The Climate Council’s “Angry Summer” puts into context what climate change is already doing to Australia and for that matter, other nations, like many countries in southern Africa today.
“Climate change—driven largely by the burning of coal, oil, and gas—is cranking up the intensity of extreme weather events, says the report, and it adds that we can expect to see an increase in the frequency and severity of such phenomena as the climate continues to change.
In October 2016, Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) released its biannual State of the Climate report that said Australia’s climate had warmed 1.0 degrees Celsius since 1910.
The report went on to explain that the extremes being seen in the country’s climate were due to an increase in greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, which act like a blanket by keeping heat in the Earth’s lower atmosphere. The report added that the extreme temperatures being experienced today will be considered normal in 30 years.
Records broken while aging infrastructure couldn’t cope
Besides the effects of climate change being felt all across the country, there were some major records broken this past summer, including Sydney, Brisbane, and Canberra experiencing the hottest summer on record, while in Moree, a town in New South Wales, people there went 54 days straight with the temperature staying above 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit).
Perth had its highest summer total rainfall on record of 192.8 mm. Extreme fire weather is increasing in Australia’s southeast. During this recent Australian severe summer heatwave, nearly 100 bushfires were ignited and raged through parts of inland New South Wales.
“Days of extreme heat and heat waves will become even more frequent and severe in Australia, and will increase the risks to critical infrastructure (e.g. electricity), the economy, health, and ecosystems,” says the report. And actually, the mention of critical infrastructure is rather important because of the country’s aging energy system.
“This past summer showed the vulnerability of the electricity grid to heatwaves, with power outages during peak times in South Australia during the severe February heatwave, while New South Wales narrowly avoided widespread outages several days later,” according to the report.
The human and environmental toll of the “Angry Summer”
The Australian economy suffered losses of over $8.0 billion through increased employee absenteeism and a reduction in productivity brought on by the extreme heat. Additional impacts of hot weather include higher work accident frequency because of concentration lapses, and poor decision-making ability due to time perception change and higher levels of fatigue.
The heatwave, as a whole, really brought out the vulnerability of humans in responding to the increased heat. Another problem that will become worse in the future is the sustainability of agriculture during prolonged heat waves. The impact on agriculture is already being seen in parts of Africa where crop failures have led to near-famine conditions.
And finally, the report describes climate change impacts on the ecosystem, including the Great Barrier Reef. From the increase in the number of bushfires that have burned thousands of hectares of land, to the increase in coral bleaching, the list goes on. The Climate Council leaves the reader with a terse warning: “Hot days and heatwaves, like those experienced in the 2016/17 Angry Summer, are becoming the new normal, and even more extreme heat is on the way in the future unless rapid and deep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are achieved around the world.”
