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Is Australia screwed?

Ziggurat said:
That may well be, but if Australia's drought is caused by global warming (an unproven hypothesis, BTW), it is not within Australia's power to fix the problem. That was my point, and that is what you did not address.
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We might not be able to fix the problem, but we can mitigate the effects of the problem. Greater efforts in water conservation, recycling and handling and a smarter attitude towards water usage would go a very long way in alleviating the majority of the issue. Australians just simply have to stop wasting water.

Cheers,
TGHO
 
BPSCG said:
a_u_p, Fool, sorry to hear about your difficulties...

A thought: Y'know, England gets all the rain anybody could want, all year 'round.
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You forget the population densities (388.7 /km² across the country 419/km² in the south east).

While yes there is a fair bit of rain but the amount of rain per head of population in south east england is rather less impressive (the area just south of the hyper arid region in the sahara gets more rainfall per head of population).
 
So what's the latest on the drought in Australia that was new permanent feature of the climate that was going to lead to ruin?
 
It seems to be still current:

Severe drought and climate change have prompted many of Australia's major cities to construct large-scale desalination plants to provide a rainfall-independent source of drinking water.

“The driver for desalination in Australia has been very simple,” Australian Water Association Chief Executive Tom Mollenkopf told BNA March 1. “We have just emerged from 10 to 15 years of incredibly low rainfall—what became known as the ‘millennium drought.’”

Australia, he said, has been known for the great variability in its rainfall “with long periods of dry interspersed with very wet periods.” However, the country is experiencing its deepest dry period in more than a 100 years, he said.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...lia-to-turn-to-desalination-despite-cost.html
 
lionking said:
Er, some parts are still in drought. Do you have a substantive point?
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That there is now abundant rain:

All water supplies are comfortably high.

The much talked about desal plants have all - all been mothballed without ever bring used after billions spent on their construction.

The substantive point is clear. Exaggeration, over-confidence and erroneous conclusions caused bad policy and massive waste.

Let's learn from the mistake.
 
Nice map. Australia is a big place. There are rainfall deficiencies in some parts of the continent at all times.

But do a quick mental calculation of the relative area of your map that is white - plentiful rain over the 8 month period by historical standards - compared with the red/pink parts.

Australia is not in drought And has not been for some time.

Some years back on this thread posters were insisting that drought would continue, agriculture would suffer badly, desalination plants would be needed for water supply. All of those predictions and claims have proven to be wrong.
 
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Just dropped in to say hi from the Netherlands, where the weather sucks but everything else is great.*


*Excluding music, food, politicians and the army.
 
And it depends on your definition of "drought". I know in my part of the continent, (sw WA) the climate and rainfall patterns have significantly changed, enough that we have in fact built desal plants and have serious concerns for one of the worlds biodiversity hotspots.
 
Geckko said:
Nice map. Australia is a big place. There are rainfall deficiencies in some parts of the continent at all times.

But do a quick mental calculation of the relative area of your map that is white - plentiful rain over the 8 month period by historical standards - compared with the red/pink parts.

Australia is not in drought And has not been for some time.

Some years back on this thread posters were insisting that drought would continue, agriculture would suffer badly, desalination plants would be needed for water supply. All of those predictions and claims have proven to be wrong.
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No wrong. Some parts are.

Are you a climate change denier by any chance? Because my city has had the hottest first half of the year on record.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/me...ry-month-in-2013/story-fni0fiyv-1226680712020
 
Ziggurat said:
Well, rather obviously, yes. It would take more than the entire GDP of Australia to make any real dent in global CO2 output. You think China or India are willing to cut back on economic growth to help prevent droughts in Australia, out of the goodness of their hearts? You think that would even be the right decision, on humanitarian grounds, given the abject poverty that still exists in both countries?
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China is putting in it's own carbon management program. They have had enough of the adverse weather events already.

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/in...na-launches-pilot-carbon-price-scheme/1147792
 
Melbourne just recorded its warmest July day ever, 23.3 celsius. Wouldn't look out of place in a London Summer, especially since thunderstorms soon followed.
 
Geckko said:
That there is now abundant rain:

All water supplies are comfortably high.

The much talked about desal plants have all - all been mothballed without ever bring used after billions spent on their construction.

The substantive point is clear. Exaggeration, over-confidence and erroneous conclusions caused bad policy and massive waste.

Let's learn from the mistake.
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QFT

a_unique_person said:
No, never heard anyone claim that. Can you point out where it was?
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Start with our Chief Climate Alarmist Tim Flannery who (among other things) said:
So even the rain that falls isn't actually going to fill our dams and our river systems,
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http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2006/s1844398.htm
 
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Damien Evans said:
Melbourne just recorded its warmest July day ever, 23.3 celsius. Wouldn't look out of place in a London Summer, especially since thunderstorms soon followed.
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Yes, we are having the coldest day in 23 years, but the hottest day ever. If the climate was not changing we would be seeing about as many coldest days as hottest days.
 
a_unique_person said:
Yes, we are having the coldest day in 23 years, but the hottest day ever. If the climate was not changing we would be seeing about as many coldest days as hottest days.
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Warming makes it colder and weather is now climate. :rolleyes:
If Australia is stuffed it's due to people believing unscientific crap like that.
 
Southern Australia is in the midst of a climate tug-of-war that's giving Melbourne weather previously experienced in NSW Riverina towns such as Deniliquin, according to new CSIRO research.
Warming global temperatures tend to push westerly winds south while El Nino weather patterns tend to push them north.
The atmospheric tussle of the past 50 years is becoming one-sided as global warming wins out, as inland dry zones shift about 250 kilometres south, said Wenju Cai, a principal research scientist and climate modeller at the CSIRO.
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The science doesn't lie.
​
 
Perhaps not. But some journalists do, while scientists and others with vested interests can exaggerate beyond belief.
 
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