❓ Is is just climate change?

To understand what’s really going on, the National Account spoke with Professor David Karoly, former chief research scientist at CSIRO and one of Australia’s most trusted climate experts.

🧠 The science: climate change is supercharging weather

Professor Karoly is among the 99% of scientists who agree that human-driven climate change is making extreme weather worse.

Here’s how:

👉 A warmer planet = more moisture in the atmosphere

👉 More moisture = heavier rainfall events

👉 That means floods, storms, and droughts are more intense and more frequent

🗣️ “It puts the weather on steroids…incresing the intensity and frequency of extremes… and that’s why most climate scientists want to ban the use of fossil fuels for generating electricity.”

📍 NSW flooding, WA drought, SA algal bloom — all connected?

Right now, as this story is being written:

• The Mid North Coast of NSW has been hit by intense flooding — again. Towns like Taree have seen homes, farms, and roads go under. Emergency services have been stretched, and locals are dealing with heavy losses.

• Southwest WA & Victoria have had well below average rainfall. According to the Bureau of Meteorology. Hitting farms hard and raising fears of a tough winter.

• In South Australia an algal bloom off the coast — likely driven by warmer waters — is killing marine life and irritating swimmers. Scientists say it’s one of the worst blooms SA has seen in years, and it’s not just gross, it’s dangerous.

Professor Karoly says these events are all consistent with the impacts of human-caused climate change, which is shifting weather systems and ocean conditions.

🔥 Bushfire fuel is building up too

Thanks to all the rain, more vegetation has grown — and that means more fuel for fires in future seasons.

Add to that the rising temperatures projected over the next few decades, and Karoly warns we could see bushfire seasons worse than Black Summer.

🗣️“Every hot period. That in the 2030s, 2040s and 2050s will likely lead to worse bush fire conditions than the black summer fires in 2019, 2020.”

🪙 We’re still one of the world’s top coal exporters

Australia is the second-largest exporter of coal in the world.

🗣️Karoly said “I still don’t understand why they want to increase exports - They know that will make climate change worse for Australians — while spending more and more on disaster recovery.”

Australia is the fifth largest producer, the second largest exporter and has the third largest reserves of coal in the world (Energy Institute, 2023).

🏗️ Where’s the adaptation plan?

The kicker? Australia doesn’t even have a national climate adaptation plan — something Karoly says most developed countries have.

🗣️ “There was supposed to be one before the last election,” he says, “but it was quietly shelved — possibly to avoid stirring fears during the campaign.”

📉 Monash University calls it a multi-billion-dollar invisible problem

🤔 So… what now?

There’s no real argument anymore about whether climate change is real. The real question is:

How can Australia justify expanding fossil fuel exports while local communities face more floods, fires, and droughts every year?