Sunday, 6 July 2008

Govt releases 'disturbing' drought report


The report says extreme temperature incidents will occur every one to two years. (Get Image)

The Federal Government has released a report into the link between drought and climate change, which it says will trigger major review of drought policy.

The report is by the Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO and is the first of three commissioned by the Government.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has said the report paints a very disturbing picture about the future of droughts in Australia.

"When it comes to exceptional or extreme drought, exceptionally high temperatures, the historical assumption that this occurred once every 20 years has now been revised down to between every one and two years," he said.

"Exceptional circumstances drought conditions ... will occur twice as often and with twice the area of droughted parts of Australia included.

"Now this is a serious revision of the impact of climate change on drought."

Agriculture Minister Tony Burke says it means drought assistance policy will have to be re-written.

"If we fail to review drought policy, if we were to continue the neglect and pretend that the climate wasn't changing, we'd be leaving our farmers out to dry well and truly," he said.

Related:

Greens urge swift response to Garnaut draft
The Greens say the Federal Government can not be worried about electoral popularity and must move quickly when it responds to economist Ross Garnaut's draft report on climate change.

“Global Disruption” More Accurately Describes Climate Change, Not “Global Warming”–Leading Scientist John Holdren Leading scientist John Holdren says “global warming” is not the correct term to use; he prefers “global disruption.” “‘Global warming’ [is] misleading. It implies something that’s mainly about temperature, that’s gradual, and that’s uniform across the planet,” says Holdren. “In fact, temperature is only one of the things that’s changing. It’s a sort of an index of the state of the climate. The whole climate is changing: the winds, the ocean currents, the storm patterns, snow packs, snowmelt, flooding, droughts. Temperature is just a bit of it.”

Losing Ground 1/3 -Shishmaref, Alaska- You Tube Video - The foottage depicts an Alaskan native village of Shishimaref on a small island. The island is at risk of being eroded by ocean wave due to the global warming [Climate-Change]. This film consists of a series of interviews with the native people in the village and scenes of their lives. Directed by Japanese photographer Ryota Kajita.

Greenpeace protesters shut power station

Eight Greenpeace protestors have chained themselves to a coal conveyor belt at Erarang Power Station on the Central Coast, shutting it down in protest against climate change.

Climate change fight needs political ardour: Greenpeace
Greenpeace says the only thing Australia lacks in the fight against climate change is political will.

Leaving petrol off emissions trading scheme 'dangerous'
The Greens say any moves to leave petrol out of the Federal Government's emissions trading scheme will render it ineffective.

Aust's ecological footprint one of biggest in world: index
The annual Climate Living Index, which measures humanity's demand on natural resources, has listed Australia's ecological footprint as one of the biggest in the world.

Climate change hot topic at youth 2020 summits
More than 500 schools held talks during the past month ahead of the Federal Government's Youth Summit in Canberra this weekend. Ms Gillard says she is not surprised the environment is the number one concern of many children.

Greenpeace to give Treasurer carbon capture petition
A petition with 30,000 signatures will today be handed to the Federal Treasurer's office urging the Government to abandon its investment in carbon capture and storage.

No comments: