The Australian Academy of Science has published a 16-page booklet on "The Science of Climate Change: Questions and Answers" for the interested non-scientist.

The publication provides an authoritative, unbiased explanation of the current situation in climate science, including where there is consensus in the scientific community and where uncertainties exist. It answers the questions:

• What is climate change?
• How has the Earth’s climate changed in the distant past?
• How has the climate changed in the recent past?
• Are human activities causing climate change?
• How do we expect climate to evolve in the future?
• What are the consequences of climate change?
• How do we deal with uncertainty in science?

A copy of the booklet can be downloaded at www.science.org.au/reports/climatechange2010.pdf

The Australian Department of Climate Change has released the results of a study of the effects of rising sea levels as a result of climate change on Australia’s coastal dwellings and infrastructure.

The modelling assumed a sea level increase of 1.1 metres, which it describes as the "plausible worst case",  by 2100.

The key findings of the report were:

• Between 157,000 and 247,600 properties were identified as potentially exposed to inundation with a sea-level rise of 1.1 metres.
• Nearly 39,000 properties, located within 110 metres of "soft" shorelines, are at risk from accelerated erosion.
• The current value of buildings at risk from inundation is between $41 and $63 billion.
• Infrastructure considered to be at risk because it is located within 200 metres of a shoreline includes 269 police, fire, ambulance and emergency service facilities and 75 hospitals and health services facilities.
• Eight electricity and water treatment facilities are regarded as being at risk.

Narrabeen/Collaroy in 2009 and with 1.1m sea level rise and a 1-in-100 year storm surge.

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Australian welfare, union, environment and research organisations have launched a national multi-media campaign calling on “dinosaurs” in politics and business to stop blocking urgent climate action, saying that they are holding up the creation of hundreds of thousands of new clean energy jobs.

The multimedia campaign, which includes national advertising, online communications and public information sessions, is backed by The Climate Institute, the ACTU, the Australian Council Of Social Service, the Australian Conservation Foundation and the World Wildlife Fund.

Launching the campaign, John Connor, CEO of The Climate Institute CEO, said that "In a world turning to clean energy and technology, Australian industries are in danger of being left behind. Some dinosaurs in Australian politics and business are blocking climate action that will create the hundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs we need now more than ever.  It’s time for these dinosaurs to evolve.”

The campaign has launched the website www.cleanenergyjobs.com.au in partnership with GetUp.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has signed a $30 million deal with Sun Microsystems to to build one of the largest high-performance computing environments in the southern hemisphere.

Two Sun Constellation systems will be installed – one at the Bureau of Meteorology in Melbourne amd the other at the Ausralian National University in Canberra. The installation will consist of more than 2,500 Sun Bladeserver modules (1,500 at ANU, 1,000 at BOM) based on the new Intel "Nehalem" Xeon processor. The system will run an open source software stack – a first for a weather forecasting site, according to Sun.

According to ANU supercomputing facility head, Dr Ben Evans, the system will be among the world’s top thirty computing facilities and will have excellent capacity for expansion to meet rapidly emerging needs "as we implement the next generation of high-resolution climate models that further our understanding of this complex natural system,".

(Sun Microsystems is currently in in talks about the possibility of its being taken over by IBM.)

The Australian Federal Government has announced $500,000 funding to help local councils across the country respond to climate change.

The money will be made available under the second phase of the Local Adaptation Pathways Program and individual councils will be able to apply for up to $75,000.

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said that "To tackle climate change we need a whole-of-economy, whole-of-community response. We need action from the grass roots and we also need policy at the national and international level to make the sorts of changes that are required."