Climate change and Australia

Australia has had a variable and mostly arid climate as long as humans have been on the continent. Historically observed trends toward increased warming, with rainfall increases in many tropical areas and rainfall decreases in many temperate areas, are projected to continue. Impacts will be geographically variable but mostly negative for biodiversity, agriculture, and infrastructure. Extreme events such as bushfires and floods will increase in frequency and intensity, concentrated in summer. With an economy heavily dependent on coal for domestic electricity generation and as an export commodity, Australians are high per capita contributors to anthropogenic climate change. A quarter-century of steps to mitigation led in 2012 to a carbon price that has the long-term potential to shift the economy toward more renewable energy sources. However as in other parts of the world this change has come too late, and is proceeding too slowly, to avoid significant climate change. A heritage of indigenous adaptation, strong volunteer cultures, and contemporary cultural diversity provide Australia with considerable adaptive capacity for gradual changes, but the nation is underprepared for sudden or step changes. We identify four pressing research and policy needs focused on such changes: (1) systematic attention to processes and impacts of negative transformative change, or worst-case scenarios, (2) improve forecasts of year-to-year rainfall and climate variability, focusing on processes and climate drivers that may change in response to higher greenhouse gases, (3) identification and engagement of diverse cross-cultural resources, and (4) articulation of alternative governance mechanisms that can interact dynamically with strong government

The resource boom's underbelly: Criminological impacts of mining development

Australia is currently in the midst of a major resources boom. Resultant growing demands for labour in regional and remote areas have accelerated the recruitment of non resident workers, mostly contractors, who work extended block rosters of 12-hour shifts and are accommodated in work camps, often adjacent to established mining towns. Serious social impacts of these practices, including violence and crime, have generally escaped industry, government and academic scrutiny. This paper highlights some of these impacts on affected regional communities and workers and argues that post-industrial mining regimes serve to mask and privatize these harms and risks, shifting them on to workers, families and communities