Catholic Online Forum

A new report from the Federal Government's Climate Commission says the heatwave and bushfires that have affected Australia this week have been exacerbated by global warming.

The report - Off the Charts: Extreme Australian Summer Heat - warns of more extreme bushfires and hotter, longer, bigger and more frequent heatwaves, due to climate change.

It says the number of record heat days across Australia has doubled since 1960 and more temperature records are likely to be broken as hot conditions continue this summer.

The United Nations' chief science body will meet in Hobart tomorrow for the latest round of talks before the release of its fifth major climate paper in September.

More than three-quarters of Australians live near the ocean, and Alan Stokes from the National Sea Change Taskforce says sea-level rises will challenge many Australians' beachfront lifestyles.

Australia's Climate Commission has done modelling on a rise above one metre, which it says could be devastating for all Australian coastal cities, as well as the 6 million people outside the main population centres.

Trains have been halted in western Queensland amid fears tracks may buckle in the scorching heat.

The state is enduring heatwave conditions, with the mercury climbing into the 40s in many inland centres.

A view from the International Space Station shows bushfire smoke clouds over southern Australia.

Australia's farmers will need to adapt to cope with a potentially hotter and drier continent as the effects of climate change take hold, scientists say.

As the UN's chief science body meets in Hobart today to update the latest climate modelling, the CSIRO says forecasts show Australia will have to cope with less rainfall, longer dry periods and crops struggling to grow in changing conditions.

CSIRO climate applications scientist Steve Crimp says the nation's agricultural sector will likely feel the heat of a hotter climate.

"Certainly across most of southern Australia, the projections of the future are for warmer and drier conditions, so when we experience warm and dry conditions, growing those crops, canola, wheat, barley etc will be more challenging in the future," he said.

A CSIRO report warns climate change will threaten Australia's farming productivity and says grazing livestock, particularly cattle, will be stressed as a result and less likely to breed.

National Farmers Federation chief executive Matt Linnegar says he is confident Australia's farmers will rise to the challenge.

"The last thing farmers are is silly," he said.

As the planet continues its warming trend, climate scientists say whole marine ecosystems are also feeling the heat.

The east coast of Australia is now considered one of the fastest warming areas in the region.

The CSIRO says fish are moving south in search of cooler waters, and marine heatwaves like the recent one off Western Australia are likely to cause major damage to corals and fisheries.

Sydney has experienced its hottest day on record, with temperatures passing 45 degrees across the greater city area.

The mercury hit 45.8 degrees Celsius at Observatory Hill at 2.55pm, 0.5 above Sydney's previous hottest day in 1939.

Across greater Sydney, the hottest temperatures recorded were at Penrith (46.5C at 2.16pm), Camden (46.4C at 3.04pm), Richmond (46.4C at 3.01pm), Sydney Airport (46.4C at 2.32pm) and Bankstown (46.1C at 3.28pm).