ABC - 'Storm and tempest rages' over carbon plan

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has blasted the Opposition for having no firm position on the Government's emissions trading scheme, which is set for defeat in the Senate this week.

Yahoo News - Climate change an Australian 'security threat'

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia faces more intense and frequent heatwaves, wildfires, cyclones and floods, with climate change becoming a threat to national security, a think-tank warned Tuesday.

Podomatic - Peak Oil Warning

Bruce Robinson from the Australian Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas spoke with 2SER’s Alex Angel.

NZ Herald - Chris Barton: Climate debate adrift on rising tide of lunacy

In a few years' time you and the Royal NZ Herald will be reminded of your lack of sincerity and honesty, as the planet continues to cool, as it has since 1998, you will regret your stupiduty (sic)." My thanks to Kevin Campbell for such a brilliant new word to perfectly encapsulate the madness of the climate change debate.

There is a lot of it about. Only this week Breakfast TV host Paul Henry flirted with stupi-duty by lending support to Ian Wishart's AirCon, a book that the excellent Hot Topic (www.hot-topic.co.nz) noted "appears to come from another planet".

I've long been amazed at how the internet has made stupi-duty an epidemic - and bothered as hell by what to call the people infected. Naysayers, contrarians or deniers?

Bloomberg - Australian Senate Rejects Rudd’s Cap and Trade Emissions Plan

Senators voted 42 to 30 against the law, which included plans for a carbon trading system similar to one used in Europe. Australia, the world’s biggest coal exporter, was proposing to reduce greenhouse gases by between 5 percent and 15 percent of 2000 levels in the next decade.

The Australian - Profit surge in iron ore and coal expected to continue

BHP Billiton's profit surge in its iron ore and coal divisions is expected to continue, with the world's largest miner confident the recent increase in demand for its products will continue.

[.....]

"Our long-term view has always been that these developing economies, particularly India and China, overwhelm their natural endowment base, so we positioned ourself for that some time ago," he said.

Yahoo News - Climate change turning Aussie birds smaller: study

MELBOURNE (AFP) – Australian birds have shrunk over the past century because of global warming, scientists have found.

Scoop.co.nz - Climate Change
A detailed discourse:

The world’s climate is influenced by a number of factors interacting in very complex and not entirely understood ways. Over the last million years there have been periodic shifts in the temperature of the planet initiated by changes in the orbit of the earth around the sun and in the tilt of the earth’s axis of rotation. These changes have led to periods of global warming and global cooling – the more recent of the latter are termed the Ice Ages. There are also shorter-term fluctuations brought about by a number of factors, including linked atmosphere-ocean changes with an irregular period of several years (El Niño and La Niña events) and sporadic changes brought about by major volcanic eruptions. Global warming does not mean that every part of the globe changes temperature to the same degree or rate.

TV NZ - Australia developing methane reducing plants

Australian scientists plan to produce methane-reducing clover and milk-enhancing grass as part of a multi-million-dollar boost to dairy research.

NZ Herald - Editorial: Energy report contains some surprises

One of the first words used in the ministerial report on the electricity market released yesterday is "perception". It notes that "although there have been no blackouts or brownouts since the early 1970s, there is a public perception that our electricity supply system is fragile and vulnerable to frequent crises". When commentators refer to perception, it means the perception is wrong. If it was right they would not call it perception, they would call it a problem.