"There is growing evidence that public opinion about climate change is shifting over time. In many countries, surveys reveal that people are becoming less worried, and in some cases more sceptical about climate change, even while awareness of climate change is increasing."

"The latest forecasts from a foremost climate research institute that global warming has slowed present a new challenge to policymakers on how to inject urgency into the campaign to cut emissions of greenhouse gases. Climate change is a growing problem. Each year in the past decade has been hotter than the 1981-2010 average, and extreme heat waves are becoming more frequent. But the research indicates the rate of warming has slowed in the past decade and a half due to temporary natural factors."

A Scoop.it of resources related to the Australian Curriculum

ecolife.com is an online resource of hundreds of ways to green your everyday life. Whether you are seeking the low-down on dirty disposable diapers or need advice on how to make your next vacation green, ecolife aims to be the answer to just about any question you may have.

Today, we produce about four billion metric tonnes of food per annum. Yet due to poor practices in harvesting, storage and transportation, as well as market and consumer wastage, it is estimated that 30-50% (or 1.2-2 billion tonnes) of all food produced never reaches a human stomach. Furthermore, this figure does not reflect the fact that large amounts of land, energy, fertilisers and water have also been lost in the production of foodstuffs which simply end up as waste. This level of wastage is a tragedy that cannot continue if we are to succeed in the challenge of sustainably meeting our future food demands.

As much as half of all the food produced in the world - equivalent to 2bn tonnes - ends up as waste every year, engineers warned in a report published on Thursday.

"Many times in human history governments have tried to write policies based around future technologies and missed identifying the transformational keys. In the 1970s, for example, few if any horizon-scanning policies on communications predicted the internet or mobile phones. Yet scientists are increasingly unified in the need to develop new technologies to address the critical problems now facing us in fields such as energy and climate change."

"Like the civil rights movement, environmentalism has changed the way we think. It has engendered a new respect for the natural world, an understanding of the delicate balance of life in our biosphere and mass engagement on the most important issue of all, climate change. Yet it has failed in a profound way. Advertisement As a movement ushering in solutions to halt or slow climate change, it has been catastrophically ineffective."

"A paper published in Nature Climate Change earlier this year challenged a long-standing assumption in both science education and science communication: that increasing science literacy will increase public "acceptance" of the scientific consensus on the risks posed by climate change. The authors surveyed a representative sample of about 1,500 U.S. adults and found that people with an egalitarian-communitarian worldview (roughly liberal) were more likely to perceive climate change to be higher risk with higher levels of science literacy, while for people with a hierarchical-individualist worldview (roughly conservative), higher science literacy scores meant they were more likely to underestimate the risks associated with climate change. If the assumption that science literacy is the solution had held, both groups would have moved toward rating climate change as higher risk as they increased in science knowledge, to line up with current scientific consensus. Instead, increasing science knowledge correlated with increasingly polarized views."

"The Victorian Government is committed to building on the existing ResourceSmart Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative Victorian (ResourceSmart AuSSI Vic) framework to reach an additional 400 schools by 2015. As part of this initiative, selected eligible schools are being provided with a one-off grant payment. The Energy Efficiency Grants provide a one-off payment of up to $10,000 per school to undertake energy audits, purchase energy efficient or sustainable infrastructure, and undertake related energy saving activities. "

"Dirt! The Movie is an insightful and timely film that tells the story of the glorious and unappreciated material beneath our feet."

TeachWild is a nationwide marine debris project being run by leading scientists from the CSIRO and universities together with teachers, students and employees from Founding Partner Shell Australia. Information collected by citizen scientists will contribute to a comprehensive national picture of the marine debris issue across Australia. This website is equipped with some of the most up-to-date information and learning materials available on marine debris.

"Global drought has not increased significantly over the past 60 years, a report in Nature has found. Previous assessments of global drought have relied on the Palmer Drought Severity Index, which only accounts for temperature, and does not consider sunlight, humidity or wind. These assessments have falsely indicated that global drought will increase as the planet warms. The paper's authors show that when these additional factors are included, worldwide drought has actual changed very little since 1950."

Welcome to eFuture, where you can explore Australia's electricity future through to 2050. eFuture is a snapshot of the complex modelling CSIRO carries out every day to support government and industry as they make decisions about energy investment and policy. Based on CSIRO's energy sector model, you can select options and instantly view charts showing changes to Australia's future electricity sources, greenhouse gas emissions and the cost of electricity. With the release of the Australian Government's Energy White Paper (2012), CSIRO is excited to launch eFuture, a way for those interested in energy to explore the future energy scenarios similar to those presented in the Energy White Paper.

I am writing with Hurricane Sandy having brought devastation to New York and the East coast of the United States. Much has been written on the politics of climate change. But until a few days ago, a severe weather event affecting the Presidential poll in the world's largest economy and second largest emitter of greenhouse gases, would have been regarded as creative fantasy or another average Hollywood script.

"Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power appear to be the impetus behind a South Australian proposal to substantially drop electricity prices, just as other states are hiking theirs. The Essential Service Commission of South Australian (ESCOSA), which regulates retail electricity prices, has released a draft price determination that proposes an 8.1% reduction in the electricity standing offer, (that is, the default retail price that must be offered to South Australians, at a minimum)."

"For the first time since World War II, bike purchases in Italy have surpassed automotive sales. The bike's growing popularity may be due to several factors, particularly the current economic turmoil in Europe."

This course introduces the academic discipline of sustainability and explores how today's human societies can endure in the face of global change, ecosystem degradation and resource limitations.

""Sustainability: A Comprehensive Foundation" is a free, open-source textbook available for viewing online or as a download for use on e-readers or printing. First and second-year college students are introduced to this expanding new field, comprehensively exploring the essential concepts from every branch of knowledge - including engineering and the applied arts, natural and social sciences, and the humanities. As sustainability is a multi-disciplinary area of study, the text is the product of multiple authors drawn from the diverse faculty of the University of Illinois: each chapter is written by a recognized expert in the field. Designed for the new generation of e-readers, the book can also be viewed in a browser, saved as a pdf, or printed."

"It will come as no surprise to hear that only a tiny fraction - less than 1 percent - of cars driving along American roads are fully electric. What might be more surprising is the fact that this wasn't always the case. In 1900, 34 percent of cars in New York, Boston and Chicago were powered by electric motors. Nearly half had steam engines. What happened? Why do we end up embracing one technology while another, better one struggles or fails?"