Environmental Impact Assessment Of Global Warming In Australia - Essay.

Discuss about the Economic Development Vs Environmental Sustainability.

Environmental Concerns in Australia

Environmental impact assessment is an evaluation that is carried out to find the environmental consequences. It helps in identifying both positive and negative impact by making up the plans and policies so that decisions could be taken accordingly. The term environmental impact assessment is used to analyse a particular problem in an area. Once the problem is identified, set of plans and policies are proposed so that improvement could be done. It can be set of government rules or procedures that are taken to resolve the environmental issue (Wei,  Wei and Western,  2017). The purpose of carrying out this assessment is identifying, predicating, evaluating and then mitigating the concern. The case study of Australian environmental concerns is carried out in this report. Environment assessments are important as it prevents the country from future risk. It is a unique way through which environmental outcomes can be improved. They are making better decisions so that an environmental value is improved. In this report, the concern of global warming is increased in Australia. The human impact on the environment and the problem that is faced in Australia due to global warming is listed below (Seeley and Romps,  2015). The impact and effects that are caused due to global warming is also discussed. To overcome such issues, various steps are undertaken so that this problem can be addressed.

Australia is a huge island located in the South Pacific. It covers more than 7,741,220 sq. km area and is considered as the sixth largest country. There are various environmental issues that are faced in Australia due to climactic changes. Most of the land is covered by the desert area, thus this is one of the reason due to which country is hit by many natural hazards and harsh environmental conditions (Wei,  Wei and Western,  2017). There are various hazards that have hit the country in last few years like cyclones, forest fire, droughts and floods. It is one of the wealthy countries that have many diverse natural resources. Most of the industrial sectors are busy in mining activities (Molinos, et.al, 2016). The environmental issues that are faced in Australia are mostly due to large amount mining and environmental practices. Thus one of the environmental concerns faced by the country will be discussed in this report. The major concern that was highlighted in the news limelight recently was about the degrees of division that was faced due to climate change (Molinos, et.al, 2016).

Global Warming as a major concern in Australia

The major problem that is being faced in Australia is global warming. In this report, the problem that is considered is increase in global warming consequences. The effect of global warming has impacted Australia and the reason behind this is extensive arid and semi-arid areas. The uncertainty in degree also impact other climatic conditions can increases the impact (Miller, Shemer and Semiat, 2015). It has impacted humans in many ways. The increasing temperature has led to melting of glaciers which in turn have increased the sea level that is a life threatening thing for the people of Australia living in the coastal cities (Hughes, et. at, 2017).

It is true that global warming has affected life of people in Australia and it has also impacted the local environment (Hughes, et. at, 2017).

• The ecosystem of the country is also affected due to the rise in temperature this has future increases the chances of threats. One such natural icon of Australia that was recently affected by global warming is Great Barrier Reef(Kumar,  Zwiers, Dirmeyer, Lawrence,  Shrestha and Werner, 2016).
• The natural species of Australia are also in risk due to the increasing temperature because of global warming. This has impacted the life of birds and animals as they are looking for a place where they could move(Kumar,  Zwiers, Dirmeyer, Lawrence,  Shrestha and Werner, 2016) . The changes are so quick that it becomes difficult for the species to adapt to the environmental conditions.
• It has also affected the rainfall patterns by increasing the chances of droughts and heat waves. Thus, it has become difficult for the local farmers to graze their livestock and produce quality food products(Hatfield-Dodds,et. al, 2015) . Additionally, reduced rainfall and progressively severe droughts may lead to water shortages.
• The rising temperature has also impacted the acidity ratio of seas and oceans that has caused coral bleaching events. In 2016 this event has destroyed many Great Barrier Reef(Hatfield-Dodds,et. al, 2015) .

It is found that global warming has affected many regions of Australia, thus it is important to control global warming and limit the global warming to 1.5 degree.

The effect of global warming has changed the ecosystems and societies. The changes in natural environment and climactic change has impacted humans in Australia. The effect of global warming has affected the growth of plants, animals and other species. It also causes increase in marine line bleaching so that human activities are not affected directly. The increasing global warming as effected the life of marine animals(Hyde, Fryar,  Tian,  Bahkali and Xu, 2016) . Some of the areas in Australia have poor rainfall conditions and this is due to human induced climate changes. The rainfall of Australia is affected by the greenhouse warming (Bell,  Moore and Kirkegaard, 2014).

The changes that are seen recently are expected to continue and intensify in the upcoming true. The ecosystem of Australia is affected due to alpine system. The tropical and subtropical rainforest is affected due to increasing global warming, not only forests but the sea level is also affected (Hyde, Fryar,  Tian,  Bahkali and Xu, 2016). The tropical pattern is affected due to climatic changes. The global warming increases the chances of migration. It is observed that people are migrating from Australia to other place due to the increase in temperature. The ecosystem gets worse which in turn causes risk in the agricultural and human settlement.

It has also affected human society as they are globally interconnected with the resources and climatic change. The emerging humanitarian in Australia is impacted which in turn increases the overall demand and capacity of migration. It is true that, most of the Australian population is situated in coastal regions thus it is very important to maintain Great Barrier Reef as it the tourism centre for the country(Li, Fan,  Zhang, Chen, Sun and Xiong,  2015) . The migration is also increasing that can be reduced by starting various global solutions.

Impact of Global Warming on Australia

The global warming concern cannot be ignored in Australia as it has caused lost to 3 trillion tonnes of ice since 1992 (Wanderer and Herle,  2015). It is seen that due to increase in global warming the sea level has been increased in the recent years. From the new analysis through satellite it was found that there are many remote areas but the changes that are seen in Australia can have consequences for the entire planet (Li, Fan,  Zhang, Chen, Sun and Xiong,  2015). The extreme conditions in Australia have adverse effect on all the areas. Climatic policy is one of the major reasons behind the problems that are faced by the country. The major issues that have affected Australia recently are increase in temperature(Fernando,  Costa,  Barbosa,  Monti and Rettenmaier,  2018) .

These effects have given a reason to Australian community to manage or hold the increase in temperature. Thus, it is important to limit the temperature of global warming to either 1.5 degree or 2 degree(Fernando,  Costa,  Barbosa,  Monti and Rettenmaier,  2018) . It was found that the temperature have increased in Australia from 2012-13. In the recent years, the temperature is increasing day by day, this can be a threat to seas and Great Barrier Reef as they are becoming hooter which in turn has increased bleaching issue(Parisi,  Fatarella,  Spinelli,  Pogni and Basosi, 2015) .

In the recent years, it is observed that temperature is increasing day by day. It is predicated that in the future the temperature will increase more that will cause extreme hot summer’s ad more frequent marine heat waves in Australia (Gunderson and Stillman,  2015). The global warming needs to be reduced so that emission of greenhouse gases can be controlled. In the news reports, it was estimated that the temperature of Australia will raise more that 5C by the end of century (Gunderson and Stillman,  2015).

If comparing the scenario from past years, it can be said that the temperature has already increased by 0.9C with the number of heat records increasing (Sheffield, 2014). These changes will have overshadowed effects such as rising numbers of deaths due to heat waves. It also causes water resource challenges that may impact the farmers indulged in agriculture (Deng,  Hu,  Deng and Mahadevan,  2014). It also risks the coastal infrastructure along with that it has impacted the water stress, shrinking glaciers, and disturbance in rainfall patter and increasing sea level. The impact has also contributed in emission of global warming in various regions (Cook, Smerdon, Seager and Coats, 2014).

Steps taken to tackle the problem of Global Warming in Australia

Various steps are taken to avoid the chances of global warming in Australia. It was found that it is important to reduce the net emission so that temperature could be limited. The budget is also increased so that emission of Co2 can be controlled (Deng,  Hu,  Deng and Mahadevan,  2014). Thus, it is important to balance the carbon budget so that emissions could be reduced and increasing temperature could be monitored. It is important to take proper actions because Australia is one of the largest countries that is affected by per capita global warming emission rate.

A national renewable electricity standard is developed so that global warming emission could be reduced. The other step that is taken is undertaking projects so that carbon capture could be maintained and coal burning power plants are implemented (Cook, Smerdon, Seager and Coats, 2014). The projects are initiated so that carbon capture could be reduced and storage technology is used to that emission of coal could be controlled. Various steps are taken so that carbon emission could be controlled. Some of the government related policy that is taken is CORS that is carbon pollution reduction scheme that act as a proposal for controlling the emission. It is established to improve the market trends of greenhouse gas permits (Donelson and Munday,  2015). The renewable energy targets are also improved and more investment is done on technologies that promote renewable energy. Various other actions are taken so that efficiency of energy is controlled (Chaichan and Al-Asadi,  2015).

These steps have somewhere proven to reduce global warming but strict actions need to be taken. Otherwise, it will hit Australia and other countries (Sheffield, 2014). From the science agency it was predicated if these actions are not executed the temperature will rise to 5.1C by 2090. These programs have also have controlled the issue of rising temperature otherwise it may result in a greater number of days with severe fire danger (Chaichan and Al-Asadi,  2015).  It has also resolved the issue of soil moisture that is faced by the southern part of southern Australia.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that global warming is one of the concern faced in Australia. This issue is increasing in the recent times. The environmental concerns directly affect the humans and the ecosystem of that area. The impact on the local environment due to global warming is listed and the steps that are taken to address the problem are listed. Global warming is one of the major environmental problems faced these days. Thus, a detail analysis out this topic is carried out. The local place that is considered from the discussion is Australia. These days the concern of global warming is also reported in the news. Thus, various steps that are taken to control environmental consequences are discussed above.

Conclusion

References

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