MONASH UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Engineering
ENE1621 Environmental Engineering
ASSIGNMENT 2, 2014
KEY ASPECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
Evely

South-Eastern
If the temperature of South -Eastern increase 1C could cause a lot of damage to
the ecosystem. This increase causes a decrease in rainfall, which would result in a
large reduction in runoff in the coming years. The decrease caused precipitation
impacts on the environment, irrigation and industries. The changes caused by climate
affect flora and fauna, the species in general, even leading to extinction. In South -
Eastern Australia , an increase of 1C in temperature will cause irreversible damage to
mountain pygmy possum species (Burramys parvus), leading to extinction due to the
disappearance of their natural habitat. This species is unable to live in high mountains,
and may not survive changes in their habitat, as the mountain pygmy possum cannot
adapt to the temperature increase. This temperature rise becomes increasingly dry
climate in southeastern Australia, causing impacts on the agricultural sector. The ocean
temperature has also increased more rapidly. Studies show that increased by 1C,
scheduled for 2030, could result in the area of forest plateaus at 50%. In addition, this
increase in temperature can aggravate the emergence of infectious diseases, especially
in relation to mosquito-borne diseases such as Ross River virus with, malaria and
dengue viruses.

References
Beer, T. and Williams, A. (1995). Estimating Australian forest fire danger under
conditions of doubled carbon dioxide concentrations. Climatic Change, 29, 169-188.
CSIRO (2001). Climate change projections for Australia. CSIRO Atmospheric
Research brochure, 8 pp. <http://www.dar.csiro.au/publications/projections2001.pdf>
Cheney, P. (1997). Grassfires: fuel, weather and fire behaviour. CSIRO Publishing,
Collingwood, Vic, 100 pp.
Hennessy, K., C. Lucas, N. Nicholls, J. Bathols, R. Suppiah and J. Ricketts, 2006:
Climate Change Impacts on Fire-Weather in South-East Australia.
<http://laptop.deh.gov.au/soe/2006/publications/drs/pubs/334/lnd/ld_24_climate_change
_impacts_on_fire_weather.pdf>
Brereton, R ; Bennett, S & Mansergh, I (1995). Enhanced greenhouse climate
change and its potential effect on selected fauna of south-eastern Australia: Atrend
analysis, in Biological Conservation72, 339 354.


Food production

Climate change may also affect marine ecosystems causing changes of many
migratory species, and deaths due to temperature increase. That climate change could
cause changes in rainfall, which would influence the flows of rivers that are essential for
irrigation of crops, leading to a decrease in livestock and agriculture. The rise in sea
levels could cause flooding of crops, making them unusable land for plantations. The
availability of water will also be affected by climate change, as well as its temperature
and quality. The livestock industries will also suffer the impacts of these climate
changes, changing productivity due to changes in the pastures. Weather conditions
cause direct impacts to fisheries and agriculture. The increase in temperature also
causes impacts to the habitat of many species of fish and other marine animals, altering
the ecosystem. Another negative impact of increased temperature increased the
vulnerability to diseases due to thermal stress, which reduce the fertility affecting milk
production.

References
Crimp, S., Howden, M., Power, B., Wang, E. & De Voil, P. 2008, Global Climate
Change Impacts on Australias Wheat Crops, report prepared for the Garnaut Climate
Change Review, CSIRO, Canberra.
Crimp, S.J., Flood, N.R., Carter, J.O., Conroy, J.P. & McKeon, G.M. 2002,
Evaluation of the Potential Impacts of Climate Change on Native Pasture Production:
Implications for livestock carrying capacity, report for the Australian Greenhouse Office.
CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) & BoM
(Bureau of Meteorology) 2007, Climate Change in Australia: Technical report 2007,
CSIRO, Melbourne.

Briefly discuss the main issues that have prevented attempts to reach a
legally binding agreement to deal with impacts of climate change and to
reduce CO2 emissions.
Economic and financial interests unfeasible a legal agreement to control emissions
of CO
2
and climate change, as no country or major company agrees with the decrease
in profits. Global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO
2
) are composed energy production,
industry, deforestation, transport, and agriculture. There are 4 major carbon emitters
that need to be closed: natural gas, oil, coal, and deforestation. Deforestation,
concentrated in the remaining tropical forests, is encouraged by the expansion of
agriculture and livestock in search of new land cheap and the predatory logging. Fossil
fuels account for CO
2
launchers 56.6 % of total emissions of greenhouse gases and
81% of global energy, sustaining the world's economic output. This energy dependence
is encouraged by the high costs of other energy sources.
Oil is important and valuable to the energy sector, because it is the portable fuel that
sustains the transportation sector in the world. All current economic processes rely on a
network of land, sea and air. A ban on building new power plants can also bump in
political lobbying of companies, which hold the large deposits of coal, gas, and oil,
which does not accept losing billions of dollars in assets in the form of reserves without
just compensation. The government incentives need political support to get off the
ground. However, in general, governments are not willing to collaborate by exchanging
a part of economic growth in the short -term environmental sustainability for the long
term.
This investment is technically feasible, but evidently generates a small decrease in
the rate of global economic growth in the short term, those proponents of the increase
of wealth at any cost they want to hold. For example, the U.S. has not signed the
Protocol because it does not want to bind their sovereignty and economic policy to
comply with rules imposed or consensually accepted by other countries.
References
Gardiner, S. M. (2004). The Global Warming Tragedy and the Dangerous Illusion of
the Kyoto Protocol. Ethics and International Affairs 18(1), pp. 2339.
WANG, Xueman e WISER, Glenn. The implementation and compliance Regimes
under the climate change Convention and its Kyoto Protocol. Available at:
<www.uniceub.br/ebsco>

Ideally, developed countries such as Australia and the US could help
prevent developing countries from making the same environmental
mistakes they did during industrial transition. Suggest possible initiatives
and how they can be realistically implemented.

Sustainable development, in addition to social development and ecological balance,
must also be added with a special focus on economic development as a major focus. At
this point, preventive techniques, such as studies of environmental vulnerability are
essential as tools that enable more appropriate, efficient and cost effective
environmental planning. Efficient environmental management tools must accompany
you. The treatment and disposal of waste and other pollutants have become
increasingly important for all countries. The need to reconcile development with
environmental sustainability has made the various issues related to these issues are
explored and developed continuously. Prevention of most forms of pollution and
economic waste recycling are equally dependent on scientific and technological
advancement.


There are problems for which countries that are going by industrial development will
need to address with greater precision. For example, contaminated water, soil
depletion, inadequate health and hygiene, indoor smoke resulting from the stove, and
outside, generated by burning coal. These problems can cause immediate damage to
life. And there are other environmental impacts caused by acid rain, ozone reduction in
the stratosphere, the increase in CO
2
emissions and other waste that cause damage to
the environment.

Therefore, developed countries such as Australia, could help countries that are
going by industrial transition by providing green technologies, thus avoiding
environmental impacts caused by pollution, provide alternative technologies for waste
treatment, recycling and energy sources renewable and clean.

References
WORLD BANK (1992). Global economic prospects and the developing
countries. Washington, DC, World Bank.
ROSENBERG, Nathan. Perspectives on technology. Cambridge, Cambridge
University Press, 1976.
BHALLA, A.S. & JAMES, D. (1988) (eds). New technologies and development:
experiences in technologies blending. Boulder, CO, Lynne Ricnner.