Effects of climate change

So, just what might happen if nobody does anything to change and the planet continues to heat up? Scientific projections include:

• Sea levels could eventually rise 70 metres (as the paleoclimatic record shows occurred in the Oligocene period 30 million years ago).

• Oceans will acidify and a warm layer on the water’s surface will destroy the base of the ocean’s food chain.

• Most of the tropical and much of the sub-tropical land area will turn to desert.

• Mass extinctions with loss of about 50% of all species.

“If you have got a population of nine billion by 2050 and you hit 4°C, 5°C or 6°C [higher temperatures], you might have half a billion people surviving.” Professor Kevin Anderson, director Tyndall Centre for Climate Change, UK.

How Australia would look if our seas rose by 70 to 80 metres

Comparing carbon footprint for households internationally

Tonnes per capita of carbon produced

Australia:    28.2
(Queensland:    41.3)
U.S.:    24
U.K.:    11
China:    3