Antarctica's massive ice shelves are shrinking because they are being eaten away from below by warm water, a new study finds.

That suggests that future sea levels could rise faster than many scientists have been predicting.

The western chunk of Antarctica is losing 23 feet (seven metres) of its floating ice sheet each year. Until now, scientists weren't exactly sure how it was happening and whether or how man-made global warming might be a factor. The answer, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature, is that climate change plays an indirect role — but one that has larger repercussions than if Antarctic ice were merely melting from warmer air.

...

Twenty ice shelves showed signs that they were melting from warm water below. Changes in wind currents pushed that relatively warmer water closer to and beneath the floating ice shelves. The wind change is likely caused by a combination of factors, including natural weather variation, the ozone hole and man-made greenhouse gases, Pritchard said in a phone interview.

...

It's not difficult to see why this is a hot issue in Australia. The country has been hammered by drought and bushfires. It has the highest carbon dioxide emissions per person of any major economy outside the Arabian peninsula. Australians pollute more than Americans, twice as much as people in the UK and four times more than the Chinese. Most Australians want to change this, but the coal industry keeps their politicians on a short leash. Like New Labour here, Rudd and Gillard's administration was a government of flinchers. It has been punished for appeasing industrial lobbyists and the rightwing press.

Australia provides yet more evidence that climate science divides people on political lines. Abbott is no longer an outright denier, though he still insists, in the teeth of the facts, that the world has cooled since 1997. Some members of his party go further: [former] Senator Nick Minchin maintains that "the whole climate change issue is a leftwing conspiracy to deindustrialise the western world". (He has also insisted that cigarettes are not addictive and the link between passive smoking and illness can't be demonstrated). A recent poll suggests that 38% of politicians in Abbott's coalition believe man-made global warming is taking place, in comparison with 89% of Labor's people.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2010/aug/23/deniers-climate-change-rightwing-handout?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

My erstwhile travelling companion Nick Minchin argues the view in Fairfax Media today that while we can all agree on clean energy, debate on the science of climate change should continue.

He states that "neither Anna, nor those whom Anna took me to meet, could convince me that human emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) are driving dangerous global warming".

With due respect to Nick, this refusal to change his mind wasn't for lack of trying – or for lack of evidence. There are two pieces of clear, empirical evidence showing that human emissions of carbon pollution are responsible for the 40 per cent increase in CO2 since pre-industrial levels.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/climate-change-isnt-a-plot-its-science-20120427-1xpjp.html#ixzz1tDzykZ2k

Australian astronomers say finding planets outside the solar system that can sustain life should be made a top priority.

Dr Charley Lineweaver and PhD student Aditya Chopra from ANU have reviewed current research into environments where life is found on earth and the environments thought to exist on other planets.

They say understanding habitability and using that knowledge to locate the nearest habitable planet may be crucial for our survival as a species.

Since the first discovery of a planet orbiting another star was made in 1995, the number of exoplanets has skyrocketed to more than 750.

A team of three researchers looked at ocean data over the period 1950 to 2000.

They found salinity levels have changed in all the world's oceans, wetter areas are experiencing more rain and drier areas have become drier.

Susan Wijffels from the CSIRO says she expects the trend to continue.

"The answer of how much more is going to be in the future depends on how much more warning there is going to be," she said.

"So if we stay on a high emissions pathway we might see warming up around three degrees, which will give us maybe a 24 per cent change in our water cycle."

The authors say this could have implications for global food security.

The study was jointly funded by the Department of Climate Change, the Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-27/study-finds-climate-change-altering-oceans-rainfall/3977656

April’s record rainfall has had its effect, and brought much of England out of drought status, the Environment Agency announced today.

The heaviest “April showers” since records began in 1910, combined with a similarly sodden beginning to May, have allowed official drought status to be lifted for 19 counties in the South West, the Midlands and Yorkshire, the agency said.

However, much of Eastern and Southern England is still in drought after two extremely dry winters, and hosepipe bans imposed five weeks ago remain in place, with no sign of them being lifted in the near future.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/drought-status-lifted-in-19-areas-after-wettest-april-on-record-7737405.html