“To prioritise other goals over this urgent environmental issue would be like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.”
The United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals are regarded as a blueprint for achieving a better future for all.
However, Lara Harland, Senior Consultant at EnviroEngineering Solutions in Brisbane and Chair of Engineers Australia’s Environmental College, believes tackling climate change must be the number one objective.
To prioritise other goals over this urgent environmental issue would be like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
“Unless we address climate change, we can’t achieve any of the other goals,” she said.
“If we don’t stop the ship from sinking, it doesn’t matter how much effort we put in to other areas, it’s going to go down.”
Fast-moving challenge
Harland was part of a panel discussion on climate change at the World Engineering Conference (WEC) in Melbourne, which was held just weeks before devastating bushfires tore through parts of NSW in December last year.
The fires have served as another reminder of the urgency of climate change action, says Harland, adding that engineers have a vital role to play in building a risk assessment model.
“Even if we stopped all emissions today, we’ve still got a 20 per cent chance of our current economic social systems collapsing due to climate change,” she said.
“I think that was a really important point that came out of the [WEC] workshop. Given that it is such a high-risk thing, we need to be putting processes in place to look at these risk scenarios and come up with some better plans to manage situations, such as bushfires, as they arise.”
She added that the playing field is constantly changing, which means “we can’t just assume what worked even 10 years ago is going to work now”.
“It is going to keep changing at a rate that most of us can’t really comprehend.”
Building a model for risk
How can engineers build a risk assessment model for a such a rapidly changing challenge?
Harland suggested using the precautionary principal, which is a strategy to cope with possible risks where scientific understanding is incomplete.
“We’d need to look at the worst-case scenario and what we would need to do to manage that,” Harland said.
“Then we’d work backwards on different scenarios to put processes in place.
“As an example, if supermarkets have a two-day supply of food and something happens and road access is cut, what can we do to plan for this? These are the types of things that we need to be looking at much more closely.”
The role of engineers
Harland said that while engineers play a central role in addressing climate change, they are “just one cog in the wheel”.
“It can be frustrating, because it takes the will of a lot of people and organisations to get the change happening. We might have the solutions – and we definitely do – but if no one is willing to implement those or move them up as a priority, it is really hard to get them happening,” she said.
Harland believes engineers should go to the heart of the matter when explaining the effects of climate change.
“We’re putting together some training for all engineers and we believe the most effective way to explain the risk around climate change is make it personal,” she said.
Harland points to resources from the ABC, which allow users to input their age to see how temperatures have changed since they were born.
“If you make climate change personal, rather than abstract, people can really connect with it,” she said.
“You can be sitting outside on a beautiful day and easily think, ‘Oh what’s wrong with the environment?’. We should also remember that some of our cities have been impacted directly the bushfires through smoke pollution, and I think this has created even greater concern, because it is more tangible for everyone.”
Running out of time
While recent cooler conditions have provided a respite, fires fuelled by record-breaking temperatures and months of severe drought continue to burn across parts of NSW, Victoria and South Australia.
Harland said they are a tragic reminder that time is running out.
“The environment and the systems are changing so much,” she said.
“Regrowth will begin but, in another 10 or 15 years, there could be another scenario where the conditions are right for disaster, and then the environment just never gets its chance to regenerate.
“Pretty much everything that’s been predicted is happening and it’s scary.”
If you’d like to donate to bushfire recovery, click the button below to see a list of charities and agencies helping with relief efforts.
Climate Change – absolute garbage. What a shame that an engineer (one of my ilk) should be duped by the climate change hoax
Sadly the author has demonstrated in this article that she has no experience with living in the bush and involvement with a bush fire. Clearly also has no appreciation of the history of drought in Australia or the many tragic wild fires that have caused greater damage to property and life than has happened to date in the 2019/2020 summer period.
Tackling climate change in Australia and making this the first priority will have close to zero impact on reducing the likelihood or the impact of bushfires in Australia.
The first priority by a country mile is providing the resources to reduce the fire load at ground level with regular and cool burns in our forests. A fire requires fuel, oxygen and ignition. The only thing that can be managed is the fuel load. Previous royal commissions have all made this the principle recommendation but this has not been followed through. Unless you have experience the intensity of heat created by a wild fire in a Eucalypt forest it is easy to theorise on what is important and how you will deal with a severe bush fire and its consequences. One thing is certain you dont get in front of the fire in full force driven by the wind it creates and expect to be able to put it out with a truck load of water.
“Running out of time”. Perhaps let us know when we have actually run out of time and then we can get back to other things.
Susan
this report needs to be refuted by clear headed “facts and logic” based comment on the weather related cause of fires along with other reasons
It is a pity that some engineers have joined the labelling of any event as caused by climate change
You need to get another report and publish it
This is typically misleading and self-contrdictory:
“Even if we stopped all emissions today, we’ve still got a 20 per cent chance of our current economic social systems collapsing due to climate change,”
If people still don’t understand, please think about this: “Can human change the distance between the Earth and Sun?” If can’t, let’s talk about and do what we can do. For example: stop driving (or fuel) car, switch off electricity, move into bush for self supply, etc. Whereas at the moment, the most important thing is to set up a system to stop a small fire from growing when a smoke is at first sight. This only needs an early warning system and plane fleet (no need much money). Then, at the same time, carry out reconstruction of the destroyed homes, farms, tourist destinations, etc.
What really is “scary” is that almost nothing that has been predicted has occurred, yet many say the exact opposite.
The polar bears haven’t died out – they have increased.
The Maldives aren’t under water, – the land area has increased in most oceanic islands
The frequency of extreme weather events has not increased – it has decreased (with less loss of life when the population has exploded.)
The walrus have been falling off the cliffs forever
The oceans have been rising at 20cms per year for 1000’s of years.
In this article “…in another 10 or 15 years, there could be another scenario where the conditions are right for disaster .” That’s probably right. The Indian ocean dipole and El nino conditions that the BoM says were in place late 2019 were last in place in the summer of 1982 -83. => Ash Wednesday. Other catastrophic bushfires since then. The drought conditions are cyclic from what I understand from the BoM website. ie not climate change.
I could go on.
By all means reduce emissions – but don’t through the baby out with the bathwater.
I mean 20cms per century.
We need to change the conversation from climate change back to global warming. Global warming is measurable and causal while climate change is nebulous and but one effect of global warming. 500 glaciers lost in Switzerland, 540 in the Himalayas is known, measurable and concerning. Melting permafrost in Siberia and Alaska resulting in tree felling, 100 year old buildings being abandoned as the sink into the melting permafrost, roads becoming impassable are all measurable now. Some intuit people are now freezing foundations as their house foundations sink. Many scientists monitoring melting permafrost are calling it the coming methane bomb. A Washington State cherry farmer who visits Glacier Bay every 5 years noted that 10 glaciers were carving during his second last visit, and all but 4 had retreated on his last visit. A relative driving a 4 wheel drive bus on Montana’s Glacier National Park is concerned about the rapid retreat of this Glacier. Arctic Ocean methane bursts are increasing each month and being monitored by Russian scientists. Global warming is one cause of the long drought, particularly in the southern regions and this was predicted in 2005 by a number of industry presentations I attended. Why none of this is featuring regularly in main stream news is a mystery. Widespread deforestation is another causal factor in world drought – trees generate rain.
1 ‘You are all at risk from stupidity …’ Prof Stephen Hawking re entropy .
2 The Worst Failure, Failure to learn.’ Seminar Risk Management IE Aust Newcastle
Lessons from Disasters June 2000
3 World population curve follows that of atmos CO2
I thought this was the Institution of Engineers Australia – for the advancement of engineering. There is absolutely nothing in the above article that could even remotely represent the opinion of an “engineer”.
The above is, at best, alarmist ideological propaganda … the antithesis of both engineering and an institution. Might explain why “Institution” has been dropped from our name. Next we will drop engineering and just call ourselves EA. Ironically, EA is the Babylonian god of wisdom … I could only wish.