More Lives Lost.  Are politicians playing Russian Roulette with the future of Australian citizens and corporate chess while our country and it’s population fries? 

It’s time to dispense with the big emitters and the political razmataz as more lives are lost across the country in the lastest massive heat wave and fires!

Where are we now Australia?

http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/change/

 “Australia and the globe are experiencing rapid climate change. I expect climate change to affect all Australians. It is the Bureau’s responsibility to provide decision makers and the general public with accurate observations and information about our changing climate”, Dr. Geoff Love, Director of Meteorology states.

Since the middle of the 20th century, Australian temperatures  have, on average, risen by about 1°C with an increase in the frequency of heatwaves and a decrease in the numbers of frosts and cold days. Rainfall patterns have also changed – the northwest has seen an increase in rainfall over the last 50 years while much of eastern Australia and the far southwest have
experienced a decline”.

Australia’s future climate 

Our future climate will depend on greenhouse gas emissions, so the regional projections are available for low, mid-range and high greenhouse gas emissions scenarios. These scenarios were developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and are based on various assumptions about demographic, economic and technological factors likely to influence future emissions.

Projections are given for 2030, 2050 and 2070. The projections give an estimate of the average climate around these years under future greenhouse gas emission scenarios, taking into account the consistency among climate models. Individual years will, of course, show some variation from this average.

Note that not all of the uncertainty associated with projecting future global and regional climate change can be easily quantified. Changes outside the ranges given here, and particularly those beyond the upper limit of the ranges given for 2070, cannot be excluded, although the likelihood of this occurrence cannot be estimated at this stage.

Observed changes

Temperature:  Australian average temperatures have increased 0.9°C since 1950, with significant regional variations. The frequency of hot days and nights has increased and the frequency of cold days and nights has declined.

Rainfall:   Since 1950, most of eastern and south-western Australia has experienced substantial rainfall declines. Across New South Wales and Queensland these rainfall trends partly reflect a very wet period around the 1950s, though recent years have been unusually dry. In contrast, north-west Australia has become wetter over this period, mostly during summer.

From 1950 to 2005, extreme daily rainfall intensity and frequency has increased in north-western and central Australia and over the western tablelands of New South Wales, but decreased in the south-east and south-west and along the central east coast.

Oceans:  Global sea levels rose by about 17 cm during the 20th century, and by around 10 cm from 1920-2000 at the Australian coastal sites monitored. Substantial warming has also occurred in the three oceans surrounding Australia, particularly off the south-east coast and in the Indian Ocean.

http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/change/