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Climate change is currently the single greatest threat faced by
humanity and can no longer be ignored. Although the earth’s
temperatures naturally fluctuate, evidence has shown that human
activity is mainly responsible for anthropogenic climate change.
Global warming has become a catalyst for many natural disasters and
it is clear that nature has been giving us warnings which seem to be
accelerating and intensifying: Europe faced a freezing cold break;
USA
endured destructive hurricanes and harsh drought; England
witnessed floods, droughts and deluges; Brazil saw severe heat waves;
Israel and Palestinian territories faced heavy rain, high winds,
snowstorms; earthquakes struck Italy, Iran, Afghanistan and the
Philippines; China and India suffered their coldest winters in recent
history.
1
In the past two decades, Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets
have lost four trillion tonnes of ice. Analysis of satellite and weather
station data by
NASA
has shown that Antarctica has warmed at a rate
of about 0.12º
C
per decade since 1957
2
, and a 1º
C
temperature rise
has seen an 80% decrease in arctic ice.
3
Devastation has been wrecked
across the world. More closely to home we have seen Australia
plagued with severe bushfires, floods and hurricanes.
Many scientists have cited these many natural disasters, and the
increasing global warming rates as alarm bells warning us that we
have a small – and shrinking – window left to avoid disastrous
climate change. In 2011, the concentration of
CO2
in the atmosphere
was 390 parts per million (ppm) – much higher than the natural
range of 170 to 300ppm during the past 800,000 years. On May
3rd 2013, for the first time ever National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration’s Mauna Loa observatory recorded an average daily
CO2
concentration above 400ppm.
4
Climate change is becoming a
silent killer and many have just disregarded it as ‘natural’. But it is
not. We are the cause. And it is time to be the solution.
We must act to restore a safe climate. The indications are that the
Earth needs to be cooled by between 0.3º
C
and 0.8º
C
. To achieve
this it is likely that
CO2
levels will need to be reduced to somewhere
around 280 to 350ppm.
5
In Australia, a more sustainable approach is
needed and the Australian Government must invest in renewable
energy to ensure the future of Australia.
Currently, Australia has one of the world’s highest per capita
levels of greenhouse gas emissions and Newcastle in New South
Wales is home to the biggest black coal port in the world. Our heavy
The Australian
Government
Must Stop
Fuelling The
Coal Industry
And Start
Investing In
100% Renewable
Energy.
Discuss.
Jessica Wat
1
Sarah Lyall, ‘Heat, Flood
or Icy Cold, Extreme
Weather Rages
Worldwide’,
New York
Times
, January 10 2013
2
Kathryn Hansen,
‘Satellites Confirm
Half-Century of West
Antarctic Warming’,
NASA
(Goddard Space
Flight Center)
January
2009
3
Data from Bill
McKibben’s Do The
Math at 350.org, 2013
4
Data from Bill
McKibben’s Do The
Math at 350.org, 2013
5
Data from The
Australian Safe Climate
Transition Plan Strategic
Framework Report,
2009
12