Climate Change: Impact On Australia And Possible Solutions

Climate change is a change in the usual weather found in one place. This could be a change in how much rain that place usually gets in a year or it could be a change in the place’s usual temperature for a month or season. Climate change is also a change in Earth’s climate. This could be a change in Earth’s usual temperature or it could be a change in where rain and snow usually fall on Earth. Weather can change in just a few hours. Climate takes hundreds or even millions of years to change. Earth’s climate is always changing. There have been times when Earth’s climate has been warmer than it is now and been times when it has been cooler. These times can last thousands or millions of years.

Those who study the Earth have seen that Earth’s climate is getting warmer. Earth’s temperature has gone up about one degree Fahrenheit in the last 100 years. This may not seem like much. But small changes in Earth’s temperature can have big effects. Some effects are already happening. Warming of Earth’s climate has caused some snow and ice to melt. The warming also has caused oceans to rise and it has changed the timing of when certain plants grow. Many things can cause climate to change all on its own. Earth’s distance from the sun can change, the sun can send out more or less energy, oceans can change etc. Most scientists say that humans can change the climate too. Driving cars, heating and cooling houses, and cooking food all take energy. One way we get energy is by burning coal, oil and gas. Burning these products puts gases into the air. These gases cause the air to heat up, which can change the climate of a certain place and/or Earth. Scientists think that Earth’s temperature will keep going up for the next 100 years. This would cause more snow and ice to melt, oceans would rise higher, some places would get hotter, other places might have colder winters with more snow, and some places might have stronger hurricanes.

When carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, it acts like a blanket, preventing heat from escaping. This build-up of carbon dioxide leads to one of most obvious impacts of climate change: a hotter world. Higher temperatures are linked to almost all of climate change’s most severe impacts, including more frequent and intense heat waves, widespread crop failures, and dramatic shifts in animal and plant species. The world’s most vulnerable people, those with fewest resources and options, will suffer the most. As the world warms, ice sheets and glaciers melt, and ocean water expands. This produces sea level rise, which can disrupt and damage coastal communities and infrastructure in virtually every sea-bordering country in the world. Estimates vary, but if emissions increase Australia could experience up to eight feet of sea level rise by the end of the century. The Gulf of Mexico and East Coast of the United States are experiencing some of the world’s fastest rates of sea level rise. Elsewhere, entire island nations face the possibility of going underwater. It’s not just coastal areas: climate change is also linked with heavier and more frequent rainfall, leading to destructive inland flooding in regions like the Midwest. Climate change is also making extreme weather more severe and, in some cases, more common. For example: warmer air and oceans are producing more extreme hurricanes, with record-breaking amounts of rain and wind. Mega-storms like Hurricane Harvey have gone from occurring once every 100 years, to once every 16 years. In drier areas, global warming is linked with longer, more extreme, and more frequent droughts, and a longer fire season. In the Northern Territory, fire season may last all year and in Western Australia, the dry season will last much longer. In the future, the fires themselves will be larger, more destructive, more common, and more costly. The direct impacts of climate change are devastating by themselves, but they also make existing inequalities and conflicts worse. For example: hotter temperatures and droughts will make corn, wheat, and other staple crop supplies less stable, leading to price spikes and food shortages. The roughly 800 million people currently living in extreme poverty will mostly be affected. As entire regions become less liveable, people will end up leaving. By the end of the century, sea level rise alone could displace more than 100 million people. These migrations, as well as conflicts over increasingly short supplied resources, will worsen existing political and social tensions, and significantly increase the risk of conflict and war. Animals, insects, and plants already threatened by habitat destruction and pollution will progress even worse. Only a small amount of warming will kill 70 to 90% of the world’s coral reefs and up to half of plant and animal species in the world’s most naturally rich areas could face extinction.

The seriousness of climate impacts are directly linked to the amount of carbon dioxide and other heat trapping gases that are released into the atmosphere. The more carbon, the worse the impacts will be. Scientists have concluded that avoiding the worst impacts of climate change will require limiting global warming to 1.5°C to 2°C. If world leaders don’t take strong action now, evidence points to massive environmental damage that will lead to a dramatic loss of croplands and water sources and an increase in poverty and suffering around the world. Fortunately, we have solutions, and there’s still time to act. A circular economy is an economic system aimed at eliminating waste and the continual use of resources. Circular economies also create jobs. Policies aim to improve livelihoods, especially for youth and women. Sustainable waste management also improves the quality of life for local communities through better air quality and reduced contamination-related illnesses. In addition to economy benefits, tackling climate change means rethinking our consumption patterns and how we use our resources. A “circular economy” approach uses resources aimed to eliminate waste through reuse and sustainable material management. By reducing waste, we are reducing the generation of harmful pollutants like methane that drive climate change.

How climate change will impact Australia

Climate change is here, and it’s causing a wide range of impacts that will affect virtually every human on Earth in increasingly severe ways. Australia faces significant environmental and economic impacts from climate change across a number of regions. Decisions made today will have lasting consequences for future generations. More than two thirds of Australia’s population are now living in a capital city and over two thirds of Australia’s economic activity is generated in the capital cities. Climate change and natural disasters impact the location and design of our cities and the built environment, and the way we manage the natural resources that support human settlements. Climate change poses challenges to a range of publicly and privately-owned and managed assets.

Key climate risks to Australian cities include:

• Gradual impacts (sea-level and temperature rise) and extreme events (floods, heatwaves and bushfires) may pose challenges to assets and infrastructure, including commercial and residential buildings, energy, water and communications utilities, and transport systems.
• Hotter, drier conditions, and increased bushfire risk and the incidence of heatwaves, means greater risk of human injury and interrupted labour force productivity.
• In the coastal zone, more intense storms and cyclones and rising sea levels could worsen storm surge, coastal inundation and erosion with impacts on the built environment.
• Damage to biodiversity and ecosystems that support social wellbeing, provide services such as clean air and fresh water, and offer protection from natural disasters.
• Failure in one part of a city’s social, economic or infrastructure networks may have cascading or unanticipated effects elsewhere.
• The extent that population growth and urbanisation shifts to areas at higher risk of adverse climate change impacts could increase Australia’s exposure to natural hazards as a whole.

Southern cities will be hit hardest by intense rains, particularly in the winter, with Perth and Adelaide drying out the most. Regionally, there is expected to be a mean rainfall decrease of 11% by 2050, but some climate models suggest it could plummet by 25%. Canberra, Hobart and Melbourne are also likely to see an overall fall in annual rain, although it will be less drastically. Add this with more heatwaves, these five capital cities will see their water storage systems increasingly stretch. Droughts are set to become much more severe and frequent. “When it does rain, it will more commonly occur in harsh bursts with the threat of flooding,” University of Melbourne climate researcher Dr Andrew King explained. Moving further North, Sydney and Brisbane are heading towards more tropical climates. This means hotter temperatures and more of it. Compounded by a more humid atmosphere, the risk of heatwaves, bushfires and droughts will grow. “In this part of the country, rain pours most in summer,” Dr King said, and as a hotter atmosphere can hold more moisture, when it eventually rains there is a lot more of it to come down. So while annual rainfall overall will decrease, the events where it does rain will intensify with a higher potential to unleash repeatedly harsh storms and flash flooding.

The bad news, is that even if we were to immediately lower our carbon emissions exponentially, it is unlikely to have much effect on 2050. Our past emissions have already locked us in for a set amount of climate change by mid-century. “We already have built in warming from decades of greenhouse gas emissions over the last century and a half,” Dr King had said, “but the worst thing would be to allow ourselves to give into complacency,” because if you think the projections for 2050 are bad, 2100 is increasingly more horrible. Climate change is a disaster unlike any other, creeping towards us very slowly. Dr Perkins-Kirkpatrick said, “We needed to act as soon as possible on greening our energy sources, and then patiently sit tight because choices made now would only affect the late century.” Dr King said, “Australia was at the frontline of climate change,” experiencing a lot of the impacts of increased heat and fewer cold days, sooner than rest of the world.

In 2018, Australia battled “its worst drought in living memory.” Climate models indicate that, as rain patterns continue to change and heat continues to rise, southern Australia in particular will spend more and more time in drought in the future. We already know that Australia is becoming hotter and drier due to climate change, making the perfect conditions for bushfires. Plants dry up and die, which is the ideal state to fuel a fire. Heatwaves have the greatest impact in terms of climate events that affect human health in Australia. In very hot conditions, people can suffer from heat stress, especially vulnerable individuals such as the sick and elderly. As Australia’s climate changes, every type of farmer will be affected, from those who raise dairy cows to fruits and vegetable producers to wine growers and everything in between. Our oceans are also being harshly affected, becoming warmer and more acidic, all because of greenhouse gas emissions. Since 1910, Australia’s ocean surface temperatures have warmed by about 1°C. Climate change in Australia will result in declining water supplies, reduced agricultural yields, and health impacts in cities due to heat, flooding and erosion in coastal areas. It’s clear that Australia has a lot to lose to climate change if we don’t take action. Unfortunately, much like in the United States, Australia’s federal government has not risen to the global challenge.

Solutions and What has been Done

As a matter of urgency we need to find and implement solutions to climate change. Despite the fact that the solutions that we currently have in place will not take effect until 2050, we cannot be discouraged and we can’t give up. Australia has one of the world’s highest global warming emissions rates per capita, as well as broad coal reserves that make our country the largest exporter of coal in the world. Global warming impacts that are already taking place in Australia include water stress, shrinking glaciers, rising sea level, regional disturbances in rainfall patterns, and increased frequency and intensity of fires and heat waves. Due to these impacts and its contributions to global warming emissions, Australia must quickly take action to control these negative effects. Australia has already taken a step to reduce its global warming emissions by implementing a national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES). The Australian government set an enforced renewable energy target of 9500 gigawatt-hours by 2010 and a commitment to reach 20% of national electricity supply from renewable sources by 2020. Australia is also pursuing demonstration projects in carbon capture and storage from coal burning power plants. These types of projects are critical to determining the potential role that carbon capture and storage technology can play in restricting global warming emissions from coal. Most countries have pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with the aim to limit global warming to ‘well below’ 2 °C. To meet these international climate targets we will need to reduce emissions across all the sectors like, energy, transport, agriculture, fugitive emissions, and industrial processes, waste and land use. Renewable energy is an important method of reducing emissions in the energy sectors as well, which produce over half of Australia’s emissions. The Government has also announced measures to further reduce emissions of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) by 85% by 2036, with measures planned to have started last year in 2018.

On the 25th of February 2019, the Australian Government announced the Climate Solutions Package, a $3.5 billion investment to deliver on Australia’s 2030 Paris climate commitments. The Government’s plan builds on existing policies and success in meeting Australia’s Kyoto commitments. The Kyoto protocol is an international agreement on climate change, which encourages 192 parties to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

The Government plans on meeting the Kyoto agreement by:

• Providing a $2 billion Climate Solutions Fund to reduce greenhouse gases across the economy through the existing Emissions Reduction Fund. Giving farmers, small businesses and Indigenous communities the chance to improve the environment and benefit from new revenue opportunities.
• Securing our energy future for generations to come, through investments in a high-tech expansion of the Snowy Mountains Scheme and a second interconnector (Marinus Link), between Victoria and Tasmania.
• Helping households and businesses improve energy efficiency and lower energy bills.
• Developing a National Electric Vehicle Strategy to ensure a planned and managed transition to new vehicle technology and infrastructure.
• Green and clean local environments by supporting local communities.

The Australian Government is committed to taking action on climate change while growing the economy and keeping energy prices down. Climate change is a global issue that requires a global solution. The Government is bound to Australia playing its part in that global solution to reduce emissions. Australia beat its first greenhouse gas reduction target under the Kyoto Protocol by 128 million tonnes of greenhouse gases and is on track to overachieve its second Kyoto Protocol target by 240 million tonnes by 2020. Australia is already making progress. Australia’s 2030 target to reduce emissions by 26 to 28% below 2005 levels is responsible and achievable. This target will see a reduction in the emissions of Australia’s economy by two thirds, and emissions per person halve by 2030.

According to Professor Manne from LaTrobe University, “Climate change is an issue that continues to be avoided on the world stage despite the evidence.” Climate Change is also an almost uniquely difficult problem. The Paris protocol to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees, relies on a level of international cooperation that has never before been achieved. If humanity fails to take action now the overall effects will be irreversible. What happens in Australia matters greatly to the world. If our home energy consumption and our exports of oil, coal and gas are taken into consideration, we are responsible for 5% of global carbon pollution.

Climate Change is a huge problem that is affecting not only Australia but the whole world. It is a crisis that will be affecting our world for many years, and if nothing is done to solve this problem our world could come to an end. Australia needs to take action now, to help prevent this problem, even if it won’t actually have an effect until mid-century. Although the solutions we have in place currently won’t affect our lives now, it will still help, and prevent climate change from getting worse in the future years. This will give future generations the chance to live in a healthy world. There are plenty of ways that you can help prevent climate change by reducing your own carbon footprint. Easy tactics to reduce your carbon footprint are strategies like, walking or using public transport, eating less red meat, moving your funds out of the big banks and into alternative banks, and using energy-efficient appliances. If every one of us takes accountability for our own actions the global affect this will have would be enormous and the effects of climate will be something of the past that future generations will hopefully read about in their history books.