Our community has demonstrated a profound love of our environment and its ecology, and a deep concern over climate change, and issues of sustainability, adaptation and mitigation including preservation of our tree canopy, diversity of our flora and fauna and planning amongst other aspects of this significant topic.
We have published many articles on various aspects of climate change in Eastsider news and posted them in our Eastsider Extra blog. The concerns range over government policy at all levels of government, active transport, the importance of trees in mitigating the impact of climate change. Please check out the categories listed under environment in the blog here to explore the many contributions we have received over time.
On this page, we publish letters that we have received from our readers about climate change and related topics.
Letters to the Editor
The Editors of Eastsider News welcome letters from our readers and supporters. We want to provide you with a platform where you can express your concerns and share your insights on the things that matter in our communities. All we ask is that you keep them polite, well written, short at no more than 250 words and factually based.
Please note, while we welcome a spread of topics, views and opinions, the specific responses expressed by individual writers do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors, Independent Community News Group Incorporated, or any other organisation.
In our April 2025 edition of Eastsider News, we published the following letter from Bruce Harvey.
Dear Editor
Unfounded anxiety about climate
The Eastsider News frequently carries articles and letters expressing anxiety about climate change, using words like ‘crisis’, ‘emergency’ and ‘disaster’.
As a scientist who has studied climate matters for 45 years, let me assure your readers that this anxiety is unfounded. I can find no evidence, including in International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) scientific reports, that the recent mild warming and atmospheric CO2 increase is anything other than beneficial to humans. The words ‘crisis’, ‘emergency’ and ‘disaster’ do not appear in the IPCC reports. Human societies have usually done well in historical warming periods (and poorly in historical cooler periods). This is easily verifiable in recorded history.
Attempting a wholesale energy transition in Australia has no bearing on global CO2 levels. Australia’s total contribution to global CO2 emissions is less than 1%, of which Melbourne’s eastern suburbs’ contribution is below measurable. The ‘net zero’ policy means we have rising gas and electricity prices and instability in the grid. The increasing prices require government subsidies to make energy affordable for pensioners and local small businesses. Many of the latter are being forced to cease trading in the face of escalating overheads. The anxiety induced by rising costs and constant talk of catastrophe is debilitating for many young and older people alike.
My message to readers is to focus on the many small things that we can do locally and affordably to improve ‘liveability’ in our suburbs. This includes improving water management, and increasing tree cover, open space, affordable housing and biodiversity habitat.
Bruce Harvey
Bruce Harvey has lived in Mont Albert for 25 years. He is President of the Mont Albert Business Association and convener of the Mont Albert Village Gardening Group. He is a highly experienced geologist and environment, social and governance (ESG) professional. He advises resources and renewables businesses on the creation of competitive advantage based on their ESG goals and performance.
We subsequently received several letters in response to Bruce Harvey’s letter. They are published below.
Dear Editor
Climate change – a truly serious problem
Bruce Harvey (Letters, 3/4) rightly encourages local actions to improve suburban liveability, but his view that climate change is not a serious problem contradicts scientific consensus. In its report, The Risks To Australia of a 3°C Warmer World, the Australian Academy of Science warns that, ‘This combination of rate and magnitude of human pressure on the Earth System and potential catastrophic outcomes represents a serious risk for humanity,’ countering Mr Harvey’s claim that current warming and CO2 levels are beneficial.
Like many unconcerned about climate change, Mr Harvey argues that Australia’s small contribution to global CO2 emissions means we need not decarbonise. This is like saying, ‘My income tax is tiny, so I shouldn’t have to pay it.’ Of the 200+ countries in the European Union’s Emissions Database (EDGAR) 2023, all but six (China, the US, India, Russia, Brazil, and Indonesia) emit less than 2 per cent of the global total, yet together they account for 41 per cent—more than China.
The Paris Agreement exists so all nations contribute fairly to limiting warming below 2°C. But few are on track. Only five (Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, EU, UK) are rated as making ‘acceptable’ progress by Climate Action Tracker 2023. Sadly, Australia is still rated as making ‘poor’ progress towards net zero.
In conclusion, while Mr Harvey may feel safe, millions do not—including the many Australians impacted by climate-fuelled extreme weather events. We owe it to future generations to act now. Delaying will only bring greater costs, financial and otherwise.
Ray Peck
Ray is a former educator and senior research fellow. He has lived in Hawthorn for 23 years and was a Committee member of Lighter Footprints from 2019-2024. He has six grandchildren and takes an active interest in climate change because he believes it is the greatest threat they face.
References: Australian Academy of Science report https://www.science.org.au/files/userfiles/support/reports-and-plans/2021/risks-australia-three-deg-warmer-world-report.pdf
EDGAR https://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/report_2024
Climate Action Tracker https://climateactiontracker.org/global/cat-net-zero-target-evaluations/
Dear Editor
The disrupting impact of climate change
There’s a lot been written about climate change, its impact and its causes. We can certainly make a difference at a local level by acting in unison on water management, increasing tree cover, sustainable housing and retaining open space, particularly on domestic building blocks. There’s no doubting the influence of dynamic climatic phases have played in the story of humanity. It’s even arguable that one major change, the end of the last ice age, drove us from the Garden of Eden and floated Noah’s ark.
The current hostile climate phase, whatever cause you choose to place on it, is disrupting our manufacturing and food production chains; a disruption that’s driving up costs and adding to the anxiety of living in the modern world.
Although not a scientist, my entire working life, as a grain merchant, farmer and an aquaculturists, has been dependent on the weather. I’ve seen changes, particularly in relation to the intense and frequency of weather events, that make me relieved I’m not trying to make my living in those fields today. True, the assessment is subjective and the evidence anecdotal, which had me reading some of the recent data coming from the International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) to learn their latest conclusions drawn from scientific data collected worldwide.
The 2023 IPCC Synthesis Report Summary for Policymakers concluded: ‘Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health (very high confidence). There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all (very high confidence)’.While the statement is hardly comforting, I’ve no reason to doubt the veracity of their findings.
John Mosig
Dear Editor
Clear evidence of the causes and dangers of climate change
Your correspondent, Bruce Harvey (Eastsider News, April 2025), who claims to be a scientist, is clearly unfamiliar with the work of, and reports issued by, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). His claim that he can find no evidence from this body ‘…that the recent mild warming…is other than beneficial to humans’ shows he has not read the reports.
The IPCC’s 2023 Synthesis Report states inter alia, ‘Widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere have occurred. Human-caused climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe. This has led to widespread adverse impacts and related losses and damages to nature and people (high confidence). Vulnerable communities who have historically contributed the least to current climate change are disproportionately affected (high confidence). {2.1, Table 2.1, Figure 2.2, Figure 2.3} (Figure SPM.1)’
Mr Harvey also trots out the well worn line that Australia’s emissions are ‘less than 1%’ (they are in fact 1.1%), implying that they don’t matter. What is not widely known is that Australia’s export of fossil fuels accounts for additional emissions of twice our domestic emissions alone.
This means that Australia is responsible directly and indirectly, for over 3% of global emissions. Reducing global greenhouse gas emissions is a task in which every country must play its part. Around one third of global emissions are from countries whose individual emissions are 2% or less of the global total.
It behoves us all to be aware of the consequences of ever increasing greenhouse gas emissions and the heating of the climate that has already happened – 1.5 degrees C for Australia and 1.3 degrees globally. This warming of the climate and the consequential intensifying of the hydrologic cycle (evaporation, rainfall and convective circulation of the atmosphere) – is causing increases in severe weather, flooding and fires around the world. Recent examples include devastating fires around Los Angeles and the recent Cyclone Alfred which is almost unprecedented in its southward trajectory because of warming oceans.
To downplay these dangers and the potential consequences is irresponsible.
Michael Hassett