Hot-headed Views Need Cold Shoulder

The Age

Monday July 4, 2005

STEVE WALDON

MERCY! Those otherwise wonderful folk at the World Wildlife Fund reckon that as soon as 2026, the Mediterranean coastline could be too hot for waddling Americans, pallid Brits and central Europeans. This foray into doomsaying is not only out of character for the WWF, it is alarmist claptrap that deserves to be exposed as nonsense.

According to a WWF report, a two-degree rise in global temperatures will be catastrophic for the Mediterranean tourism industry. You've seen these reports before: blah blah soaring temperatures; blah blah heatwaves; blah blah droughts and forest fires . . .

The report's scientific co-ordinator, Tina Tin, says the region, which attracts 30 per cent of the world's tourists, would suffer incredible hardship. She has no hesitation using grave phrases such as "climate change could be very bad news for the Mediterranean".

Very bad news? Can we all just relax and think it through? For a start, how much credibility should we assign to someone who seems to be named after a biscuit? Not a lot, I suggest. And as a famous philosopher - Socrates, probably, - once noted, one man's bad news is another man's disaster: it is all relative. No idea what he meant by that, but that's Socrates for you. Mad.

The danger in dwelling on the dark side of prosperity and the future is in overlooking the bright side. If unbearable heatwaves, droughts and forest fires would "make families go elsewhere for their summer holidays" (Tin again), then "elsewhere" must benefit.

Even Socrates recommended New Zealand.

© 2005 The Age

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