Seriousness of climate change escapes CSIRO overlords

by Robert McLean

The seriousness of climate change and the urgency of better understanding this world-wide social dilemma appear to escape the Turnbull-led coalition government.

Larry Marshall - CSIRO chief executive.

Pleading innocence and arguing government organizations such as the CSIRO are both free and independent to decide on internal infrastructure matters, the science body has strangely fallen into lockstep with the government’s protestations that our future is about profit and growth, and ideology that contradicts what is needed if the world is ever to ease exponential problems manifesting themselves as climate change.
According to the ABC, the CSIRO Staff Association reports that about 1,400 jobs had been lost at the organisation in the past two years.

But scientists became far more optimistic when the Prime Minister launched the National Innovation and Science Agenda in December last year, but that brought with it a $90 million commitment to the CSIRO to support increased commercialisation of research.

So although scientists were somewhat more optimistic, these latest announcements have kept them off-balance.

The ABC understands cuts are expected to be made within the Oceans and Atmosphere and Land and Water divisions and up to 350 positions in the organisation will change.

The organisation will attempt to redeploy as many staff as possible into emerging areas such as data science, but there are likely to be redundancies in the process.

And further, the ABC reports, “The CSIRO's climate science divisions are expected to be pared back as part of a massive shake-up of the organisation.”

CSIRO chief executive Larry Marshall, said the Paris conversation conclusively proved the existence of climate change suggesting changes within the CSIRO would see the organisation move away from measuring and monitoring climate change, to instead focus on how to adapt to it.

The ABC reported that the cuts were expected to be made within the Oceans and Atmosphere and Land and Water divisions and up to 350 positions in the organisation will change.

Commercialization of the CSIRO falls in line with the neoliberal and privatization ideologies of the coalition government, but fails dramatically in simply measuring the extent of climate change, for until we know the dimensions of the dilemma, we know not what to adapt too, how extreme our adaption measures need to be and when and where we should do what.

Recently, I was fortunate enough to sight an email from a CSIRO scientist, written to an uncle, that said:

“As you have read the CSIRO has cowered under government pressure to essentially cease climate research and focus on science which has immediate economic value for the organisation. Unfortunately the business leaders in CSIRO continue to demonstrate their ignorance of the science we do, and seem incapable of pushing back against illogical and incompetent political ideology. I'm sure you will hear much more about this as scientists and concerned public voice their opinions!”