Part A (1)

The climate is always changing. People often notice small every day changes in the weather but don’t notice the slight changes in the long term climate. Over the last 150 years Australia’s climate has changed significantly.

Temperature

This chart shows Australia’s mean temperature over the last 90 years. In that period of time Australia mean temperature has risen at the rate of 0.00833 every year. Fossil fuels are to blame for the rise in the temperature. By burning fossil fuels we produce greenhouse gases which are trapped in our atmosphere leading to the rise in temperature.

This map shows how much the temperature changed in 10 year intervals. In the centre of Australia the temperature has risen at the rate of 0.15° every ten years. Australia is not cooling down although around Sydney the temperature is not rising or decreasing.

Rainfall

One shower of rain seems normal to us. But when you look at a wider perspective you see a change. This graph shows the annual rainfall. Although we may not realise it, Australia’s annual rainfall has been increasing since the 1970s. Before the 1970s Australia’s rainfall was below the average of 472mm.

This graph does not tell us a lot about Australia’s future with rainfall but shows an increasing variability in rainfall. The increase in rainfall maybe due to regional climatic changes like the increase in rainfall in Australia’s north.

This graph shows us the increase in rainfall in certain areas of Australia in ten year periods over the last one hundred years. Up in the northern territory you see a huge increase in rainfall: approximately 20mm every ten years. While near Townsville rainfall is decreasing by a huge 20mm every ten years.

Sea Level

The estimated relative sea level trends for tide gauge locations around Australia which have at least 25 years of hourly data on the National Tidal Facility archive.

On this table I discovered that Outer Port Adelaide sea level is rising at 2.08 mm per year which is the greatest rise per year all over Australia. Port Headland has the largest decrease in sea level at 1.32 mm per year. I have noticed on this table that around the north of Australia the sea level is decreasing while down south it is rising. On average the sea levels around Australia have risen over 25 years.

Snow Cover

This graph shows that over the last 46 years Australia’s average snow depth has declined. In 1962 Australia’s average snow fall was over 150cm deep but now is only just 100cm deep. This shows that Australia is heating, soon there may be no snow.

Part A (2)

Scientists predict many possible effects of climate change on Australia’s future. The impacts of climate change will vary with each region. Climate change in the next 50 years will decrease water recourses, increase temperatures, reduce the area of arable land, cut livestock output and reduce crop quality.

Global warming will affect Australia’s climate and local weather patterns which will in turn affect agriculture based business and communities. Farming, forestry, dairy, grazing, fishing, horticulture and many other industries like tourism and services will be affected.
The best estimates indicate that by 2030 Australia will face:

• around 1ºC of warming in temperatures
• up to 20 per cent more drought-months
• up to 25 per cent increase in days of very high or extreme fire danger
• increases in storm surges and severe weather events.

When I am 35 years old Australia’s mean temperature will be around 22.5° This may not seem like a huge change from 21.5° but it could affect Australia dramatically. This large change will affect the landscape of Australia.

Scientists predict that global warming will cause sea levels to rise affecting Australia’s coastal ecology. Global warming will also cause ocean water temperatures to rise which may even kill the Great Barrier Reef completely by 2050! Deserts will be much larger and dryer.

Climate change is already having a severe impact on agriculture production. The Murray Darling basin is drying up. The river systems are not coping with the water needs of existing industries such as cotton, fruit orchards, rice and other irrigated crops. This will only worsen in the future. Water flows in the Murray Darling basin could fall by as much as 35% by 2050 which would cause a loss of 30% in Australia’s agricultural economy.

Australia is very vulnerable to impact of climate change which could seriously affect coastal communities including iconic areas such as the Great Barrier Reef and the Kakadu wetlands. Biodiversity, agriculture, water supplies, human health, transport and communications infrastructure are also likely to be stressed in climate change.

Part B (1)

Scientists from around the world with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) tell us global warming over the past 50 years was mainly caused by human activities that have increased atmospheric concentrations of green house gases. In dealing with climate change scientists focus on mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation means reducing green house gases which are the cause of global warming. Adaptation is developing ways to live with a changing climate.

Scientists have come up with many different ways to combat climate change. They have suggested plans to reduce green house gas emissions and are developing existing and new alternative technologies.

• Alternative energies.
• Solar power
• Wind power
• Tidal and wave power
• Geothermal power
• Hydro electric power
• Fusion power
• Emissions reduction technologies
• Improved filters
• Carbon capture and burial
• Clean fuels

• Energy Conservation
• Reducing consumption and energy use
• Reusing and sharing energy

With the knowledge that we now know about changes to our climate we can take steps to change the way we live and how we go about our business. For example we can farm less in dry areas and plant crops in areas we think will rain more often. We can burn less fossil fuels and use alternative fuel and power sources.

Science cannot solve all the problems of climate change. A lot must be left to governments to help set changes and for the community to act on the changes.
Global warming is such a complex problem that even with the best science there is no single solution. Many different sciences and many different ideas can be used to tackle some of the problems.

Part B (2)

Scientific solutions for climate change are the foundations from which we can make progress. Politians rely on scientific reports to develop new polices in fields affected by climate change. For example reports on carbon emissions are leading to a carbon emissions trading scheme. Water resources allocation and drought management schemes use the best available scientific data.

The Australian government has signed international agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol for reducing green house gas emissions

Bibliography

http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/archives/secondary/casestud/south_pacific/1/sea-level-2.html

http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/science/publications/fs-climatechange.html

http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/impacts/trends/snow.html

http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/change