SIMON LAUDER: He was asked to explain why there's a reluctance in the public debate to acknowledge the influence of climate change on the Queensland floods.
KARL BRAGANZA: If you understand that the climate system is changing based on other indicators, then that's a really consistent picture and so yeah, your take on that's quite fair. As to why there's a disconnect, I'm just a climate scientist I guess. (Laughter) I can't, you know, why is salient parts of the science unaccepted in the public discourse? I couldn't answer that I guess, well I could but probably not here. (Laughter)
SIMON LAUDER: Dr Braganza told the conference this years' widespread flooding and the 2009 Victorian bushfires are the type of disasters we'll see more of as global warming takes hold of the weather.
And he says that's a case for cutting carbon emissions.
It seems the public can read graphs and appreciate history better than one of our leading scientific institutions? (Recent Brisbane floods peaked at 4.46m -about the 7th highest in the city's history.)
(Note BOM seem so embarrassed by the lack of precedence of the 2011 floods that they haven't yet bothered to update this graph, or the accompanying report-last updated Nov. 2010)
The World Today a great example of cack handed journalism.
