Sunday Herald Sun: THE Coalition’s shaky election campaign was in danger of running off the rails last night with revelations of a major split in Cabinet on the critical poll issue of climate change. In a gift to Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister John Howard and Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull refused to deny reports that Mr Turnbull had made a last-ditch attempt six weeks ago to change Mr Howard’s mind on climate change. Mr Howard and Mr Turnbull stonewalled over reports that …

New York Times: Floyd Many, now 81, grew up in the rolling hills of Delaware County in the Catskills. He has served on the town board for the past 25 years. But when asked about anything comparable to the disputes that are pitting neighbor against neighbor and prompting stern warnings about the importance of remaining civil before public meetings, he draws a blank. As we stumble toward what’s supposed to be a greener future, almost everyone, in the abstract, is for wind energy, surely as …

Associated Press: The sea has been good to Evi Tauaa. When he is hungry, he drags his nets though a turquoise lagoon so full of fish that he can catch hundreds in an afternoon as the sound of laughing children filters through the South Pacific air. Vast open stretches of ocean have protected Tuvalu from the world’s conflicts. The closest neighbor to its nine coral atolls is Fiji, 500 miles to the south. "Life is easy here," Tauaa says, resting in front of his single-room house. …

Agence France-Presse: California officials called on health-sensitive people to stay indoors Saturday due to heavy smoke pollution shrouding the region as the wildfires which devastated the state this week retreated. Cooler temperatures and calmer winds have allowed firefighters to staunch or contain most of the 23 fires that have erupted in southern California since last Sunday, leaving seven dead, destroying 1,800 homes and displacing 640,000 people. Firefighting personnel have predicted that …

Observer: Britain will lobby for a lower national target for renewable energy than the 20 per cent to which European governments agreed earlier this year, John Hutton has indicated. The Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform revealed this apparent about-face to The Observer but denied claims following leaked documents last week that he wanted to do a U-turn on the Europe-wide target for 2020. However, he said that the same target would not ‘automatically apply’ to …

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Prime Minister John Howard has thrown his support behind federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull, but has refused to say whether he believes Mr Turnbull leaked a story about urging federal Cabinet to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Both Mr Howard and Mr Turnbull have refused to deny the reports that the Environment Minister put the case for ratification to Cabinet earlier this year. Newspaper reports today suggest that Mr Turnbull leaked the story to try and improve his …

Canberra Times: ENVIRONMENT Minister Malcolm Turnbull has torpedoed the Government’s credibility on climate change, Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd said yesterday. Neither Mr Turnbull nor Prime Minister John Howard would comment on yesterday’s reports Mr Turnbull had recommended the Government ratify the Kyoto protocol last month. The Australian Financial Review reported yesterday that Mr Turnbull had told his cabinet colleagues the Government ought to ratify Kyoto, saying it would not hurt the …

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.

Houston Chronicle: It has long been sage policy to ignore the crank denials around global warming. But now and then you have a weather-related disaster like the fires devouring big chunks of Southern California – and you wonder about the extent to which the blockheads have slowed progress in dealing with the problem. Leading climatologists may debate how much of the drought in the West and South reflects normal weather cycles and how much climate change. Few question that global warming is already here …

Charlotte Observer: This week’s protest of Charlotte-based Bank of America’s practice of financing companies who strip mine coal in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia raised concerns that should be of interest to all North Carolinians. The Rainforest Action Network hung a huge banner off a crane in front of the Bank of America building that dominates the skyline of downtown Charlotte. The sign read, "Financing Coal, Killing Communities." Many of us are not aware of all the mining practices of …