HOTTER and drier conditions from climate change will push endangered wildlife and ecosystems around Orange closer to extinction, a new report has found.
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A Nature Conservation Council report titled Hot, dry, and deadly: Impacts of climate change on nature in NSW was released and discussed at a community forum on Wednesday.
Nature Conservation Council campaigns director Daisy Barham said climate change is threatening the survival of Orange’s wildlife and ecosystems.
“The CSIRO warns that on current trends, Central West temperatures will increase up to 4.2 degrees Celcius and rainfall could decline a staggering 47 per cent,” Ms Barham said.
“The Orange region will become hotter and drier, making conditions tougher for native wildlife and dramatically changing some ecosystem.”
Ms Barham said the changes would threaten animals and plant life which are unique to Orange.
“Many species will suffer, including the Regent Honeyeater bird and the rare Silverleaf Candlebark eucalyptus that occurs only on Mount Canobolas,” she said.
“High-altitude ecosystems are very vulnerable to rising temperatures because they are surrounded by warmer, lower-altitude country that is mostly occupied by farms and is unsuitable for cool-climate species.
“The only option for the Silverleaf Candlebark is move higher up the mountain where the temperatures are cooler, but there is a very real risk that it will run out of mountain.”
According to weatherzone.com.au, Orange has received 7.8 millimetres of rain so far in July – well down on long-term averages – while in June the city’s rain gauges were wet by just 4 millimetres.
Ms Barham said extreme weather conditions may become more commonplace.
“Extremes like these are a taste of what Orange and the whole of the Central West can expect if we don’t urgently slash climate pollution,” she said.
The Nature Conservation Council invite people to join the #Repower campaign to accelerate the transition to renewable energy.
