Australian of the Year
Friday, January 26, 2007
Today is Australia Day, and last night the PM awarded the Australian of the Year title to Prof Tim Flannery, the academic whose work on sustainability and climate change has won praise here and overseas. Tim Flannery is perhaps best known in other parts of the world for his recent book "The Weathermakers", in which he emphatically demonstrates that global warming a) is happening, b) is happening very fast, and c) is mostly man-made.
It was a big surprise, at least for me, if one considers the Australian Government's past views on global warming and climate change. So, the award indicates an abrupt gear change on global warming by Mr. Howard. This is an election year in Australia, so perhaps it's not all that surprising...but still, congrats to Prof Flannery, and goodonya to John Howard, as they would say here.
That's awesome! Good for him! I love when people who actually care about the environment get recongnized for their work. I havnt read his book yet, but it is on my list of must-reads.