It’s too early to make a full estimate of the costs of Alfred’s impacts. But previous natural disasters give us a framework for thinking about them.
- Professorial Research Fellow, Victoria University
Climate denial is passe. But why do so many of us know the climate crisis is upon us – and live like it isn’t?
The northern summer was marked by intense fires and heat. Now it’s our turn to face the heat.
Most fire climate regimes in Australia shifted abruptly around the year 2000 – greatly increasing fire risk.
It is unreasonable to expect people to cope with all disasters – but it is reasonable to expect people to manage a certain level of risk.
First the fires, then the pandemic. It’s not just the damage to infrastructure, houses, environment and farmland that makes recovery difficult; the emotional and physical toll is often gruelling too.
CSIRO’s climate science has contributed a number of important, and unexpected, findings.
When communities are surveyed, green infrastructure is usually high on their list of urban planning priorities. But until now planners have lacked tools to quantify the long-term benefits.
The headline statements of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s new Synthesis Report – unequivocal climate change, almost certainly driven largely by humans, and an urgent need to cut emissions…
When should we act to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and tackle climate change: now, or later when we know more? One person who thinks we should wait is New York University theoretical physicist…
Australia’s biggest coal mine, the Carmichael Coal and Rail Project, yesterday received the go-ahead from the federal government. Environment minister Greg Hunt approved the mine, proposed by Indian coal…
The government has succeeded in getting legislation passed to repeal the carbon tax, despite some last-minute doubts cast by the Palmer United Party’s temporary withdrawal of support last week. Today…
Climate change is already having a major impact on the planet, with impacts forecast to worsen significantly, according to the latest summary of peer-reviewed climate science from the Intergovernmental…
Australia is almost a degree warmer, on average, than it was a century ago, according to the State of the Climate 2014 report compiled by the CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology. Australia has warmed by 0.9C…
Only six of the previous 19 Winter Olympics host cities would be suitable to host the Games again by the end of this century due to warming temperatures, according to a new analysis. Average February maximum…
With fires still burning across New South Wales, it’s time to have a look at the role climate change might have played. Are the conditions we’re seeing natural variation, or part of a long term trend…
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the accepted global authority on climate change. It produces reports that are collectively agreed assessments of the scientific literature by leading…
If we haven’t heard much about carbon policy this election, we’ve heard even less about the other side of the climate equation - adaptation. We’re already seeing an increase in extreme weather, and climate…
Dr Rajendra Pachauri, head of the IPCC, has reportedly acknowledged to Graham Lloyd of The Australian, that there is a “17-year pause in global temperature rises”, a fact that apparently has been suppressed…
A catchment threatened by salinity can’t be repaired by one or two landholders. Revegetation designed to lower watertables has its greatest ecological benefit where the plants are, but its net impact on…
The Planet Under Pressure 2012 Conference was held in London a fortnight back and released the first State of the Planet Declaration. The conference aim was to set out the science (in a broad sense) in…
Step changes in warming of a few tenths to 1°C can produce rapid changes in risks such as extreme heat and fire danger. Yet, adaptation-planning that follows the dominant model of smooth climate change…
The “reasonable person” would agree that disaster risk is best avoided. Under a changing climate, how exposed people are to risk and how socially and physically vulnerable they are affects how often disasters…
Science is strengthening its view that business-as-usual emissions of greenhouse gases will result in serious risks while the Australian public’s perception of climate change as a risk erodes. A recent…
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