Flooding in Queensland, Brazil, and Sri Lanka: “You’d Have To Be A Brave Person To Say Climate Change Is Not Having Some Sort of Effect”

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored”, said the author Aldous Huxley. It seems when it comes to the question of climate change, Mother Nature is cranking up the “noise” to get our attention on the facts about what we are doing to our natural environment. While climate change is not solely responsible for the recent devastating flooding in Australia, Brazil, or Sri Lanka (or the floods in Pakistan or the fires in Russia last summer), what our warming of the atmosphere is doing is making the global climate less and less stable, and more prone to extreme weather events. Climate scientists have been warning about this eventuality for years. Professor Will Steffen, the executive director of the ANU Climate Change Institute, said recently there was no direct link between global warming and the tragic flash flooding in Toowoomba, Queensland which has killed at least 19 people. But he did say that climate change will lead to heavier, more frequent rain.

Flooding in Queensland, Brazil, and Sri Lanka: “You’d Have To Be A Brave Person To Say Climate Change Is Not Having Some Sort of Effect” « 350 or bust