OilVoice | University of Aberdeen to Host Controversial Energy Series

Booking has opened for a controversial new lecture series which will shed light on the current challenges and debates within the energy sector.

Hosted by the University of Aberdeen, Energy Controversies will bring together leading figures from the oil and gas industry alongside academics and experts from all areas of the energy sector.

It's a scorcher, but 70-year record stands | The Australian

State record highs of 49.7C in Menindee in NSW and 47.2C in Mildura in Victoria, set in January 1939, still stand today, as do capital marks of 46.1C in Adelaide, 45.6C in Melbourne, 45.3C in Sydney and 42.8C in Canberra.

Through that January 70 years ago, 438 deaths were attributed to the heat and a further 71 people died in Victorian bushfires on "Black Friday", the 13th.

The 70th anniversary of these maximum temperatures has provided the opportunity for sceptics to again question the theory of man-made global warming: if large increases in greenhouse gases are making the planet warmer, why have the records of 70 years ago not been overtaken?

David Evans, a former adviser to the Australian Greenhouse Office, the precursor to the Department of Climate Change, said that although events such as those of January 1939 were too localised to draw implications on global warming, the 70 years since these maximums were reached was enough to "make you sceptical".

"The debate has changed," he said. He predicted that by 2010, the only people who would believe in global warming would be "those who have a financial interest in it, the politically correct and those who believe in big government. Everyone else will think it's a load of rubbish."