The region I chose was Australia because it's showing a lot of effects of climate change and the predicted effect in the future is bad. There are a lot of ways people can adapt and lessen the effects of climate change but people just aren't doing them and making the problem worse. This report discusses the effects of climate change, the predicted effects in the future, how people are adapting and planning to adapt and how climate change could impact on other parts of the world.
WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN AUSTRALIA?
The effects of climate change in Australia are becoming increasingly noticeable with severe weather events (drought, heatwaves, flooding), sustained lower rainfall, extreme and unpredictable weather and severe crop disruption. Australia just experienced its sixth warmest year on record (0.67C above normal) more than half a degree above the annual average temperature. Some areas including NSW and the Murray-Darling Basin, recorded their warmest year since records have been kept.
The average level of the oceans has risen 19.5cm since 1870 and the rate's increasing. Average WA temperatures have risen 0.8C since 1910, that's more than a global increase of 0.6C. The winter rainfall in the SW has dropped 15% since 1975. The inflow into Perth dams has dropped 60% since 1975. The mean sea level in Fremantle has risen 20cm since 1897. The Indian Ocean at Ningaloo has warmed 0.6C since 1960 and has caused coral bleaching.
coral bleaching
Drought shrinks Lake Eucumbene
The average number of summer days over 35C in Perth now is 15 days. Extreme weather would lead to loss of farmland, scarcity of fresh water for irrigation, soil erosion, diminishing fertiliser response, problems associated with pests and the emergence of new types and combinations of food parasites, reducing number of genetic diversity in crops and damaging heat stress to temperate crops and livestock. The health effects of climate change are changes in the distrubution of mosquito-borne diseases like Ross River virus and increases in food poisoning like salmonella.
HOW CAN PEOPLE ADAPT TO THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE?
Agriculture of any kind will be affected strongly by a shortage of water. Increased evaporation from the soil and fast transpiration (the passage of water through a plant from the roots through the vascular system to the atmosphere) in the plants themselves will cause moisture stress; as a result there will be a need to develop an array of crops with greater drought endurance.
One tactic for urban areas to adapt to climate change is to increase rainwater storage because of increasingly severe storms and increasing the capacity of stormwater systems (and also separating stormwater from blackwater, so that overflows in peak periods don't infect rivers). Gardeners can help alleviate the effects of climate change by providing habitats for the most threatened species, and/or saving water by changing gardens to use plants which require less.
A new method that is being developed by scientists involves duplicating the urban heat island effect, where cities are a bit hotter than the countryside because they're darker and absorb more heat. This creates 28% more rain 20-40 miles downwind from cities compared to upwind. In a few decades new weather control techniques may become achievable which would allow control of extreme weather such as hurricanes.
Glacial Lake Outburst Floods may become a bigger worry due to the retreat of glaciers, leaving behind an abundant number of lakes that are enclosed by often fragile terminal moraine dams. In the past, the sudden failure of these dams has resulted in property damage, injury and deaths. Glacial lakes in danger of bursting can have their moraines replaced with concrete dams (which may also provide hydroelectric power).
Glacial Lake Outburst Floods may become a bigger worry due to the retreat of glaciers, leaving behind an abundant number of lakes that are enclosed by often fragile terminal moraine dams. In the past, the sudden failure of these dams has resulted in property damage, injury and deaths. Glacial lakes in danger of bursting can have their moraines replaced with concrete dams (which may also provide hydroelectric power).
WHAT ARE THE PREDICTED EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE FUTURE?
The future effects of climate change are a 3C temperature increase by 2100, wetter conditions in central Australia and the Top End (drier conditions elsewhere), farmers could lose up to a 10th of their production to global warming in less than 25 years, the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics estimated that by 2030 output across the wheat, beef, dairy and sugar industries will probably fall by 9-10% if nothing is done to slow or adapt to rising temps. Experts say Perth beaches will disappear in 30 years (Cottesloe and Broome will be the first to go) and the alpine environment of Mt. Kosciuszko would be lost.
By 2030 the average SW temperatures will warm by 0.5-2.1C, the average SW temperatures winter rainfall will decline by 2-20%, sea levels will rise up to 25cm, sandy beaches will erode up to 25m and the predicted average number of summer days over 35c in Perth will be 16-22 days. By 2070 the average SW temps will warm by 1-5.5C, the average SW winter rainfall will decline by 5-60%, sea levels will rise by up to 60cm, sandy beaches will erode by up to 60m and the average number of summer days over 35C in Perth will be 18-39C. By 2100 sea levels will rise by up to 88cm and sandy beaches will erode by up to 88m.
References:
The Australian;"Warning:Act Now on Climate";Sept-04-06;Page 2
The West Australian;"Outback to suffer worst from climate change";Jan-11-08;Page 18
The West Australian;"Climate reports point to a sunburnt country";Jan-04-08;Page 16
The Australian;"Studies back fear sea levels are rising rapidly";Feb-01-06;Page 5
The Sunday Times;"Say bye to our beaches";Sept-17-06;Page 29;
The West Australian;"Welcome to our nightmare";Feb-04-06;Page 55
