Michael Perry, PlanetArk 6 Jan 10;
SYDNEY - Australia experienced its hottest decade on record from 2000 to 2009 due to global warming, the nation's bureau of meteorology said on Tuesday, as annual summer bushfires again burn drought lands and destroy homes.
The average temperature in Australia over the past 10 years was 0.48 degrees Celsius above the 1961-1990 average, said the Bureau of Meteorology said in its annual climate statement.
And 2010 is forecast to be even hotter, with temperatures likely to be between 0.5 and 1 degrees above average.
"We're getting these increasingly warm temperatures, not just for Australia but globally. Climate change, global warming is clearly continuing," said bureau climatologist David Jones.
"We're in the latter stages of an El Nino event in the Pacific Ocean and what that means for Australian and global temperatures is that 2010 is likely to be another very warm year -- perhaps even the warmest on record."
Environment Minister Peter Garrett used the report to attack opposition politicians for blocking the government's key climate policy, a carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS) aimed at reducing greenhouses gases causing global warming.
"Australia is one of the hottest and driest inhabited places on earth and our environment and economy will be one of the hardest and fastest hit by climate change," said Garrett.
"Today's statement finds that the patterns of the last year and the decade are consistent with global warming. It (passing the ETS) is in the national interest and it is in the interest of the world," he said in a statement.
The government has promised to reintroduce its ETS legislation to parliament in February, a move which may trigger an early election in 2010 if the legislation is again defeated.
An election is due in late 2010.
EXTREME BUSHFIRES, HEATWAVES
The year 2009 will be remembered for "extreme bushfires, dust-storms, lingering rainfall deficiencies, areas of flooding and record-breaking heatwaves," said the bureau.
In fact, 2009 was Australia's second warmest year on record, with the annual mean temperature 0.90 degrees Celsius above the 1961-1990 average, driven by three record-breaking heatwaves that caused Australia's most deadly bushfires, killing 173 people.
"To get one of them in a year would have been unusual. To get three is just really quite remarkable," said Jones.
Outback Australia was warming more quickly than other parts of the country, with some inland areas warming at twice the rate of coastal regions, said the bureau.
But as Australia warmed, with large tracts of the country battling a decade-long drought, the northern part of the country was becoming wetter, said the bureau.
Floods now cover large parts of northern New South Wales state and the tropical state of Queensland.
"Australia as a whole has been getting warmer for about 50-60 years and it's actually been tending to get wetter," said Jones. "You see this paradox -- the country, particularly in the north, it's getting wetter but is also warming up."
(Editing by Alex Richardson)
Hottest decade ever for NZ, Aus
Science Media Centre New Zealand
Science Alert 6 Jan 10;
New Zealand and Australia experienced their warmest periods in the decade just closed since records began according to data released by NIWA and Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology.
While 2009 was slightly cooler overall than the 1971 – 2000 average, says NIWA, the decade was still the warmest, followed by the 1980s, the 1970s and the 1990s, in that order.
“This result is caused by a combination of natural variability and a background warming trend,” Dr James Renwick, NIWA Principal Scientist said in a statement.
Across the Tasman, Australian scientists also confirmed the warmest decade on record since reliable records began in 1910:
“2009 ends Australia’s warmest decade on record, with a decadal mean temperature anomaly of +0.48°C (above the 1961-90 average). In Australia, each decade since the 1940s has been warmer than the preceding decade. In contrast, decadal temperature variations during the first few decades of Australia’s climate record do not display any specific trend. This suggests an apparent shift in Australia’s climate from one characterised by natural variability to one increasingly characterised by a trend to warmer temperatures.”
In the run-up to the Copenhagen climate talks, the World Meteorological Organisation predicted the decade 2000 – 2009 would be the warmest on record for the globe. The local results from New Zealand and Australia will be taken into account in the finalised WMO climate data for the decade.
