This is what climate change looks like in Australia
A NEW REPORT released by the Climate Council today has compiled catastrophic images of what climate change looks like in Australia.
Among the images are dead cockatoos and flying foxes, dying river red gums, bleached coral reefs and devastated kelp forests, which the council says shows us “our life support system on life support.”
“Australia’s ecosystems are being transformed before our eyes,” the report reads.
“Already bruised and battered by multiple human-induced stresses including land clearing, invasive species and freshwater diversion, climate change is adding insult to injury.
“Solutions are at hand. We need to accelerate the transition to clean, affordable and reliable renewable energy and storage technologies and ramp up other climate solutions in transport, industry, agriculture, land use and other sectors.
“Our health, economy, communities, and precious natural icons depend on it.”
Animals impacts by heat stress
Dead Carnaby’s Cockatoos collected after Esperance heatwave. Photographer unknown.
Mountain pygmy possum with dead pouch young. (Image credit: Dean Heinze)
Dead ringtail possums. (Image credit: Alyse Huyton)
Mass death of spectacled flying foxes in Cairns during November 2018 heatwaves. (Image credit: David White)
Ecosystem collapse
Healthy seagrasses at Shark Bay (Image credit: Jordan Thomson, Shark Bay Research Project) and dead seagrasses at Shark Bay (Image credit: Robert Nowicki, Shark Bay Research Project)
Mangroves of the Gulf of Carpentaria before and after a marine heatwave (Image credit: Norman Duke)
Royal penguins make their way up and down the trail, at the royal penguin colony, at Sandy Bay, Macquarie Island, Southern Ocean (Image credit: Brett Phibbs) and dieback of Azorella (Image credit: Dana Bergstrom)
Camiguin Island corals (Image credit: Klaus Stiefel. License: CC BY-NC 2.0) and Lizard Island, GBR May 2016 (Image credit: The Ocean Agency/XL Catlin Seaview Survey)
River red gums, Murray Riverland, South Australia (Image credit: Bill Bachman) and dead river red gums (Image credit: Amy Toensing)
Read the full report here.
