Howard Urges Calm as Drought Takes Hold

[Matilda]

"Prime Minister John Howard says Australians need to keep a sense of perspective amid growing
concerns about the drought."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200610/s1763970.htm


What does he mean by "a sense of perspective"? Does that mean "don't blame me because I refuse to
recognise that global warming exists, because it might mean that big industrial corporations might
have to mend their ways and I can't handle that?"

My sense of perspective tells me that John Howard - like Menzies before him - was lucky enough
to come to power at a time of prosperity for Australia and with the economic ground laid for him
by Labor. Howard has taken the credit, but now that he's faced with a real crisis the man has
buried his head firmly in the sand, and anyone with sense can see what a pitiful excuse for a
prime minister he really is.

I'm sitting here in my office in Sydney, where the forecast temperature is for 35 degress. In
October! This is midsummer weather, and any half-wit can see that something unusual is happening.
This is not, as Peter Costello tells us, the normal cyclical El Nino effect, nor have differences
between the States (as Howard would like us to believe) contributed to the problem. This is climate
change, making our already temperamental environment even shakier.

Ah, but where is Big Kim on this? Is he shouting "global warming" from the rooftops? Is he using
Kyoto as a stick to beat Howard with? No, he's focusing his attention on bagging Howard for his
belated jobskills legislation. Good old Kim, always chasing his own tail in an ever-decreasing
circle.

I believe that climate change will be a huge factor in the next election - even without Al Gore
to tell us, everyone can see that we are all facing the biggest international problem since WWII.
I sincerely hope that it will mean a big increase in the Green vote, enough to give them the balance
of power in the Senate, but wouldn't it be wonderful if a lightning bolt were to hit Kim and he
suddenly woke up to reality and started to run with it?

In my dreams.

[oscarmitre]

1. It's an indicator

that the Howard government has been, for all of its existence, a policy-free zone. As usual it will be up to Labor to bail the country out of the mess the laissez-faire/agrarian socialist coalitions get us into. Hopefully if Labor wins the next election (and it is a wish rather than a prediction) they will seek to establish themselves as the natural party of government rather than temporary repairers of the damage wrought by the conservatives.

[Matilda]

2. Victorian election polling

shows that Labor looks like winning quite easily over the Libs, but what is really interesting is
that the Green vote looks as if it will rise, with a possibility of winning a seat in the Lower
House, and it may have the balance of power in the Upper House.


http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2006/10/23/1161455664070.html?from=top5


Of course, the States are manifestly different from Federal politics, but it does look as if climte
change is the sleeper issue with Australians, and I hope it will rebound on Howard. We just need
Labor to realise they might have an election winner if they run with it.

Not holding my breath though.

[Esra Star]

6. I share your wish.

To stop farm dogs killing the chooks, they tie a dead chook to the dogs neck in such a way that
it can't remove it. The chook just rots and becomes very unpleasant for the dog.
The dog hopefully learns that killing the chooks is a bad thing, and stops.
Now to my point......
Kevin Rudd is going to do his best to tie the rotting carcase of Iraq adventurism to John Coward's
red neck.
Kevin will be aided by the GWB implosion.
The stench around the conservative regressives should be pretty whiffy around election time.

[Agit8dChop]

3. Crisis.

Unfortunately there's not alot we can do here.
Global warming is starting to effect our output.
you only need to look at a temperate map of our country to realise we are destined to become a vast desert.

We are simply to large, to hot and have to much direct sun exposure not to end up a dustbowl.

Drought, i cant see it stopping.

our damns, our rainfall has been decreasing since I can remember..

the climate is starting to perform very erratically this last fw years, and thats accelerating at the moment..

Im not saying we should abandone the farms, but howard needs to realise simply giving them a year, maybe 2yrs lifeline with money will just mean in 2-3 years we will be back at the same issue, with MORE farmers in crisis, wich HIGHER food prices all round still trying to make excuses on how to push it aside for another couple of years.

[Violet_Crumble]

4. The experts are tipping an end to the drought in a few months...

'The El Nino weather pattern in the Pacific, blamed for severe drought in Australia, is losing intensity and normal rains may return in months, says an Australian government climatologist.

El Nino events occur at irregular intervals and are caused by a warming of sea temperatures in the Pacific, bringing drought to Australia and eastern parts of Indonesia, but heavy rains to the arid coast of Peru.

Since late November, equatorial sea-surface temperatures have cooled by about 0.1 to 0.4 Celsius (0.2 to 0.7 Fahrenheit), while cold sub-surface waters have moved into the eastern Pacific Ocean.

"The main drought-affected areas have been through the south and the east (of Australia), and what we typically see during the end of an El Nino is for increased rainfall in those parts of the country," Climate meteorologist Grant Beard told ABC radio.

He said wetter conditions across Australia could occur as soon as February or March as traditional end-of-summer rains arrived, although there was a danger El Nino could strengthen again for a month or two before finally dissipating.

<snip>

Earlier this month the weather bureau said Australia appeared to be suffering from accelerated greenhouse warming, meaning El Nino may occur more frequently and with more intensity as surface water in the central Pacific steadily warmed.'

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/drought-breaker-expert-tips-normal-rain/2007/01/11/1168105099121.html

I totally agree with the last bit of yr post. I'm not all that knowledgable on global warming and the climate and stuff, but I read a while ago that there were lots of farmers getting government aid who were located in areas that aren't sustainable even in a moderate drought, and I don't think they should keep on getting aid to keep flogging a dead horse so the problem can be handed over to the next govt...

btw, for anyone living in Sydney or Melbourne, have you got water restrictions happening? We're on stage 3 right now but they're talking about putting it up to stage 4 soon, but for a long time we had no restrictions here in Canberra while Goulburn which is only just over 100kms from us have been on stage 5 for ages...

[Matilda]

5. I don't know what stage they call our restrictions,

but in suburban Sydney we haven't been able to wash our cars with a
hose since at least the middle of last year (and I truly don't believe
washing with buckets really saves water - it would be interesting to
measure it). We also can only water gardens on Wednesdays and Sundays
between about 4.0 and 7.0 pm (we have mostly native plants, so it's
not a great problem for us).

The silly thing is that where I live, we've had lots of rain over the
past six months, but it all runs away because nobody's got a plan to
catch it, and the Council still won't give people permission to put in
water tanks.

When are they going to stop talking about the long drought, and start
using the proper term - climate change.