The global warming experiment we conduct at our peril

When the Australian Research Council awarded its funding plans in mid-2017, one recipient of the highly competitive seven-year grants was the Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes.

The heat is on, and it is time to understand and
confront what extremes are going to look like. 

While building on the work of the previous Climate System Science centre, the new hub represents more than a name change.

The centre – grouping leading scientists from the Australian National University, Monash, Melbourne, and Tasmania universities, and based at the University of NSW – is the first in the world "with an unambiguous focus on the science behind climate extremes", according to its director, Professor Andy Pitman.

The Turnbull government and particularly Simon Birmingham, as the responsible minister, deserve credit for increasing the centre's capacity 10 percent over its predecessor – presumably against the views of a rump within the Coalition that denies climate change is a serious threat.

Read the Editorial from the Sydney Morning Herald - “The global warming experiment we conduct at our peril.”