Australia climate snapshot reveals things are heating up
By TOM ARUP
March 15, 2010 THE nation’s two leading scientific agencies will release a report today showing Australia has warmed up significantly over the past 50 years. It is a response to recent attacks on the science underpinning climate change. The State of the Climate snapshot, drawn together by the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology, shows the mean temperature has increased 0.7 degrees since 1960. The snapshot also finds average daily maximum temperatures have increased every decade for the past 50 years. The report states temperature observations, among other indicators, ”clearly demonstrate climate change is real”. ”CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology will continue to provide observations and research so Australia’s responses are underpinned by clear empirical data,” the report says. Other findings reveal the past decade was the nation’s warmest on record, sea levels rose between 1.5 millimetre and 3 millimetres a year in the south and east and between 7 millimetres and 10 millimetres in the north between 1993 and 2009, and sea surface temperatures have risen 0.4 degrees since 1960. …
