Is Climate Change Making Extreme Australian Events Worse?

According to a worrying new report, the extreme heat waves, flooding and bush fires striking Australia have already been made worse by the effects of climate change and they could even be set to get even worse in future. In fact, at this stage only fast and deep cuts to carbon emissions can start to reverse the trend, say scientists from the Climate Commission, an independent advisory group that was set up by the Australian government.

It has been suggested that climate change is making a number of extreme events worse in terms of their impacts on people’s lives, property, communities and the environment. The group is now concerned that things will only get worse in the future and the trend will perpetuate itself.

The report has stated that the number of record hot days in Australia has jumped enormously since the 1960s, and the summer of 2012/2013 even included the hottest summer, hottest month and hottest day on record. Of course, records are broken from time to time, but to have so many all at the same time reveals something more worrying underneath.

In a previous heat wave that occurred in south-eastern Australia in 2009, Melbourne experienced three consecutive days at or above 43°C in late January. This led to 980 heat-related deaths, which is three times the average mortality. Hot records are now being broken three times more often than cold records, the report had found.

There can now be very little doubt that over the next few decades the changes in extreme events will increase the risks of bad consequences to human health, infrastructure and the environment.