From: owner-ace-communicators@acecrc.org.au
on behalf of Tessa Jakszewicz [Tessa.Jakszewicz@utas.edu.au]
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Subject: Media Release: Climate Change
- the Science is in and its Time to Move on
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ANTARCTIC
CLIMATE & ECOSYSTEMS COOPERATIVE RESEARCH CENTRE
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Media Release
Embargoed
until 9:30am 19 August 2010
Climate change: the science
is in and it’s time to move on
CEO’s
speech to open the 2010 Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research
Centre Symposium (Hobart, Tasmania)
Dr
Tony Press, 19
August 2010
Welcoming
remarks…
Climate
change: the science is in and it’s time move on
It
really is time to stop shooting the messenger and get serious about
climate change science.
Earlier
this week the Australian Academy of Science released report on the science of
climate change, The Science of Climate Change: Questions and Answers ( http://www.science.org.au/news/index.html ). Not known for
alarmist posturing, the Academy has stated clearly that the earth is changing
because of climate change and that the changes in climate observed over the
past century are due in large part to greenhouse gas emissions from human
activity.
These
conclusions should not come as a surprise as they reflect the consensus of
opinion in the broad community of climate scientists around the world. What is
a surprise is that so much recent discussion, coverage and emphasis in the
media has focussed on challenges to this consensus - as if it were a contest of
ideas more akin to politics than to the disciplines of science.
The
Academy’s report is very much at the ‘conservative’ end of the ongoing
discussions in scientific circles about the rapidity and extent of climate
change, but its conclusions are unequivocal: ‘ the overall upward trend of
average global temperature over the last century is clear’; ‘climate models
estimate that, by 2100, the average global temperature will be between 2
degrees C and 7 degrees C higher than pre-industrial temperatures’;
‘Australia’s climate has changed along with global climate’; ‘human activities
are increasing greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere’; ‘it is very likely
that most of the recent observed global warming is caused by this increase in
greenhouse gases’; and ‘reduction of greenhouse gas emissions could
significantly reduce long-term warming’.
The
Academy has gone to great lengths to objectively present the data and
conclusions in its report and to address some of the counter-claims of the
so-called ‘climate sceptics’ about the veracity of the data used by climate
scientists, and the usefulness of climate models. The Australian Academy of
Science’s report comes to similar conclusions to others from learned academies
in the Unites States and Britain: that is, climate change is real and we are
responsible.
What
is less certain is how much effort is needed to manage climate change. The
Academy makes a sobering assessment of the effort required to prevent global
average temperature rising more than 2 degrees C above pre-industrial
temperatures: ‘…the world would need to be emitting less than half the amount
of carbon dioxide by 2050 than it did in 2000. To do this on a smooth pathway,
global emissions would need to peak within the next 10 years then decline
rapidly’. The corollary of this statement is that the longer it takes the world
to begin to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the harder it will be to reach a
target.
Meanwhile,
over the ditch in New Zealand, one of our partners in ACE, NIWA – the National
Institute for Water and Atmosphere - is being taken to court by anti-climate
change activists who are challenging the validity of its analyses of New
Zealand’s temperature records and seeking to restrain NIWA from providing its
data to international organisations.
The
Academy’s report should be used to provide a benchmark for future open
discussion of climate change in Australia. We should move on from a hollow
debate about whether climate change is real or not. We should now be
marshalling our scientific efforts in three broad areas. First, we need to
understand the evolving climate and its major drivers, and the changes that are
occurring in the oceans, on land, in the atmosphere and to the great ice sheets
of Antarctica and Greenland. Knowing the trajectories for global temperature,
sea level rise, storage of carbon and impacts on natural systems and
agriculture all depend on better understanding the global climate system.
Second, we need to have the tools to adapt to climate change in all areas of
human endeavour. Third, we need to find the best ways, and the will, to
mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
Australian
scientists have a unique role to play in climate change science. Australia is a
wealthy southern hemisphere country with a strong reputation for doing world
class climate research. Our scientists have well developed international
networks and collaborations. We could not be better placed to produce the
scientific effort required to answer some of the challenges of climate change, and
the work of the ACE CRC will play a crucial role in this effort.
As
we look forward to the 5th Assessment Report of the IPCC we should
recognise the important contributions scientists from the ACE CRC will be
making:
Stephen Rintoul will be a Coordinating Lead
Author on the Oceans chapter, and Shigeru Aoki (Japan) will be a Lead Author;
Nathan Bindoff will be a Coordinating Lead Author for the Detection and
Attribution of Climate Change chapter; and John Church (formerly ACE CRC
Program Leader, now an ACE CRC Honorary Research Fellow) a Coordinating Lead
Author for Sea Level Change; Ian Allison (formerly ACE CRC Program Leader, now
an ACE CRC Honorary Research Fellow) will be a Lead Author for the Cryosphere
chapter; and Kurt Lambeck (formerly ACE CRC) will be a lead author for
Paleoclimate. That list does not take into account the considerable
contributions that ACE scientists will make to the IPCC 5th
Assessment report through the peer review literature, and as contributing
authors.
I would like to finish by congratulating
the ACE scientists who made the shortlist for the Eureka Prizes that were
announced on Tuesday night at the Australian Museum in Sydney. Congratulations
to Ian Allison and Nathan Bindoff for Advancement of Climate Change Knowledge through
their contribution to “The Copenhagen Diagnosis” and the Southern Ocean Team of
Rintoul, Salle, Sokolov and Rosenberg for the Eureka Prize for Environmental
Research for “Diagnosing the Nature, Causes and Consequences of Southern Ocean
Change”.
Congratulations.
I now open the ACE CRC 2010 Symposium.
Thank you
Tony
Press
19
August 2010
Dr
Tony Press is the CEO of the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative
Research Centre in Hobart, Tasmania
Media
Event
Join
us at the opening of the 2010 ACE CRC Symposium, Hobart Function and Conference
Centre, 1 Elizabeth Street Pier, Hobart, 9.00am Thursday 19 August.
Media
Enquiries
Tessa
Jakszewicz 0419 116 715
Backgrounder
The ACE CRC is a unique collaboration between core partners
the Australian Antarctic Division, CSIRO, the University of Tasmania, the
Australian Government’s Department of Climate Change & Energy Efficiency,
the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (Germany) and the
National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd (New Zealand) and a
consortium of supporting partners. It is funded by the Australian Government’s
Cooperative Research Centre Program.
The ACE CRC’s mission is to understand the crucial role played
by Antarctica and the Southern Ocean in global climate, and the impacts of
climate change on Australia and the world, and to inform governments, industry,
the community and scientists about climate change to guide our future.
Tessa Jakszewicz
Deputy CEO (Business Development)
ACE CRC
P: +61 3 6226 7652
F: +61 3 6226 2440
M: +419 116 715
W: acecrc.org.au
Private Bag 80
Hobart Tasmania 7001