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Letters to the editor

Letters to the editor

The City of Melbourne is going to take action on climate change by implementing the Port Phillip Coastal Adaptations Pathways Project (Southbank Local News, October 2013).

Why is the City of Melbourne ignoring the findings of those scientists who disagree with the IPCC on climate change?  The Non Government Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) does not support the IPCC’s alarmist stance.  It is supported by 31,487 scientists who do not subscribe to the view that anthropogenic emissions are driving climate change.

All sorts of dire predictions have been made by global warming advocates for over 30 years, and none of them have been realised.  Ice caps are not melting.  To get coastal flooding you need massive ice cap melts but this is not happening.

The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research report prepared in 2009 for the Antarctic Treaty nations’ Washington conference, noted the south pole had shown “significant cooling in recent decades”.   Latest NASA satellite images show that ice caps have gained ice coverage, particularly at the north pole. Sea levels have been increasing by 3 cms per century well before the industrial revolution.  And going by historical data, rather than speculative computer modelling, there is no danger from coastal flooding in the foreseeable future.

How long are local politicians like the City of Melbourne going to ignore sound science, which clearly shows that coastal flooding and extreme weather events pose no threat now or in the immediate future?

As for the precautionary principle (giving the planet the benefit of the doubt), it has been calculated by Bjorn Lomborg that taking action now on climate mitigation will result in spending around three times the amount that we will need to spend in the future, if and when, problems arise – that’s working on the assumption the alarmist predictions are remotely accurate.

Before the City of Melbourne rushes out and spends millions of taxpayers money, wouldn’t it be wise to get a second opinion?  After all that’s what the precautionary principle says to do.

Alan Barron

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