Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach
The Arabunna people live in the area around Lake Eyre in Southern Australia. It is a hot, hostile desert region, which is no surprise, because … well … it’s in Australia. Here’s the general area where they live:
Figure 1. Lake Eyre region in South Australia. Yellow line show the area from 25°-30°S, 135°-140°E
A new report from the University of Everybody-Panic is a study of the horrendous future faced by these poor folks:
The first stage of University of Adelaide research released today shows that South Australia’s Arabunna country, which includes Lake Eyre in the far north, is likely to get both drier and hotter in decades to come.
“Temperatures could increase up to four degrees Celsius in Arabunna country in the next century, threatening the survival of many plants and animals,” says the author of the report, Dr John Tibby from the University of Adelaide’s Discipline of Geography, Environment and Population. SOURCE: PhysOrg
Yes, temperatures “could” increase … and I could win the lottery, but I’m not quitting my day job just yet. Meanwhile, back in the real world, what’s been happening in the Lake Eyre region in the last thirty years? Figure 2 shows the satellite-derived temperature trends for the lower troposphere in the area around Lake Eyre, from both the University of Alabama Huntsville (UAH) and Remote Sensing Services (RSS).
Figure 2. Satellite temperatures for the lower troposphere in the Lake Eyre Region of Southern Australia. Photo shows the approach to Lake Eyre. Temperatures are the average of the region outlined in yellow in Figure 1. All data from KNMI
So … here’s the deal. We have no evidence that the temperatures are rising in the Lake Eyre region. There has been little change in the area temperatures since the satellite records began. Despite that, University of Adelaide professors are selling their fantasies of a terrifying future to the Arabunna, the aboriginal people who live in the area.
Meanwhile, the temperatures in the region are currently lower than they have been in the entire satellite record …
The professors seem to find nothing wrong with scaring the aboriginal people who have lived there for generations. And where do their projections of a 5°C temperature rise originate? Well, as usual, it’s models all the way down, and even the modelers say that their models are useless at the regional level … but despite that, these professors from the University of East Wankerton or wherever it is are more than happy to use these useless models to terrify the local folks.
I find this kind of crying wolf reprehensible, particularly when it is aimed at indigenous people, but hey, that’s just me.
w.
Been saying for some time, that any policy originating from the left is designed to perpupetuate poverty. Lying is no issue to them.
If these policies hit the darkskinned harder, they consider that a bonus.
When the actual current data is found to be bad in terms of support of the hysteria, there are 2 choices. Either adjust the data or go to the forecasts down the road and use them instead of actual data.
The current status of the lake;
http://www.lakeeyreyc.com/Status/latest.html#bottom
It’s not too late to get your entry into this;
Outback Spirit – Lake Eyre Yacht Club Regatta
Lake Killamperpunna, Cooper Creek, 1-6th July 2012
http://www.lakeeyreyc.com/Regatta/RegattaFlyer.pdf
“When we are alarmed with imaginary dangers in respect of the public, till the cry grows quite stale and threadbare, how can it be expected we should know when to guard ourselves against real ones?” – Samual Croxall author, The Boy Who Cried Wolf from The Fables of Aesop and Others
The headline is what they are after. The retraction comes later and is buried. They don’t care because nobody reads that.
I am going to pull part of an earlier comment up here to illustrate why reality and facts and what the science really shows and actual temperatures all seem to fall before the models. Why IPCC doesn’t care if its reports are accurate. Why Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth worked despite the inaccuracies.
The Huxley is Julian Huxley who basically founded UNESCO. These views remain dominant throughout the UN agencies because they foster power and bring money. And when we talk to people in Australia and Africa where people remain very much subject to the whims of nature these UN “development” policies are lethal. Eliminate poverty or allow that to occur and the basis for the fundraising and the bureaucrat’s job is gone. Economist PT Bauer has done some great work on what’s wrong with this grant view of development and what it really incentivizes.
One area of Huxley’s that is vitally important to what is going on now all over the world is his view of culture. This is critical to appreciate now as the social sciences and especially certain theories of psychology, sociology, and anthropology guide everything going on in education, K-12 and higher ed. Instead of the transmitted knowledge and wisdom of the Ages, Huxley and his acolytes see culture much differently. Culture is merely the prevailing behavioral practices, beliefs, and feelings commonly held at any given time.
So if you use bogus science theories to gain research grants to change people’s beliefs and feelings so that they favor the desired public policies you always wanted to implement, you have changed culture. You got the goal you wanted all along. The science doesn’t matter because it was only a means. Intentions and goals are all that matter to these collectivist schemers. And they say so. Means and consequences are irrelevant to them even though they matter so much to us.
But Anthony, it’s not the heat, it’s the stupidity. It burns 🙂
“I find this kind of crying wolf reprehensible, particularly when it is aimed at indigenous people, but hey, that’s just me.”
Hey, me too! I’m indigenous to the USA, and I really hate it when Al Gore spews his alarmist [self snip] at me. My wife doesn’t mind as much; she’s an immigrant. 🙂
University of East Wankerton……genius!
Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach:
Yes, temperatures “could” increase … and I could win the lottery, …The professors seem to find nothing wrong with scaring the aboriginal people who have lived there for generations. …these professors from the University of East Wankerton or wherever it is are more than happy to use these useless models to terrify the local folks. I find this kind of crying wolf reprehensible, particularly when it is aimed at indigenous people, but hey, that’s just me.
=======================================================
Very nice article, Willis, but isn’t it time to challenge the global level scaremongers? I mean their calculations of “global warming”.
There is no scientific proof, that all the “methods” used to calculate “global warming” are scientifically correct, including use of so called “proxies”, adjustments, homogenising, temperature reconstructions and assigning temperatures to large areas.
Since when is “evidence” an issue?
Tie the funding of these jokers to the quality of their predictions. If they have to panhandle at age 60 because it didn’t come to pass it will inspire better research in future generations of their profession.
Oh, that’s nothing. In the DFW area, all these weather readers (many of them non-natives) on the local TV stations go bananas when the temps start going above 97. They then start counting how many days above 100 we’ll have. It is ridiculous. People who are non-natives panic and ask the rest of us if we are all going to burn to a crisp. We all assure them that Texans have survived worse than a 100 degree day. I never saw this phenomenon among the rest of Texas, just in the DFW area. We can then expect to hear from the national news in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1: global warming over TX temps. Panic sells, plain and simple.
Alarmists plan to use sea-level ‘projections’ to restrict coastal development and destroy property rights, so they must be planning to use these Australian high-temp scenarios as an excuse to depopulate the region, both to restore it to nature and to create ‘climate refugees’.
The only refugees will be our rights and liberties.
Willis,
I am an Arabunna and really scared. BTW what’s a satellite?
And our Supreme Court just said lying is OK. So what’s the big deal? /sarc
Lake Eyre is a remnant lake formed during the least Ice Age. When Glaciation occurs in middle and high latitudes the climate zones are shifted and squeezed. The one most affected is the High Pressure zone on the poleward side of the Hadley Cell that creates the desert zone, approximately between 15 and 30 degrees of latitude.
Traditional climatology refers to the wet periods coincident with this shift as Pluvials. So when there is a Glacial period in middle and high latitudes there is a Pluvial in the low latitudes and when there is an Interglacial in the middle and high latitudes there is an Interpluvial in the low latitudes.
Lake Eyre, like Lake Chad in North Africa has been shrinking since the end of the last Pluvial period. I remember all the scare stories about Lake Chad disappearing back in the 1980s when desertification and the Sahelian drought were the focus of ignorant alarmists.
I recall massive schemes proposed to divert water from the Congo through the Central African Republic to replenish Lake Chad. Australia has no such option because they are 94 percent desert, although they have diverted water through the Snowy Mountain Range to provide supply to the coastal cities.
I’d just love to see someone from the Arabunna sue that idiot, John Tibby, for causing unecessary fear and panic and therefore violating their Human rights.
It has got to the stage where only legal action will make these charlatans shut up.
IQs will drop sharply in the University of Adelaide’s faculty of Geography, Environment and Population in the next century, threatening the survival of science, if students continue to be taught by Chicken Little, aka Dr John Tibby.
University of East Wankerton
You will have to be more specific Willis – like McDonald’s it has grown into a vast global franchise.
In my essay Ends Means or Justification or Not http://retreadresources.com/blog/?p=976 we look at the philosophical underpinning of the “ends justification for any means needed” kind of thinking. Hit, there is none. There is none in reference to this BS either.
The danger is this: You can fool most of the people some of the time. And if those foolish people vote (like I stupidly did) for some kind of false savior, all kinds of longer lasting damage can occur.
By the will of the people, the president sits for 4 years in the US but can appoint Supreme Court Justices for life. And do not assume this is a comment about the evils of liberalism. A conservative-based law can be signed into our lives that can legally prevent consenting adults the happiness that is their natural right to pursue. Constitutions can be changed to the right or left of your beliefs. And an entire world can be thrown into the modern equivalent of the dark ages.
Maybe that is what it will take before the general population can be jolted awake by their neglect of due diligence. Which is to guard your home and hearth against the tyranny of the very government that wishes to provide benevolence to you, regardless of its leanings and majority rule.
Which leads me to the following paraphrase of wisdom provided by my dear Grandmother: The best government you can have, right or left, conservative or liberal, religious or secular, is this: Bootstraps.
I think I will start a new political party and name it Bootstraps.
Satellite – Very much like a computer model. One that ignores your pet theories and tells you the truth whether you like it or not.
We, the average population of the planet have just missed an opportunity. We could have taken those 45,000 delegates at the Rio+20 gabfest and put them on a suitable island and told them, “Don’t tell us how to live a sustainable life, Show us.” That could have an interesting outcome. Either we, or they, could learn a lot in a couple of years,
Greg House~ If I may ask, where might I find a link to your blog?
No evidence?
http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/change/trendmaps.cgi?map=tmax&area=aus&season=0112&period=1970
All life on earth to end shortly, following the overdue eruption of the Yellowstone super volcano.
All life on earth to end shortly, following the increasing probability that we are statistically overdue for another impact by an asteroid the size of a mountain.
All life on earth to end some day in the future when we are again hit by another planet, finally giving us that second moon we always wanted.
Earth to become a water-less dead planet with a surface of molten rock as the sun continues to contract and increase in brightness.
New York city to be wiped out by giant glacier, next week, according to latest climate change movie.
We have been on this planet for a couple hundred thousand years. Climate change and extinction events are a natural part of this planet and these events are what drove evolution. Without them we would not even exist. We are a very new species and the odds are we will go extinct long and be replaced by some other experiment by nature. I am tired of alarmists. How about instead they come up with ideas for how mankind could survive the very limited range of climate challenges that we could face? How about we focus on positive solutions like developing cheaper energy and more efficient food production, and also lets pour some of that climate change money into our space exploration programs. If we want to be more than just a one shot deal, we need to do what no other species could – get off this planet and spread.
If I were a scientist who believed CGW, I would go to bed angry, thinking stories of that stripe were being ghost written by my enemies to discredit good work.
Somewhere out there is an ice core statician who barfs when he sees drowning polar footage… “swim you furry white ! c’mon you got feet like canoe paddles, don’t give me that !”.
Actually, SCOTUS said that taxing what doesn’t happen is OK.
Otter says:
June 29, 2012 at 12:05 pm
Greg House~ If I may ask, where might I find a link to your blog?
=======================================================
Why?
TheInquirer says:
June 29, 2012 at 12:05 pm
No evidence?
http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/change/trendmaps.cgi?map=tmax&area=aus&season=0112&period=1970
————————————————————————————
how about trying a period other than one that starts in the 70’s when it was usually cool? maybe 1910-present…
http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/change/trendmaps.cgi?map=tmax&area=aus&season=0112&period=1910
Once again we need to highlight the actual people involved. This would make an interesting TV news item. Kind of like O’reilly’s Pinheads and Patriots piece. It would provide an example of extremism and, most importantly, who is responsible. The names of these folks would be placed on something like a Wall of Shame. We need to get people like,
– Dr John Tibby from the University of Adelaide’s Discipline of Geography, Environment and Population
– Dr Melissa Nursey-Bray, lead researcher with the University of Adelaide’s Arabunna Country Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change project
– Mr Aaron Stuart, Chairman of the Arabunna Ularaka Association
called out and made to look like fools.
Should we not communicate the threat of anthropogenic global warming to all the world’s citizens as a matter of extreme urgency?
Since when was it wrong to lie to the ingidenes?
But I repeat myself.
TheInquirer says:
June 29, 2012 at 12:05 pm
No evidence?
Cherry pick much? How about looking at the full time frame?
http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/change/trendmaps.cgi?map=tmax&area=aus&season=0112&period=1910
Looks a lot different, doesn’t it.
“The public, with its mob yearning to be instructed, edified and pulled by the nose, demands certainties; it must be told definitely and a bit raucously that this is true and that is false. But there are no certainties.”
– H.L. Mencken
Greg House~ You seem to have a Very strong opinion, seems to me you should be stating it for all to hear, not just here on WUWT.
Starzmom: And our Supreme Court just said lying is OK. So what’s the big deal? /sarc
Gary: Actually, SCOTUS said that taxing what doesn’t happen is OK.
Both correct. Hmmm… The reasoning in the Stolen Valor case is just bizarre. Of course if conscious lying is OK, then even dishonest alarmists (not to be confused with the sincere variety) cannot be held accountable. OT, but I would like to point out that relabeling a fine as a tax has the unintended consequence of removing the stigma of not buying insurance. Since the federal government can not require you to buy insurance, you are no longer breaking a law and paying a penalty for doing so. It is now merely an economic choice and either decision is perfectly legal. That may well encourage employers to drop coverage, since the social stigma of law-breaking is removed.
Hey Australia, you should know that British-Columbia in Canada has experience with the Carbon Tax… so much experience that it is now under review by our Auditor-General. Seems like they will find that the tax-payer money went to friends and corporations already funded by other government programs instead of going to “environmental solutions”.
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/controversial+carbon+trading+system+under+review/6858021/story.html
The global alarmists don’t like satellite global temperature data because they can’t massage it with “proxies” to make it do what they want.
They have no use for data they cannot manipulate.
Blue AUSRTALIA
http://wxmaps.org/pix/temp7.html
.Hmmm. Let me see. Is this a case of charity and magic at work?
Out of charity and the goodness in their hearts. The powers that be offer to move the poor people away from the potential disaster: drought, sea level rise, flood plain, etc. The children are sent to government or charity schools to improve them.
A few years after the people have been moved, magically, valuable resources are discovered on the land or the land itself becomes valuable.
The people that were moved and their offspring are not allowed to make any claims against the resources or the land. Because they abandoned the land for x +1 number of years, their claim is magically null and void.
The politicos that facilitated the charity and their relatives magically end up with the land and or the mineral rights. In a more sophisticated version the government auctions of the “surplus land” to their friends and relatives.
This formula has worked well for centuries. Ask the Athabaskans, the Cherokee, the native South Africans, Sudanese, Zimbabweans, Indonesians, Pashtuns, Irish, and Scots. This also happens to just anybody not in power. In a typical modern case, a farmer is offered cash money, but below market for his land. He/she sells because he/she is old and the kids have moved on, or because of inheritance taxes. The neighbours also sell. Magically a few years later an airport or freeway appears on their land. In the case of my Grandmother it became a large metropolitan transportation hub.
True, true, the temperature could go up. Or, it could go down. Or, it could remain the same. And, the leader of the tribe could be nailed by an aerolite.
http://evilincandescentbulb.wordpress.com/2012/06/11/climate-will-change-like-it-or-not/
Oh my god in heaven ,typical academics , and not one mention of the effects on the Pankalunka and Giant Spinnifex man .
“It is a hot, hostile desert region, which is no surprise, because … well … it’s in Australia.”
That’s a bit rough Willis.. Only 2/3 of the country is like that. The rest quite habitable. !!
And I thought the pus pouring out of the children’s ears and noses in that area was the result of the successful transition from hunter gatherer to welfare dependency. The absence of ear drums must be the result of an adaption to human induced climate change.
The spread of sexually transmitted disease amongst toddlers may have resulted from falling night time temperatures with ‘uncles’ helping to keep the kiddies warm.
The wounds from being hit over the head by a beer bottle may have increased due to accidents caused by the increased prevalence of willy-willys, twisting across the desert.
The bottom-dwellers that inhabit Australian Universities have a long history of self-fullfilling prophecy. The social engineers ridiculed and destroyed the reputation of the missionaries educating a primitive people, replaced hope with guilt and welfare dependency, and are now collecting tax-payers funds to ponder the cause and the clean up of the fruits of their ignorant ideological beliefs.
Great Post Willis.
The first comment’s last sentence really should be snipped.
I know what this is about ,some w#nker remembered Bradfield’s plan from the 1930’s to dig a canal from the Gulf of St Vincent and flood those dry salt lakes in South Australia . It was supposed to increase humidity and moderate temperature (in the plan) and provide a resource for the local Indigenous population . I,ll bet someone recycles that proposal with this report to back it up .
Another tiresome modeled Apocalypse scenario. Having failed to find the evidence, the authors rely upon models and imagination. They now offer proof that they use models to make up for their lack of imagination.
So a 40 year trend of 0.3 to 0.5C per decade in the observational record doesn’t contradict the claim of “no evidence” by the author?
Dang ! I thought you were talking about a real environmental Catastrophe; like the pristine Deserts of South Australia being threatened by rainfall. You must stop scaring us like that Willis.
The filthy ABC Radio Natinal had a clip of an aborignal man declaring ‘nothing is normal no more’.
They’re hitting it hard this week in Australia…with the Carbon Tax already depressing economic activity and everybody worrying about the price of HEATING their homes during the coldest winter in years, the Government paid for ABC is desperately trying to scare the few remaining gullible and bloster the sagging believers. But, as they say here…it doesn’t matter Green Labor is still ‘toast’ at the next election!
ive said it before & i’ll say it again ” if the devil didn’t exist it would be necessary to invent him “
To Dr. John Tibby
Mediate on Isaiah 5:20 TNIV
Each person will have to account for their actions.
Interesting that this particular area is under scrutiny. The University of Adelaide School of Mechanical Engineering was established in 1946. Instrumental in this were sizeable donations from the mining giant BHP Bilton and others. BHP own the Olympic Dam which is a Uranium mine south of the area otlined on the map. This mine is mired in controversy:
“Not only is the expansion at Olympic Dam going ahead without the consent of traditional owners, but tens of thousands of gigalitres of water per day is being sucked out of the Artesian Basin on Arabunna land to service the mine,” he said. (AAP July 16, 2010)
“Aboriginal elder Kevin Buzzacott says the site holds historical significance and the Aboriginal community has been left out of the consultation process. “We don’t want that big great gaping hole in the desert, we just don’t want it,” he said. “We never wanted Olympic Dam in the first place because it’s a sacred site and we’re trying to protect our areas.”
“Referring to the Kokatha and Arabunna as examples of communities he believed were being “kicked off their land”, Mr Ashton said: “Olympic Dam has been causing cultural genocide and environmental destruction since operations began over 20 years ago”. “This needs to stop, we are standing here today in solidarity with the Kokatha and Arabunna communities impacted by Olympic Dam’s operations…” (Roxby Downs Sun Dec. 2, 2009)
“Not only is the expansion at Olympic Dam going ahead without the consent of traditional owners, but tens of thousands of gigalitres of water per day is being sucked out of the Artesian Basin on Arabunna land to service the mine,” he said. (AAP July 16, 2010)
“A group of eminent scientists and doctors, including a Nobel Prize-winner and two Australians of the Year, has warned of the “mind-blowing risk” to the health of South Australians from the Olympic Dam expansion. The experts warn of arsenic, mercury and uranium which will enter undergroundwater and the atmosphere.
“The federal court has rejected a move by an Aboriginal elder to block a giant expansion of the Olympic Dam uranium and copper mine in South Australia’s north. (Adelaide Now Apr. 20, 2012) Mr Buzzacott has appealed against the court’s decision and a hearing has been scheduled for Thursday (June 21). (AAP June 19, 2012)”
http://www.wise-uranium.org/umopauod.html
From: Dow Jones Newswires
June 27, 2012
“BHP Billiton continues to snatch up prospecting rights around its Olympic Dam copper-uranium mine in South Australia, securing long-range options even as questions build around whether the company will proceed with a multi-billion dollar expansion of the existing mining operation. ”
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/bhp-bolsters-olympic-dam-rights/story-e6frg9df-1226410000218
Perhaps it is part of the Univ of Adelaide disease ?
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/don-suspended-over-financial-fraud/story-e6frg6p6-1111117127533
We’d all really be better off if 95% of academia was shut down.
I just received the magazine from the Alumni Association of the University of Western Australia and there is some wanker rabbiting on about how we’re poisoning the Earth with man made chemicals and some other git stressing about foreign registered ships being used around the Australian coast(the unions wrecked the business for Australians).
Really, shut these self important idiots down.
TheInquirer says:
June 29, 2012 at 12:05 pm
“No evidence?”
So explain why the observational surface temperature trend as presented by the ABM differs so markedly from the satellite temperature recorded trend. Perhaps the ABM uses the same station record adjustments as the master of the art, Jim Hansen.
The authors know that politically the aboriginals have the most leverage, so getting them scared is a most effective form of demagogeury. What, you Euroriginies are going to go telling aborigines that their fears are not rational?
As Lake Eyre is below sea level some engineers have proposed connecting it to the sea and keeping it permanently full. It was once part of the worlds oceans before sea levels fell.
Now that’s an experiment which I think has merit – besides it has been filled a few times recently despite Flannery’s demands that what little rain that falls will not fill our dams.
Lake eyre filled by floodwaters is a miracle of life.
I am an Australian and have never been to Lake Eyre. It is a damn long way from anywhere and probably the last place on earth I would want to go (2000Km for me). Way back David Campbell went there for an attempt at the world land speed record. At the time there was a sheep station which figureed every 7 years there would be rain so they bought sheep when the rains came. Fatten them up then sell. Lately I think it has been flooded for three years in a row and that is unprecedent in our history. BTW it is so flat the water moves emass from one end to the other when the wind blows.
As for the Arabunna people if Tibby’s models are right then perhaps he could move them to his back yard. I think a small SUV could move them in one trip. It is desert if they are there what do they live on? Boiled rock until the rains come?
Some other things about the area. Oodnadatta http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oodnadatta is to the north and has a population of 277 (okay I exaggerated) and the highest recorded temperature in Australia 50° C. It is a 1000 Km from Adelaide and to the west is where we tested atomic bombs.
“hey, that’s just me” … Willis, I promise you, really, seriously, man, it’s not just you. Not by a long, long way.
@Joseph Murphy: As far as any normal person’s discourse is concerned, I’d agree with you. But as a statement of how “our” self-styled “élite” think, it’s spot on. I have (real life, unlinkable) evidence.
And as for the “University of East Wankerton” … I don’t often ROFLMAO, but I (involuntarily) made an exception for that one! It’s going to turn up a lot in my AGW related conversations from now on.
Well, the CO2-tax starts next sunday, so temperatures will drop quickly there. That’s why the Wankerton division of AGW needed to publish now, or their study would have been obsolete.
Oodnadatta, January, 1960 – Australia’s hottest temp ever recorded of 50.7C. No wonder they started in 1970. And shouldn’t we have had higher temps there since then?
TheInquirer says:
June 29, 2012 at 2:14 pm
So a 40 year trend of 0.3 to 0.5C per decade in the observational record doesn’t contradict the claim of “no evidence” by the author?
Pay more attention. Two people explained why to you.
I lived in the region for about two years and yes it is bloody hot. Funny thing is not many (actually none) Aboriginal people live in the area. Here is the proof http://www.ilc.gov.au/webdata/resources/files/SA_RILS_170608.PDF
Only us silly miners are crazy enough,what a disgrace.
Otsar, your grasp of South African & Zimbabwean land policies is, I suspect, blinkered, though you provide no dates against which to measure your sweeping statements. Don’t use what you don’t really understand for other ends.
Yes, the ABC have been hard at all week to push the carbon tax but the Lateline clip on Lake Eyre and the Arabunna people was farcical as although we had the normal alarmist images inserted when they showed the real lake Eyre as it is today it is evident that the Lake has never been as good. ABC segment here:
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2012/s3535239.htm
But never fear “The Adelaide University project will develop a climate change adaptation plan for the region by February next year.”
What would the ABC ever do without academics?
I note also that the aboriginal people want to rename the Lake “Kati Thanda.”
Lots of scope there for a new hit:
“I come from a land down under
Where beer does flow and men chunder
Can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover.” (Yeahhh!)
Have to pull you up on this one Willis. ‘University of East Wankerton’ That would be Monash in Melbourne. Love your work.
“could”, “up to”, “in the next century”
At least with that last one the warmists are learning not to predict too close to the present so that their predictions can be checked. As for the fragile plant life in the area, it already copes with virtually no rainfall and a temperature range of -5c to 50c and if the temperature does rise 4c the Arabunna people will just spend more time in the air-conditioned comfort of the Coober Pedy supermarket.
“The professors seem to find nothing wrong with scaring the aboriginal people who have lived there for generations.”
Actually, tens of thousands of years.
Evidence from BOM for the Mean from 1910 to now, is 0.10 to.0.15c every 10 years, meaning by 2100 its about 1-1.3C. A far cry from the Liddy et al exaggerations.
http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/change/trendmaps.cgi?map=tmean&area=aus&season=0112&period=1910
..and thats assuming the BOM records, the corrections they have made, AND the trend stacks up and there has to be grave doubts about all of those parameters.
The BOM is under grave suspicion over its adjustments to the measures records particularly when all the adjustments have been upwards, and this being despite the BOM giving prior assurrances that the adjustments +/- balance out.
Further, the University of East Wankerton aka Adelaide University, has its fair share of water melons and actvivists,…. which is a shame given its previous track record for scientific rigour and discovery
PS: With the abundant administrative resources that the Wankers have it is surprising that some one didnt check the facts before the Press Release went out
So now we have the unedifying international spectacle of both the Univerisity of Melbourne ( Karoly and Gergis) and the University Adelaide (Liddy) being caught out peddling porkies on GW.
Tim Flannery was also at Adelaide University and he is infamous for declaring Australia faced more or less endless drought and that our dams would never fill again….the year before the floods began. Worth knowing that Adelaide gets much of its water from the Murray River which drains the region of Tim’s ‘endless drought’ and the rest from reservoirs in the Mt Lofty Ranges adjacent the city. Something in the water do you think? A strong irony content perhaps?
I would have thought the University of East Wankerton would have to be Melbourne thanks to Karoly, Gergis et al. ( my son went to Monash unfortunately). That means that, thanks to Tim Flannery and now these latest buffoons, Adelaide could only be the University of South Irony.
Incidently, looking at the BOM rainfall data in the region does not indicate any down trend over the past century or so. The trend for the continent over that period has been UP by about 20%. Not much basis for this sort of alarmist drivel it would seem – but hey, it was funded I assume and thats what counts!
Willis,
In addition to using dishonest, corrupt, sloppy, irreproducible, innumeracy and many other harsh descriptive terms, we should remember to use the term ‘fatuous’ to describe these examples of academic puffery. Mocking is fun.
fat·u·ous adj. Foolish or silly, especially in a smug or self-satisfied way
Gary–They upheld health care insurance “taxes” too. In striking down the Stolen Valor Act–same day–they said its ok to lie about receiving military honors. The guy who challenged the law claimed falsely to have been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. As the daughter of a deceased military veteran who really did serve and was awarded military honors, I’m offended. If I were Martha Stewart and spent 6 months in jail for lying, I’d be really offended, too.
RE: The Inquirer
Don’t be a lazy, trusting sod and depend on the BOM maps and graphs. Do as I did and download the GHCN data for Oodnadatta. You will find the data matches Willis’ satellite graph, with no net warming since the late 70’s, and a cooling trend since 1990.
Jon at WA,
You are too extreme for me, I think that this is the wrong blog for you. You should try Getup or Crickey.
This is depressing. I got my first degree from U of A. But at least it was in philosophy, not geography. I learned geography at school.
(Note for American readers. In Australia, “school” means “primary school and high school”. Not tertiary education.)
mfo June 29, 2012 at 2:30 pm nails it; !!!
There is always greed and selfishness behind the scenes (here under the guise of caring for the people…..)
Tim Ball said:
Australia has no such option because they are 94 percent desert, although they have diverted water through the Snowy Mountain Range to provide supply to the coastal cities.
—————————————————
Er, no Tim, wrong on both counts.
Around 74% of Australia is classified as semi-arid, arid or desert, not ‘94% desert’. It makes a big difference when you are talking about an area roughly comparable to the US.
I am not sure what you mean by the ‘Snowy Mountains Range’. The Great Dividing Range runs for more than 2,000 miles just inside the east coast, from Queensland to Victoria. The Snowy Mountains (near where I live) is a tiny subset of that, and not a drop of water is ‘diverted through it to provide supply to the coastal cities’.
There is a lot of politicking going on at present in relation to Lake Eyre and the local indigenous population. Apparently, it has been agreed that as the traditional owners, they now have the right to prevent people from boating on the lake when there is water in it, as it has been declared a sacred site (sigh!). However, it seems that the payment of an appropriate fee can overcome these religious difficulties.
ursus augustus says:
June 29, 2012 at 4:55 pm
Incidently, looking at the BOM rainfall data in the region does not indicate any down trend over the past century or so.
=============================================================
At the risk of disappointing many contributors here: even if there was any trend over the past century or so, you can never project it in the future on the mere ground of the presence of such a trend in the past. You need to know what caused the past trend first.
You can also make up the cause and then speculate about the projection, but it is very important not to forget that it is not real. I am not sure if climate scientists know that.
King of Cool says: June 29, 2012 at 4:05 pm
And, just a very polite query …
What is it with people putting video musical clips in a climate blog comment section?
Now, I can understand quotes of lyrics … from sage like poets (and my favourites – “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows”, from the Bob Dylan song “Subterranean Homesick Blues” and “The masters make the rules, for the wise men, and the fools”. (Dylan, again))
the real name for this university is UNIVERSITY OF EAST WANKERS , and they get large grants to do what they are doing
Any panic is good panic to a Warmist.
They simply refuse to believe that all normal people are on to their silly games.
johanna says:
ditto on your point. Anyone who has been to Australia is familiar with the river basins.
Strewth this is bloody boring and repetitive. Some academic wanker puts out a “finding” paraded in bold on the ABC and SMH then WUWTH / JoNova et al knocks it down. The correction is suitably buried on page 8 if at all. Cue for another academic – they seem to have an endless supply of my taxes – for another shonky study and off we go again. This applies world wide UVa,, Monash, Adelaide etc. etc. Seems to me that the the solution is to slash the funding despite the guaranteed screams from those on the gravy train. Alas I see zero likelyhood of this ever happening as the amount of political balls in evidence is woeful; please pass me my medication.
Robin says:
June 29, 2012 at 10:50 am
Intentions and goals are all that matter to these collectivist schemers. And they say so. Means and consequences are irrelevant to them even though they matter so much to us.
=========
I was watching a rerun of Mars Attacks. The Martians have loud speakers playing “Do Not Run, You Have Nothing to Fear”, as they ray gun everyone in sight that is standing still.
If Martian did invade earth, and told people to stand still, a lot of people would obey and stand there as they are vaporized. This is what scientists prey on to get grants. It is what politicians count on to get elected. The gullible that believe what they hear.
And why do scientists and politicians do this? Because they figure that if you are fool enough to believe them you deserve everything you get. It isn’t their fault you believe them, they are lying for a reason. It is your fault for not spotting the reason.
Their only mission in life is to continuously impoverish everybody. Don’t think that telling a few exaggerations or lies is going to worry them.
MonktonofOz says:
June 29, 2012 at 6:03 pm
Seems to me that the the solution is to slash the funding despite the guaranteed screams from those on the gravy train.
==========================================================
I suggest climate science should be closed for 70 years.
If I was stuck in the desert near Lake Eyre I would much rather have a couple of the Arabunna people with me than a dozen professors from the University of Adelaide, At the very least Arabunna people would know where the water was and which way was up!
TheInquirer says:
June 29, 2012 at 2:14 pm
So a 40 year trend of 0.3 to 0.5C per decade in the observational record doesn’t contradict the claim of “no evidence” by the author?
You think the BOM uses UAH or RSS? Of course not, they are not adjusted to suit their agenda.
Dont you think its strange that UAH shows no warming trend through a warm PDO period in regional areas? UM, its called UHI and its not the only reason but its having an effect on temps since the mid 70s.
One could easily assume a fair cooling trend since 1979 if you think about UHI. Its been cooling since 1998, with record emissions, and an enormous amount of population growth. If you want to expirement on UHI, step outside at 2 am tomorrow morning and witness it.
So regional areas without cities show no warming, surprise surprise.
But then again, it COULD happen…
“tens of thousands of gigalitres of water per day”
i.e. tens of millions of megalitress
THAT’S a lot of water. Melbourne’s water storage is 1,068,000 megalitres
Oh gods grief I spotted 1 weasel word and 1 weasel phrase and 1 one weasel time period on that first sentence of the second paragraph.
Could – IE I could turn into a dragon by the end of the next century.
Up To – IE I will win up to 1,000,000,000,000.00 dollars US. Since up to clearly includes zero as a value.
Next century – well then no one ever needs to call them on it since it will all be dead and gone long before then.
Anyone who buys that article needs to take up the ancient Welsh martial art of Llap Goch –
http://www.llapgoch.org.uk/
Note for those not wanting to click blindly it is a wonderful illustration along the DHMO website about such language.
These academics are a disgrace. To go scaring these people with what is only a hypothesis at best. It is just so wrong. There must be some law that has been breached which would trigger serious criminal prosecution.
Well as of July 1st we will have a carbon tax that we were told was to stop nasty climate change. It will fix up the country and turn it into some sort of utopia. The only change the tax will bring is a change of government. As for Lake Eyre I say flood it and make energy producing solar ponds with the salt water. That plan has been kicking around since the seventies. Just do it!
I’m Uni of Adelaide Alumni – I’ll be bringing this up at the next Alumni night
Several comments have provided links to the official Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) surface data here;
http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/change/trendmaps.cgi?map=tmean&area=aus&season=0112&period=1910
Catweasle says June 29, 2012 at 4:32 pm
From Climate Explorer, I found 2 surface stations in the area 25 to 30 S, 135 to 140 E in the GHCN with at least 10 years of data. They are:
MARREE (AUSTRALIA), coordinates: -29.65N, 138.05E, and
BIRDSVILLE (AUSTRALIA), coordinates: -25.90N, 139.35E.
The data goes only to October 1992.
A graph the maximum temperatures from 1979 to 1992 is at
http://www.friendsofscience.org/assets/images/LakeErye_Australia.jpg
The temperatures correlate well with the satellite data.
The best fit lines are Marree -0.61 C/decade, Birdsville -0.34 C/decade.
Yes, both stations show declining temperatures.
BOM adjusted the data to change a temperature decline into a temperature increase.
So, a society that has lived and adapted in the driest state in the driest country for the past 40,000 years or so is not going to be able to adapt to whatever climate changes (could, may, possibly) occur in the next 90 years?
There is nothing out there but salt bush, sand, rocks, lizards, snakes, scorpions, camels, rabbits and other critters designed to live in such a harsh environment. I lived in the area (Woomera) for a few years and don’t recommend it for a lifestyle without all mod cons).
Australians are forever spending money providing modern conveniences to people claiming they wish to maintain their traditional ways. Perhaps it should be accepted that part of those traditions is to adapt to whatever the climate does. I’m sure that the conditions out there were very different 40,000, or even 1,000, years ago.
I also note the statement in the article:
How does a gradual rise in CO2 cause ‘a series of ‘jumps”. Perhaps someone can eviscerate the ‘report’ when it is released.
Also, do Dr john Tibby’s degrees in Geography and Environmental Science qualify him as a climate scientist as we are constantly being advised that we should only believe the words of those suitably ordained in the arcane arts of ‘Climate Science’.
In reply to.
Expatriate says:
I spoke in general and sweeping terms because the pattern I see is a general and sweeping one. The general part is that people have been forced off their land throughout history. The powers that be have used any excuse or just plain brute force. In the more “advanced societies” the methods are more subtle such as helping the poor hapless indigenous out of their plight. Never mind that they managed to survive there for generations. The sweeping part is that those that are out of power will be swept off the land they occupy.
Being slightly more specific but wishing not to write a dissertation, and be even more rude to Mr Willis Eschenbach .I will be very very brief. In the case of Zimbabwe Mr. Mugabe’s adversaries are being swept off the land they have occupied. From 1890 to 1979 the Indigenous peoples were slowly being swept off the land. After 2000 with the fast track land reforms different people are being swept off the land.
In the Case of South Africa the sweeping has been going on for a while. In the latest sweep there is even discussion between Mr. Guede Manatashe and the Youth Wing of the ANC as to whether there should be compensation for expropriation.
My alarm bells ring when some establishment type starts to point to a problem that does not exist and that there is no sound basis for. Typically, the next thing a remedy for the nonexistent problem will be put forth. The remedy typically involves money and the taking of something.
/ rant off
This post rang my GONG. Thank you Willis.
What is reprehensible is they have a creditable platform from which to present their machinations and for that they get paid.
This is the same research group who told us that the rains would never come!!
Lake Eyre is now in mid-winter, usually there is no water at this time of year, just barren salt plains.
But behold!!!… “Lake Eyre has flooded again for the fourth year in a row.
After a very quick initial pulse of water from significant local rains around Lake Eyre late February/early March, Lake Eyre North reached a surface coverage of 70% in mid-March. This dropped back to below 15% at the start of May. Water entered again from the Warburton Creek and Kalaweerina Creek so surface coverage is now back to just under 25%. However, water flow from these two creeks is now decreasing so Lake Eyre surface coverage has peaked again and will decline. Water has travelled down the Warburton Groove to Belt Bay, but this new surge of water is not nearly as significant as the last three years.” http://www.environment.sa.gov.au/parks/Find_a_Park/Browse_by_region/Flinders_Ranges_Outback/Lake_Eyre_National_Park/Current_status_2012
What the guys of the University of Everybody-Panic really mean is … that the slight cooling trend, as shown by the satellite data, is likely to continue. They just have a funny way of saying it so they can get more research grants to provide alarmist predictions and help the current clowns in the Aussie government to cling to power.
From my experience of meeting Aborigines in Australia I think the alarmists have picked the wrong target audience to try and scare. Firstly, living in such harsh conditions makes you extremely aware of your natural surroundings and able to spot even the slightest change in conditions. Secondly, the Aborigines have a corporate knowledge in the form of an oral tradition that goes back a very long time. This will be a clash of cultures; one rooted in practical knowledge and the other in fantasy land.
I totally agree Willis – notoriety USED to be a bad thing, and scientists wanted to be “right”, not merely “not wrong”.
Newsflash! Just heard in central Pennsylvania in the intro for the 11PM local news:
New evidence of massive cover-up at Penn State University!
Oh, wait a minute, it’s about that Sandusky moron, not Mann.
Well, if you can pull up one bucketful of alarming faecies (pardon my Latin) out of a deep hole, it tends to indicate there’s still more down there.
“Also, do Dr john Tibby’s degrees in Geography and Environmental Science qualify him as a climate scientist …….
NO ! but writing this sort of trash does. !!
This is now the ONE DEFINING TRAIT of the “Climate Scientist”.
You can tell a climate scientist by the total lack of anything resembling reality in their work.
eg Hansen, Mann, Jones, Steffen, Flannery, now this Tibby guy.
There’s lots of them, all on the AGW teat, all producing garbage.
Greg House
It would be of interest to discuss alternatives to “global” temperatures somewhere. Any sceptic blog would do, but WUWT has too many posts to make discussion easy.
Restless 1 says:
June 29, 2012 at 10:42 am
Been saying for some time, that any policy originating from the left is designed to perpupetuate poverty. Lying is no issue to them.
If these policies hit the darkskinned harder, they consider that a bonus.
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
I gather that a delegation of African farmers at a CFACT fringe event in Rio noted that for them “sustainable development” meant poverty and malnutrition.
So they agree with you. As do I
I’ve been up that way. Not quite as far as Lake Eyre. Nothing grows there bar a bit of scrub anyway. Except when it rains on and off.
markx says:
June 29, 2012 at 5:53 pm
King of Cool says: June 29, 2012 at 4:05 pm
And, just a very polite query …
What is it with people putting video musical clips in a climate blog comment section?
Now, I can understand quotes of lyrics…
markx – my friend, the very polite answer is not blowin in the wind it is “because you can” and I had an impulse to do it, but I promise I will be more disciplined in future and will stick to topics like Anthropogenic GW, Climate Sensitivity, Desertification, ENSO, Evapotranspiration, Hydrochlorofluorocarbons, Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compounds, Residence Time, Thermohaline Circulation and Tropospheric Ozone Precursors.
But one for the road – and I promise this will be my absolute finale:
“White man speak with forked tongue.”
Funny that they single out an area in Australia that has seemingly nothing except a few indigenous living on the land. A pointless scare story unless there is an ulterior motive, ie something in the ground so the first step is to remove the locals then you are free to exploit. Nothing is ever what it seems. There is always a real motive. Find who sponsored this study and you may well find the answer.
Office of Research Ethics, Compliance and Integrity
http://www.adelaide.edu.au/ethics/
It’s always bad. Where are the studies telling us that a certain community will find life to be better due to higher temperatures? I reckon the folks in Mongolia won’t mind higher temperatures.
Most of the South East Australia is sitting on a lump of iron, its magnetic field intensity has increased by nearly 10% in the last 400 years, due to the magnetic pole getting closer. In recent decades (since 1950s) local magnetic field has oscillated in synchronism with changing polarity of solar cycles.
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/AL-MF.htm
This was not the case in the pre 1950 period, but then data accuracy and resolution may not be as good as in the more recent decades. (NOAA gmf data resolution is too low to examine post 1995 record).
I have done virtually hundreds of automatic geomagnetic scans all around the globe and have not found similar rapid oscillations of the local Earth’s magnetic field intensity, nothing comparable to the South East Australia.
It is difficult to say if there may or may not be any direct climate relationshipbut case of nearby Echuca is interesting http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/Echuca.htm .
King of Cool says: June 29, 2012 at 9:18 pm
(re musical video clips) “….. the very polite answer is not blowin in the wind it is “because you can” and I had an impulse to do it…”
Ha ha, fair enough … it’s only that when I’m wading through this stuff, I never stop when I see a video clip and think; “Hey, that’s a good idea, I’ll just stop this and listen to this old favorite for a while…”
Anyway, don’t think twice, its alright.
…the author of the report, Dr John Tibby from the University of Adelaide’s Discipline of Geography, Environment and Population.
Well, the Arabunna (100 to 500 of them, anyway) live in Australia, so he got the “Geography” and “Population” part right. and like the song says, “Two out of three ain’t bad.”
*refraining from posting U-Toob vid link in defference to markx’s sensibilities*
Max says: June 29, 2012 at 9:25 pm
“… Find who sponsored this study and you may well find the answer….”
Right on the money (so to speak) Max: (see earlier comments)
mfo says: June 29, 2012 at 2:30 pm
“BHP Bilton and others. BHP own the Olympic Dam which is a Uranium mine south of the area outlined on the map. …”
I sent the following letter to The Australian newpaper in response to its 27 June story on this. They didn’t print it:
The University of Adelaide warns that “based on the best possible science” residents in the South Australian outback should prepare for 4C temperature rises over the next century (“Heat danger looms for outback,” 28/6). This is the same science that told us temperatures would rise in line with CO2, and can not explain why there has been no rise for 15 years; the same science that admits that its models have high degrees of uncertainty and that they are not fine enough to make regional forecasts. Not to mention that those warned will have much more urgent issues to deal with than the climate in 2112, and will very sensibly ignore such warnings.
Don’t worry, Gillards’ carbon pollution price starts to be collecetd tomorrow (July 1st) @ AU$23/tonne, so these people, their environment and the global climate will be saved. Interestingly enough, Snowy Hydro is in the list of Aussies top carbon polluters whereas Hydro Tasmania isn’t.
The thing is that climate change has been ongoing in this region for the last 40,000 years. There is a national park called “Lake Mungo” to the right of the bottom right hand “dot” on the map in the state of New South Wales. This lake was a thriving indigenous people’s community then, with fishing and gathering of mussels sustaining the community. If you go there now you find that the lake is quite dry – and it has been for thousands of years. It is actually a very nice place to visit, with strange landforms on the eastern edge of the dry “lake” where sediments have been blown to form a crescent-shaped low set of eroded hills that glow apricot in the afternoon sun. The point is that the drying occurred long before anthropogenic CO2 emissions to the atmosphere, and this type of climate change (or the opposite) could occur into the future quite independently of puny attempts to control climate like Australia’s carbon tax!
Perhaps the professors can be re-educated to go upscale. Since GCMs are no good going down the scale, maybe the good professors can scale the other scale direction. THey would not even have to change the acronym. From now on GCMs can mean Galactical Computer Models.
Ken Gregory says:
June 29, 2012 at 7:17 pm
Several comments have provided links to the official Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) surface data here;
http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/change/trendmaps.cgi?map=tmean&area=aus&season=0112&period=1910
Catweasle says June 29, 2012 at 4:32 pm
The BOM is under grave suspicion over its adjustments to the measures records particularly when all the adjustments have been upwards
From Climate Explorer, I found 2 surface stations in the area 25 to 30 S, 135 to 140 E in the GHCN with at least 10 years of data. They are:
MARREE (AUSTRALIA), coordinates: -29.65N, 138.05E, and
BIRDSVILLE (AUSTRALIA), coordinates: -25.90N, 139.35E.
The data goes only to October 1992.
A graph the maximum temperatures from 1979 to 1992 is at
http://www.friendsofscience.org/assets/images/LakeErye_Australia.jpg
The temperatures correlate well with the satellite data.
The best fit lines are Marree -0.61 C/decade, Birdsville -0.34 C/decade.
Yes, both stations show declining temperatures.
BOM adjusted the data to change a temperature decline into a temperature increase
=========================================
yes! and about Two years ago just before copenhagen a whole pile of HOT weather records ie marble bar in the 30s, charleville and marree that were available to view with charts Vanished to some BoM hole never to be seen again, some opbscure format to read files, no way to get it etc.
and yeah ABC was all over it like blowies on poop.
ABC is ausgovt agitprop dept.
Weren’t Australians warned to prepare for permanent drought – until the recent Biblical floods?
Well – back here in the UK, we have crass statements like the following from our Secretary of State for Energy and (excuse me while I find a bucket) Climate Change, when questioned about the march of electricity pylons across picturesque countryside from remote wind farms:
‘The appearance of the countryside would suffer much more due to climate change..!’
Words fail me….
“Jimbo says:
June 30, 2012 at 5:12 am”
Yes. Just as the Met Office in the UK were saying that snow would be a thing of the past a few years back, our climate commissioner, Tim Flannery, stated that rain would be a thing of the past and we must build desal plants. The NSW and QLD Govn’ts, like lemmings, followed that advice and built them. Tomorrow, July 1st, the start of Gillards’ climate savings tax, our own $AU2bil desal plant in NSW will be shutdown and mothballed.
Johanna says I was wrong on two points. She is correct on one, the percentage of desert. There was a typo. I had 94 percent when it should have been 74 percent as stated.
However, the Snowy Mountains Scheme was, as I said, to provide water for a coastal plain city.
“Yet the Snowy Mountains are perhaps best known for the Snowy Mountains Scheme a project to dam the Snowy River, providing both water for irrigation and electricity for nearby Canberra.”
http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Snowy:Mountains.html
By 1974, 145 kilometres (90 mi) of underground tunnels and 80 kilometres (50 mi) of aqueducts connected the sixteen dams, seven power stations (two underground), and one pumping station.
Water has been and will remain a major issue for most of Australia. Griffith Taylor in a report to the government said the population would be limited, I believe the number he gave was 22 million, because of inadequate water. (It is reported he never got paid). It is possible Australia will be the first country to experiment with towing tabular icebergs from Antarctica for supply.
There, are too many uni places there! People are being educated beyond their ability!
DaveE.
I find this kind of crying wolf reprehensible, particularly when it is aimed at indigenous people…
Why is that?
No, Tim Ball, you still have it wrong. The Snowy Mountains Scheme has come under fire from greenies for STOPPING the flow of water towards the coast – it provides water in the opposite direction (ie, east to west) to provide electricity to the NSW and Victorian grids (Canberra, wholly land-locked with NSW but most definitely not a coastal city, draws its power from the NSW grid) and to provide irrigation water for the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers, both of which flow to the west.
Adelaide (capital of SA) draws water from the Murray.
Tim Ball says:
June 30, 2012 at 8:43 am
No, Tim, you were wrong on both counts, even allowing for a typo. The term ‘desert’ does not mean the same as ‘arid’ and ‘semi-arid’, and it is the total of those three categories that equals 74% of the land mass.
I live in Canberra, and assure you it is not a coastal city, as you claimed in your first post (the closest sea is more than 90 miles away), or even a coastal plain city, as you fudged the words to in your second. The inhabited parts are around 550 – 600 metres above sea level (depending where you are) there are small mountains that go up to about 900m above sea level within the city limits.It is surrounded by higher mountains, and is in fact more like a high plateau.
You said: “although they have diverted water through the Snowy Mountain Range to provide supply to the coastal cities.” The Snowy Mountains Scheme does not supply a drop of water to Canberra or any other city, although it does supply hydro power here. As your later quote says, it supplies some water for irrigation to farmers a long way from here. Our water system is completely separate and it does not come from the Snowy Mountains.
As for the stuff about towing icebergs, it is a hardy perennial of alarmists which is not taken seriously. The inhabited parts of Australia are not under threat from lack of water, but from lack of water storage to cope with cyclical droughts. Almost nobody lives in the desert or arid lands, and the semi-arid parts are mainly used for running sheep or cattle on massive properties with not many people on them. The population, sensibly, lives in the wetter parts, which are about 25% of the area of the continental US and have about 20 million inhabitants. No need to panic just yet.