Party will rally its base and harvest undecided voters by banging the drum on Labor’s tax measures
This weekend, I think it’s productive to take you into the world of Coalition MPs as they pack their bags anticipating the return of federal parliament next week.
The parliamentary weeks show the Morrison government at its most vulnerable because the Coalition no longer commands a majority in either chamber, but it’s not the resumption of parliament many MPs are fretting about.
Continue reading...ANU research suggests net cost of achieving Paris targets is zero because renewables are now cheaper than fossil fuels
New research finds Australia is installing renewable energy faster than any other country, a trend that will allow Australia to meet its economy-wide Paris targets five years ahead of schedule if politics doesn’t derail the trend, according to new research from the Australian National University.
While emissions have been rising across the economy since the Abbott government repealed the carbon price after winning government in 2013, they have been falling in the electricity sector because of the closure of ageing coal plants and the rapid uptake of renewables.
Continue reading...Disintegration of rapidly melting Thwaites ice mass could threaten coastal communities worldwide
Scientists have discovered a giant cavity at the bottom of a disintegrating glacier in Antarctica, sparking concerns that the ice sheet is melting more rapidly than expected.
Researchers working as part of a Nasa-led study found the cavern, which they said was 300 metres tall and two-thirds the size of Manhattan, at the bottom of the massive Thwaites glacier.
Continue reading...Even radical climate change action won’t save glaciers, endangering 2 billion people
At least a third of the huge ice fields in Asia’s towering mountain chain are doomed to melt due to climate change, according to a landmark report, with serious consequences for almost 2 billion people.
Even if carbon emissions are dramatically and rapidly cut and succeed in limiting global warming to 1.5C, 36% of the glaciers along in the Hindu Kush and Himalaya range will have gone by 2100. If emissions are not cut, the loss soars to two-thirds, the report found.
Continue reading...Controversial climatologist John Christy, who once said scientists believed Earth was flat, to join advisory board at environment agency
Progressives are preparing to take on Starbucks CEO Howard Shultz — who is considering a run for president in 2020 as an independent — hoping to arm themselves with information about the billionaire’s governmental dealings.
Axios reports that Democratic super PAC, Priorities USA, has requested documents from roughly 70 national and state agencies who may have connected with Shultz or his coffee company over the last 3 decades:
The group is gathering as much potential opposition research as they can on Schultz and his business in anticipation of his decision to possibly run for president as an independent. This is yet another example of liberals trying to push Schultz out of the 2020 race before he begins, in part because they view his candidacy as a “threat” that could be “a major step toward re-electing Donald Trump,” Priorities USA communications director Josh Schwerin told Axios”.
A new poll released by Monmouth University says more than 60% of Americans think the president knew that high-ranking members of his campaign lied to investigators and half believe he asked them to do it.
The survey also found that there’s still significant concern among the electorate that Russia has influence over Trump, and that not enough has been done to stop the Kremlin from meddling into elections.
Was Trump aware of campaign associated trying to mislead investigators or Congress?
62% Yes
32% No
Do you think Trump personally asked people to mislead investigators or Congress?
50% Yes
42% No
Monmouth poll
‘Views of the president’s ties to Russia look like almost any other aspect of public opinion related to Trump. Very few Republicans believe anything negative about him and nearly all Democrats are inclined to accept damaging information, while independents are almost evenly split’, said Murray.
Just over half of Americans (51%) feel that the special counsel’s investigation into Russian election interference and possible links to the Trump campaign should continue. Another 45% say this investigation should be brought to an end. Support for continuing the special counsel investigation has hovered between 52% and 54% in polls taken between April and November 2018. Prior to that, about 6-in-10 Americans supported continuing the investigation (60% in March 2018 and 62% in July 2017)“.
Continue reading...In this little city of 6,000 people, people are carrying on as usual, using a few tricks they’ve learned from a lifetime of frigid temperatures
International Falls is known as the “Icebox of America” for good reason. The average high temperature in January is -9C, or 15F. In a typical year, the city will experience 109 days of subzero weather.
But this week the nickname seems particularly appropriate.
Continue reading...Treasurer says climate change is real and Scott Morrison’s government takes emissions reduction ‘very seriously’
Josh Frydenberg has defended the Coalition’s record on climate change and says he will work hard to earn the trust of his constituents in the face of a challenge from long-time Liberal and now independent Oliver Yates.
Yates, a former Macquarie banker and head of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, confirmed on Wednesday he would run in Kooyong at the coming federal election, declaring Frydenberg deserved to be challenged because of a lack of action on the environment.
Continue reading...A technique developed by a Jesuit priest is producing bigger harvests – and reducing emissions of a crop responsible for 1.5% of greenhouse gases
The fragrant jasmine rice growing on the left side of Kreaougkra Junpeng’s five-acre field stands nearly five feet tall.
Each plant has 15 or more tillers, or stalks, and the grains hang heavy from them. The Thai farmer says this will be his best-ever harvest in 30 years and he will reap it four weeks earlier than usual.
Continue reading...Warning that ‘We are like passengers on the Titanic, ignoring the iceberg ahead’ in face of nuclear arms and climate change threats
The risk to global civilisation from nuclear weapons and climate change remains at an all-time high, according to a group of prominent US scientists and former officials, who said the world’s predicament had become the “new abnormal”.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced that its symbolic “doomsday clock”, unveiled every year, was stuck at two minutes to midnight, the same as last January. The only other time the Bulletin has judged the world as being this close to catastrophe was 1953, in the early volatile stages of the cold war.
Continue reading...As ice melts and shipping lanes open up, geopolitical tensions are growing and old cold war bases are being reopened
The climate crisis is intensifying a new military buildup in the Arctic, diplomats and analysts said this week, as regional powers attempt to secure northern borders that were until recently reinforced by a continental-sized division of ice.
That so-called unpaid sentry is now literally melting away, opening up shipping lanes and geo-security challenges, said delegates at the Arctic Frontiers conference, the polar circle’s biggest talking shop, who debated a series of recent escalations.
Continue reading...With high temperatures also forecast for Victoria and NSW, there are warnings about potential power outages and blackouts, as well as total fire bans amid worsening weather. Follow developments live
Yes please.
Elite marketing by Royal Park Foodland #adelaideheatwave pic.twitter.com/IMMLZdywLq
Just on the issue of heatwaves and climate change, the ABC Melbourne presenter Rafael Epstein has pointed to recent statements from Victoria’s Bureau of Meteorology (Bom).
Just in case someone says hot weather has nothing to do with climate change
"Australia's climate is increasingly influenced by global warming... has warmed by just over one degree since 1910, with most of the warming occurring since 1950."
From @BOM_Vic this month
The violent Manaro Voui volcano forced the people of Vanuatu’s Ambae island to flee their home numerous times over the last year. After living in makeshift camps on surrounding islands, the displaced residents are now anxious to return to their ash-covered homes, even if the danger has not yet passed
Continue reading...Experts predict up to 1,500 individual private flights in and out of airfields serving Swiss ski resort for World Economic Forum
David Attenborough might have urged world leaders at Davos to take urgent action on climate change, but it appears no one was listening. As he spoke, experts predicted up to 1,500 individual private jets will fly to and from airfields serving the Swiss ski resort this week.
Political and business leaders and lobbyists are opting for bigger, more expensive aircrafts, according to analysis by the Air Charter Service, which found the number of private jet flights grew by 11% last year.
Continue reading...The broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough spoke to the Duke of Cambridge about the 'creeping disaster' of climate change, capitalism and caring for the natural world at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Attenborough has already challenged business leaders at the event to 'move beyond guilt and blame' and instead focus on the practicalities of preventing climate change from reaching catastrophic levels
Continue reading...The pace of ice loss has increased four-fold since 2003 as enormous glaciers are depositing ever larger chunks of ice into the Atlantic ocean, where it melts, causing sea levels to rise
Greenland is melting faster than scientists previously thought, with the pace of ice loss increasing four-fold since 2003, new research has found.
Enormous glaciers in Greenland are depositing ever larger chunks of ice into the Atlantic ocean, where it melts. But scientists have found that the largest ice loss in the decade from 2003 actually occurred in the southwest region of the island, which is largely glacier-free.
Continue reading...It was 48.9C last Tuesday in Port Augusta, South Australia, an old harbour city that now harvests solar power. Michelle Coles, the owner of the local cinema, took off her shoes at night to test the concrete before letting the dogs out. “People tend to stay at home,” she said. “They don’t walk around when it’s like this.”
It’s easy to see why: in the middle of the day it takes seconds to blister a dog’s paw or child’s foot. In Mildura, in northern Victoria, last week gardeners burned their hands when they picked up their tools, which had been left in the sun at 46C. Fish were dying in the rivers.
Continue reading...‘Planetary health diet’ would prevent millions of deaths a year and avoid climate change
The first science-based diet that tackles both the poor food eaten by billions of people and averts global environmental catastrophe has been devised. It requires huge cuts in red meat-eating in western countries and radical changes across the world.
The “planetary health diet” was created by an international commission seeking to draw up guidelines that provide nutritious food to the world’s fast-growing population. At the same time, the diet addresses the major role of farming – especially livestock – in driving climate change, the destruction of wildlife and the pollution of rivers and oceans.
Continue reading...Scientists say it may still technically be possible to limit warming to 1.5C if drastic action is taken now
Climate change could be kept in check if a phaseout of all fossil fuel infrastructure were to begin immediately, according to research.
It shows that meeting the internationally agreed aspiration of keeping global warming to less than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels is still possible. The scientists say it is therefore the choices being made by global society, not physics, which is the obstacle to meeting the goal.
Continue reading...Seas absorb 90% of climate change’s energy as new research reveals vast heating over past 150 years
Global warming has heated the oceans by the equivalent of one atomic bomb explosion per second for the past 150 years, according to analysis of new research.
More than 90% of the heat trapped by humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions has been absorbed by the seas, with just a few per cent heating the air, land and ice caps respectively. The vast amount of energy being added to the oceans drives sea-level rise and enables hurricanes and typhoons to become more intense.
Continue reading...The year began with the Oxfam scandal and ended with a withering verdict on the food we eat. What do you remember?
Allegations of harassment at aid agencies and charities were frequent in 2018. Which organisation was branded 'a boys' club' by one employee?
UN Women
UNAids
Oxfam GB
ActionAid
Students in Cape Town scored a world first by creating a bio-brick from which substance?
Human saliva
Cow's milk
Horse manure
Human urine
Which singer came out in support of a Brexit-beleaguered Theresa May, suggesting the PM's gender made her a target for unfair criticism?
Lady Gaga
Paloma Faith
Kate Bush
Rae Morris
In a report condemning the 'diabolical state' of our diets, nutritionists found that more than four in 10 children worldwide consume what daily?
Chocolate
Cake
Crisps
Sugary drinks
Researchers at Harvard University believe it may be possible to protect countries in the global south from climate change using what?
A gigantic sunshade in the sky
Blanket distribution of sunscreen
A gigantic heat-absorbing sponge
Tibetan prayer beads
Which of the following food staples is threatened by a virulent fungus that could wipe it out of existence?
Wheat
Potatoes
Bananas
Chocolate chip cookies
Scientists working in Tanzania have developed an innovative method of diagnosing tuberculosis – involving the use of what?
Giant pandas
Giant armadillos
Giant frogs
Giant rats
In a speech on equality at the UN, which actor said she was tired of 'being undervalued, undermined and disrespected, because of my gender'?
Sienna Miller
Nicole Kidman
Gal Gadot
Emma Watson
Ethiopian girl band Yegna made headlines after losing UK aid funding. To which British girl band have they been compared?
Girls Aloud
The Spice Girls
The Saturdays
Sugababes
To which of the following did the Trump administration NOT make aid funding cuts in 2018?
Abortion services
Palestinians
Polio
Pakistan
10 and above.
Take a bow, you're a bonafide newshound!
7 and above.
My, my, now that was impressive – you really didn't miss much in 2018, did you?
4 and above.
A solid effort. Let no one say you ignored the headlines in 2018
0 and above.
Oops. It would seem the world passed you by somewhat in 2018. Was it all that talk of Brexit and Trump?
Continue reading...