Temperature rises will make Brisbane a 'difficult place to live' within 30 years, report finds

An alarming report has found temperature increases from climate change and urban growth will make Brisbane "a difficult place to live" within the next 30 years, and more people will be at risk of dying from extreme heat.

The study found the number of hot days and nights would double.

The long-term climate modelling also found the number of hot days and nights will double in Australia's third largest city by 2050, and people will need to avoid outdoor activities throughout most of summer.

The peer-reviewed study, which was published recently in the International Journal of Climatology, investigated the impact of urban growth and climate change on heat stress during summer in Brisbane, from the present day to 2050.

Read the ABC News story by Shelley Lloyd - “Temperature rises will make Brisbane a 'difficult place to live' within 30 years, report finds.”

Warming limit of 1.2 degrees needed to save Great Barrier Reef: expert panel

Australia and the rest of the world must keep global temperature increases to 1.2 degrees - more than promised at the Paris climate talks - if the Great Barrier Reef's biodiversity is not going to deteriorate further, a panel led by former chief scientist Ian Chubb says.

Failure to meet the Paris climate targets would
be more bad news for the world's corals. 

The report by a panel of 15 scientists also called for the urgent revision of the reef's Plan to 2050 to account for "inexorable global warming”.

On Friday, federal and state environment ministers including federal minister Josh Frydenberg agreed in Melbourne to bring forward a review of the plan to start immediately rather than next year as had been planned.

In a separate report prepared by the Reef Advisory Committee, the Queensland Resources Council objected to some members calling for the giant Carmichael coal mine not to proceed.

Read Peter Hannam’s story in today’s  Melbourne Age - “Warming limit of 1.2 degrees needed to save Great Barrier Reef: expert panel.”

Is It O.K. to Tinker With the Environment to Fight Climate Change?

For the past few years, the Harvard professor David Keith has been sketching this vision: Ten Gulfstream jets, outfitted with special engines that allow them to fly safely around the stratosphere at an altitude of 70,000 feet, take off from a runway near the Equator. Their cargo includes thousands of pounds of a chemical compound — liquid sulfur, let’s suppose — that can be sprayed as a gas from the aircraft. It is not a one-time event; the flights take place throughout the year, dispersing a load that amounts to 25,000 tons. If things go right, the gas converts to an aerosol of particles that remain aloft and scatter sunlight for two years. The payoff? A slowing of the earth’s warming — for as long as the Gulfstream flights continue.

Keith argues that such a project, usually known as solar geoengineering, is technologically feasible and — with a back-of-the-envelope cost of under $1 billion annually — ought to be fairly cheap from a cost-benefit perspective, considering the economic damages potentially forestalled: It might do good for a world unable to cut carbon-dioxide emissions enough to prevent further temperature increases later this century.

Read The New York Times story - “Is It O.K. to Tinker With the Environment to Fight Climate Change?”