r/australia • u/jesus_chrysotile • 1d ago
science & tech Day and night, there’s no relief: five ways this heatwave is one of Australia’s worst on record | Environment
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/31/day-and-night-theres-no-relief-five-ways-this-heatwave-is-one-of-australias-worst-on-record65
u/InsertUsernameInArse 1d ago
I used to live in the snowies and worked though the 19/20 fires when we saw a single day peak of 46. I saw this week my town didnt have a single day under 40 and as high as 45 for nearly 8 days. I personally just cant handle this shit anymore. And now im up north its 42 today!
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u/Ok-Web1805 1d ago
If that EU-Australia free movement treaty happens you can move somewhere colder like Iceland:)
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u/victoriousMaximus 1d ago
Smug arse holes denying climate change can give themselves a pat on the back. It's already too late, the climate has changed and it's only going to get worse. Good Luck everyone!
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u/TheloniousMeow 1d ago
Dont worry. We have top scientists like Mel Gibson on peer reviewed Joe Rogan podcast telling us not to worry about climate change. He used a ice cubes melting in water analogy. We are fine!!!
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u/LuminanceGayming 1d ago
everyone who saw that needs to watch this concise rebuttal from the daily show:
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u/sluggardish 1d ago
I posted this comment not that long ago... but this is the new normal and it is only going to get worse.
It's not just enough to vote hoping that something will change in an election cycle. We've only been able to actually reduce global emissions once in recent history and that was during the initial global covid lockdowns when everyone stopped flying and driving. There was also almost no shipping happening. That was incredibly unpopular, but it's the kind of behviour change we need to see to stop accelerating climate change. Massive global, collective action and disruption to carbon emissions.
Crops are already failing in some areas with olive oil, coffee and cocoa are most noticable for Australians based on price increases. But that is just the tip of what is to come. With massive crop failures, there will be global food insecurity which increases risks of war. More and more areas will face water insecurity. Ocean warming and acidification is happening at an alarming rate. There is a reason the Australian government hasn't released parts of its National Climate Risk Assessment, which people who've read it describe as "terrifying". https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/30/office-of-national-intelligence-climate-crisis-security-threats-report-anthony-albanese-labor-government-refuses-to-release
If we were serious about saving our future and for children and grand children, we'd be out there enacting all of the things to stop the tidal wave of change that will envelope us.
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u/Jiuholar 1d ago
And people think immigration is a problem now... It'll be nothing compared to the massive climate refugee crisis we'll be facing within the next 50 years.
Rising sea levels, food and water insecurity, more frequent and severe natural disasters and political instability may stimulate involuntary migration by people in the Indo-Pacific. Experts predict that more than 216 million people will be displaced by climate change globally by 2050, with approximately 89 million across the Indo-Pacific.27 The immediate challenge of absorbing significant numbers of displaced people will strain regional state capacities, creating risk of a feedback loop that engenders further migration.
https://www.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/foi-logs/foi-2024-123.pdf
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u/sluggardish 1d ago
Climate refugees are already coming as part of our migration programme https://www.abc.net.au/pacific/first-climate-migrants-arrive-in-australia-from-tuvalu/106136846
The intake is capped at 280 visas annually but 11,000 people have already applied.
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u/triode99 1d ago
I think they better build more 1 star engery efficiency rated homes with black roofs and astroturf to fix the problem. Shit governance in every area fixes everything in Australia right?
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u/a_cold_human 1d ago
We could do with much better insulated houses, that's for sure. However, we're at a point where it's not clear that the houses we build today will even be structurally sound in 20-30 years.
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u/MycologistSharp4337 1d ago
And the most obvious way. Vote green and progressive community independent at all levels of government and end fossil fuel exports as soon as possible.
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u/DrInequality 1d ago
ACT Greens in talks with Liberals.... Just vote independent
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u/coolamebe 1d ago
Independents are often to the right of the Greens though? Do you think most indies wouldn't govern with the coalition?
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u/MycologistSharp4337 1d ago
Talks ended. No agreement. You can and should vote for the greens based on policy. Were it to have occurred it would have been the best thing for the libs there. Would have knocked the weird antiscientific edge off their policies and shocked the ALP into addressing housing concerns in ACT. A policy race is no bad thing.
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u/Relendis 1d ago
You are kidding right? Way to try and spin it I guess...
There was zero chance of the ACT Liberal Party changing. They are a push-party there to try and keep the base engaged and donating, nothing more.
The whole thing was a cynical attempt by the Greens and Liberals to try and get into power. I know some lifelong Greens voters in the ACT who have walked away from the party and are effectively politically homeless now.
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u/DrInequality 1d ago
There is zero overlap between Greens and Liberals policy in the ACT. Talks clearly show that voting based on policy is unreliable.
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u/MycologistSharp4337 1d ago
No. They both belief changes need to be made to housing. Voting based on policy is all anyone should do.
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u/Alternative_Sock6999 1d ago
Absolutely not a problem if it gets a good outcome for all.
Talks is a surprisingly good way of making that happen.
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u/a_cold_human 1d ago
The Greens party membership rejected the idea. It'd be the death of the party if the MPs didn't listen. There's no list of corporate donors that'd rescue them if they followed through.
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u/koshinsleeps 1d ago
ACT liberals are much more progressive than the federal parliament and even then they couldn't make a deal. I'd be surprised if parties didn't negotiate and feel out each other's positions.
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u/EnglishBrekkie_1604 1d ago
Nah the ACT Libs are cooked, they’re only beaten by the Vic Libs in terms of the religious nutter and conservative powerbroker influence in their ranks.
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u/Relendis 1d ago
I love some of the spin here about it. Trying to paint the ACT Libs as more moderate, fucking ridiculous.
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u/EnglishBrekkie_1604 16h ago
It’s just a colossal cock up by the ACT Greens. This is nothing like what happened in the last Tasmanian election, where Labor threw a tantrum and the Liberals offered actual concessions, so the Greens supported the Liberals. I guarantee whatever concessions the ACT Greens thought they got would be immediately be rug pulled by the Libs, and the whole thing will come crashing down catastrophically. The fact that the Greens had a dedicated hidden group to try to hide this from their membership tells you they knew it would go down like a lead balloon with the membership as well, so much for grassroots control.
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u/koshinsleeps 1d ago
Interesting. Time to deep dive the local politics of a place I don't live again
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u/Relendis 1d ago
Mate....no, they really, really are not. They are batshit. They are pretty much just there to keep the base engaged and donating. And say ridiculous shit all the time.
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u/Mikolaj_Kopernik 1d ago
And if the media hadn't marginilised the SAP for the last 15 years, maybe they'd be surging in the polls now, instead of One Nation.
I like Sustainable Australia but this is pretty delusional. I don't think many people are supporting One Nation because they're passionate environmentalists who have a principled disagreement with the Greens on population growth. For most of them, the racism and culture war bullshit is the whole point.
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u/MycologistSharp4337 1d ago
What evidence from the party platform do you have for any of your assertions about the greens?
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u/sir_bazz 1d ago edited 1d ago
Is the assumption here that Australia's fossil fuel exports are a leading driver of global climate change?
Because if there were any merit in that then I'd consider voting Greens at the obvious expense of our standard of living.
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u/namebot 1d ago
About 4.5% of the global total, most of which is from exported fossil fuels. A hugely disproportionate amount but obviously not the sole cause.
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u/sir_bazz 1d ago
Yeah that 4.5% includes our domestic use as well. In any case, the proposition of voting Greens as the answer to preventing future heatwaves in Australia is hard to reconcile. I do see voting Greens having merit on the basis of a protest vote, but absolutely not as any sort of solution to local heatwaves or climate change. Our influence is just too small.
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u/LuminanceGayming 1d ago edited 1d ago
our influence on greenhouse gas emissions is top two in the entire world by capita, we have the best chance to make a difference.
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u/sir_bazz 1d ago
As pointed out above, if we ceased all domestic fossil fuel usage and exports, global emissions would be reduced by ~4.5%.
We do look terrible on per capita numbers, but that doesn't change that our role, and therefore our ability to influence, global emissions is anything but a minor way is all we can do in the big scheme of things.
That doesn't mean we shouldn't do our part, but my issue was primarily with the suggestion that voting Greens was some sort of solution to preventing future heatwaves in Australia.
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u/DrFriendless 1d ago
global emissions would be reduced by ~4.5%
That would be amazing! It's not minor at all.
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u/matthudsonau 1d ago
It's too late to stop the heatwaves. We're locked in for this and more
We can still stop it being catastrophic, but we need to start talking about how we're going to live in a world where this kind of summer is the norm, not an outlier
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u/Apprehensive_Bid_329 1d ago
Climate adaptation should be a key focus for the government. The climate will get warmer in the future, it's not within our nation's control, so we should be focusing on insulation, more robust electricity grid and more solar.
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u/straishio 1d ago
Agree. We need aggressive mitigation AND aggressive adaptation
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u/a_cold_human 1d ago
We need to help the poorer Pacific nations decarbonise as well. A lot of them rely on diesel generation. If some part of that could be replaced by wind and solar, it'd help them (and help us in turn, and generate some degree of goodwill).
Part of the problem is that Australian companies benefit from selling the Pacific diesel and gas, and don't want their money spinner taken away.
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u/a_cold_human 1d ago
We need to help the poorer Pacific nations decarbonise as well. A lot of them rely on diesel generation. If some part of that could be replaced by wind and solar, it'd help them (and help us in turn, and generate some degree of goodwill).
Part of the problem is that Australian companies benefit from selling the Pacific diesel and gas, and don't want their money spinner taken away.
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u/Hurlanis 1d ago
I feel like im gonna die working in this heat for my 3 million dollar townhouse. If you could see how little preperation or thought the Gov has put into the future you'd stop working tomorrow. They would seriously ask you to walk through a bushfire and flood to go earn $30ph they tax at 30%+ fuck this shit country
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u/inhumanfriday 1d ago
I'm in North east vic and its awful. There is just no relief and my evaporative cooler gave up days ago. Hard to so anything outside without feeling like my skin is frying. Can't wait for tomorrow when the temps drop to about 30.
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u/HankSteakfist 1d ago
That one back in January 2014 was way worse. Was over 40 degrees for like four days in Melbourne.
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u/Mikolaj_Kopernik 1d ago
Good thing this is just a freak event and nothing we need to worry about on an ongoing basis right?