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Australia

  • Critical List: Shipping industry objects to E.U. emissions scheme; when horses act like squirrels

    Like the airline industry, the shipping industry objects to the E.U.'s decisions to include it in a emissions trading system.

    Will the federal government be spending less on disaster response in the future? Somehow “let ‘em drown” doesn’t seem like the best possible debt reduction plan.

    Australia's carbon tax, which was so hotly disputed that people were sending climate scientists death threats, would apply to just 400 of the country's top polluters.

    Hydro turbines are going into the Puget Sound by late summer 2013.

    Sarah Laskow Transportation

  • Critical List: Australia will tax carbon; U.S. cars kill 32.5 trillion insects each year

    This is a carbon tax: Australia is going to put a tax of $23 per metric ton on carbon emissions from 500 companies.

    Hybrids and electric vehicles may no longer be legally allowed to slink quietly down the street, surprising pedestrians and dogs everywhere. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is proposing a rule requiring that the near-silent cars emit some sort of sound at low speeds.

    The EPA is not happy with ExxonMobil and the company's plan to clean up the Yellowstone River. I mean, it’s in favor of cleaning up, it just thinks this particular plan stinks.

    Sarah Laskow Technology

  • Company wants to turn world’s biggest coal field into world’s biggest coal plant

    A 250 mile long coal seam discovered deep in the interior desert of Australia's Northern Territory appears to be the most gigantic coal deposit on planet Earth, and Central Petroleum Limited wants to burn it all. They project it will take them at least a century to go through the entire reserve, or right about until they’ve turned Australia’s notoriously harsh desert into an incomprehensibly lifeless hellscape populated by miners in climate controlled space-suits.

    Christopher Mims Technology

  • Death threats for Australian climate scientists

    Australian climate scientists are paying a steep price for their work, as opponents of Australia’s proposed tax on carbon emissions have embraced an attack the messenger strategy. More than 30 researchers told the Canberra Times that they have received emails “threatening violence, sexual assault, public smear campaigns and attacks on family members.” In response, several […]

    Aaron Ross Science

  • Watch the ad that made Australian climate scientists get death threats

    I'm no Peggy Olson, but if someone asked me to put together an ad that would NOT cause anybody to get death threats, I'd probably say something like: "Make it positive and upbeat about the future. Throw a baby in there. Can we get Cate Blanchett? See if we can get Cate Blanchett." Positivity + […]

    Jess Zimmerman Science

  • Down with coal! The grassroots anti-coal movement goes global

    The article was coauthored by Bob Burton (CoalSwarm, Australia), Christine Shearer (CoalSwarm, U.S.), Cynthia Ong (LEAP, Malaysia), Jamie Henn (350.org, U.S.), John Hepburn (Greenpeace, Australia), Joshua Frank (CoalSwarm, U.S.), Justin Guay (Sierra Club, U.S.), Kate Hoshour (International Accountability Project, U.S.), and Mark Wakeham (Environment Victoria, Australia). In Thailand, 10,000 people call on their government to […]

    Ted Nace Health

  • Feral camels are coming to eat your air conditioner

    … if you live in Australia, that is. Perhaps as a punishment for making me think about giant snakes, Australia is suffering yet another attempted takeover by non-native species, which periodically come in and disrupt the continent's carefully balanced ecosystem of massively deadly freaks of nature. This time, it’s feral camels. And they eat air […]

    Jess Zimmerman Science

  • Awesome bird records its own habitat destruction

    Robert Krulwich has a post up about the superb lyrebird (real name!), which is COMPLETELY RIDIC. What's so superb? How about the ability to mimic any noise it hears with astonishing faithfulness, that do anything for you? It's the auditory equivalent of that girl from Heroes who could copy anything she saw on TV and […]

    Jess Zimmerman Science

  • Australia announces big solar project — at a coal plant

    The Kogan Creek Power Station.Photo: Kogan Solar BoostAustralian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Wednesday appeared at giant coal-fired power plant to announce that the Southern Hemisphere’s largest solar project would be built in Queensland. Why, you may be wondering, would the PM travel to a remote 750-megawatt coal power station to make a big renewable […]

    Todd Woody Technology