Tuesday, September 07, 2004

CSIRO: NSW temperatures could rise by up to 6.4 degrees: "By 2030, their modelling suggests, annual rainfall could fall by 20 per cent in some areas and up to 40 per cent by 2070, placing further pressure on water storage systems. This is likely to result in more calls for large engineering solutions to the water shortage, such as desalination, and weaken the case for a new Sydney dam. It also means that another crippling drought could arrive with even greater intensity.

"The scientific modelling returned increases of between 0.2 and 2.1 degrees by 2030, and 0.7 to 6.4 degrees by 2070. The research is in keeping with average global temperature predictions made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - a group of 2500 scientists advising the United Nations and World Metereological Organisation - which says the world will be 1.5 to 5.8 degrees warmer by 2100. But the report, commissioned by the NSW Greenhouse Office and to be released today, contains the first comprehensive predictions about what lies ahead for the state."

In response to the global warming crisis The Greens have policy to "phase in a carbon levy to reach $30 per tonne of CO2 with resulting revenue used to finance improved energy efficiency of energy use, renewable energy, public transport, social equity aspects and reduction in payroll taxes."

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