The oceans are now absorbing so much carbon dioxide they are acidifying at an unprecedented rate, according to the International Program on the State of the Ocean.
Geological records show the current acidification is unparalleled in at least the past 300 million years, IPSO's latest State of the Ocean report says. ''We are entering an unknown territory of marine ecosystem change, and exposing organisms to intolerable evolutionary pressure,'' it says
Australians have just lived through the warmest September since records began, according to the rebadged Climate Council. The latest record also makes the past 12 months the warmest documented, while 2013 is set to go down as the hottest calendar year in Australia, surpassing 2005.
Climate scientist Will Steffen said: ''We've got high sea surface temperatures around Australia and that usually leads to warmer than average weather conditions, so if I was a betting man I would say that we are going to get the calendar record this year.'' September temperatures were almost three degrees above the long-term average, according to a Climate Council report released on Thursday.
''Although Australia has always had heatwaves, hot days and bushfires, climate change is increasing the risk of more frequent and longer heatwaves and more extreme hot days, as well as exacerbating bushfire conditions,'' he said. Last summer saw more than 120 extreme weather-related records broken, including the hottest January on record and the hottest day recorded in Australia since reliable record keeping began in 1910. http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/climate-council-marks-2013-as-hottest-of-warmer-years-20131003-2uxer.html
Bondi under siege as swelling ocean seeps into suburbs. In the case of an 80-centimetre rise in sea levels, high tides would regularly flood parts of many Sydney suburbs that are close to water, including sections of Annandale, Mosman, Marrickville, Brighton-le-Sands, Sylvania Waters, Five Dock and Narrabeen.
The last legally binding treaty on climate change to be drawn up was the Kyoto Protocol way back in 1997, covering developed countries. Since then the world has tried and failed to hammer out a stronger, more encompassing treaty. The 2009 Copenhagen talks ended in disaster, stuck in a mire of self-interest and mistrust.
But self-interest will only go so far. That nagging science does not seem to be going away. There have been encouraging signs in recent years, particularly out of the US and China who are making tentative steps to get their mammoth emissions under control. The world will have another go at signing a full climate treaty at negotiations in Paris in 2015.
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