Together, the Climate Council community has shown time
and time again that standing up together as a strong voice for science
can produce real wins.
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| Climate Council CEO, Amanda McKenzie. |
Today, you can add another victory to your belt. In
February, we emailed you in outrage after CSIRO announced they would gut their
climate science division.
Today, in response to widespread community outrage to the
cuts, the government announced it would open a Climate Science Centre.
This is welcome news and it would not have occurred without
your support - so thank you.
The research hub will be housed at the CSIRO’s existing
Hobart facility and will be guided by a national climate science advisory
committee, which will report to Science Minister Christopher Pyne.
The CSIRO also announced that 75 positions would be cut from
the oceans and atmosphere business unit rather than the 110 originally
announced.
The new centre will have 40 dedicated CSIRO scientists.
While this is a positive step, it’s not enough - we’ll still have less climate
science capacity than before the cuts were announced.
While there are still some unanswered questions about how
the new hub will function, it is certain that climate science is in better
shape than it was yesterday.
The Great Barrier Reef is suffering the worst coral
bleaching event in history and last month was the hottest March on record
globally, the eleventh consecutive month to break its monthly temperature
record.
We need more research, not less, if Australia is going to be
able to prepare for and adapt to these challenges.
We’ll keep fighting for Australia to keep its promise in
Paris to increase support for climate research.
Onwards,
Amanda McKenzie Climate Council CEO.
P.S. - We’ll never stop fighting for more climate research,
because we know that our response to climate change should be based on the best
science available. Please consider chipping in what you can so that we can keep the pressure on.
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