Extreme weather


RAPID REACTION: South East Australian floods -experts respond

Tue Mar 6, 2012

As flood waters continue to affect towns across NSW and Victoria, experts discuss the role of La Nina and how urban planning contributes to floods.

ONLINE BRIEFING: Learning to live with floods – new report

Thu Jul 14, 2011

Floods cost Australia more than any other type of natural disaster, averaging hundreds of millions of dollars per year. We cannot stop floods from happening but there are many things that we can do to manage our flood risk and reduce the negative impact of floods. A new report, entitled Understanding Floods: Questions and Answers, [...]

MEDIA BRIEFING: Man Vs The World

Mon Jul 4, 2011

ONLINE NEWS BRIEFING – Tue 5 July at 10.30am AEST We often hear about rising greenhouse gases and pollutants caused by our love of cars, cheap flights and latest gadgets, but there are also emissions spewing forth from natural events such as volcanic eruptions, forest fires and underwater vents. How do these scales of emission [...]

ONLINE BRIEFING: Super-structures! What it takes to survive a natural disaster

Mon Jul 4, 2011

ONLINE NEWS BRIEFING – Mon 4 July at 12.00pm AEST Natural disasters are bad enough, but what happens when they topple our desalination plants or wipe out our power stations? The recent situation at the nuclear plant in Fukushima is just one example of what can happen. Governments, businesses and the public need to know [...]

MEDIA BRIEFING: IPCC in Australia to discuss extreme events and disaster management

Fri May 13, 2011

ONLINE BACKGROUND BRIEFING – Monday 16 May at 12.30pm AEST online As the year kicked off with severe flooding and storms in Queensland and Victoria and severe bushfires in WA, a question began to appear – just how vulnerable are we to such extreme events when they occur in quick succession? How many cyclones or [...]

ONLINE BRIEFING: Flood, fire and tempest: Extreme events in Australia

Mon Apr 4, 2011

ONLINE BACKGROUND  BRIEFING FROM GREENHOUSE 2011 (Cairns) – Tue 5 April at 12 noon AEST online Extreme weather events have been making headlines around the world recently and whilst scientists are often reluctant to say climate change is the cause of each individual event, it seems we can expect more cyclones, bushfires, floods and heatwaves.

RAPID ROUNDUP: Are ancient ‘megadroughts’ a sign of things to come?* (Nature) – experts respond

Thu Feb 24, 2011

Embargo lifted on Thursday 24 February at 5am AEDT A team of international scientists has discovered evidence that parts of the US suffered long dry spells, or ‘megadroughts’, during Pleistocene interglacial periods. The authors suggest these ‘megadroughts’ could be a sign of things to come. The study also suggests the climate in these areas would [...]

RAPID ROUNDUP: Cyclone Yasi – experts respond

Wed Feb 2, 2011

Below, experts  comment on various aspects of Cyclone Yasi.