22 February 2016, The Conversation, Queensland land clearing is undermining Australia’s environmental progress. Land clearing has returned to Queensland in a big way. After we expressed concern that policy changes since 2012 would lead to a resurgence in clearing of native vegetation, this outcome was confirmed by government figures released late last year. It is now clear that land clearing is accelerating in Queensland. The new data confirm that 296,000 hectares of bushland was cleared in 2013-14 – three times as much as in 2008-09 – mainly for conversion to pastures. These losses do not include the well-publicised clearing permitted by the government of nearly 900 square kilometres at two properties, Olive Vale and Strathmore, which commenced in 2015. Map showing the amount of habitat for threatened species cleared between 2012 and 2014. WWF. Alarmingly, the data show that clearing in catchments that drain onto the Great Barrier Reef increased dramatically, and constituted 35% of total clearing across Queensland in 2013-14. The loss of native vegetation cover in such regions is one of the major drivers of the deteriorating water quality in the reef’s lagoon, which threatens seagrass, coral reefs, and other marine ecosystems. The increases in land clearing are across the board. They include losses of over 100,000 hectares of old-growth habitats, as well as the destruction of “high-value regrowth” – the advanced regeneration of endangered ecosystems. These ecosystems have already been reduced to less than 10% of their original extent, and their recovery relies on allowing this regrowth to mature. Alarmingly, our analysis of where the recent clearing has occurred reveals that even “of concern” and “endangered” remnant ecosystems are being lost at much higher rates now than before. Read More here
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22 February 2016, Renew Economy, Failure to include health risks grossly distorts true costs of climate change. Climate change is above all a question of public health. Although spared from famine and civil disruption that will afflict other countries, Australians increasingly will be exposed to the effects of extreme weather patterns consequent to our heating climate, and they will as a result suffer more ill health requiring attention from GPs and hospitals. Heat waves lead to heat stroke, increase heart attacks, cause dehydration and threaten those with renal impairment; fires threaten life in so many ways; floods and wild storms can cause drownings and other injuries; and all these events lead to distress and affect long-term mental well-being. Children especially, but also adults, can suffer from sleep disturbances, aggressive behaviour, sadness, substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder. Children are also vulnerable to extreme weather events because such events interrupt their safety, their sense of security and their access to the outside world. Hotter days will bring more asthma, and, in some localities, more exposure to local mosquito-born infectious diseases. This cannot be what we want for our children. Disturbingly, our health system infrastructure and resources can also be affected by more severe and frequent extreme weather events, thus potentially limiting their ability to provide care when it is needed most. For example, in the heat wave before the Black Saturday bushfires, 25 per cent of all hospitals had problems with their air-conditioning or cooling systems. Political leaders, by ignoring the impacts of global warming on health, have hindered public discourse and concerted action on climate change despite the urgency to act. The failure to include health costs distorts the costs to families and communities, as well as the bottom line on already-stretched health budgets. What is already well known by economists, for example, is that the health costs of coal and fossil fuel burning increase societal costs of electricity (double or more by some estimates) – surely an incentive to escape from the fossil fuel addiction. The Morwell coalmine fire in Victoria would be another route by which society is damaged by use of fossil fuels. As a medical organisation, Doctors for the Environment Australia is frustrated by the dismal failure of governments and our senior leaders to include the health risks and costs in the numerous discussions on climate change. Read More here
21 February 2016, Climate News Network, Fall in rain hits Southeast Asia food yields. Changing climate and weather are creating severe problems for some of the world’s largest producers of rice and other major agricultural crops.The boat moves sluggishly up the Ayeyarwaddy, the river formerly known as the Irrawaddy. Every so often it comes to a halt as the ferryman dips a bamboo pole in the shallow waters, checking for sandbanks. Even though it is the dry season, water levels in the Ayeyarwaddy – Myanmar’s main river, and one of Southeast Asia’s principal waterways – are unusually low. The ferry is carrying passengers and goods from the ancient temple site of Baganto the city of Mandalay. “The journey is taking longer and longer as the water level keeps dropping,” says the skipper of the creaking, wooden-hulled boat. “It has been so dry. For the last two years, the monsoon in this area has arrived late and the rains were not enough. Then, when it did rain, it was intense, and more and more sand and earth was washed downriver because the trees are being cut down further north. It makes the journey very difficult.” Damaged crops A similar story is being heard across much of the region – from the Brahmaputrain Assam in India, west of Myanmar, to the Mekong in Vietnam in the east. Unusual weather patterns and a lack of rain in many areas in recent years have caused drought and severely damaged crops in what are some of the world’s most fertile areas. When the rains do arrive the dry, caked earth often cannot absorb the water. Read More here
20 February 2016, Climate News Network, Carbon rise keeps water in drylands. Increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because of climate change is helping to turn the world’s drylands a more luxuriant green − but that’s not necessarily good news. The drylands of the world are getting greener, and researchers think it is thanks to higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In a paradoxical discovery, even as landscapes become increasingly at risk of desertification, they may also look more luxuriant. Two scientists from Purdue University in Indiana, US, and a researcher in Saudi Arabia report in the journal Scientific Reports that they analysed 45 satellite studies from eight countries to confirm that the drylands of the world are responding to global warming and climate change by getting greener.Their conclusion is that rising levels of the greenhouse gas that is warming the planet – a consequence of humans’ combustion of fossil fuels over the last two centuries – are also delivering extra fertilisation to plants, so that photosynthesis can function with less water. In turn, this means that more soil water stays in the ground. Negative feedback “We know from satellite observations that vegetation is greener than it was in the past,” says Lixin Wang, an Earth scientist from Purdue, and one of the authors of the report. “We now understand why that is occurring, but we don’t necessarily know if it is a good thing or not.” The observation seems to suggest that nature is delivering what engineers call negative feedback: as the Earth warms because of the rising greenhouse gas levels, so vegetation is responding to grow more vigorously and soak up more carbon. This has been observed before, but it may not be a good thing because one consequence of climate change is that drylands everywhere – and they are home to around two billion people – are likely to become increasingly parched, with cruel consequences for the world’s poorest people who make up most of those two billion. Nor is it certain that all drylands will respond with more vigorous growth. For some terrains, ecological devastation could increase. Read More here