Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Apparently, anthropogenic CO2 is responsible for Australia’s wild weather, which fluctuates between drought and flood. But “it’s not too late to forestall a dystopian future that alternates between Mad Max and Waterworld.”
It’s not too late for Australia to forestall a dystopian future that alternates between Mad Max and Waterworld
Michael Mann
Catastrophic fires and devastating floods are part of Australia’s harsh new climate reality. The country must do its part to reduce CO2 emissions
A year ago I lived through the black summer. I had arrived in Sydney in mid-December 2019 to work with Australian researchers studying the effects of climate change on extreme weather events. Instead of studying these events, I ended up experiencing them.
Even in the confines of my apartment in Coogee, facing the Pacific, I could smell the smoke from the massive bushfires that were blazing in New South Wales. When I flew to Canberra to take part in a special “bushfire” episode of the ABC show Q + A, I saw mountains ablaze. A man I met while I was there lost most of his 180-year-old family farm in the fires in southeast New South Wales near Milton.
My experiences left an indelible mark on the book I wrote about the climate crisis with the title The New Climate War.
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Tragically, many of the cities that were devastated by the massive bushfires a little over a year ago were besieged by these historic floods. A climate opponent would scream badly: “You climate researchers cannot make up your mind. Is climate change making it wetter or drier? “But, in fact, that’s a wrong choice: it’s both.
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The Australians don’t seem to be taking a break. But it’s not too late to forestall a dystopian future that alternates between Mad Max and Waterworld.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/24/catastrophic-fires-and-devastating-floods-are-part-of-australias-harsh-new-climate-reality
Our rather violent weather extremes seem to have impressed Michael Mann. But are these extreme conditions unusual? History does not suggest.
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What did early explorers say about fire? Here are some quotes from early Explorer diaries and records.
The natives burned, burned, always burned; you’d think they … lived in flames instead of water. ‘Ernest Giles (1889), crossed Australia twice.
The natives set fire to the grass, which is abundant everywhere and quite dry at the time. The fire spreads until the whole land as far as the eye can see is in a grand and brilliant illumination. ‘Report from Port Essington in Arnhem Land.
Captain James Cook wrote that his crew “saw large numbers of smoke gases in all the neighboring countries and islands – a certain sign that they are inhabited …”
… The extraordinary fire devastation that vegetable production had suffered throughout the country we had crossed – George Vancouver.
I wish it would rain and turn the grass green to stop the burning … – Stuart (1865).
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Read more: http://learnline.cdu.edu.au/units/env207/introduction/history.html
What about Mann’s claim that climate change is making extremes worse? From a government website Web site Description of the Federation Drought, 1895-1903;
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In 1892 Australia had 106 million sheep, two-thirds of which lived in the eastern states. By 1903 the national herd had almost halved to 54 million. The nation lost more than 40 percent of its cattle in the same period, nearly three million in Queensland alone.
Drovers fished for hungry herds along the herd routes (known as “long paddocks”) or moved herds to pastures on the east coast and in the southern mountains, where conditions were less bad.
Driving took an enormous toll on sheep and cattle, with losses of up to 70 percent, especially in regions where watering holes could be 100 kilometers apart. In 1902, local newspapers reported that more than 2,000 oxen were lying dead along the route from Goondiwindi to Miles in Queensland.
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Read more: https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/federation-drought
Michael Mann, What you call a country from Mad Max and Waterworld we call home. Breathing a bit of bushfire smoke every two years, enduring floods and droughts is just as much a part of Australian life as a beach barbecue and beer and has always been.
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