Australia has been particularly hard-hit by global warming, with sea levels
and ocean temperatures around the continent rising faster than world
averages.
In the past 18 months, Australia has endured two La Ninas – leading to the
nation recording its wettest two-year period since instrumental records
began in the 1880s. The rainfall led to flooding in Queensland last year
that killed dozens of people and caused damage to farms, houses and business
of about $AUS30 billion.
Heavy rainfall over the recent summer has caused further bouts of heavy
flooding across vast swathes of territory in New South Wales, Victoria and
Queensland. This led to the highest two-year average rainfall on record.
Despite the recent cooler, rain-inducing La Nina weather pattern, increasing
greenhouse gas concentrations are expected to lead to hotter weather in the
coming decades. The report says average temperatures could rise by up to 5C
by 2070.
“Global changes of this magnitude happen very rarely,” said Karl
Braganza, the head of climate monitoring at the Bureau of Meteorology.
“They happen when asteroids strike, they happen when there’s planetary
volcanic activity. They are happening now because we are digging up fossil
fuels and basically burning them all. And we are doing that very, very
rapidly.”
The snapshot comes months before Australia’s controversial tax on carbon
emissions by heavy polluters comes into effect on July 1. The scheme will
impose a tax of $AUS23 per ton on emissions and will be the world’s biggest
carbon reduction scheme outside Europe.
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