4 August 2016, The Guardian, CSIRO cuts: Turnbull government orders U-turn on climate science research. Only 20 climate science positions will be lost from the CSIRO, down from an initial 96, after the Turnbull government intervened, issuing a ministerial directive to the independent agency. Guardian Australia understands 35 climate scientist will still be sacked, but there will be 15 new hires. It is also understood there is no new money for the appointments, but must come from existing CSIRO funding. The cuts were first announced by the CSIRO in February this year. The decision was made by the CSIRO, which acts independently from government, but were a result of cuts the government made to environmental research funding. Greg Hunt, who replaced Christopher Pyne as minister for science and innovation in July, said on Thursday there would be 15 new climate science jobs and $37m invested in climate science research over 10 years. First reported in Fairfax Media on Thursday, Hunt said he made the changes by issuing a ministerial directive to the CSIRO. When the CSIRO first decided to make the cuts, the plan was to cut about 100 climate scientists. After a public outcry, the numbers were quickly reduced to just 70, and by April the number had reduced to about 35 jobs. Speaking on ABC’s AM program, Hunt said the move indicated a new government with a new focus. “It’s a decision that the prime minister and myself have taken. It’s a new government and we’re laying out a direction that climate science matters,” he said. Read More here
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2 August 2016, Carbon Brief, Scientists confirm multiple climate records broken in 2015. Last year saw records in the Earth’s climate system continue to tumble, says the latest State of the Climate report from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The 300-page report, now in its 26th year, is an annual assessment of the world’s climate, scrutinising the Earth’s land, oceans, ice and atmosphere. It is compiled by more than 450 scientists from 62 countries. Carbon Brief takes a look at how rising greenhouse gas emissions, with the help of a strong El Niño event, made 2015 into a record-breaker. Greenhouse gases Last year was record-breaking for concentrations of all three of the main long-lived greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O). At the Mauna Loa Observatory, where scientists have been monitoring CO2 since the 1950s, the average concentration for the year as a whole surpassed 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time. At 400.8ppm, CO2 levels in the atmosphere were 3.1ppm greater than 2014 – the largest annual increase of the 58-year record. In addition, March 2015 was the first time average CO2 concentration across the globe has been more than 400ppm for an entire month. Global annual average CO2 levels for 2015 finished just shy of the 400ppm milestone, at 399.4 ppm. You can see this in the chart below, one of several graphics produced alongside the report. Meanwhile, levels of both methane and nitrous oxides reached new record highs in 2015, at 1834.0 parts per billion (ppb) and 328.2ppb, respectively. Read More here
2 August 2016, Renew Economy, South Australia takes on networks over soaring grid charges. The South Australia government has decided to take on the monopoly electricity network operator in the state as it continues its campaign against the market dominance of the powerful energy oligopoly, and their ability to pass on huge price increases to consumers that are often blamed on wind and solar. Network costs in South Australia – like most of the country – account for more than half the average household bill. Consumers were hoping to get some relief after the Australian Energy Regulator knocked back some of the planned spending by SA Power Networks, but its ruling is now being challenged in court. Energy minister Tom Koutsantonis says he will send a senior public servant to appear before the Australian Competition Tribunal this week, accusing SAPN of “cherry picking” individual spending decisions from the AER in the hope of boosting its overall spending allowance. It’s a crucial intervention by the state government, and comes amid huge public controversy over its ambitious renewable energy plans, and the already high penetration of wind and solar that could reach 50 per cent by the end of the year. Recent high wholesale electricity prices have been blamed by many in the Coalition, and the Murdoch media, on the state’s reliance on renewables, even though most independent analysts and market regulators blame soaring gas prices, grid constraints, and other factors. South Australia has long had the highest electricity prices in the country, a point underlined by federal energy minister Josh Frydenberg last week, who also pointed out that the recent spikes in wholesale prices used to be a regular event even before the build out of large wind farms and rooftop solar. Read More here
1 August 2016, Carbon Brief, Guest post: An Antarctic voyage in search of blue carbon. A guest article from Dr David Barnes, a marine benthic ecologist at the British Antarctic Survey, and colleagues Chester Sands, Narissa Bax, Rachel Downey, Christoph Held, Oliver Hogg, Kirill Minin, Camille Moreau, Bernabé Moreno and Maria Lund Paulsen from the Antarctic Seabed Carbon Capture Change project. As global temperatures rise, the response from different parts of the climate system can amplify or dampen the pace of warming. These are known as feedback loops. Melting sea ice, for example, tends to cause a positive feedback loop. The loss of sea ice means that energy from the sun that would have been reflected away by the bright white ice is instead absorbed by the darker ocean. This causes further warming, which in turn causes more sea ice loss, and so on. Negative feedback loops, on the other hand, work to reduce further warming. Blue carbon is one such example. Blue carbon is the term given to carbon stored in coastal or marine ecosystems. It typically refers to salt marshes, mangroves, and seagrass beds, which capture CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in their leaves, stems and in the soil. A less well-known – but no less important – contribution to blue carbon comes from tiny organisms that live on the seabed. These creatures, known as zoobenthos, take up carbon from the plankton they eat and the CO2 in seawater they use to build their skeletons. When the zoobenthos die, their bodies are eventually buried in the sediment of the seabed, sequestering carbon in the process. Our initial research suggests that coastal areas of the Arctic and Antarctic are absorbing and storing more blue carbon as the climate warms. This boost to carbon storage could form one of the biggest negative feedback loops against climate change on Earth. Read More here