Land Clearing & Climate Change: Risks & Opportunities in the Sunshine State

Queensland has become the national hotspot for land clearing, accounting for up to 65% of the total loss of native forests in Australia over the last four decades.

The Climate Council’s latest report "Climate Change and Land Clearing: Risks and Opportunities in the Sunshine State’’, shows that more than one million hectares of woody vegetation, an area more than seven times larger than the size of Queensland’s capital of Brisbane, has been cleared between 2012-13 and 2015-16.

Read the report from the Climate Council - “Land Clearing & Climate Change: Risks & Opportunities in the Sunshine State.”

‘Rather startling': Study finds rapid increase in frequency of coral bleaching

The frequency of severe coral bleaching events has increased fivefold in four decades because of climate change, a pace already exceeding the time needed for some species to recover, a new global study has found.

Coral reefs are bleaching at shorter intervals around the world. 

Of 100 reefs examined worldwide, just six have escaped severe bleaching since 1980.

Read the story by Peter Hannam on today’s Melbourne Age - “‘Rather startling': Study finds rapid increase in frequency of coral bleaching.”