A judge shouldn't be so careless with the facts of climate change It is disturbing that a judge should have so little regard for evidence - and that the Sydney Morning Herald does not bother to fact-check his claims: Tony Abbott's stance on climate change has been criticised by an eminent judge speaking from a Pacific island that is being devastated by the effects of rising tides. District court judge Michael Finnane spoke during a self-financed fact-finding visit to Kiribati, where seawater has broken into fresh water reserves, flooded houses and in the future is likely to force an exodus of islanders... Judge Finnane said: "If [Mr Abbott] came here and saw the things over here that I have seen, I think he would have a different view. If he looked at them and didn't walk around with shut eyes he would see there is something very significant happening here... My gut feeling is that there's a huge problem with fresh water here. They are taking measures to hold back the waves but ultimately this island, and there are 33 other islands, are going to become less and less habitable... He also said it was "absurd" that people in Sydney drove large four-wheel-drive vehicles or SUVs and didn't realise the damage they were doing to the environment. Double standards? It's "absurd" that people "damage" the environment by driving SUVs, but perfectly fine for a judge to fly to Kiribati for a holiday? But to the facts - rather than to a judge's "gut feeling." Fact: Kiribati's most populous atoll which Finnane visited, is is actually growing, not shrinking. As even a warmist journalist admitted after I pointed this out to him: ...the most populous atoll of Kiribati â the tiny islet of Betio, Kiribati's commercial heart [on South Tarawa] â had increased in size by more than 36 hectares over the past 60-odd years. That's an increase in land area of 30 per cent... (It) is also true, as the scientific paper concluded, the land masses of the low-lying islands and atolls the researchers studied have remained largely stable or even increased over the decades. Yes, Kiribati's water supply is in trouble, but because of over-population, not global warming. A Kiribati climate adaptation expert explains: We want people to be healthy and have healthy drinking water. That's why it is important to stop people toileting on the land, and pigs and other livestock using the land because that can introduce potentially very harmful bacteria. Agricultural activities, such as growing of vegetables, can also introduce harmful chemicals such as nitrates... Given that the population density of South Tarawa is so high, and polluting activities take place on almost all the land of South Tarawa, the water lens underlying South Tarawa is extremely polluted and is not suitable for human consumption, probably even after boiling. There used to be water reserves at Betio and Teaoreareke as well as Buota and Bonriki, but the first two had to be abandoned due to population growth. The population growth has been falsely blamed by some alarmists on refugees from outer islands fleeing rising seas but in fact it's due to a high birth rate, job-seekers drifting to the big town, and more children being sent from outer islands for a schooling. Another fact - sea level does not easily intrude into an atoll's fresh water: So the second claim, that a sea level rise can cause the sea water to intrude into the fresh water lens, is not true either. The fresh water lens floats on the sea water below. A rise in the sea level merely moves the lens upwards. It does not cause salt water to intrude into the lens. And one more fact - atolls tend to grow with rising seas: Regarding atolls and sea level rise, the most important fact was discovered by none other than Charles Darwin. He realized that coral atolls essentially "float" on the surface of the sea. When the sea rises, the atoll rises with it. They are not solid, like a rock island. They are a pile of sand and rubble. There is always material added and material being lost. Atolls exist in a delicate balance between new sand and coral rubble being added from the reef, and atoll sand and rubble being eroded by wind and wave back into the sea or into the lagoon. As sea level rises, the balance tips in favor of sand and rubble being added to the atoll. The result is that the atoll rises with the sea level. Darwin's discovery also explained why coral atolls occur in rings as in Fig. 2 above. They started as a circular inshore coral reef around a volcanic rock island. As the sea level rose, flooding more and more of the island, the coral grew upwards. Eventually the island was drowned by the rising sea levels, and all that is left is the ring of reef and coral atolls. A recent peer-reviewed study confirms most atoll islands in the central Pacific have either grown in area or stayed stable: Low-lying atoll islands are widely perceived to erode in response to measured and future sea level rise. Using historical aerial photography and satellite images this study presents the first quantitative analysis of physical changes in 27 atoll islands in the central Pacific over a 19 to 61 year period. This period of analysis corresponds with instrumental records that show a rate of sea level rise of 2.0 mm.y-1 in the Pacific. Results show that 86% of islands remained stable (43%) or increased in area (43%) over the timeframe of analysis. Largest decadal rates of increase in island area range between 0.1 to 5.6 hectares. Only 14% of study islands exhibited a net reduction in island area. I don't like to say this of a judge of whom there is a lot to like and admire, but when it comes to global warming, is Finnane himself the one walking around with his eyes wide shut?