Australian climate scientist, Dr Melanie Fitzpatrick, was on the expert review panel of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)'s November 2007 report. In this video, Dr Fitzpatrick explains the report's findings, how climate change will impact Australia and what we can do.



There is mainstream scientific agreement on the key facts about climate change:

(1) Certain gases, such as carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere create a greenhouse effect, trapping heat and keeping the Earth warm enough to sustain life as we know it.

(2) Burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Although not the most potent greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide is the most significant in terms of human effects because of the large quantities emitted.

(3) Carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere are now the highest in 150,000 years.

(4) Worldwide temperatures have risen between 0.5 and 0.9 degrees Celsius since 1900, higher than global trends. Ocean temperatures are also rising.

"The scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action."

Joint statement by 11 national science academies to world leaders

There is also widespread agreement that:

(1) A certain amount of additional warming (about 1.3º Celsius),  compared to pre-industrial levels, is probably inevitable because of emissions so far. Limiting warming to under 2° Celsius is considered vital to preventing the worst effects of climate change.

(2) If our greenhouse gas emissions are not brought under control, the speed of climate change over the next 100 years will be faster than anything known since before the dawn of civilisation.

(3) There is a very real possibility that climate feedback mechanisms will result in a sudden and irreversible climate shift. No one knows how much global warming it would take to trigger such a doomsday scenario.

View a video of a disappearing glacier landscape.