Climate change report like a disaster novel, says Australian minister
Source: The Guardian Climate change report like a disaster novel, says Australian minister
· Scientists predict 10-fold increase in heatwaves
· Greenhouse gases blamed for half of rainfall decrease
· Scientists predict 10-fold increase in heatwaves
· Greenhouse gases blamed for half of rainfall decrease
Barbara McMahon in Sydney
The Guardian,
Monday July 7, 2008
A new report by Australia's top scientists predicts that the country will be hit by a 10-fold increase in heat waves and that droughts will almost double in frequency and become more widespread because of climate change.
The scientific projections envisage rainfall continuing to decline in a country that is already one of the hottest and driest in the world. It says that about 50% of the decrease in rainfall in south-western Australia since the 1950s has probably been due to greenhouse gases.
Yesterday, Australia's agriculture minister, Tony Burke, described the report as alarming and said: "Parts of these high-level projections read more like a disaster novel than a scientific report."
The analysis, commissioned by the government as part of a review of public funding to drought-stricken farmers, was published days after another report, by Professor Ross Garnaut, warned that Australia had to adopt a scheme for trading greenhouse gas emissions by 2010 or face the eventual destruction of sites including the Great Barrier Reef, the wetlands of Kakadu and the nation's food bowl, the Murray-Darling Basin.
The Guardian,
Monday July 7, 2008
A new report by Australia's top scientists predicts that the country will be hit by a 10-fold increase in heat waves and that droughts will almost double in frequency and become more widespread because of climate change.
The scientific projections envisage rainfall continuing to decline in a country that is already one of the hottest and driest in the world. It says that about 50% of the decrease in rainfall in south-western Australia since the 1950s has probably been due to greenhouse gases.
Yesterday, Australia's agriculture minister, Tony Burke, described the report as alarming and said: "Parts of these high-level projections read more like a disaster novel than a scientific report."
The analysis, commissioned by the government as part of a review of public funding to drought-stricken farmers, was published days after another report, by Professor Ross Garnaut, warned that Australia had to adopt a scheme for trading greenhouse gas emissions by 2010 or face the eventual destruction of sites including the Great Barrier Reef, the wetlands of Kakadu and the nation's food bowl, the Murray-Darling Basin.
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 1:34 PM
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