Kiran Chug, writing in the Dominion Post today, draws our attention to new predictions from the Antarctic Research Centre: “Scientists are predicting seas will rise higher than the levels the Environment Ministry advises local councils to plan for. The director of the Antarctic Research Centre, Tim Naish, said the international community now believed sea levels could rise by 1.9 metres. Dr Naish said he believed that the new figures would impress the urgency of the problem upon policy makers. They were particularly relevant for New Zealand, where such a large portion of the population lived on the coastline, he said.” —Dominion Post
Meanwhile Environment Minister Nick Smith is reported as saying his office plans to stick with previous predictions of a rise of 59 cms.
Earth system scientists continue to warn that while Earth has powerful self-correcting mechanisms the ways in which these mechanisms will achieve their end may be detrimental to man. It is a half century since James Lovelock invented the electron capture detector (the device that detected CFCs in the upper atmosphere and the hole in the ozone layer, sparking this whole debate); but world leaders are still trying to arrive at any kind of a workable accord with which to go ahead and make meaningful globally-scoped changes.
What does this mean for Timaru’s South Beach? Well, hopefully it means would-be developers will find it hard to convince investors their money is safe. At least until the next IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report is published in 2013 it may be hard to finance major projects as close to existing sea level as South Beach. After the publication of the next IPCC report it may be impossible for would-be developers to finance such projects.