Australia links 'angry summer' to climate change – at last

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2013/mar/07/australia-angry-summer-climate-change


Map of extreme weather events that hit Australia during summer 2012/2013. Click on the image for a larger view. Photograph: Australia Climate Commission

The hottest summer on record. The hottest January on record. The hottest day on record for Australia as a whole. Bushfires in every state and territory. Daily rainfall records and major flooding. Over a period of 90 days, these were some of the 123 extreme weather records broken during Australia's "angry summer".

Despite the dramatic headlines and "flame-seared images" that documented extreme weather over the summer, the Australian media largely failed to make the link to climate change. Of 800 articles published on the heatwave over a period of five days in January, fewer than 10 also discussed global warming. In the US and the UK, by comparison, the relationship between global warming and extreme weather events such as hurricane Sandy and the UK's second wettest year on record became a major talking – and election – point.

But a report by Australian government advisers this week unequivocally and directly links the summer's extreme weather to climate change, and should make the link harder to ignore in future. Climate scientists have been historically reluctant to link the two – particularly in a country like Australia which has naturally occurring cycles of drought and floods and is naturally a land of weather extremes.

But the report "Angry Summer", released by the Australian government's independent Climate Commission, argues that this summer's conditions were different due to their record-breaking intensity and duration, and "were all influenced to some extent by a climate that is fundamentally shifting".