PUSH THROUGH CLIMATE CHANGE PAIN THRESHOLD
Building more sustainable, less wasteful industries will come with a high cost but it is a solid investment in the futures of our children, and our planet
BREAKING news: it’s hot.
Who would have thought? Especially seeing as it’s summertime in Australia?
Look, it’s easy to make fun of those who state the bleeding obvious when it comes to temperatures topping out, but why do so many remain oblivious when it comes to the reason behind it?
Heatwave headlines might seem superfluous when that’s literally what this season was made for … but the truth is there is something truly newsworthy behind the sensationalism. Climate change.
Yes, it’s summer … but not as we once knew it.
Almost 60 towns and cities across Australia last month recorded their hottest November day since records began, new data has revealed.
A further 40 locations saw their hottest ever November night, leading weather watcher Professor David Holmes from Monash University to observe that “climate change is happening while we sleep”.
Further, Prof Holmes says La Nina, which was declared in October and usually brings cooler weather, may have been “overwhelmed” by global warming.
The Bureau of Meteorology has already confirmed that, overall, last month was the hottest November on record in Australia, and there are indications that it could also be soon declared the hottest November worldwide following unseasonal warmth in the continental US and parts of Latin America and Europe as well as Australia.
Climate deniers may insist it’s all a hoax, but why then are industries from finance to insurance to development and town planning banking on it being a part of the future?
Speaking to the Planning Institute of Australia’s Queensland state manager Matt Collins, he said climate change was one of the biggest factors for planners to consider for the future.
And, unfortunately, the Gold Coast is especially vulnerable to this danger.
Rising sea levels and increased risk of bushfires in our Hinterland mean that almost every suburb could be at risk.
Data compiled by the company XDI for the firm Climate Risk suggests one in six Gold Coast properties could become uninsurable due to an increased frequency of natural disasters
It projects that more than half of the current addresses in the suburbs of Palm Beach, Broadbeach Waters, and Bundall may face unaffordable insurance premiums by 2100, with potential increases of up to 55.5 per cent by 2050.
“The Gold Coast is an extremely desirable place to live but it’s that desirability that’s actually the source of some of its weakness,” chief executive of XDI Cross Dependency Initiative Rohan Hamden told the ABC late last year.
“It’s relatively low-lying land that’s exposed to both sea level rise and riverine flooding to a significant degree.
“You’ve got that hinterland running along the back where there’s the interaction of that urban fringe with the potential for forest fire.”
Let’s be brutally honest. Dealing with the prospect of climate change is a pain in the backside.
But it’s a pain worth going through for a huge gain.
Building more sustainable, less wasteful industries is surely something we should be investing in, regardless of whether or not the world is on fire.
To me, it seems a nobrainer to simply conduct ourselves as though climate change is real (which it is), whether you believe it or not.
Certainly that’s what some of our biggest business players are already doing.
Just recently, ANZ announced it would halt lending to its largest customers unless the businesses could prove carbon transition plans by next year.
ANZ’s new emissions policies aim to support efforts to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, with significant steps to be taken by the 2021 financial year to shape the bank’s operations until 2030.
The bank will also “only finance the construction of new large-scale office buildings if they are highly energy efficient”, and by next year, will disclose “more robust and credible metrics” so the impact of its lending to the
power generation and commercial property industries is clearer.
ANZ’s policies were sharply criticised by the Nationals, who said the moves would cripple farmers. But the question has to be asked: which hurts more – climate change policies or climate change itself?
Between a rock and a hard place, surely it’s better to opt for the short-term pain that may at least give farmers land to farm in the future.
And even for a suburban parent like myself, it’s clear that it’s time to take action. As someone who struggles to remember to recycle, the sad fact is that my heart is willing but too often my hands are just too damn lazy.
But I’m not too damn stupid to realise that this is a real problem and we all need to be part of the solution.
And if that means I need to pay more for products or be taxed more heavily, fine.
Ultimately, it’s an investment in my children’s future.
Surely that should be bleedingly obvious to all.
Climate deniers may insist it’s all a hoax, but why then are industries from finance to insurance to development and town planning banking on it being a part of the future?