Climate change in Australia
Encyclopedia
Climate change
has become a major issue in Australia
due to drastic climate events since the turn of the 21st century that have focused government and public attention. Rainfall in Australia has increased slightly over the past century, although there is little or no trend in rainfall in northeast and southwest Australia. Water sources in the South Eastern areas of Australia have depleted due to increasing population in urban areas (rising demand) coupled with climate change factors such as persistent prolonged drought (diminishing supply). At the same time, Australia
continues to have the highest per capita greenhouse gas
emissions.
The federal government and all state governments (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Northern Territories and Australian Capital Territory) have explicitly recognised that climate change is being caused by greenhouse gas emissions, in conformity with the scientific opinion on climate change
. Sectors of the population are actively campaigning against new coal mines and coal fired power stations because of their concern about the effects of global warming on Australia
.
There is expected to be a net benefit to Australia of stabilising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at 450ppm CO2 eq.
records indicate that during glacial maxima Australia was extremely arid, with plant pollen
fossils showing deserts extending as far as northern Tasmania
and a vast area of less than 2 percent vegetation cover over all of South Australia
and adjacent regions of other states. Forest cover was largely limited to sheltered areas of the east coast and the extreme southwest of Western Australia.
During these glacial maxima the climate was also much colder and windier than today. Minimum temperatures in winter in the centre of the continent were as much as 9°C (16°F) lower than they are today. Hydrological evidence for dryness during glacial maxima can also be seen at major lakes in Victoria's Western District, which dried up between around 20,000 and 15,000 years ago and re-filled from around 12,000 years ago.
As one moves into the Holocene
, evidence for climate change declines. During the early Holocene, there is evidence from Lake Frome
in South Australia and Lake Woods near Tennant Creek that the climate between 8,000 and 9,500 years ago and again from 7,000 to 4,200 years ago was considerably wetter than over the period of instrumental recording since about 1885. The research that gave these records also suggested that the rainfall flooding Frome was definitely summer-dominant rainfall
because of pollen counts from grass species. Other sources suggest that the Southern Oscillation may have been weaker during the early Holocene and rainfall over northern Australia less variable as well as higher. The onset of modern conditions with periodic wet season failure is dated ar around 4,000 years before the present.
In southern Victoria, there is evidence for generally wet conditions except for a much drier spell between about 3,000 and 2,100 years before the present, when it is believed Lake Corangamite
fell to levels well below those observed between European settlement and the 1990s. After this dry period, Western District lakes returned to their previous levels fairly quickly and by 1800 they were at their highest levels in the forty thousand years of record available.
Elsewhere, data for most of the Holocene are deficient, largely because methods used elsewhere to determine past climates (like tree-ring data
) cannot be used in Australia owing to the character of its soils and climate. Recently, however, coral
cores have been used to examine rainfall over those areas of Queensland
draining to the Great Barrier Reef
. The results do not provide conclusive evidence of man-made climate change, but do suggest the following:
A similar study, not yet published, is planned for coral reefs in Western Australia.
There exist records of floods in a number of rivers, such as the Hawkesbury
, from the time of first settlement. These suggest that, for the period beginning with the first European settlement, the first thirty-five years or so were wet and were followed by a much drier period up to the mid 1860s, when usable instrumental records start.
s were installed privately by some of the earliest settlers, the first instrumental climate records in Australia were not compiled until 1840 at Port Macquarie
. Rain gauges were gradually installed at other major centres across the continent, with the present gauges in Melbourne and Sydney dating from 1858 and 1859 respectively.
In eastern Australia, where the continent's first large-scale agriculture began, a large number of rain gauges were installed during the 1860s and by 1875 a comprehensive network had been developed in the "settled" areas of that state. With the spread of the pastoral industry to the north of the continent during this period, rain gauges were established extensively in newly settled areas, reaching Darwin by 1869, Alice Springs by 1874, and the Kimberley, Channel Country
and Gulf Savannah by 1880.
By 1885, most of Australia had a network of rainfall reporting stations adequate to give a good picture of climatic variability over the continent. The exceptions were remote areas of western Tasmania, the extreme southwest of Western Australia, Cape York Peninsula
, the northern Kimberley and the deserts of northwestern South Australia and southeastern Western Australia. In these areas good-quality climatic data were not available for quite some time after that.
Temperature measurements, although made at major population centres from days of the earliest rain gauges, were generally not established when rain gauges spread to more remote locations during the 1870s and 1880s. Although they gradually caught up in number with rain gauges, many places which have had rainfall data for over 125 years have only a few decades of temperature records.
Conditions from 1885 to 1898 were generally fairly wet, though less so than in the period since 1968. The only noticeably dry years in this era were 1888 and 1897. Although some coral core data suggest that 1887 and 1890 were, with 1974, the wettest years across the continent since settlement, rainfall data for Alice Springs, then the only major station covering the interior of the Northern Territory and Western Australia, strongly suggest that 1887 and 1890 were overall not as wet as 1974 or even 2000. In New South Wales and Queensland, however, the years 1886-1887 and 1889-1894 were indeed exceptionally wet. The heavy rainfall over this period has been linked with a major expansion of the sheep population and February 1893 saw the disastrous 1893 Brisbane flood
.
A drying of the climate took place from 1899 to 1921, though with some interruptions from wet El Niño years, especially between 1915 and early 1918 and in 1920-1921, when the wheat belt of the southern interior was drenched by its heaviest winter rains on record. Two major El Niño events in 1902 and 1905 produced the two driest years across the whole continent, whilst 1919 was similarly dry in the eastern States apart from the Gippsland.
The period from 1922 to 1938 was exceptionally dry, with only 1930 having Australia-wide rainfall above the long-term mean and the Australia-wide average rainfall for these seventeen years being 15 to 20 percent below that for other periods since 1885. This dry period is attributed in some sources to a weakening of the Southern Oscillation and in others to reduced sea surface temperatures. Temperatures in these three periods were generally cooler than they are currently, with 1925 having the coolest minima of any year since 1910. However, the dry years of the 1920s and 1930s were also often quite warm, with 1928 and 1938 having particularly high maxima.
The period from 1939 to 1967 began with an increase in rainfall: 1939, 1941 and 1942 were the first close-together group of relatively wet years since 1921. From 1943 to 1946, generally dry conditions returned, and the two decades from 1947 saw fluctuating rainfall. 1950, 1955 and 1956 were exceptionally wet except 1950 and 1956 over arid and wheatbelt regions of Western Australia. 1950 saw extraordinary rains
in central New South Wales and most of Queensland: Dubbo's 1950 rainfall of 1,329 mm (52 inches) can be estimated to have a return period
of between 350 and 400 years, whilst Lake Eyre filled for the first time in thirty years. In contrast, 1951, 1961 and 1965 were very dry, with complete monsoon failure in 1951/1952 and extreme drought in the interior during 1961 and 1965. Temperatures over this period initially fell to their lowest levels of the 20th century, with 1949 and 1956 being particularly cool, but then began a rising trend that has continued with few interruptions to the present.
Since 1968, Australia's rainfall has been 15 percent higher than between 1885 and 1967. The wettest periods have been from 1973 to 1975 and 1998 to 2001, which comprise seven of the thirteen wettest years over the continent since 1885. Overnight minimum temperatures, especially in winter, have been markedly higher than before the 1960s, with 1973, 1980, 1988, 1991, 1998 and 2005 outstanding in this respect. There has been a marked and beneficial decrease in the frequency of frost across Australia
According to the Bureau of Meteorology, Australia’s annual mean temperature for 2009 was 0.90°C above the 1961-90 average, making it the nation’s second warmest year since high-quality records began in 1910.
In the South-West Land Division], rainfall during the May to August rainy season has declined by 20 percent since 1968, after being at its highest from 1915 to 1947. Floods that were once common have virtually disappeared. Aided by increased winter temperatures and evaporation, runoff has declined over the past forty years by as much as sixty percent.
According to the CSIRO and Garnaut Climate Change Review
, climate change is expected to have numerous adverse effects on many species, regions, activities and much infrastructure and areas of the economy and public health in Australia. The Stern Report and Garnaut Review on balance expect these to outweigh the costs of mitigation.
Sustained climate change could have drastic effects on the ecosystems of Australia. For example, rising ocean temperatures and continual erosion of the coasts from higher water levels will cause further bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef. Beyond that, Australia’s climate will become even harsher, with more powerful tropical cyclones and longer droughts.
A report released in October 2009 by the Standing Committee on Climate Change, Water, Environment and the Arts, studying the effects of a 1m sea level rise, quite possible within the next 30–60 years, concluded that around 700,000 properties around Australia, including 80,000 buildings, would be inundated, the collective value of these properties is estimated at $150billion.
if it did not receive sufficient water by October of that year. Water restrictions
are currently in place in many regions and cities of Australia in response to chronic shortages resulting from drought
. In 2004 Scientist Tim Flannery
predicted that unless it made drastic changes the city of Perth
, Western Australia
, could become the world’s first ghost metropolis
- an abandoned city with no more water to sustain its population.
on 20 November 1997 in a policy statement called Safeguarding Our Future: Australia's Response to Climate Change. One measure was the establishment of the Australian Greenhouse Office
, which was setup as the world's first dedicated greenhouse office in April 1998.
After contributing to the development of, then signing but not ratifying the Kyoto Protocol
, action to address climate change was coordinated through the Australian Greenhouse Office. The Australian Greenhouse Office released the National Greenhouse Strategy in 1998. The report recognised climate change was of global significance and that Australia had an international obligation to address the problem. In 2000 the Senate Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts References Committee conducted an inquiry that produced The Heat is On: Australia's Greenhouse Future.
was replaced by Kevin Rudd
as Prime Minister. The first official act of the new Australian Government was to ratify the Kyoto Protocol
.
, established the Australian Greenhouse Office
, which was then the world's first government agency dedicated to cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Currently, the new Department of Climate Change
under Minister Penny Wong
is coordinating and leading climate policy in the Australian Government and aimed to have a national emissions trading
scheme operating by 2010. However, on 27 April 2010, the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that the Government has decided to delay the implementation of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme
(CPRS) until the end of the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol
(ending in 2012). The Government cited the lack of bipartisan support for the CPRS and slow international progress on climate action as the reasons for the decision.
The delay of the implementation of the CPRS was strongly criticised by the Federal Opposition and by community and grassroots action groups such as GetUp
.
The new government has committed to reducing Australia's greenhouse gas
emissions by 60% by 2050, based on year 2000 levels but is awaiting a report from Professor Ross Garnaut
, the Garnaut Climate Change Review
, in mid-2008 before setting interim emission reduction targets for 2020.
Climate change is on the agenda for most environmental and social justice non-government organisations (NGOs) in Australia. There has also been significant action at a State Government level, although the Federal government was slow to act under the former prime minister, John Howard.
The state of Victoria, in particular, has been proactive in pursuing reductions in GHG through a range of initiatives. Other states have also taken a more proactive stance than the federal government. One such initiative undertaken by the Victorian Government is the Greenhouse Challenge for Energy Policy package, which aims to reduce Victorian emissions through a mandated renewable energy target. Initially, it aimed to have a 10 per cent share of Victoria’s energy consumption being produced by renewable technologies by 2010, with 1000 MWh being produced by wind energy by 2006; this target was not met. The government recently legislated to ensure that by 2016 electricity retailers in Victoria purchase 10 per cent of their energy from renewables. The State Government also made an election promise, at the 2006 election, to increase this to 20 per cent by 2020. By providing a market incentive for the development of renewables, the government helps foster the development of the renewable energy sector.
On 6 May 2007, the Premier of Western Australia, Alan Carpenter announced the formation of a new Climate Change Office responsible to a Minister, with a plan that included:
This plan has been criticised by Greens MP Paul Llewellyn who stated that short-term programmatic targets rather than aspirational targets to greenhouse gas emissions were needed, and that renewable energy growth in the state was still being driven entirely by federal government policy and incentives, not by measures being made by the state government.
The Australian Youth Climate Coalition
(AYCC) was founded in November 2006 by over 35 youth organisations including the Australian Student Environment Network
, GetUp!, the United Nations Youth Association (UNYA) and OzGreen. The founding summit involved 65 young people aged 15–30 representing 30 different youth and youth-friendly organisations. The AYCC is a non-partisan, non-profit coalition with the aim of informing, inspiring and mobilising an entire generation in the struggle for climate justice and a clean energy future. The coalition emerged to hold those in power to account by challenging the acutely poor leadership shown by the Australian government and the private sector to stop climate change. In February 2007, the AYCC organised its official launch where AYCC members delivered their declaration on climate change to members of the Australian Parliament around the country.
Australian Student Environment Network
(ASEN) is a non-profit, grassroots network of student activists from universities, TAFEs and secondary schools across Australia. The network aims to create a generation of change-agents actively working to achieve environmental and social justice within the Australian and world context. The network has a strong focus on equipping young people with organising and facilitation skills and provides first-hand campaigning experience in environmental advocacy and grassroots organising. Annually, the ASEN summer training camp brings together students for one week of facilitated skill sharing, workshopping, campaign planning and strategising.
ASEN has multiple campaign foci including climate change, coal mining, green jobs, campus sustainability (energy/emissions & recycled paper), nuclear power, Gold and Uranium mining and the genocide of Indigenous peoples. In addition, the network builds and lives-out alternative ideas and lifestyles through community projects such as Co-operatives (food, housing and transport), on-campus permaculture gardens and by investing in community supported agriculture.
The AYCC supports numerous projects by harnessing the knowledge, skills and experience of its coalition member groups. In August 2007, the AYCC launched their federal election campaign "Adopt a Politician" providing young voters and non-voters a platform on which to engage with their local community on the issue and pressure their federal candidates to save their future by committing to better policies.
In October 2007, the AYCC and ASEN organised the largest gathering of young climate activists from around the country at the conference "Switched On" in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. The conferenced aimed to facilitate critical thinking on climate change and its solutions, share knowledge and skills for organising around climate change and provide support and networking opportunities for the growing youth climate movement in Australia.
In November 2007, youth delegates from the AYCC attended the Kyoto negotiations in Bali where they collaborated with other national youth networks and young climate activists from around the world.
SYCAN-the Sydney Youth Climate Action Network was founded at OzGreen's Youth Leading Australia Congress in 2009. SYCAN is working in local communities to reduce emissions through education and practical solutions. SYCAN is a non-profit, non-partisan group of youth volunteers. SYCAN as of January 2011 currently has two branches (Northern Beaches and Inner-West areas).
Literature
Janette Hartz-Karp writes that "to deal with the complexity of climate change and oil dependency, we need a radical rethink of how to engage citizens in meaningful, influential dialogue" Deliberative democracy presents a wide range of strategies to involve communities in these important decisions.
News
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
has become a major issue in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
due to drastic climate events since the turn of the 21st century that have focused government and public attention. Rainfall in Australia has increased slightly over the past century, although there is little or no trend in rainfall in northeast and southwest Australia. Water sources in the South Eastern areas of Australia have depleted due to increasing population in urban areas (rising demand) coupled with climate change factors such as persistent prolonged drought (diminishing supply). At the same time, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
continues to have the highest per capita greenhouse gas
Greenhouse gas
A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...
emissions.
The federal government and all state governments (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Northern Territories and Australian Capital Territory) have explicitly recognised that climate change is being caused by greenhouse gas emissions, in conformity with the scientific opinion on climate change
Scientific opinion on climate change
The predominant scientific opinion on climate change is that the Earth is in an ongoing phase of global warming primarily caused by an enhanced greenhouse effect due to the anthropogenic release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases...
. Sectors of the population are actively campaigning against new coal mines and coal fired power stations because of their concern about the effects of global warming on Australia
Effects of global warming on Australia
Predictions measuring the effects of global warming on Australia assert that climate change will negatively impact the continent's environment, economy, and communities...
.
There is expected to be a net benefit to Australia of stabilising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at 450ppm CO2 eq.
Pre-instrumental climate change
PaleoclimaticPaleoclimatology
Paleoclimatology is the study of changes in climate taken on the scale of the entire history of Earth. It uses a variety of proxy methods from the Earth and life sciences to obtain data previously preserved within rocks, sediments, ice sheets, tree rings, corals, shells and microfossils; it then...
records indicate that during glacial maxima Australia was extremely arid, with plant pollen
Pollen
Pollen is a fine to coarse powder containing the microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce the male gametes . Pollen grains have a hard coat that protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement from the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants or from the male cone to the...
fossils showing deserts extending as far as northern Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
and a vast area of less than 2 percent vegetation cover over all of South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
and adjacent regions of other states. Forest cover was largely limited to sheltered areas of the east coast and the extreme southwest of Western Australia.
During these glacial maxima the climate was also much colder and windier than today. Minimum temperatures in winter in the centre of the continent were as much as 9°C (16°F) lower than they are today. Hydrological evidence for dryness during glacial maxima can also be seen at major lakes in Victoria's Western District, which dried up between around 20,000 and 15,000 years ago and re-filled from around 12,000 years ago.
As one moves into the Holocene
Holocene
The Holocene is a geological epoch which began at the end of the Pleistocene and continues to the present. The Holocene is part of the Quaternary period. Its name comes from the Greek words and , meaning "entirely recent"...
, evidence for climate change declines. During the early Holocene, there is evidence from Lake Frome
Lake Frome
Lake Frome is a large endorheic lake in South Australia, east of the Northern Flinders Ranges. It is a large, shallow, unvegetated salt pan, 100 km long and 40 km wide, lying mostly below sea level and having a total surface area of 259,615 hectares...
in South Australia and Lake Woods near Tennant Creek that the climate between 8,000 and 9,500 years ago and again from 7,000 to 4,200 years ago was considerably wetter than over the period of instrumental recording since about 1885. The research that gave these records also suggested that the rainfall flooding Frome was definitely summer-dominant rainfall
Monsoon
Monsoon is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation, but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea...
because of pollen counts from grass species. Other sources suggest that the Southern Oscillation may have been weaker during the early Holocene and rainfall over northern Australia less variable as well as higher. The onset of modern conditions with periodic wet season failure is dated ar around 4,000 years before the present.
In southern Victoria, there is evidence for generally wet conditions except for a much drier spell between about 3,000 and 2,100 years before the present, when it is believed Lake Corangamite
Lake Corangamite
Lake Corangamite is Victoria’s largest natural lake, located near Colac in south-west Victoria, Australia in the Lakes and Craters region of the Victorian Volcanic Plains. The lake is hypersaline, and salinity levels have increased dramatically as the lake level has dropped in recent decades...
fell to levels well below those observed between European settlement and the 1990s. After this dry period, Western District lakes returned to their previous levels fairly quickly and by 1800 they were at their highest levels in the forty thousand years of record available.
Elsewhere, data for most of the Holocene are deficient, largely because methods used elsewhere to determine past climates (like tree-ring data
Dendroclimatology
Dendroclimatology is the science of determining past climates from trees . Tree rings are wider when conditions favor growth, narrower when times are difficult. Other properties of the annual rings, such as maximum latewood density have been shown to be better proxies than simple ring width...
) cannot be used in Australia owing to the character of its soils and climate. Recently, however, coral
Coral
Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...
cores have been used to examine rainfall over those areas of Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
draining to the Great Barrier Reef
Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is the world'slargest reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres over an area of approximately...
. The results do not provide conclusive evidence of man-made climate change, but do suggest the following:
- There has been a marked increase in the frequency of very wet years in Queensland since the end of the Little Ice AgeLittle Ice AgeThe Little Ice Age was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period . While not a true ice age, the term was introduced into the scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939...
, a theory supported by there being no evidence for any large Lake Eyre filling during the LIA. - The dry era of the 1920s and 1930s may well have been the driest period in Australia over the past four centuries.
A similar study, not yet published, is planned for coral reefs in Western Australia.
There exist records of floods in a number of rivers, such as the Hawkesbury
Hawkesbury River
The Hawkesbury River, also known as Deerubbun, is one of the major rivers of the coastal region of New South Wales, Australia. The Hawkesbury River and its tributaries virtually encircle the metropolitan region of Sydney.-Geography:-Course:...
, from the time of first settlement. These suggest that, for the period beginning with the first European settlement, the first thirty-five years or so were wet and were followed by a much drier period up to the mid 1860s, when usable instrumental records start.
Development of an instrumental network
Although rain gaugeRain gauge
A rain gauge is a type of instrument used by meteorologists and hydrologists to gather and measure the amount of liquid precipitation over a set period of time....
s were installed privately by some of the earliest settlers, the first instrumental climate records in Australia were not compiled until 1840 at Port Macquarie
Port Macquarie, New South Wales
Port Macquarie is a city on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, located about north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane. The city is located on the coast, at the mouth of the Hastings River, and has an estimated population of 44,313....
. Rain gauges were gradually installed at other major centres across the continent, with the present gauges in Melbourne and Sydney dating from 1858 and 1859 respectively.
In eastern Australia, where the continent's first large-scale agriculture began, a large number of rain gauges were installed during the 1860s and by 1875 a comprehensive network had been developed in the "settled" areas of that state. With the spread of the pastoral industry to the north of the continent during this period, rain gauges were established extensively in newly settled areas, reaching Darwin by 1869, Alice Springs by 1874, and the Kimberley, Channel Country
Channel Country
The Channel Country is region of outback Australia located mostly in the state of Queensland but also in portions of South Australia, Northern Territory and New South Wales. The name comes from the numerous intertwined rivulets that cross the region, which cover 150,000 km²...
and Gulf Savannah by 1880.
By 1885, most of Australia had a network of rainfall reporting stations adequate to give a good picture of climatic variability over the continent. The exceptions were remote areas of western Tasmania, the extreme southwest of Western Australia, Cape York Peninsula
Cape York Peninsula
Cape York Peninsula is a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland at the tip of the state of Queensland, Australia, the largest unspoilt wilderness in northern Australia and one of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth...
, the northern Kimberley and the deserts of northwestern South Australia and southeastern Western Australia. In these areas good-quality climatic data were not available for quite some time after that.
Temperature measurements, although made at major population centres from days of the earliest rain gauges, were generally not established when rain gauges spread to more remote locations during the 1870s and 1880s. Although they gradually caught up in number with rain gauges, many places which have had rainfall data for over 125 years have only a few decades of temperature records.
Climate history based on instrumental records
Australia's instrumental record from 1885 to the present shows the following broad picture:Conditions from 1885 to 1898 were generally fairly wet, though less so than in the period since 1968. The only noticeably dry years in this era were 1888 and 1897. Although some coral core data suggest that 1887 and 1890 were, with 1974, the wettest years across the continent since settlement, rainfall data for Alice Springs, then the only major station covering the interior of the Northern Territory and Western Australia, strongly suggest that 1887 and 1890 were overall not as wet as 1974 or even 2000. In New South Wales and Queensland, however, the years 1886-1887 and 1889-1894 were indeed exceptionally wet. The heavy rainfall over this period has been linked with a major expansion of the sheep population and February 1893 saw the disastrous 1893 Brisbane flood
1893 Brisbane flood
The 1893 Brisbane flood, occasionally referred to as the Great Flood of 1893 or the Black February flood, occurred when the Brisbane River burst its banks on three occasions in February 1893. It is the occurrence of three major floods in the same month that saw the period named "Black February"....
.
A drying of the climate took place from 1899 to 1921, though with some interruptions from wet El Niño years, especially between 1915 and early 1918 and in 1920-1921, when the wheat belt of the southern interior was drenched by its heaviest winter rains on record. Two major El Niño events in 1902 and 1905 produced the two driest years across the whole continent, whilst 1919 was similarly dry in the eastern States apart from the Gippsland.
The period from 1922 to 1938 was exceptionally dry, with only 1930 having Australia-wide rainfall above the long-term mean and the Australia-wide average rainfall for these seventeen years being 15 to 20 percent below that for other periods since 1885. This dry period is attributed in some sources to a weakening of the Southern Oscillation and in others to reduced sea surface temperatures. Temperatures in these three periods were generally cooler than they are currently, with 1925 having the coolest minima of any year since 1910. However, the dry years of the 1920s and 1930s were also often quite warm, with 1928 and 1938 having particularly high maxima.
The period from 1939 to 1967 began with an increase in rainfall: 1939, 1941 and 1942 were the first close-together group of relatively wet years since 1921. From 1943 to 1946, generally dry conditions returned, and the two decades from 1947 saw fluctuating rainfall. 1950, 1955 and 1956 were exceptionally wet except 1950 and 1956 over arid and wheatbelt regions of Western Australia. 1950 saw extraordinary rains
1950 Australian rainfall records
The 1950 rainfall records for the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland reported probably the most remarkable record high rainfall totals ever recorded anywhere in the continent. Averaged over both of these states, 1950 is clearly the wettest year since adequate records became...
in central New South Wales and most of Queensland: Dubbo's 1950 rainfall of 1,329 mm (52 inches) can be estimated to have a return period
Return period
A return period also known as a recurrence interval is an estimate of the interval of time between events like an earthquake, flood or river discharge flow of a certain intensity or size. It is a statistical measurement denoting the average recurrence interval over an extended period of time, and...
of between 350 and 400 years, whilst Lake Eyre filled for the first time in thirty years. In contrast, 1951, 1961 and 1965 were very dry, with complete monsoon failure in 1951/1952 and extreme drought in the interior during 1961 and 1965. Temperatures over this period initially fell to their lowest levels of the 20th century, with 1949 and 1956 being particularly cool, but then began a rising trend that has continued with few interruptions to the present.
Since 1968, Australia's rainfall has been 15 percent higher than between 1885 and 1967. The wettest periods have been from 1973 to 1975 and 1998 to 2001, which comprise seven of the thirteen wettest years over the continent since 1885. Overnight minimum temperatures, especially in winter, have been markedly higher than before the 1960s, with 1973, 1980, 1988, 1991, 1998 and 2005 outstanding in this respect. There has been a marked and beneficial decrease in the frequency of frost across Australia
According to the Bureau of Meteorology, Australia’s annual mean temperature for 2009 was 0.90°C above the 1961-90 average, making it the nation’s second warmest year since high-quality records began in 1910.
Local variations
Within Australia, patterns of precipitation show regional variation. Because of the general spatial coherence of rainfall over most of Australia, these variations have tended to affect small areas, but because these are generally the most populated parts of the continent, they are still of considerable importance.In the South-West Land Division], rainfall during the May to August rainy season has declined by 20 percent since 1968, after being at its highest from 1915 to 1947. Floods that were once common have virtually disappeared. Aided by increased winter temperatures and evaporation, runoff has declined over the past forty years by as much as sixty percent.
- In southern Victoria, rainfall since 1997 has declined by as much as 30 percent, with Melbourne having not once exceeded its 1885 to 1996 average since 1997.
- In contrast, the 1950s in southern Victoria were consistently wet, with Western District lakes returning during the decade to levels seen before the 1850s and Corangamite almost overflowing, as it is believed to have done during the Little Ice Age.
- The eastern part of Tasmania has also seen a major decline in rainfall since the middle 1970s. In Hobart, the annual rainfall has declined by about one-sixth since that time, and not one of the nineteen wettest years since 1882 has occurred since 1976.
- In Gippsland, the coastal areas of New South Wales, and southern Queensland, the driest period since 1885 was not from 1922 to 1938, but approximately from 1901 to 1910, when the average annual rainfall at Sydney was 20 percent below its long-term mean. There was a slight increase in rainfall from 1916 to 1934 and then a decline to 1901-1910 levels from 1936 to 1948, before a return to the pre-1900 "flood-dominated" climate regime occurred in 1949.
- In northwestern Australia, rainfall was moderate from 1885 to about 1925, then declined from the late 1920s to the late 1960s (with very dry conditions during the 1950s), followed by rapid increases since then. In Darwin, six of the seven wettest wet seasons have occurred since 1995, and the major droughts that once affected the region frequently have virtually disappeared since 1971.
Effects of climate change on Australia
According to the CSIRO and Garnaut Climate Change Review
Garnaut Climate Change Review
The Garnaut Climate Change Review was a study by Professor Ross Garnaut, commissioned by then Opposition Leader, Kevin Rudd and by the Australian State and Territory Governments on 30 April 2007...
, climate change is expected to have numerous adverse effects on many species, regions, activities and much infrastructure and areas of the economy and public health in Australia. The Stern Report and Garnaut Review on balance expect these to outweigh the costs of mitigation.
Sustained climate change could have drastic effects on the ecosystems of Australia. For example, rising ocean temperatures and continual erosion of the coasts from higher water levels will cause further bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef. Beyond that, Australia’s climate will become even harsher, with more powerful tropical cyclones and longer droughts.
Economy
In 2008 the Treasurer and the Minister for Climate Change and Water released a report that concluded the economy will grow with an emissions trading scheme in place.A report released in October 2009 by the Standing Committee on Climate Change, Water, Environment and the Arts, studying the effects of a 1m sea level rise, quite possible within the next 30–60 years, concluded that around 700,000 properties around Australia, including 80,000 buildings, would be inundated, the collective value of these properties is estimated at $150billion.
Water
In June 2008 it became known that an expert panel had warned of long term, maybe irreversible, severe ecological damage for the whole Murray-Darling basinMurray-Darling Basin
The Murray-Darling basin is a large geographical area in the interior of southeastern Australia, whose name is derived from its two major rivers, the Murray River and the Darling River. It drains one-seventh of the Australian land mass, and is currently by far the most significant agricultural...
if it did not receive sufficient water by October of that year. Water restrictions
Water restrictions in Australia
Water restrictions have been enacted in many cities and regions in Australia, which is the Earth's driest inhabited continent, in response to chronic water shortages resulting from the drought. Depending upon the location, these can include restrictions on watering lawns, using sprinkler systems,...
are currently in place in many regions and cities of Australia in response to chronic shortages resulting from drought
Drought in Australia
Drought in Australia is defined as rainfall over a three month period being in the lowest decile of what has been recorded for that region in the past. This definition takes into account that drought is a relative term and rainfall deficiencies need to be compared to typical rainfall patterns...
. In 2004 Scientist Tim Flannery
Tim Flannery
Timothy Fridtjof Flannery is an Australian mammalogist, palaeontologist, environmentalist and global warming activist....
predicted that unless it made drastic changes the city of Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
, could become the world’s first ghost metropolis
Metropolis
A metropolis is a very large city or urban area which is a significant economic, political and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections and communications...
- an abandoned city with no more water to sustain its population.
Mitigation
One of Australia's first national attempt to reduce emissions was the voluntary-based initiative called the Greenhouse Challenge Program which began in 1995. A collection of measures which focused on reducing the environmental impacts of the energy sector were released by Prime Minister John HowardJohn Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
on 20 November 1997 in a policy statement called Safeguarding Our Future: Australia's Response to Climate Change. One measure was the establishment of the Australian Greenhouse Office
Australian Greenhouse Office
The Australian Greenhouse Office within the Government of Australia was the world's first government agency dedicated to cutting greenhouse gas emissions. In 1998, following pressure from the Australian Democrats, it was established as a stand alone agency within the environment portfolio to...
, which was setup as the world's first dedicated greenhouse office in April 1998.
After contributing to the development of, then signing but not ratifying the Kyoto Protocol
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , aimed at fighting global warming...
, action to address climate change was coordinated through the Australian Greenhouse Office. The Australian Greenhouse Office released the National Greenhouse Strategy in 1998. The report recognised climate change was of global significance and that Australia had an international obligation to address the problem. In 2000 the Senate Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts References Committee conducted an inquiry that produced The Heat is On: Australia's Greenhouse Future.
Action on climate change
Climate change featured strongly in the November 2007 Australian federal election in which John HowardJohn Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
was replaced by Kevin Rudd
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...
as Prime Minister. The first official act of the new Australian Government was to ratify the Kyoto Protocol
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , aimed at fighting global warming...
.
National
In 1998 the Australian Government, under Prime Minister John HowardJohn Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
, established the Australian Greenhouse Office
Australian Greenhouse Office
The Australian Greenhouse Office within the Government of Australia was the world's first government agency dedicated to cutting greenhouse gas emissions. In 1998, following pressure from the Australian Democrats, it was established as a stand alone agency within the environment portfolio to...
, which was then the world's first government agency dedicated to cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Currently, the new Department of Climate Change
Department of Climate Change (Australia)
The Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency is an Australian Government department, currently led by Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Greg Combet...
under Minister Penny Wong
Penny Wong
Penelope "Penny" Ying-yen Wong , is an Australian Labor Party senator for South Australia and the Federal Minister for Finance and Deregulation. Wong was the first Australian Minister for Climate Change and Water. Her appointment was amended on 26 February 2010, by the Prime Minister, to the...
is coordinating and leading climate policy in the Australian Government and aimed to have a national emissions trading
Emissions trading
Emissions trading is a market-based approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants....
scheme operating by 2010. However, on 27 April 2010, the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that the Government has decided to delay the implementation of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme
Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme
The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme was a proposed cap-and-trade system of emissions trading for anthropogenic greenhouse gases, due to be introduced in Australia in 2010 by the Rudd government, as part of its climate change policy. It marked a major change in the energy policy of Australia...
(CPRS) until the end of the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , aimed at fighting global warming...
(ending in 2012). The Government cited the lack of bipartisan support for the CPRS and slow international progress on climate action as the reasons for the decision.
The delay of the implementation of the CPRS was strongly criticised by the Federal Opposition and by community and grassroots action groups such as GetUp
GetUp
GetUp! is a left-leaning Australian activist group that campaigns on issues important to its members. It was launched in August 2005, the week that the Coalition took control of the Australian Senate....
.
The new government has committed to reducing Australia's greenhouse gas
Greenhouse gas
A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...
emissions by 60% by 2050, based on year 2000 levels but is awaiting a report from Professor Ross Garnaut
Ross Garnaut
Ross Gregory Garnaut AO is a Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Australian National University and both a Vice-Chancellor's Fellow and Professorial Fellow of Economics at The University of Melbourne....
, the Garnaut Climate Change Review
Garnaut Climate Change Review
The Garnaut Climate Change Review was a study by Professor Ross Garnaut, commissioned by then Opposition Leader, Kevin Rudd and by the Australian State and Territory Governments on 30 April 2007...
, in mid-2008 before setting interim emission reduction targets for 2020.
Climate change is on the agenda for most environmental and social justice non-government organisations (NGOs) in Australia. There has also been significant action at a State Government level, although the Federal government was slow to act under the former prime minister, John Howard.
Victoria
The state of Victoria, in particular, has been proactive in pursuing reductions in GHG through a range of initiatives. Other states have also taken a more proactive stance than the federal government. One such initiative undertaken by the Victorian Government is the Greenhouse Challenge for Energy Policy package, which aims to reduce Victorian emissions through a mandated renewable energy target. Initially, it aimed to have a 10 per cent share of Victoria’s energy consumption being produced by renewable technologies by 2010, with 1000 MWh being produced by wind energy by 2006; this target was not met. The government recently legislated to ensure that by 2016 electricity retailers in Victoria purchase 10 per cent of their energy from renewables. The State Government also made an election promise, at the 2006 election, to increase this to 20 per cent by 2020. By providing a market incentive for the development of renewables, the government helps foster the development of the renewable energy sector.
Western Australia
On 6 May 2007, the Premier of Western Australia, Alan Carpenter announced the formation of a new Climate Change Office responsible to a Minister, with a plan that included:
- a target to reduce emissions by at least 60% below 2000 levels by 2050
- a $36.5 million Low Emission Energy Development Fund
- a target to increase renewable energy generation on the South West Interconnected System to 15% by 2020 and 20% by 2025
- a clean energy target of 50% b 2010 and 60% by 2020
- State Government purchase of 20% renewable energy by 2010
- a mandatory energy efficiency program that will require large and medium energy users to invest in cost effective energy efficiency measures
- tripling the successful solar schools program so that over 350 schools will be using renewable energy by 2010
- a new $1.5 million Household Sustainability Audit and Education program that will provide practical information to households about how they can reduce greenhouse gas emissions
- investing 8.625 million to help businesses and communities adapt to the impacts of climate change
- the development of new climate change legislation
- a commitment to establishment of a national emissions trading scheme
This plan has been criticised by Greens MP Paul Llewellyn who stated that short-term programmatic targets rather than aspirational targets to greenhouse gas emissions were needed, and that renewable energy growth in the state was still being driven entirely by federal government policy and incentives, not by measures being made by the state government.
Australian Youth Climate Coalition
The Australian Youth Climate Coalition
Australian Youth Climate Coalition
The Australian Youth Climate Coalition is a youth organisation in Australia. The coalition consists of 25 other youth organisations, which includes the National Union of Students amongst many...
(AYCC) was founded in November 2006 by over 35 youth organisations including the Australian Student Environment Network
Australian Student Environment Network
The Australian Student Environment Network is the national network of many campus environment collectives in Australia. People from ASEN facilitate communication between campus environment collectives and co-ordinate national projects and campaigns. ASEN was formed at the 1997 Students and...
, GetUp!, the United Nations Youth Association (UNYA) and OzGreen. The founding summit involved 65 young people aged 15–30 representing 30 different youth and youth-friendly organisations. The AYCC is a non-partisan, non-profit coalition with the aim of informing, inspiring and mobilising an entire generation in the struggle for climate justice and a clean energy future. The coalition emerged to hold those in power to account by challenging the acutely poor leadership shown by the Australian government and the private sector to stop climate change. In February 2007, the AYCC organised its official launch where AYCC members delivered their declaration on climate change to members of the Australian Parliament around the country.
Australian Student Environment Network
Australian Student Environment Network
Australian Student Environment Network
The Australian Student Environment Network is the national network of many campus environment collectives in Australia. People from ASEN facilitate communication between campus environment collectives and co-ordinate national projects and campaigns. ASEN was formed at the 1997 Students and...
(ASEN) is a non-profit, grassroots network of student activists from universities, TAFEs and secondary schools across Australia. The network aims to create a generation of change-agents actively working to achieve environmental and social justice within the Australian and world context. The network has a strong focus on equipping young people with organising and facilitation skills and provides first-hand campaigning experience in environmental advocacy and grassroots organising. Annually, the ASEN summer training camp brings together students for one week of facilitated skill sharing, workshopping, campaign planning and strategising.
ASEN has multiple campaign foci including climate change, coal mining, green jobs, campus sustainability (energy/emissions & recycled paper), nuclear power, Gold and Uranium mining and the genocide of Indigenous peoples. In addition, the network builds and lives-out alternative ideas and lifestyles through community projects such as Co-operatives (food, housing and transport), on-campus permaculture gardens and by investing in community supported agriculture.
Youth
- Adopt a Politician
The AYCC supports numerous projects by harnessing the knowledge, skills and experience of its coalition member groups. In August 2007, the AYCC launched their federal election campaign "Adopt a Politician" providing young voters and non-voters a platform on which to engage with their local community on the issue and pressure their federal candidates to save their future by committing to better policies.
- Switched On
In October 2007, the AYCC and ASEN organised the largest gathering of young climate activists from around the country at the conference "Switched On" in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. The conferenced aimed to facilitate critical thinking on climate change and its solutions, share knowledge and skills for organising around climate change and provide support and networking opportunities for the growing youth climate movement in Australia.
- Kyoto
In November 2007, youth delegates from the AYCC attended the Kyoto negotiations in Bali where they collaborated with other national youth networks and young climate activists from around the world.
- Community Awareness
SYCAN-the Sydney Youth Climate Action Network was founded at OzGreen's Youth Leading Australia Congress in 2009. SYCAN is working in local communities to reduce emissions through education and practical solutions. SYCAN is a non-profit, non-partisan group of youth volunteers. SYCAN as of January 2011 currently has two branches (Northern Beaches and Inner-West areas).
Non-youth
- Walk Against Warming: annual community event supported by several NGOs and Australian Conservation Councils. Drew 40,000 in Sydney in November 2006 and 2007, 2008, December 2009 and August 2010. 40,000 attended the 2009 Melbourne walk.
- Sustainability Convergence - a joint project based in Melbourne, Australia that involves a range of individuals and community groups from cross movements and sectors aiming to harness the momentum for action on climate change. The Sustainable Living Foundation provides the basic platform of the event and works with a range of groups to co-host the activities.
- The Rainforest Information Centre plans a road show of Eastern states in the first half of 2007. The workshops will comprise a brief summary of the problem and forty minute presentation on despair and empowerment before encouraging participants to consider how to get active at a neighbourhood or community level. The intention is to establish new climate action groups and, where they exist already, to provide support, direction and connections.
- The Gaia Foundation in Western Australia has been running a series of "Climate Change: Be the Change" workshops around Perth, aimed at getting individuals to undertake personal projects to limit their greenhouse gas emissions.
- GetUp! Organised online action around nine key campaigns, including climate action. Promoting five policy asks.
- Say Yes Australia campaign including Say Yes demonstrationsSay Yes demonstrationsThe "Say Yes" demonstrations were a series of simultaneous political demonstrations held in major cities across Australia on 5 June 2011 to coincide with World Environment Day...
of 5 June 2011, in which 45,000 people demonstrated in every major city nation-wide in support of a price on carbon pollution.
Community organising
In the Hunter Valley, alliances are being developed between unionists, environmentalists and other stakeholders. The Anvil Hill Alliance includes community and environment groups in NSW opposed to the expansion of coal mines in his high conservation value region. Their ‘statement’ has been endorsed by 28 groups.Community engagement
Initiatives- WWF has recruited companies to participate in Australia's first Earth Hour on 31 March 2007. Participating companies turned off their lights for one hour from 7.30pm. Cities across Europe turned off lights on public buildings including the Eiffel Tower and Colloseum during January 2007 to mark the release of an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. Householders were also encouraged to switch off electrical appliances.
- Another WWF initiative called Climate Witness recruits individuals who can share their stories of climate change impacts and their efforts to adapt to changes.
- With support from the Uniting Church and Catholic Earthcare, ACF and the National Council of Churches Australia have produced a brochure, Changing Climate, Changing Creation, which is being distributed to churches across the country. The brochure encourages Australian Christians to: write to or visit their federal MP and ask what they are doing to address the threat of climate change; find out more about reducing energy and water usage and waste at home; and take action on climate change within churches and small groups.
- Ipswich Green was formed by an automotive dealer to provide like minded businesses a way of engaging the community regarding carbon emissions.
Literature
Janette Hartz-Karp writes that "to deal with the complexity of climate change and oil dependency, we need a radical rethink of how to engage citizens in meaningful, influential dialogue" Deliberative democracy presents a wide range of strategies to involve communities in these important decisions.
Legal action
- Groups including Rising Tide and Queensland Conservation have initiated legal challenges to coal mines under the Commonwealth EPBC legislation. In late 2006, Queensland Conservation lodged an objection to the greenhouse gas emissions from a large coal mine expansion proposed by Xstrata Coal Queensland Pty Ltd. QC's action aimed to have the true costs of the greenhouse gas emissions from coal mining recognised. The Newlands Coal Mine Expansion will produce 28.5 million tonnes of coal over its fifteen years of operation. The mining, transport and use of this coal will emit 84 million tonnes of C02 into the atmosphere. Queensland Conservation aims to have reasonable and practical measures imposed on new mines to avoid, reduce or offset the emissions from the mining, transport and use of their coal. The Land and Resources Tribunal ruled against the case.
- Peter Gray’s win in the NSW Planning and Environment Court pushing the state government to consider climate change impacts in its assessment of new developments – in particular in relation to its failure to do so with Centennial Coal’s proposed Anvil Hill mine.
Coalitions and alliances
- The Climate Action Network of Australia (part of Climate Action NetworkClimate Action NetworkClimate Action Network is an umbrella group of environmental non-governmental organisations active on the issue of climate change...
) coordinate communication and collaboration between 38 Australian NGOs campaigning around climate change. - ClimateMovement.org.au is an initiative of the Nature Conservation Council. The web site includes is a hub for Climate Action Groups around Australia to connect with each other, access resources, share success stories and collaborate. It is structured around a collective blog for Climate Action Groups as well as a directory and mapping of all the community climate groups in Australia, a community events calendar and a resources section. The project encourages people to start and register new climate action groups.
- Friends of the Earth’s Climate Justice campaign and work with Pacific Island and faith-based communities.
- The Six Degrees campaign is building collaborations with coal affected communities across Queensland, particularly in agricultural areas that are threatened by new coal mines and other extractive activities. The collective has also organised a number of community-led direct actions to highlight Queensland's dangerous dependence on the coal industry, including the disruption of the Tarong Coal-fired power station which supplies electricity to the Brisbane metropolis
Direct action
- Rising Tide, a Newcastle-based crew, have organised actions to build pressure for a shift from coal dependence. In February 2007, more than 100 small and medium craft, including swimmers and people on surfboards, gathered in the harbour as well as on its shores as part of the peaceful demonstration. No-one was arrested even though the group attempted to surround a large freight ship as it entered the port.
- In 2005, GreenpeaceGreenpeaceGreenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
activists chained themselves to a loader in a Gippsland power station's coal pit. - Young people from the Australian Student Environment Network (ASEN) shut down two coal fired power stations in October 2007.
Policy advocacy
- WWF Australia's 'Clean Energy Future for Australia' outlines a range of policy recommendations for meeting electricity needs sustainably.
- TEAR Australia has joined with other aid and development organisations on the Climate Change and Development NGO Roundtable.
See also
- 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference2009 United Nations Climate Change ConferenceThe 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly known as the Copenhagen Summit, was held at the Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark, between 7 December and 18 December. The conference included the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate...
- Adaptation to global warming in AustraliaAdaptation to global warming in Australia-Introduction:According to non-governmental organisations such as Greenpeace and global scientific organisations such as the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the frequency and intensity of disasters brought about by greenhouse gas emissions and climate change will grow...
- Beyond Zero EmissionsBeyond Zero EmissionsBeyond Zero Emissions is an Australian-based, not-for-profit climate change solutions think-tank founded by Matthew Wright and Adrian Whitehead. The group coordinates research and education into the need to reduce human-caused greenhouse gas emissions to 'zero and below' by implementing structural...
- Carbon Pollution Reduction SchemeCarbon Pollution Reduction SchemeThe Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme was a proposed cap-and-trade system of emissions trading for anthropogenic greenhouse gases, due to be introduced in Australia in 2010 by the Rudd government, as part of its climate change policy. It marked a major change in the energy policy of Australia...
- Climate Code RedClimate Code RedClimate Code Red: The Case for Emergency Action is a 2008 book which presents scientific evidence that the global warming crisis is worse than official reports and national governments have so far indicated. The book argues that we are facing a "sustainability emergency" that requires a clear...
- Climate GroupClimate GroupThe Climate Group is a non-profit organization that works with business and government to promote clean energy to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. The Climate Group was created in 2004 and now has offices in the UK , the US, Europe, Australia, India, mainland China and Hong Kong...
- Climate Institute of AustraliaClimate Institute of AustraliaThe Climate Institute of Australia is a policy think-tank established in 2005 to encourage progressive policies for managing climate change in Australia. The board consists of a mixture of both academics and business people drawn from rural, scientific and business backgrounds.Funding for the...
- Climate of AustraliaClimate of AustraliaThe climate of Australia varies widely, but by far the largest part of Australia is desert or semi-arid – 40% of the landmass is covered by sand dunes. Only the south-east and south-west corners have a temperate climate and moderately fertile soil...
- Contribution to global warming by AustraliaContribution to global warming by Australia- Annual contribution :The Australian government estimates that Australia's net emissions in 2006 were 576 million tonnes -equivalent, to which the sectoral contributions were approximately as follows: energy sector, 70%; agriculture, 15%; other forms of land use, 7%; industrial processes 5%;...
- Drought in AustraliaDrought in AustraliaDrought in Australia is defined as rainfall over a three month period being in the lowest decile of what has been recorded for that region in the past. This definition takes into account that drought is a relative term and rainfall deficiencies need to be compared to typical rainfall patterns...
- Matthew EnglandMatthew EnglandMatthew England is a physical oceanographer and climate scientist. England completed a B.Sc. and a Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney, Australia...
- Environment of AustraliaEnvironment of AustraliaThe Australian environment ranges from virtually pristine Antarctic territory and rainforests to degraded industrial areas of major cities.- Issues :...
- Greenhouse MafiaGreenhouse MafiaGreenhouse Mafia is allegedly the "in house" name used by Australia’s carbon lobby for itself. It was also the title of a program aired by the ABC on the 13 February 2006 episode of its weekly current affairs program Four Corners....
- Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable EnergyGreenhouse Solutions with Sustainable EnergyGreenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy is a 2007 book by Australian academic Mark Diesendorf. The book puts forward a setof policies and strategies for implementing the most promising clean energy technologies by all spheres of government, business and community organisations...
- David KarolyDavid KarolyDavid John Karoly is an Australian scientist and academic. He is an expert in climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion and climate variations due to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation....
External links
- Australian Government - Department of Climate Change
- Climate change in Australia report from the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology
- Climate Change Australia - discussion and analysis of issues surrounding climate change
- Climate Action Network Australia - the Australian branch of a worldwide network of NGO's
- Range Extension Database and Mapping Project, Australia - ecological monitoring project in the marine environment
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