THERE’S an old saying that ignorant people often have the loudest voices, and it appears to me that this is particularly apt with regard to climate change deniers.
Nobody, even the world’s best climate scientists, can predict with absolute certainty what human-caused climate change is going to do. However, two important facts are apparent.
One is that the most serious climate change predictions are so apocalyptic, so absolutely calamitous, that even if there is the tiniest possibility of them being accurate, they need to be taken extremely seriously.
The second is that, since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was formed in 1988, it has revised its forecasts every two years and all of its predictions have been revised “upwards” (i.e. become more dire) in subsequent years.
There is still a great deal of confusion about climate change, so I am going to attempt to simplify the explanation into logical steps.
Let me start with the following bold statements:
- On current evidence, much of the Antarctic will melt within a couple of thousand years, at most.
- Early in this process (i.e. during the current century, and perhaps before the year 2050), at least three Torres Strait islands are likely to be submerged.
- By the end of this millennium (i.e. by the year 2999, within 970 years), the world’s sea levels could rise by around 80 metres.
- Such a sea level rise would submerge much of the world’s prime residential and agricultural land and large parts of places like Sydney, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast, as well as virtually destroy low elevation countries like Bangladesh.
- There is no scientific technology, either current or imagined, that provides any hope of significantly slowing this process.
- Even if humankind took urgent action now, it is probably too late to prevent many of these events.
- The only hope that humankind has for mitigating this process is to initiate as much action as possible now to minimise carbon emissions, vegetation clearing and other contributing processes.
These are bold statements and it is difficult to imagine them at present, so some politicians, are choosing to declare that climate change is a hoax.
However, the history of science over the centuries has repeatedly shown that predications can’t be determined as false just because humans find them unimaginable.
Some of the most beautiful parts the world are likely to be affected by rising sea levels first and most severely, and one if the most beautiful parts of Australia that will be affected very early is the Torres Strait.
At least three Torres Strait islands are likely to be submerged this century. These are: Boigu Island (population approximately 199 people; area 89.6km²; elevation 1m), Sabai Island (population approximately 340; area 107.9 km²; elevation 1.7m) and Warraber Island (also known as Sue Island; population approximately 287 people; area 0.778 km² with a coastline of 3.5 km; elevation less than 1.5m).
For this reason, I believe that every Australian politician (and climate change denier too) should be compelled to visit the Torres Strait to discuss the issue with the islanders.
Recently, there have been a number of television programs that have highlighted the likely impact of climate change on the Torres Strait.
One of the most remarkable was about the islanders of Badu inviting Prince Albert of Monaco to visit them.
I have only visited the Torres Strait once, 40 years ago, but it was one of the most profound experiences of my life. The Torres Strait waters are amazingly green and the islanders are wonderfully hospitable.
I believe that if all Federal politicians were compelled to visit the Torres Strait at least once during their first term in parliament, all opposition to climate change action in Australia would evaporate.
