We’ve just been to a seminar presentation on the South East Queensland Climate Adaptation Research Initiative. This three year research program will assess south-east Queensland’s vulnerability to climate change and develop practical cost-effective strategies to help the region adapt.
State and local governments industries and community groups will be key participants in the research program which involves more than 30 scientists from:
* CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship
*
Griffith University
*
The University of the Sunshine Coast
*
The University of Queensland.
The initiative is supported by funding from all four research organisations the Queensland Government Smart State Innovation Fund and the Australian Government Department of Climate Change.
What scares me most about this is that ordinary people in our suburbs know nothing about these things. We aren’t told that our governments are researching how to adapt to climate change in SE QLD. We aren’t told they think it is important that we are facing big risks ahead that we need to be preparing for.
The scenario modelling is focusing on two main scenarios:
[ul]high community involvement and high government involvement
low community involvement and high government involvement[/ul
The former is definitely the option with more hopeful outcomes. So why aren’t we all being told to think about adapting our communities to climate change? Starting now!