On land, Australia’s rising heat is ‘apocalyptic.’ In the ocean, it’s worse

BRUNY ISLAND, Tasmania — Even before the ocean caught fever and reached temperatures no one had ever seen, Australia’s ancient giant kelp was cooked.

Rodney Dillon noticed the day he squeezed into a wet suit several years ago and dove into Trumpeter Bay to catch his favorite food, a big sea snail called abalone. As he swam amid the towering kelp forest, he saw that "it had gone slimy." He scrambled out of the water and called a scientist at the University of Tasmania in nearby Hobart. "I said, 'Mate, all our kelp's dying, and you need to come down here and have a look.’

"But no one could do anything about it.”

Read the story from The Washington Post by Darryl Fears - “On land, Australia’s rising heat is ‘apocalyptic.’ In the ocean, it’s worse.”

‘This is our new normal': regional mayors on bushfires and climate change

Up on the New South Wales mid-north coast, we don’t have many inner-city greenies. What we do have is a community that’s battling the worst fire conditions we’ve ever seen, and looking down the barrel of what might be the hardest week we’ve had to face.

As our magnificent fire service works hard to contain the blazes threatening local lives and properties, it is galling to hear the deputy prime minister condemning anyone who draws the link between bushfires and climate change. Frankly, he’s pretty out of touch with how many people in my community are feeling right now.

Regional mayors say it’s time to put political
point-scoring aside and take measures to keep
their residents safe, which means addressing climate change.

We’re in the middle of an unprecedented dry spell, with river levels sitting at the lowest they’ve ever been. This is not normally a dry area – the hotter, drier conditions that are driving the current catastrophic fire conditions have developed over the last 10 to 15 years. And the science tells us that it’s climate change causing it.

Read the story from The Guardian by Claire Pontin and Dominic King - “‘This is our new normal': regional mayors on bushfires and climate change.”

Coastal erosion to worsen over next decade as storms wash WA beaches away

Western Australia could be hit with some of the worst flooding and coastal erosion it has ever seen in the next decade, as the tidal cycle combines with increased water levels caused by global warming.

A gazebo in the WA town of Lancelin was undercut by
erosion. It was later demolished

Recent storm damage has pounded the Western Australian coast, with the beachside town of Lancelin losing its gazebo at one of the community's main beaches, and a holiday home sliding into the ocean at nearby Wedge Island.

Other parts of the state, including Fremantle's Port Beach and Geographe Bay have copped the brunt of recent ferocious cold fronts.

Read the ABC News story by Rebecca Trigger - “Coastal erosion to worsen over next decade as storms wash WA beaches away.”