Climate change and sea-level rise in the Australian region

Characteristics of Australia’s future climate. Source: BoM, State of the Climate 2014, published by CSIRO and BoM.

"Future climate change over Australia will track global trends, causing warmer temperatures, changes to rainfall regimes, rising sea levels and more acidic ocean waters.

04 September 2018

At a glance

• Under a high greenhouse gas concentration scenario (RCP8.5), temperatures in Australia will increase by between 2.8 and 5.1°C by 2090 compared to 1986-2005.

• Rainfall trends are more uncertain, however rainfall amounts are expected to decrease over southern Australia, accompanied by more frequent and more severe droughts. 
• Global sea levels are expected to increase by 45 to 82 cm by 2090 for the high concentration scenario.  These levels may be higher if a tipping point is reached which commits one or more land-based ice sheets to irreversible melting. Projected increases around Australia are very similar.
• Extreme high sea-level events will occur more frequently in future, increasing the risks of flooding and erosion in coastal areas.
• In line with global trends, seawaters around Australia are becoming more acidic, as the oceans absorb some of the CO₂ released by human activities."

Go to CoastAdapt site 

Related:

Sea Level Rise Can No Longer Be Stopped, What Next? - with John Englander

Climate Adaptation Isn’t Surrender. It’s Survival: WIRED

"Here’s an unpopular opinion in some circles: We are going to have to use technology to adapt to the worst effects of climate change." ........

..... "Those who invest in climate adaptation technology with the dream of scaling companies for massive returns will have to be wary that they don’t worsen the social and political problems that underlie so much of the climate conversation already: The rich spew pollution, the poor are suffering as a result, and a fancy new tech solution might only be available to the rich polluters anyway.

But that doesn’t mean tech can’t make a huge difference, or that adaptation shouldn’t be done. The change is here, the need is real, and the solutions can come from any entrepreneur, any investor, any scientists or would-be startup CEO. It’s time for tech to get in the game. There’s no more time to waste."

Read the WIRED article 

Related:

Their lands are becoming deserts but here is some hope.

Rising sea, erosion to wreak havoc in low-lying suburbs: The Age

Flooding in Melbourne

"Rising seas are threatening to encroach on low-lying parts of Melbourne within 20 years, causing flooding and erosion in suburbs including St Kilda, Point Cook, Mordialloc, Seaford and Frankston.

Other places at risk include areas around Queenscliff and Barwon Heads on the Bellarine Peninsula; the south-west Victorian towns of Port Fairy and Portland; and Tooradin, Lang Lang and Seaspray in the state's south-east.


Read the complete The Age article.

Related:

Sea Level Rise Can No Longer Be Stopped, What Next? - with John Englander

Experts Raise Alarm Over Climate Change Threat to Cultural Heritage: The Youth Times

"Climate change is a threat to our future, but also to our heritage, natural and cultural"

 

"Athens - Climate change could wreak "irreversible damage" on the world's most precious ancient monuments and other cultural sites, experts warned Saturday as they pushed for UN protection for major global sites.

Academics and policy makers gathered in Athens for a meeting on the threats to world heritage called for an array of tools to predict, measure and counter the effects of climate change.

They are campaigning to have the issue included on the agenda at the UN Summit for Climate Change in New York in September."

Read the complete The Youth Times article 

Related: 

Sea Level Rise Can No Longer Be Stopped, What Next? - with John Englander

Their lands are becoming deserts but here is some hope.

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How to farm in desert climates 🌵 🐫 We have so much to learn from those who have come before us 🔥💧 What ancient wisdom has enriched your life? Credit to @worldeconomicforum 🙏

A post shared by Brad | Permaculture Designer (@foodforestdesigner) on May 28, 2019 at 8:20am PDT

We’re All Responsible for Climate Change — and That’s a Good Thing: Medium

We're all responsible for climate change

".......  That brings us to the issue of population growth. In 2017, the American Institute of Biological Sciences published an open letter signed by over 15,000 scientists, including Jane Goodall and E.O. Wilson, titled “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice.” It states, “We are jeopardizing our future by not reining in our intense but geographically and demographically uneven material consumption and by not perceiving continued rapid population growth as a primary driver behind many ecological and even societal threats.” It was the most scientists to ever co-sign a published journal article.

Climate breakdown to trigger debate over which cities to protect from rising sea levels:The Independent

New York

‘You realise we’re just not going to protect a lot of these places’

"As disaster costs keep rising across the United States, a troubling new debate has become urgent: if there’s not enough money to protect every coastal community from the effects of human-caused global warming, how should we decide which ones to save first?

After three years of brutal flooding and hurricanes, there is growing consensus among policymakers and scientists that coastal areas will require significant spending to ride out future storms and rising sea levels — not in decades but now and in the very near future.

There is also a growing realisation that some communities, even sizeable ones, will be left behind."

Read complete Independent article 

Related: 

Sea Level Rise Can No Longer Be Stopped, What Next? - with John Englander