Melbourne weather: Heatwave continues as wild winds cause flight delays

If you woke up warm and wondering what season we're in, you weren't alone.

A dust storm covered the city this morning.
In some parts it was 30 degrees at 5am.

Thursday morning brought a confusing array of wild weather to the city including wild winds, a dust storm causing flight delays and temperatures as high as 30 degrees at 5am.

The dust storm was reported across Deer Park, Manor Lakes and Laverton and was moving into Footscray on Thursday morning. The State Emergency Service said a dust storm hit Ballarat and Ararat overnight.

Melbourne Airport is reporting 30-minute delays on flights - mainly arrivals - due to the dust storm and strong winds.

Read the story by Anna Prytz from The Age - “Melbourne weather: Heatwave continues as wild winds cause flight delays.”

Canberra hit by heavy rain, flash flooding inundates homes.

A deluge has brought parts of Canberra to a standstill and left some residents counting the cost as their homes flooded.

Cars under water at an apartment complex's car park in O'Connor

After a night of high winds and rain, Canberrans woke up on Sunday to more wet weather, which caused flash flooding through the morning.

Sixty millimetres of rain were recorded in the space of an hour at Sullivan's creek, just off Lake Burley Griffin, according to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM).

Just before 1:30pm, BOM cancelled the severe thunderstorm warning in place for the ACT, but warned Port Macquarie, Taree, Orange, Bathurst, Walgett and Dubbo could experience flash floods.

Read the ABC News story by Jon Healy - “Canberra hit by heavy rain, flash flooding inundates homes.”

Paul Hawken to visit Bendigo in February for Drawdown Summit

Paul Hawken first brought the Drawdown message to Bendigo in 2009 and changed the minds of many people.

And now the American environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist, and author will be back next month at the Bendigo Climate Drawdown Summit.

Mr Hawken’s latest book,”Drawdown” is described on its cover as “The Most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming”.

The Thursday, February 22, event is being staged by the Bendigo Sustainability Group, which it says, will allow Mr Hawken to provide insights on how Bendigo, and regional communities with clear goals, targets, actions, and projects will reap the economic, social and environmental benefits of the fast increasing global shift to a zero emissions economy.

The international Drawdown organisation is a group of qualified and experienced researchers from around the world to identify, research, and model the 100 most substantive, existing solutions to address climate change. 

The Bendigo group said: “What was uncovered is a path forward that can roll back global warming within thirty years. It shows that humanity has the means at hand. Nothing new needs to be invented.

“The solutions are in place and in action. Our work is to accelerate the knowledge and growth of what is possible. We chose the name Drawdown because if we do not name the goal, we are unlikely to achieve it.
“We’ve had global climate summits. We’ve had national targets and goals that come and go. 

“The real action however is happening and will continue to happen at the city and local community level,” the group added. 

The February 22 event will be held at Ulumbarra Theatre on Bendigo’s Gaol Rd with the two-hour session to start at 7:00 pm.

General admission is $32.65 and concession is just $22.45 and tickets can be secured from
https://goo.gl/DXdxW3

There’s Only One Way to Avoid Climate Catastrophe: ‘De-growing’ our Economy

You can almost feel the planet writhing. This summer brought some of the biggest, most destructive storms in recorded history: Harvey laid waste to huge swathes of Texas; Irma left Barbuda virtually uninhabitable; Maria ravaged Dominica and plunged Puerto Rico into darkness. The images we see in the media are almost too violent to comprehend. And these are the storms that made the news; many others did not. Monsoon flooding in India, Bangladesh and Nepal killed 1,200 people and left millions homeless, but Western media paid little attention: it’s too much suffering to take in at once.

What’s most disturbing about this litany of pain is that it’s only going to get worse. A recent paper in the journal Nature estimates that our chances of keeping global warming below the danger threshold of 2 degrees is now vanishingly small: only about 5 per cent. It’s more likely that we’re headed for around 3.2 degrees of warming, and possibly as much as 4.9 degrees. If scientists are clear about anything, it’s that this level of climate change will be nothing short of catastrophic. Indeed, there’s a good chance that it would render large-scale civilization impossible.

Read the Resilience story - “There’s Only One Way to Avoid Climate Catastrophe: ‘De-growing’ our Economy.”