Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

There's no more important time to be reflecting on what a future of climate change looks like than now, when we are seeing such extreme weather events all around the world. It's not a future that any of us want, and we still have time to do something about it if we act. I know you've heard a lot from the Greens on this issue. I will take up Senator Birmingham's challenge from question time last week to actually hear from some climate scientists on this issue. I've been following several. There have been hundreds that have been speaking out on this issue in recent weeks around Hurricane Irma in the US. Mr Jon Foley said:

I'm mad. We climate scientists have been warning people about climate change for decades, and politicians deliberately wasted that time.

Scientists generally aren't political beings; they tend to operate outside of our political sphere, but many scientists are recognising now that science, especially climate science, is increasingly political. They understand that politics has failed to tackle the challenges of climate. It's failed the Great Barrier Reef. Recently, it looks very much like a future of climate change is upon us.

I want to read to you a couple of quotes. The Mayor of Miami—a Republican mayor, may I say—whose citizens were recently evacuated, said, 'If not now, when do we discuss climate change?' He said:

This is the time to talk about climate change. This is the time that the president and the EPA and whoever makes decisions needs to talk about climate change. If this isn't climate change, I don't know what is.

The New York Times recently posted an excellent article. They sought out the views of key climate scientists, many who actually live in Florida. Here's a sample of what some of them had to say. Professor Ben Kirtman, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, said he believes it's more important to be discussing climate change around events like Irma. He said:

It's precisely the conversation that we should be having right now. I'm not sure what’s insensitive about that. It's really important to direct resources and funds to the crisis on the ground at the moment, of course.

He also said that we need to be talking about future consequences. Another scientist, Professor Leonard Berry, a former Director of the Center for Environmental Studies at Florida Atlantic University, said:

Immediately afterward we've got to say 'Come on guys, let's really see if this is a harbinger of the future.' And it clearly is to those of us who have looked even generally at the issue. One should be sensitive, but not stupid.

President Trump, as we know, has derided climate change as a hoax. He's looking to cut significant funding to US climate programs. Another climate scientist, Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist at Texas Tech University, said:

We know that as humans, we are all too good at pretending like a risk, even one we know is real, doesn't matter to us.

She wrote:

When we try to warn people about the risks, there's no 'news' hook. No one wants to listen. That's why the time to talk about it is now. The most pernicious and dangerous myth we've bought into when it comes to climate change is not the myth that it isn't real or humans aren't responsible. It's the myth that it doesn't matter to me. And that is exactly the myth that Harvey shatters.

I also have some quotes from Australian scientists that I won't be able to read out now. Climate change is here on us now. We should be discussing this. How are we going to act to prevent more of these damaging storms in the future? By cutting emissions— (Time expired)