When I was invited to contribute a chapter to a new book about climate change I found myself with a problem: how does one, in just a few thousand words, even begin to cover a subject of such scale and complexity? From which a myriad possible angles should the issue be approached? After all, I am not a scientist, nor am I an economist, a lawyer, a policy-maker, an engineer or a scholar
The term ‘water crisis’ has entered the public lexicon of Australian society. A sense of impending water scarcity has been given critical urgency through growing recognition of climatic change in the amount, location and variability of rainfall due to anthropogenic warming of the atmosphere
The challenge of assuring global food security for the world’s increasing population — estimated to reach 9 billion by 2050 — has been much discussed. Many solutions have been proffered, but most are from limited perspectives and often represent vested interests of some sort — economic, political, or academic
Our world in the second decade of the 21st century is characterised by extensive growth of the human population (7.2 billion humans in 2014, with one billion extra expected in the next 12 years), and a parallel increase in the use of fossil fuels such as crude oil, natural gas and coal. These present trends cannot continue without resulting in grave implications affecting the global quality of life. Numerous speculations exist regarding future scenarios
Why are our oceans important to us? How is our health, the health of the environment, the strength of our economy and indeed, our future, dependent on the seas? How can marine science help us, collectively, to sustainably develop our marine- based industries and at the same time protect our unique marine ecosystems so that they can be appreciated and enjoyed by future generations?
Climate change affects our emotional wellbeing. With increasing exposures to climate-related hazards, dire projections by climate scientists, and the news media highlighting our impending doom in epic proportions, it is no wonder so many of us are feeling worried, anxious and hopeless about climate change
Pollution of our environment has been recognised as a problem for eons. Early humans knew that separating waste from consumables was essential to health, even if they did not understand the true reasons why. Pollution has often been separated from climate change as though they are two separate issues and that the problems of dealing with pollution are unrelated to the issues of climate change
Our climate is changing and so must we. As climate changes become manifest, our intrinsic survival instinct will make adaptation an inevitability. However, whether we change quickly and effectively enough to ameliorate catastrophic change so as to ensure future generations enjoy a safe climate is open to question
In this chapter we explore how goals have been used to manage climate change. What is their role? What are they? Who sets them? Are they useful? Who is responsible for achieving them? Are they being achieved? We focus on Australia, but in a worldwide context
There has been much written and spoken about the issue of climate change over the past few years. These discourses build the case that there is a significant change in the global climate and that this change is the result of a continuing accumulation of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere