The whole of Australia? That seems like an overly simplistic view. Australia is a very diverse country from a climate standpoint, there is everything from deserts to alpine regions[1]. Of course the impact of climate change will be seen everywhere, but in different ways depending on the specific areas, and not unlike the rest of the World.
For example, if we look at Koppen climates: it is true that much of Australia is arid (desert) or semi-arid (grassland)[2], but the non-arid regions of Australia (temperate, subtropical, tropical, equatorial) amount to an area equivalent to the surface of several European countries put together[3].
Australia has plentiful fresh produce of superb quality and is a major food exporter. Climate change will be a challenge for this country but hyperbolic predictions like OP don’t help anyone.
Australia and it's approach to climate change is rather depressing.
There have plenty of signs indicating the country is facing serious climate change issues. But despite these warnings, we as a nation have had decades with little or no action.
However, if the current Spring is any indication this Summer might be a turning point.
The record Spring temperatures suggest we might be in for a record breaking hot Summer.
Not only will that mean a worsening of the current drought conditions, but it also greatly increases the risk of serious bush fires (i.e wild fires).
As recent Australian history has shown, when it gets hot and windy those are the perfect conditions for uncontrollably, raging bush fires.
Honestly, take a look at what’s happening in Australia right now, it’s absolutely astounding how apocalyptic things are looking there.
What’s more amazing is the Australian Government is still in the business of climate emergency denial.
I’m really worried about certain communities and cities making it through the summer down there. It will be California In the same situation again soon.
the ridiculously hot summers in Australasia resulting in bushfires, famine and drought... seas taking over the cities are all demonstrable effects of climate change.
Did he live in UK? Yea the winter was milder I guess.
That's because Australia is populated by Northern Europeans who follow a Northern European lifestyle. This is completely as odds with the climate in most of the country.
In turn this partly explains Australia's high emissions.
1) It would be better if this article recognised that Australia is a naturally dry country and that the Murray Darling basis is prone to seasonal dry conditions.
2) It would be even better if Australian farmers also recognised that and didn't grow water intensive crops there.
Out of the 8 zones, zones 3 and 4 don't seem to inhabitable, they're probably the "outback" aka desert. 1 seems to be the subtropical jungle bits. They're huge, however doing a silly size comparison with Romania, which has around 20 million people ( https://thetruesize.com/#?borders=1~!NzkwMTU3Mg.NDI0MDg2OQ*M... ), it seems that even considering just the temperate zones, Australian population density is low.
I guess it's more an issue of bad urban planning because of economic pressures. Everyone bunches up in the same centers of population, which cover a very small area, in relative terms.
What percentage of the population lives in climates like yours? If I had to guess, maybe something like 10-20% of the worlds population?
My gut tells me the vast majority of the worlds population lives in locations that are more similar to Australia's climate than in climates like yours. So we start there, and overtime things get cheaper, we find better solutions to long duration storage, and then we start tackling the harder climates/geographies.
You massively overestimate how deserted Australia is. Most of the population of Australia lives in the greener areas near the coast, which has a much more moderate climate.
...also I doubt anyone from e.g. Brisbane would need to be told about mold and condensation.
Australia has millions of km^2 in the subtropics. Why would they move due to heating requirements?
Also there will be many, many climate refugees from floods, famines, droughts, super storms, fires, dust storms, and so on. Most of these issues are much harder to overcome than adding insulation, living in a reasonably sized home, sharing a wall or two, installing a heat pump, and putting on a jumper.
Damn, I was in Sydney 2 days ago so I just missed it. They're pretty spooked about climate change and water shortages down there. This isn't going to help matters any. It still would have been cool to witness. They say this is the worst dust storm in 70 years.
To be fair the southern hemisphere only accounts for 31% of the world's landmass and of that Australia is 20% of the total landmass in the southern hemisphere experiencing summer right now.
I don't know about op but keep in mind it's a big country. Very close in size to continental USA. With as much climate variation.
Sydney for example has a higher annual rainfall than places that Americans consider rainy (eg. Seattle). Combine that with warmer temperatures and in many parts of Australia you are fighting a potential jungle more than fighting desertification.
Canberra, the capital, on the other hand regularly gets below freezing which means less mowing required.
Yes. I was referring to the heatwave in 2018 where the temperatures hit 40C in a few places in (central?) France, vs. "typical" Australia where it's 45C+.
Also Australia doesn't have anything like the number of size of major rivers that France, and continental Europe has.
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