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| Jeff Goodell: "The Adani coal mine is arguably the stupidest energy project in the world right now." Peter Braig |
I am less relaxed having just finished his latest book, The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking cities, and the Remaking of the Civilised World.
The tan, I discover, comes straight from the Great Barrier Reef where Goodell, who has written six books and is a contributing editor to Rolling Stone magazine, has been diving with his 15-year-old daughter, Grace, ahead of the Sydney Writers Festival this weekend.
We order wine as I ask what he thinks about the government's recently announced half-billion-dollar rescue package for the reef that will be part of next week's federal budget.
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| "Places like Sydney have a lot of money so they're going to be able to adapt in interesting ways," says Goodell. Peter Braig |
"It's like giving someone a band-aid for cancer. It's not addressing the problem. The problem is burning coal," he says.
"No one is complaining about taking care of some of these secondary causes and there needs to be investment in that stuff but to the degree that it's political cover for the real action, that's a big problem."
Goodell has been writing about the coal industry and climate change for over a decade and this is his fourth trip to Australia. On one of the most memorable trips in 2011, he recalls being holed up in a "shack of a hotel" in Proserpine just as Cyclone Yasi hit the north Queensland coast.
His latest book, which was included in The Washington Post's 50 best non-fiction books of 2017, tackles the issue of rising sea levels. Goodell travelled to 12 countries speaking with scientists, politicians, real estate developers and those living in flood-prone areas in Miami, Venice, Rotterdam and Lagos about how they were preparing and adapting for the changes. It is estimated that as ice sheets feel the heat from global warming, sea levels could rise up to 2.4 metres by 2100 after an increase of just 15cm in the 20th century.
"Australia is behind the curve in a pretty profound way," Goodell warns. "I don't think there's much thinking going on about seriously mitigating the risk of sea level rise."
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| Jeff Goodell says the government's rescue package is "like giving someone a band-aid for cancer". Alamy |
"The Adani coal mine is arguably the stupidest energy project in the world right now. Mining coal in Australia to ship to India to power Bangladesh, which is one of the most at-risk nations in the world from climate change and the government is supporting this. If you're going to put your finger on why we humans are in trouble, it's stuff like that."
Creative solutions
Goodell says he was walking along Manly Beach and found himself contemplating that a sea level rise of one metre could wipe out the Sydney landmark.
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| "I remember sitting at Apple and thinking this is so boring," says Goodell. Peter Braig |
"What are we going to try and save and what are we going to let go? Where are we going to spend the money?
"Places like Sydney have a lot of money so they're going to be able to adapt in interesting ways and find creative solutions," he says in an effort to lighten the mood.
But the moment is fleeting.
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| "We deal with uncertainty about risk all the time," Goodell says. Wolter Peeters |
"It's not like everything's OK and then there's sharks in the Sydney Opera House. It's a slow-motion disaster. The real concern is the accumulating economic costs over the next decade or two."
Outside, the sun is shining ominously on a warmer-than-average day for May after Sydney's hottest April on record. But diners inside the Chippendale restaurant are oblivious. There is a noisy, social atmosphere to this warehouse-style bistro with the clatter of the open kitchen, slightly too loud background music and energetic table conversation bouncing off the concrete walls.
As our tartare of kingfish arrives, I ask Goodell, who is staying in the Old Clare Hotel upstairs, whether he considers himself an environmental activist.
"Not at all," he says quickly.
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| "We're really going to have to change the way we live with water," says Goodell. Peter Braig |
Apple manuals
Goodell grew up in Sunnyvale, California, but goes out of his way to downplay his green credentials. He says far from being a tree-hugger, he raced motorcycles as a kid and was a member of the National Rifle Association.
Living in the heart of Silicon Valley, one of his first jobs was writing technical manuals for a little-known computer company called Apple.
"At that time it was a company of 50 people with Steve Jobs running around barefoot and it was a mile from my house.
"I remember sitting at Apple and thinking this is so boring," he says with a wry smile. "I thought I've got to go somewhere where there's something happening."
That ended up being a casino in Lake Tahoe, where he dealt blackjack at night and skied all day, until he tired of the decadent lifestyle and headed off to Berkeley and later Columbia to study fiction writing.
He worked as a journalist in New York writing about cops, AIDS and politics. And after working on a story for the New York Times Magazine about the American coal industry's rebirth under George W Bush, Goodell says he never looked back and has been writing in and around the topic ever since.
For Goodell, the Great Barrier Reef encapsulates the global problem.
"I came off Heron Island and had just had a dive in this amazing underwater world of sharks and manta rays and I visited the research centre which is looking at how coral reefs are adapting to increasing heat stress. We spent the day there and then we get in the boat and we go right by these giant coal transport stations. It was mind-boggling and heartbreaking simultaneously."
Economic impact
Goodell says his latest book has sold much better than expected for two reasons. The first is its release at the end of last year came against the backdrop of three of the most devastating and expensive hurricanes in the US – Harvey, Irma and Maria.
The second reason is that people have started to become more interested in the economic impact of climate change and sea level rises.
"It's really the economics that's driving the interest in my book. People are thinking about real estate values and rising insurance premiums."
"When I look at Miami Beach right now, or other places that are very vulnerable, I see a landscape of stranded assets. I think about the subprime mortgage crisis where you had a lot of risk in these mortgage loans that was not priced in the market. It's the same thing.
"What's going to happen is that risk will get priced in and that will be well before the water comes. The value of real estate on the water is going to go down. My goal is to make these risks transparent."
I suggest that because the water is rising gradually, and the size of the increase is up for debate, people are less clear how and when to respond. But Goodell is annoyed by this suggestion.
"We deal with uncertainty about risk all the time. We had 9/11 which was a devastating event and no one knows how big the risk is of another terrorist attack but we take actions to reduce those risks even in that uncertainty. It's the same thing here. It might be two feet by 2100. It might be two feet by 2030. If you look at the science, the risk is becoming greater. It's all in one direction. The book is called The Water Will Come because it's going to happen.
"Doing things like still building real estate right on the water, that's really dumb."
The main meal is being placed in front of us by a chirpy waitress and my fried chicken sandwich turns out to be a burger stacked high and surrounded by a mountain of fries.
"Wow. Good luck with that," is Goodell's advice as he tucks into his moderately sized plate of mushroom and spinach pasta.
Warming and rising
Goodell is not interested in converting climate deniers. He says his book is aimed at helping people who do understand the basic fundamentals to realise the urgency of the risk.
Up to now, Goodell has been very pragmatic, almost detached, in laying out the challenges associated with global warming and rising sea levels so I'm surprised when he becomes quite emotional talking about his recent trip to the reef with his daughter.
"How do you talk to a 15-year-old girl about the amazing place that she's seen and explain to her that by the time she's able to bring her kids there, it won't be there."
Goodell says he was conflicted about dwelling on the gravity of the situation because he didn't want to turn the trip into "some kind of a death watch". However, he says being aware of the potential environmental damage has enriched his own experiences.
"I pay attention to stuff. I look at the reef and it almost brings me to tears. Not what we're doing to it, even though that bothers me, but it's the beauty of it. I get to see that and show my daughter. I'm really grateful for that.
"We're really going to have to change the way we live with water," he says. "We're going to have to retreat from the coastlines and reinvent urban life in coastal cities and I think that can be really wonderful. But it's also going to be really messy and there's going to be a lot of economic loss.
"Risk is basically a function of money and elevation. If a city has both you're in good shape. If you have one or the other you're OK. If you have neither you're really in trouble."
Over coffee, Goodell says he has been accused by some climate sceptics of being hysterical to sell books.
"Are you kidding? If I was trying to sell books I would love to write this is all a hoax. I would sell gazillions of books. But the deeper you get into this you realise that not only is it not a hoax, the real truth is we don't know how bad it is."
Links
- Federal Government To Lend Money To Adani Business Associates
- Labor Pushes For Federal Investigation Into Adani
- Adani Coalmine Won't Get Federal Rail Funding, Liberal Minister Says
- Big Surge In Opposition To Adani, New Polling Reveals
- Another Blow For Adani As Chinese Backers Pull Out
- Climate Change: Australia's Position Is Unconscionable For A Wealthy Country
- Voters Split On Whether Coalition Should Build New Coal Plants Or Stop Closures
- Turnbull’s Brown Coal Hydrogen Horror Show: $500m For 3 Tonnes
- Coal Has No Place In Australia’s Energy Future
- What Is It About Coal That Makes Old White Men So Crazy?
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