Cold climates dwellers have been smugly thinking global warming will bring sunnier weather. The Guardian's review of Turned Out Nice, Britain will become more like the Mediterranean. London will be “an urban heat island” with later sunsets encouraging strolls “sultry summer evenings the royal parks”. Except “grass in the parks will be scorched and dry” and “blighted areas will be occupied by climate refugees who work as servants”. So a sunny future for some as Britons have become less concerned about climate change.
And who will those climate change refugees be? Bob Geldof was in Melbourne last week just long enough to tell Australians they will become “the boat people” of Asia as global warming dramatically changes our island. Geldof told the Age “You’ll be the boat people… Whatever is going to happen with climate change, it is happening. You can disagree on the science, but it is happening.”
Closer to home the future of wind farms around Melbourne seems more certain. More than 110 turbines will whirl into action at Moorabool Wind Farm and Minister for Planning Justin Madden has backed another 14 turbines at Yaloak South. Locals fear a possible fire hazard and possible threats to the wedge-tailed eagle.