The Courier-Mail
By: Graham Readfearn
'We may lose some big ice sheets, which can raise sea levels by maybe 20m to 30m'
Tens of thousands of people will converge around one number in countries across the world today to call for action on climate change.
Some of Australia's leading climate change scientists held a discreet briefing for politicians this week and it is almost unthinkable that the number would not have been raised there as well.
The Courier-Mail
Source: AFP/AP
Washington: The US has announced plans to designate more than 500,000sq km in Alaska as critical habitat for polar bears, a key step towards increasing protection for the threatened species.
It could also add restrictions to future offshore drilling for oil and gas, as federal law prohibits agencies from taking actions that may adversely affect critical habitat and interfere with polar bear recovery.
The Advertiser
By: Jonana Vaughan
Every climate change policy must be re-examined and "business as usual'' must be changed to ensure life in South Australia is sustainable in the future, conservationists warn.
In its first blueprint report, released today, The Conservation Council of SA warns the human race is approaching a crisis.
It says if we fail to prevent further environmental degradation and misuse of resources, the results will ultimately destroy the foundation of our livelihoods.
The Mercury
Source: The Renewable Planet.com
Despite her wealth and fame today, the old adage "waste not, want not" is one Cate Blanchett has practised since childhood
Cate Blanchett learned about conservation at a young age.
Growing up with a grandmother who lived through the Depression taught her to recycle and not let anything go to waste.
Blanchett has said she didn't think of it as being "green'' at the time because that sort of label wasn't common.
Her big realisation came when reading a news report saying Perth would run out of water in 10 years.
The Courier-Mail
Global warming has increased at unprecedented rates since the 1950s, new research of ice cores from the past 200,000 years shows.
"The past few decades have been unique in the past 200,000 years in terms of the changes we see in the biology and chemistry recorded in the cores,'' University of Colorado glaciologist Yarrow Axford said, announcing the study by Canadian and US researchers published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The Advertiser
The debate about emissions trading is dividing the nation. But how many people actually understand the issue?
Political editor MARK KENNY explains the key points and what it means for your budget.
What is an emissions trading scheme?
Companies that emit carbon dioxide or C02 would be required to buy permits to do so.
With the establishment of that "price signal'', rational companies will seek to minimise their costs by polluting less and thus having to buy fewer permits.
The Australian
Article from: Agence France-Presse
From correspondents in Washington
Representatives of the world's 17 biggest carbon polluters have kicked off a week of high-stakes talks on climate change with a discussion at the US State Department.
The main aim of the week of meetings is to bridge differences ahead of the UN December 7-18 climate change conference in Copenhagen, where a pact for curbing global warming beyond 2012 - when Kyoto Protocol obligations on cutting emissions expire - is to be crafted.
The Advertiser
Midnight Oil's hit Beds are Burning is to be recorded by 55 world celebrities, including British rock group Duran Duran and Irish singer/composer Bob Geldof, right, who have joined to draw attention to the global warming crisis, organisers say.
The song is in a mass media campaign on the threats of climate change organised by the Geneva-based Global Humanitarian Forum, headed by former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan.
The Advertiser
Australia has ranked among the worst in the developed world for being carbon competitive, potentially threatening future investment here.
The first G20 low-carbon competitiveness report looks at productivity versus emissions, or "carbon productivity'' and makes a sad assessment of Australia's standing and growth.
Matthew England will talk about climate models this Sunday 23rd August in the Powerhouse Museum as part of the Ultimo Science Festival.
The press release says:
With the Government's emissions trading legislation now delayed, one of Australia's leading climate scientists, UNSW Professor Matthew England has thrown down the gauntlet to climate skeptics to update their thinking.
The Daily Telegraph
By: Malcolm Farr, National Political Editor
For the first time Australia will have a bipartisan commitment to make sure a fifth of our electricity comes from renewable power sources.
A historic but troubled agreement between the Opposition and the Government will lead to more solar, wind and geothermal power over the next 11 years than ever before.
The deal was struck yesterday to demand that 20 per cent of power come from renewables, as opposed to coal and oil fuels, by 2020.
The Southern Courier
Australia's first eco festival for children will be held at Luna Park on September 13.
The Eco Kids Festival is a sustainable education festival that offers workshops, displays, markets and entertainment, teaching children how to leave a lighter footprint on the planet while having great fun!
The Courier-Mail
By: Graham Readfearn
From bicycle trips to installing solar panels, a Courier-Mail campaign to show Queenslanders simple ways to combat climate change has saved 75 tonnes of greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere.
Our six-month One Degree Challenge campaign handed $2000 each to four households and one small business to help them to find ways to reduce their carbon footprints.
State Climate Change Minister Kate Jones yesterday commended The Courier-Mail and the five challengers for showing leadership on climate change.
The Courier-Mail
By: Renee Viellaris in Canberra
Voters could find out in 90 days whether they will be forced to an early election after yesterday's defeat of the Rudd Government's emissions trading scheme.
An emphatic cheer sounded in the Senate just after 11am when the Coalition and all non-Labor senators joined forces to trounce the Government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.
But the victory was bittersweet, with Climate Change Minister Penny Wong warning the Coalition to keep the cork on the champagne.
The Herald Sun
By: Graham Smith
Toyota's Prius is slowly coming into its own, writes Graham Smith
When Toyota released the Prius hybrid, the green debate was in its infancy and climate-change sceptics poured scorn on the radical newcomer.
That debate is now driving our choice in cars, and the just-replaced second-generation Prius has become an option for environmentally aware used-car buyers.
The rationale behind the Prius is to reduce reliance on the petrol engine and therefore the amount of fuel burnt and CO2 emitted by combining it with an electric motor.
The Mercury
By: Evan Schwarten
Source: AAP
Pacific leaders have called on their international counterparts to step up their response to climate change.
The 15 member states of the Pacific Islands Forum issued the call yesterday after a three-day summit in Cairns, pressing world leaders not to allow a rise of more than 2C in global temperature.
And they called on all member states to commit to a 50 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels at the UN climate change talks in Copenhagen in December.
The Australian
By: Dennis Shanahan
Tony Abbott has urged Liberal MPs to back the embattled leadership of Malcolm Turnbull and asked them to pass Kevin Rudd's flawed emissions trading scheme in the Senate to avoid a double-dissolution election that they cannot win.
The one-time leadership opponent to Mr Turnbull has turned into his staunchest public defender and has appealed to Liberal MPs to "allow" the Opposition Leader to exercise his assessment on emissions trading and to save the Coalition "from a fight it can't win".
The Australian
By: Christian Kerr
Kevin Rudd has turned to a former Howard government minister to head the Australian Carbon Trust, in a move that will further exacerbate Coalition tensions on climate change.
As environment minister, Robert Hill led the Australian team at the Kyoto climate change conference in 1997.
The appointment creates new problems for Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull, who has angered some senior colleagues by publicly floating a new emissions trading strategy despite failing to win shadow cabinet support for the position.
News.com.au
By: Agence France-Presse, Paris
Fish have lost half their average body mass and smaller species are making up a larger proportion of European fish stocks as a result of global warming, a study has found.
"It's huge,'' study author Martin Daufresne said. "Size is a fundamental characteristic that is linked to a number of biological functions, such as fecundity - the capacity to reproduce.''
The Advertiser
By: Gregory Katz, London
The British Government has detailed ambitious plans to cut carbon emissions substantially by 2020, and said 40 per cent of the country's electricity by then would come from renewable sources.
The proposal on fighting climate change, announced yesterday, envisions expansions in wind energy as well as continued use of nuclear power and clean coal. It also plans for the average new car to be emitting 40 per cent less carbon that vehicles discharge today.
The Courier-Mail
International climate campaigner Al Gore has warned that Australia is "in the line of fire'' on climate change, after meeting Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in Sydney.
Mr Gore and Mr Rudd discussed climate issues in a meeting yesterday morning before fronting the media.
"Australia is in the line of fire where the climate crisis is concerned,'' said Mr Gore, who has won a Nobel Prize for his work on the dangers of global warming.
Herald Sun
By: Megan McNaught
A bus stop on your doorstep, a school around the corner and power generated by underground hot rocks.
These are all features of new suburb Armstrong Creek, which is taking shape on the outskirts of Geelong and has the aim of becoming Australia's first zero-emission neighbourhood.
The suburb will be home to 60,000 people on 27,500ha and initiatives to make it carbon neutral include:
Public transport within walking distance of every household.
At least 23,000 jobs, or one job per household, within the neighbourhood.
Herald Sun
By: Tom Woodroofe, 2009 Young Victorian of the Year and the founder of Left Right
The prevailing attitude among young people today continues to be "do as we say, not as we do'' when it comes to saving their planet.
Yesterday, the biggest youth climate change conference Australia has ever seen wound up in Sydney.
The likes of Al Gore lined up to inspire thousands of young people to discover their inner Captain Planets and solve the climate crisis.
The Advertiser
By: Edwina Scott, Melbourne
The increasing size of bushfires is a classic example of how rapidly the climate is changing, U.S. climate campaigner Al Gore says.
In Victoria, a series of devastating fires swept through the state on Black Saturday, February 7, killing 173 people and destroying hundreds of homes and businesses.
In a keynote address to 1000 leaders in Melbourne, the former U.S. vice-president and Nobel prize winner launched a think-tank, Safe Climate Australia, telling guests the mounting challenges required immediate action.
The Australian
By: Lauren Wilson
Al Gore has challenged the Rudd government to show leadership by rolling out its carbon pollution reduction scheme before the global climate talks in Copenhagen in December.
Speaking in Melbourne yesterday, where he spent time training 300 climate change disciples from the Asia-Pacific region, Mr Gore said it was important for the US and Australia to enact emissions trading laws before, rather than after, the Copenhagen conference.
"I don't want to interfere with Australian affairs -- or at least I don't want to be caught doing it,'' he said.