Australian Alps to fare worst under climate change
A new international study predicts climate change will cause a major decline in snow fall across the globe by the end of the century especially in Australia. Research from the University of Bayreuth in Germany suggests average annual snow cover days could drop by 78 per cent in the Australian Alps by next century. That's the biggest decline out of six other regions in the world, including New Zealand and Japan.
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TVTranscript
00:00 The report is something that is showing
00:03 that there's a significant decline
00:05 likely to happen in snow cover
00:07 across the globe in the rest of this century.
00:10 This is, however, not really news for us here in Australia.
00:13 We've had reports as far back as the 1980s
00:17 showing that we've got the potential
00:19 for a significant decline in the snow cover in our alpine areas.
00:23 And we've been seeing that over the past few decades.
00:26 The research that I've been doing on snow patches in our Australian Alps
00:31 has shown that our snow patches are melting, on average,
00:34 one day earlier every year over the past 30 years.
00:38 So we're seeing this change already,
00:40 and this change is likely to continue as the world continues to warm.
00:44 It's really important we do everything we can
00:47 to mitigate the future potential effects of climate change.
00:51 The scenarios that this study from Germany have put out
00:54 range from what might happen
00:57 if we work very hard on climate change
01:01 and make some good inroads,
01:02 right up to the worst-case scenario.
01:05 So we really have to do everything we can
01:07 to minimise the chance of these worst-case scenarios happening.
01:11 Because if we do get these worst-case scenarios,
01:13 it's going to have very significant impacts
01:15 not only on our plants and animals,
01:18 but, of course, on recreational activities like skiing
01:21 that we do up in our alpine areas as well.
01:23 [BLANK_AUDIO]