`Act now' on warming Push to tackle effects before they become catastrophic

Sunday Mail Brisbane
Sunday 4/2/2007 Page: 7
By Daryl Passmore

SCIENTISTS and environmentalists yesterday sent a clear message to the country's politicians on climate change - it's time for action. A UN report released this weekend (3/2/07) warned temperatures will rise up to 6C by 2100, with catastrophic effects on weather. It said greenhouse gases were "very likely" responsible.

Australian Conservation Foundation climate change campaigner Monica Richter said the situation was urgent: "We need to be thinking in terms of the effort that was generated by the country when we went into the Second World War." The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report tips average temperatures to rise 1.8C-4C by 2100 and sea levels up to 79cm if polar ice keeps melting at the present rate.

Griffith University's Emeritus Professor Ian Lowe, a leading climate change expert, said Queensland would be particularly hard hit. The situation this weekend, with large areas of north Queensland flooded while southeast dam levels falling, was a sign of things to come.

• Rainfall from storms in the north would rise by up to 30 per cent with a temperature rise of under 3C, bringing more flooding, with long dry periods in the south.
• Cyclones would become more frequent and intense, and extend to the southeast.
• Developments along estuaries and canal estates would be at risk of flooding.
• Tropical diseases such as dengue and Ross River fevers would become more common and spread south to Brisbane.
• The number of people dying from heat stress in Australia would rise from 1100 a year to up to 16,000.
• More than 90 per cent of the Great Barrier Reef would suffer bleaching each year, destroying it.

"The scientific debate is over. We really need a concerted response from all levels of government," Prof Lowe said.

Green groups urged Peter Beattie and other premiers to follow South Australia leader Mike Rann in introducing laws to curb greenhouse gases and use more clean energy sources.

Scientists say some climate change is inevitable, even with such measures, but there is still time to avoid the worst effects - just.

"It might only be five to 10 years to really dramatically cut greenhouse pollution and avoid the worst," said Australian Conservation Foundation executive director Don Henry.

"We've still got a chance to do something about it but we've got to get cracking." The Federal Government is facing calls to commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent by 2020 and 60 per cent by 2050, boost investment in renewable energy sources, to sign the Kyoto Protocol on cutting greenhouse emissions and to cut or end the $5.5 billion annual subsidies for the supply and use of fossil fuels.

Prime Minister John Howard used the UN report to further his nuclear push: "And as time goes by and we make the fossil fuels cleaner, that will make them dearer to operate, and therefore there'll be a greater opportunity and competitive situation for nuclear power."

Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the consequences of climate change were a reality but global warming could not explain all severe weather. "We have always been the land of droughts and flooding rains."