Climate Change Not Good for Surfers!

The topic was hot and controversial. The atmosphere was light and casual. The result was perhaps predictable. In spite of a spirited presentation by the affirmative team of Colman Ridge, Liz Cantor and Ken Hickson, the audience voted against the motion that “climate change will be good for surfers”.

Debate Topic: “Climate change will be good for surfers”

On Saturday 7 November, as part of the 2009 Surfrider Foundation National Education Conference at  the Southern Cross University, Riverside Campus at Tweed Heads, there was a battle involving some of the brightest minds on the twin subjects of climate change and surfing.

The adjudicator was Wendy Harmer, one of Australia’s best-known humourists, which set the scene and made it imperative that all was not to be taken seriously.

Wendy lives on Sydney’s Northern Beaches with her husband, two young children, and (at last count) fifteen chickens and three ducks.

The team for the NEGATIVE was made up of:

Tim Baker is the author of four best-selling books on surfing, including “Bustin’ Down The Door,” “High Surf” and “Occy”. He is a former editor of Tracks and Surfing Life magazines, and former editorial director of Morrison Media Services. He has twice won the Surfing Australia Hall of Fame Culture Award and been nominated for the CUB Australian Sports Writing Awards.

Narelle Sutherland works in the Office of Climate Change, where she supports the Premier’s Council on Climate Change to advise the Queensland Government on a wide range of climate change issues. Narelle is a keen surfer and has a social work and sociology background. She previously worked, for nearly 2 decades, with NGOs on a range of social justice challenges including homelessness, the rights of prisoners and income inequality – but believes that climate change is the mother of them all.

Darrell Strauss is a researcher at the Griffith University’s Centre for Coastal Management. Darrell was previously an IT Officer at The National Tidal Facility Australia and contributed to the activities of the South Pacific Sea Level and Climate Monitoring Project. Darrell is currently completing his PhD which is focused on the surf zone dynamics of sandy beaches.

The highly charged team for the POSITIVE was led by:

Colman Ridge is the director of Greenfest, Australia’s largest free green festival commencing on World Environment Day.

In support was:

Liz Cantor is a television presenter who currently reports for Channel Seven Queensland lifestyle programs, Great South East and Creek To Coast; and also presents the Golden Casket Lotto draw segments. She also files weekend beach and surf reports for Seven News Brisbane.

Ken Hickson is author of The ABC of Carbon and CEO of ABC Carbon, a climate change consulting business. Ken supports the World Wide Fund for Nature, acting as their honorary representative in Singapore for 4 years and now serving as a Governor of WWF Australia, also providing business, communications and fund-raising support

Of course the event had a serious side and created greater awareness for all the issues relating to climate change and its impact on our coastal communities, as well as beaches. In spite of a telling case that surfers would gain (albeit selfishly) from rising seas, wild weather and tourist-deserted beaches, the environmentally minded surf lovers swayed the vote and the greater community good was the winner.

This event – debate and conference was also environmentally managed and the greenhouse gas emissions generated have been calculated & balanced by Climate Wave Enterprises, EcoFund and Southern Gold Coast.

Source: www.surfrider.org.au