Our changing climate

Science first predicted that increasing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere would warm the earth in the 1870s. For the last 40 years, scientists have made detailed predictions about how much our greenhouse gas emissions (mostly from burning fossil fuels) have and will continue to heat our planet. Since the 1970s, fossil fuel-linked interests have suppressed these predictions and thrown doubt on the consensus of scientists: that the continuing release of greenhouse gases has already warmed our planet by 1.5 degrees, and if continued, will lead to unprecedented global disaster.

We will experience catastrophic climate change in our lifetimes unless we cut our pollution to Zero Emissions by 2030.

In 2020, the amount of carbon in the atmosphere is 410ppm, and still climbing fast. (350ppm, the scientifically accepted safe limit, was exceeded in 1988). As a result, the world is currently on track to warm by 3 degrees by the end of the century.

Yet with the gas industry, the NT and Australian federal governments plan to massively increase gas production in the NT during the coming decade, potentially increasing the Territory’s already excessively high per capita emissions by 100%.

The Top End climate is already changing.

In Darwin, longer-term residents know from personal experience that our climate is changing fast. The cultural practices of Indigenous traditional owners have already been disrupted by the ecological effects of rising temperatures and disrupted seasons.

There is plenty you can do to stop climate change.

Our climate situation provides exciting opportunities to influence our direction for the better, to create a more sustainable world, and to improve our quality of life. Thousands of Territorians have mobilised to achieve this, but they need your support.

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