SINGAPORE, Feb 10 (Reuters) – Flood and storm-battered
northern Australia is likely to suffer more frequent weather
extremes, according to a study of coral cores that reveal a
centuries-old climate record for the region.

Like pages in a book, corals can help scientists go back in
time by revealing years that were unusually wet or dry. The
annual changes or variations in weather are recorded in growth
rings that can be studied by drilling and extracting long cores.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Governments in the Asia-Pacific region face the risk of unprecedented numbers of people displaced by floods, storms and other impacts of climate change, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in a report on Monday.

The bank and climate scientists said the region, home to 4 billion people, will be among the regions most affected by the impacts of climate change, leading to major migration both within and between nations, stretching resources.

SYDNEY/SINGAPORE, Feb 8 (Reuters) – A surge in
weather-related disasters in Australia could push global mining
firms to overhaul supply contracts and rethink how bad weather
will affect their operations and customers worldwide.

Miners needed to better assess the threats from floods,
storms and droughts and include weather data and risks in mine
management and commodity contracts, said Robert Milbourne, a
mining and resources lawyer for global law firm Norton Rose.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Governments in the Asia-Pacific region face the risk of unprecedented numbers of people displaced by floods, storms and other impacts of climate change, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in a report on Monday.

The bank and climate scientists said the region, home to 4 billion people, will be among the regions most affected by the impacts of climate change, leading to major migration both within and between nations, stretching resources.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Australia has endured two of its deadliest summers on record, blamed in part on global warming, but record fires, floods and cyclones have not persuaded it to take strong action on climate change.

But some experts hope that Wednesday’s arrival of giant Cyclone Yasi on the coast of Queensland, already hit by massive floods last month, will help bring more of a sense of urgency to the political debate over climate policy.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Record ocean temperatures and an intense La Nina weather pattern have helped spawn one of the most powerful cyclones in Australia but whether there’s a direct climate change link is less clear.

Cyclone Yasi, a maximum category 5 storm, was within hours of making landfall in far northern Queensland state and zeroing in on urban centres where more than 400,000 people live.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Cyclone Yasi is the strongest storm to threaten Australia in living memory, but the country has long record of powerful cyclones causing death and destruction.

Only Australia’s relatively sparse population along much of its northern coastline has limited the damage in the past. But booming mining communities, ports, agriculture and tourism businesses mean more property in the path of storms.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The breaking off of a Luxembourg-sized iceberg in Antarctica could affect ocean circulation patterns and be a harbinger of changes to come from global warming, scientists on a mission to the frozen continent say.

Last February, a 2,500 sq km (965 sq m) iceberg broke off from a giant floating tongue of ice from the Mertz Glacier after being rammed by an even larger iceberg.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Insurers are struggling to assess the risks from climate change, industry officials say, with the floods in Australia and Brazil highlighting the potential losses from greater extremes of weather.

Scientists say a warmer world will cause more intense drought, floods, cyclones as well as rising sea levels and the insurance industry says the number of weather-related disasters has already soared over the past several decades.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Tropical cyclones are expected to cause more damage in the United States and Asia but it could be more than a century before insurers can point to climate change as a factor in losses from storms, scientists say.

In a study that focuses on the predicted threat to the United States from Atlantic hurricanes, researchers say their findings also apply to other regions hit by tropical storms, such as Australia, China and India.