27th of December 2023
In response to Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate's recent remarks criticising the Bureau of Meteorology for the timing of severe weather alerts during the Christmas storms, the Queensland Conservation Council (QCC) issued a fervent call to political leaders to prioritise the safety of Gold Coast residents through climate action.
Dave Copeman, Director at QCC, says "Gold Coast residents deserve leadership that takes all necessary actions to keep them safe. It's not enough to point fingers by blaming the Bureau of Meteorology; we need action, and we need it now."
"These extreme weather events are not isolated incidents; they are the glaring consequences of inaction on climate change. We can no longer afford to ignore the warnings from weather scientists.
"The same political leaders who criticise our weather scientists for lack of pinpoint accuracy on where extreme weather will strike, should listen to weather scientists when they tell us that we must take real action to reduce the emissions that drive out of control climate change."
"Weather predictions have a huge amount of variables, and as global temperatures rise they become less predictable, but one thing that we know with a very high level of confidence is that as the temperature rise, we will have more extreme weather events"
"Political leaders must rise above the blame game and instead lead us. Tom can start doing this by broadening the Gold Coast's emission reduction target to focus on the whole city, not just the Council's emissions.
We know that climate change is not a distant threat; it's happening now. The safety of our communities depends on leaders who act boldly to address the root causes."
