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  • UN Climate Report Will ‘Scare the Wits Out of Everybody’

    UN Climate Report Will ‘Scare the Wits Out of Everybody’

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    Written by Common Dreams Staff
    23 Jul 2013
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    PLANET WATCH – Though scientists involved with an upcoming report by the UN’s scientific panel on climate change warn that a recently leaked portion of the report is not a good measure of the group’s ultimate findings, former UN climate chief Yvo de Boer has said the conclusions of the final report will “scare the wits out of everybody.”

    In September, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will release its much-anticipated report on the latest global scientific consensus on man-made global warming, but last week The Economist magazine released a portion of the report that claimed to show a dip in the IPCC’s worst-case predictions.

    Responding to magazine’s treatment of the leaked portion of the study, however, scientists involved in the project called the story “misleading,” “contrived,” and “irresponsible” and warned the public not to jump to conclusions until the complete findings of the IPCC are revealed.

    Responding to the news reporting—based on a leaked draft from a working group within the larger framework of the review—the IPCC released a statement which read, in part:

    The text is likely to change in response to comments from government and expert reviewers. It is therefore premature and can be misleading to attempt to draw conclusions. Draft reports are intermediate products and do not represent the scientific view that the IPCC provides on the state of knowledge of climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic impacts at the conclusion of the process.

    And as Ed King at the Responding to Climate Change website reports:

    Fellow US climate expert Michael Mann emailed the ThinkProgress website, arguing that: “the author hopelessly confuses transient warming (the warming observed at any particularly time) with committed warming (the total warming that you’ve committed to, which includes warming in the pipeline due to historical carbon emissions).” 

    “Even in the best case scenario, business as usual fossil fuel burning will almost certainly commit us to more than 2C (3.6 F) warming, an amount of warming that scientists who study climate change impacts tell us will lead to truly dangerous and potentially irreversible climate change.”

    Kevin Trenberth from the US National Center for Atmospheric Research commented that since the drafting process is still ongoing, it is too early to draw conclusions.

     

  • Antarctic Ice Melt from Icebergs May Cause Massive Sea Level Rise

    Antarctic Ice Melt from Icebergs May Cause Massive Sea Level Rise

    First Posted: Jul 22, 2013 02:13 PM EDT
    Iceberg

    Scientists have discovered that stretches of ice on the coasts of Antarctica and Greenland are at risk of rapidly cracking apart and falling into the ocean, forming icebergs. This could mean that sea level rise will be on the upper end of current model projections. (Photo : Wikipedia/Facebook )

    Earth may face a huge issue in the coming decades: sea level rise. Exactly how high ocean waters will become, though, has been cause for speculation among scientists. Now, researchers have discovered that stretches of ice on the coasts of Antarctica and Greenland are at risk of rapidly cracking apart and falling into the ocean. This could mean that sea level rise will be on the upper end of current model projections.

    Iceberg calving is the formation of icebergs. These marine chunks of ice are born when massive pieces break off of larger shelves, or glaciers, and then float away. Eventually, these icebergs melt in warmer oceans and add to the amount of water available. Despite the fact that iceberg calving accounts for roughly half of the mass lost from ice sheets, though, it isn’t reflected in any models of how climate change affects the ice sheets.

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    “Fifty percent of the total mass loss from the ice sheets we just don’t understand,” said Jeremy Bassis of the U-M College of Engineering in a news release. “We essentially haven’t been able to predict that, so events such as rapid disintegration aren’t included in those estimates. Our new model helps us understand the different parameters, and that gives us hope that we can better predict how things will change in the future.”

    In order to understand how iceberg calving might affect sea levels, the researchers delved into the physics of icebergs. They created a model that can simulate the different processes that occur on both ends of the Earth. For example, it takes into account that in northern latitudes, where icebergs rest on solid ground, icebergs tend to form in relatively small, vertical slivers that can rotate onto their sides as they dislodge. It also takes into account that in southern latitudes, icebergs form in larger, more horizontal plank shapes.

    “Essentially, everything is driven by gravity,” said Bassis. “We identified a critical threshold of one kilometer where it seems like everything should break up. You can think of it in terms of a kid building a tower. The taller the tower is, the more unstable it gets.”

    In the end, the researchers found that runaway iceberg calving can occur. As ice thins and cracks form, ice sheets and glaciers become more susceptible to collapse and breakup. This means that icebergs could significantly contribute to sea level rise and should certainly be included in current models.

    The findings were published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

    TagsClimate Change, global warming

    ©2013 ScienceWorldReport.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The window to the world of science news.

  • Sub-Saharan Water: Not Just Fossil Water

    Sub-Saharan Water: Not Just Fossil Water

    July 22, 2013 — The Sahara conceals large quantities of water stored at depth and inherited from ancient times. A recent study by the IRD and its partners has just shown that this groundwater is not entirely fossil, but resupplied every year. Using a method based on data obtained by satellite, scientists estimated the variations in the volume of water lying under the northern Sahara desert: the current rate of recharge is on average 1.4 km3 per year, for the period 2003-2010. This represents 40% of withdrawals, mainly for irrigation to support the oasis economy. The inputs therefore do not compensate for the withdrawals, but their existence means that these transboundary aquifers, the main water resource of semi-arid regions in Algeria and Tunisia, could be managed sustainably.

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    Non negligible recharge

    Until recently, groundwater in the northern Sahara aquifer system was considered as “fossil,” i.e. non-renewable, similarly to coal or oil. Precipitation in the region seemed too low and evapotranspiration too high to recharge deep aquifers. But scientists have shown that, in reality, groundwater in the northern Sahara aquifer system, to give it its exact name, is still being fed today. Indeed, the recharging exists and has been quantified, as revealed in a study published in Geophysical Research Letters. Rainwater and runoff bring an average of 1.4 km3 to the system per year, or around 2 mm per year on the aquifer recharge surface. From the period 2003 to 2010, annual recharge even reached 4.4 km3 in some years, or 6.5 mm per year.

    A new satellite approach

    The research team highlighted this recharge using a new satellite measuring method. The scientists analysed the data provided by the GRACE satellite mission (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) by NASA and the German aerospace centre. In orbit since 2002, GRACE measures variations in Earth’s field of gravity, enabling variations in the water mass contained in the surface envelopes to be deduced. These data were used by the scientists to estimate the change in the volume of water stored and to deduce aquifer recharge, one withdrawals made on the aquifers were taken into account. Among other things, this global approach means that the uncertainties in the hydrogeological models can be discounted, which are based on local piezometric measurements, i.e. the level of water noted in wells and boreholes.

    Withdrawals not compensated

    The average recharge of 1.4 km3 per year corresponds to 40% of the 2.75 km3 in total withdrawn every year in the region, according to data from the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS). As a result, 60% of annual withdrawals are not compensated. Despite significant recharge, the Northern Sahara Aquifer System remains therefore overexploited.

    Since the 1960’s, withdrawals have continued to increase, to satisfy the growing need of various social-economic sectors: industry, agriculture, tourism, household use. Wells and boreholes have multiplied and annual withdrawals have risen from 0.5 km3 in 1960 to 2.75 km3 in 2010, leading to a general drop in water levels, in some places reaching 25 to 50 m. Numerous artesian wells and natural springs, around which oases have developed, have already run out.

    The reduction in artesianism, i.e. the water pressure within groundwater, risks affecting the viability of the oasis economy. By quantifying current recharge, this work will enable the development of tools for to manage the resource responsibly, while more economical systems of irrigation are put in place. The challenge is considerable: these groundwater resources will have to meet the growing needs of a population which should reach 8 million inhabitants by 2030 according to the OSS.

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    The above story is based on materials provided by Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD).

    Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

    Journal Reference:

    1. J. Gonçalvès, J. Petersen, P. Deschamps, B. Hamelin, O. Baba-Sy. Quantifying the modern recharge of the “fossil” Sahara aquifers. Geophysical Research Letters, 2013; 40 (11): 2673 DOI: 10.1002/grl.50478

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    Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) (2013, July 22). Sub-saharan water: Not just fossil water. ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 23, 2013, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2013/07/130722123014.htm#.Ue5Hc18yH6U.twitter

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  • Due to Global Warming, End Is Virtually Certain for NYC, Boston, Miami, Holland

    Eric Zuesse

    Investigative historian

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    Due to Global Warming, End Is Virtually Certain for NYC, Boston, Miami, Holland

    Posted: 07/20/2013 2:10 pm
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    A new article in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), is headlined “The Multimillennial Sea-Level Commitment of Global Warming,” and it reports that because of carbon emissions that are virtually certain, on the basis of the lack of policy-response to global warming thus far, sea levels are now set to rise anywhere from around 8 inches to 7 feet within 100 years, and around 5 yards to 10 yards within 2,000 years. The projections are clearer (within a narrower range) for the longer time-frame than for the shorter one. That’s because even if the short-term consequences of heat-rise turn out to be relatively slight, the longer-term consequences are clearer, and will be considerably larger, as delayed impacts kick in.

    An interview with the article’s lead author, Anders Levermann, was aired on the PBS radio program “Living On Earth,” during the week starting July 19th. Levermann noted that, as the lead author of the coming report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, he can reveal that it will be “focusing on the next 100 years,” and that because of uncertainties that are yet to be resolved in such short-term predictions, “the sea level projections that we obtain for different climate scenarios range from 20 centimeters and [to] two meters.” However, beyond that, “two thousand years is what we looked at,” and, “We expect sea level rise of two meters of each degree of global warming that we cause.” The interviewer asked, “That’s on the order … of about 7.5 feet,” and Dr. Levermann answered, “Yes.” That’s 7.5 feet for each and every degree Centigrade of temperature-rise.

    So, the question is: How many degrees will the atmosphere heat up? Recently (on 26 May 2013), the journal Nature Climate Change headlined “Uncertainty in Temperature Projections Reduced,” and reported, “increased probability of exceeding a 2 ºC global-mean temperature increase by 2100 while reducing the probability of surpassing a 6 ºC threshold.” Therefore, by merely the end of the present century, there will be at least a 2-degree Centigrade, or around a 4-degree Fahrenheit, temperature-rise. This makes almost inevitable at least a fifteen-foot sea-level rise within no more than 2,000 years.

    The “Living On Earth” report also included a map showing “Areas at risk of sea level rise,” and the map indicated that the submersion will be the most devastating along the East Coast, from the middle of Delaware down to the tip of Florida; and also along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. All coastal cities there, plus the coasts around NYC and Boston, will be submerged enough, within 2,000 years, so that, not only will they be deeply flooded, but even minor coastal storms will make them uninhabitable for anyone who might otherwise still be living there.

    Economists discount the welfare of future generations, and therefore the welfares of our descendants 2,000 years into the future, and even just 100 years from now, are treated as virtually worthless, in today’s economic cost-benefit analyses.

    Economist Richard S.J. Tol noted in his May 2010 “The Economic Impact of Climate Change,” in Perspectiven der Wirtschaftspkolitik, that, “The discount rate is the most important source of variation in the estimates of the social costs of carbon. This is not surprising as the bulk of the avoidable impact of climate change is the distant future.” He went on to say, “Implicitly, the policy problem is phrased as ‘how much are we willing to pay to buy a better climate for our children?’ Alternatively, the policy problem could be phrased as ‘how much compensation should we pay our children for deteriorating their climate?’”

    Lawrence Summers and Richard J. Zeckhauser titled their September 2008 NBER working paper “Policymaking for Posterity,” and objected there to the way that the profession was valuing future generations. They noted the extreme impact that current discounting has upon these calculations: “At even a relatively modest 3 percent discount rate, a dollar of benefits a century from now is worth less than 6 cents today. … At the discount rate of 7 percent mandated for use in certain US government contexts by the OMB, the distant future becomes nearly irrelevant, as $100 a century from now is valued less than 10 cents today.” But their “distant future” was actually just a finger-snap in the context of human history. So, in an important sense, we are already near the end of history as the human species has known it.

    The reason why future generations are being discounted like that, is that, in current microeconomic theory, people are treated like property, because microeconomic theory started in the 1700s, when the slave trade was very big, and the aristocracy wouldn’t have financed or otherwise advanced the careers, or the publications, of any economists whose works made a theoretical distinction between people and property. Furthermore, financial economics requires future values of investments to be discounted by the expected future inflation rate. Consequently, since people are indistinguishable from property, our descendants are treated like property, and they are discounted for inflation, just as if they were property instead of people. The standpoint of today’s investors is the standpoint of economic theory, and future people are being treated only as investments.

    Coal and oil companies, and many other industries, favor existing economic theory as it stands, and do not want it to change. Though the slave traders are almost entirely gone now, the aristocracy still wants to discount future generations, because this permits those investors to make profits today off of people who haven’t yet been born — and who aren’t even around to complain about being abused. But they will be around ultimately; and a few ecologically minded economists, who are a small minority among professional economists (a profession that’s very dependent upon international corporations for their career-success), are trying to change the way these cost-benefit calculations are done. However, this situation simply can’t change unless microeconomic theory itself is fundamentally changed, and few economists have any interest at all in doing that, because international corporations don’t want it.

    So, somewhere in time between, say, the years 2100 and 4200, such cities as Boston, NYC, etc., will be uninhabitable. They will be past history. It’s an interesting thought, perhaps – but just a curiosity that’s heavily discounted, so it’s not actually being given much thought. Perhaps it’s not given even as much thought as the beef that a person consumes, which had been a cow a few days before. After all, that beef has a taste, which is enjoyed now. The future is “just the future” — and it’s discounted at compounded annual rates.

    ———-

    Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.

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    Page: 1 2 3 4 5  Next ›  Last »  (7 total)
    14 minutes ago (11:07 PM)

    I’m terrified of what will happen in 2000 more years

    HUFFPOST SUPER USER

    Thomasthedoubter

    16 minutes ago (11:05 PM)

    All very interesting, but what is anybody proposing to do about it? Change the Climate? Please. Better to adapt. Survival of the fittest & all that rot.

    photo

    caernach

    sausage makers guild
    17 minutes ago (11:05 PM)

    These estimates are overly conservative. By 2050 the harbors water level of these cities will have risen at least 5 to10 feet.

    photo

    HUFFPOST SUPER USER

    Keyan Wayne

    he is not my president
    22 minutes ago (10:59 PM)

    So, Gop caused global warming is going to cause sea levels to rise and flood out New York, California, New Jersey, DC and south Florida? Are those not all democrat areas?
    Cool! GOP Sneak attack.

    This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program

    photo

    Rudderman

    GOP: All fringe, no carpet.
    24 minutes ago (10:58 PM)

    Humans are the only species that knowingly will wreck their own home.

    HUFFPOST SUPER USER

    bleedingheartliberal218

    29 minutes ago (10:52 PM)

    North Carolina simply outlawed global warming.

    That’s how the Party of Stupid and their friends at the Koch roaches’ ALEC are dealing with it.

    photo

    HUFFPOST SUPER USER

    mmayrising

    listen,truth,watch,think,care,love
    30 minutes ago (10:52 PM)

    well first you get this really long hose…and and you stick it on mars….or maybe the moon and then you suck ….hmmmmm…….a good amount of ocean water from earth and deposit it where it needs to be. I case of severe earth drought….reverse step one.

    This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program

    photo

    35 minutes ago (10:47 PM)

    Should read why we are all doomed

    — No way for any to really survive a nice hard shift in the climate

    1) You lose your animals – in latin (Breath of Life)
    2) Your plants
    3) Your soil
    4) Your water

    and game over!

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    MichaelMcKLA

    I’m moving to Pandora.
    1 hour ago (10:16 PM)

    Hmmm. Well, New Yorkers and Bostonians would still be commute to work downtown in boats. And helicopters.

    photo

    HUFFPOST SUPER USER

    SkyWalker52

    1 hour ago (10:14 PM)

    oh well, i live in Seattle, but up on the hill around 500ft, so it’s all good.

    photo

    HUFFPOST SUPER USER

    Robert Flanagan

    1 hour ago (10:07 PM)

    I may be reading into it too much but I live in Brooklyn Heights and the new Brooklyn Bridge Park along the waterfront have started creating what the call “sound barriers” but they look more like levies to me!
    If this is the case I say Bravo NYC! Just tell us what it is!

    30 minutes ago (10:52 PM)

    No, actually those new barriers are meant to keep the populous inside.

    1 hour ago (10:06 PM)

    Well NYC end is already here..its called Gov. Cuomo..just check out how he destroyed the hospital in Brooklyn Heights…

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    macaac

    End the petro era buy a gas guzzler
    1 hour ago (10:05 PM)

    Waiting in the ATL for ocean front in Macon Ga where it used to be about a gazillion years ago. Proving once again that all good things come to those who wait.

    photo

    HUFFPOST SUPER USER

    phillipgaohio

    Lets push America into the 21st century
    14 minutes ago (11:07 PM)

    Uh I grew up in middle Georgia. The sea reclaiming Warner Robins would be wonderful.

    HUFFPOST SUPER USER

    Anne Mccormick

    1 hour ago (10:00 PM)

    Holland has been dealing with this problem for years.

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    caernach

    sausage makers guild
    16 minutes ago (11:05 PM)

    yes so has venice.

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    HUFFPOST SUPER USER

    Craig Koebelin

    Gut feelings are usually gas
    1 hour ago ( 9:58 PM)

    Boston won’t be uninhabitable, but the low-lying areas, which are by and large fill, might go back to being marshland as in colonial times, unless we build one of those Dutch-style giant harbor gates.

     
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  • East Antarctica’s Ice Sheet Not as Stable as Thought

    East Antarctica’s Ice Sheet Not as Stable as Thought

    by Carolyn Gramling on 21 July 2013, 1:20 PM | 3 Comments

    sn-antarctic.jpg

    Exposed. The East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) may be more vulnerable to global warming than thought. Sediments drilled offshore of the continent’s Wilkes Land Subglacial Basin indicate that the basin was ice-free during parts of the warm Pliocene Epoch.
    Credit: Integrated Ocean Drilling Program

    Earth continues to hit temperature and greenhouse gas milestones—just a couple of months ago, multiple stations measured carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere of 400 parts per million, the highest in several million years. Many studies have tried to estimate how much and how rapidly the two great ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica might melt—and the one reassuring point has been the apparent relative stability of the eastern (and, by far, larger) half of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Now, a new study of past melting in East Antarctica suggests that over the long haul, the “stable” ice sheet may be more vulnerable to warming than thought.

    To study possible future melting of the ice sheets, many scientists look to the past. Current warm temperatures and high greenhouse gas conditions are reminiscent of the warm Pliocene Epoch that lasted from 5.3 million to 2.6 million years ago. “Early and middle Pliocene global temperatures and greenhouse gas concentrations are probably the closest analog in Earth’s history to the present climate on this planet and the climate conditions we will encounter before the end of this century,” says Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand, a sedimentologist at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, U.K., who was not involved in the study.

    Abundant studies have examined melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS)—long considered the more vulnerable portion of the continent’s ice, as much of it lies below sea level, flowing seamlessly into floating ice shelves. Satellite observations reveal that the WAIS is losing mass, sped up by melting along the base of the floating portions as the oceans warm. But the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS), which lies primarily on land, has appeared considerably more stable.

    Yet, data from the Pliocene tell a different story, says Carys Cook, a doctoral student at Imperial College London. Mean temperatures from the Pliocene were 2°C to 3°C warmer than today, and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations between 350 and 450 parts per million. Some data have also suggested that sea levels were perhaps 22 meters higher than today—and even complete melting of the WAIS and Greenland couldn’t account for more than about 12 meters of that, Cook says. Melting of the EAIS would have to have contributed.

    To get a better sense of how much melting might have occurred in East Antarctica during the Pliocene, Cook and her colleagues studied sediments from a deep marine core about 300 kilometers off the coast of Adélie Land in East Antarctica. The core, drilled in 2009 by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), included a long section of sediments dated to the Pliocene between 5.3 million and 3.3 million years ago. These sediments, the team found, told a story of continental erosion patterns as the climate warmed and cooled throughout the epoch.

    In those sediments, the team looked for geochemical “fingerprints”—specifically, geochemical ratios of neodymium to strontium isotopes—that would help them identify the provenances, or sources, of the different layers of sediments. What they found in the Pliocene sediments was telling: They identified multiple layers containing a unique fingerprint for a large, low-lying part of East Antarctica known as the Wilkes Subglacial Basin, which is now ice-covered. For those sediments to have eroded and ended up offshore in the marine core, the basin would have had to be exposed by retreat of the ice, the team reports today in Nature Geoscience.

    This does suggest that the East Antarctic Ice Sheet may not be as stable in a warm climate as some models suggest, Hillenbrand says. And, given that it indicates that the Pliocene had both ice-free warm periods and glacial periods, it’s an “interesting alternative scenario” to the more extreme reconstructions that suggest either widespread melting across East Antarctica or no melting at all relative to today.

    Still, just how sensitive East Antarctic ice is to warming temperatures remains the looming question, he adds. “The temporal resolution of the record does not allow them to conclude—or exclude—that the [ice] retreat occurred on centennial or millennial timescales.”

    It’s a point that Cook acknowledges. “With our current data set, we don’t know how quickly these retreat events took place,” she says—or whether they occurred each time the Pliocene warmed. It may be that the ice repeatedly scoured the basin as it retreated or advanced; alternatively the basin may have been completely exposed for long periods of time. One way to try to answer these questions will be to resample the IODP core at higher resolutions, in order to track the transitions between ice-sheet retreat and no retreat.

    More cores would be even better—the reason that the vulnerability of East Antarctica has been uncertain is probably simply a lack of information, and not just from the land, she adds. “We need marine sediments, we need to drill these deep sediment cores. The real records that tell us about erosional processes are the marine sediment-based records.”

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  • Immigration Department audits reveal large-scale fraud of visa system by Indian students and workers

    Immigration Department audits reveal large-scale fraud of visa system by Indian students and workers

    By Will Ockenden

    Updated 2 hours 36 minutes ago

    The ABC has revealed that thousands of Indian students, skilled workers and 457 visa holders have been admitted to Australia on dodgy travel and work documents.

    Briefings prepared by the Immigration Department and obtained by the ABC’s Fact Checking Unit under Freedom of Information show out-of-control, large-scale fraud of the visa system.

    The internal audits show fraud rates approaching 50 per cent, and an Immigration Department struggling to properly identify people who are entering the country.

    “Identity fraud is a significant risk in the Indian caseload given how easily genuine documents with fraudulent details can be obtained,” one document said.

    Immigration Department spokesman Sandi Logan says the figures, from the 2008/09 financial year, are troubling.

    “Around the periods of 2008, 2009, 2010 the fraud levels were quite considerable, a matter of real concern to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship,” he said.

    Documents reveal identity fraud

    Read Immigration Department documents obtained by the ABC’s Fact Checking Unit under FOI laws.

     

    He says things have since changed.

    “We’re quite confident that those people who were issued with a visa … 99.9 per cent are who they say they are and are doing what they said they would do when they were granted that visa.”

    However in the papers, it is reported that the Department is nearly powerless to stop identity fraud, because of the low level of technology in Indian passports.

    “Longer term, robust biometric processes embedded in Indian identity documents and in DIAC systems will be the only effective combatant,” one paper said.

    Man returns despite being deported, in debt

    An Immigration Department eyes-only briefing from the New Delhi office, published in April 2011, bluntly describes its purpose is to “report on the ease with which identity fraud is possible in India”.

    The documents outline one alarming case where a man breached Australia’s borders by entering the country under a false identity.

    He had previously been detained and deported from Australia, and run up a debt with the Government.

    He had also applied unsuccessfully for a protection visa, and had gone through all levels of appeal.

    He was able to subvert the numerous visa checks by simply changing his birth date.

    “During the interview, his wife admitted that he had lived in Australia, and he had withheld this information from the department,” the documents said.

    The man was eventually caught and re-deported, however the migration agent responsible for the fraudulent application was also living in Australia under a false identity.

    The documents suggest that, in exchange for payment, the agent helped many others into Australia while avoiding detection.

    Mr Logan says he is aware of the case.

    “Human nature being what it is does mean there will always be people seeking to test, seeking to push to the limit, those regulations we have in place,” he said.

    Alarming fraud figures revealed after two-year wait

    The ABC’s Freedom of Information request took nearly two years – much longer than statutory required periods.

    When the documents were delivered, they showed wide-scale passport, visa and ID fraud happening in alarming numbers.

    For a General Skilled Migration visa class, from 23,767 visa lodgements there was a 46.9 per cent fraud rate for 2008/2009.

    The fraud rate was as high as 51.6 per cent in the third quarter of the 2008/09 financial year.

    For Indian student visas, the DIAC documents show a 37 per cent fraud rate from 41,636 lodgements across the same time period.

    The fraud rate has raised questions as to whether the Immigration Department’s existing security and processing systems can handle the growing and complex issue of identity fraud.

    There does not appear to be much the Department can do, with one of the documents finding “opportunities to combat this type of fraud remain extremely difficult”.

    Calls for tighter regulation on overseas agents

    Maurene Horder from the Migration Institute of Australia, the peak body for migration agents, says the situation has improved since 2009.

    “There was clearly a major problem in India during the period of 2008, particularly with students coming to Australia. They were coming in great numbers,” she said.

    “People cheat about all kinds of things, around fraudulent marriages and do scams of all sorts and really that’s a challenge for the compliance officers of our country whether they be the police or be they be immigration officials.”

    She wants migration agents overseas to be forced to register with the Department of Immigration, so they can be banned if they cheat the system.

    “That was a porous, very bad system,” she said.

    “Now, some of those agents have been removed by the department and we think we should go even further with that and actually only allow people who are trained and registered migration agents to be dealing in that space.”