Morrison carves up environment and energy, praises Taylor for waving big stick

Prime minister Scott Morrison has announced dramatic changes to the federal bureaucracy, with the Department of the Environment and Energy to be abolished, and energy and climate change branches set to be absorbed by the resources department.

PM Scott Morrison.

Morrison announced the formation of a recombined energy and resources department, creating a new Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources, although there was no change in ministerial positions, with the PM voicing his “full confidence” in the embattled Angus Taylor, the minister for energy and emissions reductions.

The environment portfolio will be merged into the agriculture department, with the creation of a new Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment.

The changes see the environment and energy portfolios once again split up into separate departments.

Read the story from RenewEconomy by Michael Mazengarb - “Morrison carves up environment and energy, praises Taylor for waving big stick.”

The Most Powerful Evidence Climate Scientists Have of Global Warming

Earth's temperature is rising, and it isn't just in the air around us. More than 90 percent of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gas emissions has been absorbed into the oceans that cover two-thirds of the planet's surface. Their temperature is rising, too, and it tells a story of how humans are changing the planet.

This accrued heat is "really the memory of past climate change," said Kevin Trenberth, the head of climate analysis at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and co-author of a new paper on ocean warming.

It's not just the amount of warming that is significant—it's also the pace.

The rate at which the oceans are heating up has nearly doubled since 1992, and that heat is reaching ever deeper waters, according to a recent study. At the same time, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have been rising.

The charts that follow show how the oceans are changing and what they're telling us as a thermometer of global warming.

Read the Inside Climate News story by Sabrina Shankman and Paul Horn - “The Most Powerful Evidence Climate Scientists Have of Global Warming.”

The Most Powerful Evidence Climate Scientists Have of Global Warming

Earth's temperature is rising, and it isn't just in the air around us. More than 90 percent of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gas emissions has been absorbed into the oceans that cover two-thirds of the planet's surface. Their temperature is rising, too, and it tells a story of how humans are changing the planet.

This accrued heat is "really the memory of past climate change," said Kevin Trenberth, the head of climate analysis at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and co-author of a new paper on ocean warming.

It's not just the amount of warming that is significant—it's also the pace.

The rate at which the oceans are heating up has nearly doubled since 1992, and that heat is reaching ever deeper waters, according to a recent study. At the same time, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have been rising.

Read the Inside Climate News story - “The Most Powerful Evidence Climate Scientists Have of Global Warming.”