Climate change report like a disaster novel, says Australian minister

[autorank]

Source: The Guardian


Climate change report like a disaster novel, says Australian minister

· Scientists predict 10-fold increase in heatwaves
· Greenhouse gases blamed for half of rainfall decrease

Barbara McMahon in Sydney
The Guardian,
Monday July 7, 2008

A new report by Australia's top scientists predicts that the country will be hit by a 10-fold increase in heat waves and that droughts will almost double in frequency and become more widespread because of climate change.

The scientific projections envisage rainfall continuing to decline in a country that is already one of the hottest and driest in the world. It says that about 50% of the decrease in rainfall in south-western Australia since the 1950s has probably been due to greenhouse gases.

Yesterday, Australia's agriculture minister, Tony Burke, described the report as alarming and said: "Parts of these high-level projections read more like a disaster novel than a scientific report."

The analysis, commissioned by the government as part of a review of public funding to drought-stricken farmers, was published days after another report, by Professor Ross Garnaut, warned that Australia had to adopt a scheme for trading greenhouse gas emissions by 2010 or face the eventual destruction of sites including the Great Barrier Reef, the wetlands of Kakadu and the nation's food bowl, the Murray-Darling Basin.


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/07/climatechange.drought

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It's happening -- a "10 fold increase in heatwaves" in Australia. What could this mean - oh, that's it!

The people who've warned us of eco catastrophes were right. We've got a three year window according to them.

We'll blow it, no doubt. NO leadership on this issue, none, to take advantage of strong citizen support
for action.

[Lorien]

1. Not even an issue with the candidates

amazing, when climate change is THE issue that could make all the rest irrelevant.

[autorank]

3. They're too busy "moving to the center"

You are dead on. What is the matter with all of them - the candidates, Congress, the White House?

They are myopic beyond words. It's dereliction of duty. This should cause a global emergency meeting
of ALL heads of state. This is Australia, a huge country.

[Delphinus]

16. Myopic

on Peak Oil, too. Someone has probably already stated the obvious, about Nero fiddling while Rome burns, but it's the same on both these issues: climate and energy.

When Hillary was still in the race, I was unhappy with both hers and Barack's rhetoric on energy, the environment, and foreign affairs. Nothing has changed. I will support Obama, but am still not happy with the direction of these three issues.

Don't even get me started on the blindness at the local level ...

[izquierdista]

2. Time for planetary engineering

Since we won't keep the level of atmospheric CO2 from increasing, let alone decrease it, it is time for some revolutionary thinking as to how we can deal with the new climate. One possibility would be to dig a canal and flood Lake Eyre to make it an inland sea. With all of the evaporation over the area that is below sea level, it would create a new, wetter environment for central Australia. The replacement of a salt pan with an inland sea would create a much more dynamic environment, as estuaries are some of the most productive biomes on earth. It would also have the added benefit of delaying the flooding of low-lying areas around the rest of the globe.

Unfortunately, there is a paralysis of ideas among environmentalists to maintain the status quo, no matter what that status quo is and how many benefits the proposed alternative will have.

[autorank]

4. That's fascinating

We're going to come up with the solutions, the "free thinkers" and environmentalists with vision.

That's very interesting. Your idea, one from elsewhere?

From the article:

"However, the rising cost of living has dented his government's popularity and his plans for a carbon
trading scheme have begun to unnerve voters and industry."

I'm glad the Guardian is carrying this. I think they're wrong here. The "popularity" of anyone not
offering a plan is the issue. The culpability of those who ignored or lied about the problem will
become an issue. The people aren't stupid. They're way ahead of any government on the environment
whenever they're polled.

This isn't a tiny nation strapped by some localized events - IT'S A DAMN CONTINENT.

[izquierdista]

15. Thought it up independently

Although I won't claim to be the first if someone else has written about it. There are a few places on the globe that are below sea level that could be flooded to create a new environment. One has already been done by accident, the Salton Sea in Southern California. That was a big OOPS! that happened when an irrigation project got out of control a hundred years ago. Nowadays, the environmentalists all want to save the Salton Sea because it has become a valuable bird refuge and it is in danger of drying out (and returning to a salt pan devoid of life like it was in the 19th century).

One project that has been proposed but never started is flooding the Qattara Depression in North Africa. Back in the 1920's an engineer calculated that by running a canal from the Mediterranean and creating a lake 60 feet below sea level, they could use the flow of water to make a big hydroelectric project. That idea has proponents much more credentialed than I to support it: http://maybha.com/default.aspx and http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/80858e/80858E0a.htm

[autorank]

27. Figured you did. We the people...

Those are really interesting projects in the M.E. Probably better use of the time of all involved to
engage in productive massive engineering projects than killing each other.

Here's one that's really interesting regarding the Salton Sea. I have no idea what it's merits are but
if it works, damn ... http://tinyurl.com/5t6jlz I know more about the movie than the actual sea so
this may a pipe dream but we need to go anywhere it takes in terms of ideas to deal with what's just
around the corner, imho.

[The Croquist]

9. Planetary Engineering is the last thing we need

First of all that's how we got into this mess.
I liken planetary engineering to standing up in a canoe. If it starts leaning to the right you lean to the left. Pretty soon it's leaning to the left and you compensate to the right. Before you know it you are wet and your sandwiches are floating downstream.

[izquierdista]

14. So do nothing??

We are responsible for global warming and the resulting melting of the polar ice caps. If an advanced alien species came and looked at us, they would conclude we are a primitive species for not being responsible enough to figure out a place to put all the excess water.

Only the truly stupid sit in a problem of their own making and worry about making it worse instead of trying to fix it.

[glitch]

17. Binary. We've got more than two extreme options.

Not going to call you stupid though, just a little limited.

[izquierdista]

19. It's not an extreme option

Flooding an area that used to be a salt pan is not an "extreme option". These proposals are reversible, since the earth will return the area to a salt pan once the man-made water diversion is cut off.

One idea that humans have difficulty processing is climate change on a time-scale much longer than their own lives. Most people in California do not know the story of how the Salton Sea was formed and just lump it in with saving another natural wetland. They have no idea that dessicated salt pan and inland sea with surrounding wetlands are two equally possible environments for the area and nature has alternated between the two (although on a time scale much longer than written history). I guess that's nature being binary for you.

[Shoelace]

20. disaster mitigation would be the next, best move - some ideas

since flooding is a major issue, especially in areas of the Midwest, my idea is to carve out a couple of lakes where excess water from the rivers could flow when flooding occurs. They would construct these "lakes" in areas already prone to flooding that the Feds already own. The water could be used for irrigation during droughts, and the dirt from excavation used to rebuild the levees.
Same thing with New Orleans. Why couldn't they build a reserve lake for excess water during hurricanes, to flow out of Lake Pontchartrain into the man made lake. It would provide more wetlands and prevent flooding.
Such projects could be similar to FDR's "CCC" projects that put folks to work during the depression.
These ideas seem far fetched on first glance but if we do nothing, then climate change, which is upon us already, will devastate our farmlands, cities, towns along these flood prone rivers.

We've stalled for so long thanks to Big Oil, Bushistas, et al, it is time to look to "disaster mitigation" since the time for actually doing something about climate change has long passed.
It will take action on a global level to stop it now and I don't think there's the will, moxie or political structure to do what needs to be done. Thus, it's time to look to saving lives since climate disasters have increased 400% in 20 years!

Other ideas: Build tornado proof shelters for everybody in all towns prone to these ever increasing threats. Replant, rebuild wetlands, marshlands in coastal areas, etc.
It's going to take some very creative, innovative thinking to do any of this.
Otherwise, we just sit back and watch the show? God I hope we humans are up to the challenges that are upon the planet now.

[stevedeshazer]

5. Incredible, yet true.

An entire continent verging on collapse. Republicans fiddle while the world burns.

Reminds me of that Midnight Oil song:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=10BbpGKLXqk

[depakid]

6. "Reminds me of that Midnight Oil song"

The singer, Peter Garrett, is MP for Kingsford Smith, New South Wales and is Australia's Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts.

His portfolio doesn't touch directly on climate change, however. That job falls to South Australian Senator Penny Wong, Minister for Climate Change and Water.

Yep. Australia has a federal Department of Climate Change:

http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/

[bean fidhleir]

7. Jared Diamond's thesis in "Collapse" is chilling: the ruling classes have, more often than not,

been *stupid* parasites, continuing to exploit their subjects and the environment until death.

[Steerpike]

8. There are too many people who still do not accept this as fact.

There is too much disinformation out there. Many people still think "Global Warming" is a liberal plot to gain control of the body politic. Many people are convinced that the science is junk. I talk to people who are just plain confused, and admit it. There are climatologists and other "experts" that denounce the science and the whole premise of "Global Warming". This is enough to cause confusion and disinterest in the general public. People don't know who to believe, so they believe nothing.
It just breaks my fucking heart.

[mwb970]

10. This is why nothing whatever will be done.

The human race is approaching one of its worst crises ever and the members of that race, despite allegedly possessing "intelligence", are doing nothing about it, preferring to argue about whether or not there is a problem.

A recipe for disaster, it is.

[SpiralHawk]

11. "Global climate change is a lib-rul hoax. Smirk." - Rush 'Draft Dodger' Limbaugh

"Me and the other republicon media propagandists are grossly overpaid to say this, so I will say it again (in hopes of getting a bonus): 'Pay no attention to the facts. Smirk"

- Rush 'Draft Dodger' Limbaugh,
$400 million republicon-corporate propagandist

[Altean Wanderer]

13. Tell me about it...

I've been arguing with deniers of human caused climate change for a long time now on the blog of my local paper in southern New Hampshire. I must say that the deniers can provide slick, somewhat convincing websites to back up their arguments, most likely funded by the coal and oil industry.

I try to argue the precautionary principle, but I've not made much headway. The future of life as we know it is at stake, yet the waters are so muddied that I too am despairing that we can halt the slide towards eco-collapse.

[WriteDown]

18. I don't necessarily believe in GW....

as its portrayed. The Earth originally was a balmy 85-90 degrees all over with no ice to speak of. That is why the dinosaurs thrived. I think the Earth is just returning to that state now that the effects of the last major ice age are dissipating. I honestly, think there is nothing we can do to stop it. The reptiles will enjoy it though.

[ForPeace]

22. You're right the planet will survive...

but at what cost to humanity?

[autorank]

25. You mean this guy

[Altean Wanderer]

12. Australia is toasted - literally n/t

[understandinglife]

21. Recommended.

:hi:

Peace,
Bob

[autorank]

24. Peace to you too!

What a deal. We get to choose - make this go away or do nothing and watch them burn. Our choice
is easy to figure out but what will the "leaders" do?

[lewtang]

23. Call me in three years for an update.....

[autorank]

26. Welcome to DU. If we're all around

...we'll both probably forget;)