Posted on 1 March 2020 by John Hartz

Story of the Week...

Australia on the frontline: ask an expert about climate change and its effects

Your chance to put questions to climate scientists and academics as well as experts on controlling bushfires

As Australia feels the brunt of the climate crisis, the ominous orange glow of a bushfire, such as this one near Nowra last December, has become an all-too common sight. Photograph: Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images

From unprecedented bushfires in forests that used to be too wet to burn to warming seas that have killed giant underwater forests, Australia is experiencing the effects of the global climate crisis more rapidly than much of the world.

Over the past three weeks, Guardian Australia has told these stories in a major six-part series that was paid for by readers.

The Frontline: inside Australia’s climate emergency has also looked at what happens when towns run out of water, at the health effects of cities and towns being engulfed in smoke for weeks on end, and at extreme heatwaves that are killing people prematurely. On Monday, we publish the final episode in the series, The Lost Harvest.

On Tuesday 3 March, readers will have the chance to ask experts in these fields questions about the series, what the science tells us and the impacts already being felt, in a Frontline live blog running from 10am-3pm.

Click here for more details about the live blog. 

Australia on the frontline: ask an expert about climate change and its effects by Marni Cordell & Adam Morton, Environment, Guardian, Feb 29, 2020

Toon of the Week...

Hat tip to the Stop Climate Science Denial Facebook page.

Coming Soon on SkS...

• Nine ‘tipping points’ that could be triggered by climate change (Robert McSweeney)
• Can you change your cranky uncle's mind? (John Cook)
• SkS New Research for Week #9 (Doug Bostrom)
• How I try to break climate silence (Baerbel)
• The potential climate consequences of China's Belt and Roads Initiative (Jan Ellen Spiegel)
• 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #10 (John Hartz)
• 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #10 (John Hartz)

Climate Feedback Claim Review...

Current climate warming is rapid and occurring on a global scale, unlike past periods of regional climate fluctuations

CLAIM: "Of course the climate is changing. It always has. It always will."

VERDICT:  

SOURCE: Instagram, PragerU, Jan 21, 2020

KEY TAKEAWAY: Although periods of regionally warmer and cooler temperatures have been recorded over the last 2,000 years, the patterns of warming and cooling were not globally coherent. In contrast, the current period of climate warming is unprecedented, occurring simultaneously on 98% [1] of Earth’s surface and at a significantly faster rate than past fluctuations in global temperature.

Current climate warming is rapid and occurring on a global scale, unlike past periods of regional climate fluctuations, Edited by Katy Dynarski, Climate Feedback, Feb 21, 2020

Poster of the Week...

SkS Week in Review... 

• 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #9 by John Hartz (SkS Original)
• Different Crises: Coronavirus & Climate Change, YouTube Video by ClimateAdam 
• Skeptical Science New Research for Week #8, 2020 by Doug Bostrom (SkS Original)
• Upcoming Cranky Uncle events by John Cook (SkS Original)
• How much would planting 1 trillion trees slow global warming? by Dana Nuccitelli (SkS Original)
• 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #8 by John Hartz (SkS Original)