<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/sep/09/almost-68-of-australias-tourism-sites-at-major-risk-if-climate-crisis-continues-report-says>
"South Australia’s wine regions shrouded in bushfire smoke, the Daintree
rainforest cut off by flooding and tourists marooned at major airports because
of violent storms. This snapshot is the potential chaotic future for
Australia’s tourism industry, a new report has warned.
At least half of 178 tourism assets around the country – from national parks to
city attractions and airports – are facing major climate risks, the analysis
showed. And as the heat rises, so do the disruptions. Many of the country’s
620,000 tourism jobs will be under threat, according to the report from the
insurance group Zurich and the economic analysts Mandala.
“What struck us was just the sheer size of the problem,” said Adam Triggs, an
economics expert and partner at Mandala. “As we looked at the different sites
around the country, it became clear how systemic this risk is.”
The report, published on Monday, used data from Zurich that looked at how
vulnerable areas are to nine “climate perils”, defined as wind, flood, heat,
cold, storm, drought, bushfire, hail and rain.
Using climate models, the analysis accounted for changes in those areas using a
“middle-of-the-road” scenario for greenhouse gas emissions where the globe
warms by 2C by mid-century. This level of warming puts up to 68% of tourism
assets in the major risk category by 2050.
Queensland has 52% of sites in the highest of five risk categories, more than
any other state, where “multiple very high risks with a very high level of
impact” were considered to exist at each location.
Notable areas considered at high risk included Sydney’s royal botanic gardens
and Bondi beach, the Great Ocean Road and the Grampians in Victoria, Cable
Beach and Kalbarri national park in WA and the national arboretum in Canberra.
In South Australia, the Barossa and Adelaide Hills were especially at risk, as
were the Daintree and K’Gari island in Queensland, Cataract gorge in Tasmania
and Kakadu and Uluru in the Northern Territory.
All 31 of Australia’s busiest airports fell into the two highest climate risk
categories because of their location and exposure to storms and wind.
Wine-growing regions, botanic gardens, scenic roads and rail lines, rainforest
and national parks were found to be in the highest climate risk categories.
Museums, galleries and stadiums had relatively low risk.
Triggs said Australia needed to work much harder to help sites become more
resilient and adapt to climate change impacts already here."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
