On 28 March the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its full report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX).
The IPCC’s…
Studies of prehistoric climate change in Victoria's western lakes imply that future changes might not be smooth.
Dacre Smith's painting of Lake Gnotuk, from Views of Victoria in the steps of von Guerard.
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…
Climate change is coming - do we plan to just carry on regardless?
AAP
When thinking of the challenges we face in responding to climate change, it is time to admit that our political focus has been fairly narrow: limiting emissions and moving beyond carbon-based energy systems…
If speaking up helps avoid devastating bushfires, scientists should take the risk.
AAP
Scientists are increasingly expected to engage with the media to communicate their findings. My research leads me to believe Hobart is at risk from a severe bushfire disaster – but what are my responsibilities…
A Green Climate Fund could help African livestock farmers.
International Livestock Research Institute
DURBAN CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE: With a backdrop of global financial woes and the European Union’s debt crisis, the Conference of the Parties at Durban convened with lower expectations but high stakes…
Climate change will mean more natural disasters: let's not be cynical about planning for them.
AAP
Much of the commentary surrounding the Prime Minister’s new-look cabinet has focused on the promotion of her loyal lieutenants, Bill Shorten and Mark Arbib, and Nicola Roxon’s elevation to the Attorney…
South Australian communities know what it's like to live without water.
AAP
When the Murray Darling Basin Authority commissioned me in 2011 to examine the social impacts on the Lower Murray and Lakes communities of low flows and drought, I was confronted with irrigation farmers…
When it comes to weather, scientists and the media have different understandings of risk.
Ameel Khan
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…
Coral reefs may cease to exist – where will their inhabitants go?
Nick Hobgood
Human-induced climatic changes are altering ecosystems worldwide.
Because of these ecosystem changes, the geographic range of species is shifting towards the poles or to higher elevations. The speed of…
Improved modelling will help predict future climatic events, like changing summer rainfall.
AAP
Region by region projections of how climate is likely to change over the coming decades help to make the prospect of global warming more tangible and relevant.
Picturing the climate we are likely to have…
Australia was shocked when the city of Canberra burned, but are we better prepared now?
AAP
Climate change challenges some of the fundamental assumptions on which our cities have been built. Within a generation or two, a city like Sydney may become exposed to a climate that is more similar to…
Finding the right road to adaptation is a complicated business.
Shrek Graham/Flickr
Looking back over recent years, it is possible to trace a shifting focus of scientific and political attention in the debate on climate change.
First, we identified human-induced forcing of climate change…
Exploring possibilities can help us prepare for the future.
AAP
Predicting the future has never been more important – or more difficult. We have a strong sense that we need to prepare, but only a limited understanding of what exactly to prepare for.
While the broad…
Is firing aerosols into the sky the only answer?
AAP
The latest emissions data from the International Energy Agency suggest that our current methods for dealing with climate change have not worked.
This means we will have to adapt to climate change, for…
Change is happening, but who's responsible for getting us ready?
AAP
Australians, human and animal, have a good history of adapting to change. But how best to deal with a changing climate is emerging as a significant and often contentious policy challenge. It’s hard to…
