One degree

The Mercury
Source: SHNS

Vanishing Arctic sea ice brought on by climate change is causing the crucially important microscopic marine plants called phytoplankton to bloom explosively and die away as never before, a phenomenon that is likely to create havoc among migratory creatures that rely on the ocean for food, Stanford scientists have found.

A few organisms may benefit from this disruption of the Arctic's fragile ecology, but a variety of animals, from grey whales to seabirds, will suffer, said Stanford biological oceanographer Kevin Arrigo.

The Courier-Mail
By: Graham Readfearn

Making a pledge to push the car out of your life means you need to look for every alternative to get you around.

"We've been pretty much car-free for a couple of years and there's no doubt our lifestyle has improved,'' Emma Rose, 37, of Highgate Hill, in inner Brisbane, says.

The Rose household's latest innovation is a box-bike, which has been turning heads in the suburbs around West End.

The Herald Sun

Beijing: A thick brown cloud of soot, particles and chemicals stretching from the Persian Gulf to Asia threatens the world's health and food supplies, the UN said yesterday, describing it as the newest threat from global warming.

The regional haze, known as atmospheric brown clouds, contributes to the melting of Himalayan glaciers, reduces sunlight, and helps create extreme weather conditions that impact agricultural production, according to the report commissioned by the UN Environment Program.

The Courier-Mail
By: Graham Readfearn

Putting the recycling bin out is a fortnightly ritual but what really happens to all those bottles, newspapers and plastics once they hit the green bin?

As part of The Courier-Mail's One Degree Challenge campaign, we followed a newspaper on its journey from a household bin to a new life.

According to the Australian Council of Recyclers, about 8.8 million tonnes of greenhouse gases are saved in Australia every year through recycling activities.

Penrith Press

Penrith Council will roll out organic waste bins for residents next year following the success of its waste treatment management program.

The council will use green rebates from the State Government's $12m fund to pay for the organic bins, which will further cut down on the amount of waste being dumped in landfills annually.

"We have been meeting our targets and will use the rebates to provide organic bins to around 52,000 households from July next year,'' said Barry Ryan, manager for waste and community protection.

The Glebe

A coalition of concerned Australians is organising a day of community action this Sunday to raise awareness concerning global warming and to show politicians that the community wants stronger action to limit climate change.

The Walk Against Warming at Martin Place on Saturday will highlight the need for laws to be put in place to reduce Australia's greenhouse pollution through:

* a reduction in energy use
* a shift to renewable energy
* better public transport systems
* an end to land clearing and logging of old growth forests
* a price being placed on carbon pollution

"Join thousands of other Aussies at a Walk Against Warming event to send a clear message to our political leaders that the community wants bolder and more effective government action on climate change,'' a spokesman said.

Fiji Times

In the space of one year, The Fiji Times Limited cut back the amount of electricity it used by around 25 per cent.

This came off the back of sustained implementation of the principles of its 1 Degree environmental program over the year to June 2008.

The savings in electricity consumption translated into a 17.4 per cent smaller bill over the year to June 2008 compared to the previous year.

A large part of the success of the program has been because of staff involvement in helping save energy to save the environment.

The Courier-Mail
By: Graham Readfearn

Switching all their power to renewable electricity was more of a last resort than a first step for the carbon-friendly Cebuliak family.
"We cut our energy consumption to just about half of what it was,'' said 22-year-old Ben Cebuliak, of Mansfield. "Then, after we had saved as much as we could, we went over to 100 per cent renewable.''

The Daily Telegraph
By: Alison Rehn

Australia's struggling car industry has been given a $6.2 billion injection to green the nation's car fleet and shield thousands of employees from losing their jobs during the current financial crisis. Part of the Federal Government package is a $1.3 billion green car fund to be rolled out over the next 10 years, for companies to build environmentally friendly vehicles.

As new car sales slump, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the nation needed a green motor industry that created highly paid and highly skilled jobs for the future.

Sunday Territorian

Did you know Australians produce more waste per capita than anywhere else in the world?
Each Australian averages 2.25kg of waste per day, a recent Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report revealed. Planet Ark said that figure was alarming and we needed to reduce the impact of our waste use. The 13th National Recycling Week, which begins tomorrow, aims to raise awareness of the necessity to reduce our environmental footprint.

The Courier-Mail
By: Hannah Martin

Queenslanders can slash up to $350 a year from their household electricity bills by installing energy-efficient bulbs, the state Office for Climate Change says. Executive director Greg Withers says swapping old bulbs with environmentally friendly compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) helps save the planet but also can help cut household costs in tough economic times. CFLs use up to 80 per cent less energy than traditional bulbs.

The Daily Telegraph
By: Alice Wasley

Choosing the best protection from summer heat will depend on the position and layout of your rooms

It can be a battle to keep cool during the height of an Australian summer - we're not known as the sunburnt country for nothing - but before you switch on that energy-draining airconditioning system, there are some other options to consider.

The Courier-Mail
By: Graham Readfearn

People in Queensland should brace themselves for major bushfires, more power cuts and floods because of climate change, a report has claimed.

The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering yesterday called for a national taskforce to help Australia adapt to the changing climate. Federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong launched the report in Melbourne.
"With more extreme weather events resulting from climate change, the potential impact on our buildings is a significant concern,'' she said.

Northern Territory News

Scientists are studying the effects of climate change on tourism in Darwin and Kakadu National Park.

The Commonwealth Government funded study will predict the impacts of climate change on vulnerable tourism destinations in Australia. The Sustainable Tourism Co-operative Research Centre will focus on five destinations, including the Great Barrier Reef, the Victorian Alps, the Barossa region and the Blue Mountains.

The Mercury

Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan has dismissed the advice of a leading climate change economist to delay its proposed emissions trading scheme until international negotiations are completed.

Warwick McKibbin has urged the Government to delay its planned 2010 start to a trading scheme by at least a year.
The Opposition yesterday backed Professor McKibbin, who is also a Reserve Bank board member, saying the Government should await the outcome of a United Nations meeting on climate change in Copenhagen in November next year.

But Mr Swan said the Government's own Treasury modelling, released last month, takes account of the fact the international negotiations could produce variable results.

The Australian
By: Nick Tabakoff

News Corporation chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch has issued a blunt warning that Australia "simply is not prepared for the challenges ahead'' -- including the current global financial crisis -- in an era of growing internationalisation.

But he has also expressed hope that the nation would ultimately overcome its shortcomings by rediscovering its "frontier country'' mentality.

The Courier-Mail

A move by News Ltd, publisher of The Courier-Mail, to cut its climate change impact paid off last night when it won an Environmental Protection Agency award for environmental leadership.

Under its One Degree initiative, News Ltd set out to lower energy use and be carbon neutral by 2010.

Climate Change Minister Andrew McNamara said at the Gold Coast awards ceremony News Ltd was one of five southeast Queensland companies to win innovation awards, the others being ALDI, Consolidated Rutile, Leightons and RedFlow -- the maker of a renewable energy system.

The Courier-Mail
By: Brian Williams

An international study has found that Australians have the fifth-largest individual ecological footprints in the world, up from sixth place two years ago.

It means national consumption has well outstripped the country's biological carrying capacity.

The World Wide Fund for Nature said in its biennial Living Planet Report that each Australian used more land and water than did British, Chinese, Russian and Indian citizens. It took 7.81ha to maintain the lifestyle of each Aussie, up from 6.76ha per person in 2006.

The Advertiser
From: Correspondents in Tokyo

Leaders of 40 of the world's major cities pledged action today to fight climate change, taking measures ranging from promoting solar energy to tracking genetically modified food.

Warning that crowded urban areas were especially susceptible to the planet's rising temperatures, city officials said they needed to take the lead in adapting to climate change.

The Australian
By: Leigh Dayton, Science writer

Forty scientists from fields as diverse as physics and genetics have signed a statement warning that efforts to tackle climate change must not be scuttled by the global economic crisis.

Further, the scientists argue that efforts to stem the financial meltdown could be boosted through investment in infrastructure projects -- such as improved public transport -- that were designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Australian
By: Siobhain Ryan

The slowing world economy could help to cut back global emissions as factories close and car fleets stall, in a rare piece of good news amid the financial doom and gloom.

The world financial crisis has prompted fears that plans to reduce carbon emissions could be postponed, delaying the battle against global warming.

But CO2 emissions are expected to fall because of the looming global recession, with Deutsche Bank last week forecasting Europe's industrial CO2 emissions would fall by about 100 million tonnes next year compared with last year.

Herald Sun
Source: AP

Brussels -- Leaders of the European Union have pledged they will stick to a pricey plan for deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, saying the recent meltdown of financial markets must not deter efforts to combat global warming.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that despite some misgivings about the cost, "climate change is so important that we cannot use the financial and economic crisis as a pretext for dropping it''.

The Courier-Mail
By: Andrew Griffiths

Last month, two disasters were looming on the US horizon. One was the global credit crisis, the other was the potential loss of lives and infrastructure (not to mention huge oil production capacity) as Hurricane Ike threatened to devastate Houston, Texas.

Fortunately, given how all-consuming the economic crisis is proving to be, only one of those events occurred.

The problem is that while the credit crisis might take six months, a few years or even longer to resolve, it will inevitably be resolved.

Climate change, while it might not have the immediate impact of mortgage foreclosures and huge share losses, is not going to go away.

The Australian
By: Greg Roberts, Sean Parnell

Global warming has been blamed for dramatic declines in seabird populations on the Great Barrier Reef and surrounding waters.

Tens of thousands of seabirds are failing to breed because warmer water from more frequent and intense El Nino events means there is insufficient food to raise their young, according to research compiled by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

Warm water near the surface forces fish, plankton and other prey into deeper water, where it cannot be reached by seabirds.

The research forms the basis of a report commissioned by the marine park authority and the Queensland Environment Protection Agency to address the impact of climate change on seabirds, and obtained by The Australian under freedom of information laws.

The Geelong Advertiser
By: Jane Harper

Two wheels will take the place of four for staff at the Geelong Advertiser this week.

The company is joining businesses across the city in choosing bikes over cars for Ride to Work Day on Wednesday.

Workers throughout the region are encouraged to dust the winter cobwebs off their bicycles and join in with the national event.

Cyclists in Geelong will be rewarded for their efforts with a community breakfast in Johnstone Park, Gheringhap St, between 7am and 9am on Wednesday.