CLIMATE researchers should spend less time in front of computer screens building predictive models and more time in the field observing and interpreting “hard or real data”, an internationally recognised coastal science expert and publisher has warned.
Charles Finkl, the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Coastal Research, which published a peer-reviewed study by NSW researcher Phil Watson that rekindled a fierce debate about sea level rises, said modelling was necessary but should be taken with a grain of salt.
He accused the CSIRO of refusing to consider questions raised by Mr Watson’s research for its modelling, predicting a worst-case scenario sea level rise of up to 1.1m by 2100.
“The CSIRO more or less agrees with Watson but does not want to admit they have have not got it quite right previously,” said Professor Finkl, geosciences professor emeritus at Florida Atlantic University.
Sydney Coastal areas & many such built on sites around Australia have been overdeveloped
I can remember seeing eucalyptus trees etc growing in sandy conditions near to seashores.
Many earlier paintings etc bear witness to this fact Eg Coogee Beach.
The resumed land in numerous Gold Coast developments,Dubai etc.?
Greedy $developer’s & complicit $councils have encroached upon land reducing the natural ebb & flow of tidal systems.Manly esplanade is a good example of being built too close to shoreline.Storm surges,high tides,winds etc wash away sand that now takes sometimes years to recover.
Sunday school on the beach at Balmoral they taught all & sundry “to build upon the rock & not upon the sand”
History teaches us to learn from the past.
However CSIRO & developer’s favour politicised science (taxes) & profit.