[Greens-Media] 711, 000 Australian homes and priceless coastal ecosystems at risk

[Bennett, Ebony (Sen B. Brown)]

Saturday, 7 April 2007 
711,000 Australian homes and priceless coastal ecosystems at risk
Turnbull's overseas trip "a sham" - Brown
The Australian Greens say the Howard Government should implement
essential structural changes to Australia's economy in response to the
findings of the UN IPCC report released in Brussels last night - or step
aside.
"This is a self-made crisis, unprecedented in global human history, and
it requires intelligent behavioural change beyond the capability of our
current leaders," Greens leader Senator Brown said.
"If global experts were predicting a stock market crash from an
overheated economy, with 30% of corporations facing extinction and
nearly a million Australian shareholders' funds to be washed away, the
government would be in meltdown."
"711 000 Australian homes are within the projected possible range of 6
metre sea level rise this century. In our region, up to 450 million
people will be made vulnerable by just a one metre rise. This is a
recipe for enormous misery, migration and social chaos."
"The world's best scientific minds are warning of catastrophic losses of
species and treasured wild places. The extinction of the Pygmy Possum or
the death of the World Heritage Great Barrier Reef or loss of the Snowy
Mountains snow cover involves profound personal costs, a deep and
difficult sense of grief, regret and even guilt. 
"Future generations will be greatly aggrieved by this Howardian age of
consumptive indifference."
"Malcolm Turnbull's claim that the IPCC report was nothing new is an
admission that his government's decade of inaction was despite knowledge
of these massive threats to our nation's environmental and economic
security. 
"Now he is flying around the world with a$200 million off-the-shelf plan
to save rainforests. He is currently appealing in the Federal Court to
overturn a ruling saving Tasmania's 10,000 hectare Wielangta forest from
logging and burning. And in the Senate, his government is blocking
Greens Senator Christine Milne's Climate Change bill and call for an
inquiry into sea level rises. He is a sham." Senator Brown said.
Media contact: Prue Cameron 0408 473 379