THE SCIENCE
Making sense of scientific information on climate and climate change can be a daunting task: the key scientific topics are complex and multidisciplinary, and the huge amount of information on them is often overwhelming or conflicting.
While understanding the subtleties and complexities of these topics is important to decision-making, our group wants to emphasise three key messages arising from the science:
- There is overwhelming scientific evidence that the greenhouse gas emissions released by human activities have caused the world, including Australia, to warm, as well as many other observed changes in climate conditions and in ecosystems.
- These changes will continue, probably becoming more extreme if the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is not reduced. The projected climate changes are likely to have severe impacts on natural and human systems, including human health and, in some regions, survival. They impart significant risks to societal stability.
- Recent warming and other climate changes are already tracking at the upper limits of projections. There is therefore an urgent need to reduce the total amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
It is not the aim of this website to explain the basics and complexities of climate change, as there are many excellent websites that already do this. However, in this section you can find some answers to basic questions, information on new research and observations of relevance to climate science in Australia, and links to further information.
