Climate change

Climate change is a long-term shift in temperature and weather patterns. This shift is primarily caused by increases in greenhouse gases as a result of human activity. Greenhouse gases trap heat in our atmosphere, warming the planet.

Since industry started ramping up in 1750, the global average temperature has increased by around 1.1°C. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are predicting that we will reach or exceed 1.5°C of warming within the next two decades.

Australia is already feeling the effects of climate change, with more hot days and heatwaves, changes in rainfall, more frequent and intense extreme events such as drought, floods, storms and bushfires, and rising sea levels and temperatures.

Without strong intervention, these effects are only going to get worse.

Climate change affects all life on earth in a variety of ways:

• More frequent and intense extreme events, including floods, droughts, storms, heatwaves and bushfires, directly threaten our communities, our ecosystems, and our economy.
• Rising temperatures can cause heat-related illness and death, worsen existing health problems and increasing our risk of infectious disease. Rising air pollution is also exacerbating allergies and asthma. Increased extreme events are causing more loss of life, severe physical injuries and long-lasting mental trauma.
• Heat and rainfall changes are affecting food and water security and quality. Warmer temperatures increase evaporation of freshwater supplies and changes to rainfall are impacting groundwater recharge. These conditions are also making it more difficult for farmers to grow crops and graze livestock, reducing production and driving food prices up.
• Rising sea levels and more frequent and intense storm surges threaten homes and infrastructure, agriculture and fisheries, and coastal ecosystems including beaches, estuaries, saltmarsh, mangrove forests, seagrass meadows and coral reefs. As the shoreline retreats towards built up areas where we live, often there is nowhere for these ecosystems to go. When saltwater intrudes into coastal areas it can contaminate soil, groundwater and freshwater ecosystems. Farmers are also losing acres of land every year because it is becoming too wet and too salty for cropping or livestock.
• Changing weather conditions are affecting key habitats and the wildlife that rely on them. We are already seeing life cycle changes and shifts in the range of some species as they move away from the equator and to higher altitudes. However, many others may not be able to move or adapt quickly enough to keep up with these changes. Extreme weather can put an added stressor on ecosystems and push them to a tipping point. One in six species is at risk of extinction due to climate change.
• Oceans are warming and absorbing carbon from the atmosphere and becoming more acidic. This causes corals to bleach and die and making it harder for shellfish to grow and strengthen their skeletons, directly impacting their survival. Many of these are keystone species and their loss could drive collapse of marine food webs. We are also seeing more frequent and severe algal blooms, which are toxic to many animals and can make them unsafe to eat.
• Shrinking glaciers and declining snow depth are impacting fresh water supplies and alpine environments.
• Disturbance from climate change can favour the spread of invasive species.
• Climate change has direct and indirect impacts on outdoor recreation and tourism. It affects when and where we go and threatens many of the places we like to visit, including beaches, waterways, coral reefs, national parks and snowy mountains.
• Climate change is amplifying the effect of other threats. Ecosystems are complex and multiple stressors can feed back on each other in unexpected ways.

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