Viridian Note 00387: Australian Super-Drought

Key concepts

global warming, Antarctic vortex, permanent drought in Australia, water crisis, eventual collapse of Australian civilization

Attention Conservation Notice:

Who cares about the miserable fate of doomed Australia? I'm going to Norway and Holland, starting tomorrow!

Links:
"WiFi Speed Spray." Okay, I'm believing that hook line and sinker, but what about the ozone layer?
http://www.j-walk.com/other/wifispray/

Buying and skinning Tickle Me Elmo. And making jackets from him. Okay, I laughed.
http://www.feldmangallery.com/pages/exhsolo/exhhea03.html

Tree falls in storm. Italy ceases to have power.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/12/world/main572985.shtml

Link

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s948858.htm That sure must have been fun news to hear on Australian TV.

Source

http://www.enn.com/news/2003-09-24/s_8723.asp Michael Byrne

"Scientists See Antarctic Vortex as Drought Maker Tue September 23, 2003 05:04 AM ET
By Michael Byrnes

"SYDNEY (Reuters)

= Australia may be facing a permanent drought because of an accelerating vortex of winds whipping around the Antarctic that threatens to disrupt rainfall, scientists said on Tuesday.

"Spinning faster and tighter, the 100 mile an hour jetstream is pulling climate bands south and dragging rain from Australia into the Southern Ocean, they say.

"They attribute the phenomenon to global warming and loss of the ozone layer over Antarctica.

"'This is a very serious situation that we're probably not confronting as full-on as we should,' Dr James Risbey of the Center for Dynamical Meteorology and Oceanography at Melbourne's Monash University told Reuters on Tuesday.

(((James Risbey, actual scientist, not a weird crank.)))
http://www.marine.csiro.au/seminars/sem-abs02/Risbey.html

"'There has been real added impetus here in Australia to try to study (the wind vortex) because we've been faced with an almost precipitous rainfall decline, particularly in the southwest of Western Australia,' Risbey said. (((One should think that a permanent lack of water on one's continent would provoke some scholarly interest, yes.)))

"Australia, one of the world's top agricultural supply nations, has just been through its worst drought in 100 years. (((Australia, formerly one of the world's top agricultural supply nations"....)))

"Risbey and other Australians are part of an international band of scientists and meteorologists focusing on the vortex as an explanation for declining rainfall.

"Rainfall has declined by nearly 20 percent in the past seven years over parts of southwestern Western Australia, through to Victoria and into southern New South Wales state, Risbey said. (((Interesting trend there... how about those next 7 years? Will Murdoch's FOX NEWS offer bold coverage of a depopulated nation?)))

"At the same time, temperatures have been rising in Australia by about one degree Celsius over the past 50 years, requiring more rain to fall just to keep the status quo.

"SPINNING FASTER

"Australian scientists from the Bureau of Meteorology, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) and Monash University are working with the U.S. Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and the British Antarctic Division on the Antarctic vortex. (((The "coalition of the willing." "Wow, we've finally discovered the mass destruction, and it's right here in Melbourne!")))

"Focusing on the vortex for only the past few years, they have quantified increased velocity of the wind spin by measuring pressure differences between high latitudes over the Antarctic continent and mid latitudes in the Southern Ocean near Australia.

"A cooling polar area and warming elsewhere is spinning the vortex faster, which in turn pulls winds and pressure belts that deliver Australia's winter and spring rains southward.

"Australia's 2002/03 drought, the worst in 100 years and the cause of shortages of a wide variety of some of the world's largest supplies of bulk farm foods, was too extensive to blame on the Antarctic vortex. (((Oh. "Too extensive to blame." Hmmm.)))

"But a long-standing drought in the southwest corner of Western Australia state could be a foretaste of more extensive drought yet to come in Australia, Risbey said.

"Most worrying is that this could be more or less permanent, scientists say.
(((Climate change is death knell for 160,000 Third Worlders a year, and, oops, the rather rich and advanced continent of Australia.)))
Link:
http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=3533911

"Water resource managers were already treating the rainfall decline in southwest Western Australia as permanent. Melbourne was now in a seven-year drought, while New South Wales has had declining rainfall for the past 50 years or so, Risbey said.

"'It is consistent with...the polar vortex,' he said.

(((Say, didn't they film "Mad Max" in Australia, with that mangled feuding over the last of the fossil fuels and all that? "I remember lingerie.")))
Link:
http://www.atlyrics.com/quotes/m/madmax2theroadwarrior.html

"Scientists say Australian agriculture would be able to cope with a 15 percent to 20 percent drop in rainfall, although farmers may not agree. But changed management and consumption will be necessary, possibly not only in southern Australia but also in parts of South America, South Africa and New Zealand."

((("'It is not in Australia's interests to ratify the Kyoto protocol,' Howard told parliament." Lotta coal exports... think that'll buy some rain?)))
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16298/newsDate/6-Jun-2002/story.htm