CLIMATE CHANGE AND NATURE CONSERVATION

For many years TWS has a philosophy that our best contribution to meeting the threat of climate change was through the protection of standing carbon in forests and woodlands.

eEnding broad acre land clearing in Queensland over 2004-6 helped Australia meet its Kyoto targets.

Protecting carbon rich forests can only help…

TWS FOSSIL FUEL POLICY 2013• Oppose the extraction and use of fossil fuels as an energy source;• Campaign against the exploitation of new fossil fuel basins and large new fossil fuel developments; • Campaign for new laws and improved corporate behaviour that deliver a rapid transition away from

fossil fuels.

Fossil Fuels Campaign

BIG NUMBERS• Maules Creek – 500 megatonnes CO2 equivalent• Pilliga/Channel Country – 10 gigatonnes CO2 equivalent• Canning Basin – 25 gigatonnes CO2 equivalent• Arckaringa – 100 gigatonnes CO2 equivalent• Great Australian Bight – 10 gigatonnes CO2 equivalent

Humans are affecting the atmosphere…

• Geographic range shifts (mainly south, some upwards)

• Life cycles (eg. advances in flowering, bird migration)

• Genetic change (heat shock proteins)

• Body size (latitudinal clines shifting)

• Warm-adapted species in communities increasing at expense of cool-adapted

We are already seeing….

What to expect in the future

• Range expansions at cooler boundaries, contractions at warmer boundaries, many overall range contractions

• Decoupling of current day species interactions• Population losses under climatic stress• Shifts in ecotones• Novel communities• Increased extinction rates

…more of the same…but accelerating…

• Long term drying trend in south east

• “Big Dry” 1997-2009 driest period on record, surpassing “Federation” & “WWII” droughts

• 10-20% reduction in late autumn/winter rainfall during last 2 decades

Some places getting drier, others wetter…….

Global predictions of extinction rates

• Thomas et al (2004): 18 – 35% of species predicted to be “committed to extinction” or highly threatened by climate change by 2050

• IPCC (2007): 20-30% of species likely to be at increasingly high risk of extinction at 2-3oC above pre-industrial levels

• Warren (2011): 40% species at risk of extinction at 4oC

• Alpine zone• Coastal wetlands• Freshwater wetlands & rivers• North QLD Wet Tropics• South-west WA • Coral reefs

Ecosystems most at risk