Reef ‘facing extinction’: The Great Barrier Reef will become “functionally extinct” within decades at the current rate of global warming, while wilder weather is set to affect property values and drive up insurance bills in many Australian coastal communities. The Age

Bracks rules out sewage recycling: Victorians will not be drinking recycled sewage this decade – and maybe not in the first half of this century – as Premier Steve Bracks yesterday bucked the Prime Minister, who is leading the recycled charge. Mr Bracks promised that recycled sewage would not be added to Victoria’s drinking water supplies within this term, which ends in 2010. The Age

Next decade ‘crucial’ on climate change: Climate effects from global warming will be irreversible in 10 years without “serious reductions in carbon emissions,” British researchers have concluded. Britain’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will publish a report this week — based on the work of thousands of the world’s top scientists — warning that humanity has 10 years to avoid massive climate change. ScienceDaily

UN chief seeks summit on climate change: Plans for an emergency summit of world leaders to break the international impasse on cutting greenhouse gases are being discussed by Ban Ki-moon, United Nations secretary-general. At the summit, mooted for September, heads of state would discuss the possibility of a successor to the Kyoto protocol on climate change, the main provisions of which expire in 2012. Financial Times UK

Americans least concerned about global warming: 13% of Americans have never heard of global warming even though their country is the world’s top source of greenhouse gases, a 46-country survey has revealed. Courier Mail

Pond scum: fuelling the future?: Utah State University researchers are using an innovative approach that takes oil from algae and converts it to biodiesel fuel. USU is currently conducting research on algae and plans to produce an algae-biodiesel that is cost-competitive by 2009. Algae, plainly referred to as pond scum, can produce up to 10,000 gallons of oil per acre and can be grown virtually anywhere.  Newswise