The jellyfish is dominating the sea as far as Moreton Bay with a ship worker becoming a victim in a chain of incidents along the coast.

Dr Lisa Gershwyn told The Age:

“We’re definitely having an irukandji bloom right now, there’s no question. We’ve had at least 15 irukandji stings this season so far, starting December,” Dr Gershwin, the director of the Australian Marine Stinger Advisory Services, said.

“Whether they are actually on the increase in Australia, we don’t know.”

“Overseas there is a lot of data that demonstrates that jellyfish are on the increase globally. Overseas ecosystems, one by one, are flipping to jellyfish dominated ecosystems.

“But we don’t have data in Australia, simply because no one has been researching the question.

Jellyfish are extremely dangerous and many children particularly aren’t aware of this.

Children are the worst victims of the jellyfish because they like touching new things and of course it can be lethal.

In the most important climate change meeting since Kyoto – where the first treaty was written – world leaders must agree on a solution to cut global greenhouse emissions in time to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Both America and Australia failed to pitch a valid response to other countries in the final day of the summit.

Trish Harrup at Greenpeace wrote: 

“US President Barack Obama announced an alleged ‘meaningful’ climate deal – an agreement that was cooked up among a small group of countries. This deal was done behind the scenes and without any involvement of those countries most vulnerable to the early affects of climate change.

The Pacific island nations, whose survival is threatened by sea-level rise, and the African nations, whose people are dying from food shortages brought on by climate change, were not in the room when the deal was done. They were attempting to move the official and inclusive UN process forward towards a fair, ambitious and binding deal.”

In summary, Obama set out to make the climate warm to no more than two degrees celsius. But it was apparent that there was no plan to get there.

Some local environmentalists fear the ship, The World, could damage the fragile ecosystem of Batemans Marine Park, according to The Age.

It has always been a topical conversation when bringing up who is in the right and who isn’t.

There are many instances where tourism devices come in touch with harming the environment in all sorts of ways.

The luxurious cruise ship has met the marine standards according to the NSW government.

”This visit has been planned for more than a year and meets marine park regulations,” a department spokeswoman told The Age. ”The ship has world’s best-practice environment standards and we believe there are minimal environmental risks.”

However, some critics and environmentallists argued that  deep-hulled vessels posed a threat to the sea grasses in Batemans Bay and Jervis Bay.

‘The World’ is a world wide cruise ship that has a lot of wealthy passengers on board every year.

In a scary thought for Victorians after its Black Saturday bushfires, it is expected to be even hotter in January and February than last year.

The World Meteorological Organisation’s annual climate statement released today at Copenhagen found temperatures in 2009 reached 0.44 degrees above the 1961-1990 annual average.

Climate change is alive.

 ”The decade 2000-2009 is very likely to be the warmest on record,” WMO secretary general Michel Jarraud told reporters at the Copenhagen climate summit late on Tuesday, Australian time.

Australia was singled out for its wild weather in 2009. “Australia had the third-warmest year on record with three exceptional heatwaves,” Mr Jarraud said.

 The WMO report said the heatwaves happened in January/February, when the hot weather contributed to the disastrous Victorian bushfires, in August and again in November.

The presence of El Nino conditions underway in the Pacific saw near-record rises in sea surface temperatures and most parts of Australia experienced an exceptionally mild winter.

Maximum temperatures were also well above the national average, with 3.2 degrees above normal, the largest ever recorded in any month.

CLIMATE change continues to be in full swing with most Australian capital cities posting their hottest November on record.

Melbourne has had a strange month of weather that has produced above-average rainfall but still record temperatures.

The city’s average maximum temperature was 27.6 degrees to Saturday, besting the 1862 record of 25.5 degrees for the whole of November.

While the weather cooled on the weekend, 10 consecutive days over 30 degrees at the start of the month set the pattern for the monthly record to fall.

Melbourne’s November rainfall to date was 90.2 millimetres.

Senior weather bureau forecaster Terry Ryan told The Age that it was unusual to have the combination of the hottest November and above-average rainfall.

”This is another statistic that says the Earth appears to be getting warmer,” he said.

And water restrictions continued to be in force.

Water Minister Tim Holding announced Melburnians had used an average of 153 litres of water per person per day over the past 12 months, coming in under the Government’s target of 155 litres.

The Queensland lungfish, the Mary River turtle, the Mary River cod, Coxen’s fig parrot and the Giant Barred Frog.
And that was where Wednesday’s decision was made to curtail plans of the Dam.

Queensland’s premier Anna Bligh was insistent Traveston Crossing Dam was all about securing water for South East Queensland.

Their choice of dam site threatened five species.

Mr Garrett had to rule on the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (1999), not on any state or federal water supply legislation.

A fact sheet on the website for the Federal Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts explains Mr Garrett’s job.

“The Act aims to balance the protection of these crucial environmental and cultural values with our society’s econmic and social needs by creating a legal framework and decision-making process, based on the guiding principles of ecologically sustainable development,” it says.

Specifically, Mr Garrett had to look at the dam proposal and judge whether it would have an impact on Australia’s biodiversity, and on nationally threatened species and ecological communities as part of this process.

Supplying water to Queenslanders had to be considered – but only as part of this equation.

1. This is an obvious one to start with – don’t leave your taps running! If you’re brushing your teeth of washing your hands only have the water running when you need to. Running the tap uses up to five litres of water a minute!
2. When you use your washing machine or dish washer make sure it’s fully loaded, so you don’t waste water or energy.
3. Install a low-flush toilet so you have the choice of a long or short flush. Use what you need!
4. When washing your car use a bucket rather than the garden hose. The average bucket will hold eight litres compared to more than 200 litres when you use the hosepipe.
5. Wash fruit and veg in a bowl rather than running water. Use the left over water for watering plants.
6. Leaky faucet? Get it fixed! More than 20,000 litres per month can be lost from drip, drip, drip.
7. Install a water meter so you can keep an eye on your water consumption.
8. Don’t overfill kettles or saucepans; using what you need will save you water and energy.
9. Use your used bath water to water your plants.
10. Burst water pipes can cause serious damage to your home and obviously waste water. Keep on top of your pipe maintenance.
11. Invest in a water butt, you can collect rainwater for watering plants.
12. Have a shower rather than a bath; a five minute shower only uses about 35 litres or water, compared to 80 litres for a bath. However, if you have a power shower swap that round; they can use more water than a bath in less than five minutes. You could always invest in an eco showerhead.

Both of these operate in the same way- liquid is circulated through solar collectors which absorb heat from the suns radiation. The circulated liquid is passed through the coils of the hot water storage cylinder and heats the water, which can then be supplied directly or heated further by another boiler.

Costs-
The costs for solar water heating systems will differ and can cost between $5,000 and $10,000 depending on the type and size of the system. A normal flat plat installation is a 3m2 and 4m2 solar panel and a 200 litre storage tank (this can differ depending on the amount of hot water used). The evacuated tubes take up around half of the roof space. DIY systems can be purchased for $3,000 and under.

Grants-
Currently, there is a Federal rebate under the Energy Efficient package until June 30. There are also state rebates and RECs can be also taken into account. Unlike the solar panel electricity there is no means-testing for the grant.

Savings-
An everyday solar heating water system can give you up to three quarters of your hot water requirements. This will reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions and also reduce fuel costs in your home. The savings will be dependant on the weather system and type.

Maintenance-
Solar hot water panels don’t need much maintenance and will only need a yearly check by the homeowner. During their lifespan these panels will only need a detailed check by a professional every three to five years.

Who is it for?
To get a solar heating system all you need is a only a few metres of north facing roof and direct sunlight for most of the day. To have a solar water heating system you will need to keep a spare water cylinder.

Greywater is the term used by environmentalists to describe any wastewater that is not from toilets. There are systems designed to catch the water that would otherwise be wasted. Greywater systems collects water from other plumbing systems in your home like the bath, sink and showers and sorts it in a tank.

A greywater system will collect water that is treated with basic filtration or biologically treated 9such as the sewage treatment work). The recycled water stored in the tank can then be used to flush toilets, water the gardens and if there is enough water can sometimes feed washing machines. The saved water then makes up a significant proportion of entire domestic water use.

A greywater system costs around $2000, so it is quite expensive, but the money you will save over the time period (not to mention water saving) will be worth it in the long run. These systems will give larger buildings and businesses more savings and the process can be more easily monitored.

Greywater recycling makes sense for the environment. Recycling water is a great way to salvage what has already been used and a good system could potentially save a third of the water taken from a homes main water supply. Greywater systems can significantly reduce the pressure on main water resources and sewage treatment required but the energy taken to operate the system may take more energy than it does to save water.

This is why we need to implement water saving strategies like rainwater harvesting to ensure we recycle any water possible. This process collects the water that would otherwise go down the drains, go straight in to the ground or simply evaporate and allows us to reuse it in the home or garden.

The water harvesting systems can be installed in new and old buildings and can provide an average size home with 100m3 of water a year. So the water saving system saves around eight showers of water a day. The water saved can, not only be used on the garden, but can be used to flush the toilet, give water to the washing machine etc.

The tanks tend to be large, around 1,000 and 9,000 litres and most of the time are stored underground. Rainwater harvesting tanks are connected to the house and outdoor taps by a separate pipe network. The system works by using the tanks water, and when it falls below a certain level it will switch back to the main water supply.

Although this process has significant water saving environmental benefits, it can be quite expensive and the initial set up cost is a big put off. Setting up the basic system can cost between $1,000 and $3,000 and the excess costs of plumbing and fitting. But this harvesting system will provide long term benefits, providing around 30% of the homes water use.