A new millennium-long record reveals that Australia has suffered longer droughts and wet periods than those recorded in the past century’s weather observations.
Tasmania’s bushfires damaged pristine bushland and stretched emergency services to the limit.
AAP Image/Patrick Caruana
This summer has seen Tasmania suffer through drought, bushfires, floods and the worst marine heatwave on record. Is this what life under a climate-changed future will be like?
Things got very wet, very quickly, in Brisbane in 2011.
AAP Image/Dave Hunt
Since 1999, Australia has swung between drought and deluge with surprising speed, because El Niño has fallen into sync with similar patterns in the Indian and Southern Oceans.
Extreme weather will affect people and animals, as well as whole ecosystems. Research using satellites shows that ecosystems worldwide are vulnerable to collapse.
Climate change makes extreme weather more likely – but we also have the power to make our flood responses smarter.
CSIRO has contributed to surprising discoveries in climate science. Pictured here is the research ship RV Investigator.
AAP Image/University of Tasmania
We accept the risks of flooding because the costs of making our towns and cities flood-proof are too high.
While firefighters battled widespread fires in New South Wales in October 2013, hundreds of thousands of people turned to social media and smartphone apps for vital updates.
AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts
Terry Flew, Queensland University of Technology and Axel Bruns, Queensland University of Technology
When disaster strikes, more people than ever are turning to social media to find out if they’re in danger. But Australian emergency services need to work together more to learn what works to save lives.
People in the Philippines have been warned to brace for wet and wild weather, as this year’s El Nino shapes up to be the strongest since 1998.
EPA/RITCHIE B. TONGO/AAP
The seesaw between El Niño and La Niña is set to get stronger with global warming. Signs are that this year and next will deliver a big swing from one to the other, prompting fires and floods across the world.
Levees in New Orleans were unable to prevent flooding during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Jocelyn Augustino/FEMA
The Outback covers 70% of Australia, and its water is precious and scarce. Yet there is no joined-up plan to monitor and manage Outback water, despite the wealth of species and communities that depend on it.
There are more resilient ways to build in vulnerable areas.
Resilient Collective Housing', New Jersey Institute of Technology College of Architecture and Design studio project by Taryn Wefer and Naomi Patel. Instructors: Keith Krumwiede and Martina Decker
The climate is changing. Development patterns that have hardly served us well in the past certainly won’t serve us well in the future. Now is the time to adapt.
Cars remain submerged on a road in Texas after torrential rains caused massive flooding.
Reuters
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.
Recent extreme rains such as those that hit Sydney recently are actually decreasing, but extreme rain in summer is going up.
AAP Image/NEWZULU/LISA HOSKING