CSIRO sounds the alarm

It's official. CSIRO says Australia is experiencing significant climate change as a result of global emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities. And it says we need to reduce emissions by 60% by 2050 to avoid catastrophic results. The Prime Minister denounced the report and said reductions of that order would destroy the Australian economy. The report was written for the Australian Business Roundtable on Climate Change is by CSIRO's Dr Benjamin Preston and Dr Roger Jones. They report that rainfall in regional Australia has already been affected and this will get worse. We stand to lose the Great Barrier Reef with only slight warming. Water availability will become a bigger problem than it is already. "The declines in precipitation projected over much of Australia will exacerbate existing challenges to water availability and quality for agriculture as well as for commercial and residential uses," they say. "Future changes in climate extremes, such as tropical cyclones, heat waves, and extreme precipitation events, would degrade Australian infrastructure and public health, for example, through increased energy demands, maintenance costs for transportation infrastructure, and coastal flooding."