HOW Western Port Bay will be affected by climate change is a question many locals are now asking themselves.

Some possibilities for the future of the delicate biosphere were pondered in Pakenham last Friday at a hypothetical scenario event with a group of expert and local panellists.

Moderated by Mornington Peninsula and Westernport Biosphere Reserve Foundation chairman and former TV weather presenter Rob Gell, the panel included environmentalists, economists and Casey councillor Lorraine Wreford.

It took on the challenges of climate and population change to deal with the future of Western Port in the year 2025.

Locals from around Cardinia and Casey watched on and put the hard questions to the group as they thought about various issues including urban development, seagrass loss, litter, diminished water quality, the potential port development and a nuclear power station.

Cr Wreford said in the hypothetical, the State Government had been eliminated and she was now president of the Gippsland region. “We fast forwarded 18 years and brainstormed about how we want Western Port to be,” she said.

“It was a very good exercise. People came at it from totally different angles.

“Some were very pessimistic and others really optimistic, saying we will basically work out how not to pollute the bay.

“The main question was are we doing enough? One of the things that really drove me was the special place Western Port has in our ecosystem.

“It is a designated biosphere, recognised internationally and one of the very few biospheres that are urbanised.”

Cr Wreford said if she could do anything to help Western Port Bay now it would be to educate the next generation and set up some sort of environmental science museum, perhaps in Tooradin.

Members of the panel included an RMIT professor, a director of the scientific advisory committee for the original Shapiro study, an ANZ manager, an economist, a Centre for Sustainability Leadership director, a local Landcare and environment campaigner and a Melbourne Water waterways manager.

Questions from the public included a hypothetical scenario by Southern Victoria Community Action Group president Catherine Manning on the development of the port, with the environment destroyed and the birds all but disappeared, on which the panellists each took a different stance .