Global warming likely to reduce rainfall in western Australia

Times of India , Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Correspondent : PTI
MELBOURNE: Global warming is "likely" to reduce rainfall in the western Australian states, according to a top climate change official of the country today.

"The evidence is very strong that there is a climate change link to south-western Australia's rainfall hanges," Blair Comley, the Secretary of the Department of Climate Change, told the Senate estimates hearing, according to AAP.

Scientific findings showed a 90 per cent probability of higher temperatures affecting south-western Australia, Comely said, adding that scientific evidence on climate change is less pronounced in the eastern states of the country.

"The evidence for south-eastern Australia is more mixed, that is, it doesn't get to the 90 per cent confidence level in terms of the impact of climate change," he said.

When assessing the sub-regional effects of climate change, probability levels are described in terms such as "likely" or "possible" rather than "very likely", the hearing heard.

Comley said while the public expected certainty from climate science, they needed to realise the data was a risk assessment. He also indicated it would be difficult to regard the summer floods in Queensland as direct evidence of climate change.

"Things like a rainfall event associated with a flood in 1974 or this year are just one of the set of data points that go into a full climate record," Comley said.

 
SOURCE : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/global-warming/Global-warming-likely-to-reduce-rainfall-in-western-Australia/articleshow/7538795.cms
 


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