City forecast to reach 46C by 4.30pm on Thursday, its
fourth consecutive day above 40C
By
Oliver Milman
 |
| People in Adelaide swim in the ocean on Wednesday in a bid to gain some relief from the heat. Photograph: David Mariuz/AAP |
Adelaide has been
declared the hottest city in the world on Thursday by the United Nations' World
Meteorological Organisation.
The city is on course
for its hottest day ever recorded, as South Australia and Victoria swelters
through another day over 40C.
It is set to reach
46C by 4.30pm on Thursday, Adelaide's fourth consecutive day above 40C.
The temperature could pip the 46.1C record set in the city in 1939.
It was another
uncomfortable night for Adelaide residents on Tuesday, with the temperature
hitting 35.5C at midnight. The city’s central bus station, which is air
conditioned, has been opened 24 hours a day for people to sleep in.
Large fans with water
mist sprayers have also been set up at the Rundle
Mall. The council said it is advising people to drink plenty of water,
dress in cotton lightweight fabrics, avoid going out in the heat and use air
conditioning and fans if possible.
Port Augusta is set
to reach 47C, with nowhere in South Australia due to be cooler than 37C.
Adelaide is set to
endure five consecutive days over 40C, while Melbourne is on course to have
four days above this temperature, the first time this has happened since 1908.
The Victorian capital is forecast to reach 44C on Thursday.
The heatwave, which
has sat over south-eastern Australia since the start of the week, is showing
signs of shifting further into New South Wales. The Bureau of Meteorology has
forecast 43C for Wagga Wagga on Thursday and Friday, dipping slightly to 42C on
Saturday.
A total fire ban is
in place across South Australia and Victoria, with overnight lightning
triggering dozens of fires. Victoria’s Country Fire Authority said Thursday
would prove a “difficult day” for firefighters, warning that conditions on
Friday, when wind strength is set to increase, will be “critical”.
More than 70 people
have been hospitalised in South Australia this week due to the heat. In
Victoria, the ambulance service has warned people not to leave children locked
inside cars, having attended to 11 such cases, including an incident where a
child was apparently deliberately left in a car outside a bottle shop.
The Australian Energy
Market Operator (AEMO), which oversees energy demand, said Victoria and South
Australia have increased power usage to levels not seen since 2009.
The Victorian
government said up to 100,000 homes and businesses could suffer power blackouts
due to the surge in demand in the coming days.
AEMO said some areas
may experience “localised interruptions over the coming days as a result of the
extremely hot conditions, and forecast high winds and lightning in some parts
of Victoria and South Australia”.
The hot weather also
has grape growers in South Australia’s wine regions fretting. They fear the
heat could destroy up to 20% of their crop.
And in Melbourne,
three Australian Shakespeare Company outdoor performances were cancelled on
Tuesday evening due to high temperatures. The company said it didn’t expect
planned performances of the Wind in the Willows and Alice in Wonderland to be
disrupted again.
Tony Leggett, senior
meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, told Guardian Australia the current
heatwave is slightly different from the high temperatures in 2009 that led to
the deadly Black Saturday fires in Victoria.
“We’ve been looking
at the synoptics and there are a few differences that suggest we could have
fewer fire problems this time, although of course there are lots of other
variables in there other than just the weather,” he said.
“In 2009, we’d had a
decade of dry conditions and the bushland had dried out. We are only just
seeing the bush start to dry out this time, but if we got another heatwave in
February, we’d expect the fire danger to increase with that.
“It’s difficult to
say that this heatwave is induced by anthropogenic warming, the atmosphere is a
bit too chaotic for that, but if you look at the trend in overall temperature,
it’s logical to say we’ll be having more extreme bursts of temperatures in the
future. The trend line is ever upwards.”
As horrible as this week’s heatwave weather is on South
Australians and Canadian tennis players alike, it provides climate
change advocates with an invaluable opportunity
By Kevin Hawkins
 |
|
South Australia police officers take police horses for an
early morning swim.
The heatwave is giving Adelaide five consecutive days above
40C, its third
longest hot spell. Photograph: David Mariuz/AAP
|
As horrible as this week’s weather is on South Australians
and Canadian tennis players alike,
it provides climate change advocates with an invaluable opportunity. If we want
to convince our climate sceptic friends and colleagues that climate change is
not just a mass conspiracy invented by the left (each of whom clearly have
shares in solar panel companies), this is our chance. And not just because the
heat is making everybody a little delusional or too exhausted to argue.
I vote we hit them
where it hurts: turn off their air conditioners.
Australia is uniquely framed in the
climate change debate. As the OECD’s second highest polluter per capita, you would think we would
feel morally obliged to be at the forefront of instigating policy changes. On
the contrary, Australia – under both the Labor and Liberal governments – has
commonly been referred to as a climate laggard. Over the next six months we are
likely to sink to a new low, with our landmark carbon legislation likely to be
repealed and our renewable energy targets expected to face
delays.
Now more than
ever, this country can ill afford to have climate change sceptics making noise,
backing our government’s irresponsible actions or non-actions. We can’t be
resigned to thinking that Labor and the Greens will restore the status quo in three
to six years; we need attitudes to change now.
The air conditioner is a powerful defence
mechanism against the heat, used by climate change believers and sceptics
alike. It gives us a false sense of security that the changing climate is not a
problem. What an air conditioner cannot stop, however, are the rising sea levels, the
increased threat of natural disasters, and the unexpected fluctuations of
weather. As such, we can’t rely on them to protect us forever.
Furthermore, air
conditioners are a luxury accessible only to the richest of the rich, whereas
climate change is a phenomenon that most affects the poorest of the poor. A
combination of geography, economics, and political freedoms means people living
in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia will suffer the
consequences of a warming planet sooner and more severely than those of us
working in high-rise office blocks in the Melbourne CBD.
In countries in
those regions, subsistence farming and fishing are essential to the livelihoods
of millions upon millions of families. This strenuous outdoor work is not only
financially unrewarding, but subjects its employees to the hot sun for long
hours on a daily basis. Then there are those who have to walk kilometres upon
kilometres just to get access to clean water. And as you can imagine, you are
thirstier on hot days, meaning trips to the local well become proportionally
more necessary as the mercury rises.
Even within
Australia, there is class divide when it comes to air conditioner access, with
those of us working in white collar occupations getting a better deal than
farmers, construction workers, or those working in tin-roofed warehouse ovens.
The best way to
stop complacency is to attack it at its source. That’s why it’s imperative for
us to meddle with our workmates’ air conditioning. I recommend loitering around
their office, waiting for them to duck off to the bathroom, and quickly
fiddling with their cooling unit. Then, at lunchtime, make an effort to steer
your conversation towards the weather, the government’s so-called mandate, and
the plight of Southeast Asian fishermen.
Because if you
can’t convince them now, you never will.
