DEAR News Of The Area,

I APPRECIATED Juliet Thomas’ letter (‘Let us be clear. These are not natural disasters’, p29, Coffs Coast NOTA, April 8 Edition) regarding the importance of tackling climate change.

Despite all the overwhelming evidence, however, it amazes me that there are still many who delay action and do not even accept the basic science behind climate change.

Climatology as a field of science accelerated in the 1970s, but much of the work commenced much earlier.

The first descriptions of the insulating effect of the Earth’s atmosphere go back to Joseph Fourier in the 1820s.

In the 1860s, John Tyndall determined that CO2 could reflect infrared energy.

In the 1890s, Svante Arrhenius estimated that a global doubling of CO2 levels could cause as much as 5-6ºC of warming.

Since then, scientists have continued to find evidence confirming these early predictions.

All other natural factors, such as volcanic emissions, solar energy variations, and cosmic rays have been shown to be insufficient explanations for the overall rise in the Earth’s temperature, with human-caused emissions of CO2 and methane the primary culprits.

Fast forward a century and before the ground in Lismore had even begun to dry, sceptics were already claiming that the recent weather was nothing unusual.

Two years ago, while the bushfires were still blazing on the east coast of Australia, claims were similarly made that the bushfires were natural and normal.

While no definitive evidence was available at the time, within a matter of months, there was ample evidence that the bushfires had indeed been exacerbated by climate change with warming global temperatures contributing towards a rise in the fire danger rating.

Sure, you can point to factors that have a cyclical effect on the Australian climate, for example, El Niño/ La Niña and the Indian Ocean Dipole will alternate over a decade meaning that some years will be very wet while other years will experience drought.

Climate change does not predict that these cycles will disappear, but the effects of increased temperatures experienced during each phase of the cycle have been shown to worsen in different ways.

The recent wetter weather is mainly thanks to La Niña, and the effects of this have again likely been exacerbated by warmer global temperatures.

Formulae first developed in the 1800s show that with every 1ºC of warming, there will be a corresponding seven percent increase in the moisture content of the atmosphere.

Although it may be too early to put an exact figure on the effect of climate change on the recent flooding events, the fact that there is a relationship is entirely consistent with over 100 years of physics.

The time for action on climate change is now.

Kind Regards,
Dave HUDSON,
Boambee East.