Data collected and analysed by the Bureau of Meteorology show that 2014 was Australia's third-warmest year on record while rainfall was near average nationally. Nationally, Australian temperatures have warmed approximately one degree since 1950, and the continued warmth in 2014 adds to this long-term warming trend. Simply the single most pressing and present public policy issue of our time. Yes,…
Scorcher.org.au tracks and maps Australian Heat-waves. Produced by Dr Sarah Perkins at the University of New South Wales [ a recipient of an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - could there be a better use of taxpayer's funds?] I doubt it! Support for this site is provided by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science and the NeCTAR Research Cloud. All data is freely available and…
http://youtu.be/hC3VTgIPoGU On May 28, 2008, Adam LeWinter and Director Jeff Orlowski filmed a historic breakup at the Ilulissat Glacier in Western Greenland. The calving event lasted for 75 minutes and the glacier retreated a full mile across a calving face three miles wide. The height of the ice is about 3,000 feet, 300-400 feet above water and the rest below…
Leadership, Innovation, Ingenuity, Diplomacy Fore-sight and Vision. When is the last time you saw words like that in our daily headlines? Simply the single-biggest policy issue facing us all. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released its synthesis report, a summary of its last three reports. It warns greenhouse gas levels are at the highest they have…
If you were playing to win [or perhaps not loose your house], perhaps in a casino, playing a coin-toss game, would you suspect anything was wrong if the coin-toss turned up heads 353 times in a row? What are the chances of that? Would you bet your house on the next throw? July 2014 was the 353rd consecutive month in…
The first five points from the Executive Summary of IPCC's latest regional report for Australasia: The regional climate is changing (very high confidence). Warming is projected to continue through the 21st century (virtually certain) along with other changes in climate. Uncertainty in projected rainfall changes remains large for many parts of Australia and New Zealand, which creates significant challenges for adaptation.…
John Oliver helping us through the biggest public policy question of all-time.. Beginning with: 1. Do owls exist? 2. Are there hats? http://youtu.be/cjuGCJJUGsg Links: The White House - Climate Change CSIRO - Climate Change and Adaptation Neighbours - Climate - Behaviour 330 and Counting Six Decades of a Warming Earth Are you Hot enough yet? Hot, Hotter, Hottest
Our friends at NASA Goddard have an excellent visualisation of the patterns of Warming. http://youtu.be/gaJJtS_WDmI NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York, which analyzes global surface temperatures on an ongoing basis, released an updated report on temperatures around the globe in 2013. The comparison shows how Earth continues to experience temperatures warmer than those measured several decades…
The latest research from the Climate Council. A reasoned and evidence-led discussion about the policy and social implications of our climate is critical. The Climate Council has released their first report. The report states: While Australia has always experienced bushfires, climate change is increasing the probability of extreme fire weather days. Climate change is making hot days hotter, and heatwaves…