After many years of problems for both the indigenous people ( Aborigines ) of Australia and an increase of major bush fires wiping out large tracts of land and sometimes affecting major cities, Australia has embraced the Aborigines ancient traditions of indigenous fire management by burning areas of the Australian Outback to act as wild fire breaks just after the rains to stop wild fires spreading uncontrolable later in the year. The project has been made possible by the most unlikely of companies ConocoPhillips who have agreed to pay the Aborigines A$1m ($850,000) a year, for 17 years, to offset 100,000 tons of the refinery's own greenhouse emissions. The half a million Aborigines in Australia have long suffered from huge social problems in dysfunctional communities ravaged by domestic violence and alcoholism as the governments plans to assimilate them into the mainstream have largely failed, but schemes like this may well provide the opportunity for them to provide a service they understand better than anybody else and helping in the fight against global warming.

Former CIA technical worker, Edward Snowden, was identified as the source who leaked information about the NSA's Prism program to the UK's Guardian newspaper. Snowden leaked information related to the United States' phone and internet secret surveillance programs. Snowden revealed these details out of what he believed was moral obligation to the public.