Climate change is with us now. The number of extreme weather records being set around the globe is on the rise (1), a feature of a warming world. Australia is on the frontline of climate change which is set to get much worse if we fail to act quickly to reduce greenhouse emissions.

New heat extremes are a feature of a warming globe. The global average temperature has risen 0.6 degrees over the 20th century (2), with the warming trend since 1976 roughly three times that for the past century -- warming unprecedented in the last millennium (3). Furthermore, the 10 hottest years in the 143-year-old global temperature record have occurred since 1990 (4).

The average temperature over most of Australia is expected to rise up to two degrees by 2030 and up to six degrees by 2070, while the number of very hot days is expected to soar. Canberra is predicted to average up to 30 days over 35º by 2070, compared to four days now (5). Extreme summer heat can be lethal, as shown by the 35,000 fatalities of the 2003 European heatwave.

Australia, already the world's driest continent, is becoming dryer still. The 2002 drought was the first where the impact of human-induced global warming could be clearly observed, according to Australian meteorologist Dr. David Karoly. Heat and dryness also set the stage for bushfires which burned for 59 days during January and February of 2003 (6).

CSIRO predicts significantly decreased rainfall for much of Australia, declining up to 60% by 2070 in the south-west. Perth's surface water supply has already decreased by 42% since the mid-1970s in response to a 15-20% decrease in rainfall -- a change scientists have linked to global warming (7).

CSIRO also predicts storms will feature greater maximum wind speeds and more sudden and extreme rainfall (even where total rainfall decreases) (8). More intense tropical cyclones would bring storm surges, flooding, landslides, erosion and damage to buildings, not to mention the threat to human lives and livelihoods.

Linking the recent increase of weather-related disasters to climate change, global re-insurer Munich Re says that the world can expect a sharp increase in insurance costs and greater human misery unless we reduce our reliance on fossil fuels (9).

Some argue that this is a reason to expand nuclear power, but Greenpeace disagrees. Not only are significant greenhouse emissions generated through uranium mining and processing, plant construction and waste management stages, but nuclear power plants also produce routine radioactive releases, pose serious safety concerns and have a growing unsolved disposal challenge for highly toxic waste.

Energy efficiency and renewable energy are safer -- and far more economical -- ways to tackle climate change.

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