Managing director of Ebono Institute and major sponsor of The Generator, Geoff Ebbs, is running against Kevin Rudd in the seat of Griffith at the next Federal election. By the expression on their faces in this candid shot it looks like a pretty dull campaign. Read on
Scientists have found compelling evidence from marine sediment that supports the theory that iron in the Earth’s oceans has a direct impact on biological productivity, potentially affecting the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and, in turn, atmospheric temperature.
These figures may be understated. Dr James Hansen believes Sea Level Rise will be much higher if the Greenland ice sheet melts.
Risks to coastal settlements, infrastructure and ecosystems
Since 1788, settlements have been built along Australia’s coast with the expectation that sea levels would remain relatively stable. In addition to significant settlement of low-lying areas, most of our buildings and infrastructure has been designed and built to standards that don’t take into account the changing climate.
In late 2009, the Australian Government completed a national assessment of the climate change risks to Australia’s coast. The assessment identified the climate change risks to coastal settlements, infrastructure, industries and ecosystems; it found that up to 247,000 residential buildings in Australia, with an estimated replacement value of $63 billion (2008 values), may be at risk from rising sea levels by 2100.
In coastal areas and in waterways connected to the ocean, erosion and inundation may be key impacts from rising sea levels. Saltwater intrusion into groundwater and freshwater bodies could also have a significant impact on ecosystems (such as Kakadu wetlands) and on potable water availability.
In the next few decades, areas of the Australian coastal zone with existing risks are expected to experience an intensification and expansion of these risks.
Towards the end of this century it is possible that all of Australia’s coastal regions will experience systematic impacts from rising sea levels and eroding shorelines.
Many of the risks from climate change can be managed if we plan ahead. Communities and decision-makers will need early access to information and data to help understand the potential impacts and manage the risks.
The Australian Government, through the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, has developed a number of products to communicate the risks of sea level rise and to help facilitate access to elevation data. Further information is below.
Communicating sea level rise risks — spatial maps illustrating the potential effects of sea level rise on key urban regions of the Australian coast for the period around 2100. Areas covered are:
Sydney, NSW
Hunter and Central Coast, NSW
Adelaide, SA
Melbourne, VIC
South East Queensland (including Brisbane and the Gold Coast), QLD
Perth to south of Mandurah, WA
Elevation data and modelling — a web portal that helps to discover and access elevation data and derived products.
Landform and stability mapping — mapping tool that provides information on coastal landform types (geomorphology) covering the entire Australian coast. The tool can be interrogated to identify soft areas of the coast that may be vulnerable to accelerated erosion due to rising sea levels.
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Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are now higher than at any time in the last 800,000 years, while the last decade in Australia was the warmest on record, CSIRO scientists say.
The findings are released in the CSIRO’s annual State of the Climate report, which has been released today.
The report says Australia’s annual-average daily maximum temperatures have increased by 0.75 degrees Celsius since 1910.
Australian temperatures are forecast to rise by between 1C and 5C by 2070 “when compared with the climate of recent decades.”
But CSIRO says 2010 and 2011 were the coolest years recorded since 2001, because of two consecutive La Nina events.
Dr Karl Breganza from the Bureau of Meteorology says that while 2010 and 2011 were slightly cooler due to high rainfall, temperatures are still increasing.
“Australia tends to be cooler during periods where you have intense rainfall. But despite that, the last decade was still the warmest decade that we’ve recorded in Australia,” he said.
“We’ve actually started to see an increase in the amount of stations, weather stations that are recording their monthly maximum temperatures.
“So the highest temperatures on record are occurring with greater frequency and over greater areas of Australia.”
CSIRO senior research scientist Dr Paul Fraser says the amount of carbon in the atmosphere has reached 390 parts per million.
“We find no evidence going back 800,000 years of CO2 levels above 300 parts per million,” he said.
Dr Breganza says the pace of climate change is alarming.
“In the geological history of earth, global changes of this magnitude happen very rarely,” he said.
The report says the projected increases in temperature will lead to floods, droughts, and extreme cyclones.
And it says global sea levels continued to rise, with the CSIRO putting them at 210 millimetres higher than they were in 1880.
Dr Braganza hopes the report will convince people the climate is warming and that the pace of change is worrying.
“Global changes of this magnitude happen very rarely. They happen when asteroids strike, they happen when there’s planetary volcanic activity,” he said.
“They’re happening now because we’re digging up fossil fuels and basically burning them all. And we’re doing that very, very rapidly.
“And that transition system has a lot of unknowns in it, a lot of nasty surprises.”
Tears for fears … Lord Mayor Clover Moore / Pic: Brad Hunter Source: The Daily Telegraph
BICYCLE-mad Lord Mayor Clover Moore has been using a council car and driver to take her to parliament – in what appears to be a bending of council rules.
Ms Moore came close to tears yesterday as she said she would be forced to resign from parliament after 24 years because Premier Barry O’Farrell wants to ban councillors from being MPs.
But a classic conflict in Ms Moore’s two jobs can be revealed, with Ms Moore’s driver regularly taking her – or her bags – to and from parliament on sitting days in a black council Prius.
Yesterday the driver picked her up from a coffee shop, took her to a press conference at the Botanic Gardens and then drove her to parliament.
A spokesman for Ms Moore said she was not breaching council rules and her “daily program while parliament was sitting routinely included appointments related to her duties at the City of Sydney.
“The Lord Mayor takes action on City of Sydney issues in parliament, and with the Premier and ministers at parliament house.”
As Ms Moore fought back tears saying she would be forced to resign as MP for Sydney – causing a by-election – so she could run in lord mayoral elections in September, it emerged the four Christian Democrat and Shooters MPs, who include the affected Shoalhaven Mayor and CDP MP Paul Green, may yet block Mr O’Farrell’s proposals.
While neither party would declare their hands yesterday, Ms Moore was seen leaving the Shooters MPs’ offices after lobbying them to block the bill.
“If I am unable to continue to represent the people in the state seat of Sydney after the local government elections it will not be out of any desire of mine, it’ll be because I will be forced out,” Ms Moore said..
“I feel that there’s a bullying attack from the premier.”
The move affects 29 MPs – many of them on Mr O’Farrell’s side of politics.
Mr O’Farrell yesterday said the move was about bringing NSW into line with other states and cutting conflicts of interest, and he was backed by affected Coalition MPs.
The Nationals MP for Bathurst and councillor Paul Toole said he had decided not to contest this year’s local government election.
The Liberal Granville MP and Parramatta councillor Tony Issa said: “If you want to do one job correctly, you need to step down and let somebody into council who has plenty of time to do it.”
But independent MP and Lake Macquarie Mayor Greg Piper said the laws seemed aimed at Ms Moore.
Parramatta Lord Mayor Lorraine Wearne, an independent, welcomed the change, saying the demands of a lord mayoralty were so great she wouldn’t have the time to be a member of parliament.
“Being an MP at a state level, you are party to state planning and development issues – but as a lord mayor you might have a different view. I don’t think I could cope,” Ms Wearne said.
GREENHOUSE gases have risen to their highest level since modern humans evolved, and Australian temperatures are now about a degree warmer than they were a century ago, a major review by the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology has found.
The national climate report, to be released today, said Australia’s current climate ”cannot be explained by natural variability alone” and that emissions resulting from human activity were playing an increasingly direct role in shaping temperatures.
Australian researchers were able to identify the ”fingerprint” of the carbon dioxide particles in the atmosphere, by testing the isotopes in CO2 particles, and confirm that the increase came from fossil fuels burnt in power stations and cars.
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Record levels … greenhouse gases are now 390 parts per million in the atmosphere – the highest since modern humans evolved. Photo: Reuters
”We saw a dip in carbon dioxide emissions during the global financial crisis, but that period is now over,” said the chief executive of the CSIRO, Megan Clark. ”Levels are now rising steadily again, in line with the trend.”
The carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere reached 390 parts per million in 2011, the highest level in 800,000 years.
The average day and night-time temperatures in Australia are now about a degree higher than they were a century ago, the State of the Climate 2012 report said.
”Multiple lines of evidence show that global warming continues and that human activities are mainly responsible,” it said.
The report gathered observations from thousands of experiments, mapping increases in air and water temperature and plotting rising sea levels.
Data gathered from gauges around the coast showed sea levels continuing to rise off Sydney and much of the NSW coast at a rate of about 5 millimetres per year, while some areas of the tropics, including Darwin, are seeing rises of up to 1 centimetre per year. Most of the rise is attributed to thermal expansion, or warmer water temperatures meaning that H20 molecules take up more space.
”The observed global-average mean sea-level rise since 1990 is near the high end of projections from the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report,” the researchers found.
On average, global sea levels are about 21 centimetres higher today than they were in 1880, when reliable records began to be kept. The report also noted increases in heavy rainfall events across most of eastern Australia, but also more bushfires. The trend for Sydney is towards more monsoonal rains.
”The Mediterranean weather we have become used to seems to be fading,” Dr Clark said.
A CSIRO atmospheric scientist, Paul Fraser, said the world was now on track to pass the 400 parts per million level for CO2 emissions in under five years.
Researchers at an air monitoring station at Cape Grim in Tasmania have been testing the composition of carbon dioxide molecules. The measurements include a form of ”carbon dating”, where the amount of carbon-14 particles indicates the age of a particle.
”The only process you can come up with that fits the profile of the CO2 we measure is the combustion of fossil fuels,” Dr Fraser said.
Observations at Cape Grim have been tracking the changing composition of the air for decades. Since 2000, fossil fuel emissions in CO2 samples have been increasing by about 3 per cent a year, but a decline of about 1.2 per cent a year took place as energy demand slackened during the financial crisis.
Growth in human-induced CO2 emissions has now rebounded back to about 5.9 per cent a year, the report said.
Reply
Since 1788, settlements have been built along Australia’s coast with the expectation that sea levels would remain relatively stable. In addition to significant settlement of low-lying areas, most of our buildings and infrastructure has been designed and built to standards that don’t take into account the changing climate.
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