The Climate Reality Project -- Canberra

What can change in a day? Everything. On September 14, the world will focus its attention on the truth about the climate crisis. For 24 hours, we will all live in reality. Pick a faraway place or a city near you. Make it yours for one day. We’re hitting every time zone — but only once. 7 p.m. in your time zone. Choose a location and get involved.

Canberra --

Canberra was built in 1913 as a planned city that became the capital of Australia. A city of parks and mountains, it’s known as the “Bush Capital.” It’s also the home of the new Parliament House, completed in 1988 and designed based on the shape of two boomerangs.

Climate change is already posing a huge challenge for the government officials in Canberra. Much of Australia already has a dry climate, but droughts are now becoming more severe in the southeastern part of the country, where Canberra and other major cities are located. Along with drought comes an increase in the risk of intense fires.

Off the coast, climate change threatens to ruin the largest coral reef in the world. The Great Barrier Reef is home to one of the greatest diversities of life anywhere on the planet, with thousands of species of fish, plants, marine mammals, sea turtles and birds.

As the temperature of the seawater rises due to global warming, the animals that make up coral reefs often eject the algae that live inside their tissues, leaving the ghostly white skeleton of the reefs behind. By 2050, climate change and other local threats are expected to put nearly 95% of the Great Barrier Reef at risk.