Climate Change: Australia Faces ‘Epic Drought’
Australia has warned that it will have to switch off the water supply to the continent’s food bowl unless heavy rains break an epic drought – heralding what could be the first climate change-driven disaster to strike a developed nation, reports The Independent.
“The Murray-Darling basin in south-eastern Australia yields 40 per cent of the country’s agricultural produce. But the two rivers that feed the region are so pitifully low that there will soon be only enough water for drinking supplies. Australia is in the grip of its worst drought on record.
“Unless there is significant rainfall in the next six to eight weeks, irrigation will be banned in the principal agricultural area. Crops such as rice, cotton and wine grapes will fail, citrus, olive and almond trees will die, along with livestock.
“A ban on irrigation, which would remain in place until May next year, spells possible ruin for thousands of farmers, already debt-laden and in despair after six straight years of drought.”
And the editorial in the same paper says: “Moreover, this is a taste of things to come – not just for Australia, but the world. As the latest report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change makes clear, the runaway warming of the earth will bring severe drought in its wake. And the economic consequences will be disastrous.
“Sir Nicholas Stern’s report for the (British) Treasury outlined last year how climate change could be as economically traumatic as the Great Depression or the world wars of the 20th century…”
8 Responses to “Climate Change: Australia Faces ‘Epic Drought’”
That’s really frightening news.
I hope the government of Australia can take care of the poor farmers during these tough times.
This is too horrifying to contemplate-I read somewhere that diseases like cholera will run rampant when the earth warms. I’m not a big believer in Armageddon, but its a very scary time to be a parent guiding young people into the future.
“heralding what could be the first climate change-driven disaster to strike a developed nation”
Look, I believe in Global Warming and that man’s actions have a major effect, but that’s impossible to measure. On the one hand, how do we know this is? On the other, how do we know Katrina wasn’t?
AUTRALIAN AND GLOBAL ECO-TERRORISTS DEBUNKED . . .
HERE:
http://antigreen.blogspot.com/
Sorry, Chris, but the Aussie govt., can’t take care of it’s farmers because the greenies have effectively prevented the necessary dams being built. You can search John Ray’s site, above, and learn all about the nightmare thet is brought by the green fanatic (I’m not referring to responsible conservationists, just the ones like Gore whose agenda is political control, NOT conservation).
yonason- Uh…the dummy you linked too is NOT an atmospheric scientist. He is a high school economics teacher!
NOTHING he could possibly say would “debunk” The findings of the National Center for Atmospheric Research NCAR, National Science Foundation, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, Caltech, Woods Hole, Scripps Institute for Oceanography,…ect…ect…ect….ect…ect…ect…
Rather Yon its YOU that has been debunked. Not to mention the republican party and uh Chevron Oil.
The Mayans disappeared because of a massive drought that lasted 200 years.
So far we were fighting global problems one by one – no matter whether we discuss the Global Warming, the water scarcity, the Poverty, the problems in free trade, the AIDS, the illiteracy and religious fanaticism leading to terror and violence, etc. My point is: Don’t you think that we need to change the approach?
Nature hints again the possible solution – please visit http://deserticeproject.com to see a project study about how we can handle with these global and complex problems, in one global, complex and multilateral initiative.
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