Australia. There’s a certain appeal to the Aussie lifestyle: who doesn’t want to hang around golden beaches and blue water all day with a bunch of cool, chilled out locals? But that laid-back, beach-going, surfer lifestyle that has become a central part of the country’s identity could soon disappear. A new government report warns that thousands of miles of coastline are under threat from rising sea levels.
80% of Australians live along the coastline, and the report estimates that AUS$150 bilion ($137 billion) worth of property is at risk from rising sea levels and more frequent storms, posing a definite risk to the local lifestyle and culture.
From the Guardian:
Australia has no national coastal plan despite the prospect of losing large swaths of coastal land as each centimetre rise in sea levels is expected to carve a metre or more off the shoreline. If sea levels rise 80cm by 2100, some 711,000 homes, businesses and properties, which sit less than 6m above sea level and lie within 3km of the coast, will be vulnerable to flooding, erosion, high tides and surging storms.
It argues that Australia needs a national policy to respond to sea level rise brought on by global warming, which could see people forced to abandon homes and banned from building at the beachside, according to the committee on climate change, water, environment and the arts.
The prime minister, Kevin Rudd, said the report was a reminder that “Australia has more to lose through continued inaction on climate change” than most other countries. “The real cost for Australia of continued inaction on climate change is deep and enduring and damaging to our economy and damaging to the nation’s environment,” Rudd said.
More here.
[Photo: kevgibbo, Flickr]
