Jennifer Marohasy

Churchill is a town in subarctic Canada surrounded by the most studied polar bear population in the world.  Polar bears are believed to be under threat from global warming. On Thursday, Jennifer Marohasy, posted a note stating: “It is warming in Churchill.   At least thermometer temperature data from both Environment Canada and NASA’s Goddard Institute [...]

WHILE searching the Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s website, looking for data on rainfall for Melbourne, it became apparent that this site only contained links to data in pdf format with rainfall averages for various and different periods.

Dr David Jones, the head of climate analysis at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, in an opinion piece, ‘Our hot, dry future’ has argued that over the past 11 years Melbourne’s rainfall has been about 20% below the long-term average   experienced declining rainfall over the past 11 years .  In response, Dr Jennifer Marohasy posted ‘How [...]

THIRTY years ago polar bear experts were discussing ‘climatic fluctuations’ rather than climate change, and the effect this can have on polar bear distribution in the Arctic.  In fact, Christian Vibe, the Greenland representative on the Polar Bear Specialist Group, was more focused on how climatic fluctuations affected distribution, than abundance.  His observations back then, for example polar bears [...]

Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) have become a symbol of global warming, and their predicted decline a sign of worst to come, but until very recently population estimates were really just educated guesses. Current polar bear numbers are estimated to total between 20,000 and 25,000. On May 14 2008, when announcing the decision to list polar [...]

There has been a dramatic reduction in the extent of summer sea ice in the Arctic since 1870, Chart 1. Drawn by Nichole Hoskin using data from Arctic Climate Research at the University of Illinois Australian television’s Four Corners showed a program on August 4, 2008, entitled ‘Tipping Point’ claiming that the disappearance of summer [...]

There are claims that the presence of too many sheep, cattle and kangaroos are damaging Australia’s rangelands and that commercial shooting of kangaroos will reduce overall grazing pressure. In an article published today at On Line Opinion entitled ‘Kangaroo: Designed for our Times’ by Executive Officer of the Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia, John Kelly, [...]

An Australian Department of Defence proposal to cull 400 Eastern grey kangaroos in Belconnen has generated a diverse range of responses on ABC News Online comments. A contributor, Annabelle, said, “The killing of kangaroos for convenience is disgusting. Killing kangaroos is just like killing whales-not necessary. It is a hang over from the ‘we must [...]

In the movie The Day After Tomorrow changes in ocean current circulation from global warming result in the northern hemisphere freezeing over and US citizens fleeing to Mexico in search of a warmer environment. In An Inconvenient Truth we are told the world is already too warm with rising sealevels now displacing some Pacific islanders. [...]