Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h/t Clarky of Oz; Australia’s parched Eastern states are finally seeing a little rain, but this is bad news for climate change according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
Drought-breaking rain likely to cause greenhouse emissions to rise
By Mike Foley
January 16, 2020 — 9.30pmAustralia’s greenhouse gas emissions are likely to rise if there is a break in the intense drought in eastern Australia, sinking the Morrison government’s goal of lowering emissions in the short term.
The agriculture sector did most of the heavy lifting in emissions reduction in the year ending May 2019, falling by 4.2 million tonnes to 67.4 million tonnes. It reduced the sector’s greenhouse contribution by 5.87 per cent, compared to the electricity sector’s 1.15 per cent reduction.
“That big drop in agriculture was twice the emissions reduction that came from the record rollout of renewables. But it’s all built on the suffering of Australia’s farmers under drought,” Climate Council senior researcher Tim Baxter said.
The weather outlook is improving and the livestock sector is poised to rebound swiftly when the drought breaks.
…
“A break in the drought could push our emissions so they are again trending upwards,” Australian National University Climate Change Institute Professor Mark Howden said.
Professor Howden said while Australia’s emissions were “almost flatlining”, when the drought finally broke livestock emissions would likely rise by 4 million tonnes a year.
“Farmers will as quickly as possible build up their breeding herd and this will result in a rapid increase in recorded greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.
“During drought animals’ feed intake is likely to have dropped and that further reduces emissions. When it breaks cattle are likely to eat a lot more and increase emissions.”
…
Read more: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/drought-breaking-rain-likely-to-cause-greenhouse-emissions-to-rise-20200116-p53rze.html
Not to be outdone, the Conversation lead with a story about the drought breaking rain poisoning the nation’s river systems.
The sweet relief of rain after bushfires threaten disaster for our rivers
Fire debris flowing into the Murray-Darling Basin will exacerbate the risk of fish and other aquatic life dying en masse
Paul McInerney Research scientist, CSIRO
Gavin Rees Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO
Klaus Joehnk Senior research scientist, CSIROWhen heavy rainfall eventually extinguishes the flames ravaging south-east Australia, another ecological threat will arise. Sediment, ash and debris washing into our waterways, particularly in the Murray-Darling Basin, may decimate aquatic life.
We’ve seen this before. Following 2003 bushfires in Victoria’s alpine region, water filled with sediment and debris (known as sediment slugs) flowed into rivers and lakes, heavily reducing fish populations. We’ll likely see it again after this season’s bushfire emergency.
Large areas of north-east Victoria have been burnt. While this region accounts only for 2% of the Murray-Darling Basin’s entire land area, water flowing in from north-east Victorian streams (also known as in-flow) contributes 38% of overall in-flows into the Murray-Darling Basin.
Fire debris flowing into the Murray-Darling Basin will exacerbate the risk of fish and other aquatic life dying en masse, as witnessed in previous years.
…
Read more: https://theconversation.com/the-sweet-relief-of-rain-after-bushfires-threatens-disaster-for-our-rivers-129449
Obviously the waterways will rapidly recover from any contamination, as rains wash the sediment away, as they have always recovered for thousands of years in the wake of bushfires much larger than the present day. Even the total sterilisation of a waterway through pollution cannot prevent its eventual recovery.
But you would be unlikely to learn that by reading the public statements of the CSIRO, or by reading The Conversation or the Sydney Morning Herald.
It seems difficult to believe there was once a time, long ago, when Aussie taxpayer funded scientists thought their job had something to do with improving people’s lives. They used to believe increased agricultural production or the breaking of a savage drought were events to celebrate, not opportunities to express their misery and distress.
Love the walleyed steer/heifer pic, Eric!
Suggested caption: “It’s all bad… and getting worse… all the time!”
SAID HANRAHAN (1919)
Do they not even listen to themselves anymore?
Is this related to Trump derangement syndrome? No matter what happens it’s bad and every outcome has only one interpretation and that is bad.
I call them DOOMERS these days. Bunch of miserable pricks.
The Socialist greens are entirely responsible for the fuel build up, for the fires, for the contamination that will occur from the rains, for the loss of habitat and the loss of animal species and the deaths of those caught in the fires, no one else is to blame, it is theirs and theirs alone.
“A break in the drought could push our emissions so they are again trending upwards,” Australian National University Climate Change Institute Professor Mark Howden said.
A break in the drought is now catastrophic … WOW !
This clown just passed the buffoonery tipping point. Bravo !
And the other three idiotic prophets … with their “may” and “could” … who don’t even know that wildfire ash contributes to future vegetation and life by soil fertilization ?
Is is not science but merely “the worst of climate science” AKA “bonkers idiotic buffoonery”.
If drought grips the country, it is disastrous. If it doesn’t, it is disastrous. If the weather (climate) is as perfect as it was in Camelot, it is disastrous. If we should never see snow again, it is disastrous. If we do, ditto. It is simultaneously the warmest, coldest, driest, wettest ever. The climate is positively Trumpian!
Man Made Climate Change seems to be the new “Low Fat”. In fact, we are seeing the push for Veganism too.
Charlie Munger was right:
There’s also cognitive dissonance that Naseem Taleb talks about in The Black Swan. If any of these scientists whose work is used for policy (and who don’t stand up and caveat their work – you know, Ethics and all that), had their food and water deemed safe under the same methods that the uncertainties in temperature and stated to…
They would be beating down doors trying to get answers for why they or their kids got really sick.
But it’s perfectly fine telling a developing nation not to use coal because of “climate change”.
As Taleb says, it’s like taking the elevator 4 floors to go buy a StairMaster because you want to start getting fitter.
Me and my blockquote!
Charlie Munger:
“Well, I think I’ve been in the top 5% of my age cohort all my life in understanding the power of incentives, and all my life I’ve underestimated it. And never a year passes but I get some surprise that pushes my limit a little farther.”
“Drought Breaking Aussie Rain is a Disaster for Climate Change”
Everything is a disaster in the science of climate science. Even when we don’t have any evidence for it.
The thing of it is that we need climate action. The reasons for it must be found. If not found they can always be assumed or imagined. Just a matter of how much you care about the environment and the planet.
https://tambonthongchai.com/2020/01/15/icefreearcticinsanity/
A break in the drought could push our emissions so they are again trending upwards,” Australian National University Climate Change Institute Professor Mark Howden said.
So a drought is better 😐 Who pays these utter fools?
“SMH: Drought Breaking Aussie Rain is a Disaster for Climate Change”
Make-it-up-Eric at it again. Name the person who wrote this.
It’s clearly referenced in the post loydo. Engage brain before commenting.
you arent legally blind Loydo?
the authors name is at the top of the article Mike Foley
and the quote is prof howden
Don’t have to be legally blind if wearing blinders.
No, Howden did not say that. Eric made it up – putting sensationalist words in his mouth presumably to get more clicks.
Correct. The article says no such thing.
It does provide some insight as to some of the factors that effect carbon emission levels.
Did Eric actually point out the words that he objected to, or explain how they mean what he claims?
No. Because he couldn’t quote anything from that to support his headline.
Shameful tabloid journalism from Eric Worrall.
ozspeaksup said:
“you arent legally blind Loydo?
the authors name is at the top of the article Mike Foley
and the quote is prof howden”
Well, go on then. Quote the text from the article that justifies that statement.
Where exactly is the bit about the rain being a climate change disaster?
Can you do better than “yeah well, they’re all a bunch of alarmists, so by talking about the effect the rain could have on carbon emissions, they’re claiming a disaster as a result?”
Ever notice how good news upsets alarmists?
Given the magic of photosynthesis, I’m struggling to see how agriculture could be anything other than an asset in the supposed desirable reduction on CO2 ?
UK had a drought – 2018-September 2019.
We just had our seventh month in a row of above-average rainfall (last summer we had a few heavy downpours amidst long hot summer) this January (by 18th we are already above monthly average in NW London) as a natural response to short-term drought.
The exact same thing happened after the 1975-76 drought episode, something of course the young woke activists were not alive to recall. But I was and I do recall it.
California broke a medium-term drought with two extremely rainy winters in 2017 and 2019. It is what nature tends to do.
So it will be interesting to see if Australia also over-reacts to an overly dry situation by having a lot of rain in the months ahead.
Nature suggests that humans would not have stuck around too long if short-term droughts were not followed by short-term heavy rainfall. They would have either died in a desert or got on a boat and sailed somewhere else…….
More food for everyone, and they are painting it as a climate catastrophe.
My contempt for them goes beyond words.
They DO want to destroy the economy and have people starve. An admission of the mission.
The more Stupid, scared and hunger the little pipples the more control by Gubmit. They have dumbed them down further with each new nonsensically named Generation.
The sky is always falling and these Chicken Little types fall into two categories. Those who know its a government plot to take control and those who have been programmed through the various departments of the Propaganda Ministry (Schools, New Media, Hollywood). The former need to be lined up against a wall the latter need decompression chambers for de-programming. It might take a couple of generations to get them mind right.
Decade or 2 ago the greenie crybabies in California were in their hand wringing studios lamenting loss of crop lands.
In irrigation,evaporation cycles each year the land becomes saltier. Irrigate, evaporate. So we will no longer raise crops.
Then God and the heavy rains came, runoff removed salt and then silence. Cycles. Many are irregular.
I live in the middle. When i was young, they built a lake 2miles from our farm with a dirt dam and less than 80 acres of surface when filled. The civil engineer said as many as 20 years before it would ever be full.
So it was almost finished, we had a couple of heavy gully washers in a couple of days, it was filled and covered a Caterpillar and an earthmover.
Even worse, the rain could cause a growth spurt in vegetation, leading to more future fuel for future massive fires due to lack of reasonable practices to manage the new growth properly.
It’s a lose/lose situation that suits climate doomsayers beautifully.
Mark Howden is apparently unaware that the many thousands of incinerated livestock will be unable to eat the new vegetation – something to do with mastication difficulties post-death, apparently!
Rain equals growth and that means CO2 is taken up. That should be a good thing if you are a believer. Now cows eat the grass and emit a bit of CH4 as a result of the breakdown in the rumen. That’s a bad thing apparently so should be stopped. If the cow does not eat the grass but leaves it to wither and die it will still give off the methane as it decomposes. The biggest emitter is the rotting vegetation in old growth forests particularly after rain. Bad no doubt so we might be better off converting forests into grasslands. The utter ridiculousness of the environmentalists and climate alarmists makes one wonder about their mental stability and mental acumen.
I do hope the scientists who work in climate alarmism never get involved with genuine research in specialities like medicine and engineering. Making stuff up and fiddling data to suit would not be tolerated.
BTW. If the news comes from the SMH, Age, Guardian or the ABC totally ignore it. If it comes from Channels 7,9 or 10 check it carefully. When it comes to climate ignore them all.
The farmers should be prevented from rebuilding their herds so that this progress on emissions can be saved!
4.2 million tons ! Think how much worse would have been the fires had they not saved 4.2 million tons! I am so glad someone is counting.
Why not just shutdown the whole agricultural sector. Plant Victory gardens!
Is gobsmacking how these idiots apparently even learned to tie their shoes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFTLKWw542g
more than 30 years ago billy joel named all the international ‘arsonists’. But he does not mention climate change
😉