Karl takes us through the State of the Climate 2016

BOM Climate Monitoring
Manager, Karl Braganza, talks
today at LAB-14 about the
State of the Climate 2016.

Karl Braganza explained the Bureau of Meteorology’s (BOM) “State of the Climate 2016” report to about 100 people today.

The Climate Monitoring Manager with the BOM was the guest lecturer at the University of Melbourne’s Carlton Connect Initiative in the Swanston St “LAB-14” lecture theatre.

Karl who completed his Ph.D. at Monash University in 2002 and according to University of Melbourne atmospheric scientist, Professor David Karoly, who today introduced Karl and guided him to the conclusion of his studies, he has been with BOM ever since.

Karl took those at the lecture through the State of the Climate 2016 report, as shown on BOM website.

Karl clearly has a thorough understanding of climate change and its impact and implications, but only strayed occasionally into philosophizing about the effects of our disrupted climate system.

The fourth biennial State of the Climate report is the work of the Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO, who each play an important role in monitoring, analyzing and communicating observed changes in Australia's climate.

The report draws on the latest monitoring, science, and projection information, it is explained on the website, to describe variability and changes in Australia's climate, and how it is likely to change in the future.

“Observations and climate modelling paint a consistent picture of ongoing, long-term climate change interacting with underlying natural variability,” it says.

According to the report, “These changes affect many Australians, particularly changes associated with increases in the frequency or intensity of heat events, fire weather, and drought.

“Australia will need to plan for and adapt to some level of climate change. This report is a synthesis of the science informing our understanding of climate in Australia and includes new information about Australia's climate of the past, present and future.

“The science underpinning this report will help inform a range of economic, environmental and social decision-making and local vulnerability assessments, by government, industry, and communities,” it says.

Australian companies commit as Paris conference draws closer

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ast week 12 Australian companies committed to strong measures to tackle climate change at the Australian Climate Leadership Summit in Sydney. Many of these companies are household names, including the National Australia Bank, Westpac, AGL and Origin.



ClimateWorks CEO,
Anna Skarbek.

The announcement followed the peak bodies’ statement in June pledging their support to the global goal of limiting climate change to less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels, and acknowledging that this will require most countries, including Australia, eventually to reduce net emissions to zero or below.

The commitment by these companies is consistent with ClimateWorks Australia’s research with ANU and CSIRO that shows Australia can substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions – to net zero by 2050 – while still growing the economy.

Read The Conversation story by ClimateWorks Australia CEO, Monash University, Anna Skarbek - “Business is picking up the pace ahead of the Paris climate summit.”

Bjorn Lomborg's bid for an Australian home ends abruptly

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jorn Lomborg’s bid to find an Australian home has come to an abrupt end. The Turnbull government has withdrawn the promised A$4 million in funding that the former Abbott government committed to Lomborg’s proposed Australia Consensus Centre after Lomborg was unable to find an Australian university to host him.

Writing in The Australian two weeks ago, in a second defence of his proposed centre this year, Lomborg took issue with my previous article in The Conversation. In it, I pointed to an NTEU document introduced at a Flinders University Council meeting in August that alleged 14 out of 42 Australian universities had rejected hosting the controversial climate change inactivist. The most distinctive feature of Lomborg’s opinion piece is that he did not deny the fact that so many Australian universities had rejected his centre.

Read the piece by Senior Lecturer, Communications and Media Studies at Monash University, David Holmes, on The Conversation - “Farewell to Lomborg – what did the episode teach us?”

We should all fall silent and listen, carefully

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aleed Aly is an unassuming character, but when he speaks, we should all fall silent and listen, carefully.

Waleed Aly - we should fall silent and listen.

The newspaper columnist, television chat show host and Monash University political lecturer seems almost retiring and being a wonderful endorsement of what is good about people, provides reassuring respite from the noisy, and often pointless political chatter in Australia.

Aly uses facts and intelligence to slice through the hollow rhetoric Australians are assaulted with most every day and his latest piece in today’s Melbourne Age illustrates that perfectly.

Read what Waleed wrote today - “Abbott is losing the plot in his war on environmentalists.”

Mainstream media attention leaves scientists somewhat bemused

Scientists working quietly and diligently at what is they do are frequently bemused when their work suddenly finds its way into the mainstream media.

And of course that is not always for the correct reasons for while their work is aimed at finding and stating the truth, some accuse them of having nefarious reasons for declaring what they find.

Professor emeritus, School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment at Monash University, Neville Nicholls, writes about that on the latest issue of The Conversation.

His story, headed: “Global warming trend unaffected by ‘fiddling’ with temperature data” discusses how the results have been “fiddled” with to confirm various theories about global warming.

Sweltering greeting will continue in Australian cities

Dr Ailie Gallant  - muggy cities.

Several Australian cities, such as Adelaide and Perth, have greeted 2015 with scorching weather as summer hits its stride – the kind of conditions that leave us crying out for an air conditioner, rather than dreaming of barbeques and beach trips.

The change in weather conditions in Australian cities has been discussed in an article on The Conversation, by Monash University PhD student, Stephanie Jacobs and a lecturer in the university’s School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Dr Ailie Gallant.

PhD student, Stephanie Jacobs.

Writing in “Bad luck, Brisbane: muggy cities will feel future heat even more” they said new research shows that Australians could end up feeling even hotter than expected over the next few decades, as changing weather conditions make climate change feel even more severe than it is.

“That’s bad news for Sydney and Brisbane, where sweltering humidity is set to rise,” they wrote.

Most of us are uncertain about the heat, but Tess knows

Most of us simply know this week is going to be rather hot.

Most of us are not entirely sure why.

Most of us, unlike Tess Parker, do not study the climate and subsequently articles such as “What’s cranking up the heat across south-eastern Australia” are decidedly helpful I helping us understand what’s is “cranking up” this week’s heat.

Tess, a PhD candidate at Monash University, tells us facts we all know, such as the players at this year’s Australian Open, will suffer and many that might be beyond our understanding.

Switching to save 'the best planet we have'

Alan Finkel of Monash University.

An article by Alan Finkel that first appeared in the October edition of COSMOS Magazine was published today (October 21) in the Melbourne Age.

Finkel discusses the plausible use of electricity to help combat our relentless use of fossil fuels to produce the energy that we, and the intimate and broader workings of our society, are so dependent.

The neuroscientist, entrepreneur, philanthropist and chancellor at Monash University, Finkel sees the wide and expanded use of electricity as the first step in ending our dependence upon fossil fuels.

He ends his article (“Switch on to the electric planet”) by saying: “Even if the politics looks harder than the science, we mustn’t be deterred. Earth is the best planet we have”.

Beneath the Wisteria supporter questions 'commitments'

Professor Dave Griggs.

Current commitments to cut greenhouse gases are inadequate according to Beneath the Wisteria supporter, Dave Griggs.

Professor Griggs, the director of Monash University’s Sustainability Institute, said today (September 27) in the Melbourne Age that current commitments to limit greenhouse gases would not stabilize global emissions at relatively safe levels.

Australia, it was reported, has committed to an unconditional emissions cut of 5 per cent below 2000 levels by 2020, and would adopt a target of 15 or 25 per cent depending on the level of global action.

Prof Griggs has not joined us Beneath the Wisteria, but has long been among the recipients of posts to our blog.

His comments can be read in a story headed: "Emissions targets too low: experts".

More and more evidence that the 'whole world is warming'

Prof Neville Nicholls.

“It’s just more and more evidence that the whole world is warming,” said a climate expert as Monash University, Professor Neville Nicholls.

Prof Nicholls was quoted in a Melbourne Age story today (September 7) headed: “Seas may be rising faster than predicted, scientists”.

The story referred to the not yet released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, of which some details have been “leaked”.

Imagining a nebulous 'thing'

Climate change for most people is a nebulous thing.

One bomb caused this massive devastation
at Hiroshima - climate change is releasing
the equivalent amount of energy every day.

It cannot be touched, felt, smelt or seen, except for when we are visited by an extreme weather event, and rarely is that ever attributed directly to climate change, rather just a “nasty turn in the weather”.

A senior lecturer in Communications and Media Studies at Monash University, David Holmes, set out to conclude how we imagine climate change.

His finding, or at least a report on his work, appears today on The Conservation in a story headed: “Four Hiroshima bombs a second: how we image climate change”.

The headline was for impact and to harness a reader’s attention.

Holmes certainly achieved his aim, but then a story on Climate Progress headed: “16 of your favourite things that climate change is totally screwing up”, reduced the conversation to more day-to-day matters.

The demise of those “favourite things” are what will really make people take notice.

Study finds emissions stable, but much needs to be done to avoid catastrophic changes

Commercial growth is frequently maligned as the cause of the world’s worsening carbon dioxide emissions, but a released recently study seems to contravene that argument.

A story by The Conversation editor, Sunanda Creagh, headed: “Greenhouse emissions stable over a decade as GDP grew 31%”, said the economic growth did not equate a worsening of emissions.

“The findings show that conversion to green economy need not be painful and is already underway in Australian industry.” Ms Creagh wrote.

According to the report, released by the Monash University research unit, ClimateWorks, the stable emissions, despite economic growth, were achieved through reduced deforestation, tree planting, a big boost in industry energy efficiency and sharp drops in power emissions.

However, much more needs to be done, the study found, if catastrophic climate change is to be avoided.  

Convincing others of climate change is complex

Paul Biegler.

Convincing people about the reality of human-induced climate change is as much about the mysteries of human cognition as explaining the facts.

The facts, it seems, as rather too brutal for most as they prefer optimism and to see life through rose coloured glasses.

The intricacies of addressing what is unquestionably the most significant threat to ever face humanity seems even more complex than the difficulty itself.

Postdoctoral Fellow in Bioethics at Monash University, Paul Biegler, wrote about that challenge on The Conversation in a story headed: “How we evolved to reject climate science”.