A bipartisan warning over the dangers of climate change has pierced the electioneering, with a Senate committee pointing to the rising threat posed by extreme weather events and former Liberal leader John Hewson forecasting severe financial pain from unchecked carbon emissions.

The Senate committee's report highlighted scientific evidence showing a link between climate change and more frequent weather events such as heatwaves and storm surges.

Studies of public perceptions of geoengineering have implications for the 'greens vs science' debate.

Nature – whether preserving, protecting, or even deifying it – is at the heart of much green thinking and much scientific work. But pinning down exactly what "nature" means is more difficult than it first appears, and over the course of millennia, the way that people have imagined and perceived the natural world has changed repeatedly and often dramatically.

China needs another round of “decisive measures” to make sure it continues its successful economic growth as its margins of safety are falling amid growing domestic problems, the International Monetary Fund said in its latest report.

The world’s second-largest economy has been underpinned by a mix of investment, credit and fiscal stimulus, but such a pattern of growth is unsustainable, the fund said on Wednesday in a report on its annual review of China’s economy.

Sydney: Australia’s prime minister Kevin Rudd said on Tuesday he will transform a deeply unpopular carbon tax a year ahead of schedule, in a bid to cut costs to households as a national election looms.

The fixed-price carbon tax on Australia’s worst industrial polluters, which went into effect in July 2012, was supposed to remain in place until 2015. At that point, it was set to be replaced by an emissions trading scheme, in which the cost of producing a ton of carbon would be determined by free market forces.