Chief scientist Virginia Burkett says: ‘I thought it was just a US problem but it’s not, apparently, it’s a global problem’

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A senior US government official has decried a “disturbing” rejection of climate science by Australian politicians.



Virginia Burkett, chief scientist for climate and land-use change at the US Geological Survey, said the denial of climate science by Australian decision-makers was a surprise to her. “I thought it was just a US problem but it’s not, apparently, it’s a global problem,” she said.

Burkett said an Australian study on the response of government to coastal planning showed “most policymakers don’t trust the science, which is so disturbing to me”.

“When we scientists talk, we are trained to qualify our statements with uncertainty and perhaps that throws policymakers a little bit,” she said. “If I picked one single sea level rise for the future, it would probably be the wrong one. We have to give you a range.

“It’s hard to explain to a politician that we are getting more rain but also more drought, because the rain is concentrated. Maybe it’s too complicated for policymakers, we’re not simplifying it enough.”

A recent study suggested denial of climate science was rife in Australia. Its prime minister, Tony Abbott, has previously said the science of climate is “crap” but now insists he accepts that human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels, is warming the planet.

Australia has announced a target of a 26% to 28% reduction in emissions by 2030, based on 2005 levels. Abbott has said the target is “environmentally and economically responsible”.

However, several scientists have cast doubt over whether this position was consistent with a global effort to avoid 2C or more of warming, which is the internationally agreed threshold for dangerous climate change.

Burkett said that even a 2C increase in temperatures from pre-industrial times would prove harmful. There has already been a near-1C increase in temperatures over the past 100 years.

“There has been a lot of rethinking over the 2C target, about it not being adequate to ensure the sustainability of human and natural systems,” she said. “There are a lot of publications coming out now saying that 2C is not conservative enough.”

Warming of 2C and above has been linked to increased heatwaves, disrupted food production and sea level rises.

According to the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology, climate change will hit Australia harder than many other countries, with a temperature increase of up to 5.1C by the end of the century if the burning of fossil fuels isn’t curbed.

In this scenario sea levels would rise by up to 82cm by 2090, the number of days with severe bushfire danger would increase, snow cover would decline and droughts would become more extreme.

Burkett, who is an expert in coastal ecosystems, said emissions must to be cut or sequestered or corals would be put under severe stress.

David Balton, deputy assistant secretary for oceans and fisheries at the US department of state, said all countries must do more to avert the dangers of runaway climate change.

“We need to keep pushing in the lead-up to the Paris climate talks and also into the future,” he said. “Ultimately, we are going to have to change the way we live if we are to keep our planet in the safe zone.”

Balton said the US has asked the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to place greater focus upon how climate change is altering the world’s oceans and ice in its next report.