For decades, Australia has run the most advanced and comprehensive atmosphere and ocean monitoring programs in the Southern Hemisphere, providing critical information not only for a nation that is already the driest on earth and fast getting drier, but also for a world in urgent need of such data to search for ways to cope with climate change.
Last month, to the dismay of climate scientists around the world, Australia's federally financed science agency — the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, or Csiro — announced plans to shift its focus to commercially viable projects and cut or reassign 350 researchers. The decision, as more than 3,000 climate scientists have declared in an open letter to the Australian government, demonstrates a deplorable misunderstanding of the importance of basic research into what is arguably the greatest challenge facing the planet.
Larry Marshall, a Silicon Valley technology entrepreneur and venture capitalist who returned to Australia in January 2015 to take charge of Csiro, explained the change in the agency's mission by saying that climate change was now a settled question "and the new question is what do we do about it and how do we find solutions for the climate we will be living with." The decision did not come entirely out of the blue: Australia's national climate policy has been in political flux for more than a decade, and in May 2014, Csiro's budget was severely cut and almost 1,000 positions were eliminated. But climate scientists were stunned by the severity and illogic of Dr. Marshall's decision.
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| Staff cutbacks and a shift in focus threaten climate work done at the Cape Grim research station in Tasmania, Australia. Credit CSIRO |
Certainly there are good reasons for research institutes like Csiro to cooperate with industry in the search for ways to adapt to a warming planet. But to do this at the expense of research and monitoring — undermining the search for commercially viable solutions that Csiro proposes to join — makes no sense. Long-term research on carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, and on changing ocean and weather processes, is essential to learn what lies ahead and how to prepare for it. Moreover, as the open letter from the scientists put it, Australia is a "canary in the climate change coal mine," spanning different climate zones and experiencing steady decreases in rainfall.
The cutbacks could also obstruct Australia's role in supporting the landmark climate agreement reached in Paris in December, which, among other things, calls on scientifically advanced countries like Australia to assist developing countries with advice and support.
Lead scientists from major United States organizations, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the NASA-sponsored Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment, have begun quietly urging the Australian government to reverse course. At the very least, the government should suspend the changes at Csiro and allow an independent review of whether they are in the best interests of Australia, the Southern Hemisphere or the earth.
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