Climate change has already had serious consequences in Australia, recently hit by fires, drought and cyclones of rare intensity but the immense island-continent must expect much worse disasters, according to the main scientific and meteorological agencies of the country.
The Australian National Science Agency (CSIRO) and the Australian Meteorological Service released a report on Friday foreshadowing what awaits the country already ravaged in 2019-2020 by forest fires of an exceptional magnitude after having experienced the most hottest and driest ever.
“In the next century, this decade will be fresh”
The fires have destroyed an area almost the size of the UK, killed 33 people and killed or displaced nearly three billion animals, costing the Australian economy around $ 7 billion (€ 6 billion ).
“In ten or twenty years, we will not say that 2019 has been very hot – 2019 will just be normal”, Jaci Brown, director of the CSIRO Climate Science Center, told ABC public television.
“In the next century, this decade will be considered fresh”, she added.
The climate report, published every two years, points out that rainfall is less abundant in southwest Australia as well as in the southeast, which has been ravaged by the fires, even though they are more numerous in the north, hit by extensive flooding and destructive cyclones in recent years.
One degree warming of the oceans
Average temperatures have risen by 1.44 ° C since 1910, according to scientists who recall the goal of the Paris climate agreement to contain the rise in temperatures to 1.5 ° C compared to the pre-industrial era.
The oceans have experienced one degree warming on average over the same period, leading to their acidification and more frequent marine heat waves, according to the report.
Half of the corals in Australia’s Great Reef have perished since 1995 as a result of this rise in water temperature.
The report predicts sea level rise in line with international forecasts as tropical cyclones will be less frequent but more intense.
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