Look at the devastati9ng effect of a rise in Sea levels on Australian coastal towns and cities:
http://flood.firetree.net/?ll=-27.8390,138.1640&z=13&m=7 (check out your own house - is it now part of a marine park?)
Then consider the predictions of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change): It states that we can expect
The problem is that this is BELOW THE MINIMUM we can expect. This is because the IPCC produce reports on a compromise basis, which means the numbers are always on the low (very low) side. Look at how their predictions from even a couple of years ago have already been vastly exceeded.
Also, there is always the possibility of a very rapid "tipping-point" shift in, say, the West Antarctic Ise Sheet, which could mean a rise of, say, 5m in a couple of years or less. As an example of sudden shifts, the Arctic Icepack has been shrinking by 25% or more per year for the last couple of years.
Australia will likely be one of the MOST affected nations in the world considering that the vast majority live near the sea. (sorry, Bangladesh and Netherlands, nothing can be done for you.)
Consider the impact if half of the coastal settlements had to be moved over, say, 5 years. It would mean that ALL of Australia's resources would go towards that, and we would descend into the poverty of the 1930's (ask your granny if it was fun).
Therefore, places like Mackay, which have an opportunity to rebuild, should, instead, MOVE the centre of town to higher ground.
If this is done in a structured, planned way, then the impact of this absolutely devastating event will be reduced.
And it starts with the Councils. It must be virtually impossible for anyone to get planning permission to build or rebuild on low-lying seashore. Existing property owners should be given every encouragement to move, or swap their low-lying properties with unbuilt land that is higher up.

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I am in *no* way upset that the general public has now seemingly fully grasped the concepts of anthropogenic climate change and are now avidly bucketing out water to their veggie gardens and letting the lawns die, but we all need to remember that the enviroment is bigger that this.

A desalination plant installed to produce water for an already over-populated city _cannot_ have a zero impact on the ecology of the area in which it is situated. A planted carbon-sink that creates a non-indigenous monoculture could cause more damage than it is intended to address. And so on and so forth.

I'd like to see at least 50% of the native-born Australian population be able to name an antechinus or know that a Tasmanian blue gum isn't an "indigenous" tree (unless you're in Tas!) before we attempt to solve our water and energy issues given the risk we'll just stuff our delicate, and largely unknown, ecosystems further.

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