Stark reality of climate change

October 15, 2006 12:14am
Article from: Sunday Mail (SA)



SOUTH Australia this week stared into the abyss and did not like what it saw.

The strands of the future suddenly came together to wake even the most complacent to the fact that human actions are having a dire impact on the planet's weather.

Consider this week's events: our worst recorded drought, raging springtime bushfires, record low inflows to the River Murray, soaring temperatures, looming rural recession and strict water restrictions.

This, against a backdrop of the past decade having some of the hottest years in recorded history, is a taste of the future.

For years scientists argued about a theoretical greenhouse effect, which became an academic debate about global warming, which became an urgent call to deal with climate change.

This week, those abstract discussions walked into every house in South Australia without bothering to knock and announced: "I'm here – get used to it."

The ramifications of climate change now are well and truly out of the lecture theatre and in the lounge room.

The drought is having a devastating financial and social impact on farming communities as weather patterns look set to change beyond the expected cycles of drought, good times and flood.

As Premier Mike Rann told the ALP state conference yesterday, there are predictions the Goyder Line will need to be redrawn.

A CSIRO report on the consequences for the state of climate change include increased droughts, floods and bushfires.

This represents a challenge to Australia that goes well beyond other challenges facing us right now, such as the nuclear ambitions of a tin-pot dictator in North Asia.

Climate change has been ignored for too long – it is here, we must deal with it.