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Author: Neville

  • Extreme weather events on the rise

    Extreme weather events on the rise

    Photo of the cyclone that swept across Lennox Head in 2010, by Josh Lambie, 11 years old.
    Photo of the cyclone that swept across Lennox Head in 2010, by Josh Lambie, 11 years old.

    EXTREME weather events will increase in magnitude and frequency as a result of climate change, a Senate inquiry has found, and the North Coast will suffer from more cyclonic weather, storms, king tides and coastal erosion.

    The inquiry, Recent trends in and preparedness for extreme weather events, released its findings this week.

    It has recommended better co-ordination between governments and community service groups when dealing with extreme weather.

    Taxes and levies to insurance should be removed as part of a national reform process, and reliable flood mapping for land-owners should be developed.

    More research into the link between climate change and extreme weather events was also needed.

    Southern Cross University Professor of Geography Dr Bill Boyd agreed it was “highly likely” that extreme weather events would increase.

    “There is good evidence that an area such as the North Coast will be affected more by cyclonic weather,” he said.

    “We already experience tail ends of tropical cyclones.

    “I would expect this will be more common in the future, as the cyclones track further south or become more intense.

    “We have also recently experienced increased storminess.

    “It appears that storms have become more frequent, resulting in the coastal zone having less recovery time between storms.

    “Local extreme weather events such as the tornados that hit the Lennox/Byron coast are very hard to predict, so it is unrealistic to expect localised forecasts.”

    Coastal erosion will also continue, Dr Boyd said.

    He said that coastal erosion on sandy coasts normally reverses over time and the beaches recover.

    But if cyclonic or stormy weather happens more frequently, the coast will lose its natural capacity to recover.

    “This will result in the loss of land, especially as the coastal dune system becomes degraded,” he said.

    “Especially vulnerable are coastal spits such as those at Wooli and Belongil.”

    Sea levels will rise and there will be more king tides.

    Dr Boyd said this would flood estuaries and back up drainage systems, causing indirect flooding on the coastal plan.

    “These types of change will affect the most densely populated parts of the North Coast, putting pressure on coastal land use and development,” he said.

    Decisions about development have long-term effects, Dr Boyd said, and planning authorities should make use of the “good and valid” available to model flooding and sea-level rise.

    “The problem is that many areas that would be affected to extreme weather events are already developed,” he said.

  • Climate change first: Ice sheets melt from below (Video)

    Climate change first: Ice sheets melt from below (Video)

    Filmmakers Glen Milner and Ben Hilton create a portrait of a modern Inuit family living in the fearsome North Greenland landscape. (on.aol.com)

    Related Photo:

    Modeled basal ice temperatures of the present-day Greenland Ice Shield across the Summit region, GRIP, and GISP2 indicate borehole locations.

    © A. Petrunin/GFZ used with permission
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    August 11, 2013

    Alexey Petrunin and Irina Rogozhina of IceGeoHeat, an international climate research initiative led by the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, are the first to establish a connection between heat transfer from the mantle beneath the world’s ice sheets and the rate of ice sheet melting. The research was published in the journal Nature Geoscience on Aug. 11, 2013.

    The researchers based their conclusions on a study of the ice sheet in Greenland. The Greenland ice sheet is the oldest and most variable in thickness of all the world’s ice sheets.

    The Greenland ice sheet is important to climate change models because the melting of the Greenland ice sheet accounts for 25 percent of the sea level rise produced by global warming.

    The researchers found that heat transferred through the Earth’s mantle contributes to the melting of the Greenland ice sheet. The melting is not uniform across the ice sheet. The melting that occurs from below in a given area depends on the composition of the mantle in that area.

    The addition of these new findings were added to the most recent and best accepted climate change models and produced more accurate results compared to measurement than have been previously seen.

  • Electoral roll still short by 1.3m as deadline looms

    Electoral roll still short by 1.3m as deadline looms

    Posted 4 hours 14 minutes ago

    The Australian Electoral Commission estimates that 1.3 million eligible Australians are missing from the electoral roll, on the day enrolment closes for the federal election.

    Joe O’Brien

    Source: ABC News | Duration: 5min 11sec

     

     

  • Destruction of coastal habitats can produce a billion tons of greenhouse gas a year

    Destruction of coastal habitats can produce a billion tons of greenhouse gas a year

    Original post by Duke University

    Destruction of coastal habitats may release as much as 1 billion tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere each year, 10 times higher than previously reported, according to a new Duke led study.

    Published online this week in PLOS ONE, the analysis provides the most comprehensive estimate of global carbon emissions from the loss of these coastal habitats to date: 0.15 to 1.2 billion tons. It suggests there is a high value associated with keeping these coastal-marine ecosystems intact as the release of their stored carbon costs roughly $6–$42 billion annually.

    “On the high end of our estimates, emissions are almost as much as the carbon dioxide emissions produced by the world’s fifth-largest emitter, Japan,” said Brian Murray, director for economic analysis at Duke’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. “This means we have previously ignored a source of greenhouse gas emissions that could rival the emissions of many developed nations.”

    This carbon, captured through biological processes and stored in the sediment below mangroves, sea grasses and salt marshes, is called “blue carbon.” When these wetlands are drained and destroyed, the sediment layers below begin to oxidize. Once this soil, which can be many feet deep, is exposed to air or ocean water it releases carbon dioxide over days or years.

    “There’s so little data out there on how much carbon might be released when these ecosystems are disturbed,” said Oregon State University’s Daniel Donato, co-lead author of the paper. “With this analysis we tried to reduce some of that uncertainty by identifying some ‘bookends’ that represent the lowest and highest probable emissions, given the information available.”

    The PLOS ONE study looked at the potentially massive amount of carbon tucked away from the atmosphere by the slow accretion, over hundreds to thousands of years, of soils beneath these habitats. Previous work in the area has focused only on the amount of carbon stored in these systems and not what happens when these systems are degraded or destroyed and the stored carbon is released.

    “These coastal ecosystems are a tiny ribbon of land, only 6 percent of the land area covered by tropical forest, but the emissions from their destruction are nearly one-fifth of those attributed to deforestation worldwide,” said Linwood Pendleton, the study’s co-lead author and director of the Ocean and Coastal Policy Program at the Nicholas Institute. “One hectare, or roughly two acres of coastal marsh, can contain the same amount of carbon as 488 cars produce in a year. Comparatively, destroying a hectare of mangroves could produce as much greenhouse gas emissions as cutting down three to five hectares of tropical forest.”

    The critical role of these ecosystems for carbon sequestration has been overlooked, the study said. These coastal habitats could be protected and climate change combated if a system—much like what is being done to protect trees through Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) —were implemented. Such a policy would assign credits to carbon stored in these habitats and provide economic incentive if they are left intact.

    “Blue carbon ecosystems provide a plethora of benefits to humans: they support fisheries, buffer coasts from floods and storms, and filter coastal waters from pollutants,” said Emily Pidgeon, senior director of Strategic Marine Initiatives at Conservation International and co-chair of the Blue Carbon Initiative. “Economic incentives to reverse these losses may help preserve these benefits and serve as a viable part of global efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and address climate change.”

    The work was funded by Linden Trust for Conservation and Roger and Victoria Sant. To review the paper, “Estimating Global ‘Blue Carbon’ Emissions from Conversion and Degradation of Vegetated Coastal Ecosystems,” visit http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0043542.

    The study was led by Linwood Pendleton of Duke’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions and Dan Donato of Oregon State University. Others from Duke’s Nicholas Institute, Conservation International, ESA Phillip Williams & Associates, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Florida International University, Oregon State University, Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, International Union for Conservation of Nature and the Ocean Conservancy contributed as co-authors.

  • Antony Green: Election a state-by-state battle

    Click ABC News to watch video.

    Antony Green: Election a state-by-state battle

    Updated 49 minutes ago

    ABC election analyst Antony Green explains why the election is a state-by-state battle, and why Labor faces trouble in the southern states.

    Antony Green

    Source: ABC News | Duration: 1min 34sec

     

  • Letters: Why should we grow South Australia?

    READERS have written about Nick Xenophon’s push for population growth in SA, environmentalists, romance, and King Charles Spaniels.

    Ease off

    WHY all this pressure for population growth in South Australia (“People power key to growth of our state”, 30/7/13)?

    Population growth does not necessarily lead to per capita GDP growth and rarely leads to increase in well-being or quality of life.

    A state’s population has to be set in terms of what resources it has and, in particular, how much food can it grow. South Australia is the driest state on the driest inhabited continent and is very limited in this regard.

    Will bringing in ever more people help youth in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, currently suffering up to 25 per cent unemployment? Probably not.

    The reality is, of course, that population growth only benefits business by driving down wages, and real estate agents by creating demand for housing.

    The rest have to endure higher house prices, congestion and pollution.

    Why spoil a beautiful capital city and lovely state?

    JENNY GOLDIE, national president, Sustainable Population Australia, Michelago, NSW.

    Growth risks

    HAS Nick Xenophon lost touch? If elected, he wants to boost migrant numbers and population growth in South Australia (The Advertiser, 7/8/13).

    Is he aware that recent polls indicate around 70 per cent of the public are not in favour of a big population?

    Has he considered the impact of growing demand on the Murray?

    Does he understand that higher migration can at best defer an ‘’ageing population’’, as migrants also age?

    Has he considered that a stable population will encourage skills to be developed locally, improving job opportunities for South Australians, especially younger people?

    Has he considered the liveability of Adelaide and housing affordability?

    GREG OATES, SA Senate candidate, Stable Population Party, Magill.

    Do the maths

    NICK Xenophon, like so many others, has fallen for the ageing myth.

    Bringing in migrants to counteract the imagined problems with ageing only makes the problem worse not better.

    In the 1950s and 1960s we were facing a severe labour shortage and so migration was a solution.

    The situation we face today is radically different – we have 20 per cent of youth unemployment.

    This basically means that the real problem demographic is the youth as they stay longer and longer on the taxpayers teat.

    We also need to recognise that at 65 people do not magically lose all their skills and talents.

    We are moving into a knowledge economy where people can work for much longer. Providing incentives to employ older workers and for workers to stay in the workforce is a better solution.

    SA’s population is currently growing at a rate of 1.2 per cent a year. So in the last 12 months our population increased by about 20,000.

    Nothing to worry about. That is until you start doing some basic arithmetic.

    Each new resident requires an infrastructure expenditure of $200,000 to cover the costs needed to support that person. So government has to find billions of dollars to cover those costs.

    How did they do this when money is tight?

    The solution is simple – you simply require that essential services such as education, police and health have to cater for more people without a significant increase in their budgets.

    Also, you transfer money that has been set aside for the maintenance of services like gas, water and electricity to spend it on providing services to the new developments.

    Next you authorise the privatised utilities to increase their fees to cover some of the additional costs required.

    Finally you just simply do not spend the money required on items like roads – people will just have to put up with more traffic congestion.

    Put simply, the government’s policy of promoting population increase is paid for by reducing the quality of life for all South Australians; population growth is making most of us poorer.

    It does benefit a few developers but is it really the job of government policy to make property developers richer?

    JOHN TÖNS, Lenswood.

    What price water?

    I AM very concerned about the issue of overpopulation in the world today.

    If overpopulation is to continue, it will only cause more problems for water and air pollution, along with the need for ever greater volumes of food and water to sustain our bugeoning population.

    Even though the one-child policy was introduced in China, it doesn’t seem to be helping very much. If overpopulation is to continue we will be left fighting for our resources.

    I think that it is important that people are aware of the consequences of out-of-control child birthing around the world.

    LUCY BAMBRICK, Highgate.

    Read more: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/national-news/south-australia/letters-why-should-we-grow-south-australia/story-fnii5yl6-1226694542940#ixzz2bYpvkyP2