Dirty weather to become the new normal weather?

Will the increasing frequency of ‘dirty weather’ – extreme weather  events linked to climate change – become the new norm?

The picture of a really fat and angry water spout ripping across Batemen’s Bay on Sunday put the fear of something right up a lot of people, and it’s events like this that sheet home the reality of climate change. Global warming has never been predicted to mean a benign slightly milder climate – rather it means increasing instability at the extremes of every weather event.

As reported at smh.com.au: “The World Bank has warned the planet is on track to warm by four degrees Celsius this century – causing increasingly extreme heat waves, lower crop yields and rising sea levels – unless significant action is taken to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

“In a major report released ahead of the year-end United Nations climate summit in Qatar, the bank says changes associated with four degrees of warming would have dramatic and devastating effects on all parts of the world, including Australia, but that the poor would be most vulnerable.

“Scientists say global warming must be kept within two degrees of pre-industrial temperatures to give the world the best chance of avoiding the worst impacts of climate change.

Water spout, Bateman’s Bay NSW, Sunday 18 November 2012. Photo – smh.com.au

The World Bank report is a snapshot of the most recent climate science, and was prepared for the bank by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Climate Analytics. Like all major reports in recent years, it says global mean temperatures are now 0.8 degrees above pre-industrial levels. The about-to-be-released IPCC 5th report also ratchets up the conclusions of the previous reports significantly.

The Potsdam report says that if current promises by nations to curb emissions are met, we will most likely get more than three degrees of warming. But it also warns there is a 20% likelihood that four degrees of warming will occur before the end of this century.

This message is getting repetitious, yet still needs to be shouted loud and clear: buildings and their occupants have the opportunity to be 40% of the solution! and passive design is the lion’s share of that – so let’s not muck around. And as all of our clients know well, there are so many ‘here and now’ reasons to pursue passive design without compromise.

Read more on the Potsdam report here.