Australia, Pacific rocked by ocean heatwaves last year
Long stints of extreme ocean heat were experienced by nearly 40 million square kilometres of the region in 2024, including the waters surrounding Australia, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has revealed.
WMO secretary-general Celeste Saulo said ocean heat and acidification were together inflicting long-lasting damage on marine ecosystems and economies
"It is increasingly evident that we are fast running out of time to turn the tide," she said.
High ocean temperatures have been wreaking havoc on heat-sensitive coral reefs worldwide, with Australian authorities reporting the sixth mass bleaching event at the Great Barrier Reef in less than a decade.
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Warming on land was also higher than it had ever been last year, with Thursday's report from the United Nations weather and climate agency identifying temperatures roughly 0.48°C above the 1991–2020 average across the region.
Heatwaves were particularly acute in Western Australia, with the coastal town of Carnarvon reaching 49.9°C in February and breaking existing temperature records by more than two degrees.
The south-west Pacific assessment aligns with global temperature records being consistently broken as concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reach fresh highs.
Last year was the hottest on record and the first to surpass 1.5°C warmer than pre-industrial times, the benchmark temperature under the Paris climate agreement.
The global pact has not yet been breached as it refers to long-term trends but more warming is expected, with a separate WMO report predicting a 70% chance the average temperature over the next five years will exceed 1.5 degrees.
The WMO regional report pre-dated Cyclone Alfred and the devastating flooding events Australia experienced in the first half of 2025, but captured above-average rainfall for the northern states last year.
A sea level rise in the Pacific region that exceeds global averages was also recorded, threatening island communities living near the coast.
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Elsewhere in the region, Indonesia's glacier ice degraded 30-50% compared to 2022.
If melting continues at the same rate, the ice is on track to disappear entirely by 2026 or soon after.
The Philippines was struck by twice as many cyclones as normal, with 12 storms hitting the country between September and November.
Climate patterns also influenced the year's weather events, including El Nino conditions at the start of 2024 in the tropical Pacific Ocean that weakened to neutral conditions by the middle of the year.
Head of the federal Climate Change Authority Matt Kean said there was still "time to arrest this direction of travel to a hothouse destination" at an event in Sydney on Wednesday.
"First, we should ignore the doubters whose main mission seems to be to prolong the life of fossil fuel industries," he said while delivering the Talbot Oration at the Australian Museum.
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Techday NZ
3 days ago
- Techday NZ
Revolutionary SuperPac aircraft debuts in Australia tour & race
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Notable stops include Port Macquarie, Toowoomba, Rockhampton, Cairns, Mt Isa, Yulara, Alice Springs, Katherine, Broome, Carnarvon, Perth, Albany, Adelaide, Melbourne, Hobart, Canberra, Sydney, and Newcastle. Humanitarian capability The SuperPac 750XL-II was developed over seven years and is described as a next-generation, more powerful and fuel-efficient update of the 750XL. Its design enables take-off from and landing on semi-prepared strips, hillsides and other challenging terrains, making it suitable for post-disaster evacuations and humanitarian supply runs. Stephen Burrows, Chief Executive Officer of NZAero, explained how the aircraft addresses challenges posed by climate change and remote access. "We know that the effect of climate change is accelerating across the world and it is now more devastating to human health, economies and the environment than ever before. Increasingly, the fight against its impact is being fought by nations around the world from the skies. For geographical areas which are heavily impacted by drought, natural disaster or are geographically isolated, this utility aircraft can lift more than its own weight, bringing hundreds of kilograms of supplies to remote regions and leaving with a cargo hold full of perishable produce, providing a critical economic lifeline. The smaller aircraft requires less training to fly and less time to refuel and take on more retardant. It can also climb to altitude significantly faster and requires a landing strip that is a fraction of the length of large planes. The humanitarian aid agencies we work with across the globe tell us our aircraft saves lives every day it is operating," he says. Burrows added that modular accessories allow the aircraft to be converted quickly for roles such as dispersing fire retardant during wildfires, cloud seeding via rainmaking silver iodide particles over drought-affected regions, or agricultural applications such as topdressing. 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This equipment is also used by researchers in other nations to detect the remains of ancient civilisations", he says. Aero clubs and communities along the tour route are invited to view the aircraft and engage with the NZAero team during public stopovers.
RNZ News
7 days ago
- RNZ News
Iran capital Tehran could run dry 'within weeks'
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"We are talking about a possible day zero within weeks," said Madani, who previously served as the deputy head of Iran's Department of Environment. The roots of the crisis lie in a tangle of factors including what engineers describe as decades of poor water management and an increasing imbalance between supply and demand. It's all compounded by climate change. Iran is experiencing one of its worst droughts on record, and its fifth consecutive year of drought. The country is also baking under brutal heat. Temperatures spiked above 122F (50C) in parts of the country this month, according to climatologist and weather historian Maximiliano Herrera. "Iran seems almost perennially in a record-heat status," he told CNN. In response to the crisis, authorities have reduced water pressure in Tehran by almost half, affecting around 80 percent of households, the governor of Tehran Province Mohammad Sadegh Motamedian said Monday. For people living in tall apartment buildings, that can mean no water supply at all. One man who lives on the 14th floor in Tehran says his taps often run dry. Water is being delivered to the capital by tankers, and residents who can afford it are rushing to install storage tanks, Madani said. "We have never had a situation like this… this is new to Tehran." Last week, the Iranian government declared a one-day public holiday in Tehran Province, as well as other regions across the country, in an effort to save water and electricity. It's now considering giving people in Tehran a week's public holiday, government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said in a press briefing Monday, in hopes people will temporarily leave the city, cutting water demand. Numerous water tankers commute in Tehran amid the third day of Israel's waves of strikes against Iran, on Sunday, 15 June, 2025. Photo: KHOSHIRAN / AFP Water experts point to mismanagement as a big factor in the crisis. Human activities, including excessive groundwater pumping, inefficient farming practices and unchecked urban water use have pushed the region "toward what can only be described as water bankruptcy," said Amir AghaKouchak, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and Earth system science at the University of California, Irvine. Madani echoes this. It is "water bankruptcy, because it's not a crisis anymore… [it's] a situation where some of the damages are irreversible," he said. In Tehran, so much water has been pumped from aquifers to support its increasing population that parts of the city are sinking, sometimes by more than 10 inches a year. The capital "is grappling with a systemic, long-term imbalance that threatens the very foundations of water security for its residents", AghaKouchak told CNN. Climate change is making a bad situation much worse. Iran has seen a more than 40 percent decrease in rainfall this year compared to the long-term average, and the Tehran Regional Water Company says dams that supply the capital are at about 21 percent of their capacity, according to Iran's semi-official Mehr News Agency. All but one of Iran's 31 provinces are experiencing water stress, said Iran's energy minister Abbas Aliabadi, as reported by Mehr News. When asked about the possibility of water rationing, he said: "I hope this does not happen." Experts say there are no easy answers to this crisis. The government is opting for "band aid" measures, such as new water transfer projects, Madani said. Technical solutions such as desalination and wastewater recycling must be part of picture, he added, but "these address the symptoms for a while without curing the cause". 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Scoop
20-07-2025
- Scoop
Hawke's Bay Shares Cyclone Silt, Slash Lessons With Flood-hit Tasman
The head of the silt removal programme after Cyclone Gabrielle is drawing 'eerie' similarities with Nelson Tasman floods. The head of the $228 million silt removal programme after Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawke's Bay is drawing 'eerie' similarities with Nelson Tasman region, as the flood-hit areas look ahead to their own recovery. Communities across the top of the South Island were facing millions of dollars worth of damage to roading infrastructure, farmland and properties, following the two recent floods that struck the area within a two week period, from late June. Riverside properties in Tasman were grappling with woody debris, silt and waste strewn across their properties. Cyclone Gabrielle smashed Aotearoa in February 2023 with a force of heavy rain which caused flooding damaging infrastructure, properties and land on the North Island's East Coast. Twelve people died during the natural disaster. Large amounts of silt, forestry slash and waste were swept across the whenua, prompting councils across Hawke's Bay to set up an immediate regional taskforce to deal with the material. Taskforce lead Darren de Klerk said watching the news, there were similar scenes in Tasman as there were in Hawke's Bay and Tairāwhiti following the cyclone. 'It's quite an eerie similarity, I think when you look at some of the woody debris and some of the silt and mixed product that we had to deal with,' he said. 'Obviously, productive land is another similarity in the fact that a lot of the highly productive horticulture and viticulture land has been infected.' De Klerk said after an emergency, the early stages of recovery were usually shrouded in uncertainty. 'In the early days, anyone dealing with this will find it quite overwhelming,' he said. 'Firstly, it's just understanding the level of involvement that either Civil Defence or the council has in this recovery.' De Klerk said it broke Hawke's Bay up into six zones, triaged properties by severity, and then mapped out sorting and disposal sites, in efforts to 'chomp the elephant' one bit at a time. Since its beginning, the team moved more than 2.5 million cubic metres of silt across more than 1100 properties, returning around 7000 hectares of land to productivity. It cleared one million cubic metres of woody debris across the coastline and rivers, and sorted through 12,500 broken orchard and vineyard posts. He said in Hawke's Bay, councils had to 'take a leap' to support their communities, before the first round of government funding was announced several months after the event, in May 2023. 'Essentially, you don't have a rule book,' he said. 'From a community point of view, I can guarantee you the people behind the scenes are working as absolutely as hard as they possibly can to find solutions.' He said it was working with Tasman officials to share insights and avoid 're-inventing the wheel'. 'One of the biggest probably learning is just how you manage your contractor army,' de Klerk said. 'Having a standby list of contractors available, so you're not having to work through the procurement and contracting of suppliers in the heat of the recovery phase. 'My thoughts are with them and they'll be trying their absolute best.' De Klerk said the work must be methodical, and open communication with locals was vital. He was now working for the Hastings District Council on its ongoing water and roading infrastructure cyclone recovery.
