What climate change?

North Carolina’s legislators found a neat way of avoiding preparations for the sea level rising by a metre or so by 2100, as many scientists predict. It banned those predictions with legislation that prescribes how the state can forecast future sea-level rise for planning purposes. The state’s Coastal Resources Commission, which sets rules and policies for coastal development and grants permits, must base predictions of sea-level rises on historical data, ignoring events that might hasten the rate at which seas are expected to rise, such as the melting of polar ice caps caused by increased global temperatures.

Economic considerations were given precedence over scientific ones. The bill’s supporters were worried about the much higher costs of planning for a sealevel rise as great as is being predicted by most scientists.

The Government in this country has not shown that much disdain for climatechange science, but Treasury documents show Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy has recommended scalingback funding for climate change research grants from nearly $10 million a year to $4.5m a year by 2016. These grants have been used to finance research by tertiary institutions and government agencies on adapting to climate change, reducing emissions and creating carbon sinks, and exploiting business opportunities which arise from climate change.

A spokesperson for the associate minister, Jo Goodhew, said it was important to note that the Government was still committing more than $4m a year to research and the criteria for funding would not change, although the research would be more closely aligned with current Government policy, especially the Business Growth Agenda, the Primary Growth Partnership and the Sustainable Farming Fund.

Less research can only reduce scientists’ prospects of finding more and better ways to help farmers reduce agricultural emissions. Without emission-reducing technologies – or ways of measuring reductions – the Government can continue justifying agriculture’s exemption from the Emissions Trading Scheme.

Again, economics is given priority over science.