Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Hurricane Harvey and the catastrophic flooding of Houston is a window into our future if we don't get global warming under control. Scientists warned that when events like hurricanes, monsoons and typhoons were supercharged by climate change they would be worse—and that's exactly what has happened. When they come, they pack a super punch. Harvey produced rainfall totals of more than a metre that left parts of Houston looking like a tsunami had hit. It was in fact the most extreme rainfall event on continental United States in recorded history. Warmer than normal water temperatures in places such as the Gulf of Mexico fuel the formation and rapid strengthening of tropical storms. Warmer air holds more water vapour, which, in turn, produces more rainfall. Rising sea levels exacerbate storm surge and inland flooding.

This isn't just happening in North America. While the world focused on Harvey, the death toll topped 1,000 from unusually severe monsoonal rains half a world away in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. Here in Australia, climate change is already fuelling longer bushfire seasons and extending droughts. We are in a climate emergency. We owe it to the victims of the most recent catastrophic weather events to do whatever we can to stop these disasters from becoming the new normal.