Melbourne, Canberra and much of southern Australia have shivered through a cold winter. But on a longer view, record cold snaps are disappearing, while Australian heat records continue to be broken.
We know a lot about what climate change will do, but ‘when’ is a tougher question.
Nick Kim
Tackling climate change is the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century, a team of 60 international experts today declared in a special report for the medical journal The Lancet.
India has been sweltering recently – but plants can cope better than people.
Sanjay Baid / EPA
Most people are acutely aware of the toll the heat can take on human life. So it may come as a surprise that more Australians die from the cold than the heat.
Whale sharks were one of the warm water species to move south during the 2010-2011 marine heatwave.
Ben Henrich/Flickr
An analysis of the world’s longest-running temperature record suggests that England is many times more likely to experience more record-breaking hot years like 2014 than it was a century ago.
Drought-reduced crop yields could threaten food supply in Australia.
David Kelleher/Flickr
James Whitmore, The Conversation and Michael Hopkin, The Conversation
The Australian Academy of Science has warned that sick, older, poor and isolated Australians are at most risk from the health impacts of climate effects such as drought, fires, floods and heatwaves.
Carbon dioxide levels are rising at their fastest rate since the dinosaurs’ time.
iurii/Shutterstock.com
The latest climate projections released last week by the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO predict that Australia could potentially warm by between 2.8C and 5.1C by 2090. Meanwhile, the 2014 State of the…
Researchers deploy robotic Argo floats into the ocean to measure temperature.
CSIRO
The oceans are continuing to warm steadily despite an apparent slowdown in global warming at the earth’s surface, according to data collected by thousands of floating robots published today in Nature Climate…
Heated contest: Mitchell Johnson and Steve Smith try to cool down during the Brisbane test in December 2014.
AAP Image/Dave Hunt
Sport is fundamental to Australia’s society, culture and economy. But how would we cope when the rising heat threatens some of our most beloved pastimes? A new report from the Climate Institute urges sports…
Queensland’s drought conditions have been worsened by persistent high temperatures.
AAP Image/Dan Peled
Australia has been hit by two years of heat: 2013 was the hottest ever recorded and 2014 wasn’t far behind, taking third place. The country has also sweltered through several significant heatwaves, and…
Horses cool off during an Adelaide heatwave in January 2014.
AAP Image/David Mariuz
2014 has been confirmed as Australia’s third-hottest year, capping off a record-breaking decade, according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s annual climate statement, released today. Seven of Australia’s…
Wind and humidity affect how easy it is to cool off in a heatwave. Big swimming pools help, too.
AAP Image/Dan Peled
Several Australian cities, such as Adelaide and Perth, have greeted 2015 with scorching weather as summer hits its stride – the kind of conditions that leave us crying out for an air conditioner, rather…
Nationals MP George Christensen told Parliament that the hot temperatures of 1896 have been “wiped from the official record”. It’s a bit more complicated than that.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
“How could it be getting hotter … if it was really hotter 118 years ago? It’s relatively simple: the early years are simply wiped from the official record.” – Nationals MP George Christensen, House of…