[LINK] : ‘Alarm bells ringing’: You can soon pay for a coffee with your face. Should you?

[Philip N Argy]

@_DavidL_
The tunnels are built to withstand earthquakes and braced against subsidence.  But on your scenario everyone will have drowned before they suffer any impact injury!
And earthquakes are not caused by climate change, although they potentially have a common cause, such as induction heating of the Earth's iron core.  Mankind has not been around for one full circuit of the Sun around the Milky Way, so we can't be sure there's no other factor at play.  King Canute's subjects didn't believe he couldn't control the tide.  Their modern day counterparts can't believe humans can't control global warming, even though without it we'd still be in the last Ice Age!
P 

-----Original Message-----
From: Link <link-bounces at anu.edu.au> On Behalf Of David
Sent: Monday, August 17, 2026 12:24 PM
To: link at anu.edu.au
Cc: dlochrin at aussiebb.com.au
Subject: Re: [LINK] : ‘Alarm bells ringing’: You can soon pay for a coffee with your face. Should you?

Consider this hypothetical example....

The NSW Premier, Chris Minns, is busy extending high-speed metro from the CBD under the Harbour to the outer north-western suburbs (Castle Hill and beyond).  Suppose a driverless train hits a collapsed tunnel section under the Harbour due to subsidence or earthquake, killing all aboard.

If such an event happened we could not possibly say it was a direct result of climate change.  But it's equally true that the _risk_ of such a scenario will be increased substantially by climate change.

So is the NSW Government off the hook then, or not?  Where does the Precautionary Principle reverse the onus from the Proposer to the Approver in this context?  And how does the "Duty of Care" principle apply to those in power?

I note the Premier rushed "ant-semitic" legislation limiting free speech through the NSW Parliament after the Bondi shootings despite warnings at the time they would be challenged as unconstitutional.  Sure enough, they were challenged and duly struck down by the High Court.  In my personal view, these situations will not change until those in power suffer personal risk when ignoring good advice for short-term political kudos.

_DavidL_



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