Sunburnt Country

Sunburnt Country
The History and Future of Climate Change in Australia
Joëlle Gergis

What was Australia's climate like before official weather records began? How do scientists use tree-rings, ice cores and tropical corals to retrace the past? What do Indigenous seasonal calendars reveal? And what do settler diary entries about rainfall, droughts, bushfires and snowfalls tell us about natural climate cycles?

Sunburnt Country pieces together Australia's climate history for the first time. It uncovers a continent long vulnerable to climate extremes and variability. It gives an unparalleled perspective on how human activities have altered patterns that have been with us for millions of years, and what climate change looks like in our own backyard.

Sunburnt Country highlights the impact of a warming planet on Australian lifestyles and ecosystems and the power we all have to shape future life on Earth.

My Review

Actually not yet read, but when I first saw that the book Sunburnt Country was published, I thought I have read a lot of books on the subject and perhaps I will skip this one.  However after reading an article in The Age on 30 December 2018, I was inspired to buy the book.  I found from the article that Joëlle was someone to really look up to and a person who wanted to help save the world while there was time.

Four Degrees of Global Warming edited by Peter Christoff

 

Four Degrees of Global Warming: Australia in a Hot World  edited by Peter Christoff

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars

 

 

My review

After reading some publicity and reviews of this book, I was expecting something that really would give me a feel for what conditions would be like in a 4 degrees hotter world.  In many ways the book did, but I felt it could have drilled down to scenarios that discussed everyday problems living would like.  Not trying to single out any author, but just to illustrate the point, the cost of health following the Queensland floods is presented as  being a small cost in comparison to to a 2 degrees world and petty cash in a 4 degrees scenario.   It would have been useful to try to put a dollar value on this down to the $ per taxpayer.  Insurance likewise could have been treated like this, because insurance companies have already made calculations so some of this information could have been used. To demonstrate the impacts.

The book is presented more as an academic book with all the cross references which doesn't make it easy for the general reader.

Book Publicity

At Copenhagen in December 2009, the international community agreed to limit global warming to below two degrees Celsius to avoid the worst impacts of human-induced climate change. However climate scientists agree that current national emissions targets collectively will still not achieve this goal. Instead, the 'ambition gap' between climate science and climate policy is likely to lead to average global warming of around four degrees Celsius by or before 2100. If a 'Four Degree World' is the "de facto "goal of policy, we urgently need to understand what this world might look like.

"Four Degrees of Global Warming: Australia in a Hot World "outlines the expected consequences of this world for Australia and its region. Its contributors include many of Australia's most eminent and internationally recognized climate scientists, climate policy makers and policy analysts. They provide an accessible, detailed, dramatic, and disturbing examination of the likely impacts of a Four Degree World on Australia's social, economic and ecological systems.

The book offers policy makers, politicians, students, and anyone interested climate change, access to the most recent research on potential Australian impacts of global warming, and possible responses.

The Great Disruption : How the Climate Crisis Will Transform the Global Economy by Paul Gilding

An interesting book that held my interest. Paul Gilding describes the problems of the finite resources that we are using at a rate that means they can not last based on the scientific and mathematical  evidence; facts that many people readily agree with.   His conclusion is that we won't change until the economic consequences of this starts to come into play.  He is confident that we will act and act very quickly when things become dire; virtually on a war footing.   I would have liked to have had more of his views as to how some of the problems, such as population and water shortages caused by global warming, might pan out.  A book well worth reading.

Rating 4/5