Sunburnt country : the history and future of climate change in Australia / Joëlle Gergis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gergis, Joëlle, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Climatic changes--Australia.

Climatic changes.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 310 pages) : illustrations, maps

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Carlton, Victoria : Melbourne University Press, 2018.

Summary:

What does climate change in Australia really look like?What was Australia's climate like before official weather records began? How do scientists use tree-rings, ice cores and tropical corals to retrace the past? What do Indigenous seasonal calendars reveal? And what do settler diary entries about rainfall, droughts, bushfires and snowfalls tell us about natural climate cycles?Sunburnt Country pieces together Australia's climate history for the first time. It uncovers a continent long vulnerable to climate extremes and variability. It gives an unparalleled perspective on how human activities have altered patterns that have been with us for millions of years, and what climate change looks like in our own backyard.

Contents:

Intro

Title

Copyright

Contents

Foreword

Part I: Colonial Calamities

1: The Start of a Rocky Relationship

2: Unearthing Australia's Climate History

3: Life in Sodden Isolation

4: Australia's Climatic Tug of War

5: Twin Blows

6: Rescued from the Rooftops

7: Scarcely a Passing Shower

8: 'The Changes Are Truly Astonishing'

Part II: Weather Watchers

9: What Does 'on Record' Actually Mean?

10: The Weatherman

11: Australia's Early Climate Records

12: Frost and Fire

13: Bursting Bubbles of Optimism

14: Dust and Desolation

15: Gumboot Weather

16: Wisdom of the Elders

Part III: Time Travellers

17: Sentinels of Deep Time

18: Old-growth Records

19: Tales from the Tropics

20: Frozen in Time

21: Ebbs and Flows

22: Piecing Together the Climate Jigsaw

23: Taking the Temperature of the Southern Hemisphere

24: The Saga of the Millennium

25: Welcome to the Anthropocene

Part IV: History Repeating?

26: What about the Ice Ages?

27: Natural Variability Versus Human Influence

28: Life in a Shifting Climate

29: Human Fingerprints on Our Climate

30: Up in Flames

31: Vanishing Snow

32: Flooding Rains

33: Girt by Rising Seas

Part V: The Age of Consequences

34: The 'New Normal'

35: Redrawing Our Maps

36: Silent Killers

37: The Living Dead

38: A Symbolic Start

39: Our Political Hot Potato

40: The Clean Energy Revolution

41: We Are All in This Together

Acknowledgements

References

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 274-299) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780522871555

0522871550

OCLC:

1493626659