<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/27/through-the-heatwave-haze-the-hypocrisy-of-australias-fossil-fuel-policy-shines-bright>
"On Tuesday, Australia’s second-largest city baked through one of its hottest
days since modern instrumental records began in 1910. Several Melbourne suburbs
topped 45C. The country’s fifth-largest city, Adelaide, reached that
temperature on Monday. Its residents then suffered through their hottest night
ever, with a minimum of about 34C.
Remote communities were even harder hit. It was 48.9C in Hopetoun and Walpeup
in Victoria’s north-west, and 49.6C in Renmark, over the South Australian
border. An out-of-control bushfire burned in the Otways region, south-west of
Melbourne, near areas that just two weeks ago faced flash flooding.
So what, right? Of course, Australian summers can be brutal. We’ve been here
many times over. Rinse and repeat.
Well, no. We know there is something bigger going on here.
It is too soon for attribution studies examining the role the climate crisis,
caused by rising amounts of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere played in the
latest heatwave. But we have a pretty good idea what they will say.
Academics from World Weather Attribution have already published an analysis
that found the heatwave that blanketed much of Australia in early January was
five times more likely to occur now than before human-caused global heating
changed the climate.
This is now a key part of the story of heat across the continent and beyond.
It’s remarkable – and a win for fossil fuel companies and climate
change-denying vested interests – that it is rarely mentioned in daily news of
heatwaves and other extreme weather events."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
