Climate change could result in larger storm surges Photo: CSIRO

Storm surge on Queensland’s Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise high-rise development in the background. Photo: CSIRO

Three Queensland local councils have each been awarded half million dollar grants to develop coastal hazard adaptation strategies in a week when the need for climate change action became even more evident.

The world is getting warmer

The five year period 2011-2015 is the hottest on record according to recent advice from the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

2015 is the hottest on record and “that record is likely to be beaten in 2016” said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.

“The effects of climate change have been consistently visible on the global scale since the 1980s: rising global temperature, both over land and in the ocean; sea-level rise; and the widespread melting of ice. It has increased the risks of extreme events such as heatwaves, drought, record rainfall and damaging floods,” said Mr Taalas.

The WMO’s latest report finds increasing evidence that human-induced climate change was directly linked to individual extreme events such as heatwaves, droughts, hurricanes and flooding.

Australia ratifies Paris agreement after Trump win

The Australian Government has joined more than 100 other countries in ratifying the Paris Climate Agreement which aims to keep the increase in global temperatures well below 2 degrees above pre-industrial times.

The decision was announced by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after the US elected as its President Donald Trump who has said he intends to “cancel” the Paris Agreement and “bring back the coal industry”.

Three councils get funds for climate change adaptation

Earlier this week, the Queensland Government announced that three local councils have each been awarded grants of about $500,000 to develop strategies for coastal hazard adaptation.

Environment Minister Dr Steven Miles said Moreton Bay Regional Council, Noosa Shire Council and Whitsunday Regional Council had each submitted strong applications for a share of the Government’s $12 million QCoast 2100  coastal hazards adaptation program.

This program has been established to help coastal councils and their communities plan and prepare for storm tide, coastal erosion and rising sea levels resulting from climate change.

The type of work that local councils are expected to undertake has been demonstrated in a pilot project by Townsville City Council.

“I encourage all other eligible councils to get on board and follow the lead in taking action on climate change.” said Dr Miles.

Redlands2030 – 10 November 2016

8 Comments

Toni, Nov 10, 2016

I spoke with a friend today, she has just attended a seminar in Tassie regarding Global warming, one of the speakers shared a situation in one of the islands in the Pacific where the locals dive for fish but as the water has got warmer those fish swim deeper and many are not there any more, I guess left for cooler waters. The sad things is that these people cant dive any deeper and there are now fish which have filled that gap that are causing illness in the people, who can only rely on local food. After spending some time in Scandinavia, speaking to locals about the significant changes in weather in winter and summer Climate change is real and increased populations, more cars, industrial uses all add to the problem.

Tracy, Nov 10, 2016

With conflicting statistical information mainly from eminent scientists and left wing and right wing groups using bogus statistics to push thier specific causes, I’m afraid the Minister needs to furnish some credible evidence of global warming.
Quoting an organisation like the UN does nothing to enhance the credibility of the claims of global warming. I personally have seen figures from more credible scientific groups that the 2011 to 2015 hottest period is rubbish.
Furnish some credible evidence and the Govt. will get the public on board.
There is a lot of noise about damage to the Great Barrier Reef which is an actual issue, but our State and Federal entities can’t manage the BOD damage being done in Tasmania by excessive Fish Farming so there is no hope for the reef.
When they stick to and enforce legislation on Corporations that are above the law some progress will be made.

Tracy, Nov 15, 2016

Except for one major factor that no one has explained Robert and that is, is the recent and I stress recent ( in this planets long history) climate events, a sustained change caused by humans or a cyclic change? There is very strong evidence that these increases have happened numerous times over the life of the planet.

I take any statistics now such as your story with a pinch of salt. We have seen similar documents released by the Press regarding the US elections.
We had similar temperature rises and climate variations in the early seventies that have been conveniently forgotten about.
No Scientist will stick thier neck out and lay it on the line because they are scared of being ostracised and quite frankly they don’t know.
We have the oligarchs and their sicophants trying to set in place legislation based on a lot of unqualified and unsubstantiated reporting. We need facts, not news stories laced with a semblance of statistics. Yes there are changes in ice flow and flooding, caused by …. human or good old Mother Nature???

Robert Pendrey, Nov 16, 2016

Facts are temperatures are rising. If we can reduce the greenhouse gasses why not do it? You can argue that the planet has been in worse shape in the past. You can also argue that it was lifeless for most of its past.
I really can’t see any point in not reducing emissions. That seems like smoking until you get cancer just to be absolutely certain.

Tracy, Nov 16, 2016

To quote Dr Karl Kruszelnicki and I agree with him. His take is that green house gases take a back seat every time a major volcano is in action.
Events greater than mans effect have been occurring longer than modern industry and I would suggest to a greater extent than the scare mongering that we see now through theory and misconceptions about so called greenhouse gases.
There is pollution from Industry in the form of smog which can be reduced. And then there are green house gases that can and do come from natural events and have done since the beginning of the planet.

Robert Pendrey, Nov 17, 2016

The problem is that you and I share one planet. If you are right good for us all. If you are wrong you are condemning future generations to an uphill struggle to reduce the effects of burning fossil fuels.
What exactly does anyone gain from not reducing the burning of fossil fuels? Industry just shifts to doing something else.
The WMO temperature graph does show effects of volcanoes on temperature by the way. The problem with global dimming from volcanoes is while they lower air temperature they also lower photosynthetic activity and cause famine. Lower photosynthetic activity means less CO2 uptake by plants.
If you had a planet of your own I would be happy for you to gamble with its future. My children and grand children have to live on this one though.

Tracy, Nov 17, 2016

It’s not about me or any other person being right or wrong about global warming, it’s about the existence of very old evidence of heating and cooling of this planet. If, particularly in Queensland, people were so concerned about the burning of fossil fuel, they would have prevented the last State Govt. from removing the 42 cent per unit generated, that encouraged people to move towards renewable solar energy. The State Govt. allowed Power companies to pay 8 cents a unit generated only to resell at 22 cents, which effectively killed a decent pay back period over the lifecycle of a domestic solar system. Which does nothing for your green house gases. Several states still mine large amounts of coal. Quite frankly people don’t care about burning fossil fuel.
Australia is so far behind the rest of the world in setting in place alternate fuels and energies it’s no longer funny.
While the oligarchs continue to control the country, we will not progress. With the world ripe for the picking to supply electric vehicles, we allow American car manufacturers to close and lose our vehicle manufacturing and people technology resources to do so.
If you want control your contribution to global warming as you see it, stop voting these people in and start working on the root cause – greed.
Robert effectively we have all been partying too long in Australia, time to wake up and discover someone else is exploiting your country.

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