Climate-Change: Drought the leveller: Dry weather sends all Aussies reeling

Drought the leveller: Dry weather sends all Aussies reeling

The long-lasting effects of El Nino have caused drought not seen since the turn of thecentury and an entire nation suffers the effects

By Kerry-Anne Walsh

THIS is how bad it is in Australia these days - people wake up, peer out of the window and groan: 'Oh no, not another gorgeous day!'

The sort of weather that Australia's English and Irish forebears would die for is actually hitting people hard, as the nation reels in the grip of the worst dry spell since the Great Drought of 1895-1903.

Four-year-olds in many outback towns have no concept of rain.

Water to them means dams running dry, travelling hundreds of kilometres to cart water and their fathers having to put a gun to the heads of dehydrated cattle and sheep. The earth is so deeply parched in many areas of the country that even if the rains did arrive soon, millions of hectares of crops are beyond redemption.

Virtually 100 per cent of New South Wales has been declared a drought-crisis zone.

A staggering 44 per cent of the State has been declared eligible for assistance under the Exceptional Circumstances Fund, which gives farmers welfare, interest-rate subsidies and crop help.

Indulged city-dwellers in capital cities have been slapped with water restrictions.

Bizarre new crimes have emerged to fit the times: thievery of water from bores and tanks, and herd-rustling by farmers desperate to replace breeders that have died from starvation and dehydration.

The trickle-through effect of the El Nino cycle that has gripped Australia for half a decade, with no end in sight, is catastrophic.

The Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics estimates the drought has already stripped A$5.5 billion (S$5.5 billion) out of the national economy.

The winter grain harvest will be halved, grain production will drop to its lowest level in 50 years and the overall effect could be a drop in national economic growth from 4.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent.

The cost to the government this year in assistance to farmers alone, will be A$400 million.

As for food, Australians will pay at least 20 per cent more for basic meat, fruit and vegetable supplies.

Today's brutal reality is that Australia's great rural economy is an expensive, overworked and under-paying sector.

If it were a farm animal, it would be put down.

Agriculture nowadays contributes only 3 per cent to the nation's GDP, down from 20 per cent in the 1950s.

If there's an upside in the battle against the elements, it is that governments are taking action to ensure our most under-valued commodity - water - is treated preciously.

A commitment to improving water-recycling and management techniques, a national approach to water-rights and entitlements, and legislation imposing water-efficiency requirements on all building plans are first mooted steps.

The Federal government is also trying to reach agreement with the states to set standards for future water usage and sustainable farming practices.

Prime Minister John Howard has not ruled out a water levy and says all Australians must learn to change personal habits and practices concerning water.

What a telling irony - the world's only island continent, surrounded by bountiful oceans, is running out of its most precious resource -

Virtually 100 per cent of New South Wales has been declared a drought-crisis zone.

A staggering 44 per cent of the State has been declared eligible for assistance under the Exceptional Circumstances Fund, which gives farmers welfare, interest-rate subsidies and crop help.

Indulged city-dwellers in capital cities have been slapped with water

There is a more serious issue here. As Roger Coppock pointed out in alt.global-warming, the US will not worry about global warming until they feel the effects, and perhaps not even then. You can now see this effect in action in Australia, where the coutry is dying, yet the Prime Minister, John Howard, will still not sign the Kyoto treaty.

We are all doomed!

(Or for the skeptics 'The sky is really falling in'.)

Cheers, Alastair.

The american breadbasket in Kansas has been failing for years. So I guess even when the the predictions made by climate researchers are coming true no one in high places and very few besides are reacting.

The breadbasket in the Ukraine is also failing, and not only because of the Chernobyl disaster. Because it is all turning to dust.

In Argentina they have the same or similar problems. Three of the world's major food producing countries.

Most people are in denial, of course. But people in high places and their eager servants know. They have to, with all the information they are privy to. But they don't want to change anything, because it will make the power structure crumble.

But it does so anyway. Funny, huh... It's failing before their eyes, and they're growing desperate.

Amos the Witch

Alastair, Australia no longer has a PM, we have an United States Congressman by-proxy going under the name of John Howard, lol.

I suspect within 12-15yrs, all intelligent people of the First World will believe in the anthropogenic component of GW. Those of us who believe already, should make it our priority to vote green{this will pressure the Gov, and send a message to dummies that we have a bucket load more greenies}, at least become an email dissenter at Greenpeace or David Suzuki Foundation, whoever turns you on. Explain to your family and friends the basics of GW, and abide by sensible consumer purchases.

All the best to you Sir.

David Wilson.

Yes Amos, Capitalism is sinking, and The Natural Step Program is its lifeboat.

As i've said before, Capitalism fails when the people overthrow it, but that won't occur at the very last tree, it will occur when the resultant industrial efficiency and productivity demands{read downsizing}, place unbearable stress on the system.

PS, i'm in favour of whatever system is meaningful for humanity and nature, and at the moment, Capitalism isn't it. We do have Natural Capitalism or TNS, these are worthy successors.

When I was in Autralia last year, he, like our British prime minister, was recieving instructions on how to run his country from that patriotic US citizen Rupert Murdoch, lol.. Aparently Howards policies were not right wing enough to satisfy Rupe.

I wonder if you are right. Do you really think that Steve Schulin, TellTheTruth, James, or David Ball will ever admit that they are wrong?

I joined Greenpeace a long time ago, but I am not sure about voting Green. If those who voted Green in the last US presidential election had not indulged themselves and voted Democrat instead, the world might now be run by a man who is aware we are heading for destruction.

And to you,

Cheers, Alastair.

I've not been shy about admitting being wrong about details in the past, as can be verified by searching the archive for such phrases as 'Thanks for correcting' and 'Thank you for correcting' will show. I don't think it impossible that anthropogenic component of GW will become a significant problem, I just think it's unlikely based on what we already know, and I hold related opinion that there's good reason _not_ to turn over the keys to the world's economy to the central

A valid opinion, though not within the context of current research. I hope you find some foundation for it soon.

Followed by a non-sequitor of mostly political stripe,suggesting that the 'opinion' on signficance of GW is biased by other considerations, of irrational origin(i.e. no obvious connection).

I have no idea where the 'central planning' comes in unless you consider any government regulation to be 'central planning'. That is somewhat of a misuse of the term. Only some monopoly regulations can be considered 'central planning' in any reasonable context.

I expect that it is a way of making the 'socialist' connection and thus is basically 'name calling' per se.

Alastair here's my take on the matter, please don't think i'm criticising you ok.

It's my view that people{the masses}, behave according to their cosmology, as dictated by purportedly learned men. Most people discount a higher power, this power can be truth, or a God concept{God is an intuitive concept logically justified, a God concept cannot be disproved by science's conclusions as science is anti-intuition, and by design will attempt to extirpate the concept}....without a genuine belief in a higher power, people become egocentric, it is the natural remaining choice.

But when the heavens overheat these masters of the universe, when the ecology approaches breakdown and excess amounts of bacteria and heat adaptive insects swarm the place, they may have to revise their 'certainty'.

I believe we will overcome our 'greatest challenge', but not easily...and it is laziness and the avoidance of legitimate suffering that most psychiatrists consider the root cause of mental illness, and that psychiatrist and scientific systems theorist M Scott Peck attributed the root cause of Evil, the unwillingness to endure 'legitimate' suffering. Check out my 'Evil Defined' thread on this message board, i posted it a week ago.

I consider it my duty to alert people to our impending problem, but need to mention that it is a crisis of certainty, certainty that using reductionistic science and resultant technology can overcome our problems....i keep asking people, where is technologies solution to these droughts?

In summary, we need a new cosmology to reflect that scientific reductionism, that the mechanized universe is an inaccurate interpretation of nature...if it was accurate, we wouldn't be heading full speed towards eco collapse.

It seems to me that Intuitive philosophy{a body of knowledge that considers all knowledge, but only uses what is meaningful to the human condition}, needs to be accepted and studied....and needs to dump our subservience to technology, this subservience is the result of our mechanized fragmented belief systems which are 'killing' spiritual and intuitive beliefs.

There

I'll keep an eye out for it.

I don't think it is just the white man who is stupid, but it is white

Sure, social darwinism supporting the technological imperative, the TI is usually what people consider progress, and as such we'll displace as many dumb primitives as neccessary to aid that insane notion of progress.

The media are a reflection of the laziness of the masses, and simply support the technological imperative.

You and i don't buy tabloids as they conflict with our value systems, it is the lack of proper values that allows such garbage to proliferate, and the cure will be a Global Warming 'kick in the arse'.

It follows logic that as the climate deteriorates, those opposing measures to mitigate that change will be relegated to insignificance, by force if necessary.

Alastair, i don't think enough people believe yet, once they believe that their childrens lives are at stake, they'll come on board. But at the moment, if you do what your boss says and are a productive punctual team player,... well bucket loads of cash are coming your way...why assume worse case scenario's when putting ones faith in technology solves all problems huh?

I'm going to continually use the net to convey my message and 'literally' hope for the best....hope is another thing that empirical philosophy has tried to extinguish. The story of humanity is that of evolving spiritual complexity, but we took the wrong path after Newton and Descartes went all silly on us{but both Genius's in their day}, Albert enhanced the truths of Newton and showed their limitations, but society hasn't picked up on that yet.....there is no money in truth, LOL.

What I was implying was that you will refuse to 'turn over the keys to the world's economy' no matter how bad the climatic effects are on the US. You will maintain until the end that the effects are just an abberation of nature. Of course that is only my opinion. You may disagree. You may even recant sooner than I expect!

Cheers, Alastair.