Bill: Science and Environment

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:36:03 GMT

Dengue fever epidemic hits Cairns. Queensland Health is setting up an incident management team in Cairns to combat the spread of type 3 dengue fever across the city. [ABC News: Breaking Stories]

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:19:01 GMT

Most glaciers will disappear by middle of century and add to rising sea levels, expert warns.

Most of the planet's glaciers are melting so fast that they will disappear by the middle of the century, a leading expert has warned. Figures from the World Glacier Monitoring Service show that although melt rates for 2007 fell substantially from record levels the previous year, the loss of ice was still the third worst on record.

The total mass left in the glaciers is now thought to be at the lowest level for "thousands of years".

Even under moderate predictions of global warming, the small glaciers, which make up the majority by number, will not recover, said Prof Wilfried Haeberli, the organisation's director.

The warning will raise concern among those who say that glacier melting is one of the greatest threats of climate change because it raises the risk of sudden avalanches of rocks and soil released from the ice, threatening the livelihoods of more than 2 billion people who depend on melt-water to feed rivers in summer. Glacier melting will also add to rising global sea levels.

"If the climate is not really cooling dramatically, they'll retreat and disintegrate," said Haeberli. "This means many will simply be lost in the next decades - 10, 20, 30, 40 years.

"If you have a realistic, mid-warming scenario, then there's no hope for the small glaciers - in the Pyrenees, in Africa, in the Andes or Rocky mountains. The large glaciers in Alaska and the Himalayas will take longer, but even those very large glaciers will change completely; they will be much, much smaller, and many of them will disintegrate, forming lakes in many cases."

The WGMS, whose backers include UN agencies and scientific bodies, collects annual data for up to 100 glaciers around the world, including 30 "reference" glaciers in nine different mountain ranges on four continents, for which data goes back nearly three decades.

Figures for 2005-06 showed the biggest loss of ice in a single year since those records began, and based on historic reconstructions, it was thought to be the worst year for 5,000 years.

The latest data for 2006-07 shows that 22 of the 27 reference glaciers for which data has been supplied lost mass, as did 55 of a longer list of 74 glaciers. The total losses were half that of the previous year, but still the third largest on record. In Europe it is thought glaciers have lost one quarter of their mass in the last eight years alone, said Haeberli.

Although the mass balance of glaciers would fluctuate with natural changes in temperatures and snowfall, climate scientists believe the sustained losses of recent decades are partly due to man-made global warming, with the 10 hottest years on record coming in the last 11 years.

"The general trend to increased loss rates is continuing," Haeberli said. "The year was a little bit less terrible than [the previous] year ... but still a very heavy loss. It's still two times the average loss rate of the 20th century."

Although the data only covers some of the world's glaciers, its figures are mirrored by reports from experts from around the globe.

Two years ago the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecast that if current trends continue, 80% of Himalayan glaciers will be gone in 30 years, although more recent estimates have suggested the 2060s or later.

Last year the UN environment programme and the WGMS jointly published data for 1,800 glaciers on all seven continents, which warned losses had been accelerating globally since the mid-1980s, so that the annual average decline for 1996-2005 was double that of the previous decade, and four times that of the decade before. Last week China Dialogue, a London-based organisation dedicated to debate on China's environment issues, launched a campaign to highlight the same trends in melting in the Himalayas and on the Tibetan plateau.

Those glaciers feed all the main river systems in Asia, depended on by the estimated 40% of the world's population that lives in northern India, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, said Isabel Hilton, China Dialogue's editor.

"In a region that is already fractured and unstable, the melting of the 'third pole' glaciers is one of the most important challenges facing humanity in the 21st century," she said.

In December the US Geological Survey also warned that sea-level rise could be even worse than feared, as much as 1.5 metres by the end of this century, partly due to increased melting of the volume of water stored in glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland.

Nick Nuttall, a spokesman for UNEP, said the latest findings should encourage more governments to follow moves by some politicians to invest billions of dollars in clean energy and efficiency as a way of curbing greenhouse gases.

He urged world leaders to agree a treaty to cut emissions. Water experts have also called for more investment in better water management.

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Greenhouse Gas Emissions Rising In Eastern Australia

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 05:21:41 GMT

According to the Greenhouse Indicator Report released by The Climate Group today, emissions originating with energy consumption in Australia's eastern states rose during 2008.

Emissions in Victoria rose by 2.2 million tonnes and in Queensland by 2 million tonnes; but in New South Wales, emissions fell by 0.5 million tonnes.

A grimmer picture is painted when comparing emission to previous years. When comparing with levels in 2000, emissions were collectively up 19 per cent. Going back to 1990, the Kyoto Protocol benchmark, in Queensland greenhouse gas emissions have risen 116 per cent, NSW has experienced a 30 per cent rise and in Victoria, emissions are up 32 per cent .

[Source: Energy Matters]

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 01:33:01 GMT

First flight of algae-fuelled jet. Continental Airlines is the latest to test fly a jet biofuel, this time with a product derived partially from algae. [BBC News | Science & Environment | World Edition]

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:40:26 GMT

Milky Way 'bigger than thought'. The Milky Way has 50% more mass and is travelling 120,000km per hour faster than once thought, a study shows. [BBC News | Science & Environment | World Edition]

Australia Renewable Energy Target Draft Includes Solar Credits

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:36:12 GMT

Australia's plan to produce 20 percent of energy from renewable sources by 2020 includes incentives for solar panels, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong. Wong, releasing draft laws for the target today in Brisbane, said it would include so-called Solar Credits for people who use energy from the sun. The laws also expand the target of electricity from renewable sources to 45,000 gigawatt-hours in 2020 from the existing 9,500 GWh in 2010.

"We are building the low pollution economy of the future by putting a cost on carbon pollution and driving investment in renewable technologies like wind, solar and geothermal energy," Wong said in an e-mailed statement.

Australia's renewable energy target is part of the government's aim to reduce greenhouse gases 60 percent by 2050 to address climate change. Wong this week said the government would use emissions trading to cut pollution 5-15 percent by 2020. The plan will allow consumers to earn five credits, or Renewable Energy Certificates, for each mega-watt hour of solar energy produced by their panels. These RECs will act as an up- front capital cost worth A$7,500 ($5,194) for purchasers of household photovoltaic systems, Wong said.

"These Solar Credits will help households, small businesses and community groups get assistance with the up-front cost of new solar systems," Environment Minister Peter Garrett said in the statement. "This will provide the industry with a firm footing for the future"

Solar thermal plants might provide half of the renewable target, WorleyParsons Ltd., Australia's biggest engineering company, said in August. Australian investment in solar power systems may reach as much as A$17.9 billion over the next 20 years with the introduction of a feed-in tariff, the Clean Energy Council, an industry lobby group, said in November. The council said today the expanded renewable energy target for electricity will trigger more than A$20 billion of new investment and drive immediate cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. To contact the reporter on this story: Gemma Daley in Canberra at gdaley@bloomberg.net

Would you Adam and Eve it?

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 02:37:16 GMT

Would you Adam and Eve it? Quarter of science teachers would teach creationism.

More than a quarter of science teachers in state schools believe that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in science lessons, according to a national poll of primary and secondary teachers.

The Ipsos/Mori poll of 923 primary and secondary teachers found that 29% of science specialists agreed with the statement: "Alongside the theory of evolution and the Big Bang theory, creationism should be TAUGHT in science lessons"

Some 65% of science specialists disagreed with the statement. When asked if creationism should be "discussed" alongside evolution and the Big Bang 73% of science specialists agreed.

That such a large minority of science teachers advocate teaching creationism has dismayed prominent scientists who believe supernatural explanations for the origin of the universe have no place in school science lessons. Professor Richard Dawkins, Britain's best-known evolutionary biologist and a leading secularist, called the findings "a national disgrace".

The teachers who advocate teaching creationism are also directly contradicting the government's guidelines on the subject, which state: "Creationism and intelligent design are not part of the science national curriculum programmes of study and should not be taught as science." The sample includes teachers from all types of maintained schools including comprehensives, grammars, faith schools and academies. It does not include fee-paying schools.

The survey also indicates strong support for the views of the Royal Society's former director of education, Professor Michael Reiss. He resigned in September over his views on how to include creationism in science lessons. But a majority of science specialists polled endorsed his argument that creationism should be "discussed" in science lessons.

In response to the poll, Reiss said: "School science lessons provide wonderful opportunities for students of all ages to be introduced to scientific thinking about the origins of the universe and evolution of life. At the same time, some students have creationist beliefs. The task of those who teach science is then to teach the science but to treat such students with respect."

Reiss argues that creationism should not be treated as a misconception but as a world view. "Just because something lacks scientific support doesn't seem to me a sufficient reason to omit it from a science lesson," he wrote on guardian.co.uk shortly before his resignation. "When teaching evolution, there is much to be said for allowing students to raise any doubts they have ... and doing one's best to have a genuine discussion."

At the height of the row, two Nobel prize winners and Fellows of the Royal Society - Sir Harry Kroto and Sir Richard Roberts - publicly called for Reiss to be sacked.

The Ipsos/Mori poll also canvassed support for the more hardline position of only mentioning creationism in the context of dismissing it. It found that only 26% of all teachers and 46% of science specialists agree with Professor Chris Higgins, vice-chancellor of the University of Durham, who is quoted as saying "the only reason to mention creationism in schools is to enable teachers to demonstrate why the idea is scientific nonsense".

The poll was conducted between 5 November and 10 December and the results are statistically weighted by sex, age and teaching phase to the known profile of primary and secondary school teachers in England and Wales. Many of the primary teachers polled for the survey may have a science specialism, but teach a range of subjects day to day.

Higgins said creationism as an alternative to Darwin's theory had been "thoroughly discredited". He added: "If a pupil raises it as a hypothesis then a brief discussion as to why creationism is wrong might be appropriate ... But it would undermine any educational system to purposefully teach discredited ideas which are now only perpetuated through ignorance or flawed thinking - one might as well teach astrology, flat Earthism, alchemy or a geocentric universe."

Phil Willis MP, chair of the parliamentary innovation, universities, science and skills select committee, said: "There are ample opportunities elsewhere in the curriculum to discuss belief rather than scientific theory. Science teachers should simply explain why evidence is crucial to good scientific practice."

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Tue, 08 Jul 2008 07:24:39 GMT

G8 to agree on "shared vision" for climate: source. TOYAKO, Japan (Reuters) - The Group of Eight leaders are likely to refer to a "shared vision" to halve global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 in a statement to be issued later on Tuesday, a source briefed on negotiators' talks said.

[Reuters: International News]

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 11:35:35 GMT

Climate Change, Food Crisis Linked, Says U.N. Chief. The U.N. climate chief says climate change will cause the global food crisis to worsen. He is urging leaders of the world's richest countries meeting in Japan next week to set goals to reduce carbon emissions within the next dozen years.

[Wired Top Stories]

Fri, 30 May 2008 06:22:36 GMT

Climate Change Data for Google Earth.

Yesterday, Google and the UK government announced some visualizations for Google Earth which show data indicating global climate change. The UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown actually made the announcement during a Google conference held in the UK this week (see video of Brown's speech). The data comes from the UK's Met Office and from the British Antarctic Survey. Here's some information on the two files:

Climate Change in our World - Opening this KML file by the Met Office will first show you an image overlay of the Earth which indicates temperature change over time from 1999 and forecasted through 2099. Use the time slider to watch the changes over time. Also in the file are placemarks with accounts from people around the world speaking about how climate change has effected them, as well as information from the Met Office about possible effects as temperatures continue to rise.
Climate Change In Our World Antarctica - The second file from the British Antarctic Survey adds more placemarks showing information on climate change based on research in Antarctica including pictures and video of melting ice and ice shelf breaks (only larger breaks have been reported by the media).

The layers were organized with help from the Google Earth Outreach program.

By Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog. [Google Earth Blog]

Fri, 30 May 2008 03:01:37 GMT

Making Renewable, Carbon-Neutral Gasoline ... From Algae. A San Diego start-up says it's using algae to create "green crude" that is chemically identical to petroleum and can be refined into renewable, carbon-neutral gasoline. Energy experts say it might be on to something big.

[Wired Top Stories]

Climate Engineers - Who are the Architects?

Fri, 30 May 2008 01:08:05 GMT

Listening to the current debate about fuel prices, excise, GST on fuel, pricewatching, etc etc, I wonder [and hope] when the conversation will really turn to the mid [let alone] the long-term future? Where are those who are often ready to tell us about the power of markets and the signals they send? What signals are we seeing now?

Is there anything more depressing than being part of this appallingly low-level of debate? Are we really capable of grasping the extent of the global processes, begun generations ago, that will have severe ramifications for our way of life for generations to come?

An update on these discussions can also be informed by work fo the Council for Foreign Relation [ CFR.org ] and their recent workshop on Unilateral Planetary-Scale Geoengineering: The Science and Technology of Geoengineering.

Yes, you read that correctly, Unilateral, Planetary-Scale Geoengineering........

Our Australian public broadcaster, the ABC, [bless their cotton socks!] covered this topic in their April 2008 broadcast - The Climate Engineers.

I wrote the following [nearly two years ago]in October 2006.... I wonder what has changed?

From 2006...

In 1991, I was working with students who produced an international online student magazine called "Icarus".

It looked at the emerging science behind what was then a new topic, the Ozone Layer and Global Warming. These were High School students who managed to interview and document the work of scientists in the CSIRO and United Nations Climate research centres.

It was apparent then, listening to half of the world's Nobel Prize Winning scientists and the Union of Concerned Scientists, that real strategic action needed to be taken. This action, by governments and people alike, has yet to occur.

Perhaps the word of the President of one of the largest Oil companies in the world may lend more weight to convincing those that the overwhelming majority of the world's scientific community appear unable to do.

John Hofmeister, President of Shell Oil, USA, speaks about Shell's position on energy conservation and Global Warming.

The speech was made at the Washington University, St. Louis, USA in September 2006.

If you are having trouble with the enhanced file, try this MP3 version here.

Edit: 4th of October 2006

If this is not enough, please listen to this excerpt from the ABC's "The Science Show".

Gary Meyers, Senior Principle Research Scientist from CSIRO Marine Research Hobart Tasmania and Chris Thomas, Professor of conservation biology University of York UK are interviewed by Robyn Williams.

The full version can be found on the science show website.

Edit 5th of October 2006

One more... The BBC reports : World 'warmest for 12,000 years'

The world is the warmest it has been in the last 12,000 years as a result of rapid warming over the past 30 years, a study has suggested.

Nasa climatologists said the Earth had warmed by about 0.2C (0.4F) in each of the last three decades.

Pollution from human activity was pushing the world towards dangerous levels of climate change, they warned.

As a result, plant and animal species were struggling to migrate fast enough to cooler regions, they said.

"The evidence implies that we are getting close to dangerous levels of human-made pollution," warned James Hansen, head of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York.

[Source: BBC]

Climate Change: The Uncertainties, the Certainties, and what they Imply About Action Policy [PDF]

Implications of Greenhouse Warming [PDF]

Sun, 11 May 2008 09:55:19 GMT

Global Health back on track! On 5 September history was made by 7 Ministers of Health from low-income countries together with serious politicians from West Europe and representatives from aid organisations that had learnt their lessons . The group launched the International Health Partnership.
http://www.dfid.gov.uk/news/files/ihp/default.asp

If aid from rich countries should effectively improve health of the poor, they said, the aid must be:
1. coordinated,
2. foucsed on improving health systems as a whole instead of one disease at a time,
3. and part of good national plans.

These statements are evidance based, much needed but "un-sexy". So let me translate the 3 statements into blunt words:
1. It is mad that Ministries of Health in low-income countries each week must meet a growing number of aid delegations.
2. It is cruel to tell millions of poor mothers; "your child is dying from pneumonia for which our clinic have no drugs because Bush, Blair and rich activits did not know that pneumonia and diarrhea kill as many as do malaria, TB and HIV.
3. It is stupid to fund seprate clinics for each disease when there is not even staff and money e nough for one clinic in each village.

So, 5 September 2007, is a happy day for global health. Fragmented health aid based on what is "sexy" in the media of the rish will be replaced by health aid focusing on what is needed in the clinic of the poor.
Why is Sweden not yet part of the International Health Partnership? The Swedish Minister for Development Aid recently wisely focused Swedish bilateral aid too fewer countries. So hopefully she will soon join the Partnership of the wise. In these issues it seems more important if politicians are wise than if they come from left or right, so we can hope that Sweden will join. - Hans Rosling (noreply@blogger.com) [Hans Rosling]

Sun, 11 May 2008 09:30:26 GMT

NASA Time Animation of Ionosphere For Google Earth.

Last week, NASA announced the release of an amazing dynamic Google Earth resource which shows time animated condition of the Earth's Ionosphere. The ionosphere is used to bounce radio signals over the horizon for long distance communication. But, when storms occur on the sun's surface they can mess up parts of the ionosphere and disrupt ionosphere-based communications. The new NASA Google Earth data can be used to quickly understand where and when there may be radio communication issues.

See for example their primary network link which shows the current condition of the ionosphere in the form of total electron content. Then, check out an animation of the total electron content for the past 24 hours . You use the time slider to see the animation, but note that it will take a while to load each image overlay which covers the entire Earth. Red means area of strong atmospheric disturbance where communications problems are likely to occur. Blue/dark means communications will be fine. You will notice that the night side of the Earth is the best time for radio communications.

This NASA information not only makes for cool looking Google Earth visualizations, but is very useful to anyone with a profession or need for using short-wave radio (e.g. HAM radio operators, mariners, coast guards, etc.). Airliners are increasingly flying over the arctic regions to take shorter routes, but in this area they can't use satellite communications based on geosynchronous satellites. So, they resort to short wave radio over the poles. If the ionosphere is important to you, check out the full list of GE ionosphere visualizations from NASA here. NASA also has a communications alert and prediction system which uses this data.

NASA has done many other Google Earth visualizations. Here are just a few:

By Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog. [Google Earth Blog]

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 06:06:01 GMT

Scientists Unveil High-Res Map of the U.S. Carbon Footprint. Purdue scientists have unveiled the most high-resolution map of Americans' carbon dioxide emissions yet, including video of hourly changes to the nation's greenhouse gas profile.

[Wired Top Stories]

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 10:22:05 GMT

Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight.

Amazing.

ShareThis

[Weblogg-ed]

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:51:31 GMT

Prince sees climate fight as war. Prince Charles tells Euro MPs the biggest ever public-private partnership is needed to tackle climate change. [BBC News | Science/Nature | World Edition]

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:49:11 GMT

Map shows toll on world's oceans. Only 4% of the world's oceans remain undamaged by human activity, a study shows. [BBC News | Science/Nature | World Edition]

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 08:11:50 GMT

The incomparable Carl Sagan: scientist, presenter.

Carl Sagan (1934-1996) was a famous and brilliant astronomer who was also a great speaker and presenter. If Carl Sagan would have lived to see TED, I am sure he would have been one of the best presenters ever at the TED conference. I was a big fan of Carl Sagan back in the 1980s and learned a lot from Cosmos . Sagan always spoke of complex issues in ways that were easy to understand and made you excited about science. He did not dumb down the issues, he simply had an engaging and unique way of putting the issue in context and illuminating and illustrating his points in a way that listeners could comprehend. He was a scientist-presenter who cared about being clear and about being understood.

When Carl Sagan spoke of statistics he usually followed the number with an illustration or comparison to make it understandable in context. In the beginning of this clip below you can watch a good example of Sagan doing this without any visuals, though his words create the visuals in your head (which is sometimes even more effective). For example, how much is 20 tons of TNT? Enough for a single bomb to destroy an entire block. All the bombs used in World War II, Sagan says, amounted to two megatons of TNT or the equivalent of a hundred thousand "blockbuster" bombs. So now we can visualize all the explosive, deadly destruction that took place in all of WWII (1939-1945). We can "see" the horrible impact of two megatons of TNT. Two megatons of TNT is now not an abstraction. Then Sagan drops a bomb of his own:

"Today, two megatons is the equivalent of a single thermonuclear bomb[base ']Äîone bomb with the destructive force of the second world war."

Perspective
It's always hard to see the forest for the trees. Good presenters will ask us to step back and examine the problem from another perspective to better see what is true and what is not. In the clip above Sagan says:

"How would we explain all this to a dispassionate, extraterrestrial observer? What account would we give of our stewardship of the planet earth?"

By asking us to look at the problem from the point of view of an "extraterrestrial" (i.e., a dispassionate outside observer) then the problem need not be obstructed by abstractions such as nation, political party, religion, etc. Sagan says that "from the extraterrestrial perspective, our global civilization is clearly on the edge of failure and the most important task it faces is preserving the lives and well-being of its citizens and the future habitability of the planet."

Personally, Sagan's words here remind me that we as a species are the most remarkably intelligent, creative, and innovative species on the planet, yet paradoxically and incomprehensibly (at least to me), we also can be the stupidest. Nonetheless, there is hope. Sagan says there is emerging a new consciousness which sees the earth as a single organism. A consciousness that understands that an organism at war with itself is doomed. We know who speaks for the nations, Sagan says, but who speaks for the earth? The answer, of course, is we do. Though it does not appear in this clip above, you can read the final chapter of Cosmos online here and see Sagan's concluding comment:

"Our loyalties are to the species and to the planet. We speak for earth. Our obligation to survive and flourish is owed not just to ourselves but also to that cosmos ancient and vast from which we spring!"

Below is a quote from Carl Sagan's Cosmos that goes very well with this photo of Earth I pointed to earlier.

"Fanatic ethnic or religious or national identifications are a little difficult to support when we see our planet as a fragile, blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars."
[base ']ÄîCarl Sagan

Pale Blue Dot
Below is a slideshow set to Carl Sagan's narration. The message is wonderful and the simple photographic images amplify the message well. I think this is beautiful and puts "it"[base ']Äîour lives, our responsibilities, worries and our dreams[base ']Äîin perspective. It is this distant image of our tiny world[base ']Äîthe only one we've got[base ']Äîthat underscores, says Sagan, "our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another" and to preserve and cherish our home, the planet Earth.

Metaphor
Some of the graphics will seem a bit dated in this clip below, but this clip is a good example of using a metaphor and simple graphics to help illuminate a complex issue. You can argue that it is too simple, but remember that this kind of calendar metaphor to explain the history of the universe is not meant to be the end of the conversation, it is only meant to be the beginning. We have a choice, says Sagan, but what happens in the first second of the next cosmic year (i.e., now) depends on what we do with our intelligence and knowledge.

Here's the Cosmic Calendar from Discovery Education. Each month represents about one billion years.

December of the "Cosmic Calendar."

LINKS
[base ']Ä¢ The International Year of Astronomy 2009
[base ']Ä¢ Communicating Astronomy with the Public (CAP Journal)

[Presentation Zen]

Lake Boga Dries Up

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 07:56:40 GMT

Signs mounted to prevent Lake Boga sightseers. Signs are going up around Lake Boga, near Swan Hill, to keep sightseers away from the drying lake bed.

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 23:08:27 GMT

Australian Synchrotron. The Australian Synchrotron at Clayton, Victoria is a 3GeV third-generation synchrotron. The website includes technical, logistical and location information on the Australian Synchrotron facility and its construction, information on what synchrotrons are and what they are used for. Resources for teachers and students include a VCE Physics detailed study and applications and case studies of synchrotron use in medicine, biosciences, food, agriculture, environment, materials, manufacturing, minerals, mining, energy, defence, safety, forensics and archaeology. [edna education news]

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 07:12:58 GMT

Australia to be 'climate bridge'. Australia's PM Kevin Rudd offers to act as a bridge between China and other nations on climate change. [BBC News | Science/Nature | World Edition]

Sat, 01 Dec 2007 02:35:05 GMT

10 Solutions for Climate Change [Scientific American]

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 08:43:49 GMT

Nelson backs Labor on Kyoto. The new Liberal Party leader Brendan Nelson has reversed years of Coalition government policy, committing his party to supporting Labor's plans to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. [ABC News: Breaking Stories]

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 21:20:23 GMT

Nasa outlines manned Mars vision. Nasa has released details of its strategy for sending a human crew to Mars within the next few decades. [BBC News | Science/Nature | World Edition]

Bill: Science and Environment

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Rising In Eastern Australia

[Source: Energy Matters]

Australia Renewable Energy Target Draft Includes Solar Credits

Would you Adam and Eve it?

Climate Engineers - Who are the Architects?

Edit: 4th of October 2006

Edit 5th of October 2006

Related Links

Lake Boga Dries Up