Environment

Yomiuri Shimbun: Natural disasters caused by climate change are seriously threatening people’s lives. At the summit meeting of the Group of Eight major countries, set to open Monday in Toyakocho, Hokkaido, world leaders will discuss assistance measures to support environmentally vulnerable areas in developing countries and new international rules to protect human lives. In this three-part series, we will focus on global environmental problems expected to be taken up at the G-8 meeting. …

Australian: KEVIN Rudd’s hand-picked climate change adviser Ross Garnaut yesterday backed Labor’s ambitious plan to introduce an emissions trading scheme within two years, saying it would be "terribly hard, but possible". Releasing his landmark report on Australia’s climate-change challenge, Professor Garnaut yesterday warned that the nation faced dire economic and environmental consequences if the world did not act quickly to slow global warming. He said that despite some …

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority says it accepts the findings of the Garnaut report on the impact of climate change on the reef. The report found if carbon emissions are not reduced, the reef could die within decades. The Authority’s Russel Reichelt says governments and industry must take strong action to protect the reef. He says the Garnaut report relied on 15 years of scientific research into global warming. "It’s also relying on the forecast …

Sydney Morning Herald: BIOFUELS have forced global food prices up by 75 per cent - far more than previously estimated - a confidential World Bank report reveals. The damning, unpublished, assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally respected economist at the global financial body. The figure emphatically contradicts the United States Government’s claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3 per cent to food price rises. It will add to …

New Scientist: IT’S been a contrasting week for renewable energy advocates on opposite sides of the Atlantic. The UK announced plans to make wind power in its coastal waters "what the Gulf of Arabia is for the oil industry". Meanwhile, hopes for the solar equivalent in the American Southwest’s largely uninhabited desert have been derailed by a tortoise. UK prime minister Gordon Brown wants to build 3000 turbines around the UK’s coast, part of a plan that will see renewable energy provide …

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Federal Government is preparing its response to Professor Ross Garnaut’s draft report, which warns of dire consequences if an emissions trading scheme is not introduced. Professor Garnaut called for a system to cap greenhouse emissions and a permit system for industry. He wants the scheme introduced in 2010, but with a two year phase in period. "These next few years will be crucial, we’ve got to have a strong global regime in place by 2013," he …

Sydney Morning Herald: AUSTRALIANS must pay more for petrol, food and energy or ultimately face a rising death toll, economic loss and the eventual destruction of the Great Barrier Reef, the snowfields, Kakadu and the nation’s food bowl, the Murray-Darling Basin. That is the stark ultimatum presented yesterday by Professor Ross Garnaut in the first comprehensive assessment of the impact on the country of climate change. Arguing that Australia must introduce an emissions trading scheme in 2010 to …

Herald Sun: THE Rudd Government will unveil an expensive "public education" campaign to try to win support for its carbon emissions trading scheme. Despite introducing measures to prevent blatant political advertising, the Government is likely to spend tens of millions of dollars to promote the benefits of tackling climate change. It is understood advertising and public relations firms could be briefed on the campaign as early as Monday. This could see a national …

Australian: ROSS Garnaut held a press conference on Easter Thursday to launch his first discussion paper on ideas for climate change policy. From the look of things yesterday, he started writing the 537-page draft report on how the nation should respond to global warming as soon as he returned to work the following week. After declaring himself open to contrary views and willing to change his mind, Garnaut has shifted substantially on only one significant policy position since March. He has …

Australian: NOW that Ross Garnaut’s draft report has been released, most of the climate change debate in Australia will focus on the economic effects of any emissions trading scheme. However, there’s another carbon problem, which will profoundly affect our oceans, that has received scant attention beyond a small band of marine scientists and is largely independent of global warming. The public, aware of the role of carbon dioxide in climate change, doesn’t know of its function in …