Finger pointing won't fix climate crisis, says QCC

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The Queensland Conservation Council (QCC) is the latest state non-government organisation calling for stronger leadership on the climate crisis following the devastating storms and flooding in South-East Queensland Recently.

QCC Director, Dave Copeman, said, “Gold Coast residents deserve leadership that takes all necessary actions to keep them safe.”

He was responding to comments from Gold Coast Mayor, Tom Tate, who criticised the Bureau of Meteorology for the timing of severe weather alerts during the Christmas storms.

“It’s not enough to point fingers by blaming the Bureau of Meteorology; we need action and we need it now,” Mr Copeman said.

“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,” he said.

“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.”

According to Queensland Fire and Community Services (QFES), areas near Jimbooma and the Gold Coast Hinterland were particularly hard hit.

More than 1600 SES tasks had been reported between Christmas Day and December 27. Meanwhile, other parts of Queensland were receiving bushfire warnings.

QCC says Queensland has already dealt with unprecedented fires, floods and coral bleaching, all directly attributable to polluting fossil fuels and large-scale destruction of precious ecosystems.

Visit the QCC campaigns page to see what they are doing to pressure state politicians to take more action on the climate crisis.

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