Your right, Australia’s climate trends are speeding up significantly and this is not a good thing. Today Australia is one of the highest producing countries of greenhouse gases, in the world. This increase in greenhouse gas emissions is creating dramatic problems in the Southern Ocean. The world is warming up and this warming is causing massive ice chunks to break off Antarctica and pollute the salt water with fresh water. The melting of these glaciers is disrupting the ocean currents that carry the warm air around the globe. Australia must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to slow down this process. If the emissions increase more, the ocean currents will slow down without cold bottom water driving them, leading to another ice age. Australian Scientists also have noted that the ocean waters have become more acidic due to the burning of fossil fuels. This means that plankton cannot absorb carbon dioxide to the best of its ability. When the plankton is absorbing carbon dioxide it will sink greenhouse gases to the bottom of the see, but now it only reduces the ocean’s ability to sink these gases.
Australia is making an effort to slow down global warming despite its refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol. Australian is part of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate. This group, also known as the AP6, consists of Australia, China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea and the United States of America. Together these countries make up about half of the world’s emissions, population, and GDP. They are working together to solve the problem and create cleaner, and more efficient technologies. Australia has put forward $100 million dollars of five years for the partnership. And 25% of the total funds have been focused toward renewable energy sources, most of which such as, Geothermal Energy, Hydroelectric Power, Solar Energy and Wind Power are all clean. Together with other leading countries, the Australian government is trying to make a difference.
On a brighter note, literally, the Australian Government is attempting to help global warming by having everyone in Australia replace their inefficient light bulbs. Australia’s new light bulbs are said to reduce Australia’s greenhouse emissions by 2015 by around four million tonnes. Not only is this change good for the environment it is good for the people since they will be able to reduce their lighting costs by up to 66 percent. Even though the light bulbs cost more upfront they are said to be able to pay for themselves within a year. This idea is not only said to be used in Australia but, also in China.
In addition to humans creating green house gasses it is believed that farm animals such as sheep play a large factor too. Scientists in Australia say, they are planning to vaccinate cattle and sheep in hope of reducing the harmful methane gas that they produce. It is said, that methane gas is more of a threat than carbon dioxide. So far up to 1,000,000 farm animals has been signed up to get this vaccine. The vaccine which has been under development for 10 years is suppose to kill the organism which decays inside the animals intestines. This vaccine will reduce methane coming from farm animals by about 20 percent in the next few years. Methane which accounts for 15 percent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions will be slashed down due to this new vaccine. If all the cattle and sheep in Australia take the vaccine the methane emission will be reduced from the equivalent of 60 million tonnes a year to 48 million tonnes a year. This is one of the many steps that Australia is taking to slow down the process of global warming.



http://www.environment.gov.au/minister/env/2007/pubs/mr20feb07.pdf
http://www.ap6.gov.au/
http://www.globalsurfnews.com/news.asp?Id_news=26910
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1374808.stm