In 2010-2011, Queensland suffered a series of floods which affected 200,000 people and killed at least 35 people.
While it’s always impossible to say that any specific weather event has been 'caused by climate change', these floods are reminder of what climate science has been telling us for years and years. That along with global warming and the rise of sea levels, more frequent extreme weather events such as heatwaves, droughts, bushfires and floods should be expected.
Here’s some of the media coverage highlighting the links between floods and global warming courtesy of the Climate Action Centre...
Scientists have shown for the first time that human activity has made extreme rainfall and floods around the globe worse in recent decades…more
Is there a link between human-caused climate change and the extreme flooding in Queensland and Victoria? And if so, what does it mean for insurance…more
An expert says Australia will see a higher incidence of extreme weather events like the flooding in Queensland…more
Australian experts comment on various aspects of the flooding crisis in south eastern Queensland…more
In a land of droughts and flooding rains, it’s often hard to remember when you’re being scorched by one or submerged by the other…more
The proportion of Australia experiencing hot and wet extremes has increased in line with predictions of the impact of rising greenhouse gas emissions…more
We respond well to an emergency, but global warming is an emergency too…more
Extreme weather events in Brazil and Australia, which have killed hundreds of people, point towards a global warming trend, a Welsh climate change expert said last night…more
This devastation can help us learn to deal with changing natural forces…more
SOME areas of Queensland are so flood-prone they should never have been built on and should be declared no-go zones, with residents bought out and moved out, according to an international disaster expert…more
LAST year was the world’s wettest on record, and tied 2005 as the hottest year since record-keeping began in 1880…more
As Queenslanders battle the state’s worst flooding disaster in decades, countries around the world are also grappling with climatic chaos that has killed hundreds and affected millions more…more
Last year tied with 2005 as the warmest on record, according to U.S. agencies, but is likely to be overtaken soon by the next year with a strong El Nino weather event, experts said on Thursday…more
NOW is not the time to panic as we scramble to find ways to help the people affected by the floods. Calling for the building of new dams is, however, not a satisfactory response to a very wet La Nina year…more
THE strong La Nina pattern taking moisture to north-eastern Australia has been exaggerated by record high ocean temperatures, a combination not seen on this scale since the deadly Brisbane flood of 1974…more
Climate change has likely intensified the monsoon rains that have triggered record floods in Australia’s Queensland state, scientists said on Wednesday, with several months of heavy rain and storms still to come…more
Queenslanders knew this summer’s storms would be severe and bad flooding was likely. The weather bureau warned state cabinet of the dangers in a briefing last October…more
Recent scientific advice to the Queensland Government warned that the state would be threatened by higher flood levels from intense torrential downpours brought on by climate change…more
One of Julia Gillard’s top climate change advisers has warned that global warming may cause more extreme rain events…more
The devastating flooding in Queensland is the result of Australia being in the grip of an unusually strong “La Niña”, a periodic climate phenomenon that brings more rain to the western Pacific…more
It’s likely that the number of strong storms involving rain, snow and hail is also rising because of warming temperatures, not just urban sprawl and expanding development…more
NOW for the good news: Australia has just had its coolest year since 2001, with a mean temperature in 2010 of 22C…more
The Queensland floods and other recent record-breaking weather events can help push Australia further toward becoming a world leader in adapting to the predicted effects of global warming…more
Australia recorded its third wettest year on record in 2010, with 11 months of above-average rainfall soaking the east of the country because of the La Nina weather system…more
Data collected by the Bureau of Meteorology show that the Australian mean rainfall total for 2010 was 690 mm, well above the long-term average of 465 mm…more
Flawed study on impact of climate change on damages from Atlantic hurricanes ignores one of its own references and many key factors…more
New England, Tennessee, Oklahoma…. Who’s next?…more
A new breed of El Nino is on the rise causing more intense monsoons over northern Australia, says a climate scientist…more
CSIRO scientists are using a number of different methods to predict the risk of occurrence of severe weather events…more
The climate of 2040 is likely to bring more intense and more frequent extreme rainfall events to coastal eastern Australia, according to a CSIRO climate expert…more
The cost to the community of coastal flooding could more than double in some areas in the next fifty years due to global warming…more