According to researchers, greenhouse gas emissions are the reason for worsening environmental conditions in Australia and internationally.
Having just abolished the carbon pricing system that would have penalised Australia’s biggest greenhouse gas contributors and beefed up renewable energy sources at the same time, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott does not think climate change is significant enough to give attention to. Already, South Australia has become a leading geographical contender for climate change vulnerability.
This, in the face of the rising CO2 levels that has left the country not only parched but sweltering, could only get worse as American scientists confirmed that the culprits are greenhouse gas emissions. Coupled with rainfall decline in the south and southwest regions of the country (South Australia and Western Australia), the condition is a result of greenhouse gas emissions.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate Change are not “Crap”
The Prime Minister and the Coalition Australian government has deemed generalised predictions about the adverse effects of these emissions and regional shifts in climactic cycle changes caused by human activities as “crap.” The PM apparently thinks it is normal to have bush fires during an Australian winter – which is from June to August –- punctuated by drought and heat waves so much so that he has cut back on research funding on climate change.
Together with a colleague, American research scientist Tom Delworth conducted some long-term, global climate simulations on changes in rainfall patterns. A pattern emerged in the Australian continent where rainfall in autumn and winter in two states cause stress for farmers and produce growers. The rainfall decline was shown as a response to the increased emissions of greenhouse gas and a thinning of the ozone layer of the earth’s stratosphere.
Simulations Prove the Adverse Effects of Greenhouse Gas Emissions
To find a possible – and logical – explanation of the rainfall decline, Delworth’s computer simulations included solar radiation changes and volcanic eruptions. The only data observed to have made sense was that of the effect that greenhouse gas emissions from man-made activities. Delworth’s model’s purpose is to extend effort to improve climate change regional predictions.
The southern region of Australia has never been known to be wet and lush and the precipitation decline begun in the 1970s, long before the words “climate change” held any meaningful challenge. But now global warming has come knocking at the door. According to the simulations, even the average rainfall in South Australia will steadily drop by as much as 40% later in the 21st century.
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Scientists believe that the changes in the wind patterns of the world’s southern ocean are the result of these emissions. The changes reset Australia’s “thermostat” as well as accelerate the melting of ice sheets in the Antarctic. According to researcher Paul Spence of the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science, water temperature registered 4°C warmer when Antarctic wind shifts were studied as a detailed model for global oceans, twice the temperature indicated in previous estimates.
Spence explained that this warmer temperature water can be devastating since it could very well lead to a huge increase in the melt rate of ice sheets. The ice sheet in the West Antarctic can hold water that could raise sea water levels by as much as 3.3 metres. If this happens, sea levels will rise as well not only in South Australia but in other parts of the globe, resulting in catastrophic flooding.
