TRANSCRIPT
How long does humanity have left?
In January, the "Doomsday Clock" said we are 90 seconds away from midnight, after atomic scientists reset the predicted point of the world’s annihilation.
The "Doomsday Clock" is a symbolic timepiece showing how close the world is to ending and this setting is 10 seconds closer than it was last year.
Midnight marks the theoretical point of annihilation.
Every year scientists move the hands of the clock closer to or further away from midnight, based on their reading of existential threats at that time.
Cambridge University’s expert on existential threat Paul Ingram says the combined threat of the war in Ukraine and climate change was behind the prediction:
“If we maintain an addiction to competition and to conflict as a way of managing our social interactions and our interactions with ecosystems, we will perish. I think as the threats go get larger and that we become more aware and we understand them better, there is hope, I think, but we do change our practices and the way we we think and approach these things.”
Doom-laden thoughts were probably not unusual - certainly in January, Australians were looking back at a grim year for the environment in 2022.
Persistent heavy rain caused widespread flooding, there had been bushfires, and extreme heatwaves.
Former New South Wales Commissioner for Fire and Rescue Greg Mullins says successive governments are seeing the result of their inaction against climate change.
“It has been very difficult because they've gone from one disaster to another. Another impact of climate change is compounding disasters. So just as you were recovering from one, another one hit. So, it's very, very difficult. And what governments really must focus on is minimising the effects of climate change. So, we must drive down emissions rapidly because what we must focus on is what sort of a planet we're going to give to our grandchildren and future generations. “
In February, The Climate Council released their annual Dirty Dozen report, naming and shaming Australia’s 12 biggest fossil fuel polluters.
The Council listed companies such as Chevron, B-H-P, and Shell as causing the most climate harm.
Head of Advocacy for the Climate Council, Dr Jennifer Rayner, said these companies needed to reduce their climate impacts.
“We need the Dirty Dozen and companies like them genuinely transforming by finding new fuel sources, changing their technologies and ultimately for these fossil fuel companies eventually transitioning to new businesses because we know time is running out for fossil fuels.”
However, Australia's energy grid still needs coal power to meet requirements.
13 per cent of the market's capacity - in the form of at least five coal-fired power stations - is expected to retire within four years.
The Australian Energy Market Operator has warned that new power generation, new transmission lines, and new energy storage is going to be needed to avoid blackouts.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, attacked nations with big economies for causing problems relating to climate change for which poorer countries are bearing the consequences.
“Combating climate catastrophe that you did nothing to cause is challenging when the cost of capital is sky high and the financial support you receive to mitigate and adapt to the destruction is a drop in the bucket. Meanwhile, bigger economies continue to heat our planet.”
In March, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [[IPCC]] released a report confirming humans have caused global warming and greenhouse gas emissions are continuing to increase.
Professor Malte Meinshausen, from the University of Melbourne, told SBS time is running out:
“This decade is really the last decade and 2030s is the last time where we have a chance to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees temperatures. In the next assessment cycle, so if we are presenting you the next report, that chance will have gone.”
The government's climate emissions bill, forcing the nation's 215 biggest emitters to reduce their emissions by 4.9 per cent each year, passed at the end of March after Senators slept in their offices following marathon late-night debates.
Meanwhile the World Meteorological Organisation [[WMO]] warned that global sea levels are rising at more than double the pace they did in the first decade of measurements from 1993 to 2002.
W-M-O Secretary-General Petteri Taalas:
“We have already lost this melting of glaciers game and sea level rise game, so, that’s bad news and according to IPCC, the conservative estimate of sea level rise is half metre to one metre per century.”
The government has assessed a rise in sea levels of a metre would put 63 billion dollars-worth of residential housing at risk of flooding.
In June, world leaders gathered for a summit meeting in Paris to discuss the climate crisis.
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg said time is running out for the world.
“ The emissions of greenhouse gases are on an all time high and the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere hasn't been this high in the entire history of humanity. And we are still speeding in the wrong direction. The emissions are on the rise, and science has been very clear on this, and the people living on the frontlines of the climate emergency have been sounding the alarm for a long time.”
July brought heavy rain and flooding to several cities around the world.
In the northeastern United States, heavy rain washed out roads, prompted evacuations, and even disrupted air travel, and took the life of a woman in New York as she tried to flee her home.
India's capital New Delhi saw heavy monsoon rains causing chaos, while flash floods and landslides in the northern hill states claimed the lives of at least 15 people.
Provinces in central and northeastern China also grappled with heavy rainfall, having already coped with heatwaves, floods, and droughts during the northern summer.
An extreme heatwave swept across the northern hemisphere, dubbed 'Cerberus' after the mythical dog guarding the gates of Hell.
Authorities banned access to nature reserves and forests for fire-risk reasons, while cities opened air-conditioned areas in public buildings for people to shelter from the heat.
Climate scientist Professor Hannah Cloke, from Reading University, says heat can be a killer - and she had grim predictions for the future:
“We saw a serious heatwave last summer. We saw a serious heatwave previous to that as well. But it's getting worse and worse and we are locked into some of these changes. Certainly, we should immediately stop pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere because that is going to cause even more problems in the future.”
July became the planet's hottest month in recorded history.
2023's Intergenerational Report, released by the Australian Government, looks 40 years into the future and offered a stark warning of a poorer, less productive and hotter nation.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the report is a reminder that there is no time to waste when it comes to action on climate change.
“We can't be complacent about the future. And where that complacency could be the most damaging is when it comes to climate change. You know we've tried complacency on climate change and it's meant that we've wasted a lot of time.”
The 2023 Atlantic hurricane season was the fourth-most active Atlantic hurricane season on record with 20 named storms, the worst since 1933.
Among them, seven became hurricanes, with three reaching major hurricane strength.
Hurricane Idalia in August slammed into Florida with winds exceeding 192 kilometres per hour and heavy rainfall.
It prompted this thought from U-S President Joe Biden:
“I don't think anybody can deny the impact of the climate crisis anymore. Just look around. Historic floods, I mean, historic floods, more intense droughts, extreme heat, significant wildfires have caused significant damage like we've never seen before, not only throughout the Hawaiian Islands and the United States, but in Canada and other parts of the world.”
But it was a wildfire on the Hawaiian island of Maui that captured the world's attention in August.
Dozens of people lost their lives, thousands were displaced, and the historic township of Lahaina was burned to the ground.
Climate change took the blame for the unexpected ferocity of the flames.
Major General Kenneth Hara, from the Hawaii State Department of Defense, said the conditions were challenging.
“The reason it spread so fast is there are reports of gusts of up to 85 miles per hour (137 kph). So you know that is so fast, and that's why Maui County had such a hard time doing containment of the fire. And because the winds were so high, we couldn't provide the helicopters to do the water bucket support.”
It's likely to be a pretty hot - and potentially dangerous - summer here in Australia.
The Bureau of Meteorology has declared Australia has entered an El Niño climate pattern.
The climate driver is associated with hot, dry weather which emergency services fear will increase the risk of bushfires around the country.
A year of evidence of the damage caused by climate change culminated in COP-28, the United Nations Climate Change conference, held this year in Dubai in the U-A-E.
One of the significant outcomes was the launch of a so-called loss and damage fund to support countries affected by global warming.
Climate envoy from Barbados Avinash Persaud says the agreement is something nations like his have been waiting a long time for.
“In particular, small island states who are the canaries in the mine on climate change, who have been experiencing climate loss and damage before many others, have been arguing for the need for some special funding. All the climate-vulnerable countries are now also the world's most indebted countries because of having to fund reconstruction and rehabilitation without funding.”
But when final statement was eventually agreed, there was disappointment from many countries that the commitment to phase out fossil fuels was not stronger.
Head of Climate and Energy at Greenpeace Australia Jess Panegyres told SBS it's vital to continue to fight.
“What's positive is that the world has agreed on what's needed. And that's transitioning away from fossil fuels. But what's disappointing is that there's no action plan to do this yet. So we will keep on fighting for the action that we need to keep 1.5 degrees (Celsius) alive. That's what our Pacific neighbours are asking for and that's what we need in Australia in order to avoid more catastrophic bushfires, floods and extreme heat.”
Climate change, the scientists tell us, is the single most dangerous problem facing the human race.
Whether progress was made this year is still up for debate.
