Contrasts in Anzac countries weather in 12 mths... (LINK)
January 8th 2008 01:19
The contrasts of weather between Australia and New Zealand in just one year... I wrote the following posts over a year ago on another site. Australia was suffering badly from drought, and New Zealand was being blasted by storms, wet weather and flooding.
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In recent days it has been Australia that has been subjected to storms and flooding. El Nino, global warming,climate change, cyclical weather changes, or what?
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The state of down under weather in Australasia - a conundrum - a drought or storm. Take your pick neighbour !
In reviewing some of my previous posts, I read how I was lamenting the state of New Zealand's weather in late winter and early spring.Things haven't improved much now that summer has arrived.
El Nino the latin architect of our weather was going to improve things by the time summer had arrived.Yeah right! Apart from the warmest and driest September on record New Zealand's weather has been total crap! And on the other side of the ditch - droughts have turned part of Aussie into an inferno, a living hell, as bushfires blaze across a front scores of kilometres wide.
It was the coldest December in Wellington in decades, wet and woeful, beaches deserted, and cinemas frequented by discontented school leavers and early holiday makers.
Figures issued by the National Institute of Water and Research clearly indicated that it was one of the coldest in New Zealand for 60 years - about 2.4 degrees Celsius below normal temperatures in Wellington for 70 years, and nationally about 1.9 degrees below average since 1946.
Wellington lifeguards have been virtually unemployed as they patrolled deserted beaches. Families have turned to indoor entertainment - with a dramatic increase in cinema attendances.
Sales for summer clothing are drastically down - the traditional tee shirts and shorts being replaced by jackets and jeans. Sales of fruit juices are also way down on similar sales from last year.People have been going shopping instead of looking for places to eat and drink.
And to cap it all off, it was one of the quietest New Year's in decades. What the New Year brings will be a mystery!
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Australia has had a 1000 year drought - global warming or natural occurence - does it really matter ! Part 2: Farming, economics, and political points of view.
Earlier I wrote from a scientific view point of the situation, today I look at farming, economics and political points of view.
A farming viewpoint:
One particular farmer who farms 3,300 hectares(8100 acres) in the heart of New South Wales, about 250km(150 miles)from Sydney, reportedly said this spring drought had pushed everybody into the same boat. They had no idea where they were going to go, going to do, or how to get through it!
Stockyards in rural towns like Wagga Wagga are selling record numbers of sheep and cattle, as farmers are forced to offload stock at firesale bargain prices rather than letting them die in some barren pastures.Sheep prices are down by 80% in some areas, and cattle down by 40%.
In western NSW farmers are actually turning livestock loose onto stunted fields of wheat and barley.
Economic outlook:
In its latest report the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics apparently painted a dire picture for the country's agricultural sector. More than half of the farmland is now officially classified as drought- stricken and the bureau says that production of the three main resource crops - wheat,barley and canola will be reduced during this coming year by 60%, and the country's GDP by 0.7% - a significant loss of income and money in the economy.
Political Environment:
The drought is now affecting the political environment as much as the agricultureal landscape. The Government has announced A$1.1 million in farmer assistance, bringing the total over four years to A$2.2 billion.The latest amount is to stave off repossession by the banks. The Howard administration has changed its tune from skepticism to now one of demonstrable concern - beyond the denial stage.
Global warming:
Australians now rank global warming as the third among the critical threats to Australia's future, behind international terrorism and nuclear proliferation. Of the people polled, 68% believed immediate steps should be taken to tackle the problem despite the obvious costs that would be involved.
The Australian Government has been criticised at home and abroad for not signing the Kyoto Agreement.
But, however, they did sign up to the Asia- Pacific Partnership on Clean Development which promises to look for technological solutions to the challenge of cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Canberra has approved a wind farm and a A$420 million solar collector, but hinted that other measures such as carbon trading could be reassessed.
Indirect effects of the drought are being felt worldwide - global wheat prices recently hit a ten year high, fuelled by supply worries and dismal crop forecasts.
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Australia has had its worst drought in 1000 years - global warming or the result of natural occurences - but does it really matter?
A scientific viewpoint:
Barrie Hunt, a researcher at the Melbourne based Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organisation( CSIRO) atmospheric research centre , claimed that Australia has experienced thirty periods of drought over 10,000 years. Its probably too early yet to say we're having a greenhouse effect on rainfall. He based his research on three sites scattered from the country's mostly arid west, to the heavily populated eastern areas which were at present experiencing one of the worst droughts on record.
Eastern Australia has had six consecutive years of below normal rainfall. Many towns and cities were enduring severe water restrictions because dams were at 20% or less of normal levels. In parts of southern Victoria there had been ten years of a dry period.
The Premier of South Australia, Mike Rann, reportedly said last month Australia was in the grip of a 1- 1,000 year drought, citing climatical expert advice.
Parts of the Murray - Darling River basin, Australia's food basin stretching across three south eastern states, have completely dried up as summer temperatures soared.
Mr Hunt said that while global warming from a build up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere was a reality, crippling droughts of fourteen years in length had occurred previously.
The effects of climate change would actually be felt more in future years as global warming itself replaced natural causes for the country's frequent dry spells; at the moment variabilities would dominate.
A CSIRO study last October allegedly said temperatures in many Australian agricultural regions were projected to rise by as much as 1.7 Celsius by 2020 - that is a significant increase!
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