By Tanya Steele
The Healesville Community Emergency group will host an important public information session on 7 May with international climate change expert Emeritus Professor David Karoly from the University of Melbourne.
The talk will cover the latest climate impact modelling and predictions specific to the Healesville and Yarra Valley region.
Mr Karoly will cover two main subjects within his presentation.
“I am coming to talk in the Healesville area to look at both climate change impacts but also climate change solutions in terms of the transitioning to a zero carbon economy or environment to try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions amongst the people of the community,” he said.
The community emergency group wants to raise awareness and prepare the community for what is ahead for the environment in the region.
Mr Karoly will talk in-depth about how climate change will affect the community due to forecasted changes in the environment in the next ten years and beyond.
“In terms of climate change, there are impacts like increases in extreme temperatures and heatwaves, increases in bushfires and also increases in the impacts associated with extreme rainfall and local flooding for instance, in the Yarra Valley,” he said.
“All of those impacts have already been occurring, and will just get worse.”
Victoria has experienced changes in the last 30 years with a decline in cool season rainfall with an overall increase in the frequency of unusually hot days and a greater number of very high fire danger days in spring
These impacts are forecast to directly affect agriculture, as rainfall and temperature patterns have and are changing throughout the entire year, not just summer.
“There have actually been reductions in wintertime rainfall that are critically important for agriculture and for example, the filling of the Maroondah Dam because there’s less wintertime rainfall, less snowfall in the mountain areas as well,” said Mr Karoly.
Mr Karoly’s presentation will be approximately 40 to 45 minutes long and there will be time for questions.
Ely Hanrahan, the facilitator from the Healesville Community Emergency Group hopes attendees will gain understanding and awareness from the session.
“We thought it was really important for residents to understand the risks, understand what might be coming and make informed decisions based on that information,” she said.
The group are honoured to have Mr Karoly present for them and hopes the community will benefit.
“It is really a huge honour to have him here, he is an esteemed professor and he’s contributed to the IPCC report,” she said.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change.
The IPCC prepares assessment reports about knowledge on climate change, its causes, potential impacts and response options.
Healesville Community Emergency Group will present on the Hub after Mr Karoly’s talk, the Hub is an initiative which will be a resource available to, and run by, the community in the event of a natural disaster.
The Hub session will provide attendees with a better understanding of the range of roles that would need to be filled to activate the Hub and how they can become involved in strengthening their community’s place-based resilience to future hazards.
“We’ll set up an example of what a hub might look like, at The Memo, and then be able to walk through it and understand what goes into it,” Ms Hanrahan said.
Attendees are encouraged to bring an internet-capable phone or device to participate in the Q and A section.
The session is on 7 May from 1.30 pm at the Memo, Healesville.
