Saline Sartor rubs salt in coastal wounds - 30 October 2006

The pictures and accompanying article in this morning’s Sydney Morning Herald on the potential affects of climate change were an excellent, albeit conservative, analysis of the issue, said NSW Upper House Greens MP Ian Cohen.

“The reality, however, will be considerably more disastrous than that presented in these dramatic photos,” said Mr Cohen.

“Visions of Spit Bridge, Manly and Neilsen Park with a disappearing beach and water lapping at the base of the trees don’t acknowledge the fact that those trees won’t exist. They will be as dead as if an over-zealous gardener had hit them with a chainsaw.

“Rising sea levels represent a far greater problem that just the drowning of beaches and loss of real estate. The massive increase in salinity will ensure that all growth is dead. Coastal areas affected by rising sea levels will begin to resemble the scorched earth appearance of those areas currently affected by drought.

“The small Pacific Islands so drastically affected by rising sea levels have not only seen low lying communities put at risk of disappearing under the ocean, but the livelihoods of those beyond the rising water line have also been affected as increasing salinity kills their crops.

“This represents an obvious danger to coastal agriculture in NSW as well.

“Salt inundation also threatens to kill Sydney’s coastal parks and gardens. Iconic sites such as The Botanic Gardens may well be under threat.

“None of this is taken into account by Frank Sartor’s amendments last year to the State Environmental Planning Policy that claim to protect coastal areas from over-development. They are a sham. They often result in nothing more than the State Government granting consent to coastal development that both Local Government and the Land and Environment court have opposed. The Becton development in my hometown of Byron Bay exemplifies this.

“Climate change requires urgent and comprehensive action, not developer friendly legislation wrapped in environmental platitudes,” Mr Cohen said.

Further Information: Michael Hidden 9230 3305 or 0431 320 085