Archived News for Green Sector Professionals

The Federal Government will start paying out its new Household Assistance Payments, paying a total of $35 million to over 1.6 million Australian families over the coming months.

The Victorian Government has announced five new appointments to the Victorian Environment Assessment Council (VEAC).

Scientists have developed a new diagnostic tool that will enable better understanding of global climate patterns.

The development, by researchers from The University of Queensland, University of Canterbury (New Zealand) and Monash University, distinguishes between the causes of particles in glacial deposits – whether climactic or caused by rock avalanche – allowing for more accurate data to inform climate models.

Co-author of the study, UQ Professor James Shulmeister, says the development represents a breakthrough in the way climate change research is approached.

He says that while glaciers have been used as an early indicator of the extent and rate of global warming, there was previously an assumption that they always reflected climatic change.

“But there has been some debate on how much of the mountain glacier record represents climate change and how much relates to changes in glaciers resulting from rock avalanches onto the glaciers,” he said.

“Being able to determine whether a glacial advance is caused by a rock avalanche or by purely climatic factors enables us to ensure the climatic record from glacial deposits is accurate.

“Using this information we will be able to better understand our changing climate and inform the creation of climate models.”

The research, published in the April issue of the prestigious journal Geology, represents a major breakthrough in the fields of both landslide (rock avalanche) research and climate change from glaciers.

Lead researcher Dr Natalya Reznichenko says the cause of glacial deposits is more complex than originally thought and that some deposits that were previously identified as being of climatic origin are in fact the products of readvances triggered by the deposition of rock avalanche debris on glaciers.

“We discovered that during rock avalanches, intense fragmentation of rock generates extremely fine particles – much less than a thousandth of a millimetre across - that cluster together to form agglomerates,” she said.

“These agglomerates are completely absent from glacial deposits known to lack rock avalanche material.

The Victorian Government has appointed three members to the Sustainability Victoria (SV) Board. The new members are Mr Ron Lovett and Mr Tony Hinton. An existing member, Ms Suzanne Evans, has been reappointed to the board.

Curtin University researchers have used computational fluid dynamics and powerful supercomputers to create new models for understanding and predicting coral bleaching.

A new research cluster called the Methane Research Cluster has been formed to focus on reduction of livestock methane emissions in Australia, which accounts for  10 per cent of the country’s overall greenhouse gas emissions.

Australia has once again featured in the top 10 highest polluting countries after the WWF released its 2012 Living Planet Report, showing that Australia’s carbon emissions are the top contributors to securing the dubious honour.

New research from the UK and Australia suggests that the rate of acidification of the world’s oceans is having a bigger effect on the population of plankton than previously anticipated.

Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Greg Combet, has announced the appointment of Professor Veena Sahjwalla to the Climate Commission.

The Department of Environment and Conservation and WWF-Australia launched a community survey to locate populations of the quenda, also known as the southern brown bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus fusciventer), living in the greater Perth region.

DEC Swan Region ecologist Geoff Barrett said quendas were living all around us in remnant bushland across suburban Perth, and called on residents to report sightings as part of the survey.

“Quendas have all but disappeared from other Australian cities, yet can still be seen throughout the Perth metropolitan area,” Dr Barrett said.

“Numbers have fallen significantly since the 1960s, but they can still be found throughout much of the south-west of Western Australia.

“Quendas are native mammals about the size of a rabbit with brown to yellow-brown fur, a long pointed nose, very short ears and a short tail. They prefer to live near waterways where dense low vegetation persists.”

Quendas are under threat from habitat loss, vehicle strike and predation from cats, dogs and foxes.

WWF has welcomed ongoing funding for key environmental programs but warned that Australian species would continue to go extinct without increased investment in future budgets.

Australia has a terrible record of extinction, with at least 27 mammals and 23 birds lost. To halt extinctions future budgets would need to go beyond the current 0.5% expenditure to the environment.

WWF-Australia Director of Conservation Dr Gilly Llewellyn said she was disappointed the government had delayed by one year the promised increase in overseas development aid, and failed to implement rumoured cuts to diesel fuel rebate and accelerated depreciation.

“Failure to keep the promise to increase overseas development aid means that critical assistance for struggling communities to adapt to climate change and foster ecosystem resilience will not be forthcoming,” Dr Llewellyn said.

“The Government could have cut inefficient expensive fossil fuel subsidies and reinvested this money to assist our neighbours to adapt to and mitigate climate change.

“The Government has missed an opportunity to show real leadership at the upcoming UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio, where on the agenda is calls to remove environmentally harmful subsidies.”

WWF welcomed new money to implement reforms to the Environmental Protection Act but remain concerned about the ‘cutting green tape’ rhetoric and warned state and federal governments not to confuse streamlining with delivering more effective regulation.

The Climate Commission has published a NSW specific section of its Critical Decade report, detailing the expected impacts of climate change on the state.

The Federal Government has appointed Dr Justin Lee as the country’s new Ambassador for Climate Change, after outgoing ambassador Louise Hand departs the role to take up her new appointment as High Commissioner to Canada.

The Australian Government is seeking public input to help develop a new strategy for the identification, management and celebration of Australia’s heritage.

Australia’s natural capital or environment assets are worth $4,574 billion and accounted for more than half of Australia’s total economic wealth in 2009-10 found the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The value of our natural capital in current price terms, trebled between 2000-01 and 2009-10, driven by rises in mineral commodities and land values.

The Australian Government will provide $37.8 million over four years to implement reforms to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the Act).

The Government will provide $12.5 million over four years from 2013‑14 (including $3.1 million in 2016‑17) to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation to assist its research vision of 'Resilient Coral Reefs Successfully Adapting to Climate Change'. The contribution will be directed towards research to protect and preserve the Great Barrier Reef, in particular in response to climate change.

The Federal Government has moved to allay growing fears of the cost of the introduction of its carbon tax initiative, with Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Greg Combet saying the effects on families will be modest.

The National Water Commission’s CEO James Cameron, (no, not THAT James Cameron), has called for the improvement and systematic monitoring of water plans to ensure that methods used are effective in meeting their environmental objectives.

Losing even just a few plant species in diverse ecosystems could in the long term reduce biomass production and impair ecosystem sustainability say the authors of a new study published in the international journal, Science.