The Age - Down and dirty: farm soil will offset emissions in Australia's carbon cut scheme

The premise is that simple changes in how we manage agricultural land - reducing tillage and fertiliser use or improving fire management - help return carbon to the soil. It is hard to put a dollar value on the bonanza but the numbers are enough, some say, to make Australia carbon neutral for the next three or four decades - all without having to impose a nasty tax, set up a complicated emissions trading scheme or clean up a single polluting pipe.

The climate change negotiator reportedly told an NGO group at a Copenhagen briefing that Australia would be able to commit to 25 per cent greenhouse gas cuts by 2020 - if land use rule changes driven by Australia and other developed countries are accepted as part of a new global climate deal.

The changes are highly contentious in Copenhagen

SMH - Clothing industry to wear ethical hearts on sleeves

''Take a raw material such as leather, for example, which is a byproduct. Do you ban that? If you do then you get into the debate of what replaces it.

''Should you use plastic, and if so you then have a debate over the subject of peak oil,'' he said.

Business Spectator - THE DISTILLERY: Collision course

Next is our second hot sector: commodities and, in particular, gas. Alan Jury (Chanticleer) takes a look at clashing cyclical and structural influences over Woodside. In the short term, Jury reckons “recent pressure from ratings agencies about potential cost overruns, substantial capital expenditure and liquidity demands from large projects, including possible extensions” have caused Woodside to rethink debt in favour of equity. He quotes several analysts who predict these forces will intensify. In the long view, however, he quotes Stratfor figures for the growth in Chinese gas usage from “3.6 per cent of overall energy consumption” at “80.7 bcm...[to] 120 bcm by 2020, and maybe as much as 200 bcm by 2030.” Needless to say, such figures can be taken with a grain of salt. Nonetheless, this column acknowledges that historic forces are at play in the LNG market – peak oil, climate change politics, emerging market growth, an integrating global market (along with a pricing cartel) and declining fiat currencies all bode well.

ABN Newswire - Beach Petroleum Limited (ASX:BPT) Managing Director Reg Nelson Address At Annual General Meeting

Our number one objective in this period is to find more oil. During the next two to five years we expect that the world will face some very real issues through falling supply. It's not so much a question of "peak oil", but more because projects that could have been brought on to address future global supply have been deferred as the global financial turmoil savaged their source of funding. There has been an even greater impact on exploration efforts that are vital to identify oil reserves for the future. World oil supply is facing a real squeeze as a result.

Northern Rivers Echo - Permaculture guru leads the way

The idea of an ecological footprint is calculated by taking the world’s population and dividing up the resources in a way that assumes equitable distribution. Therefore, if everyone on the planet lived like the average Australian, we would need 3.7 planets’ worth of resources.

“The issue of footprints is at the heart of all the other problems we are seeing. If we were living within our ecological footprint we wouldn’t have problems with climate change, or peak oil and all these other resources that are peaking,” Robyn said. “The challenge is how do we reduce our footprint? Cuba didn’t do it voluntarily... But the Western world has to do it by choice unless we get some terrible disasters that foist it upon us. The politicians are just sort of propping up these collapsing systems, particularly the economic one, and I think the economic trigger is probably the most important one for people to reduce their consumption and their waste.”

NZ Herald - Fran O'Sullivan: Keep the cows off the grass

The main problem is the humble dairy cow. This beast belches and farts methane gas and excretes more of the stuff in its poop.

But New Zealand is simply "not thinking big" about how to tackle this issue.

Voxy - Climate Change And Swine Flu Dominated Coverage

The swine flu pandemic and climate change were the two biggest science-related issues covered in the New Zealand media in 2009, according to the Science Media Centre's Media Tracker report published today.

NZ Herald - Climate change will hit koalas hard, group claims

The koala has been included in a list of 10 species most at risk from climate change. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) claims that a loss of habitat threatens the animal, while higher levels of carbon dioxide in the air mean there will be less nutritional value in gum leaves, the koala's food.

Radio NZ - Solomon Islands Ambassador to UN says deal in Copenhagen is frightening

Solomon Islands Ambassador to the United Nations says the climate change deal struck at the Copenhagen conference is frightening for small island nations.

The agreement is not legally binding, and sets a goal of limiting world temperatures to no more than 2 degrees above pre-industrial times.

Ambassador Collin Beck says that falls short of the 1.5 degree goal being sought by small island states, and raises serious issues for their future.

“We’re really talking about their demise in certain areas, food security and water security, now once we do that for some of the islands we have to look at relocation. It opens issues of that, not only of relocation, but of adaptation, new finances again.”

ABC Online Thermal coal project moves ahead

A proposal for Australia's largest thermal coal project in Queensland's central west has taken a step forward.

The Australian - Bligh hits back at criticism with $15bn coal project

QUEENSLAND Premier Anna Bligh has reacted to signs her state is losing its lustre by pushing ahead with a railway line in central Queensland that could lead to a $15 billion coal project, including the biggest mine in the nation.

The Australian - Skills shortage looms as growth obstacle for resources industry

"With concerns about global warming, gas is the only real viable alternative to coal, and the oil majors are really showing their intent," said Greig Gailey, former Zinifex and Business Council of Australia head.

How companies and governments will deal with infrastructure constraints was a big concern, he said.