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Are our leaders fiddling while Australia burns and climate warms?
Leading University of Melbourne climate change expert Professor David Karoly has warned there is only a short window of opportunity to take action on climate change, and seize the opportunities to provide a safe future for society and has challenged our leaders rise to put aside politics for good government.
Katherine Smith, University of Melbourne Media Unit (0402 460 147 / 8344 3845)
*** A hard copy of Professor Karoly’s oration is available, embargoed until delivery.
Professor Karoly will be part of a panel tonight for the Hamer Oration in Good Government - a joint event for the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Public Policy in the Faculty of Arts, and the Hamer Family Foundation on governance and climate change. He will speak alongside the Australian Youth Climate Coalition’s Amanda McKenzie and The Age’s economics editor Tim Colebatch.
Professor Karoly has said on many occasions that the science is indisputably clear and accepted within the serious science community; the planet is warming outside the range that will ensure a safe future for life on earth. "There is no doubt that the climate system has warmed over the last century," he says.
And while an overall warmer climate with more carbon dioxide has the benefit of more total plant productivity, Australia, as an already hot and dry country, is the developed country most at risk from the adverse effects of climate change.
"Global warming means more heat waves and reduced water availability in the south-east of Australia, leading to more drought and bushfires. It means reduced snow cover in the alpine areas, destroying our alpine ecosystems. It means hotter and more acidic waters around the Great Barrier Reef, leading to massive coral bleaching and destruction of much of the reef. For the tropics, it means higher temperatures and heavier rainfall, leading to flooding and changes in tropical ecosystems. Sea level rise will destroy coastal freshwater wetlands and threaten much of our urban infrastructure along the coast," he says.
Professor Karoly says the government unfortunately appears unwilling or unable to accept that an urgent whole of government approach is needed.
"Will future generations judge us as Neros, ‘fiddling’ with policy details, while failing to take action in response to dangerous climate warming," he says.
Who: Professor David Karoly, Federation Fellow, School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne; Amanda McKenzie, Australian Youth Climate Coalition, Tim Colebatch, The Age economics editor
What: Hamer Oration on Good Government: Public Symposium - Fiddling While Australia Burns: Will this be History’s Judgement of Our Governments’ Response to Climate Change?
When: Today, Tuesday 24 November at 6.30pm
Where: Copland Theatre, Economics and Commerce Building, University of Melbourne
