CLIMATE CHANGE AND NATURE CONSERVATION
For many years TWS has a philosophy that our best contribution
to meeting the threat of climate change was through the
protection of standing carbon in forests and woodlands.
e
Ending broad acre land clearing
in Queensland over 2004-6
helped Australia meet its Kyoto
targets.
Protecting carbon rich
forests can only help…
TWS FOSSIL FUEL POLICY 2013
• Oppose the extraction and use of fossil fuels as an energy source;
• Campaign against the exploitation of new fossil fuel basins and large new fossil fuel developments;
• Campaign for new laws and improved corporate behaviour that deliver a rapid transition away from
fossil fuels.
Fossil Fuels Campaign
BIG NUMBERS
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Maules Creek – 500 megatonnes CO2 equivalent
Pilliga/Channel Country – 10 gigatonnes CO2 equivalent
Canning Basin – 25 gigatonnes CO2 equivalent
Arckaringa – 100 gigatonnes CO2 equivalent
Great Australian Bight – 10 gigatonnes CO2 equivalent
Humans are affecting the atmosphere…
We are already seeing….
• Geographic range shifts (mainly south, some upwards)
• Life cycles (eg. advances in flowering, bird migration)
• Genetic change (heat shock proteins)
• Body size (latitudinal clines shifting)
• Warm-adapted species in communities increasing at
expense of cool-adapted
What to expect in the future
…more of the same…but accelerating…
• Range expansions at cooler boundaries, contractions at warmer
boundaries, many overall range contractions
• Decoupling of current day species interactions
• Population losses under climatic stress
• Shifts in ecotones
• Novel communities
• Increased extinction rates
Some places getting drier, others wetter…….
•
Long term drying trend in south east
•
“Big Dry” 1997-2009 driest period on
record, surpassing “Federation” &
“WWII” droughts
•
10-20% reduction in late
autumn/winter rainfall during last 2
decades
Global predictions of extinction rates
• Thomas et al (2004): 18 – 35% of species
predicted to be “committed to extinction” or highly
threatened by climate change by 2050
• IPCC (2007): 20-30% of species likely to be at
increasingly high risk of extinction at 2-3oC above
pre-industrial levels
• Warren (2011): 40% species at risk of extinction at
4o C
Ecosystems most at risk
• Alpine zone
• Coastal wetlands
• Freshwater wetlands & rivers
• North QLD Wet Tropics
• South-west WA
• Coral reefs