Property Developers & Scientists in Flannery’s Sights

Scientists needed to get back into the community and explain the link between greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, says Professor Tim Flannery, as a lack of simple communication means sceptics had been able to fill the void with misinformation. He also targeted property developers for seeking to influence coastal planning decisions and build homes that would be threatened by rising sea levels.

Tom Arup and Peter Ker in The Age (20 February 2010):

Environmentalist Tim Flannery has blamed scientists for a rise in climate scepticism, saying they had not clearly explained the science to a ”confused Australian public”.

Professor Flannery, a long-time climate campaigner, told The Age that scientists needed to get back into the community and explain the link between greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.

He said a lack of simple communication to the public about the science of climate change meant sceptics had been able to fill the void with misinformation.

Professor Flannery also supported comments by Climate Change Minister Penny Wong that there was a concerted world effort by sceptics to stop action on global warming.

”We’ve got a big problem with the gap between scientific information and a very confused public here in Australia,” Professor Flannery said.

”The only way to solve that is to listen to the Australian people’s questions and talk to them about it, and they [the scientists] have been rather poor at doing that.”

Professor Flannery yesterday spoke at the Coastal Forum in Adelaide, which is discussing the effects of sea level rises on coastal areas.

He chairs the government’s Coasts and Climate Change Council, which is working on recommendations for the best ways for coastal communities to adapt to sea-level rises.

The council yesterday released a preliminary report warning that some sensitive coastal areas in Australia are already seeing the effects of climate change, through higher king tides, erosion and flood damage.

It also said that coastal policies, which broadly assume that sea levels will remain at current levels, need to be reviewed.

In October, the council will hand its final report to the federal government, which is working on a national coastal policy with state governments.

At the conference, Senator Wong released a government position paper on climate change adaptation, which highlights the need for consistent policies around Australia to prepare for future impacts that are ”already built into the system”.

Source: www.theage.com.au

Pia Akerman in The Australian (20 February 2010):

ENVIRONMENTALIST and author Tim Flannery has called for a ban on property developers making political donations, saying some were seeking to influence coastal planning decisions and build homes that would be threatened by rising sea levels.

Addressing a forum on how Australia’s coastal communities needed to adapt to climate change, Professor Flannery said the nation’s governments needed to look at reining in development.

“Where property developers have undue influence on council, it’s going to be that much more difficult for us to deal with this problem,” he said.

“There are some property developers who would seek to benefit themselves but then have impacts which would be paid for by future generations or the community as a whole.”

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong, who raised the prospect of Australia’s beaches being eroded away or receding hundreds of metres over the next century in her opening address to the National Climate Change forum on Thursday, declined to say what she thought of Professor Flannery’s proposal.

But the former Australian of the Year admitted the idea would not be popular in political circles.

Professor Flannery has backed models predicting a sea level rise of between three and five metres over the next 300 years but conceded scientists were working “in the absence of certainty”.

Responding to a story in The Australian yesterday in which an environmental scientist questioned the science behind Senator Wong’s dire predictions and Bondi Beach veterans said they hadn’t discerned any change in sea levels over several decades, Professor Flannery said those attitudes invited catastrophe.

“There is a real need for us to just step back and say, `Yes, I can’t see any evidence of climate change in my little neck of the woods, but that doesn’t mean it’s not happening’,” he said. “Do we want to give away the heritage of the world’s coastal cities? Because in just three centuries that is likely to be the outcome.”

Professor Flannery said the only way to find out what the future held was to wait, but “if we do that, we know catastrophe will befall us . . . By the time the outcome is evident, it’s too late to act.”

The Rudd government’s Coasts and Climate Change Council released its preliminary findings yesterday, calling for urgent national action to address threats to the coast caused by climate change.

“Our planning systems will need to change, how we assess and share risks will need to change,” its report said.

“There will be consequences for all coastal decision-makers from households to major businesses.”

Professor Flannery, the council’s chairman, called for scientists to speak with a united voice to convince the public their claims on climate change were credible.

“The issue we face is a very frightening one,” Professor Flannery said. “One of the first things people do when they’re in that position is go into denial.”

Source: www.theaustralian.com.au