NSW: Climate change will bring more extreme weather, say experts
10 Feb 2009 1:08 AM
SYDNEY, Feb 10 AAP - Climate change experts have warned that severe weather events are likely to occur more often in Australia as global warming continues.
Commenting on the Victorian bushfires, climatologist Professor David Karoly told the ABC's Lateline program on Monday night that hot temperatures in Melbourne on Saturday and in many parts of southeastern Australia were "unprecedented".
"The records were broken by a large amount and you cannot explain that just by natural variability," he said.
"What we are seeing now is that the chances of these sorts of extreme fire weather situations are occurring much more rapidly in the last ten years due to climate change."
Scientist Greg Holland, from the US National Centre for Atmospheric Research, said it was an unfortunate fact of life that high levels of greenhouse gases would "be with us for decades".
"We definitely need to change our habits so that we can leave our children and our children's children with a better world to live in," he said on Lateline.
"In the meantime we are going to have to adapt, we are going to have to accept that it is not going to be six days per summer of extreme temperatures.
"It may be 20 days per summer of extreme temperatures.
"And we have to take the appropriate actions to actually live with those conditions."
On Monday, Victorian Premier John Brumby said a royal commission would investigate every aspect of the Victorian bushfires, including the possibility of greater danger resulting from climate change.
