What's going on with the weather?
Dr Tim Flannery - author of The Weather Makers
Every time you drive a car, turn on the television, or cook a meal you produce carbon dioxide (CO2), and around half the CO2 you produce will remain in the atmosphere for at least a hundred years.
CO2 is also the driving force behind climate change, which, according to best-selling author and member of the WWF-convened Wentworth Group, Dr Tim Flannery, is set to become the greatest environmental challenge humanity has ever faced.
"What we urgently need now is good information and careful thinking because in the years to come climate change will dwarf all the other issues combined. It will become the only issue," he says.
Dr Flannery's new book - The Weather Makers - is a passionate call to arms that provides a frightening insight into the ways climate change can alter life on Earth.
"Climate change is happening right now and we need to urgently prioritise our efforts and resources in ways that really matter," Dr Flannery says.
"All over eastern Australia, centuries-old trees are dying of thirst because the water their roots supplied them is no longer available.
"What we are already seeing is not drought but climate change. I don't think we know what a drought looks like in this new climate."
But all is not lost. We can avoid catastrophic climate change by reducing our CO2 emissions by 70 per cent by 2050 - a daunting but not impossible task.
"If you own a four-wheel drive and replace it with a hybrid fuel car, for example, you can achieve a cut of at least that magnitude in your own transport emissions in a day rather than 50 years. And if you can individually achieve this then so can governments and people the world over."
Check out how you can reduce your impact by following Tim's energy saving tips.
More information about The Weather Makers can be found the website for the book.
