Environmentalists Warned Australia Of Floods: Others Warned Of Drought
BIG bits of Australia are under water. And the environmentalists told you it would happen. They warned you of the coming flood. Well, maybe not the ones who lobbied for the desalination plant over the damn, but lots did warn of a flood.
Get a load of this from Ian Lowe, head of the Australian Conservation Foundation:
The Queensland floods are another reminder of what climate science has been telling us for 25 years, like the recent long-running drought, the 2009 heatwaves and the dreadful Victorian bushfires. As well as a general warming, increasing sea levels and altered rainfall patterns, climate modellers confidently predicted more frequent extreme events: floods, droughts, heatwaves and severe bushfires.
Here’s Tim Flannery in 2007:
Over the past 50 years southern Australia has lost about 20 per cent of its rainfall, and one cause is almost certainly global warming.
And that man again:
Although we’re getting say a 20 per cent decrease in rainfall in some areas of Australia, that’s translating to a 60 per cent decrease in the run-off into the dams and rivers. That’s because the soil is warmer because of global warming and the plants are under more stress and therefore using more moisture. So even the rain that falls isn’t actually going to fill our dams and our river systems, and that’s a real worry for the people in the bush.
Isn’t it great when you’re always right?
Posted: 14th, January 2011 | In: Reviews Comments (5) | TrackBack | Permalink
