Senate committee urges green targets redesign - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

A Senate committee has called on the Federal Government not to proceed with its planned emissions trading scheme.

The Opposition-dominated committee has also called on the Government to consider nuclear power as a way of reducing Australia's greenhouse emissions.

Committee chairman Mathias Cormann says the scheme should be redesigned and rewritten.

"We think that the Government has completely ignored the fact that at times it may be better to increase emissions domestically in Australia if that means an overall reduction in global emissions," he said.

EU Referendum: Every silver lining has a cloud

So, one "environmental" policy here leads to an environmental disaster elsewhere. The "silver lining" of largely mythical energy saving creates a dark cloud in China.

April 22, 2009: Long winters kill Alaskan moose

Kavalok noted that this is the time of year when moose, weakened from a long winter, die all over Southcentral Alaska. Biologists say it is natural for significant numbers of moose to die or be found dead every spring in Anchorage, Wasilla, Kenai and other communities.

The biological term for these deaths is "winter kill."

Though moose browse the twigs of willow brush and other shrubs for food all winter, the woody products they are eating do not have enough nutrition to sustain them. To get through the winter, the animals must rely on fat reserves to bolster the low-calorie diet. If the fat reserves run out before nutritious green vegetation begins to appear in the spring, the animals usually die.

Last year's calves, which are just now being chased away by mothers about to give birth to new calves, are among the animals most vulnerable to because their fat reserves are small.

South Dakota big-game animal declines: It's not the cougars, it's the lack of global warming?

Lead veterinarian Tom Huhnerkoch said it would be a "knee-jerk" reaction to conclude that lions are the main cause of reduced numbers of big-game animals. Studies show that deep snow and severe winter weather is more likely to cause such declines, he said.

"I know it's not the cougar causing the biggest problem," he said.