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Climate change will create strange bedfellows on deep ocean reefs
Open Forum | September 29, 2018By 2060, deep ocean reefs in the cooler waters off south eastern Australia are likely to be substantially different, becoming more tropical in response to climate driven ocean warming.
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We must strengthen, not weaken, environmental protections during drought – or face irreversible loss
Sarah Legge | September 28, 2018Australian rural communities face hardships during extended drought but subverting or weakening existing protective conservation management practices and policies will exacerbate the impacts of drought on natural environments and biodiversity.
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Climate change tops the concerns of Gen X and Gen Y
Julia Cook | September 20, 2018Climate change is the number one cause for concern for both Generation X and Generation Y and they aren’t impressed by government efforts to tackle environmental challenges.
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Rising seas will displace millions of people – and Australia must be ready
Jane McAdam | August 27, 2018Climate change will provoke rises in sea levels unseen since the end of the last ice age. Vast numbers of people who currently live beside the sea will be threatened and Australia will have to play its part in managing the crisis to come.
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Humanity has a big decision to make in the climate end-game
Ian Dunlop | August 24, 2018Humanity has a big decision to make very soon about its future on warming planet, but the Federal Coalition is still in denial that human-induced climate change even exists, let alone that the climate end-game is upon us.
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The great climate depression
Tom Kompas | August 17, 2018Imagine something similar to the Great Depression of 1929 hitting the world, but this time it never ends. Economic modelling suggests this is the reality facing us if we continue emitting greenhouse gases and allowing temperatures to rise unabated.
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The sleepy lizard awakens new tools for climate change research
Michael Kearney | August 12, 2018Understanding the factors which limit the distribution of animals – such as their need for water – can help model how populations will shift in the light of climate change.
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Earth could be heading for a hothouse climate
Open Forum | August 8, 2018An international study has found the Earth is at risk of entering a hothouse climate that could lead to global average temperatures of up to five degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial temperatures and long-term rises in the sea level of between 10 and 60 metres.
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The cascading impacts of climate change
Robert Glasser | August 2, 2018Earlier this month, the World Bank released a major study warning that more than 800 million people reside in areas that by 2050 will become dangerous climate hotspots. As bad as this seems, reports of this kind fail to take full account of the cascading impacts of a warming planet.
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Australia faces more intense rain storms
Open Forum | July 31, 2018A landmark study shows how heavy, short rain storms are intensifying more rapidly than would be expected with global warming. Researchers say this is likely to lead to increasing flash floods and urban flooding.
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Ocean acidification challenges science, governments and communities
Open Forum | July 27, 2018Researchers have found that in recent centuries, surface ocean pH has fallen ten times faster than in the past 300 million years and that impacts are being felt on ecosystems, economies and communities worldwide.
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Thawing permafrost microbiomes fuel climate change
Open Forum | July 19, 2018A University of Queensland-led international study could lead to more accurate predictions on the rate of global warming from greenhouse gas emissions produced by thawing permafrost in the next 100 years.