Australia references scrubbed from major UN climate report

Every reference to Australia was scrubbed from the final version of a major UN report on climate change after the Australian government intervened, objecting that the information could harm tourism.

Guardian Australia can reveal the report “World Heritage and Tourism in a Changing Climate”, which Unesco jointly published with the United Nations environment program and the Union of Concerned Scientists on Friday, initially had a key chapter on the Great Barrier Reef, as well as small sections on Kakadu and the Tasmanian forests.

But when the Australian Department of Environment saw a draft of the report, it objected, and every mention of Australia was removed by Unesco. Will Steffen, one of the scientific reviewers of the axed section on the reef, said Australia’s move was reminiscent of “the old Soviet Union”.

No sections about any other country were removed from the report. The removals left Australia as the only inhabited continent on the planet with no mentions.

Read The Guardian story - “Australia scrubbed from UN climate change report after government intervention.”

Like it or not, Beneath the Wisteria is political

Beneath the Wisteria was never intended to be a political vehicle.

Everything, however, is political and the best intentions to divest Beneath the Wisteria of such matters, have succumbed as climate change, in reality is nothing but political.

Tony Abbott.

It is ideological, it is passionate, it is emotional, it is divisive and illustration of belief or otherwise in climate change in most instances, almost immediately illustrates tightly held personal beliefs in other areas.

Politics have again intruded on good sense with Coalition Party leader, Tony Abbott, declaring today in the Melbourne Age that if elected as Prime Minister he would disband Australia’s Climate Commission, sack its head, Professor Tim Flannery, and repeal the carbon tax.

The story: “Abbott to 'shoot messenger' on climate”, brought some alarming news for Beneath the Wisteria supporters.

Only the day before a report from the Climate Commission articulated undeniable evidence illustrating how human actions had changed earth’s climate system.
The report's lead author, Professor Will Steffen, said the report relies upon the known physics of the climate system, empirical observations of past and present weather, and the variety of mathematical models that can test assumptions from different angles.

''We have seen this basic shift in the climate system, where natural events are amplified because there is more energy in the system,'' he said. ''The different lines of evidence all point to this conclusion.''