Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Greens leader Senator Bob Brown has continued to criticise the Howard Government for its opposition to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. The Financial Review has reported that Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull urged Cabinet six weeks ago to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, claiming there would be no economic harm to Australia. Mr Turnbull has declined to comment on Cabinet discussions, but has not denied the report. Senator Brown says the Government refuses to …

New York Times: Determined to lead the discussion on climate change among developing nations, the Indonesian government spent much of the past week recruiting countries to join it in pressing richer nations to provide incentives to reduce carbon emissions. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono made a direct plea on Wednesday at the start of a two-day gathering of 40 environment ministers near this capital, a precursor to the United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held in Bali in December. …

New York Times: Why do I feel like I began my reporting career 30 years ago listening to the BBC World Service and I’m going to end it glued to the Weather Channel? I flew into Los Angeles last Monday – right through a gray-brown cloud of smoke from the forest fires burning in the hills east of the city. I couldn’t actually see the fires from the air, only the smoke billowing out of mountain caverns, like so many smoldering volcanoes. There was something wild and prehistoric about it. It looked like …

Sydney Morning Herald: THE Howard Government has been deeply embarrassed by the revelation that Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull proposed that Australia should ratify the Kyoto Protocol in a bid to defuse the issue electorally. Prime Minister John Howard and Mr Turnbull yesterday effectively confirmed a report of Mr Turnbull’s proposal - rejected by cabinet - by declining to deny it. Asked if he thought Australia should ratify Kyoto, Mr Turnbull said: "It’s not for me to express a personal …

Sunday Mail: MAJOR new research has found a direct link between land-clearing and climate change in Queensland. Scientists found that summer rainfall had decreased by up to 12 per cent and temperatures risen an average of 2C in the worst-affected areas in southern Queensland. University of Queensland and State Government scientists found land clearing was just as significant as greenhouse gas production in climate change. "The findings suggest the large-scale clearance of …

New York Times: A strange thing is happening at the edge of Poul Bjerge’s forest, a place so minute and unexpected that it brings to mind the teeny plot of land Woody Allen’s father carries around in the film "Love and Death." Its four oldest trees – in fact, the four oldest pine trees in Greenland, named Rosenvinge’s trees after the Dutch botanist who planted them in a mad experiment in 1893 – are waking up. After lapsing into stately, sleepy old age, they are exhibiting new sprinklings of green at …

Agence France-Presse: As California battles wind-whipped wildfires, vast areas of the United States are struggling with an epic drought that has millions of people fearing their taps could run dry. In the southeastern United States, farmers are struggling with failing crops, environmentalists warn of impending disaster and three states are locked in battle over the use of a rapidly dwindling manmade lake. "Nearly half of the Southeast is in extreme drought and water supplies have reached …

Major new research from Queensland, Australia “has found a direct link between land-clearing and climate change,” [ark] and that land clearing triggers hotter droughts [ark] . Areas throughout southern Queensland cleared of native vegetation were found to have lost 12 percent of their summer rainfall and to have experienced an average 2C rise in temperatures. The study found that land clearing was just as significant in terms of climate change [search] as greenhouse gas production from fossil fuels.

Should these findings hold up and are found to be generalized throughout Australia and other areas globally clearing remaining natural vegetation, it would suggest a major revision in climate change policy-making is due. It is not enough to just focus upon greenhouse gas emissions, but maintaining natural vegetation through preservation, conservation and restoration may be an equally important policy response if global heating is to stopped.

ABC: Climate researchers are weighing in on the California fires. Researchers have been warning us about potential disruptions of our climate patterns — predicting more freezing temperatures, droughts and fires and now they are assessing what long term effects these destructive blazes may have on the environment. The fact that this planet is warming is in fact confirmed at this point. But the question is, what will the long-term effects be? There had been climate change models and …

LA Times: For a disaster as predictable as this week’s wildfires, there was far too little of the kind of long-term readiness required to prevent or minimize the worst of the damage. At the federal level, millions of dollars have been cut from fire protection for communities abutting wilderness, money that could have been used, for example, to clear brush. A June report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office faults various agencies for failing to devise any sort of strategy, or even a …