The 7000-year-old coral communities of Moreton Bay are telling a curious tale, expanding when sea-levels rise or water quality improves, then declining when current circulation becomes more restricted.
Intriguing new insights into the behaviour of corals and fish under changing climatic conditions will be presented by leading marine researchers at a public forum in Brisbane this coming Friday.
Professor John Pandolfi from the University of Queensland and ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and his team have been dating the corals of Moreton Bay and finding they have undergone surges …

Los Angeles Times Online (April 9th 2008): They call Australia the Lucky Country, with good reason. Generations of hardy castoffs tamed the world’s driest inhabited continent, created a robust economy and cultivated an image of irresistibly resilient people who can’t be held down. Australia exports itself as a place of captivating landscapes, brilliant sunshine, glittering beaches and an enviable lifestyle.
Look again. Climate scientists say Australia — beset by prolonged drought and deadly bush fires in the south, monsoon flooding and mosquito-borne fevers in the north, widespread wildlife decline, economic collapse …

Using a submersible robot to penetrate depths of up to 4000m, a joint US-Australian team have reported some extraordinary organisms off the coast of Tasmania.
“Our sampling documented the deepest known Australian fauna, including a bizarre carnivorous sea squirt, sea spiders and giant sponges, and previously unknown marine communities dominated by gooseneck barnacles and millions of round, purple-spotted sea anemones”
However, a news report by the AFP suggests that even at 4km beneath the surface, there is cause for concern:
“Modern-day deep-water coral reefs were also found, however, there is strong evidence that …

The Australian Bureau of Meterology released the annual Australian climate statement for 2008 last week. Another warm year for Australia, 0.41°C above the standard 1961-90 average…
Overview

The mean annual temperature across Australia for 2008 was the 14th warmest on record (0.41°C above normal).
A warm year was recorded in most regions, apart from Queensland, northeast New South Wales and the Kimberley (Western Australia).
Above average annual rainfall was recorded across the Top End, eastern Queensland, northeast New South Wales and far west parts of Western Australia. Rainfall was average to below average in …

Amidst the current policy debate in Australia on climate change is a surreal argument that policies that will destroy the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) are acceptable and economically rational. Ross Garnaut was alive to the damage to the GBR when saying Australia should initially aim for a global consensus to stabilise greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at 550 parts per million. Garnaut (2008a: 38) was brutally frank in his supplementary draft report:
“The 550 strategy would be expected to lead to the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef and other coral …

Sorry for the bad pun… These great images were captured by photographer Chris van Wyk in Queensland, Australia (the green ‘mohawk’ effect, remniscent of the British subculture of the early 1980′s is actually an ephiphytic turf algae growing on the shell and head of the turtle). The Mary River turtle (Elusor macrurus) is considered “endangered” under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act in Queensland, and is geographically limited to shallow slow moving waters in the Mary River and it’s tributaries. Not only is it one of Australia’s largest species …

Sydney Morning Herald, 22nd September, 2008
THE fraught political battle over logging in native forests is set to be re-ignited with the former Labor premier Bob Carr writing to the Prime Minister and senior ministers arguing that protecting the forests is “fundamental” to fighting climate change.
In a letter to Mr Rudd, his Climate Change Minister, Penny Wong, the Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, and the Forestry Minister, Tony Burke, Mr Carr has joined leading conservationists who want to transform state and federal forest policies in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania to protect older …

ABC News, 6th July.
The Federal Government has released a report into the link between drought and climate change, which it says will trigger major review of drought policy.
The report is by the Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO and is the first of three commissioned by the Government.
The report warns that extreme conditions previously thought to occur once in every 20 to 25 years, could become as frequent as every one or two years.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has told ABC1′s Insiders the report paints a very disturbing picture about the …

The Climate Institute’s Climate of the Nation has released a report that shows that the attitudes of Australians has shifted from 5 years ago and that climate change is a primary concern. What is curious is that the Rudd government hasn’t convinced us that real and effective action will be possible..

"Australian attitudes towards climate change have crystallised into solid support for action, new research shows. But, equally, there is widespread scepticism about the ability of major political parties to deliver the necessary action. The Climate Institute’s Climate of the …