2015

Biological treasures need breathing room to cope with climate

With three UNESCO World Heritage Areas under threat from climate change, including Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, scientists have put forward a new approach to making iconic ecosystems more resilient—and it's not just about reducing global emissions.

Dancing to drought’s ragged tune

For most of us, the word drought conjures images of a parched landscape, stunted crops, dry waterways and dead livestock. But what about rain dancing?

Small, beautiful, new and very old: meet the Enigma moth

We recently celebrated one of the most exciting discoveries in entomology in the last 40 years – the discovery of a new family of primitive moths. It was found right in our own backyard, on Kangaroo Island in South Australia.

February carbon dioxide levels average 400ppm for first time

The US government’s greenhouse gas monitoring site at Mauna Loa in Hawaii has confirmed that its average recorded carbon dioxide levels for February topped 400 parts per million (ppm) – the first time that this has been seen in a northern winter month.

Buying the groceries in a warming world

Most Australians believe climate change is happening, even if they don’t all believe it’s caused by human activity. But they’re […]

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.