Unless something shifts dramatically – and soon – humanity will overshoot global ambitions to hold temperature rise to 2°C this century.

In this special series, Future Forecast: Spotlight on the South-West, University of Melbourne journalism students take a deep dive into what this means on the ground – and in the ocean – for communities along Victoria’s south-west coast. This is part of an ongoing Citizen Regional Reporting Project, with future editions focusing on other parts of the state.

This article is a multimedia feature series, co-published in part with ABC Regional Radio (Ballarat).

To visit this multi-media report, click here.

If governments continue to fail to mitigate and adapt to these rises, scientists worldwide – among them the University of Melbourne’s Dr Rebecca Runting – warn there will be cascading consequences. “I think now would be a good time to be thinking about long term planning, and trying to get some more robust actions happening.” Photo: Benjamin Silvester