Report Warns Australian Outback To Prepare For The Worst As Climate Breakdown Gains Momentum

[hatrack]

GLOBAL warming will bring exotic infections, extreme and unpredictable weather and severe crop disruptions to the Australian outback, a new report has warned.

A paper published yesterday has predicted an increase in severe weather events, including droughts, heat waves, landslides, flooding and cyclones, as minimum temperatures rise.

Climate change will disrupt agriculture and food production, as well as the increasing spread of mosquito-transmitted diseases and food poisoning, according to research by University of Adelaide and Charles Sturt University.

Writing in the Australian Journal of Rural Health, public health specialist Peng Bi said global warming would heavily affect already disadvantaged Australians. "Studying the effect from climate change in Australian rural and remote regions is extremely important because of the residents' inequality in accessing health care systems," Dr Peng wrote.

EDIT

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23035482-662,00.html

[GliderGuider]

1. I never thought Australia would turn out to be the canary in the Climate Chaos coal mine.

I really expected it to be Africa.

[phantom power]

2. Arguably, Africa still is.

the thing is, everybody is used to African countries suffering from famine and poverty. Australia may be the first "industrialized" country to hit the brick wall.

As Atrios says, "it isn't happening, until it's happening in the suburbs."

[GliderGuider]

3. With Africa there's the sense that "that's just the way things are there".

However, here's a link to an astonishing 200 page scientific study on the impact of climate change on African agriculture: Mapping Climate Vulnerability and Poverty in Africa (Caution - 11 MB PDF). Their analysis projects that some African countries will experience a 50% decline in crop yields by 2020, due strictly to climate change.

Of course Australia has the added shock value of, "Hey, but I thought they were just like us..."

[depakid]

4. In a sense, Oz is like North America

in that climate records and especially, people's memories of climate conditions span less than 200 years in most places, so it's difficult to determine what the "normal" longer term cycles look like.

Could well be that, like parts of the American Southwest, intermittant periods of prolonged drought are "natural" occurences in certain regions. Or that the major flooding that NSW and South Queensland have seen this past year aren't quite as exceptional as one might think.

I haven't looked into the paleontology data here in depth yet, but my guess is that compared with North America and Africa, it's going to be more difficult and equivocal to nail down, particularly since aboriginal peoples haven't left the sorts of "footprints" that you'd see in regions that had more complex societies.

[cedric]

5. Whatever

the cause it's now starting to hit the fan

[kestrel91316]

6. Prepare to lose weight. Involuntarily.

[NickB79]

7. I hope kangaroo is tasty and nutritious

That and wild pigs might be the only things left to eat down in Oz.