Sydney Morning Herald: Prominent notices in the rooms at the Club Med Cherating Beach on Malaysia’s east coast warn guests to keep their doors and windows closed at all times. If you fail to take heed of the warnings, you may find the contents of your suitcase thrown around the room and banana skins hanging from lampshades. Zippers, clip-locks and screw-top containers are no obstacle for the nimble fingers of the local long-tailed macaques as they search for food. This monkey business takes on a more …

Environment News Service: A majority of Americans responding to a new survey of attitudes toward climate change policies support a variety of city and local measures to minimize the effects of global warming. The first results of a new quarterly survey called the GfK Roper/Yale Survey on Environmental Issues found that nearly three quarters of the Americans polled (74 percent) would support local regulations requiring all newly constructed homes to be more energy efficient. They supported this policy even …

Australia, already suffering some of the most evident impacts of climate change anywhere [search] and ravaged by a monumental climate change enhanced drought [search], has this week been further buffeted by scientific predictions regarding climate change [more | more2 | news search] from its own government scientists that border upon apocalyptic. The first comprehensive climate projections since 2001 from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia’s national science agency, presented dire new evidence that Australia faces a sharp rise in temperatures, danger from bushfires, and severe drought if greenhouse gas emissions are not curbed.

Sydney’s temperature is predicted to rise by an average 4.3C by 2070, drought months are expected to increase by 20% nationwide, and a nationwide increase of temperature of 1.0C by 2030 is now considered unavoidable. Sadly, the nation is failing miserably to mobilize to reduce energy use and emissions, continues to clearcut its native forests, and refuses to participate in good faith with international cooperation on establishment of mandatory emission cut targets. Australia teeters upon continental scale ecological collapse, yet parties on like there is no tomorrow, ensuring this may indeed be the case

Reuters: Environmentalists are stepping up their assault on the coal industry by targeting two major banks that finance the mine companies blamed for greenhouse gas emissions. The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) declined to say Friday which banks it has in its sights, but earlier this week it identified Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc as companies that report low levels of emissions while continuing to invest in coal projects. RAN pointed a finger at the institutions last …

Reuters: Record melting of Arctic sea ice this year sent a "very alarming" signal about warming at the North Pole, but it couldn’t all definitely be blamed on manmade climate change, the U.N.’s top weatherman said on Tuesday. The amount of Arctic ice which melted this summer beat a previous record, set two years ago, by an area more than four times the size of Britain, a 30-year satellite record shows. "This year was quite exceptional … the melting of the Arctic ice … …

Reuters: An environmental group called on two U.S. banks on Tuesday to stop underwriting a "coal rush" to build 150 new coal-fired power plants, which it said would add to greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. The Rainforest Action Network launched a campaign targeting Citigroup and Bank of America Corp because they finance coal company projects that it charges cause carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and toxic mercury pollution. Coal mining, it said, is responsible …

Guardian: The Amazonian wilderness is at risk of unprecedented damage from an ambitious plan to improve transport, communications and power generation in the region, conservationists warned yesterday. Development plans have been drawn up to boost trade links between 10 economic hubs on the continent, but threaten to bring "a perfect storm of environmental destruction" to the world’s oldest rainforest, according to a report from Conservation International. Projects to upgrade …

New York Times: The Arctic ice cap shrank so much this summer that waves briefly lapped along two long-imagined Arctic shipping routes, the Northwest Passage over Canada and the Northern Sea Route over Russia. Over all, the floating ice dwindled to an extent unparalleled in a century or more, by several estimates. Now the six-month dark season has returned to the North Pole. In the deepening chill, new ice is already spreading over vast stretches of the Arctic Ocean. Astonished by the summer’s …

Reuters: Australia, the driest inhabited continent in the world, will get even hotter and drier due to climate change triggered mainly by greenhouse gases, authorities said on Tuesday in new projections. Temperatures had already increased, sea levels had risen and the oceans surrounding the country had warmed, said Scott Power, principal research scientist at the Bureau of Meteorology. "Further warming and further sea level rise seems inevitable," he said, releasing the …

Reuters: When it comes to buying green products and supporting environmentally conscious companies, nobody beats the Chinese or Australians. China and Australia came top in poll of more than 16,000 people in 15 countries that was designed to see how concerned consumers around the globe are about climate change. Nearly seven out of 10 Chinese consumers and more than half of Australians said they would prefer to buy products and services from green companies. This compared to less …