By LUCY ORMONDE
Two things happened last Friday in Sydney. The first was that the temperature reached 45.8 degrees Celsius. The second was that my Frosty Fruit melted faster than I could eat it. And I am a pretty pacey consumer of Frosty Fruits.
Friday was Sydney’s hottest day ON RECORD. In the 150 years since people started recording temperatures, 45.8 is the highest number they’ve taken down. So it’s little wonder people were cradling Slurpees, panting out of car windows like laboradors and mainlining for water.
And Sydney wasn’t the only city that was sweltering. According to news reports, four of Australia’s 10 hottest days on record have occurred in the 2013. And it’s only January 23.
One staff member at the Bureau of Meteorology has called it the most significant heat wave in Australian history. Bushfires have been raging around the country and hundred of Australians have lost their homes and possessions. One person even lost his life.
The extreme weather has prompted politicians – and one of my delightfully helpful and informative (Read: chatty) neighbour – to kindly remind us all of the link between recent weather and climate change. “You only have to look at what’s happening with the fires around the country and the extreme heatwaves . . . to see what impact climate change is already having,” were the words from Greens leader Christine Milne.
And yet the scary thing is, so many people still fail to accept the science of climate change, making the likelihood of further political action, unlikely. Recent reports suggest that most people are becoming increasingly skeptical about whether or not climate change exists at all.
Top Comments
Mamamia - with posts such as this (and ones about public breast feeding, vaccination, loving your pregnancy experience/or not etc etc - where opinions are sought as to 'yes' or 'no') I would love to see a poll included before the comments. Just to give an idea as to how the majority of readers feel - a bit of a 'snap shot'. People could vote as part of their comment. Just a thought!
And this just in, from one of the worlds leading professors in climate science no less.
'Global warming is likely to be less extreme than claimed', researchers said yesterday.
'The Earth’s mean temperature rose sharply during the Nineties. This may have caused us to overestimate climate sensitivity. We are most likely witnessing natural fluctuations in the climate system – changes that can occur over several decades – and which are coming on top of a long-term warming.' ----Professor Terje Berntsen, University of Oslo.
Oh, but I am ignoring the science, I almost forgot.