Quotes [In May 2004 Flannery said, in light of the city's water crisis, that, "I think there is a fair chance Perth will be the 21st century's first ghost metropolis".,[36] a warning reiterated in 2007.[37] In April 2005, he said, "water is going to be in short supply across the eastern states".[38] In June 2005 warning that "the ongoing drought could leave Sydney's dams dry in just two years".[39][40] Water security remains a major issue across eastern Australia.
In September 2005 Flannery said, "There are hot rocks in South Australia that potentially have enough embedded energy in them to run Australia's economy for the best part of a century".[41][42] Also for the Cooper Basin, he proposed the establishment of a fully sustainable city where, "hundreds of thousands of people would live", utilising these geothermal energy reserves. He named the city, "Geothermia".[43][44] Subsequently, in 2007, an exploration company was established. The company expected to raise at least $11.5m on the Australian Stock Exchange.[45] Flannery took up shares in the company.[46] In 2010, the Federal Government provided the company with another $90m for the development work.[47] In August 2016, the geothermal energy project closed as it was not financially viable.
[48][49]In October 2006 Flannery quoted a US Navy study stating that, there may be, "no Arctic icecap in Summer in the next five to 15 years. He also quoted NASA's Professor James Hansen, "arguably the world authority on climate change" who said, "we have just a decade to avert a 25-metre rise of the sea".[50] In February 2007, as he explained how increased soil evaporation impacts on runoff, he said "even the [existing amount of] rain that falls isn't actually going to fill our dams and our river systems" [51] and in June 2007, he said that, "Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane, water supplies are so low they need desalinated water urgently, possibly in as little as 18 months"]
