NSW fires a warning of global warming

NSW fires a warning of global warming

By Susan Laszlo

The Australian Conservation Foundation claims that the devastating fires in NSW provide a salutary lesson about the potential future impacts of global warming in Australia.

According to ACF spokesperson Peter Kinrade, in Kyoto for the international climate conference, the El Niño-related climate conditions that have led to the NSW bushfires are, unfortunately, the sort of conditions that are likely to become more prevalent in eastern Australia next century.

"This makes the continued refusal of the federal government to support binding uniform emission reduction targets at the Kyoto Climate Summit even more inexplicable."

At the summit, the World Meteorological Organisation stated that El Niño events have become more frequent and intense over the last 40-50 years.

Due to the relatively brief monitoring, the WMO was not in a position to state that the increase in frequency and intensity of El Niño has been due to global warming. However, it did say that the recent pattern of El Niño is consistent with results of recent studies on global warming.

"The scientific community are stating that emission reduction targets negotiated at Kyoto are far short of what is needed to address global warming", Kinrade said.

From GLW issue 301