Extreme Weather events and Climate Change - Soap Box
I am following the events in Queensland with a very heavy heart. I am hoping against all hope that Queensland might come through Cyclone Yasi without anybody getting killed, let alone badly injured.
But as horrified as I am by the natural disasters hitting Queensland I am just so overwhelmingly frustrated about the general media coverage of the Queensland floods, and now Cyclone Yasi. I have watched for days as the media have covered the impact of the floods, have covered the recovery costs, have covered hundreds of people whinging about the rebuilding levy and in all that time have have only heard one media report indicate that these events may possibly be linked to global warming.
I watched aghast as Prime Minister Gillard indicated that to pay for the damage from the Floods the government would scrap almost all of the Climate Change abatement programs it had. The cuts included:
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicates that the earths climate is "unequivocally" warming, that there is a "very high confidence" that human activities since 1750 have lead to the earth warming, and that with climate change "it is very likely that hot extremes, heat waves and heavy precipitation events will continue to become more frequent and that "it is likely that future tropical cyclones will become more intense, with larger peak wind speeds and more heavy precipitation associated with ongoing increases of tropical sea surface temperatures."
Source: IPCC - Climate Change 2007: Working Group I: The Physical Science Basis
I have not found any scientific data to show that the extent of flooding in Queensland and the strength of Cyclone Yasi are linked to Climate Change. We are in an La Niña weather cycle which is likely to have contributed to an increase in the intensity of weather vents, but I personally think that this extreme weather, as well as the the flooding and extreme storms in other parts of the world are a very loud wake up call. Even if this particular series of weather events was not caused by climate change, climate change is likely to make them occur more often. What happens if the 1 in 100 year climate events happen every 50 years? or ever 20? or if we come to the point were every year we are at the extemes of our climate range (drought, flood, cyclone....).
The money that the government (and therefore us) is going to have to spend re-building after these events is going to be significant. I really want the media to start looking critically at the economic cost estimates of systems like carbon trading, investment in new technologies, carbon neutral power generation, and compare the economic impact of these systems to the economic impact of rebuilding levies and community devastation (let alone loss of life) for the next 50-100 years.
I am so FRUSTRATED. Wasn't this what we had Kevin 07 for? Hadn't we already indicated we wanted leadership on this issue 4 years ago. I am really disheartened with federal politics. I find Gillard a non-inspiring leader. I can honestly say I do not think she has given a single speech that feels real and her on-the-run-policies feel as flimsy as the opinion polls they are based on. And what is the option, Abbott? ..... *crickets*
I can't believe they will cut the climate change programs to pay for a climate disaster. :(
But as horrified as I am by the natural disasters hitting Queensland I am just so overwhelmingly frustrated about the general media coverage of the Queensland floods, and now Cyclone Yasi. I have watched for days as the media have covered the impact of the floods, have covered the recovery costs, have covered hundreds of people whinging about the rebuilding levy and in all that time have have only heard one media report indicate that these events may possibly be linked to global warming.
I watched aghast as Prime Minister Gillard indicated that to pay for the damage from the Floods the government would scrap almost all of the Climate Change abatement programs it had. The cuts included:
- Not proceeding with the Cleaner Car Rebate Scheme
- Abolishing the Green Car Innovation Fund
- Reducing and deferring spending on the Carbon Capture and Storage Flagships and Solar Flagships programs and the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute
- Capping annual claims under the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Vehicle Scheme
- Capping funding for the Renewable Energy Bonus Scheme - Solar Hot Water Rebate
- Not proceeding with Round 2 of the Green Start Program
- Capping funding for the Solar Homes and Communities Plan
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicates that the earths climate is "unequivocally" warming, that there is a "very high confidence" that human activities since 1750 have lead to the earth warming, and that with climate change "it is very likely that hot extremes, heat waves and heavy precipitation events will continue to become more frequent and that "it is likely that future tropical cyclones will become more intense, with larger peak wind speeds and more heavy precipitation associated with ongoing increases of tropical sea surface temperatures."
Source: IPCC - Climate Change 2007: Working Group I: The Physical Science Basis
I have not found any scientific data to show that the extent of flooding in Queensland and the strength of Cyclone Yasi are linked to Climate Change. We are in an La Niña weather cycle which is likely to have contributed to an increase in the intensity of weather vents, but I personally think that this extreme weather, as well as the the flooding and extreme storms in other parts of the world are a very loud wake up call. Even if this particular series of weather events was not caused by climate change, climate change is likely to make them occur more often. What happens if the 1 in 100 year climate events happen every 50 years? or ever 20? or if we come to the point were every year we are at the extemes of our climate range (drought, flood, cyclone....).
The money that the government (and therefore us) is going to have to spend re-building after these events is going to be significant. I really want the media to start looking critically at the economic cost estimates of systems like carbon trading, investment in new technologies, carbon neutral power generation, and compare the economic impact of these systems to the economic impact of rebuilding levies and community devastation (let alone loss of life) for the next 50-100 years.
I am so FRUSTRATED. Wasn't this what we had Kevin 07 for? Hadn't we already indicated we wanted leadership on this issue 4 years ago. I am really disheartened with federal politics. I find Gillard a non-inspiring leader. I can honestly say I do not think she has given a single speech that feels real and her on-the-run-policies feel as flimsy as the opinion polls they are based on. And what is the option, Abbott? ..... *crickets*
I can't believe they will cut the climate change programs to pay for a climate disaster. :(