Australia is not investing enough in climate monitoring capabilities, potentially leaving farmers and other vulnerable communities high and dry when trying to access crucial weather information.
The weather segment at the end of news bulletins has stuck to a familiar format for more than 50 years. But the question of who should actually present the weather has been in a constant state of flux.
Climate Council CEO Amanda McKenzie told Q&A that heatwaves were ‘worsening’ in Australia and ‘hot days’ had doubled in the last 50 years. Let’s take a look at the evidence.
Michael Courts, The Conversation et Lucinda Beaman, The Conversation
Response from a spokesperson from the Climate Council in relation to an article on CEO Amanda McKenzie’s claims about worsening heatwaves and increasing numbers of hot days in Australia.
High-quality climate records only go back to the start of the 20th century. But using handwritten letters, journals and tables, researchers have access to data going back to the 18th century.
Severe storms bring a complex mixture of weather conditions, often in a very localised area. This unpredictability can make them very damaging, and very hard to study too.
The new State of the Climate report outlines Australia’s rising temperatures and its regional rainfall declines - and the trends that are locked in for the coming few decades due to greenhouse emissions.
It’s no surprise that China represents a cyber threat to Australia. But the government has been reluctant to state this fact and needs to respond more decisively.
One Nation Senator-elect Malcolm Roberts lauds Galileo as a hero who turned scientific consensus on its head. But the ‘Galileo gambit’ is just one weapon in the climate conspiracists’ arsenal.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide measurements at Tasmania’s Cape Grim and Antarctica’s Casy Station have now officially passed 400 parts per million and are likely to stay above that for decades to come.
Sydney is in the process of smashing the record for the longest run of days above 26°C. Weather, El Nino and climate change are all playing their part.
CSIRO was instrumental in creating a unified plan for all of Australia’s climate research. The latest round of cuts would see that collaboration fall apart.
Former PM’s business advisor Maurice Newman recently claimed that satellite temperature data tell a different story to data collected on the ground. He’s right - but that’s how it’s meant to be.
Australia is the land of drought of flooding rains, driven by events such as El Nino. But despite this variability, some parts of Australia are clearly drying out.
The Millennium Drought ended more than five years ago, but several years of below-average rainfall and El Niño have brought drought back to many parts of Australia. Our latest report on water in Australia shows rainfall is continuing to decline in eastern Australia and increase in the north.