Tag archives for Australia
European Union Rejects Carbon Market Solution
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on April 18, 2013 The European Union Parliament rejected a proposal to backload the auctioning of credits within its Emissions Trading Scheme this week. The proposed “backloading” plan would have removed a surplus of emissions permits from the world’s largest carbon market—potentially saving it from collapse and making fossil fuels more expensive for utilities and factories to burn. The surplus, partly a result of the…
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When an endangered species begins to thrive in a certain area, that should be the cause of celebration. But in Kings Bay, Florida, the celebration is becoming problematic for the local manatee populations, that use the warm waters to survive the winters. The waters are becoming crowded with tourists who flock to the region to swim and kayak among the slow-moving marine mammals.
Carbon Tax Is a Popular Topic in Washington
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on March 14, 2013 Since China announced it will hold off plans to introduce a carbon tax, the idea has generated some activity on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers on Tuesday proposed a draft bill that would charge the largest industrial polluters a fee for, or carbon tax on, their fossil-fuel emissions. The plan, proposed by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Rep. Earl…
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It may be little, but already the Western pygmy possum has overcome insurmountable odds.
The Great Emu Caper
Posted by Michael Jourdan on February 15, 2013 
An emu was stolen this week from a wildlife park near Sydney, Australia. Could this be the perfect crime?
Geography in the News: The Races to the Pole
Posted by Neal Lineback of Maps101.com and Maps.com on January 22, 2013 
By Neal Lineback and Mandy Lineback Gritzner, Geography in the NewsTM and Maps.com A little more than 100 years ago, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole. While the feat was an amazing story in itself, the races that preceded it to reach the southernmost point on the Earth are even more fascinating—and heartbreaking.…
Heat Wave: 2012 Labeled Hottest Year on Record
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on January 10, 2013 It’s official. Last year was the warmest year in history for the contiguous United States with at least 356 record high temperatures tied or broken, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Average temperatures in 2012 were above the 20th century average by more than 3 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures also beat a previous record set in 1998 by a full degree,…
Geography in the News: Australian Fires Out of Control
Posted by Neal Lineback of Maps101.com and Maps.com on January 9, 2013 
By Neal Lineback and Mandy Lineback Gritzner, Appalachian State University Raging Australian Wildfires Australia is under siege by raging out-of-control wildfires. The fires are being blamed on the continent’s long droughts. Most of its climates are relatively dry ones anyway, but Australia’s long series of droughts has created dry conditions even in its humid climatic…
A Groundbreaking Agreement to Save Australia’s Ailing Murray River
Posted by Sandra Postel of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative in Water Currents on December 28, 2012 
After years of debate, fiery protests and intense negotiations, Australia has adopted a historic plan to restore flows to the suffering Murray-Darling River Basin. It is one of the boldest water pacts to restore nature on the books, and if successful, could offer a roadmap for overtapped river basins in other arid lands. The plan…
Brazil, Australia, India and Beyond: Grasslands News from November 2012
Posted by American Prairie Reserve on December 17, 2012 
In an effort to increase awareness of grasslands issues and encourage you to fall in love with our world’s prairies, American Prairie Reserve compiles a news roundup each month. These stories will introduce you to the organizations working to restore this endangered ecosystem, demonstrate the diversity of the plains and showcase the many different approaches…
Posted by Earlier this year Rolex announced the five winners of the 2012 Rolex Awards for Enterprise, who are being honored in New Delhi, India, on November 27. This profile looks at the work of Mark Kendall, bioengineer and innovative scientist who is developing the Nanopatch, a syringe-free method of giving people vaccines.
Hurricane Isaac Disrupts Energy Production, Stirs Old Wounds
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on August 30, 2012 While Hurricane Isaac managed to leave Gulf oil platforms largely untouched, New Orleans’ strengthened levees were put to the test as the storm made landfall on the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. More than 90 percent of all oil production and roughly 66 percent of all gas output was shut down as a precautionary measure as Isaac approached the Louisiana coast Tuesday. As…
Posted by Deforestation, especially of tropical forests, makes up 18 percent of annual global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions — more emissions than the entire global transportation sector. The 2007 Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emphasized that reducing deforestation would be the most significant and immediate way to begin reducing global levels of…
As Country Breaks Heat Record, Studies Analyze Climate Connection
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on July 12, 2012 The same week the continental United States broke its record for the hottest six months in a calendar year, the United Nations announced 2011 was among the 15 warmest so far. Climate change may have increased the chances of the types of extreme weather seen in 2011, and may have been heavily influenced by a weather pattern called La Niña. The odds…
It is without doubt one of the strangest things I have ever seen in my life, says zoologist Lucy Cooke. She’s describing her first sighting of the bizarre four-headed penis of the echidna, a spiny, termite-eating, egg-laying mammal found in Australia.
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Australia’s unique freshwater turtles (like the Eastern longneck pictured) may hold promise for medical breakthroughs. The reptiles can live longer than a century and they don’t seem to go through menopause, suggesting that they may have anti-aging properties. Freshwater turtle expert Ricky Spencer of the University of Western Sydney told Australian media that, paradoxically,…
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The capital of Western Australia, Perth, is at the epicenter of global climate change. The city’s strategic response offers lessons about climate change mitigation, exacerbation and adaptation. The lessons are acutely relevant to the United States, particularly California. The grass is greener and there’s lots of it in Perth, as residents who once called…
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Many indigenous peoples are living examples of societies thriving with sustainable, low-carbon lifestyles. Successfully meeting the global climate change challenge requires that much of the world shift from high carbon-living to low. This shift is daunting. Current emissions for Australia and the United States average about 20 tonnes of carbon dioxide per person. In…
“Our elders are the best source of information. Better than science or the internet,” said Petr Kaurgin, a Chukchi reindeer herder from the remote Turvaurgin nomadic tribal community in north-eastern Siberia. Kaurgin delivered his message to climate scientists from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other Indigenous peoples at the closing of the Climate…
“REDD is the new beast in the forest,” said Patrick Anderson of the Forest Peoples Programme in Indonesia here at Climate Change Mitigation with Local Communities and Indigenous peoples workshop in Cairns, Australia. Deforestation gobbles up an area the size of Greece (13 million hectares) every year. As if that loss wasn’t bad enough, it…
Forests can not only suck climate-heating carbon out of the atmosphere, they are also an important source of food for many Indigenous peoples. “Western food is making our people sick. Our bodies are adapted to eating bush foods,” said Seith Fourmile of the Gimuy-Walubarra Yidinji Nation of Cairns. Australia’s Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander peoples…
“Planning is not part of our culture. You just get up in the morning and do what you need to do for the day,” said Marilyn Wallace of the Kuku Nyungka ‘mob’ (aboriginal nation) in northern Queensland, Australia. “Bama,” people caring for their local territory, is an important part of aboriginal culture and identity,…
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Laurie Arthur is a farmer in the heart of Australia’s bread basket, the basin of the Murray River, who was kind enough, when I was trying to understand water, to explain how water works for farmers. Arthur lives out in the wide open country east of Adelaide and north of Melbourne — flat, irrigated farmland…
Kicking off the year’s Women’s History Month, National Geographic, in conjunction with the All Roads Film Project hosted the 4th annual “Women Hold Up Half the Sky” Film Festival in Washington, D.C. on March 2nd and 3rd. Watch the trailers from each film and read commentary from the directors themselves.
We have the knowledge that can contribute to finding solutions to the crisis of climate change. But if you’re not prepared to listen, how can we communicate this to you? — Marcos Terena, Xané leader, Brazil. The precipitous rise in the world’s human population and humankind’s ever-increasing dependence on fossil fuel-based ways of living have…
