Swept away - 18 March 2010
I had a dream. Actually I have them most nights, but last night's seemed to have a climate-change focus. I dreamed I was standing at a busy intersection (symbolic, eh?) when floodwaters came rushing down the road (yep, symbolic). A mini car hesitated and then decided to go for it, attempting to drive through the rushing water. It was swept away. Then, in the peculiar logic of dreams, the next scene showed the driver getting out of his car, grabbing a sledgehammer and belting into his poor mini, seemingly in revenge for its failure to ford.
What does it all mean? My partner has hurried off to work before I could fully discuss it (why, when this is so fascinating?) so I'm exploring it here with you. Maybe my subconscious was working with the idea that our usual approach (represented by the mini) is an inadequate vehicle for moving forward. If we try to drive into the future in it, we'll be swept away. Then we'll be sorry.
But why the use of the future tense? On Monday, the Bureau of Meteorology (a more reputable organization than the depths of my mind) released its latest State of the Climate Report, which shows that climate change is not about the future. It's about the present. The bureau's report – a joint project with the CSIRO - shows that Australia now has more extremely hot days and fewer cold ones. It is wetter in the north and drier in the south.
The report states that since 1960 the mean temperature in Australia has increased by about 0.7 degrees. It says the long term trend in temperature is clear, although there is still substantial year to year variability. At the same time, in the period from 1993 to 2009, sea levels around Australia have risen between 1.5 and 3mm per year in Australia’s south and east and between 7 and 10mm in the country’s north.
On the question of whether these changes were caused by human activity, the report states that is 90 per cent certain.
So we're not hesitating before the deluge, we're in it. Our wheels are turning in the water. With the mining and burning of fossil fuels continuing and expanding, it looks like we really are trying to cross the raging current in a mini.