Australia’s Changing Climate

When you were young, was there heatwaves this extreme or droughts this severe?  Was weather such an enormous topic of conversation as it is today?  Does it make you worry for the future of your children and grandchildren? 

There is no doubt about it, global warming is a real problem, having already increased temperatures by more than 2 degrees above pre industrial times.  Our nation’s top scientists and science organisations have supported a major report on climate change yesterday that said Australia’s climate may have shifted permanently.

The report from the Climate Commission, entitled The Critical Decade: Extreme Weather recognises that climate change is influencing the intensity and frequency of our extreme weather events, making many extreme events worse in their impacts on people, property and community.

It suggests that extreme heat events will now be more prevalent with hot records happening three times more often than cold records.  This heat is driving an increase in extreme fire weather, increasing its frequency in Southern NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and parts of South Australia over the past 30 years.

It recognises that heavy rainfall has increased globally, with Australia’s east coast having had an unusually high number of heavy rainfall events over the last three years fuelled by record-high watrr temperatures.

And it notes that sea levels in Australia have risen 20cm over the last century, increasing the risk of flooding along Australian coastlines and on storm surges.

Scientists state in this report that “the climate change system has shifted, and is continuing to shift, changing the conditions for all weather, including extreme weather events”.

The report goes on to say that there is now a high risk that extreme weather events like heatwaves, heavy rainfall, bushfires and cyclones will become even more intense in Australia over the coming decades.   This will increase the risks of adverse consequences to human health, agriculture, infrastructure and the environment.

It concludes that warming is inevitable over the next few decades because of greenhouse gases that have already been emitted and will be emitted in the future.

“Only strong preventative action now and in the coming years can stabilize the climate and halt the trend of increasing extreme weather for our children and grandchildren”.

Watch the video from the Climate Commission below.

View the report from the Climate Commission here