She was commenting on a special report on the ocean and cryosphere, released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change this week.
Prof Hulbe, the dean of the University of Otago School of Surveying, said the report had called for urgent cuts.
Some more positive outcomes could be achieved if New Zealand and other nations took this step.
This was also what her children and Dunedin school pupils were seeking in their School Strike 4 Climate action in the city today, she said.
Prof Hulbe's research includes modelling scenarios which could lead to the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Shelf.
The Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere showed the climate change drumbeat was not in the distance - ``it's here and it's loud''.
Some consequences were unavoidable, but ``some of the most serious outcomes can still be avoided''.
The best available computer models suggested the threshold for large, irreversible change was nearby - somewhere between 1.5degC and 2degC global mean warming, she said.
Prof Cliff Law, of Niwa and the University of Otago, said that
the IPCC report was a call for action -``one we need to prioritise if we value our oceans''.
The report showed oceans had provided ``an amazing buffer'' against climate change.
By absorbing 20%-30% of the carbon dioxide we had released and more than ``an incredible 90%'' of the extra heat retained in the global climate system, the oceans had prevented Earth overheating.
However, there had been changes in ocean currents, chemistry and ecosystems, and these were projected to worsen, he said.
Comments
Given the fact that there's never been a computer model that has predicted the climate ,even after decades of tweaking , its worrying that this so called professor is so sure of herself because people will believe her. We had an almost 20 year global pause that these climate models didn't see coming and that scientists couldn't explain yet we're supposed to believe another doomsday prediction based on yet another model?
So called professor? You accusing her of not graduating? The woman is more of an authority than anonentities on comment threads.
Something is a amiss - especially when Mr Mann's hockey stick climate change model cited by the IPCC for CO2 emission control was thrown out in a recent Canadian Court case as he refused to share his findings with the court where he was suing someone who questioned his data. Please do a simple Google and you make the conclusion- who is leading who? Is this all a big scam for control/taxation?