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Climate Change News

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t the end of the 60s sci-fi classic, The Day the Earth Caught Fire, the camera pans across the Daily Express case room to a front page proof hanging on a wall. "Earth Saved", screams the headline. The camera pans. "Earth Doomed", announces the proof beside it.

The head printer looks baffled. Which page will he be told to select? We never find out, for the film concludes without revealing the fate of our planet whose rotation has been sent spiralling out of control by simultaneous Soviet and US atom bomb tests. All we know is that Earth's fate hangs in the balance thanks to human stupidity.

Such a vision may be the stuff of popular entertainment but it comes uncomfortably close to our own uncertain future, as highlighted last week by an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, which effectively announced "a code red" warning for our species. Unequivocal evidence showed greenhouse gas emissions were propelling us towards a calamitous fiery future triggered by extreme climate change, it announced. Only urgent reductions of fossil fuel emissions can hope to save us.

It was a vision vividly endorsed by scientists, normally the most circumspect of commentators about world events. "Our future climate could well become some kind of hell on Earth," said Prof Tim Palmer, of Oxford University. Or, as Prof Dave Reay, executive director of Edinburgh University's Climate Change Institute, put it: "This is not just another scientific report. This is hell and high water writ large."

Certainly the numbers outlined in the report were stark and strikingly emphatic in comparison with past, far more cautious, IPCC offerings. As it makes clear, humans have pumped around 2,400bn tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere since 1850, creating concentrations of the gas that have not been seen on Earth in the last 2 million years.

A water hose runs empty for a volunteer fighting forest fires near the village of Pefki on the Greek island of Evia. Photograph: Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP/Getty Images

Heatwaves and the heavy rains that cause flooding have become more intense and more frequent since the 1950s in most parts of the world, and climate change is now affecting all inhabited regions of the planet. Drought is increasing in many places and it is more than 66% likely that numbers of major hurricanes and typhoons have risen since the 1970s. "If there was still a need for a proof that climate changes is caused by human activities, then this is the report that provides it," said Prof Corinne Le Quéré of the University of East Anglia.

And the consequences of humanity's massive act of atmospheric interference are now clear: what is hot today will become hotter tomorrow; extreme floods will become more frequent, wildfires more dangerous and deadly droughts more widespread. In short, things can only get worse.

Indeed, by the end of the century they could become threatening to civilisation if emissions are allowed to continue at their present rate. "That might seem like a long way away but there are millions of children already born who should be alive well into the 22nd century," added Prof Jonathan Bamber of Bristol University, another report author.

In fact, they could become utterly catastrophic with the occurrence of world-changing events - such as continent-wide forest die-backs or collapsing Antarctic ice sheets, says Prof Andrew Watson of Edinburgh University. "The IPCC report gives a comprehensive update on the knowns of climate change, and that makes for grim reading. But it also makes the point that climate models don't include 'low probability-high impact' events, such as drastic changes in ocean circulation, that also become more likely the more the climate is changed. These 'known unknowns' are scarier still."

The new IPCC report is certainly a very different, uncompromising document compared with previous versions, as meteorologist Keith Shine of Reading University pointed out. "I was heavily involved in IPCC's first assessment report back in 1990. We weren't even sure then that observed climate change was due to human activity. The IPCC now says the evidence is 'unequivocal'. That means there is no hiding place for policymakers."

It is plain that any hopes that climate change might turn out to be not as bad as expected were forlorn

Prof Rowan Sutton

The crucial point is that this report was agreed not just by scientists but by government representatives on the committee, men and women who have made it clear they are also convinced of the urgency of the situation. "They also see the direct link between greenhouse gas emissions and forest fires, floods and other recent extreme weather events, and that makes it essential for their own governments to act," said Lord Deben, chair of the UK's Climate Change Committee.

At the Paris climate meeting in 2015, those governments pledged to try to keep temperature rises well below 2C, and not more than 1.5C if possible, from pre-industrial days. The trouble now is that the world has already heated up by almost 1.1C, which means only drastic cutbacks in emissions will succeed in preventing far more serious, intense global warming. It will be tight going. The most ambitious of emission scenarios described by the IPCC offers less than a 50% chance of keeping below that 1.5C threshold.

Prospects for limiting global warming to 2C are better but will still require reductions far in excess of those that have been pledged by nations in the run up to Cop26, the UN climate summit to be held in Glasgow in November. "It is plain that any hopes that climate change might turn out to be 'not as bad as expected' were forlorn," said Prof Rowan Sutton, of Reading University's National Centre for Atmospheric Science. "It is happening now and it is happening very fast. Dealing with this crisis means taking urgent actions."

That will not be an easy task, however. As Nick Starkey, director of policy at the Royal Academy of Engineering, pointed out last week. "The UK is not on track to meet existing carbon targets and our goal of 78% emissions reduction by 2035 will not be reached without deep energy efficiency measures," he said.

What is needed is "a society wide vision", a national plan that would be instigated to ensure implementation of all the different policies - from transport to power generation and from home heating to farming - that will be needed to make sure emissions are cut as quickly as possible. "We need to put policies in place throughout society otherwise our targets will just become empty promises," said Joeri Rogelj, director of research at the Grantham Institute, Imperial College London.

It is a suggestion backed by Lord Deben. "In the UK, we need a new planning act that ensures all local authorities have to take climate change into account every time they make a planning decision. At present, they get absolutely no advice about how to go about this business." Such processes would ensure that the fine detail of ensuring carbon emissions are controlled and mistakes - such as the recent granting of planning permission for a new coal mine in Cumbria - are not repeated, he added.

San Francisco's sky turns orange from wildfire smoke in September 2020. Photograph: John G Mabanglo/EPA

However, it will take considerable, sustained effort for the nation to keep up such efforts. On Tuesday, national front pages were filled with images of burning Greek villages and lurid headlines. "PM: wake up to red alert to climate crisis," warned the Daily Express; "As doomsday report warns of apocalyptic climate change: can UK lead world back from the brink," asked the Mail; while the Telegraph announced "UN warns of climate 'reality check'". Given that many of these papers have gone to lengthy efforts in the past to denigrate climate science and to question the reality of global warming, these were radical announcements. It remains to be seen just how long each publication remains committed to the science.

"The climate story was all over the front pages on Tuesday but by Friday, three days later, it was hardly mentioned," added Prof Martin Siegert of Imperial College, London. "Yet this is the most important thing that humanity needs to do in the next 30 years. It is going to change our lives, it is going to change the way we regard ourselves on the planet. And if we don't, we are going to stoke up huge problems for our children. But after three days we seemed to be forgotten despite the fact this is something that needs decades of consistent, persistent work."

Siegert added that it had been estimated that investment levels equivalent to 1% of GDP are needed to ensure the country's transition to net-zero status. "However, we are currently spending about 0.01%... a 100th of that estimated price tag. And this is also well below what the government is spending on things that will actually add to our emissions, such as airport expansion plans and the tens of billions it has pledged on new road schemes, which will only make it easier to drive around and burn more fossil fuel."

These are all issues for the UK to hammer out, as a matter of urgency, over coming months, although the opening of the Cop26 conference in Glasgow is going to be an even more pressing event. At the meeting, which begins on 1 November, delegates from more than 190 nations will gather to hammer out a deal that will determine just how hot life will get on Earth. At Paris, in 2015, nations pledged emission cuts that now urgently need to be updated or global temperatures will soar to well over 2C. Similarly agreements will have to be reached on how to phase out coal power stations as quickly as possible, to protect carbon-dioxide-absorbing forests, and to agree aid for developing nations to help them survive the impacts of global warming.

It will a fine-run thing and it is very likely that we will not know if negotiators succeed until the very last minutes of the Glasgow conference. In this way we will learn the planet's fate in November, exactly 60 years after the cinematic release of The Day the Earth Caught Fire. We may then have a better idea of whether "Earth Saved" or "Earth Doomed" was the right front page headline.

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It's now or never: Scientists warn time of reckoning has come for the planet

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t the end of the 60s sci-fi classic, The Day the Earth Caught Fire, the camera pans across the Daily Express case room to a front page proof hanging on a wall. "Earth Saved", screams the headline. The camera pans. "Earth Doomed", announces the proof beside it. The head printer looks baffled.

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Lesson 1 and 2: Aboriginal water values in northern Australia 

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Lesson 1 and 2: Aboriginal water values in northern Australia 

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMKYybtUJ-o

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Aboriginal water values and management in northern Australia

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Lesson 1 and 2: Uses of water, The Yamuna River in India 

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Lesson 1 and 2: Uses of water, The Yamuna River in India 

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHCaIvPN2rY

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVnlAhQaLzU

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Lesson 2: Planning for water management 

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Lesson 2: Planning for water management 

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeLVVb0ntmU

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Department of Environment, Land, Water & Planning Victoria

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Water for Victoria: Sharing Victoria's water

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRlR6oIa3N4

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Desalination, dams and the big dry: the challenges of managing Australia's water supply

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Lesson 1 and 2: How do we use water A3 worksheet 

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Lesson 1 and 2: How do we use water A3 worksheet 

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Lesson 3: Case study: East Link Mullum Mullum tunnel 

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Lesson 3: Case study: East Link Mullum Mullum tunnel 

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https://www.eastlink.com.au/images/documents/EastLink_-_Motorway_Masterpiece.pdf

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Mullum Mullum Creek is a creek in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is the main watercourse of the Mullum Mullum Valley, a tributary of the Yarra River and Yarra Valley. For tens of thousands of years it was used as a food and tool source sustainably by the Wurundjeri people, Indigenous Australians of the Kulin nation, who spoke variations of the Woiwurrung language group.

It is one of the only watercourses lying within urban metropolitan Melbourne that is surrounded by native and regenerated bushland for almost its entire length, and is a significant remnant ecosystem in Melbourne. Around 80,000 people live in the creek's catchment area. The remnant bushland across its length provides habitat for significant species such as platypus, rakali, koalas, powerful owl, nankeen night heron, white-winged chough and yellow-tailed black cockatoo.

In recent decades the creek and valley has been central in many of issues in Melbourne's eastern suburbs, such as; residential housing estates, regeneration of native vegetation and most recently, Tollway construction. The Eastlink Tollway passes underneath the valley through 1.5-km of tunnels to avoid disturbing the remnant ecosystem through the Mullum Mullum Gorge, however through Ringwood, it crosses the creek above ground, resulting in the relocation of the creek through this area.

Mullum Mullum is adapted from Woiwurrung language and is thought to mean "place of many big birds" and led many historians to conclude that it meant "Place of Eagles". Many other interpretations have been suggested including; "place of many big swifts" or "place of many big owls" perhaps in reference to the powerful owls of the valley. Some historians suspect Mullum Mullum to be a mistranslation of another Wurundjeri expression Ballum Ballum meaning "place of many butterflies". Around the higher grassy woodlands there are large numbers of butterfly and moth species breeding in the grasslands, many of which have not yet been documented.

The creek flows for 22 kilometres (14 mi) through the Mullum Mullum Valley travelling west and then north where it flows into the Yarra River. It passes through many of Melbourne's eastern suburbs including; Croydon, Ringwood, Mitcham, Donvale, East Doncaster, western Warrandyte and Templestowe. It is most often a slight green/brown colour due to the riverbed silt, during heavy rainfall it appears light brown. Its geography is generally divided up into 4 sections; The High Plateau Tract, The Mullum Mullum Gorge, The Valley Tract and The Plains Tract.

Through: Croydon, Ringwood

A ring of high forested hills that separates the Dandenong Valley from the Yarra Valley is the source of the Mullum Mullum Creek. The high plateau is formed by the Wicklow Ridge to Reagh's Hill in the east, Bedford Road and Maroondah Highway in the south, and the Loughnan's Hill, Wonga Road ridge to the west. Commencing in Croydon south of Birt's Hill behind the Yarra Valley School, the Mullum Mullum Creek flows south downstream passing remnant orchards, bushland and parks through Ringwood and past Eastland Shopping Centre. Native hyacinth orchids and small grass trees are present in these remnant forests.

The otter-like rakali feeds in the stream here. Grassy, sedgy woodlands here are home to many undocumented species of butterflies as well as birds and possums. Drier mixed species forests gradually give way to swamp gums and manna gums as the creek heads south. Near New Street, the creek once turned and flowed south of Maroondah Highway down the now dry bed of the upper Heatherdale Creek and into the Dandenong Creek and Port Philip Bay, but a natural 'river capture' has now taken the waters of the creek and diverted them through a narrow gap in the hills to the north and the Yarra River.

Through: Ringwood, Mitcham, Park Orchards, Donvale

With the extra captured water, the Mullum Mullum Creek has carved a steep "V" shaped gorge with rocky cascades. Here in the damp shadows, tall old growth riparian forests provide habitat for koalas and native birds species. Maidenhair ferns and tree ferns thrive. The drier hillsides are home to native orchids and echidnas. Passing under the steep bushland escarpment below Poynton Avenue in Ringwood, the rocky cascades and fern covered banks of the Mullum Mullum gorge become apparent. Tall manna gum woodlands, some with treefern understorey, are home to tawny frogmouths and sugar gliders. Near Schwerkolt Cottage, the rocky cascades are bordered by drier open grassy woodlands, rare Valley Heathy Forest rich with native orchids, particularly near Antonio Park, Yarran Dheran, the Hillcrest area at Mitcham, and the Chaim Court bushland and pipe-track at Donvale.

The tall ancient manna gum forests near Whitefriars College are home to ducks (who nest on the tops of old stags) crimson rosellas, galahs and other parrots (who nest in old hollows), rare large powerful owls and rainbow lorikeets. Pied cormorants and night herons cruise the creek pools. Rakali and the occasional platypus, fish for galaxias, gudgeon and yabbies. There are signs of wombat diggings on the hill face but they are rarely seen. The occasional swamp wallaby and eastern grey kangaroo visit the gorge. In warm weather skinks, blue tongue lizards and copperhead snakes can be seen. Other rarely seen species include marbled geckos and white-lipped snakes.

Through: Donvale, Doncaster East, Warrandyte

At Park Road in Park Orchards the valley begins to open up. Here many small tributaries join the Mullum Mullum Creek. Loughnan's Creek connects to Loughie's Bushland and B.J. Hubbard Bushland Reserves in Ringwood North, and many green corridors and urban pathways link to the Mullum Mullum Creek bushland parks on the west. Pockets of good bushland such as the girl guides camp in McGowans Road provide refuge to koalas and tawny frogmouths. Rare yellow box open woodlands with kangaroo grass understorey to the east help protect the resident kangaroos and the breeding white-winged choughs. The higher ground in Park Orchards provides views to the dividing ranges and Mount Macedon and glimpses of the Yarra Valley to the north. Old gold mines in this area are home to bat colonies.

The rural areas of Park Orchards, the bushland from Tindalls Road to Reynolds Road, the Currawong Bush Park, the regenerated bushland near Larnoo Drive at Donvale all provide wonderful bushland habitat and a very significant linear open space. Small tributaries with wetlands, ferns and growling grass frogs link to the Mullum at Currawong Bush Park. Kangaroos, koalas and echidnas are permanent residents in the area, and platypus live in the Creek. The last major tributary, that forms the valley of the Green Gully Linear Park, joins the Mullum Mullum Creek, near Tikalara Park, just opposite the new parklands within the subdivision as the end of Blackburn Road.

Through: Doncaster East, Templestowe

North of the Heidelberg-Warrandyte Road the creek slowly winds its way towards the Yarra River in Templestowe. Where the Mullum Mullum meets the Yarra, is also where Wurundjeri and European Cultures meet. Tikalara Park, the next stage of the Yarra Valley Metropolitan Park upstream from Petty's Orchard, is particularly a place of significance for the Wurundjeri. Here ancient scar trees and scatter sites provide physical evidence to support the documented evidence that this area was a clan meeting place of the Wurundjeri.

Pontville homestead on the Mullum Mullum Creek near the Yarra River is a site of state historic significance for its associations with early European settlement, and it is a known site of conflict between European and Wurundjeri cultures. The plains where the Mullum Mullum flows into the Yarra are home to kangaroos, wallabies, wombats and is a known platypus breeding ground. The Australian Platypus Conservancy has been studying the significant population of platypus in this area, and their research has confirmed that the Mullum Mullum Creek provides habitat for the highest density of platypus in the whole of the Yarra River catchment.

Approximately 70-80,000 people live in the creek's catchment area. The settlements located along its course are listed below, from downstream to upstream;

The creek and valley is hypothesised to have been used by Indigenous Australians as a route from modern day Melbourne to Warrandyte. Early European settlement occupied well watered open grassy woodlands on either side of the ridge lines, along the main roads and railway lines, and the more open valleys. Orchards were established on the higher plateaus of Ringwood, Croydon, Park Orchards, and Templestowe.

The natural significance of the valley was recognised early by Naturalists who made excursions to Mitcham to see the remarkable bushlands and rich wildflower displays. In the 1920s and the 1930s it was proposed that the Mullum Mullum Valley should become protected bush parkland, but the remnant bushlands were not threatened by development, the scenery was not spectacular and society at the time had other priorities. After World War II, more people made excursions and day trips to Mitcham, and to Loughnan's Hill and Louhnan's Lake in Ringwood North to enjoy the views and the wonderful bushlands.

By 1946, local town planning schemes again proposed protection of this bushland as parkland, but local planning schemes were being brought together under the MMBW Metropolitan Planning Scheme. In 1954, this scheme first proposed a series of "parkway" roads along our creek valleys, which were made obsolete in the 1969 Melbourne transport plan. Many local residents who chose, in the 1930s and 1940s, to establish their residences next to these bushland, have been fighting for more than 50 years to protect these bushlands from development.

Parks Victoria operate several areas of designated parkland adjoining the Mullum Mullum Creek. Much of this parkland, particularly in the Open Valley Tract was replanted and regenerated, whilst other areas are remnant native bushland. The Mullum Mullum Creek Trail runs through much of this parkland giving cyclists through access to the entire valley. Below is a list of parks adjoining the creek in order from its origin to where it flows into the Yarra River. Adjoining geographic features are shown in bold.

Douglas Maggs Reserve (playground)

Peter Vergers Reserve (tennis)

Mullum Mullum Reserve Ringwood (football, cricket, playground)

Ringwood Lake

Schwerkolt Cottage (local museum & gardens)

Yarran Dheran

Hillcrest Reserve

Walert Creek

Buck Reserve (pony club & horse trails)

Mullum Mullum Creek Linear Park - upper section

Mullum Mullum Reserve Donvale (hockey, bowls, tennis)

Currawong Bush Park (wildlife enclosure, education centre)

Mullum Mullum Creek Linear Park - lower section

Mullum Mullum Wetlands

Deep Creek Reserve (baseball)

Domain Wetlands

Tikalara Park

Yarra River

Most of these parklands contain paths or trails, many of which are shared use (pedestrian/cycling). The Mullum Mullum Creek Linear Park follows the course of the creek in the Open Valley Tract between Doncaster East and Donvale, this is where the Mullum Mullum Creek Trail runs beside the creek. Bicycle trails upstream include the Mullum Mullum Valley Path through the gorge and a trail through Ringwood into Croydon beside the creek.

There are many crossings of the Mullum Mullum Creek including around 15 footbridges, many of which are not included in this list as they are only small local pedestrian bridges:

The Parkway - local single lane bridge

Manna Gum Bridge - main road & footbridge

Reynolds Road - main road

Donvale Pony Club Footbridge

Tindals Road - secondary road

Park Road - secondary road & footbridge

Heads Road - local street (single lane)

EastLink - tollway tunnel

Quarry Road - local street (single lane)

Yarran Dheran footbridges

Deep Creek Road - secondary road

EastLink - tollway bridges (Ringwood Interchange)

Ringwood Bypass - main road

Oliver Street - local street

Oban Road - secondary road

Kalinda Road - local street

From 2006-2008 Eastlink was built, a major tollway servicing Melbourne's eastern and south-eastern suburbs. Eastlink crosses the Mullum Mullum Creek and Valley in Ringwood and Donvale. During the planning stages several proposals were considered for how this crossing would be made, some of which included a 3 km tunnel to go under the entire valley and a surface freeway requiring the destruction of the natural environment. The state government decided on a compromise and two 1.5-km tunnels were subsequently built under the creek and valley. The eastbound tunnel was named after the creek, the other being named after Dame Nellie Melba.

The irony of the situation was that the primary reason this section of the creek was in so natural a state was that it had been protected from other development through the land having been reserved for the section of the proposed F35 Scoresby Freeway (Renamed Eastlink) to join the end of the Eastern Freeway under the 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan.

The Mullum Mullum Creek suffers from many of the problems inherent in the development of urban environments and pollution in and around the creek is unfortunately quite prominent. Two of the most significant problems affecting the creek is sewage spills after heavy rain and leakage of septic tank effluent from residential properties into watercourses and subsequently, the creek itself. This is a problem that extends to the Yarra River and has become a major issue affecting the ecology of central Victoria and state politics.

In 2005, three kayakers contracted leptospirosis and suffered bouts of delusion and lung hemorrhaging after swallowing Yarra river water. Tests were conducted in the Yarra River and the Mullum Mullum Creek and the levels of many pathogens were found to have breached local and international standards for recreational water. This is documented in a 2007 report by EPA Victoria in which levels of Human faecal matter and E. coli were recorded and documented. Other major pollutants entering the creek via stormwater drains and surface runoff include dog feces, cigarette butts, packaging and other post-consumer waste.

In terms of hard pollution, plastics like bags and packaging are most common, they catch in the trees at the high-water mark on the creek banks, tires are also particularly common as well as other car parts such as batteries and pieces of metal. Large pieces of concrete somehow find their way into the creek at various locations and sit amongst the rocks almost blending in if it weren't for the exposed aggregate. Clothing is also common, particularly synthetic items such as gloves, shoes and bags, while clothing such as shirts made from organic materials break down into the environment.

Many surrounding features, structures and parks borrow their names from the creek:

Mullum Mullum Creek Linear Park

Mullum Mullum Reserve Ringwood

Mullum Mullum Reserve Donvale

Mullum Mullum Creek Trail

Mullum Mullum Valley Path

Mullum Mullum Wetlands

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Mullum Mullum Creek is a creek in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is the main watercourse of the Mullum Mullum Valley, a tributary of the Yarra River and Yarra Valley.

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Session with Mullum Mullum Indigenous Gathering Place group if available

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“What is meant by the term climate emergency?’
“How does geographical location in Australia affect water supply?”
“Do you think Australia needs to act more sustainably in regard to water?”

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1. Which parts of BOLTSS are missing? (Someone draw these)

2. What do we notice about rainfall in countries along the equator? Why might there be a pattern?

3. What about towards the poles?

4. Name the continents. What appears to be the driest? The wettest?

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Video to fill out graphic organiser

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To fill in graphic organiser

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Discover how much WATER we EAT every day