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Global Warming and Climate Change: What Australia Knew and Buried .ￂ .ￂ . Then Framed a New Reality for the Public Maria Taylor ANU Press , Canberra, Australia , 2014
Another book about climate change! There is so much available in relation to climate change that it would be easy for those of us who are concerned with educating about climate change to claim 'overload' and ignore Taylor's book. Those not interested or concerned about climate change could perhaps flick their eyes onto something else. But to ignore .ￂ .ￂ . What Australia Knew and Buried would mean both groups remaining ignorant of insights that are critical for us (Australians and humans broadly) to aid our planning for the future, and live in it.
In essence, Taylor first provides a starting point for the 'uninitiated' to understand the factors affecting our changing climate and the implications of the estimates of change. For all readers she provides an overview of the history that has led to Australia's current efforts in managing the greenhouse gases (GHG) that affect climate change. While recognising that some scientists had been expressing concern about rising GHGs before the late 1980s -- for example, a 1980 article in Playboy magazine (of all places!) -- this point in time is used to begin her Australian history of climate change; specifically, when the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Commission for the Future held public events about greenhouse effects. From that point, she provides an overview of the 'ups' and 'downs' in Australia's engagement with climate change discussion and action. Her chronology of the key points of this engagement will give anyone trying to follow the Australian path with a most valuable reference -- helping individuals' understanding of the twists and turns of governments and the public, and/or for explaining all this to others.
Second, Taylor takes the 'data' of history a step further by looking into the contexts that have influenced Australia's responses to increasing GHGs. This is the crucial step that provides the insight into how particular responses have come about. It is this reflection and learning that gives us the opportunity to avoid, or manage, the 'twists and turns' that will inevitably appear in future climate change work; or...