Minister for Science, Senator Kim Carr, today told the Senate that job cuts at CSIRO announced yesterday were about lining up research with the government's priorities, exposing just what a poor relation public interest research in general, and ecosystems and biodiversity research, in particular, have become.

The statement was in response to a question from Australian Greens Deputy Leader, Senator Christine Milne, about the slashing of 10% of the budget for the new CSIRO Ecosystems Research program, leading to 30 scientists losing their jobs.

The Science of Climate Change report released by the Australian Academy of Sciences today shows once again that both Labor and the Coalition must significantly lift their patently inadequate 5% emissions reduction targets.

The report comes as Prime Minister Gillard failed to mention climate change in her campaign launch speech today.

"Delay and denial on the climate crisis is simply unacceptable in the light of ever clearer scientific evidence," Australian Greens Deputy Leader, Senator Christine Milne, said.

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office have produced a Google Earth map displaying the impacts of a 4º C temperature rise across the earth.

It highlights why temperature rise must be kept below 2º C

You will need the Google Earth plugin for your browser to view the interactive map. You can download it here

New reports from the global Argo project, showing how fast the oceans around Australia are warming, are just the latest new science backing up the need for urgent and serious action on the climate crisis.

"We are relentlessly heating our oceans and atmosphere while politics has stalled," Australian Greens Acting Leader, Senator Christine Milne, said.

"We cannot afford right now to let climate politics stall, but neither can we afford to simply accept policies which are so poorly designed that they lock in our polluting economy for years to come.

The Australian Greens today urged ABC journalists to ignore the anti-science nonsense peddled by the Chair of their board and instead increase their strong coverage of climate change.

ABC Board Chair, Maurice Newman, today told senior ABC staff that climate change was an "emotional issue" and that journalists were too "intolerant" of climate sceptics.

"I trust that ABC journalists will not be cowed by the anti-science speech delivered by the Chair of their board," Australian Greens Deputy Leader, Senator Christine Milne, said.

FINANCE AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION LEGISLATION COMMITTEE - 08/02/2010 - PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET PORTFOLIO - Department of Climate Change

Senator «MILNE» -I have 12 minutes and my time starts now. I understand Australia has to put in its Fifth National Communication on implementation of climate change actions to the UNFCCC. I thought it had to be in by 1 January. I have been to their website and yours and I cannot see that it is in. Can you confirm whether you have submitted that report and when it will be publicly available on one website or the other?

For all those who have been convinced by Prime Minister Rudd and Minister Wong's rhetoric that they are fighting for a 450ppm and 2C agreement at Copenhagen, and believe that that is a good start, a leak from the UN Secretariat over here exposes that claim for the fraud it is.

This great recipe is doing the rounds on postcards in Copenhagen:

Recipe for climate catastrophe

A simple recipe that requires very little effort and almost no clean up