BOM COPping it

Everyone has a take on the BOM. 

It sits, after all, at the centre of the ideal hot take venn diagram - relevant to basically everyone, with a big juicy number and a dash of fiasco. Let LinkedIn slop flow. 

The BOM is also an easy target. Remember that time they launched a new rain radar in the middle of multiple extreme weather events? Or demanded everyone call them The Bureau like they were some nondescript Ben Affleck movie?

Does it actually matter that a website to tell us what we can see out the window cost the same as the entire Australian Open prize pool? Unfortunately, yes.

Around the same time everyone was losing their minds over the BOM, COP 30 was coming to a close in Brazil. While the talks delivered a deal, that deal did not include a mention of fossil fuels, did not contain a roadmap to transition away from them, and failed to get even half of member states to sign onto a roadmap to end deforestation, despite the conference being held in the Amazon.

Here in Australia, a “general sense of gloom” has settled over the climate debate, with only 39% of Aussies thinking we’ll be able to prevent dangerous levels of global warming caused by climate change.

It’s not hard to make the link here. 

As the BOM keeps self-inflicting wounds on its own reputation and credibility, those who are disengaged, doubtful, or dismissive over climate change and its impacts will see more reason not to trust the weight of evidence before them. 

McKinnon’s pithily titled ‘McKinnon Index’ already shows that while Australians value the systems they have, they are losing faith in their practice. The BOM isn’t helping that particular metric.

The Bureau has a reputation problem that has far greater consequences than its own public standing. Fortunately, it’ll cost a lot less than $96.5m to fix.