Monday, May 30, 2011

One Australian town -- 400 properties at risk from sea rise

Alex Johnson in the Geelong Advertiser (Australia): More than 400 commercial properties in Geelong and along the Surf Coast are at risk of sea-level inundation, according to the latest report forecasting the likely impact of climate change. The Geoscience Australia report, which is due to be released in full later this week, predicts that between 347 and 417 commercial buildings are at risk across the region.

The coastal inundation would be the result of a 1.1m, climate change-induced sea-level rise by 2100 and combined with a major weather event, according to the report which was previewed in the Herald Sun yesterday. Of the 1000 light industrial buildings statewide that are facing inundation, including warehouses and manufacturing assembly lines, one third of them, or up to 374 buildings, are in the Greater Geelong area.

Hundreds of kilometres of roads are also at risk of coastal flooding under the projected scenario, to be detailed in the full report later this week. The leaking of the report comes as the Federal Government steps up its push for a carbon tax, which is aimed at forcing big polluting industries, like Geelong's Alcoa aluminium smelter, to pay for the emissions they produce….

An overview of Geelong, shot by Marcus Wong Wongm, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

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