In May 2004 Flannery said, "I think there is a fair chance Perth will be the 21st century's first ghost metropolis".[27] He reiterated that prediction in 2007...
In April 2005, he said, "water is going to be in short supply across the eastern states".[29] In June 2005 Flannery said, "the ongoing drought could leave Sydney’s dams dry in just two years"...
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".[31][32]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".[33][34] Subsequently, in 2007, an exploration company was established. The company expected to raise at least $11.5m on the Australian Stock Exchange.[35] Flannery took up shares in the company.[36] In 2010, the Federal Government provided the company with another $90m for the development work.[37] In August 2016, the geothermal energy project closed as it was not financially viable.[38][39]
In October 2006 Flannery said, there may be, "no Arctic icecap in the next five to 15 years [...] with the ocean [possibly to eventually] rise by six metres". He also quoted, "arguably the world authority on climate change" who said, "we have just a decade to avert a 25-metre rise of the sea".[40] 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" [41] and in June 2007, as the Millennium drought raged, he said that, "Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane, water supplies are so low they need desalinated water urgently, possibly in as little as 18 months"...
