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https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-clive-hamilton-on-how-australians-must-adapt-to-living-hot-231703>
"The debate over climate change mostly focuses on how to best to limit
emissions in the effort to prevent disastrous global warming. However in a new
book,
Living Hot, Clive Hamilton and George Wilkenfeld challenge current
priorities, arguing rising temperatures can’t be contained fast enough and we
need to turn our attention to “adaptation”.
Clive Hamilton, who is Professor of Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University,
joined us to talk about what Australia can do to not only survive but thrive
under these conditions.
Hamilton explains why he’s pessimistic about how much we can limit the warming
of our planet:
Simply studying the science makes anyone pessimistic about the possibility
of preventing a large amount of global warming and the consequent effects. I
don’t think there’s any climate scientist who believes we can limit warming
to two degrees centigrade. Most think it’s more likely to be two and a half
or three degrees, which will be disastrous, and some even think it will be
beyond that. So I’m just following the science on that.
On what needs to change, Hamilton maintains we focus too much on mitigation:
The debate in Australia is completely preoccupied with mitigation. George,
my co-author, and I were very much part of this until a year ago. […] The
reality is [mitigation is] not going to make much difference, but what will
make a difference is if [we] decide to embark on, plan for, fund and carry
out a massive multi-decade transformation of Australia – our infrastructure,
our farming and housing, building regulations our coastal management and our
nature management."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
