Climate Change and Australia

This assignment provides an overview of the impact of climate change on Australia, including the depletion of natural resources and the risk of adaptive capacity. It highlights the importance of awareness and responsibility among Australians to address these issues.

Running head: AUSTRALIA AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Australia and Climate Change
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1AUSTRALIA AND CLIMATE CHANGE
The country Australia is relatively young in terms of being a country but in reality it is
much old. Australia can be regarded as an inland as well as a subcontinent which is positioned in
the southern hemisphere between two Oceans namely the Pacific and the Indian. “Australia is
comprised of Mainland Australia and the island of Tasmania and several small islands in the
Indian and the Pacific oceans”. The terrain can be considered to be a plateau region with deserts.
It can be stated that the major part of Australia has temperate weather. The states of Australia
which are in the northern part are characteristically warm at all times and the southern states
which have cool winters but rarely have “sub zero temperatures”. In the higher mountains, snow
falls at the time of winter which enables several resorts to find place there and smaller resorts in
the island states (Taylor).
The high amount of “change in climate” affects diverse avenues of the environment. The
ecosystems are very much valuable and also vulnerable to the effects of variations in the climate
which change rapidly. The country Australia is also quite rich in terms of the biodiversity and the
threat which it has from the human impacts needs to be addressed for its benefits. Often it
happens that a number of species in the Australian environment cannot adjust suitably. The
amalgamation of several factors namely that of “topography, habitat fragmentation, low capacity
for dispersal and the restricted ranges of geography” is responsible for adaptation to the climate.
It is crucial therefore to study the projected climate trends in Australia and discuss how
inhabitants might be affected or might respond to these specific changes. It also helps in the
identification of the suitable regions which are likely to be impacted by the issues in the climate
(Head et al).

2AUSTRALIA AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Australia is blessed with a lot of sunshine there has been a decline is the share of
renewable in the power generation. There has been a considerable threat to the Australian region
in terms of the change in the weather.
The commonest impacts of climate at present are to be considered in case of the natural
environment, and in other places are viewed in case of the natural environment and they are
linked to the increase in the degrees and the rise in the number, duration and well as the severity
of heat-waves. These impacts also comprise of the changes in the growth and the allocation of
the plants, animal and the insects (VanDerWal et al). There are also pole-ward changes or “shifts
in the distribution of the marine species and the increases in the coral bleaching on the Great
Barrier Reef and the Western Australian Reefs”. There are cases when the changing distributions
of marine organisms have impacted on the persons who visit the place (Buys, Miller, and van
Megen). Certain changes in the climate can impact the human activities.
There are certain provincial “variations in the Australian rainfall” have been connected to
human impacted the climatic alterations in the south western regions. The decline in the rainfall
and the surface reservoir since a considerably long time period has been a cause of concern. The
changes in the temperature of the atmosphere have been responsible for the green house effects
and the resultant concentration of the greenhouse gases (Keppel et al).
The effects of the climate changes in the future and the related rise in the sea levels are
bound to be impacted in several locations from the “natural environment” to the security of food
and the “human health infrastructure”. Among the “terrestrial ecosystems” of Australia some of
the most vulnerable situations to climatic change are the alpine systems because the habitats shift
to the superior elevations and also shrink in those places. The second area is the tropical and the

3AUSTRALIA AND CLIMATE CHANGE
sub tropical rainforests due to the warming temperatures, the third comprise the coastal wetlands
affected b the rise in the sea level, the fourth involves the inland ecosystems dependent on the
freshwater and the groundwater which are affected by the change in the patterns of rainfall and
finally the tropical savannahs which are affected by the frequency and also the severity of the
bushfires (Asseng et al).
The climate changes and heating effect makes the land and ocean life to migrate away
from those areas which have become too warm or in case of areas which previously were
extremely cool. In several places the climate change is can cause invasion by new species and
the extinction of certain existent species which do not have any particular place to migrate as the
places where they are located are not conducive for migration. Carbon dioxide affects the
ecosystems in a direct way and this can happen both positively as well as negatively. In case of
land areas the growth of certain trees and plants is ensured and this is referred to as the “CO2
Fertilisation” (Reser et al).
In parts of southeast Australia, there has been the “increase in the number of extreme fire
risk days over the past four decades”. There have been further “hotter and drier conditions” in
the southern parts of Australia which are much more likely to cause even more increase in the
number of high fire risk days and also in the length of the bushfire season. The concept of “CO2
Fertilisation” phenomenon might cause the increased cover of foliage and hence the increased
fuel masses in the warm and arid surroundings in the segmentation of southern Australia. In the
south east parts of Australia there has been the study of the “fire danger” days at extremely over-
rated temperatures.

4AUSTRALIA AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Heat waves have impacted the people of Australia both in case of their human health and
also because of the stress it causes. The elderly people have also not been spared from the impact
of the heat waves. The sick in addition to the old people have also been affected. There have
been several deaths due to the heat waves. Warmer temperatures have a chance of leading to an
increase in the water borne diseases and also those spread by food (Junk et al).
The effects of climatic change frequently act in order to simplify previous stresses. It can
be said that the “natural ecosystems are already subject to the urban encroachment,
fragmentation, deforestation, invasive species and introduced pathogens and the pressure on the
water resources”. The impacts of climate change and its severity might cascade to unexpected
limits. The impacts of climate change also have the power to impact the environment after their
interaction with other stresses. This can involve the shifting of other ecosystems and the societies
into the newer and innovative states with considerable consequences for the well being of the
humans. For the levels of climate change which are moderate, the countries like Australia are
well managed for the placement and the adaptability of such impacts. The developed nations face
several risks from the impacts which might lead to the capabilities for adaptation (Rickards and
Howden).
There is an existent story which states that water vapour and not carbon dioxide is
causing global warming and it is also part of the normal cycle of the Earth. It has been stated
often that the most abundant greenhouse gas is not methane or carbon dioxide but water vapour.
This is a different sort of concept where there is a positive explanation to the concept of carbon
dioxide.

5AUSTRALIA AND CLIMATE CHANGE
It has been discussed that the country and its inhabitants are depleting the natural heritage
and in addition to this are also betraying their future generations. The proper repair of the
Australian landscapes and their preparation for the global change requires involvement of all
types of Australians, at the same time the acknowledgement of the importance of climate change
is also given importance. The reasons which are responsible for the lack of progress are not
related to the poor policy or lack of public funding but are responsible for specific
recommendations. The reasons also include the cultural divide and the growing dis-connectivity
with the nature and all that is provided by nature (Beeson and McDonald).
The concern of the public regarding the environment as also climate change has receded
in the recent years. The concern has been shifted to other avenues. The human society at present
is interconnected and it is reliant on the complex supply chains in the “finite resource base”. In
the present world, there are several risks which Australia is faced with due to the changes in the
climate and this need to be addressed. The worldwide climate is further pressed beyond the
conditions of comparative stability which has characterised the past quite a lot of years. In such
cases, the risk of the adaptive capacity of certain countries or regions becomes even more
considerable. People need to be responsible and concerned and stop the “negative impacts of
climate change” in Australia as much as possible. There needs to be a proper awareness
regarding the negative effects of change of climate and global warming in order to change the
negative state of the world.

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References:
Asseng, Senthold, et al. "Uncertainty in simulating wheat yields under climate change." Nature
Climate Change 3.9 (2013): 827.
Beeson, Mark, and Matt McDonald. "The politics of climate change in Australia." Australian
Journal of Politics & History59.3 (2013): 331-348.
Buys, Laurie, Evonne Miller, and Kimberley van Megen. "Conceptualising climate change in
rural Australia: community perceptions, attitudes and (in) actions." Regional Environmental
Change 12.1 (2012): 237-248.
Head, Lesley, et al. "Climate change and Australia." Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate
Change 5.2 (2014): 175-197.
Junk, Wolfgang J., et al. "Current state of knowledge regarding the world’s wetlands and their
future under global climate change: a synthesis." Aquatic sciences 75.1 (2013): 151-167.
Keppel, Gunnar, et al. "Refugia: identifying and understanding safe havens for biodiversity
under climate change." Global Ecology and Biogeography 21.4 (2012): 393-404.
Reser, Joseph P., et al. "Public risk perceptions, understandings and responses to climate change
in Australia and Great Britain." Gold Coast, Qld: Griffith Climate Change Response Adaptation
Facility (2012).
Rickards, Lauren, and S. M. Howden. "Transformational adaptation: agriculture and climate
change." Crop and Pasture Science 63.3 (2012): 240-250.

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Taylor, Maria. Global warming and climate change: what Australia knew and buried... then
framed a new reality for the public. ANU Press, 2015.
VanDerWal, Jeremy, et al. "Focus on poleward shifts in species' distribution underestimates the
fingerprint of climate change." Nature Climate Change 3.3 (2013): 239.