Dr Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick
Dr Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick sharing her feelings at a protest. Source Flickr, author Takver, Creative Commons Attribution License, modified – original image cropped

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

What do you do when your feeble climate evidence fails to convince?

Climate scientists reveal their fears for the future

Cradling her newborn baby girl, heatwave expert Sarah Perkins Kirkpatrick admits to feeling torn between the joy of motherhood and anxiety over her first-born child’s future.

I always wanted a big family and I’m thrilled. But my happiness is altered by what I know is coming with climate change,” she said.

“I don’t like to scare people but the future’s not looking very good.

“Having a baby makes it personal. Will this child suffer heatstroke just walking to school?”

‘I wouldn’t want to live in Brisbane or further north’

How hot could it get?

All of Australia is vulnerable to climate change but Dr Perkins Kirkpatrick said as the decades progress, some regions will be better off than others in terms of heatwaves.

“We’ve already seen changes in heatwaves, particularly their frequency, and these heatwaves are only going to get worse, particularly in the tropics, where the number of heatwave days will be much greater than now,” she said.

Read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-27/climate-scientists-speak-of-their-worst-fears/8631368

There are plenty of reasons to live North of Brisbane, such as the balmy 73F winter day I’m currently enjoying.

Up here on the edge of the tropics, we have discovered a simple solution to heatwaves, a solution which obviously hasn’t filtered down to our cousins in more temperate regions.

Our solution to heatwaves – stay indoors, crank up the air conditioning. Or wear a hat and drink lots of water, if you have to be outside.

Trump was 100% right (not just 97%) to show real leadership and walk away from Paris President Trump has rejected and exited the Paris climate treaty – walked America away from the Mad Hatter tea party that was the entire multi-decade, often hysterical and always computer model-driven UN climate process. My article this week explains…