20 March, 2017. 14:23
ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
Australia’s peak scientific body has concluded this morning, after a decade-long study, that the rising global temperatures are having no effect on the amount of ice found in regional Australia.
As first thought, the CSIRO predicted that as global warming and climate change wreak havoc on the nation’s ecosystem and agriculture sectors, the amount of ice found in regional areas would begin to decrease.
“It makes for alarming reading,” said lead researcher Glenn Brooker.
“As the average temperature steadily rises, the amount of ice continues to rise. It sounds scientifically impossible, but I can assure you, there’s more ice in regional centres now than there was 50 years ago,”
“At this rate, there will be more ice than forest fires in regional Australia by 2020.”
The whole of regional Victoria, four-time winner of the coveted Forgotten By Canberra Award from National Geographic Traveller magazine, is expected to be completely ‘frozen over’ by ice within a decade – something that scientists are struggling to find solutions for.
One method the CSIRO has devised for de-icing places such as regional Victoria is to create projects that spur on climate change – such as mining and energy production.
“Perhaps if we can get jobs and polluting industries out into these areas hardest hit by the ice,” said Brooker. “Then perhaps we’ll start to see the ice begin to melt.”
“Either that or just let the region freeze over and start again somewhere else.”
More to come.
