Australia needs an early warning system to alert governments of impending environmental disasters, according to the Geological Society of Australia.
Key environmental issues facing Australia, such as drought, salinity, water contamination, water shortages, and climate change had been common knowledge among scientists for a long time, the Geological Society of Australia said.
"But there has been no real mechanism for the geoscientific community to collectively feed this early warning research back to governments,” said society president, Peter Cawood.
Australia's involvement in the development of an early warning system for tsunamis had been "a terrific initiative".
"But the same level of attention has not been given to the desperate need for an early warning system for many other environmental crises.
"As a result, we are now seeing, as just one example, very serious environmental problems such as falling water levels in the Murray River and the immediate risks to the Lower Murray Lakes being posed by acid sulphate soils."
Governments only started to take notice of issues such as the Murray-Darling Basin, when the "rivers have stopped running".
The society believes a national geoscience expert panel could serve as an independent voice to provide scientifically based warnings and recommendations many years before they hatch into full-blown environmental crises.
"It is very easy for governments to ignore the research of one expert geoscientist, but much harder for them to ignore the collective recommendations of a high-level, independent expert panel," said Professor Cawood.
