Posts by Nick Kachel

Paris, truffles and extreme weather – it’s all relative

Crocodiles stuck in the mud - researchers are discovering that native species have their limits when it comes to Australia's extreme weather, particularly during El Niño.

Climate change and extreme weather: understanding the link

There is a strong interest in understanding the changing odds of extreme weather events as the underlying climate system changes. Scientists have examined extreme weather events of 2014 to see if they can be attributed to climate change.

The global warming pause that never was

In recent years, there has been significant public discussion about a so-called ‘hiatus’ or global warming pause that is supposed to have spanned part of the last one or two decades. The evidence shows it doesn't exist.

New software to help protect Australia from wind-borne threats

Wind helps the spread of some serious environmental pests within Australia, and now a new online tool for modelling the dispersal of living organisms is helping prepare for and respond to these wind-borne threats.

Two trillion light bulbs burning in our oceans

A network of floating data monitors across the world’s oceans has revealed a noticeable rise in temperature, particularly around Northern Australia, in as little as eight years – something that usually takes a lot longer to be recorded.

Staying sustainable when you’re not

Barring miracles, or some very rapid advances in medicine, at some stage, you’re going to die. Sad, but true. So let’s assume that you’ve tried to live as environmentally frugally as possible. How can you continue the effort to be sustainable when you yourself aren’t?

Pests and pathogens hitching a ride

There’s a downside to modern travel and trade networks: pests and pathogens hitch a ride. Nowadays, as a 2014 CSIRO report shows, the question isn’t ‘if’ something nasty arrives – it’s ‘when’.

Severe La Niña events predicted to double

A team looking at the effect of a warming climate on the frequency and severity of La Niña events has found they are likely to be twice as frequent in future.

Australian farmers face increasing threat of new diseases: report

A nationwide outbreak of foot and mouth disease; an invasion of a devastating wheat disease; our honeybees completely wiped out. These are just three possible disastrous scenarios facing Australia; they’re considered in the Australia’s Biosecurity Future report recently published by CSIRO and its partners.