Suddenly, the future doesn’t seem so far away

This summer was not a good time to be pregnant. New South Wales experienced its hottest summer on record, hotter even than the Angry Summer of 2012–13. From Christmas to mid February, heatwave after heatwave engulfed Australia’s largest city. The outskirts of Sydney broke records by reaching almost 47°C, and many other parts of the state, and of Queensland and northern Victoria, received no reprieve from the heat.

My specialty is heatwaves, so ordinarily I would be captivated by weather like this. I study the weather charts to work out where the mass of hot air has originated, how long it might last, and whether another one will follow. I discuss with my team how natural climate variability and other physical mechanisms might be influencing the weather pattern, and formulate and conduct experiments to determine whether human-induced climate change had a role to play. My phone rings hot as media requests roll in, and in interviews I find myself stressing how heatwaves are becoming longer, hotter and more frequent, with summers like the last one just a taste of what is to come.

Sarah Perkin-Kirkparick.

As a scientist, I’m trained to be exceptionally careful. The publication process subjects all my findings are subject to critical peer review. Before that, they are discussed extensively with colleagues to ensure the validity of my interpretation and the significance of the results. Along the way are many control checks, which mean that when I say that summers like 2016–17 will become the new normal, I have the evidence to back it up. Feelings don’t figure in the process, only the presentation of the most accurate and scientifically robust results.

Read Sarah Perkin-Kirkparick’s story on (Inside Story) - “Suddenly, the future doesn’t seem so far away.”