Sunburnt Country
The History and Future of Climate Change in Australia
Read an extract
- Ebook$22.99 $22.99 $22.99 $22.99 $22.99
- Ebook$22.99 $22.99 $22.99 $22.99 $22.99
The History and Future of Climate Change in Australia
In this extract from Sunburnt Country, Joëlle Gergis looks at how the First Fleet got a first taste of Australia’s unforgiving climate.
The women screamed as the huge waves crashed loudly on the wooden deck. Horrified, they watched the foaming torrent wash away their blankets. Many dropped to their knees, praying for the violent rocking to stop. The sea raged around them as the wind whipped up into a frenzy, damaging all but one of the heavily loaded ships.
The severe storm was yet another taste of the ferocious weather that slammed the First Fleet as it made its way across the Southern Ocean in December 1787. Now, after an eight-month journey from England in a ship riddled with death and disease, the passengers’ introduction to Australia was also far from idyllic. The unforgiving weather that greeted the First Fleet was a sign of things to come. More than once, intense storms would threaten the arrival of the ships and bring the new colony close to collapse.
So how did the early arrivals to Australia deal with such extreme weather? Have we always had a volatile climate? To answer these questions, we need to follow Australia’s colonial settlers back beyond their graves and trace through centuries-old documents to uncover what the climate was like from the very beginning of European settlement. By poking around in the settlers’ old diaries, letters and newspaper clippings, we can begin to piece together an idea of what the country’s climate was like long before…
Solving our climate history puzzle
Joelle Gergis has pieced together Australia’s climate history for the first time, confirming our continent is already experiencing weather extremes far beyond natural variability.
Pursuit: Eavesdrop on Experts'Sunburnt Country' on RN Breakfast
As Australians we're all aware of the power Mother Nature wields — bushfires, storms, floods and drought. How worried should we be about rising temperatures? Frank Kelly speaks with Dr Joëlle Gergis.
ABC RN BreakfastBlack skies and raging seas: how the First Fleet got a first taste of Australia’s unforgiving climate
How did the early arrivals to Australia deal with such extreme weather? Have we always had a volatile climate? To answer these questions, we need to follow Australia’s colonial settlers back beyond their graves and trace through centuries-old documents to uncover what the climate was like from the very beginning of European settlement.
The ConversationThe First Fleet and Australia's unforgiving weather
Passengers onboard the First Fleet received a harsh introduction to their new home’s climate before they even landed. Their diaries and letters reveal just how hard it was
PursuitSunburnt Country review: Joelle Gergis on a fraught future with climate change
Situated at the intersection of history and science, Sunburnt Country explores the mechanisms that underpin the extreme variability of the Australian climate and the ways in which they have shaped our past and will affect our future.
Sydney Morning HeraldAustralia needs a real fix, not a political fix, on climate
Gergis rang the bog-standard alarm bells we’ve almost become inured to – more heatwaves, sea level rise, longer bushfire season, hotter droughts followed by harder deluges – except there was an audible intake of breath in the audience when she said that after two years’ unprecedented successive mass-bleachings, 50 per cent of the corals in the Great Barrier Reef are now dead.
The MonthlyJoëlle Gergis, on what they're reading in April
"It was a reminder that it is deeply human to care about the things that really matter. If I couldn’t bridge those places in myself, then how could I expect my readers to?"
Guardian Australia | Bookmark ThisPODCAST: The History and Future of Climate Change in Australia
As the world’s climate continues to change, Australians will especially feel the more extreme climate impact their lives, economy, and environment.
Newbooks Network