The Beagle
Mar 8, 2019
The Beagle Editor,
Well, it's official. We've just had the hottest summer on record here in Australia. Some will no doubt try to deny it, claim it's fake news. But we know differently, don't we. We were there at the time!
Our Bureau of Meteorology knows too. They've compiled a convenient graph of summers past. You can see this last summer on the right hand edge. Yep, it was over 2 degrees hotter than the 1961-90 average that they use as a datum. We're supposed to be keeping temperatures within 1.5 degrees of that datum. Not going well, is it.
Especially as the BoM also advise us we're in for a pretty warm Autumn with unreliable rain. Rain was also down over summer, which is traditionally where we get a lot of our share. Hotter and drier. Not good.
What can you do about it? A lot, actually. This voting season, make sure you vote for someone with a bold plan to tackle climate change. And credibility in this field. That totally rules out the Coalition, I'm afraid - Tony "Climate Change is Crap" Abbott, and Scott "lump of coal in parliament" Morrison have neither a plan nor credibility. Vote for Labor or the Greens even if it's just for this one time. That will clean the climate change deniers out of the Parliament and get action on climate change underway. You can decide later, based on other issues, who to vote for next time. Vote for our future and our kids' futures!
Want to check the figures yourself and see what to expect in the near future? https://theconversation.cmail19.com/t/r-l-jtkjhryd-dyhdgbyd-m/
Or see the BoM video presentation: http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/outlooks/#/overview/video
Terry McGee
Malua Bay