CLIMATE CHANGE FACTS

IN her latest essay, Sandra Chesney provides some interesting history about the Norwegian explorer and ethnographer Carl

Lumholtz, and his time in Queensland in the late 1800s.

In particular, Lumholtz’s temperature measurements are quoted in an attempt to dismiss those who accept human-induced climate change as an “extremist cult”. The highest temperature Lumholtz recorded was “on the banks of the Diamantina River where his thermometer rose to 126F for three consecutive days” (“Check the records”, 25/8). These measurements, equivalent to 52C, are likely to be sun-affected and inaccurate, especially given Lumholtz’s statement that “I could not find shade nowhere except under the horse.”

A thermometer in the sun is registering both the temperature of the air and the warmth of the sunlight heating up the thermometer’s inner workings like a glasshouse.

The highest temperature recorded so far in Queensland using standardised procedures was 49.5C in Birdsville in 1972.

According to the Australian government’s most recent Climate Change in Australia report: “Queensland is already experiencing the impacts of climate change. All of Queensland has warmed since 1910. Average annual temperature has increased by 1.5C since 1910.” The key term in that statement is “average”.

RAY PECK, Hawthorn, Victoria.