(QLD)Man turns up heat on rainforest

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Man turns up heat on rainforest

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,3708309%255E421,00.html

 

Siobhain Ryan

04feb02

 

QUEENSLAND stands to lose half its Wet Tropics highland rainforest and many

of its rarest animals because of global warming, a major report has found.

 

Even the state's emblem, the koala, was at risk because of rising carbon

dioxide levels, which could strip the gum leaf of its nutritional value for

many vulnerable species.

 

The report, to be launched today by Climate Action Network Australia,

represents one of the most comprehensive pictures yet of the local

ecological effects of global warming – the phenomenon driven by burning

fossil fuels.

 

Peer-reviewed by the CSIRO, the study places question marks over the future

of national icons such as the World Heritage-listed Wet Tropics, Great

Barrier Reef, Kakadu and the Blue Mountains.

 

Ninety Australian animal species, including a third of those on the

endangered list, were also likely to suffer in the hotter, more extreme

climate forecast this century.

 

Dr David Hilbert, principal research scientist at the CSIRO Tropical Forest

Research Centre, said even a 1C temperature rise would devastate half of the

" cloud " rainforests of north Queensland's Wet Tropics.

 

" CSIRO atmospheric scientists are now predicting 2 to 5C of warming by the

end of the century, so a 1C change is liable to happen within 30 to 50

years, " he said.

 

Dr Hilbert said he expected the decline in mountain rainforests to be

matched by a rise in the extinction rate among species that occurred only in

those habitats.

 

" Of course, not only do we have to think about warming and changes in

rainfall, we have to couple that with the invasion of exotic species and

land clearing which, all combined, are putting considerable stress on these

natural ecosystems, " Dr Hilbert said.

 

The Murray-Darling Basin, for example, faced a 12-35 per cent cut in average

flow by 2050 as the southern states grew hotter and drier, adding to the

pressures on its over-extracted and salt-affected rivers.

 

The Great Barrier Reef also ran the risk of heat-related coral bleaching,

which affected 16 per cent of the world's reefs in 1998, on top of existing

threats such as land-based run-off.

 

On a global scale, climate change could ultimately have a greater impact on

the Earth's plants and animals than all human actions to date, the CANA

reported.

 

According to research by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, two

out of every three international scientific studies of wildlife showed new

and significant climate-driven changes.

 

CANA convenor Anna Reynolds said yesterday that even Australia was no longer

an island when it came to global warming.

 

" If we want to avoid environmental damage in Australia, we have to take the

lead by getting global reductions, " she said.

 

" A key point there is our role in Asia, because Asia is where the big energy

growth will be in the next 50 years and it's up to us to ensure that growth

is from renewable energy instead of our coal. "

 

Ms Reynolds said that the Earth was already heating up, with meteorologists

recording a 0.7C temperature rise between 1910 and 1999.