Reflections from Northern Rivers trip
The Northern Rivers District of NSW has experienced more than its fair share of climate related disasters and damage. In 2022 Lismore, built on the confluence of 2 rivers, was devastated by unprecedented flooding with Lismore and many surrounding towns, homes and businesses were flooded or damaged by landslides. Towns were cut off for weeks. People were left homeless.
Many are still in temporary accommodation.
“The fact that Lismore got flooded to a height of 14 plus meters was beyond my comprehension when I first heard about it. Visiting the flood-affected sites made me see for myself that implications of climate change might be coming on faster than we think and more catastrophic than we are prepared for.” Pallavi Goswami, Monash University.
The utility of science
A common thread heard throughout the trip was the role of science to help make decisions in the face of climate change. But perhaps unsettlingly for a group of early career climate researchers, we consistently heard people dismiss the need for more climate science – at least in its current form.
The latest model is not providing answers to what the community values and the dispassionate presentation of scientific advice, steeped in uncertainty, was leaving people feeling unheard and unseen.
The college members reflected on traditional academic ways of working and the recurrent emphasis on academic outputs, such as scientific papers. While it is often discussed by universities, this really emphasised a need for an institutional shift away from locking up scientific knowledge in academic journals and measuring academic merit as the number of papers published / H index. As early career scientists we’d love to invest in creating outputs that can be readily used by practitioners without putting our career progress on the line. Less of a concern for the social scientists among us, but still the metric for success.
“I do mostly data driven work. When we are delivering scientific information, we need to keep in mind the “so what” question: who will use it and how can we make it more accessible and useful?” Lynn Zhong, BoM.
Complexity
Ultimately, the week really emphasised the reality that climate change adaptation is a complex social issue, and that the climate science can only take us so far in decision making. The reality of livelihoods and attachment to place paint a different story in every location visited.
The above is an excerpt from the Climate College on the Road blog
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