Report again warns us to 'be prepared'

Prof Lesley Hughes.

The warning that we should “Be prepared” has been sounded again in the latest report from Australia’s crowd funded Climate Council.

Australians valued to work of the Climate Commission so much that even though the Abbott-led Coalition Government acted soon after its election to bury it, the people bonded, and dug deep, to ensure it continued its works under the new name of the “Climate Council”.

And now, just today, the council has released the report: “Be prepared: Climate Change and the Australian bushfire threat”.

The preface to the report, of which the prime authors are Climate Councillors, Prof Lesley Hughes and Prof Will Steffan, says:

“Over the past year, record breaking temperatures have been experienced across the country. More than 120 weather records were broken last summer, including the hottest summer, the hottest January, and the hottest day.”



Prof Will Steffan.

“2013 is on track to become Australia’s warmest year on records. These trends together with below-average rainfall in many part of the country, including the southeast, indicated that the coming fire season was likely to be a serious one.

“We thus made the decision in September to focus our first report on bushfires and their link to climate change.

“This decision was, unfortunately, borne out by the events in NSW in early October, where intense and uncontrolled fires raged across parts of the Central Coast and the Blue Mountains”.