Australia

The Climate Show #14: volcanoes, black carbon and crocks from Christy

by Gareth June 16, 2011

A busy news week sees Glenn and Gareth discussing volcanoes in Chile and Africa, busy pumping ash into the atmosphere and disrupting flights in South America, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East, an extreme spring in the USA, drought in Europe and a warm autumn in NZ, a new UN report on black carbon [...]

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Song of the Australian scientists

by Gareth June 14, 2011

Australian scientists have begun a push back against climate denial. Over at the excellent The Conversation site (a hugely interesting experiment in bringing academic expertise to the news cycle), Stephan Lewandowsky and a long list of prominent Australian academics have kicked off a series of articles “from the nation’s top minds on the science behind [...]

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Mad, bad and dangerous

by Gareth June 7, 2011

Australian climate scientists have been receiving abusive emails — even death threats — from people who mistake violence for political expression. Graham Readfearn provides some examples (not for the squeamish). The Canberra Times broke the story at the weekend and it’s been covered in depth at The Conversation (one, two). Tim Lambert comments on the [...]

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From science to ethics to action

by Bryan Walker May 27, 2011

I’ve been reading the admirably lucid report of the Australian Climate Commission which Gareth highlighted recently, and reflecting on its restrained exposition of the current state of the science. One couldn’t ask for a clearer or more accessible statement within its 70 page range. At the same time I’ve started reading a book by philosopher [...]

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The Climate Show #13: James Hansen and the critical decade

by Gareth May 24, 2011

Special guest on this week’s show is Dr James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies and perhaps the best-known climate scientist in the world — the man who put the 350 in 350.org and a forceful advocate for leaving coal in the ground. We caught up with him during his recent NZ [...]

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The Critical Decade: time is tight

by Gareth May 23, 2011

Australia’s Climate Commission (established by government, but “not subject to government direction“) today released an overview of the current climate state of play — The Critical Decade: Climate science, risks and responses (key points, full report). It’s important and timely — especially in the Australian political context, but it also has lessons for most of [...]

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Climate rap – scientists fight back

by Gareth May 11, 2011

This is a preview of a section of tonight’s Hungry Beast show (Wikipedia explains) on ABC in Australia — I’m A Climate Scientist — a rap attack on climate denial. Opening lines: Droppin facts all over this wax/ While bitches be crying about a carbon tax/ Climate change is caused by people/ Earth Unlike Alien [...]

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Garnaut: no reticence on risk

by Bryan Walker March 14, 2011

I appreciated the candidness with which economist Ross Garnaut introduced and concluded his recently released update on the science of climate change, one of a series of updates to his 2008 Review which have been commissioned by the Australian government. In the introduction he explains how he began his original Review with no strong views and [...]

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Garnaut update on climate science: avoiding high risks will require large changes

by Gareth March 10, 2011

Ross Garnaut, the Australian government’s climate change adviser, today published the science update [PDF] to his 2008 report. It warns that recent research has “confirmed and strengthened” the view that the earth is warming and humanity is to blame. Temperatures and sea level continue to rise, and there are worrying signs that a 2ºC target [...]

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Lessons from a drowning continent: no time like the present to invest in our future

by Gareth February 15, 2011

Jim Salinger’s spending the summer at the University of Tasmania in Hobart. This reflection on the lessons of Australia’s recent floods first ran in the Waikato Times at the beginning of the month, but I felt it deserved a wider audience and so with Jim’s permission reproduce it here. As I watch from my summer [...]

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