[Thanks to our guest writer, Philip Chubb, Assoc. Professor, Journalism, Monash University, for contributing this article.]

After extreme weather events, it is often suggested that climate change may have been a factor in the intensity of the fires or floods.

An international trend has been observed in the way deniers respond to these suggestions. They throttle discussion about the role of climate change with an awful belligerence.

Nowhere was this more obvious than in Victoria after the devastating 2009 bushfires.

The opportunities provided by new media for the instant transmission of hate had some devastating consequences after the fires as the victims, understandably looking for somebody to blame, found their targets served-up in green costumes and ready to consume.

The Australian led the charge and developed much of the ammunition that was then fired by loud-mouthed bloggers who were unrestrained in their viciousness.

One of these blogs, SOS-News, ran what it called a “Shame File” which featured two senior local government officials, both now departed from their positions of Mayor and Nillumbik Council CEO. The CEO in question, Bill Forrest, was said by the bloggers to command ‘“STORM TROOPERS” who prosecute at the removal of a grass blade’.

This blog was closely linked to another by a limited-membership organisation known as the Nillumbik Ratepayers’ Association, which has for years run strong and well financed campaigns in support of development in the shire where 40 people died in the fires.

If you’re pro-development in rural shires, you sometimes hate “greenies”. And if you hate “greenies”, what better way to discredit them than to blame them for the deaths of family, neighbours and friends because “greenies” supposedly oppose fuel reduction (nobody is against fuel reduction when it’s done scientifically).

Another outlet for the blood lust of the deniers after the fires were the online comments sections following newspaper articles or television shows.

One such program, fronted by the ABC’s Barrie Cassidy, was stacked by anti-environmentalists and thus validated and then let loose a flood of aggression.

Why do deniers carpet bomb any suggestion of a link between climate change and extreme weather events?

I have a couple of theories:

1.    If you can blame environmentalists for the disaster, of course you will.

2.    Extreme weather events represent the greatest immediate threat to the deniers who do not want people to believe they are seeing climate change right in front of their eyes.

Twitter - the new black

By Melanie McKenzie

Facebook may be the largest, but Twitter has become the fastest growing social network.

With more than 75 million user accounts and 50 million tweets per day, communicators who don't jump on board may soon be left behind.

At the Australian Science Communicators’ conference last month, social media queen Laurel Papworth gave 4 reasons why people use Twitter:

1.    Giving a testimonial or status update e.g. ‘I am shopping’. No reply necessary.

2.    Distributing information e.g. passing on a link to a cool blog post.

3.    Conversing i.e. replying to a tweet.

4.    Giving/receiving news.

Twitter limits your message to 140 characters, but there is no limit to the number of people the message can go out to.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's tweets are sent to almost 1 million followers - in real time!

Being able to send and receive information instantly is a great advantage when communicating about tsunamis and bushfires, or getting reactions to events.

As an added bonus, you can monitor Twitter’s "trending topics" to see what else is on people's minds.

At the conference, we had our own Twitter hash tag (#ASC2010) so that we could tweet about what the speakers were talking about, while they were delivering their presentations.

So the potential for Twitter as a communication tool is fantastic. I urge you to check it out.

Laurel has tips and hints for getting started on Twitter and other types of social media.

By Mary O'Callaghan

According to The Guardian, a new iPhone app pitches climate change science against scepticism.

Australian solar physicist John Cook, who runs Skeptical Science, developed the app which lets you use ‘an iPhone or iPod to view the entire list of skeptic arguments as well as (more importantly) what the science says on each argument’.

So, as The Guardian eloquently says, ‘the next time you're caught at the fag end of a wedding reception in an interminable one-way conversation with a reactionary uncle who's boring on about how "the climate's always changed", just switch on this app, hand them your iPhone, and proceed to the bar’.

By Tom Dixon

Buzz is not intended to be Google's answer to social networking, but Google exec Bradley Horowitz says it fills a niche in bringing together social messaging from different products such as Facebook, Flickr and Twitter.

Launched last week, it is automatically available to Gmail  users. 

A word of warning: Buzz links up with your current Gmail contacts but doesn't distinguish between friends and colleagues.

In an age where employers search the web to find details of potential employees, is it sensible to allow the lines between your social and professional activities to become even more blurred? I'll let you be the judge of that!

I’m not sure if using Buzz will actually save you time. If you’re using it, let us know what you think.

Google's plan is to move the whole computing experience online. Later this year it is launching its Chrome operating system and its Wave platform which promises easy file sharing and editable online documents.