THE Bay Post/Moruya Examiner has, in the past two editions, interviewed two residents with very different perspectives on the issue of sea-level rise.
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On Friday, we spoke to retired agricultural scientist David White, whose career included analysing drought and its links to oceanic and atmospheric changes.
In his retirement and as a referee for the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, Dr White has become increasingly concerned about rising sea levels.
He said data showing the rate of global average sea-level rise had reached 3.2mm per year in the 20 years up to 2007 was cause for serious concern.
The shire’s infrastructure, he said, was at future risk and planning was vital.
Today, we have printed an interview with two long-term Clyde River oyster farmers on page 5 who say their livelihoods depend on careful placement of oyster racks.
Neither Jim Yiannaros nor Sid Pashalidas say they have noticed any change in the sections of the river they work in.
Mr Yiannaros believes the scientists collecting data around the world have got it wrong.
The parties in both stories had conflicting views, but appeared equally genuine.
Perhaps they are both right: the sea-level rise the data is showing off-shore may be too subtle to yet be felt upstream on the oyster grounds.
The public forum on April 28 at the Batemans Bay Soldiers’ Club at 1pm is a chance to ask such questions and to bring everyone concerned about the issue together.
If you have questions for those charged with gathering evidence and managing risk, this is your chance.
We hope data can be presented in a way non-experts can understand and respect and goodwill will be shown from both sides.
This issue has huge implications for the industries that underpin the Eurobodalla economy – natural resources and tourism – and for everyone who lives here.
It is not a time for the name-calling characterising many exchanges in the cybersphere.
- Kerrie O’Connor