Proving we have world class lunatics here in Perth. AUSTRALIAN of the Year Tim Flannery is sticking by his warning that Perth could become the first ghost metropolis of the 21st century. But the outspoken environmental scientist says it's our addiction to coal, not just water, that is jeopardising our future.
Dr Flannery said he originally made the dire prediction about Perth based on its scarce water supply. "When I said Perth could become the first ghost metropolis, that was true, but the Government acted and got a desalination plant going,'' he said. "The city could have run out of water if it wasn't for the desal plant.''
While the immediate crisis is over, Dr Flannery said water worries would continue to plague southern WA more than other parts of Australia. He said the problem for Perth was that it had to accommodate the bulk of the state's population, which was growing on the back of a booming economy, at a time when the area was limping through 30 years of dwindling rainfall.
| You'd think a booming economy could afford to fix the problems, including more desalination plants, bringing coal in, building a nuclear generating plant, etc, but Dr. Flannery is on a roll -- |
| Fragile eco-systems usually are susceptible to climate change, that's why they're called fragile ... |
While the desalination plant had eased some of the shortfall, Dr Flannery said WA had to keep working on other ways to reverse climate change. "I think that all the prognoses for climate change is that the South-West is going to keep drying out and getting hotter,'' he said.
In the meantime, the straight-talking scientist has turned his guns on WA's love affair with coal, which he said could become the asbestos of the future.
His comments have rattled both the Federal Government and the Opposition, especially when he called for coal-fired power plants to be closed and replaced with renewable energy and clean-coal technologies. He said the technologies existed now to cut carbon emissions by 70 per cent over the next 50 years, just by running our power grids on mostly renewable energy.
| Such as ... |
Asked this week if he was being alarmist, an unrepentant Dr Flannery said it was time to put WA's abundant sunshine and wind to good use by developing renewable energy such as solar and wind power. "We know that coal is the single largest polluter, so we've got to move on to a new energy future,'' he said. ``The Australia I grew up in rode on the sheep's back, but we've moved on _ it's the same with coal.''
On the question of jobs, he said renewable energies had the potential to create more jobs than the coal industry. He called on WA voters to use their power at the ballot box by voting only for candidates who put up targets for reducing greenhouse emissions. "People need to hold the State Government to account on climate change,'' he said. ``Is WA polluting more or less than it was three years ago? And what are the candidates' targets to reduce this?
"This is the single most important thing Perth people can do on this issue.''
Asked if it was too late to repair much of the damage done to Australia's environment, Dr Flannery said there were no quick fixes. "It think it's going to take years, but if we don't act now we're going to be in even deeper trouble,'' he said. Instead, Australia was in catch-up mode, devising policies now to address climate change that should have been started a decade ago, he said.