CSIRO study found forest fires linked to climate change: 9 out of the 11 fire years, each with more than 500,000 km2 burned, occurred since 2000.

And the bad news for rural and regional Australia just keeps on coming.....

‘Lead author and CSIRO chief climate research scientist Pep Canadell said the study established the correlation between the Forest Fire Danger Index – which measures weather-related vegetation dryness, air temperature, wind speed and humidity – and the rise in area of forest burned since the 1930s.

“It’s so tight, it’s so strong that clearly when we have these big fire events, they’re run by the climate and the weather,” Dr Canadell said…

“Almost regardless of what we do the overall extent of the fire, really, is dictated by those climate conditions,” he said.

Climate scientists have found climate change is exacerbating the key fire risk factors identified by CSIRO’s study, with south-eastern Australia becoming hotter, drier and, in a particularly worrying trend, more prone to high wind on extremely hot and dry summer days.

The weather system that drove a blast furnace’s worth of westerly wind across NSW and Victoria’s forests, sparking some of the worst fires of the Black Summer in 2019-20, will be up to four times more likely to occur under forecast levels of global warming.’ [The Sydney Morning Herald, 26 November 2021]

Nature.com, Nature Communications, 26 November 2021, article excerpt:

“Multi-decadal increase of forest burned area in Australia is linked to climate change”

Josep G. Canadell, C. P. (Mick) Meyer, Garry D. Cook, Andrew Dowdy, Peter R. Briggs, Jürgen Knauer, Acacia Pepler & Vanessa Haverd

Received 24 July 2020

Accepted 03 November 2021

Published 26 November 2021

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ABSTRACT

Fire activity in Australia is strongly affected by high inter-annual climate variability and extremes. Through changes in the climate, anthropogenic climate change has the potential to alter fire dynamics. Here we compile satellite (19 and 32 years) and ground-based (90 years) burned area datasets, climate and weather observations, and simulated fuel loads for Australian forests. Burned area in Australia’s forests shows a linear positive annual trend but an exponential increase during autumn and winter. The mean number of years since the last fire has decreased consecutively in each of the past four decades, while the frequency of forest megafire years (>1 Mha burned) has markedly increased since 2000. The increase in forest burned area is consistent with increasingly more dangerous fire weather conditions, increased risk factors associated with pyroconvection, including fire-generated thunderstorms, and increased ignitions from dry lightning, all associated to varying degrees with anthropogenic climate change.

INTRODUCTION

The extraordinary forest fires in Australia in 2019 and 20201 have brought further interest in detecting changes in fire activity, the possible role of anthropogenic climate change and their likely future trends both in Australia and globally ^2,3,4,5,6.

Terrestrial ecosystems in Australia are among the most fire prone in the world, with fire regimes varying widely ^7,8. Fire activity is dominated by savanna and rangeland fires in the northern and western parts of the continent characterized by fire return intervals of less than 5 years ^7,9. Forests in the east and south have fire return times of decades to more than a century, with subtropical and tropical forests in the northeast burning rarely or not at all ⁹. Fire, including cultural burns by indigenous people, has shaped the function and structure of most Australian ecosystems for millennia ^10,11.

Against this background of fire activity, Australia’s mean temperature has increased by 1.4 °C since 1910 with a rapid increase in extreme heat events, while rainfall has declined in the southern and eastern regions of the continent, particularly during the cool half of the year ^12,13,14. These changes can affect the four components that must simultaneously come together for fire to occur: biomass production, its availability to burn (fuel loads), fire weather, and ignition ⁷, making Australian forests vulnerable and sensitive to changes in fire activity.

Previous studies showed increased fire danger due to changes in weather conditions over past decades in Australia ^5,15,16, climate change fingerprinting to individual fire events and trends ^17,18,19, and predicted increases in fire danger under future climate change due to increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases ^2,20,21. Although these studies indicate more dangerous weather conditions for wildfires in a warmer world, studies also suggest that trends due to climate change might not be clearly detectable until later in the coming decades owing to the high natural variability and extremes of the Australian climate ^4,22,23,24.

Fuel loads and trends, as effected by climate, human activity and time since the last disturbance, also play a role in determining fire risk ^25,26. This link is a central motivation for using prescribed burning to reduce fuel availability ²⁷, which in Australia is managed through changes in the frequency of prescribed burns ²⁸. Although there is some debate on their value to reduce fire risk ²⁹, particularly during extreme fire weather conditions ^2,30, fuel loads and their distribution and structure are key determinants of fire spread, intensity and severity ⁷.

Here we analyze trends of the burned area in forest ecosystems in Australia, which are dominated by temperate forests extending over the southern and eastern regions of the continent. We use a high-resolution (1.1 km x 1.1 km) burned area satellite record available based on NOAA-AVHRR (32 years), the NASA-MODIS burned area at 500 m resolution (19 years), and the fire histories from State and Territory government agencies (90 years). In addition, we analyze trends of nine wildfire risk factors and indices that relate to characteristics of fuel loads, fire weather, extreme fire behaviour, and ignition, which together with the burned area enable us to infer the causal influence of climate change on fire activity.

RESULTS

Trends in area burned

At a continental scale, total annual burned area (fire year defined as July to June to include the Austral summer of December to February) using the NOAA-AVHRR dataset (“Methods”: Burned area data), significantly increased over the past 32 years albeit with large interannual variability (Fig. 1a; Linear fit, p value = 0.04, Supplementary Table 1). The high variability is in part driven by large-scale modes of atmospheric and oceanic variability such as El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Southern Annual Mode ^31,32 that influence fire weather conditions ^16,22. Nine out of the 11 fire years, each with more than 500,000 km2 (>50 Mha) burned, occurred since 2000.

Forest ecosystems also show increased burned area over time (Fig. 1b, linear fit, p value = 0.02, Supplementary Table 1; Fig. 2). The increasing trend is statistically significant with and without the 2019 fire year, indicating a robust increasing trend even before the extraordinary large burned area of that year (Supplementary Table 1). Forests in Australia experienced an annual average increase of 350% in burned area between the first (1988-2001) and second (2002-2018) half of the record, and an increase of 800% when including 2019. The 2019 fire year burned about three times (60,345 km2) the area of any previous year in the 32-year AVHRR-Landgate record (Fig. 3, Supplementary Fig. 1, “Methods”: Burned area). The burned area of the 2019 fire year was estimated at 71,772 km2 based on State and Territory agencies (NIAFED) and 54,852 km2 based on NASA-MODIS, with an average for the three products of 62,323 ± 8,631. Ten out of eleven fire years with at least 5000 km2 (>0.5 Mha) burned have occurred since 2001. These trends are broadly consistent across the three burned area products (Supplementary Fig. 1).

Fig. 2: Monthly burned forest area for fire years (July to June). 

Australia’s national science agency CSIRO will release a new biocontrol agent in a bid to help save rainforests from an invasive South American weed

Wandering trad (Tradescantia fluminensis)
Image: yarraranges.vic.gov.au

CSIRO, news release, 22 March 2019:

Wandering trad (Tradescantia fluminensis) has become a significant environmental weed in parts of eastern Australia where it forms dense carpets on forest floors, smothering native vegetation and clogging waterways.

CSIRO senior research scientist Dr Louise Morin said weeds like wandering trad had a significant economic, environmental and social impact in Australia.

“Weeds are one of the biggest threats to Australia’s unique environment – in many areas across Australia they are damaging native vegetation, which threatens whole ecosystems including native wildlife,” Dr Morin said.

“Last year Australia spent almost $30 million protecting the natural environment from weeds. In the agriculture sector, weeds cost the industry more than $4.8 billion per year.”

“The fungus is spread through spores and needs the leaves of the wandering trad to survive – if there is no wandering trad to infect, the fungus dies,” Dr Morin said. 

“We know from decades of research in this field, that specialised fungi, like the leaf smut, have specific genes that enable them to successfully infect and cause disease only on single or a narrow range of plant species. “So we look at plants that are related to wandering trad including native plants to make sure the fungus will only infect the weed.” Wandering trad has infested native forests across eastern Australia, from eastern parts of NSW and south-east Queensland, to the Dandenong Ranges in Victoria where the biocontrol agent will first be released.

NOTE

Wandering Trad is not to be confused with a similar looking plant Commelina diffusa which is native to south-east Queensland and north-east NSW. The native plant has blue flowers (usually flowering in autumn) and a slender tapered leaf, unlike the weedy species Tradescantia albiflora (which has fleshier, rounded, glossier leaves). The native plant is not an environmental weed.

Commelina diffusa
Image: Qld Dept. of Agriculture and Fisheries

Australia 2018: State of the Climate

Australian Bureau of Meteorology, State of the Climate 2018, December 2018:

“Australia's weather and climate are changing in response to a warming global climate. Australia has warmed just over 1 °C since 1910, with most warming since 1950. This warming has seen an increase in the frequency of extreme heat events and increased the severity of drought conditions during periods of below-average rainfall. Eight of Australia’s top ten warmest years on record have occurred since 2005.

The year-to-year changes in Australia’s climate are mostly associated with natural climate variability such as El Niño and La Niña in the tropical Pacific Ocean and phases of the Indian Ocean Dipole in the Indian Ocean. This natural variability now occurs on top of the warming trend, which can modify the impact of these natural drivers on the Australian climate.

Increases in temperature are observed across Australia in all seasons with both day and night-time temperatures showing warming. The shift to a warmer climate in Australia is accompanied by more extreme daily heat events. Record-warm monthly and seasonal temperatures have been observed in recent years, made more likely by climate change.”

DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT (PDF 7.16 MB)

Report at a glance

The Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO play an important role in monitoring, analysing and communicating observed changes in Australia's climate.

This fifth, biennial State of the Climate report draws on the latest monitoring, science and projection information to describe variability and changes in Australia’s climate. Observations and climate modelling paint a consistent picture of ongoing, long term climate change interacting with underlying natural variability.

These changes affect many Australians, particularly the changes associated with increases in the frequency or intensity of heat events, fire weather and drought. Australia will need to plan for and adapt to some level of climate change. This report is a synthesis of the science informing our understanding of climate in Australia and includes new information about Australia’s climate of the past, present and future. The science underpinning this report will help inform a range of economic, environmental and social decision-making and local vulnerability assessments, by government, industry and communities.

Key points

Australia

·         Australia's climate has warmed just over 1 °C since 1910 leading to an increase in the frequency of extreme heat events.

·         Oceans around Australia have warmed by around 1 °C since 1910, contributing to longer and more frequent marine heatwaves.

·         Sea levels are rising around Australia, increasing the risk of inundation.

·         The oceans around Australia are acidifying (the pH is decreasing).

·         April to October rainfall has decreased in the southwest of Australia. Across the same region May–July rainfall has seen the largest decrease, by around 20 per cent since 1970.

·         There has been a decline of around 11 per cent in April–October rainfall in the southeast of Australia since the late 1990s.

·         Rainfall has increased across parts of northern Australia since the 1970s.

·         Streamflow has decreased across southern Australia. Streamflow has increased in northern Australia where rainfall has increased.

·         There has been a long-term increase in extreme fire weather, and in the length of the fire season, across large parts of Australia.

Global

·         Concentrations of all the major long-lived greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continue to increase, with carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentrations rising above 400 ppm since 2016 and the CO₂ equivalent (CO₂-e) of all gases reaching 500 ppm for the first time in at least 800,000 years.

·         Emissions from fossil fuels continue to increase and are the main contributor to the observed growth in atmospheric CO₂.

·         The world’s oceans, especially in the southern hemisphere, are taking up more than 90 per cent of the extra energy stored by the planet as a result of enhanced greenhouse gas concentrations.

·         Global sea level has risen by over 20 cm since 1880, and the rate has been accelerating in recent decades.

·         Globally averaged air temperature has warmed by over 1 °C since records began in 1850, and each of the last four decades has been warmer than the previous one.

Future

Australia is projected to experience:

·         Further increases in sea and air temperatures, with more hot days and marine heatwaves, and fewer cool extremes.

·         Further sea level rise and ocean acidification.

·         Decreases in rainfall across southern Australia with more time in drought, but an increase in intense heavy rainfall throughout Australia.

World's most successful environmental agreement has been in place for thirty years this month

CSIROscope, 15 September 2017:  

This weekend marks the 30th birthday of the Montreal Protocol, often dubbed the world’s most successful environmental agreement. The treaty, signed on September 16, 1987, is slowly but surely reversing the damage caused to the ozone layer by industrial gases such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

Each year, during the southern spring, a hole appears in the ozone layer above Antarctica. This is due to the extremely cold temperatures in the winter stratosphere (above 10km altitude) that allow byproducts of CFCs and related gases to be converted into forms that destroy ozone when the sunlight returns in spring.

As ozone-destroying gases are phased out, the annual ozone hole is generally getting smaller – a rare success story for international environmentalism.

Back in 2012, our Saving the Ozone series marked the Montreal Protocol’s silver jubilee and reflected on its success. But how has the ozone hole fared in the five years since?

The Antarctic ozone hole has continued to appear each spring, as it has since the late 1970s. This is expected, as levels of the ozone-destroying halocarbon gases controlled by the Montreal Protocol are still relatively high. The figure below shows that concentrations of these human-made substances over Antarctica have fallen by 14% since their peak in about 2000.

Past and predicted levels of controlled gases in the Antarctic atmosphere, quoted as equivalent effective stratospheric chlorine (EESC) levels, a measure of their contribution to stratospheric ozone depletion. Paul Krummel/CSIRO, Author provided

Read the full article here.

Can the CSIRO sink any lower?

“Collaborating with government. As a trusted adviser to government, our collaboration within the sector supports it to solve challenges, find efficiencies and innovate.” [CSIRO, Data61]

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is a federal government corporate entity ultimately responsible to the Australian Parliament.

It started life in the midst of global conflagration in 1916 and for most of its existence it was widely respected both in its country of origin and around the world.

Sadly that level of respect has been diminished in recent years as commercial imperatives saw it move away from its once proud boast that:

The integrity of our science is underpinned by commitment to our values, adherence to our policies and maintaining the highest standards of practice.

However, it had not yet become a low creature of right-wing political ideology.

Until now – when it appears willing to participate in enforcing punitive social policies, cynically presented in the guise of Budget measures by the Turnbull Coalition Government.

In particular, enabling the trial drug testing of income support applicants “based on a data-driven profiling tool developed for the trial to identify relevant characteristics that indicate a higher risk of substance abuse issues” which almost inevitably will target the poor and vulnerable.

Apparently the only matter holding the CSIRO back from full commitment to the trial is the matter of contract negotiations with the Dept. Of Social Security and/or Dept. of Human Services¹.

The cost of this measure has reportedly been deemed by government to be “commercial-in-confidence”.

InnovationAus, 2 June 2017:

CSIRO has still not officially agreed to allow its Data61 analytics unit to become involved in the government’s highly contentious welfare drug testing program, a Senate estimates hearing has been told.

But the delay appears to be related to difficult contract negotiations – for which the research agency is well known – rather than the objections of staff or management to becoming involved in such a politically-driven program.

The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science and CSIRO appeared at the Senate estimates on Thursday morning.

The shocking concession that CSIRO has been in discussion to work on the drug-test project since April comes despite the organisation having specifically declined to confirm any knowledge of the project for weeks – let alone that it was actively negotiating a contract.

This is despite direct questions being put to CSIRO on multiple occasions for weeks.

The estimates hearing also revealed that Data61 has been called into the controversy plagued Social Services robo-debt project that has mistakenly matched debt to welfare recipients.

CSIRO digital executive director David Williams told shadow industry minister Kim Carr that while CSIRO was approached by the Social Services department about the welfare drug testing scheme in late April – less than a month before its involvement was prematurely announced by Cabinet Minister Christian Porter – it is still yet to officially sign on to the project.

“The Department of Social Services approached CSIRO in early April, wanting to implement a trial involving activity tested income support recipients across a small number of geographical areas,” Mr Williams told senate estimates.

“They asked for Data61’s support in doing the analysis to see whether predictive analytics could help them in that task.”

“Since that time we’ve been talking with the department, and scoped out a statement of work and we’ve looked at how we can implement that work should we sign a contract and proceed. At this moment we’re working through the procedures inside CSIRO.”

FOOTNOTE

1. The CSIRO already has a business relationship with the Australian Department of Human Services (DHS). Commencing in February 2017 the CSIRO and/or CSIRO Data61 conducted a Review of Online Compliance Systems, as well as supplying Specialist Data Science Services and Selection Methodologies Advice to the department. See; https://www.tenders.gov.au.

CSIRO implements Abbott-Turnbull Government's climate change denial agenda?

The latest CSIRO chief executive Dr. Larry Marshall (with the organisation since January 2015) clearly states in this podcast that the type of scientific investigation to be conducted in the future will be dictated by the federal government ("the customer") and implies that the Abbott-Turnbull Government is unbiased when it comes to climate change.......

https://www.buzzfeed.com/ginarushton/secret-tape-reveals-why-climate-change-is-off-the-csiros-age?utm_term=.tjdmAJnAG#.yr3Dy3Eyz

Both an Abbott and Turnbull appointee, Dr. Marshall was previously employed by a Silicon Valley-based private capital venture firm and, was sued in 2015; Shareholders in failed laser technology company Arasor claim Dr Marshall was a central figure in the company’s collapse, alleging he and other directors engaged in misleading and ­deceptiveconduct, as well as ­serious breaches of the Corporations and ASIC acts inrelation to the company’s financial reports and a disastrous $81 million float.

Meanwhile, as Marshall trashes the international reputation of the CSIRO, a newly resurgent One Nation is all set to strengthen the hand of  climate change denialists' in Coalition ranks.....

Independent Australia, 7 July 2016:

Hanson, who leads her own One Nation party, has won election to Australia’s Senate and, as counting continues, she could bring more candidates with her.

But as well as pushing xenophobia and division, the Queensland politician will also take a most extreme brand of climate science denial with her into the Senate.

As I wrote on The Guardian, Hanson’s party has been taking cues on climate science from one of the country’s most enthusiastic and relentless pushers of climate science denial, former coal miner Malcolm Roberts.

Roberts is the volunteer project leader of the Galileo Movement, a Queensland-based project launched in 2011 to fight laws to put a price on greenhouse gas emissions.

Roberts is also standing as a Senate candidate for One Nation and still has an outside chance of being elected, although Hanson is more enthusiastic about his chances than some analysts. The “wacky world view” of Roberts has since been reported by the Courier-Mail and the Sydney Morning Herald.

If you hang around the climate change issue for long enough, then at some point you’ll likely come across the extreme end of science denial and the conspiracy theories that Roberts represents.

It goes a bit like this. Humans are not causing climate change. Government-paid climate scientists and their agencies are corrupt. The United Nations is in league with international bankers to defraud the world. It’s all about control. 

That sort of stuff.

The Galileo Movement was founded in 2011 by Queensland retirees Case Smit and John Smeed.

A year earlier, the pair had organised a speaking tour for British climate science denialist Lord Christopher Monckton — a tour that attracted sponsorship from mining billionaire Gina Rinehart.

Roberts became the project manager. The group pulled together an “advisory council” that includes the likes of Fred Singer, Monckton, Pat Michaels and Richard Lindzen. 

The advisory group once included influential political blogger Andrew Bolt, until the News Ltd writer claimed Roberts had been spreading anti-Jewish conspiracy theories — a charge the Galileo Movement denied.

The climate policies of Hanson’s One Nation party have been quite literally cut and pasted from the Galileo Movement.

Those policies include calls for investigations into the “corruption of climate science” and the teaching of climate “scepticism” in schools.

After gaining enough votes to secure her own seat, Hanson told The Saturday Paper:

“This whole climate change is not based on empirical evidence and we are being hoodwinked. Climate change is not due to humans.”

Elsewhere, One Nation also reflects Roberts’ paranoia over United Nation’s policies to support environmentally sustainable development — known as Agenda 21. In the eyes of One Nation, Agenda 21 morphs into a sinister control program leaving “no person outside of its reach.”

A taste of things to come for the Clarence Valley local government area? CSIRO Survey September 2014: "Fifty per cent of [Western Downs] people think their community is struggling to cope with coal seam gas development"

Metgasco Limited holds an exploration licence PEL 426 (38 blocks about 8 km NNE of GRAFTON) and Clarence Morton Resources Pty Limited holds exploration licences PEL 457 (10 blocks about 23 km WNW of YAMBA) and PEL 478 (12 blocksabout 21 km NW of GRAFTON) in the Clarence Valley.

These tenements cover a large part of the valley.

To date both Metgaso and Clarence Morton Resources have drilled test wells in PEL 426 and PEL 457 respectively.

Valley communities face an uncertain future until they know a) if these companies intend to proceed with gas production; and b) if the NSW Government will prohibit gas production in the Clarence Valley local government area.

There have been many news articles reporting on Queensland gasfields and a significant number of these contain disturbing information/opinion.

This is one such article from ABC News 19 September 2014:

The CSIRO says the results of a survey its conducted on the Western Downs will help authorities develop better long-term plans for mining communities.

The survey is the second phase of a three-year study the CSIRO is conducting in conjunction with major coal seam gas (CSG) producers.

Four-hundred residents across the Dalby, Tara, Chinchilla and Miles districts were asked to rate the wellbeing of their communities and how resilient the region will be over the life of the gas industry.

Lead researcher Andrea Walton says respondents were worried about the impact the industry is having on roads, the environment but also on community cohesion.

"Important elements to this sense that where they live offers a good quality of life that it is a good place to live," she said.

Dr Walton says most were worried about the future.

"Fifty per cent of people think their community is struggling to cope with coal seam gas development," she said…..

According to the CSIRO; The Western Downs local government area in southern Queensland is in the Surat Basin where most of Australia’s coal seam gas (CSG) reserves can be found and where most CSG development activity is presently taking place.

The CSIRO survey of Community Wellbeing and responding to change: Western Downs region in Queensland report released in September 2014 is; the second stage of a three year project entitled “Impacts of Coal Seam Gas mining on communities in the Western Downs: How features, resources and strategies of a community affect its functioning and well-being” (or the Community Functioning and Wellbeing Project).   

It is funded by the Gas Industry Social and Environmental Research Alliance (GISERA). The CSIRO and Australia Pacific LNG Pty Ltd  are founding members of GISERA with QGC Pty Limited recently joined this group.

Australia Pacific LNG and QGC both have gasfields in the Western Downs region.  

The Alliance Agreement between these three parties allows the potential for the CSIRO to derive income from any commercialisation flowing from research results.

Excerpts from the study [my red bolding]:

* 1. Sub-regional differences

Tara reported significantly lower levels of satisfaction with eight of the fifteen dimensions of community wellbeing including personal safety, community spirit, income sufficiency, community cohesion, social interaction, services and facilities, community participation, and employment and business opportunities, with the latter three reporting unsatisfactory levels. They were also dissatisfied with planning, leadership and access to information. Residents of Tara community also reported lowest levels of overall community wellbeing and lowest levels of place attachment. 

On average, people who lived in Tara had mid-line attitudes and feelings towards CSG development in their region.

Dalby reported dissatisfaction with four of the fifteen dimensions of wellbeing including levels of employment and business opportunities, environmental management, decision making and roads. 

Employment and business opportunities were significantly lower than Chinchilla. 

Residents were also 26-dissatisfied with planning, leadership, and access to information. 

They had relatively high levels of community wellbeing, and the highest le-+vels of expected future wellbeing and place attachment, which were significantly higher than Miles and Tara respectively. 

On average, people who lived in Dalby had negative attitudes and feelings towards CSG development in their region.

Chinchilla reported dissatisfaction with three of the fifteen dimensions of wellbeing including levels of environmental management, decision making, and roads. They were also dissatisfied with planning and leadership but unlike the other regions were satisfied with levels of access to information. They reported the highest levels of employment and business opportunities compared to the other sub-regions, and higher levels of community spirit, income sufficiency, when compared to Tara. 

Their wellbeing was relatively high and higher than Tara. 

On average, people who lived in Chinchilla had positive attitudes and feelings towards CSG development in their region.

Miles reported dissatisfaction with three of the fifteen dimensions of wellbeing including levels of environmental management, decision making and roads, with their view towards roads the lowest in the region. 

They had the highest levels of personal safety and community participation. 

They had lower levels of satisfaction with their built environment, and their employment and business opportunities when compared to Dalby and Chinchilla respectively. 

Residents were also dissatisfied with planning, leadership, and access to information. Their overall wellbeing was moderately high and higher than Tara, but their expected future wellbeing was the lowest of the sub-regions and significantly lower than Dalby. 

On average, people who lived in Miles had negative attitudes and feelings towards CSG development in their region, which were the lowest and significantly lower than Chinchilla.

* 2. Location of residence differences

Compared with people who lived out of town, people who live in town reported higher levels of satisfaction with social interactions, services and facilities, and employment and business opportunities than people who live out of town. 

They also reported higher levels of overall wellbeing and expected future wellbeing. People who live in town had more positive attitudes and feelings towards CSG development. On average these views were favourable whereas the views of out-of-towners were unfavourable.

* 3. Age related differences

Younger people reported higher levels of income sufficiency and higher social interaction. Younger people feel lower satisfaction with services and facilities

Older people felt higher satisfaction with the built environment, higher satisfaction with the level of services and facilities, higher satisfaction with the environmental quality, higher satisfaction with the roads, higher levels of overall community wellbeing, and higher perceptions of community resilience. Older people experience lower levels of social interactions

Middle-aged people felt the lowest levels of health, lowest levels of satisfaction towards the built environment, lowest levels of satisfaction towards the environmental quality, lowest levels of satisfaction towards the roads, lowest levels of overall community wellbeing, lowest levels of satisfaction with community resilience (the way the community is responding to change), lower levels of social interactions, and lowest levels of income sufficiency.

* 4. Gender related differences

Females, relative to males, felt lower levels of personal safety, less satisfied with the environmental quality, less satisfied with the services and facilities provided within the community, and less satisfied with the management of the environment for the future. Females felt there were higher levels of community spirit, and experience higher social interactions.

* 5. Income related differences (see Appendix E for detailed Table)

The lowest income people (less than $40,000) felt least satisfied with their income sufficiency, least positive about employment and business opportunities, and most negative about coal seam gas development in the region. 

The lowest income people felt most satisfied with the built environment and the roads.

The highest income people (greater than $120,000) felt most satisfied with their income sufficiency, most satisfied with their employment and business opportunities, and most positive towards coal seam gas development. 

The highest income people felt least satisfied with the built environment, and the roads.

* 7. Farm ownership differences

Compared with those who did not own a farm, people who owned a farm reported higher levels of personal safety, but lower levels of satisfaction with social interactions, and environmental management.

They also had lower perceptions of community resilience and expected future wellbeing. People who owned a farm had more negative attitudes and feelings towards CSG development, and on average these views are unfavourable.

*  A second effect was found when comparing those working in the CSG sector to other residents (either in or out-of-town), irrespective of sub-regions. CSG sector workers were significantly more likely to see their communities as adapting than other residents.

* Those that work in the CSG sector had lower levels of satisfaction with job security than those who didn’t work in the CSG sector (M = 4.11 and M = 3.70 respectively).