The Victorian Government and local media are coming to grips with the projected effects of climate change on coastal towns and villages in that state.
Media on the NSW North Coast is virtually silent on this issue.
Unlike Victoria, the NSW Government does not appear to have taken a comprehensive look at its coastline. Preferring instead to do two case studies at Batemans Bay in the south and Wooli Wooli in the north.
Clarence Valley Council has a draft Wooli Wooli Estuary Management Plan on exhibition, but this is hardly an adequate whole-of-shire adaptation plan.
The NSW Greenhouse Office leaves the NSW North Coast with little more than broad brushstrokes on climate change effects and the final report on coastal erosion case studies.
If it wasn't so serious an issue, State Government and North Coast local government climate change adaptation plans so far would be laughable.
By keeping the North Coast in the dark as long as possible, neither tier of government is actually going to stop residents from finally realising that there is a high price to pay for their sea and river views.
They are simply stopping residents from planning an early personal response to property risk due to potential negative climate change impacts.
After all, we all know from the source documents mentioned here that the NSW coastline is likely to experience higher sea-level rises than the predicted global average.
It's time that the Iemma Government and local councils stopped protecting the short-term interests of developers and gave real thought as to how coastal communities are going to cope with global
warming and coastline retreat.
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