Like the rest of the world, Australia has also started showing impacts of climate change and global warming. Drought, dust storms, rise in heat waves and intense wildfires are some of the hazardous consequences faced by the country in the Southern Hemisphere today. Australia is the highest emitter of greenhouse gases per capita in the developed world. A result of which is tremendous increase in temperature making Australia swelter through its hottest decade on record. If studies are to be believed then for the past six decades each decade has been warmer than the preceding.
Australia’s warmest decade on record:
David Jones, a climatologist with the Bureau of Meteorology, said…
There’s no doubt about global warming, the planet’s been warming now for most of the last century. But we are getting these increasingly warm temperatures – not just for Australia but globally – and climate change, global warming, is clearly continuing.
Mr. Jones further said…
You see this paradox – the country, particularly in the north, it’s getting wetter but is also warming up.
Senior climatologist Dean Collins, who believes that higher temperatures caused by an El Nino event in the Pacific to a certain extent, told AFP…
For the past six decades, each decade has been warmer than the preceding one. To get six, seven decades in a row that are warmer than the previous one — it doesn’t happen by chance. It’s reflecting what’s happening at the global level.
The Bureau of Meteorology cited…
Based on the analysis of daily (maximum and minimum) temperature data above and below set thresholds, there are clear upward trends in the number of hot events and downward trends in the number of cold events (over the period 1960 to date), consistent with the background of global warming.
Peter Garrett, the environment minister, said…
Australia is one of the hottest and driest inhabited places on Earth, and our environment and economy will be one of the hardest and fastest hit by climate change
2009 the 5th warmest year globally:
According to the World Meteorological Organization 2009 is expected to be the globe’s 5th warmest year on record. It marked an average increase of 0.44 degrees Celsius above Australia’s 1961-1990 benchmark average. Ever since records began, each year has been warmer than the previous one.