change's "equally evil twin," National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco told The Associated Press.

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Around the World on Solar Power

Thu, 03 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By By BETTINA WASSENER - May. 03 (News Report) - Turanor PlanetSolar is expected to dock on Friday in Monaco, ending its 19-month journey.

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Wind farms can increase night time temperatures, research reveals

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Damian Carrington - Apr. 29 - Study in US claims building of huge wind farms in Texas has increased night temperatures by up to 0.72C Large windfarms can increase local night time temperatures by fanning warmer air onto the ground, new research has revealed. The study used satellite data to show that the building of huge wind farms in west Texas over the last decade has warmed the nights by up to 0.72C. "Wind power is going to be a part of the solution to the climate change, air pollution and energy security problem," said Liming Zhou, at the University of Albany in New York. "But understanding the impacts of wind farms is critical for developing management strategies to ensure the long-term sustainability of wind power." West Texas has seen rapid expansion of wind farms , with turbine numbers rising from 111 in 2003 to 2358 in 2011. Zhou's team compared the land surface temperatures at the wind farms with other areas across this period and detected a clear rise at night. They note, however, that the effect on the ...

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Labor standing firm on Pacific trade deal

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Sydney Morning Herald - By Adam Gartrell - Mar. 05 (News Report) - The federal government is standing firm against Australian and US business demands that it allow controversial dispute settlement clauses into an ambitious new Pacific free trade deal. Australia is one of nine nations seeking to reach final agreement

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Australian panel to recommend changing constitution to recognize Aborigines - CNN.com

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

CNN - By Jethro Mullen, CNN - Jan. 18 (News Report) - "The lack of acknowledgment of a people's existence in a country's Constitution has a major impact on their sense of identity, value within the community and perpetuates discrimination and prejudice.."

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Planet Likely to Become Increasingly Hostile to Agriculture

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Scientific American - By Douglas Fischer - Dec. 07 (News Report) - YTo get a glimpse of the future, look to East Africa today. The Horn of Africa is in the midst of its worst drought in 60 years: Crop failures have left up to 10 million at risk of famine; social order has broken down in Somalia, with thousands of refugees streaming into Kenya; British Aid alone is feeding 2.4 million people across the region. That's a taste of what's to come, say scientists mapping the impact of a warming planet on agriculture and civilization.

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The World from Berlin: 'Dear God, Let's Get it Over With'

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:04:00 -0700

Der Spiegel - Sep. 22 - DPA A pope protester awaits the pontiff's arrival on Thursday. The pope's visit to Germany this week promises to be difficult. Abuse scandals among priests worldwide have dimmed enthusiasm for the leader of the Catholic Church, even in his homeland, and

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Escaped Pet Birds Are Teaching Wild Birds to Speak English

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Treehugger - By Stephen Messenger - Sep. 15 (News) - Across parts of Australia, reports have been pouring in of strange voices chattering high in the treetops -- mysterious, non-sensical conversations in English. But while the phenomena is certainly quite odd, its explanation isn't paranormal.

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Oceans left out of climate debate

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Sydney Morning Herald - Aug. 08 (News Report) - Oceans have been left out of climate change debate in Australia, the founder of Earthwatch says. Brian Rosborough said the role of oceans and coasts should be given more attention. "Coastal vegetation and oceans which account for 55 per cent of all the c

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Who’s your expert? How peer-reviewed research differs from rhetoric by climate science deniers

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Think Progress - Jul. 03 (Opinion) - A jury of one’s peers should assess scientific claims. Here are two, related pieces from The Conversation, “Who’s your expert? The difference between peer review and rhetoric” and “Climate change denial and the abuse of peer review.” First, Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Director of the Global Change Institute, submits some climate “sceptics” to peer-review and finds them [...]

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Warning: extreme weather ahead

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By John Vidal - Jun. 14 (News Report) - Tornados, wildfires, droughts and floods were once seen as freak conditions. But the environmental disasters now striking the world are shocking signs of 'global weirding' Drought zones have been declared across much of England and Wales, yet Scotland has just registered its wettest-ever May. The warmest British spring in 100 years followed one of the coldest UK winters in 300 years. June in London has been colder than March. February was warm enough to strip on Snowdon, but last Saturday it snowed there. Welcome to the climate rollercoaster, or what is being coined the "new normal" of weather. What was, until quite recently, predictable, temperate, mild and equable British weather, guaranteed to be warmish and wettish, ensuring green lawns in August, now sees the seasons reversed and temperature and rainfall records broken almost every year. When Kent receives as much rain (4mm) in May as Timbuktu, Manchester has more sunshine than Marbella, and soils in southern England are drier than ...

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Apocalypse not now: Rapture fails to happen

Sat, 21 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By David Batty - May. 21 (News) - Christian doomsday prophet Harold Camping looks likely to be less than rapturous after his prediction that the world would end on Saturday failed to materialise. The 89-year-old Californian preacher had prophesied that the Rapture would begin at 6pm in each of the world's time zones, with those "saved" by Jesus ascending to heaven and the non-believers being wiped out by an earthquake rolling from city to city across the planet. But as the deadline for the Apocalpyse passed in the Pacific islands, New Zealand and Australia, it became apparent that Camping's prediction of the end of the world was to end not with a bang but with a whimper. Only on Twitter did the supposed armageddon sweep the world, with users expressing their mock disappointment at the lack of dead people rising from their graves. New Zealander Daniel Boerman tweeted : "I'm from New Zealand, it is 6:06PM, the world has NOT ...

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‘Let’s talk about sex’—and what American teenagers don’t know about it [VIDEO]

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - Apr. 09 - by Lisa Hymas. “Every day in America, 10,000 teenagers catch an STD, 2,400 young girls become pregnant, and 55 young people are infected with HIV.” Those sobering stats are from a documentary airing on TLC tonight, April 9, at 10 p.m. / 9 central. Let’s Talk About Sex is directed by James Houston, a fashion photographer who came to the U.S. from Australia and Europe and was aghast at our screwed-up sexual culture. Sex is everywhere, used to sell everything, but we don’t talk about it openly and honestly with our teenagers. “Young people in America don’t know the risks associated with sex, and because of that, American teen pregnancy and STD rates are among the highest in the industrialized world,” says Houston. Says one teenager in the film, “People are in denial—teachers, parents. They’re like, ‘No, no, teenagers aren’t having sex. They can’t, or the shouldn’t.’ But we do and we are.” I ...

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Forget the billions, return Jabiluka site to Kakadu, say traditional owners

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Sydney Morning Herald - By Lindsay Murdoch Jabiru - Apr. 06 (News Report) - Warned about the wrath of Djang... Yvonne Margarula, one of the traditional owners from the Mirarr people, in front of an image of her father. Photo: Glenn Campbell ABORIGINAL traditional owners have declared they want the multibillion-dollar Jabiluka ur

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Japan tsunami cost Australia $2b: Swan

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 07:06:00 -0700

Australian Broadcasting - Apr. 03 - The Federal Treasurer, Wayne Swan, says the Japanese earthquake is likely to cut about $2 billion from Australia's export earnings. "Preliminary Treasury estimates show that the earthquake and tsunami will cut demand for our bulk commodity exports in the

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