Journal articles on the topic 'Fronts (Meteorology) Central Australia'

Abstract The seasonal cycle of blocking in the Australian region is shown to be associated with major seasonal temperature changes over continental Antarctica (approximately 15°–35°C) and Australia (about 8°–17°C) and with minor changes over the surrounding oceans (below 5°C). These changes are superimposed on a favorable background state for blocking in the region resulting from a conjunction of physical influences. These include the geographical configuration and topography of the Australian and Antarctic continents and the positive west to east gradient of sea surface temperature in the Indo-Australian sector of the Southern Ocean. Blocking is represented by a blocking index (BI) developed by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. The BI has a marked seasonal cycle that reflects seasonal changes in the strength of the westerly winds in the midtroposphere at selected latitudes. Significant correlations between the BI at Australian longitudes and rainfall have been demonstrated in southern and central Australia for the austral autumn, winter, and spring. Patchy positive correlations are evident in the south during summer but significant negative correlations are apparent in the central tropical north. By decomposing the rainfall into its contributions from identifiable synoptic types during the April–October growing season, it is shown that the high correlation between blocking and rainfall in southern Australia is explained by the component of rainfall associated with cutoff lows. These systems form the cyclonic components of blocking dipoles. In contrast, there is no significant correlation between the BI and rainfall from Southern Ocean fronts.

Georg von Neumayer played a central role in building the foundations of Australian meteorology and in shaping the global framework of cooperation under the International Meteorological Organization (IMO), the forerunner of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Though his time in Australia was relatively brief, his name stands alongside those of Lieutenant William Dawes (active from 1788-1791), Sir Thomas Brisbane (1822-24), Robert Ellery (1863-1895), Sir Charles Todd (1856-1906), Clement Wragge (1883-1903) and Henry Chamberlain Russell (1859-1904) in the short list of Australia’s outstanding meteorological pioneers; and with Lt. Matthew Fontaine Maury, Admiral Robert FitzRoy and Professors C.H.D. Buys Ballot, H. Wild and E. Mascart in building the 19th century framework for international cooperation in meteorology, especially through his role as President of the International Polar Commission which organised the First International Polar Year (1882-83). This paper provides a brief overview of the origins of Australian meteorology and of the 1873 establishment and early work of the IMO in providing the international framework for cooperation in meteorology until its replacement by the intergovernmental WMO in 1950.

Abstract The identification of extratropical fronts in reanalyses and climate models is an important climate diagnostic that aids dynamical understanding and model verification. This study compares six frontal identification methods that are applied to June and July reanalysis data over the Central Wheatbelt of southwest Western Australia for 1979–2006. Much of the winter rainfall over this region originates from frontal systems. Five of the methods use automated algorithms. These make use of different approaches, based on shifts in 850-hPa winds (WND), gradients of temperature (TGR) and wet-bulb potential temperature (WPT), pattern matching (PMM), and a self-organizing map (SOM). The sixth method was a manual synoptic technique (MAN). On average, about 50% of rain days were associated with fronts in most schemes (although methods PMM and SOM exhibited a lower percentage). On a daily basis, most methods identify the same systems more than 50% of the time, and over the 28-yr period the seasonal time series correlate strongly. The association with rainfall is less clear. The WND time series of seasonal frontal counts correlate significantly with Central Wheatbelt rainfall. All automated methods identify fronts on some days that are classified as cutoff lows in the manual analysis, which will impact rainfall correlations. The front numbers identified on all days by the automated methods decline from 1979 to 2006 (but only the TGR and WPT trends were significant at the 10% level). The results here highlight that automated techniques have value in understanding frontal behavior and can be used to identify the changes in the frequency of frontal systems through time.

The wintertime (April - October) precipitation across western Tasmania (west of 147°E) has been studied for two years (2014 and 2015). Using the AWAP precipitation analysis, the average daily rainfall across western Tasmania was found to be 4.49 mm day-1 for all winter days and 6.99 mm day-1 for rain days (average precipitation greater than 1 mm day-1). Rain days were observed for ~63% of all days during the winter months. Rain days were frequently recorded after the pas-sage of a cold front, when winds are typically from the west and southwest, off the open Southern Ocean. The daily precipitation was found to be highly correlated (r = 0.55) with the 12 UTC ERA-Interim 1000 m wind speed at a point upwind of Tasmania, roughly 100 km off the west coast.Given the highly variable meteorology of the Southern Ocean storm track and the complex topography, western Tasmania is a natural testbed for studying orographic precipitation. Both locally blocked and unblocked flows, caused by changes in the low-level thermodynamic stability, occur frequently over the course of a winter with a stable environment having a lower average precipitation rate (3.66 mm day-1) than an unstable environment (8.40 mm day-1), although only a weak correlation (r = -0.07) was found between precipitation and Ĥ2(the square of non-dimensional mountain height).Simulated precipitation from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s ACCESS-VT model was found to underestimate the AWAP precipitation by ~20%. The greatest negative relative errors between the AWAP and ACCESS-VT precipitation in unblocked flow were in the lee of the mountains, over central and south-central Tasmania. For days when the flow was blocked, this region had large positive relative errors in precipitation. Over the upwind side of western Tasmania, ACCESS-VT underestimated precipitation in comparison to AWAP in both un-blocked and blocked flows. However, the network of surface sites is quite sparse over this region, which limits our confidence in both the ACCESS-VT and the AWAP precipitation products. A more detailed investigation is necessary to better appreciate limitations in the ACCESS-VT forecasts in this region.

Abstract The year 1919 was important in meteorology, not only because it was the year that the American Meteorological Society was founded, but also for two other reasons. One of the foundational papers in extratropical cyclone structure by Jakob Bjerknes was published in 1919, leading to what is now known as the Norwegian cyclone model. Also that year, a series of meetings was held that led to the formation of organizations that promoted the international collaboration and scientific exchange required for extratropical cyclone research, which by necessity involves spatial scales spanning national borders. This chapter describes the history of scientific inquiry into the structure, evolution, and dynamics of extratropical cyclones, their constituent fronts, and their attendant jet streams and storm tracks. We refer to these phenomena collectively as the centerpiece of meteorology because of their central role in fostering meteorological research during this century. This extremely productive period in extratropical cyclone research has been possible because of 1) the need to address practical challenges of poor forecasts that had large socioeconomic consequences, 2) the intermingling of theory, observations, and diagnosis (including dynamical modeling) to provide improved physical understanding and conceptual models, and 3) strong international cooperation. Conceptual frameworks for cyclones arise from a desire to classify and understand cyclones; they include the Norwegian cyclone model and its sister the Shapiro–Keyser cyclone model. The challenge of understanding the dynamics of cyclones led to such theoretical frameworks as quasigeostrophy, baroclinic instability, semigeostrophy, and frontogenesis. The challenge of predicting explosive extratropical cyclones in particular led to new theoretical developments such as potential-vorticity thinking and downstream development. Deeper appreciation of the limits of predictability has resulted from an evolution from determinism to chaos. Last, observational insights led to detailed cyclone and frontal structure, storm tracks, and rainbands.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) Panel Report in Australia – Anti-Dumping Measures on A4 Copy Paper (Australia – A4 Copy Paper) marks a significant development of the multilateral rules on anti-dumping. Under certain circumstances, WTO agreements permit members to impose anti-dumping measures to counteract the injurious effect of dumping on domestic industries, typically through import duties. The Report is the first to examine in detail when an anti-dumping authority may determine that a “particular market situation” exists in the country of exportation under Article 2.2 of the WTO Anti-Dumping Agreement, potentially justifying the imposition of elevated remedial duties. The Report also develops the jurisprudence on how such remedies may be calculated, expounding the use of benchmark costs for the calculation of a constructed normal value (CNV) under Article 2.2.1.1. These doctrinal questions are central to the longstanding debate over how far the Anti-Dumping Agreement allows anti-dumping measures against state intervention and market distortions. On both fronts, the Australia – A4 Copy Paper panel created flexibilities for WTO members to respond to government-induced distortions. In doing so, the Report deviates considerably from the course set by the Appellate Body in the landmark EU – Biodiesel decision, which seemed to confine anti-dumping measures to responding to private action. At the same time, the panel left open several important issues relating to the adoption of CNVs and the use of benchmarks for their calculation, leaving wide latitude for investigating authorities to inflate dumping margins in practice.

Many Australians, particularly in rural areas, are seeking clear scientific information about the potential impacts of coal seam gas production on groundwater and surface water across the country. In response to the resultant community concern, the Australian Government commissioned an ambitious multi-disciplinary program of bioregional assessments to improve understanding of the potential impacts of coal seam gas (and large coal mining) activities on water-dependent assets across six bioregions in eastern and central Australia. Delivered through a collaboration between the Department of the Environment, the Bureau of Meteorology, CSIRO, and Geoscience Australia—and including close engagement with natural resource management and catchment management organisations, coal resource companies, Indigenous peoples and state governments—the results will allow coal resource companies, governments, and the community to focus on the areas where impacts may occur so that these can be minimised. Key findings of the program will be presented with specific reference to the potential impacts on water-dependent assets due to CSG development by Metgasco and AGL in the Clarence-Moreton and Gloucester regions, respectively.

Abstract Australian northwest cloudbands (NWCBs) are continental-scale bands of continuous cloud that stretch from northwest to southeast Australia. In earlier studies, where the characteristics of NWCBs and their relationship with precipitation were identified from satellite imagery, there was considerable uncertainty in the results due to limited quality and availability of data. The present study identifies NWCBs from 31 years of satellite data using a pattern-matching algorithm. This new climatology is the longest record based entirely on observations. Our findings include a strong annual cycle in NWCB frequency, with a summer maximum and winter minimum, and a statistically significant increase in annual NWCB days over the period 1984–2014. Physical mechanisms responsible for NWCB occurrences are explored to determine whether there is a fundamental difference between summer and winter NWCBs as hypothesized in earlier studies. Composite analyses are used to reveal that a key difference between these is their genesis mechanisms. Whereas summer NWCBs are triggered by cyclonic disturbances, winter NWCBs tend to form when meridional sea surface temperature gradients trigger baroclinic instability. It was also found that while precipitation is enhanced over parts of Australia during a cloudband day, it is reduced in other regions. During a cloudband day, precipitation extremes are more likely over northwest, central, and southeast Australia, while the probability of extreme precipitation decreases in northeast and southwest Australia. Additionally, cold fronts and NWCBs can interact, leading to enhanced rainfall over Australia.

Low pressure systems off the southeast coast of Australia can generate intense rainfall and associated flooding, destructive winds, and coastal erosion, particularly during the cool season (April–September). Impacts depend on coastal proximity, strength and latitude. Therefore, it is important to investigate changes in frequency, duration, location, and intensity of these systems. First, an existing observation-based database of these low pressure systems, for 1970–2006, is extended to 2019, focusing on April–September and using archived Australian Bureau of Meteorology MSLP charts. Second, data consistency between 1970 and 2006 and 2007 and 2019 is confirmed. Third, permutation testing is performed on differences in means and variances between the two 25-year intervals 1970–1994 and 1995–2019. Additionally, trends in positions, durations and central pressures of the systems are investigated. p-values from permutation tests reveal statistically significant increases in mean low pressure system frequencies. Specifically, a greater frequency of both total days and initial development days only, occurred in the latter period. Statistically significant lower variance for both latitude and longitude in systems that developed in both subtropical easterly and mid-latitude westerly wind regimes indicate a shift south and east in the latter period. Furthermore, statistically significant differences in variance of development location of explosive low pressure systems that develop in a low level easterly wind regime indicate a shift further south and east. These changes are consistent with fewer systems projected to impact the east coast. Finally, important changes are suggested in the large scale atmospheric dynamics of the eastern Australian/Tasman Sea region.

AbstractThe terminal lake systems of central Australia are key sites for the reconstruction of late Quaternary paleoenvironments. Paleoshoreline deposits around these lakes reflect repeated lake filling episodes and such landforms have enabled the establishment of a luminescence-based chronology for filling events in previous studies. Here we present a detailed documentation of the morphology and chemistry of soils developed in four well-preserved beach ridges of late Pleistocene and mid-to-late Holocene age at Lake Callabonna to assess changes in dominant pedogenic processes. All soil profiles contain evidence for the incorporation of eolian-derived material, likely via the formation of desert pavements and vesicular horizons, and limited illuviation due to generally shallow wetting fronts. Even though soil properties in the four studied profiles also provide examples of parent material influence or site-specific processes related to the geomorphic setting, there is an overall trend of increasing enrichment of eolian-derived material since at least ~ 33 ka. Compared to the Holocene profiles, the derived average accumulation rates for the late Pleistocene profiles are significantly lower and may suggest that soils record important regional changes in paleoenvironments and dust dynamics related to shifts in the Southern Hemisphere westerlies.

Abstract The relationship between variations of Indo-Pacific sea surface temperatures (SSTs) and Australian springtime rainfall over the last 30 years is investigated with a focus on predictability of inter–El Niño variations of SST and associated rainfall anomalies. Based on observed data, the leading empirical orthogonal function (EOF) of Indo-Pacific SST represents mature El Niño conditions, while the second and fourth modes depict major east–west shifts of individual El Niño events. These higher-order EOFs of SST explain more rainfall variance in Australia, especially in the southeast, than does the El Niño mode. Furthermore, intense springtime droughts tend to be associated with peak warming in the central Pacific, as captured by EOFs 2 and 4, together with warming in the eastern Pacific as depicted by EOF1. The ability to predict these inter–El Niño variations of SST and Australian rainfall is assessed with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology dynamical coupled model seasonal forecast system, the Predictive Ocean and Atmospheric Model for Australia (POAMA). A 10-member ensemble of 9-month hindcasts was generated for the period 1980–2006. For the September–November season, the leading 2 EOFs of SST are predictable with lead times of 3–6 months, while SST EOF4 is predictable out to a lead time of 1 month. The teleconnection between the leading EOFs of SST and Australian rainfall is also well depicted in the model. Based on this ability to predict major east–west variations of El Niño and the teleconnection to Australian rainfall, springtime rainfall over eastern Australia, and major drought events are predictable up to a season in advance.

Abstract The authors assess the sensitivity of the simulated mean state and coupled variability to systematic initial state salinity errors in seasonal forecasts using the Australian Bureau of Meteorology Predictive Ocean Atmosphere Model for Australia (POAMA) coupled model. This analysis is based on two sets of hindcasts that were initialized from old and new ocean initial conditions, respectively. The new ocean initial conditions are provided by an ensemble multivariate analysis system that assimilates subsurface temperatures and salinity and is a clear improvement over the previous system, which was based on univariate optimal interpolation, using static error covariances and assimilating only temperature without updating salinity. Large systematic errors in the salinity field around the thermocline region of the tropical western and central Pacific produced by the old assimilation scheme are shown to have strong impacts on the predicted mean state and variability in the tropical Pacific for the entire 9 months of the forecast. Forecasts initialized from the old scheme undergo a rapid and systematic adjustment of density that causes large persistent changes in temperature both locally in the western and central Pacific thermocline, but also remotely in the eastern Pacific via excitation of equatorial waves. The initial subsurface salinity errors in the western and central Pacific ultimately result in an altered surface climate because of induced temperature changes in the thermocline that trigger a coupled feedback in the eastern Pacific. These results highlight the importance of accurately representing salinity in initial conditions for climate prediction on seasonal and potentially multiyear time scales.

Abstract. The Hydrologic Reference Stations is a network of 467 high-quality streamflow gauging stations across Australia that is developed and maintained by the Bureau of Meteorology as part of an ongoing responsibility under the Water Act 2007. The main objectives of the service are to observe and detect climate-driven changes in observed streamflow and to provide a quality-controlled dataset for research. We investigate trends and step changes in streamflow across Australia in data from all 467 streamflow gauging stations. Data from 30 to 69 years in duration ending in February 2019 were examined. We analysed data in terms of water-year totals and for the four seasons. The commencement of the water year varies across the country – mainly from February–March in the south to September–October in the north. We summarized our findings for each of the 12 drainage divisions defined by Australian Hydrological Geospatial Fabric (Geofabric) and for continental Australia as a whole. We used statistical tests to detect and analyse linear and step changes in seasonal and annual streamflow. Monotonic trends were detected using modified Mann–Kendall (MK) tests, including a variance correction approach (MK3), a block bootstrap approach (MK3bs) and a long-term persistence approach (MK4). A nonparametric Pettitt test was used for step-change detection and identification. The regional significance of these changes at the drainage division scale was analysed and synthesized using a Walker test. The Murray–Darling Basin, home to Australia's largest river system, showed statistically significant decreasing trends for the region with respect to the annual total and all four seasons. Drainage divisions in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania showed significant annual and seasonal decreasing trends. Similar results were found in south-western Western Australia, South Australia and north-eastern Queensland. There was no significant spatial pattern observed in central nor mid-west Western Australia, with one possible explanation for this being the sparse density of streamflow stations and/or the length of the datasets available. Only the Tanami–Timor Sea Coast drainage division in northern Australia showed increasing trends and step changes in annual and seasonal streamflow that were regionally significant. Most of the step changes occurred during 1970–1999. In the south-eastern part of Australia, the majority of the step changes occurred in the 1990s, before the onset of the “Millennium Drought”. Long-term monotonic trends in observed streamflow and its regional significance are consistent with observed changes in climate experienced across Australia. The findings of this study will assist water managers with long-term infrastructure planning and management of water resources under climate variability and change across Australia.

AbstractOver the last 30 years, coral reefs around the world have been under considerable stress because of increasing anthropogenic pressures, overfishing, pollution, and climate change. A primary stress factor is anomalously warm water events, which can cause mass coral bleaching and widespread reef damage. Forecasts of sea surface temperature (SST) and the associated risk of coral bleaching can assist managers, researchers, and other stakeholders in monitoring and managing coral reef resources. At the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, monthly forecasts of SST and thermal stress metrics have been developed that are based on a dynamical seasonal prediction system known as the Predictive Ocean Atmosphere Model for Australia (POAMA). To support the effective use of these forecasts in risk-based decision-making frameworks in the western and central tropical Pacific Ocean, the skill of these forecast tools in this region was assessed using several categorical forecast skill scores. It was found that the model provides SST forecasts with statistically significant skill up to 8 months in advance (correlation coefficient > 0.4; p = 0.05) across the region. The highest skill (r > 0.9) was achieved over the central equatorial Pacific Ocean, likely as a result of this region’s strong relationship with the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Potential forecast value was assessed using a simplified cost–loss ratio decision model, which indicated that POAMA’s seasonal hot-spot thermal stress forecasts can provide valuable information to reef management and policy makers in the western Pacific region.

East Coast Lows (ECLs) are intense low pressure systems that form several times a year off the east coast of Australia. When these systems occur close to land they can cause major damage to infrastructure and communities due to gale force winds, intense rainfall, storm surge and coastal erosion. In June 2007, Newcastle and Central Coast regions of New South Wales (NSW) experienced severe weather and subsequent flash flooding. The ‘Pasha Bulker’ storm, as it has become known, was one of the most significant meteorological events in Australia’s history, with large economic losses and social disruption due to the loss of critical infrastructure. This paper provides background information on the meteorology of the event, the impact of the Pasha Bulker storm and a discussion of the lessons learned from the event and subsequent adaptation strategies employed. The paper also provides important reflections, at both regional and national level, on the Pasha Bulker storm and other similar storm events. Lessons for all levels of government and community groups are discussed, including preparedness before the event, actions during the event, and recovery processes post-event. From this, recommendations and conclusions are made on actions and strategies to increase adaptive capacity and resilience to extreme weather events like ECLs.

Abstract The impact of stochastic intraseasonal variability on the onset of the 1997/98 El Niño was examined using a large ensemble of forecasts starting on 1 December 1996, produced using the Australian Bureau of Meteorology Predictive Ocean Atmosphere Model for Australia (POAMA) seasonal forecast coupled model. This coupled model has a reasonable simulation of El Niño and the Madden–Julian oscillation, so it provides an ideal framework for investigating the interaction between the MJO and El Niño. The experiment was designed so that the ensemble spread was simply a result of internal stochastic variability that is generated during the forecast. For the initial conditions used here, all forecasts led to warm El Niño–type conditions with the amplitude of the warming varying from 0.5° to 2.7°C in the Niño-3.4 region. All forecasts developed an MJO event during the first 4 months, indicating that perhaps the background state favored MJO development. However, the details of the MJOs that developed during December 1996–March 1997 had a significant impact on the subsequent strength of the El Niño event. In particular, the forecasts with the initial MJOs that extended farther into the central Pacific, on average, led to a stronger El Niño, with the westerly winds in the western Pacific associated with the MJO leading the development of SST and thermocline anomalies in the central and eastern Pacific. These results imply a limit to the accuracy with which the strength of El Niño can be predicted because the details of individual MJO events matter. To represent realistic uncertainty, coupled models should be able to represent the MJO, including its propagation into the central Pacific so that forecasts produce sufficient ensemble spread.

Abstract Interannual variations of upper-ocean salinity in the tropical Pacific and relationships with ENSO are investigated using the Bureau of Meteorology (Australia) POAMA Ensemble Ocean Data Assimilation System (PEODAS) reanalyses. Empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis reveals the systematic evolution of salinity and temperature during ENSO. EOF1 and EOF2 of both temperature and salinity capture the mature phase of El Niño and the discharge and recharge phase, respectively. Typical El Niño and La Niña evolution captured by the leading pair of EOFs depicts eastward or westward migration of the eastern edge of the warm/fresh pool in the western Pacific. Increased or decreased freshness in the western Pacific mixed layer occurs in the recharge/discharge phase. EOF3 captures extreme El Niño, when the strong positive temperature anomaly extends to the South American coast and the fresh pool detaches from the western Pacific and shifts into the central Pacific. Large loadings on EOF3 occurred only during 1982/83 and 1997/98, which suggests that eastern Pacific El Niño is actually the exception, whereas moderate central Pacific El Niño and La Niña are more typical. The eastward expansion of the warm/fresh pool during El Niño is also associated with a continuous eastward displacement of the barrier layer, indicating an active role of the barrier layer not just at the onset of an event. The barrier layer and fresh pool shift much farther eastward during strong El Niño, which could contribute to the eastward shift of strong events. The prior enhancement of the barrier layer in the western Pacific is also more concentrated and stronger, which might portend development of extreme El Niño.

Based on the data of daily maximum temperature in 26 meteorological stations in the North Center Region, Vietnam over the period of 1980 to 2013, the authors conducted the research on the spatial distribution of the number of hot days. The initial result shows that in general, in the north of the study area, the large number of hot days occurred in the plain, and tended to decrease westward and eastward. In the south, this number tends to increase from the west to the east. Especially, the largest number occurred in two areas: The Ma and Ca River's valleys (Thanh Hoa and Nghe An provinces) and the coastal areas (Thua Thien Hue province), creating two heat centers in Tuong Duong district, Nghe An province and Nam Dong district, Thua Thien Hue province.ReferencesAdina-Eliza Croitoru, Adrian Piticar, Antoniu-Flavius Ciupertea, Cristina FlorinaRosca, 2016 Changes in heat wave indices in Romania over the period 1961-2015. Global and Plantary Change 146. Journal homepage: www. Elsevier.com/locate/gloplacha.Chu Thi Thu Huong et al., 2010. Variations and trends in hot event in Vietnam from 1961-2007, VNU Journal of Science and Technology, 26(3S).Climate Council, 2014a. Angry Summer 2013/2014. Accessed at http://www.climatecouncil.org.au/ angry-summer.Climate Council, 2014b. Angry Summer 2013/2014. Accessed at http://www.climatecouncil.org.au/ angry-summer.CSIRO and BoM, 2012. State of the Climate 2012.CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology, Melbourne.Accessed at http://www.csiro.au/Outcomes/ Climate/Understanding/State-of-the-Climate-2012.aspx.D'Ippoliti D., Michelozzi P., Marino C., De'Donato F., Menne B., Katsouyanni K., Kirchmayer U., Analitis A., Medina-Ramon M., Paldy A., Atkinson R., Kovats S., Bisanti L., Schneider A., Lefranc A., Iñiguez C., Perucci C., 2010. The impact of heat waves on mortality in 9 European cities: results from the EuroHEAT project. Environ. Health 9, 37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-9-37.Gerald A. Meehl, 1992. Effect of tropical topography on global climate, Ann. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci., 20, 85-112.Hayhoe K., Cayan D., Field C.B., Frumhoff P.C., Maurer E.P., Miller N.L., Moser S.C., Schneider S.H., Cahill K.N., Cleland E.E., Dale L., Drapek R., Hanemann R.M., lkstein L.S., Lenihan J., Lunch C.K., Neilson R.P., Sheridan S.C., Verville J.H., 2004. Emissions pathways, climate change, and impacts on California. PNAS, 101(34), 12422-12427.Ho Thi Minh Ha, Phan Van Tan, 2009. Trends and variations of extreme temperature in Vietnam in the period from 1961 to 2007, VNU Journal of Science and Technology, 25(3S).IPCC, 2007: Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, Pachauri R.K and Reisinger A. (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 104p.IPCC, 2014. Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, R.K. Pachauri and L.A. Meyer (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 151p.Liu G., Zhang L., He B., Jin X., Zhang Q., Razafindrabe B., You H., 2015. Temporal changes in extreme high temperature, heat waves and relevant disasters in Nanjing metropolitan region, China. Nat. Hazards, 76, 1415–1430. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11069-014-1556-y.Manton M.J et al., 2001. Trends in extreme daily temperature in Southeast Asia Rainfall ad and the South Pacific, J. Climatol. 21.Nairn J.R., Fawcett R.J.B., 2015. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 12, 227–253. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph120100227.Nguyen Duc Ngu, 2009. Climate Change Challenges to development, Journal of Economy and Environment, No. 1.Perkins S.E., Alexander L.V., 2013. On the measurement of heat waves. J. Clim. 26, 4500–4517. http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00383.1.Peterson T.C., Heim Jr. R.R., Hirsch R., Kaiser D.P., Brooks H., Diffenbaugh N.S., Dole R.M., Giovannettone J.P., Guirguis K., Karl T.R., Katz R.W., Kunkel K., Lettenmaier D., McCabe G.J., Paciorek C.J., Ryberg K.R., Schubert S., Silva V.B.S., Stewart B.C., Vecchia A.V., Villarini G., Vose R.S., Walsh J., Wehner M., Wolock D., Wolter K., Woodhouse C.A., Wuebbles D., 2013. Monitoring and understanding changes in heat waves, cold waves, floods, and droughts in the United States: state of knowledge. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 94, 821–834.Pham Thi Ly, Hoang Luu Thu Thuy, 2015. Variation of heat waves in the North Central Region over the period of 1980-2013, Journal of natural resources and environment, 9, 81-89.Phan Van Tan et al., 2010. Study impact of global climate change on extreme weather phenomena and factors in Vietnam, prediction and adaptation strategies. Project final report, KC 08.29/06-10, Hanoi University of Science.Spinoni J., Lakatos M., Szentimrey T., Bihari Z., Szalai S., Vogt J., Antofie T., 2015. Heat and cold waves trends in Carpathian Region from 1961 to 2010. Int. J. Climatol, 35, 4197–4209. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/joc.4279.Toreti A., Desiato F., 2008.Temperature trends over Italy from 1961 to 2004, Theor. Appl. Climatol 91.Tran Cong Minh, 2007. Principle of meteorology and climate, Book, Public House of Hanoi National University.Tran Quang Duc, Trinh Lan Phuong, 2013. Changes of Hot day and Fohn Activities at Ha Tinh- Central Vietnam, VNU Journal of Science, Science and Technology, 29(2S).Trewin B., Smalley R., 2013.Changes in extreme temperature in Australia, 1910 to 2011. In: 19th AMOS National Conference, Melbourne, 11-13.Unal Y.S., Tan E., Mentes S.S., 2013. Summer heat waves over western Turkey between 1965 and 2006.Theor. Appl. Climatol, 112, 339–350. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00704-012-0704-0.Will Steffen, 2015. Quantifying the impact of climate change on extreme heat in Australia. Published by the Climate Council of Australia Limited. ISBN: 978-0-9942453-1-1 (print) 978-0-9942453-0-4 (web).

Abstract Predictability of the southern annular mode (SAM) for lead times beyond 1–2 weeks has traditionally been considered to be low because the SAM is regarded as an internal mode of variability with a typical decorrelation time of about 10 days. However, the association of the SAM with El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) suggests the potential for making seasonal predictions of the SAM. In this study the authors explore seasonal predictability and the predictive skill of SAM using observations and retrospective forecasts (hindcasts) from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology dynamical seasonal forecast system [the Predictive Ocean and Atmosphere Model for Australia, version 2 (POAMA2)]. Based on the observed seasonal relationships of the SAM with tropical sea surface temperatures, two distinctive periods of high seasonal predictability are suggested: austral late autumn to winter and late spring to early summer. Predictability of the SAM in the austral cold seasons stems from the association of the SAM with warm-pool (or Modoki/central Pacific) ENSO, whereas predictability in the austral warm seasons stems from the association of the SAM with cold-tongue (or eastern Pacific) ENSO. Using seasonal hindcasts for 1980–2010 from POAMA2, it is shown that the observed relationship between SAM and ENSO is faithfully depicted and SST variations associated with ENSO are skillfully predicted. Consequently, POAMA2 can skillfully predict the phase and amplitude of seasonal anomalies of the SAM in early summer and early winter for at least one season in advance. Zero-lead monthly forecasts of the SAM are furthermore shown to be highly skillful in almost all months, which is ascribed to predictability stemming from observed atmospheric initial conditions.

Abstract. A regional atmospheric inversion method has been developed to determine the spatial and temporal distribution of CO2 sinks and sources across New Zealand for 2011–2013. This approach infers net air–sea and air–land CO2 fluxes from measurement records, using back-trajectory simulations from the Numerical Atmospheric dispersion Modelling Environment (NAME) Lagrangian dispersion model, driven by meteorology from the New Zealand Limited Area Model (NZLAM) weather prediction model. The inversion uses in situ measurements from two fixed sites, Baring Head on the southern tip of New Zealand's North Island (41.408° S, 174.871° E) and Lauder from the central South Island (45.038° S, 169.684° E), and ship board data from monthly cruises between Japan, New Zealand, and Australia. A range of scenarios is used to assess the sensitivity of the inversion method to underlying assumptions and to ensure robustness of the results. The results indicate a strong seasonal cycle in terrestrial land fluxes from the South Island of New Zealand, especially in western regions covered by indigenous forest, suggesting higher photosynthetic and respiratory activity than is evident in the current a priori land process model. On the annual scale, the terrestrial biosphere in New Zealand is estimated to be a net CO2 sink, removing 98 (±37) Tg CO2 yr−1 from the atmosphere on average during 2011–2013. This sink is much larger than the reported 27 Tg CO2 yr−1 from the national inventory for the same time period. The difference can be partially reconciled when factors related to forest and agricultural management and exports, fossil fuel emission estimates, hydrologic fluxes, and soil carbon change are considered, but some differences are likely to remain. Baseline uncertainty, model transport uncertainty, and limited sensitivity to the northern half of the North Island are the main contributors to flux uncertainty.

On 16 December 2015 a severe thunderstorm and associated tornado affected Sydney causing widespread damage and insured losses of $206 million. Severe impacts occurred in Kurnell, requiring repairs to Sydney's desalination plant which supplies up to 15% of Sydney water during drought, with repairs only completed at the end of 2018. Climatologically, this storm was unusual as it occurred during the morning and had developed over the ocean, rather than developing inland during the afternoon as is the case for many severe storms impacting the Sydney region. Simulations of the Kurnell storm were conducted using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model on a double nested domain using the Morrison microphysics scheme and the NSSL 2-moment 4-ice microphysics scheme. Both simulations produced severe storms that followed paths similar to the observed storm. However, the storm produced under the Morrison scheme did not have the same morphology as the observed storm. Meanwhile, the storm simulated with the NSSL scheme displayed cyclical low- and mid-level mesocyclone development, which was observed in the Kurnell storm, highlighting that the atmosphere supported the development of severe rotating thunderstorms with the potential for tornadogenesis. The NSSL storm also produced severe hail and surface winds, similar to observations. The ability of WRF to simulate general convective characteristics and a storm similar to that observed displays the applicability of this model to study the causes of severe high-impact Australian thunderstorms. References J. T. Allen and E. R. Allen. A review of severe thunderstorms in Australia. Atmos. Res., 178:347–366, 2016. doi:10.1016/j.atmosres.2016.03.011. Bureau of Meteorology. Severe Storms Archive, 2020. URL http://www.bom.gov.au/australia/stormarchive/. D. T. Dawson II, M. Xue, J. A. Milbrandt, and M. K. Yau. Comparison of evaporation and cold pool development between single-moment and multimoment bulk microphysics schemes in idealized simulations of tornadic thunderstorms. Month. Wea. Rev., 138:1152–1171, 2010. doi:10.1175/2009MWR2956.1. H. Hersbach, B. Bell, P. Berrisford, S. Hirahara, A. Horanyi, J. Munoz-Sabater, J. Nicolas, C. Peubey, R. Radu, D. Schepers, et al. The ERA5 global reanalysis. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 146:1999–2049, 2020. doi:10.1002/qj.3803. Insurance Council of Australia. Victorian bushfire losses push summer catastrophe bill past $550m, 2016. E. R. Mansell, C. L. Ziegler, and E. C. Bruning. Simulated electrification of a small thunderstorm with two-moment bulk microphysics. J. Atmos. Sci., 67:171–194, 2010. doi:10.1175/2009JAS2965.1. R. C. Miller. Notes on analysis and severe-storm forecasting procedures of the Air Force Global Weather Central, volume 200. Air Weather Service, 1972. URL https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/AD0744042. H. Morrison, J. A. Curry, and V. I. Khvorostyanov. A new double-moment microphysics parameterization for application in cloud and climate models. Part I: Description. J. Atmos. Sci., 62:1665–1677, 2005. doi:10.1175/JAS3446.1. H. Morrison, G. Thompson, and V. Tatarskii. Impact of cloud microphysics on the development of trailing stratiform precipitation in a simulated squall line: Comparison of one- and two-moment schemes. Month. Wea. Rev., 137:991–1007, 2009. doi:10.1175/2008MWR2556.1. J. G. Powers, J. B. Klemp, W. C. Skamarock, C. A. Davis, J. Dudhia, D. O. Gill, J. L. Coen, D. J. Gochis, R. Ahmadov, S. E. Peckham, et al. The Weather Research and Forecasting Model: Overview, system efforts, and future directions. Bull. Am. Meteor. Soc., 98:1717–1737, 2017. doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-15-00308.1. H. Richter, A. Protat, J. Taylor, and J. Soderholm. Doppler radar and storm environment observations of a maritime tornadic supercell in Sydney, Australia. In Preprints, 28th Conf. on Severe Local Storms, Portland OR, Amer. Meteor. Soc. P, 2016. W. C. Skamarock, J. B. Klemp, J. Dudhia, D. O. Gill, Z. Liu, J. Berner, W. Wang, J. G. Powers, M. G. Duda, D. Barker, and X.-Y. Huang. A description of the advanced research WRF Model version 4. Technical report, 2019. Storm Prediction Center. The Enhanced Fujita Scale (EF Scale), 2014. URL https://www.spc.noaa.gov/efscale/. R. A. Warren, H. A. Ramsay, S. T. Siems, M. J. Manton, J. R. Peter, A. Protat, and A. Pillalamarri. Radar-based climatology of damaging hailstorms in Brisbane and Sydney, Australia. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 146:505–530, 2020. doi:10.1002/qj.3693.

Abstract. Among various factors that influence the long-range transport of pollutants in the free troposphere (FT), the prevailing atmospheric weather states probably play the most important role in governing characteristics and efficacy of such transport. The weather states, such as a particular wind pattern, cyclonic or anticyclonic conditions etc, and their degree of persistency determine the spatio-temporal distribution and the final fate of the pollutants. This is especially true in the case of Nordic countries, where baroclinic disturbances and associated weather fronts primarily regulate local meteorology, in contrast to the lower latitudes where convective paradigm plays similar important role. Furthermore, the long-range transport of pollutants in the FT has significant contribution to the total column burden over the Nordic countries. However, there is insufficient knowledge on the large-scale co-variability of pollutants in the FT and atmospheric weather states based solely on observational data over this region. The present study attempts to quantify and understand this statistical co-variability while providing relevant meteorological background. To that end, we select eight weather states that predominantly occur over the Nordic countries and three periods of their persistency (3 days, 5 days, and 7 days), thus providing in total 24 cases to investigate sensitivity of free tropospheric carbon monoxide, an ideal tracer for studying pollutant transport, to these selected weather states. The eight states include four dominant wind directions (namely, NW, NE, SE and SW), cyclonic and anticyclonic conditions, and the enhanced positive and negative phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). For our sensitivity analysis, we use recently released Version 6 retrievals of CO at 500 hPa from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) onboard Aqua satellite covering 11 yr period from September 2002 through August 2013 and winds from the ECMWF's ERA-Interim project to classify weather states for the same 11 yr period. We show that, among the various weather states studied here, southeasterly winds lead to highest observed CO anomalies (up to +8%) over the Nordic countries while transporting pollution from the central and eastern parts of Europe. The second (up to +4%) and third highest (up to +2.5%) CO anomalies are observed when winds are northwesterly (facilitating inter-continental transport from polluted North American regions) and during the enhanced positive phase of the NAO respectively. Higher than normal CO anomalies are observed during anticyclonic conditions (up to +1%) compared to cyclonic conditions. The cleanest conditions are observed when winds are northeasterly and during the enhanced negative phases of the NAO, when relatively clean Arctic air masses are transported over the Nordic regions in the both cases. In case of nearly all weather states, the CO anomalies consistently continue to increase or decrease as the degree of persistency of a weather state is increased. The results of this sensitivity study further provide an observational basis for the process-oriented evaluation of chemistry transport models, especially with regard to the representation of large-scale coupling of chemistry and local weather states and its role in the long-range transport of pollutants in such models.

Abstract. Among various factors that influence the long-range transport of pollutants in the free troposphere (FT), the prevailing atmospheric weather states probably play the most important role in governing characteristics and efficacy of such transport. The weather states, such as a particular wind pattern, cyclonic or anticyclonic conditions, and their degree of persistency determine the spatio-temporal distribution and the final fate of the pollutants. This is especially true in the case of Nordic countries, where baroclinic disturbances and associated weather fronts primarily regulate local meteorology, in contrast to the lower latitudes where a convective paradigm plays a similarly important role. Furthermore, the long-range transport of pollutants in the FT has significant contribution to the total column burden over the Nordic countries. However, there is insufficient knowledge on the large-scale co-variability of pollutants in the FT and atmospheric weather states based solely on observational data over this region. The present study attempts to quantify and understand this statistical co-variability while providing relevant meteorological background. To that end, we select eight weather states that predominantly occur over the Nordic countries and three periods of their persistency (3 days, 5 days, and 7 days), thus providing in total 24 cases to investigate sensitivity of free tropospheric carbon monoxide, an ideal tracer for studying pollutant transport, to these selected weather states. The eight states include four dominant wind directions (namely, NW, NE, SE and SW), cyclonic and anticyclonic conditions, and the enhanced positive and negative phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). For our sensitivity analysis, we use recently released Version 6 retrievals of CO at 500 hPa from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) onboard Aqua satellite covering the 11-year period from September 2002 through August 2013 and winds from the ECMWF's ERA-Interim project to classify weather states for the same 11-year period. We show that, among the various weather states studied here, southeasterly winds lead to highest observed CO anomalies (up to +8%) over the Nordic countries while transporting pollution from the central and eastern parts of Europe. The second (up to +4%) and third highest (up to +2.5%) CO anomalies are observed when winds are northwesterly (facilitating inter-continental transport from polluted North American regions) and during the enhanced positive phase of the NAO respectively. Higher than normal CO anomalies are observed during anticyclonic conditions (up to +1%) compared to cyclonic conditions. The cleanest conditions are observed when winds are northeasterly and during the enhanced negative phases of the NAO, when relatively clean Arctic air masses are transported over the Nordic regions in the both cases. In the case of nearly all weather states, the CO anomalies consistently continue to increase or decrease as the degree of persistency of a weather state is increased. The results of this sensitivity study further provide an observational basis for the process-oriented evaluation of chemistry transport models, especially with regard to the representation of large-scale coupling of chemistry and local weather states and its role in the long-range transport of pollutants in such models.

Approximately 40 per cent of the 52,000 km2 Sydney Basin lies in shallow waters (less than 200 m) off the central New South Wales coast. Containing more than 5,000 m of Permo-Triassic marine and non-marine sediments, and having been the subject of several previous exploration campaigns, no wells have been drilled in the offshore despite widespread numerous occurrences of oil and gas onshore.The Sydney Basin, together with the Bowen and Gunnedah basins, form a major longitudinal Permo-Triassic basinal complex stretching 2,500 km down the eastern margin of Australia. Whereas the onset of this basinal development may have been extensional, reinterpretation of seismic and other geophysical data highlight the potential role played in the early development of the Sydney Basin by easterly directed compression. A compressional style is to be contrasted with the dominantly extensional style interpreted by others for the adjacent onshore areas. The most conspicuous structural element in the offshore, the Offshore Uplift, is interpreted to represent the western overthrust edge of the Currarong Orogen. Accepting the Panthalassan margin geometry of Veevers and Powell (1994) it follows that the Offshore Uplift and restored Dampier Ridge would have constituted a 'greater Currarong Orogen'. A series of progressive westerly directed thrust fronts may have been established across the Panthalassan margin, including the uplifted western margin of the Currarong Orogen, which over-rode and created a thrust load onto the eastern margin of the Lachlan Fold Belt. Much of the Early Permian development of the Sydney Basin therefore could have resulted as a consequence of foreland loading. This is consistent with depositional trends including the overall westerly directed marine transgression which dominated the sedimentary record of the Early Permian. Alternatively, this marine transgression may represent the sag phase induced along a segment of the Bowen-Sydney rift system that had been offset by the Hunter River Transverse Zone from the Gunnedah Basin to a site coincident with the Offshore Syncline.Previous interpretations identified structural development of the Currarong Orogen as either a Cretaceous (Tasman Sea rift related) or Middle to Late Permian phenomena. Early Permian structural growth of the offshore Uplift has important implications for petroleum exploration. The major impediment to exploration appears to be the perception that the Sydney Basin lacks suitable reservoir targets and is gas-prone. Potential source and seal sequences occur extensively within both Early Permian marine shales and siltstones and Early and Late Permian coal measure sequences. The emerging uplift provided a major sediment provenance area and represented a barrier behind which restricted anoxic conditions flourished, conditions favouring the preservation of organic matter. Late Permian and Triassic sequences are absent across the crestal portions of the uplift. However, the emerging, sea-ward facing flank of the uplift would have been subject to marginal and shallow marine, wave-base, barrier and strand bar deposition during the Lower Permian, conditions known in the onshore to favour better reservoir development.Gas demand to the greater Sydney region is anticipated to exceed supply by the year 2000, and new gas markets are being eagerly sought in time for the expiration, in 2006, of the current contract under which gas is supplied to Sydney via the Moomba pipeline.Cretaceous, Tasman Sea rift related, structuring is subordinate to that of the earlier compressional and wrench related structuring. Several new structural targets have been added to the existing inventory of prospects and leads, including some now considered optiminally located with respect to source rock and reservoir development.

AbstractRainfall estimation over large areas is important for a thorough understanding of water availability, influencing societal decision-making, as well as being an input for scientific models. Traditionally, Australia utilizes a gauge-based analysis for rainfall estimation, but its performance can be severely limited over regions with low gauge density such as central parts of the continent. At the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, the current operational monthly rainfall component of the Australian Gridded Climate Dataset (AGCD) makes use of statistical interpolation (SI), also known as optimal interpolation (OI) to form an analysis from a background field of station climatology. In this study, satellite observations of rainfall were used as the background field instead of station climatology to produce improved monthly rainfall analyses. The performance of these monthly datasets was evaluated over the Australian domain from 2001 to 2020. Evaluated over the entire national domain, the satellite-based SI datasets had similar to slightly better performance than the station climatology-based SI datasets with some individual months being more realistically represented by the satellite-SI datasets. However, over gauge-sparse regions, there was a clear increase in performance. For a representative sub-domain, the Kling-Gupta Efficiency (KGE) value increased by + 8% (+ 12%) during the dry (wet) season. This study is an important step in enhancing operational rainfall analysis over Australia.

Purpose This research seeks to understand the potential impact to investors from government responses to climate change risk, as reflected in changes to planning processes made after significant weather events. Design/methodology/approach The research examines the land planning responses within a select local government authority (“LGA”) area following four significant weather events, in order to identify any changes made, and the impact on future development proposals. The LGA selected is the Central Coast Council, which is a coastal LGA in the Australian State of New South Wales. The research engaged with the publicly accessible records available on the Central Coast Council, Australian Bureau of Meteorology and other websites; and extant literature. Findings The research reveals that some adjustments were made by the Central Coast Council, and or the State government, to relevant laws, policies and processes following these events. These changes, however, tended to focus on imposing additional requirements on future development applications, rather than on requiring changes to current structures, or prohibiting further development works. Research limitations/implications The research has three limitations: (1) land law in Australia varies, as each State and Territory, and LGA, has specific laws, policies and processes; (2) as laws and policies are subject to change, it was necessary to select points in time at which to engage with those laws and processes; and (3) COVID-19's impact on domestic Australian travel [the authors could not travel interstate] meant only documents available on the Internet were considered, however, not all documents relating to development; or changes to laws and processes were easily accessible online. As the research focussed on one case study area, this may limit the applicability of the results to other areas. However, as extreme events are international, the related issues are a concern in all areas. Practical implications This research confirms the results of other extant research, which observed that some risks cannot be properly mitigated, such that any development in an at-risk area remains at risk. It also identifies that more current, accurate and publicly accessible data are required to enable investors to more easily and accurately identify all risks affecting a property. Originality/value The research provides a snapshot of one LGA's response to the physical risks arising from climate change events. As investors and other organisations integrate and build up their analysis of climate risks to their portfolios and organisations, governments become more aware of the long-term effects of climate change and consistently with extant research; this research indicates that a greater awareness is required of current risks and action to manage the short-term effects and cost challenges, in addition to the long-term adaptation requirements.

In Australia the “intimacy” of citizenship (Berlant 2), is often used to reinforce subscription to heteronormative romantic and familial structures. Because this framing promotes discourses of moral failure, recent political attention to sexuality and same-sex couples can be filtered through insights into coalitional affiliations. This paper uses contemporary shifts in Australian politics and culture to think through the concept of coalition, and in particular to analyse connections between sexuality and governmentality (or more specifically normative bias and same-sex relationships) in what I’m calling post-coalitional Australia. Against the unpredictability of changing parties and governments, allegiances and alliances, this paper suggests the continuing adherence to a heteronormatively arranged public sphere. After the current Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard deposed the previous leader, Kevin Rudd, she clung to power with the help of independents and the Greens, and clichés of a “rainbow coalition” and a “new paradigm” were invoked to describe the confused electorate and governmental configuration. Yet in 2007, a less confused Australia decisively threw out the Howard–led Liberal and National Party coalition government after eleven years, in favour of Rudd’s own rainbow coalition: a seemingly invigorated party focussed on gender equity, Indigenous Australians, multi-cultural visibility, workplace relations, Austral-Asian relations, humane refugee processing, the environment, and the rights and obligations of same-sex couples. A post-coalitional Australia invokes something akin to “aftermath culture” (Lambert and Simpson), referring not just to Rudd’s fall or Howard’s election loss, but to the broader shifting contexts within which most Australian citizens live, and within which they make sense of the terms “Australia” and “Australian”. Contemporary Australia is marked everywhere by cracks in coalitions and shifts in allegiances and belief systems – the Coalition of the Willing falling apart, the coalition government crushed by defeat, deposed leaders, and unlikely political shifts and (re)alignments in the face of a hung parliament and renewed pushes toward moral and cultural change. These breakdowns in allegiances are followed by swift symbolically charged manoeuvres. Gillard moved quickly to repair relations with mining companies damaged by Rudd’s plans for a mining tax and to water down frustration with the lack of a sustainable Emissions Trading Scheme. And one of the first things Kevin Rudd did as Prime Minister was to change the fittings and furnishings in the Prime Ministerial office, of which Wright observed that “Mr Howard is gone and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has moved in, the Parliament House bureaucracy has ensured all signs of the old-style gentlemen's club… have been banished” (The Age, 5 Dec. 2007). Some of these signs were soon replaced by Ms. Gillard herself, who filled the office in turn with memorabilia from her beloved Footscray, an Australian Rules football team. In post-coalitional Australia the exile of the old Menzies’ desk and a pair of Chesterfield sofas works alongside the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and renewed pledges for military presence in Afghanistan, apologising to stolen generations of Indigenous Australians, the first female Governor General, deputy Prime Minister and then Prime Minister (the last two both Gillard), the repealing of disadvantageous workplace reform, a focus on climate change and global warming (with limited success as stated), a public, mandatory paid maternity leave scheme, changes to the processing and visas of refugees, and the amendments to more than one hundred laws that discriminate against same sex couples by the pre-Gillard, Rudd-led Labor government. The context for these changes was encapsulated in an announcement from Rudd, made in March 2008: Our core organising principle as a Government is equality of opportunity. And advancing people and their opportunities in life, we are a Government which prides itself on being blind to gender, blind to economic background, blind to social background, blind to race, blind to sexuality. (Rudd, “International”) Noting the political possibilities and the political convenience of blindness, this paper navigates the confusing context of post-coalitional Australia, whilst proffering an understanding of some of the cultural forces at work in this age of shifting and unstable alliances. I begin by interrogating the coalitional impulse post 9/11. I do this by connecting public coalitional shifts to the steady withdrawal of support for John Howard’s coalition, and movement away from George Bush’s Coalition of the Willing and the War on Terror. I then draw out a relationship between the rise and fall of such affiliations and recent shifts within government policy affecting same-sex couples, from former Prime Minister Howard’s amendments to The Marriage Act 1961 to the Rudd-Gillard administration’s attention to the discrimination in many Australian laws. Sexual Citizenship and Coalitions Rights and entitlements have always been constructed and managed in ways that live out understandings of biopower and social death (Foucault History; Discipline). The disciplining of bodies, identities and pleasures is so deeply entrenched in government and law that any non-normative claim to rights requires the negotiation of existing structures. Sexual citizenship destabilises the post-coalitional paradigm of Australian politics (one of “equal opportunity” and consensus) by foregrounding the normative biases that similarly transcend partisan politics. Sexual citizenship has been well excavated in critical work from Evans, Berlant, Weeks, Richardson, and Bell and Binnie’s The Sexual Citizen which argues that “many of the current modes of the political articulation of sexual citizenship are marked by compromise; this is inherent in the very notion itself… the twinning of rights with responsibilities in the logic of citizenship is another way of expressing compromise… Every entitlement is freighted with a duty” (2-3). This logic extends to political and economic contexts, where “natural” coalition refers primarily to parties, and in particular those “who have powerful shared interests… make highly valuable trades, or who, as a unit, can extract significant value from others without much risk of being split” (Lax and Sebinius 158). Though the term is always in some way politicised, it need not refer only to partisan, multiparty or multilateral configurations. The subscription to the norms (or normativity) of a certain familial, social, religious, ethnic, or leisure groups is clearly coalitional (as in a home or a front, a club or a team, a committee or a congregation). Although coalition is interrogated in political and social sciences, it is examined frequently in mathematical game theory and behavioural psychology. In the former, as in Axelrod’s The Evolution of Cooperation, it refers to people (or players) who collaborate to successfully pursue their own self-interests, often in the absence of central authority. In behavioural psychology the focus is on group formations and their attendant strategies, biases and discriminations. Experimental psychologists have found “categorizing individuals into two social groups predisposes humans to discriminate… against the outgroup in both allocation of resources and evaluation of conduct” (Kurzban, Tooby and Cosmides 15387). The actions of social organisation (and not unseen individual, supposedly innate impulses) reflect the cultural norms in coalitional attachments – evidenced by the relationship between resources and conduct that unquestioningly grants and protects the rights and entitlements of the larger, heteronormatively aligned “ingroup”. Terror Management Particular attention has been paid to coalitional formations and discriminatory practices in America and the West since September 11, 2001. Terror Management Theory or TMT (Greenberg, Pyszczynski and Solomon) has been the main framework used to explain the post-9/11 reassertion of large group identities along ideological, religious, ethnic and violently nationalistic lines. Psychologists have used “death-related stimuli” to explain coalitional mentalities within the recent contexts of globalised terror. The fear of death that results in discriminatory excesses is referred to as “mortality salience”, with respect to the highly visible aspects of terror that expose people to the possibility of their own death or suffering. Naverette and Fessler find “participants… asked to contemplate their own deaths exhibit increases in positive evaluations of people whose attitudes and values are similar to their own, and derogation of those holding dissimilar views” (299). It was within the climate of post 9/11 “mortality salience” that then Prime Minister John Howard set out to change The Marriage Act 1961 and the Family Law Act 1975. In 2004, the Government modified the Marriage Act to eliminate flexibility with respect to the definition of marriage. Agitation for gay marriage was not as noticeable in Australia as it was in the U.S where Bush publicly rejected it, and the UK where the Civil Union Act 2004 had just been passed. Following Bush, Howard’s “queer moral panic” seemed the perfect decoy for the increased scrutiny of Australia’s involvement in the Iraq war. Howard’s changes included outlawing adoption for same-sex couples, and no recognition for legal same-sex marriages performed in other countries. The centrepiece was the wording of The Marriage Amendment Act 2004, with marriage now defined as a union “between a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others”. The legislation was referred to by the Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown as “hateful”, “the marriage discrimination act” and the “straight Australia policy” (Commonwealth 26556). The Labor Party, in opposition, allowed the changes to pass (in spite of vocal protests from one member) by concluding the legal status of same-sex relations was in no way affected, seemingly missing (in addition to the obvious symbolic and physical discrimination) the equation of same-sex recognition with terror, terrorism and death. Non-normative sexual citizenship was deployed as yet another form of “mortality salience”, made explicit in Howard’s description of the changes as necessary in protecting the sanctity of the “bedrock institution” of marriage and, wait for it, “providing for the survival of the species” (Knight, 5 Aug. 2003). So two things seem to be happening here: the first is that when confronted with the possibility of their own death (either through terrorism or gay marriage) people value those who are most like them, joining to devalue those who aren’t; the second is that the worldview (the larger religious, political, social perspectives to which people subscribe) becomes protection from the potential death that terror/queerness represents. Coalition of the (Un)willing Yet, if contemporary coalitions are formed through fear of death or species survival, how, for example, might these explain the various forms of risk-taking behaviours exhibited within Western democracies targeted by such terrors? Navarette and Fessler (309) argue that “affiliation defences are triggered by a wider variety of threats” than “existential anxiety” and that worldviews are “in turn are reliant on ‘normative conformity’” (308) or “normative bias” for social benefits and social inclusions, because “a normative orientation” demonstrates allegiance to the ingroup (308-9). Coalitions are founded in conformity to particular sets of norms, values, codes or belief systems. They are responses to adaptive challenges, particularly since September 11, not simply to death but more broadly to change. In troubled times, coalitions restore a shared sense of predictability. In Howard’s case, he seemed to say, “the War in Iraq is tricky but we have a bigger (same-sex) threat to deal with right now. So trust me on both fronts”. Coalitional change as reflective of adaptive responses thus serves the critical location of subsequent shifts in public support. Before and since September 11 Australians were beginning to distinguish between moderation and extremism, between Christian fundamentalism and productive forms of nationalism. Howard’s unwavering commitment to the American-led war in Iraq saw Australia become a member of another coalition: the Coalition of the Willing, a post 1990s term used to describe militaristic or humanitarian interventions in certain parts of the world by groups of countries. Howard (in Pauly and Lansford 70) committed Australia to America’s fight but also to “civilization's fight… of all who believe in progress and pluralism, tolerance and freedom”. Although Bush claimed an international balance of power and influence within the coalition (94), some countries refused to participate, many quickly withdrew, and many who signed did not even have troops. In Australia, the war was never particularly popular. In 2003, forty-two legal experts found the war contravened International Law as well as United Nations and Geneva conventions (Sydney Morning Herald 26 Feb. 2003). After the immeasurable loss of Iraqi life, and as the bodies of young American soldiers (and the occasional non-American) began to pile up, the official term “coalition of the willing” was quietly abandoned by the White House in January of 2005, replaced by a “smaller roster of 28 countries with troops in Iraq” (ABC News Online 22 Jan. 2005). The coalition and its larger war on terror placed John Howard within the context of coalitional confusion, that when combined with the domestic effects of economic and social policy, proved politically fatal. The problem was the unclear constitution of available coalitional configurations. Howard’s continued support of Bush and the war in Iraq compounded with rising interest rates, industrial relations reform and a seriously uncool approach to the environment and social inclusion, to shift perceptions of him from father of the nation to dangerous, dithery and disconnected old man. Post-Coalitional Change In contrast, before being elected Kevin Rudd sought to reframe Australian coalitional relationships. In 2006, he positions the Australian-United States alliance outside of the notion of military action and Western territorial integrity. In Rudd-speak the Howard-Bush-Blair “coalition of the willing” becomes F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “willingness of the heart”. The term coalition was replaced by terms such as dialogue and affiliation (Rudd, “Friends”). Since the 2007 election, Rudd moved quickly to distance himself from the agenda of the coalition government that preceded him, proposing changes in the spirit of “blindness” toward marginality and sexuality. “Fix-it-all” Rudd as he was christened (Sydney Morning Herald 29 Sep. 2008) and his Labor government began to confront the legacies of colonial history, industrial relations, refugee detention and climate change – by apologising to Aboriginal people, timetabling the withdrawal from Iraq, abolishing the employee bargaining system Workchoices, giving instant visas and lessening detention time for refugees, and signing the Kyoto Protocol agreeing (at least in principle) to reduce green house gas emissions. As stated earlier, post-coalitional Australia is not simply talking about sudden change but an extension and a confusion of what has gone on before (so that the term resembles postcolonial, poststructural and postmodern because it carries the practices and effects of the original term within it). The post-coalitional is still coalitional to the extent that we must ask: what remains the same in the midst of such visible changes? An American focus in international affairs, a Christian platform for social policy, an absence of financial compensation for the Aboriginal Australians who received such an eloquent apology, the lack of coherent and productive outcomes in the areas of asylum and climate change, and an impenetrable resistance to the idea of same-sex marriage are just some of the ways in which these new governments continue on from the previous one. The Rudd-Gillard government’s dealings with gay law reform and gay marriage exemplify the post-coalitional condition. Emulating Christ’s relationship to “the marginalised and the oppressed”, and with Gillard at his side, Rudd understandings of the Christian Gospel as a “social gospel” (Rudd, “Faith”; see also Randell-Moon) to table changes to laws discriminating against gay couples – guaranteeing hospital visits, social security benefits and access to superannuation, resembling de-facto hetero relationships but modelled on the administering and registration of relationships, or on tax laws that speak primarily to relations of financial dependence – with particular reference to children. The changes are based on the report, Same Sex, Same Entitlements (HREOC) that argues for the social competence of queer folk, with respect to money, property and reproduction. They speak the language of an equitable economics; one that still leaves healthy and childless couples with limited recognition and advantage but increased financial obligation. Unable to marry in Australia, same-sex couples are no longer single for taxation purposes, but are now simultaneously subject to forms of tax/income auditing and governmental revenue collection should either same-sex partner require assistance from social security as if they were married. Heteronormative Coalition Queer citizens can quietly stake their economic claims and in most states discreetly sign their names on a register before becoming invisible again. Mardi Gras happens but once a year after all. On the topic of gay marriage Rudd and Gillard have deferred to past policy and to the immoveable nature of the law (and to Howard’s particular changes to marriage law). That same respect is not extended to laws passed by Howard on industrial relations or border control. In spite of finding no gospel references to Jesus the Nazarene “expressly preaching against homosexuality” (Rudd, “Faith”), and pre-election promises that territories could govern themselves with respect to same sex partnerships, the Rudd-Gillard government in 2008 pressured the ACT to reduce its proposed partnership legislation to that of a relationship register like the ones in Tasmania and Victoria, and explicitly demanded that there be absolutely no ceremony – no mimicking of the real deal, of the larger, heterosexual citizens’ “ingroup”. Likewise, with respect to the reintroduction of same-sex marriage legislation by Greens senator Sarah Hanson Young in September 2010, Gillard has so far refused a conscience vote on the issue and restated the “marriage is between a man and a woman” rhetoric of her predecessors (Topsfield, 30 Sep. 2010). At the same time, she has agreed to conscience votes on euthanasia and openly declared bi-partisan (with the federal opposition) support for the war in Afghanistan. We see now, from Howard to Rudd and now Gillard, that there are some coalitions that override political differences. As psychologists have noted, “if the social benefits of norm adherence are the ultimate cause of the individual’s subscription to worldviews, then the focus and salience of a given individual’s ideology can be expected to vary as a function of their need to ally themselves with relevant others” (Navarette and Fessler 307). Where Howard invoked the “Judaeo-Christian tradition”, Rudd chose to cite a “Christian ethical framework” (Rudd, “Faith”), that saw him and Gillard end up in exactly the same place: same sex relationships should be reduced to that of medical care or financial dependence; that a public ceremony marking relationship recognition somehow equates to “mimicking” the already performative and symbolic heterosexual institution of marriage and the associated romantic and familial arrangements. Conclusion Post-coalitional Australia refers to the state of confusion borne of a new politics of equality and change. The shift in Australia from conservative to mildly socialist government(s) is not as sudden as Howard’s 2007 federal loss or as short-lived as Gillard’s hung parliament might respectively suggest. Whilst allegiance shifts, political parties find support is reliant on persistence as much as it is on change – they decide how to buffer and bolster the same coalitions (ones that continue to privilege white settlement, Christian belief systems, heteronormative familial and symbolic practices), but also how to practice policy and social responsibility in a different way. Rudd’s and Gillard’s arguments against the mimicry of heterosexual symbolism and the ceremonial validation of same-sex partnerships imply there is one originary form of conduct and an associated sacred set of symbols reserved for that larger ingroup. Like Howard before them, these post-coalitional leaders fail to recognise, as Butler eloquently argues, “gay is to straight not as copy is to original, but as copy is to copy” (31). To make claims to status and entitlements that invoke the messiness of non-normative sex acts and romantic attachments necessarily requires the negotiation of heteronormative coalitional bias (and in some ways a reinforcement of this social power). As Bell and Binnie have rightly observed, “that’s what the hard choices facing the sexual citizen are: the push towards rights claims that make dissident sexualities fit into heterosexual culture, by demanding equality and recognition, versus the demand to reject settling for heteronormativity” (141). The new Australian political “blindness” toward discrimination produces positive outcomes whilst it explicitly reanimates the histories of oppression it seeks to redress. The New South Wales parliament recently voted to allow same-sex adoption with the proviso that concerned parties could choose not to adopt to gay couples. The Tasmanian government voted to recognise same-sex marriages and unions from outside Australia, in the absence of same-sex marriage beyond the current registration arrangements in its own state. In post-coalitional Australia the issue of same-sex partnership recognition pits parties and allegiances against each other and against themselves from within (inside Gillard’s “rainbow coalition” the Rainbow ALP group now unites gay people within the government’s own party). Gillard has hinted any new proposed legislation regarding same-sex marriage may not even come before parliament for debate, as it deals with real business. Perhaps the answer lies over the rainbow (coalition). As the saying goes, “there are none so blind as those that will not see”. References ABC News Online. “Whitehouse Scraps Coalition of the Willing List.” 22 Jan. 2005. 1 July 2007 ‹http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200501/s1286872.htm›. Axelrod, Robert. The Evolution of Cooperation. New York: Basic Books, 1984. Berlant, Lauren. The Queen of America Goes to Washington City: Essays on Sex and Citizenship. Durham: Duke University Press, 1997. Bell, David, and John Binnie. The Sexual Citizen: Queer Politics and Beyond. Cambridge, England: Polity, 2000. Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 1990. Commonwealth of Australia. Parliamentary Debates. House of Representatives 12 Aug. 2004: 26556. (Bob Brown, Senator, Tasmania.) Evans, David T. Sexual Citizenship: The Material Construction of Sexualities. London: Routledge, 1993. Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Trans. A. Sheridan. London: Penguin, 1991. ———. The Will to Knowledge: The History of Sexuality. Vol. 1. Trans. Robert Hurley. London: Penguin, 1998. Greenberg, Jeff, Tom Pyszczynski, and Sheldon Solomon. “The Causes and Consequences of the Need for Self-Esteem: A Terror Management Theory.” Public Self, Private Self. Ed. Roy F. Baumeister. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1986. 189-212. Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. Same-Sex: Same Entitlements Report. 2007. 21 Aug. 2007 ‹http://www.hreoc.gov.au/human_rights/samesex/report/index.html›. Kaplan, Morris. Sexual Justice: Democratic Citizenship and the Politics of Desire. New York: Routledge, 1997. Knight, Ben. “Howard and Costello Reject Gay Marriage.” ABC Online 5 Aug. 2003. Kurzban, Robert, John Tooby, and Leda Cosmides. "Can Race Be Erased? Coalitional Computation and Social Categorization." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 98.26 (2001): 15387–15392. Lambert, Anthony, and Catherine Simpson. "Jindabyne’s Haunted Alpine Country: Producing (an) Australian Badland." M/C Journal 11.5 (2008). 20 Oct. 2010 ‹http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/81›. Lax, David A., and James K. Lebinius. “Thinking Coalitionally: Party Arithmetic Process Opportunism, and Strategic Sequencing.” Negotiation Analysis. Ed. H. Peyton Young. Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1991. 153-194. Naverette, Carlos, and Daniel Fessler. “Normative Bias and Adaptive Challenges: A Relational Approach to Coalitional Psychology and a Critique of Terror Management Theory.” Evolutionary Psychology 3 (2005): 297-325. Pauly, Robert J., and Tom Lansford. Strategic Preemption: US Foreign Policy and Second Iraq War. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005. Randall-Moon, Holly. "Neoliberal Governmentality with a Christian Twist: Religion and Social Security under the Howard-Led Australian Government." Eds. Michael Bailey and Guy Redden. Mediating Faiths: Religion and Socio- Cultural Change in the Twenty-First Century. Farnham: Ashgate, in press. Richardson, Diane. Rethinking Sexuality. London: Sage, 2000. Rudd, Kevin. “Faith in Politics.” The Monthly 17 (2006). 31 July 2007 ‹http://www.themonthly.com.au/monthly-essays-kevin-rudd-faith-politics--300›. Rudd, Kevin. “Friends of Australia, Friends of America, and Friends of the Alliance That Unites Us All.” Address to the 15th Australian-American Leadership Dialogue. The Australian, 24 Aug. 2007. 13 Mar. 2008 ‹http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/climate/kevin-rudds-address/story-e6frg6xf-1111114253042›. Rudd, Kevin. “Address to International Women’s Day Morning Tea.” Old Parliament House, Canberra, 11 Mar. 2008. 1 Oct. 2010 ‹http://pmrudd.archive.dpmc.gov.au/node/5900›. Sydney Morning Herald. “Coalition of the Willing? Make That War Criminals.” 26 Feb. 2003. 1 July 2007 ‹http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/25/1046064028608.html›. Topsfield, Jewel. “Gillard Rules Out Conscience Vote on Gay Marriage.” The Age 30 Sep. 2010. 1 Oct. 2010 ‹http://www.theage.com.au/national/gillard-rules-out-conscience-vote-on-gay-marriage-20100929-15xgj.html›. Weeks, Jeffrey. "The Sexual Citizen." Theory, Culture and Society 15.3-4 (1998): 35-52. Wright, Tony. “Suite Revenge on Chesterfield.” The Age 5 Dec. 2007. 4 April 2008 ‹http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/suite-revenge-on-chesterfield/2007/12/04/1196530678384.html›.

Climate is, presently, a heatedly discussed topic. Concerns about the environmental, economic, political and social consequences of climate change are of central interest in academic and popular debates. As such, climate change is a ‘hot’ cultural discourse and media issue. Moreover, there has recently been a ‘cultural turn’ in climate change science and politics, with some scholars arguing that climate change research and action has been hindered because it has not fully accommodated cultural values that give everyday meaning to climate, and consequently urging for greater attention to the cultural dimensions of climate change. As Mike Hulme asserts, “registers of climate can be read in memory, behaviour, text and identity as much as they can be measured through meteorology” (7) and thus “the idea of climate can only be understood when its physical dimensions are allowed to be interpreted by their cultural meanings” (6) (for specifically Australian examples, see Sherratt, Griffiths and Robin; Nicholls). Climate change is both a “physical transformation and cultural object” and requires new examination which “needs to start with contributions from the interpretative humanities and social sciences” (Hulme 5). Advancing these debates, this issue of M/C Journal adds to the critical interface of climate and culture, particularly in the context of climate change. A number of key themes concerning the culture-climate nexus weave through the following papers. Most notably, the authors consider how climate and climate change are embodied and experienced at local and personal levels. Dominant earth systems approaches to climate have enumerated—rather than ‘felt’—local changes in precipitation and temperature, fixing these statistics to planetary models of global warming and thus cleaving changes in weather patterns from their localised cultural meanings and constitutive values (Hulme). Instead, a cultural approach emphasises that individuals ‘feel’ their environments through ‘embodied’ engagements with seasonal weather conditions (Palang et al; Ingold). Statistics cannot capture how these everyday visceral and emotional experiences will be altered by climate change. All the papers in this collection invoke felt, embodied responses to changing climatic conditions, from housing (Simpson), eating (Brien) and transport (Simpson), to disaster (Wolbring) and mitigation (Harrison) responses, to the very biopolitics of life (Potter). Likewise, the authors in this collection indicate that anthropogenic climate change results from uneven, localised consumption. As commentators have noted, planetary statistics on global warming also cleave its ‘causes’ from local resource over-use, removing the ‘problem’ from the scope of everyday lifeworlds. Yet, just as climate change impacts will be felt locally, mitigation or adaptation must start with localised individual and collective responses. This might mean changing foodways (Brien), architecture (Sully), car use (Simpson) or energy consumption and its means of calculation (Potter). Simultaneously, these localised responses feed into wider global environmental governance attempts to address mitigation (Harrison) and adaptation (Wolbring). To this end, another critical contribution that cultural and media studies makes to this ‘wicked problem’ concerns communication strategies about climate change impacts, mitigation and adaptation. Communication is the central theme of Harrison’s paper, and is also addressed by other authors here (e.g. Wolbring, Potter and Simpson). Our lead paper, by Emily Potter, provides a timely provocation on climate change as a ‘biopolitical terrain’, where ‘the politics of life’ undergird the debates unfolding across and between state, corporate and domestic spheres. She seeks to complicate moralistic discussions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ environmental practices that have emerged in the wake of climate change concerns. Instead, Potter prompts us to recognise that the spectrum of investments by actors, interests and devices, across a range of spheres, is fundamentally focused on sustaining life. Life-sustaining practices and debates consequently weave through the subsequent papers. Indeed, the following two papers are very much concerned with different ways of sustaining life, and how these practices are entwined with changing lifestyles. Donna Lee Brien’s paper focuses on foodways. She notes that eating is both a biological and cultural activity, and takes this interplay a step further by exploring how practices of eating are also bound up with environmental changes. Brien argues that awareness of climate change is prompting (r)evolutionary modifications in popular foodways, such as the Slow Food movement. She suggests, moreover, that further changes might be driven by increased insight into the connections between climate change and the social injustices of food production. Catherine Simpson focuses on another key dimension of Western lifestyles: automobility. ‘Automobile dependence’ is a major challenge for climate change mitigation and adaptation. In response, Simpson considers how cars might be used differently, analysing the developing phenomenon of car sharing, with specific reference to its emergence in Sydney. She argues that car sharing is an ‘adaptive technology’ that both extends and subverts the flexibility and autonomy associated with automobility. Car sharing organisations and practices transform car cultures: instead of privately-owned and stridently consumerist vehicles, ‘philandering car sharers’ invest in different subjectivities and values. Nicole Sully tackles climate-culture connections broadly, rather than modifications in the wake of climate change. Her focus is houses designed by seminal figures in Modern Architecture, and she discusses a number of pragmatic examples where climatic conditions became a contested issue in the reception of ‘the masterpiece’. In doing so, Sully shows the intimate links between dwelling and climate, and that effective building must account for weather and climatic patterns. She notes that these connections will be an increasing concern in the context of climate change, prompting greater attention to sustainable housing. Gregor Wolbring takes a different tack: he is concerned with the plight of disabled people in the context of climate change. He argues that disabled people are disproportionately affected by natural disasters—such as those sometimes linked with climate change—but points out that climate discourse rarely accounts for disabled people. Wolbring contends that more needs to be done to integrate disabled people into climate change plans to avoid ‘adaptation apartheid’. At the same time, he notes that disabled people could contribute to adaptation strategies through their experiences of interdependence and resilience. In the final paper, Karey Harrison focuses on communication about climate change and mitigation. She draws on her experience as a Climate Presenter in The Climate Project and wider theories of marketing and behavioural change. Harrison considers the usefulness of marketing approaches for prompting individual behavioural change, and how they work effectively alongside strategies that encourage transformations in wider business and social systems. She demonstrates that effective communication about climate change impacts and practices of mitigation is vital if we are to approach this ‘wicked problem’ with open eyes. Together, these papers provide new reflections on the climate-culture nexus, especially in the light of climate change threats. Our cultures—lifestyles, habits, rhythms, practices—are bound up with climatic conditions. But our cultures will have to change in the wake of anthropogenic climate change. Everyday practices—of eating, driving and housing, for instance—will have to change in scenarios of either mitigation or adaptation. If we want to arrest climate change, we have to change our lifestyles. And if climate change can’t be mitigated, adaptation will also require lifestyle changes. Existing embodied connections to local environments and weather patterns will take new forms. The cover picture for this issue provides an example of possible changes in the weather. It is a NASA image of the dust storm that enveloped the east coast of Australia on 23 September 2009—something that, we have been warned, might become a more frequent occurrence (Osborne). Acknowledgements Thanks to the referees who reviewed the papers submitted for this issue. The cover picture for this issue is a NASA satellite image of the east coast of Australia from 23 September 2009 (Australia6 Subset—Terra Metadata 2km). NASA permits use of images “for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations and Internet Web pages” (see NASA imagery guidelines at: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html). The NASA website is: http://www.nasa.gov/. The website for NASA’s Godard Space Flight Centre, where the image originated, is: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html. The direct link to the image is: http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?subset=Australia6.2009266.terra.2km. References Hulme, Mike. “Geographical Work at the Boundaries of Climate Change.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 33.1 (2008): 5-11. Ingold, Tim. “Rethinking the Animate, Re-Animating Thought.” Ethnos 71.1 (2006): 9-20. Nichols, Neville. “Climate and Culture Connections in Australia.” Australian Meteorological Magazine 54.4 (2005): 309-319. Osborne, Darren. “Dust Storm Born Out of Flooding Rains.” ABC Science 23 Sep. 2009. < http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2009/09/23/2694330.htm >. Palang, Hannes, Gary Fry, Jussi S. Jauhiainen, Michael Jones and Helen Sooväli. “Landscape and Seasonality—Seasonal Landscapes.” Landscape Research 30.2 (2005): 165-172. Sherratt, Tim, Tom Griffiths and Libby Robin. Eds. A Change in the Weather: Climate and Culture in Australia. Canberra: National Museum of Australia Press, 2005.