Highly predictable and monumentally dumb: that was the decision by the American president to turn his back on our faltering collective effort to contain greenhouse emissions.

Equally stupid was the celebration of Donald Trump’s announcement by his acolytes in Australian parliaments, who share his ignorance of the science around climate change and his arrogant indifference to its ramifications.

It’s against that depressing background that Tasmanians are invited to appraise their new climate strategy, which the government released in its final form last week.

Environment minister Matthew Groom, with the support of premier Will Hodgman, has resisted internal demands from the Liberals’ anti-science ideologues for “Climate Action 21” to be mere window-dressing, or shelved altogether. Tasmanians should be thankful for that.

We should also be thankful that Groom acknowledges the “serious and urgent challenge” of climate change and has heeded some of the criticism of the plan’s first draft of December 2015, notably in toning down the hubris about Tasmanian climate leadership.

The plan supports more climate research including a revival of the mothballed “climate futures” modelling program, and a stronger focus on potential climate risk including the threat from coastal and river flooding, coastal erosion and large-scale bushfires.

read more:

http://southwind.com.au/2017/06/06/after-trump-any-climate-plan-is-a-rel...