Essay by Eric Worrall
“… I believe the Australian climate has always been a land of droughts and floods …”
Farmers face ‘new world’ of extreme weather as scientists urge action on climate change
By David Claughton, Michael Condon and Cara JefferyABC Rural
Topic:Climate Change
Thu 5 Jun…
Climate scientist and University of Melbourne Emeritus Professor David Karoly said a near-stationary high pressure system in the Tasman Sea had contributed to the high rainfall event, stalling a moist, easterly flow of air over the NSW coast.
…
Craig Emerton, whose family has been farming at Croki since 1856, described the May floods as “totally unprecedented”, with water levels three times higher than he had experienced before.
However, the dairy farmer said he was not convinced climate change was the issue.
He pointed to geography for evidence of what happened before Australia was colonised and flood height records were started.
“When we look at the landform on this coastal flood plain, we can see that there’s been big floods over the years where sediment has built up,” he said.
“My dad spoke of six floods in six weeks … so we just happen to be in a very wet period.”
…
At Dungog, fellow dairy farmer Sue McGinn shared his view.
“I believe the Australian climate has always been a land of droughts and floods,” she said.
…
Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2025-06-05/climate-change-linked-to-floods-extreme-weather-nsw/105353550
Aussie farmers have been on the receiving end of climate activism in recent years, with allegations of bullying and heavy handed tactics pushing through renewable infrastructure approvals.
Having said that, there is plenty of reason for this skepticism other than anger at alleged coercive green tactics.
Why don’t Aussie greens embrace nuclear power as an acceptable zero carbon option?
This bizarre green rejection of nuclear power is what led me personally to first question climate alarmism. If we are facing a planetary emergency, all options for addressing the problem should be on the table. There would be no major conservative opposition to zero carbon energy, if greens embraced nuclear power.
Greens give the impression they would rather battle conservatives than embrace zero carbon energy which includes nuclear power, despite claiming CO2 emissions are a global crisis. This bizarre rejection of the only path to zero carbon energy which conservatives would accept in my opinion more than justifies questioning their other statements and claim.
The frequently repeated claim nuclear power is impossibly expensive and / or too dangerous is absurd, given that France has derived around 60%+ of their electricity from nuclear for decades. Therefore the green rejection of nuclear is irrational, which means their other claims require careful examination.
I personally recently opposed nuclear in Australia, because I support coal as the cheaper option – but unlike renewables, nuclear is a proven economically viable solution to a nation’s energy needs. I just figured with all that coal waiting to be mined, Australia had better options.
The climate council, of which climate scientist David Karoly is a leading member, is strongly opposed to nuclear power.
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Aren’t the seasons there often referred to as
The Wet
and
The Dry
???
That’s in the Tropics.
Up north, we call them Hot, Wet and Cool seasons. Cool is relative.
Eric, by now the hypothesis of my observation that –
“Rationality and Ideology Cannot Occupy the Same Mind-Space At the Same Time”
has been backed up by untold numbers & examples of observations.
Your post here is one more significant real-world observation to add to the already-extensive list.
What should be my null hypothesis?
…unless the ideology is that of the Right
Yes, in many ways I guess the ideologies of the Right (if there are any identifiable ones other than Free Will Of Individuals and First Do No Harm) would all come under the one encompassing ideology of Rationality In All Things.
A Google search on “Hydroelectric dams decommissioned in california” comes up with:
“In 2024, California saw the completion of a major hydroelectric dam removal project on the Klamath River, with the full removal of four dams: Copco No. 1, Copco No. 2, Iron Gate, and J.C. Boyle. This project was the largest river restoration project in US history, and it was completed ahead of schedule. “
_______________________________________________________________________
You don’t have to convince me that the Left’s agenda really isn’t about saving the planet from CO2 emissions. Don’t know what I’m talking about? How ’bout these quotes:
“Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?” –
Maurice Strong, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations
“This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the industrial revolution.” –
Christiana Figueres, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary
“We’ve got to go straight to the heart of capitalism and overthrow it.
George Monbiot
Most left-wing revolutionaries are more circumspect that that, but we know that’s what they want.
Has California been populated by convicts like Australia?
They are now.
The convicts who were transported from England to their colonies in Australia didn’t go there by choice.
Many of them were convicted of heinous crimes such as stealing a loaf of bread.
But Australia turned out to be a much more civilised life than the teeming disease-ridden hell-holes of London, its jails and anchored prison ships in the Thames.
Many convicts took to farming, and after being released from servitude, took up land grants and continued their essential productive work for generations.
Dealing with all the hazards & challenges of explorer / settlers along the way in “The Land Of Drought And Flooding Rains”.
Many Aussies today are proud to claim a convict in their ancestry.
With good reason.
An estimated 50000 – 130000 convicts were transported to America’s 13 colonies, prior to their Revolutionary War.
That War was is the reason that Britain decided to make Australia a penal colony.
Of course … California did not exist at that time.
Of course it existed, it was claimed and governed by Spain after being “discovered” and explored in 1542 by Juan Cabrillo.
Only the Elected Ones
Campaigns to remove dams always seem to worry about fish that migrated into the former unfettered rivers. The campaigns never seem to consider the new populations of fish living in the reservoirs formed by the dams. Tear down the dams, and those fish die en masse. But so what? It’s collateral damage. The dams never should have been built; the waters never tamed; humans are wicked, and can’t do anything right!
Never mind that reservoir fish may constitute a healthier ecosystem than the previous wild river, or the previous flood plain that flourished only sporadically. There are naturally occurring lakes all over the world that support fish. But if human intervention in the form of dam-building supports fish, it must be a sin. Only Gaia is allowed to create lakes. Why bother measuring anything, when expunging sin is the real goal?
I don’t know the specifics but have been through a lot of that area. Those dams came out a long way from the ocean and there is a Salmon River well downstream. It is true that there is a difference between stream and lake fish and up in the cold country were natural glacial lakes, many which had no fish without our help. Examples are in Yellowstone Park. Regardless of the biology it seems to be just another case of the lack of due process which our constitution is supposed to protect.
Australia – the land of drought and floods:
https://joannenova.com.au/2020/03/a-history-of-droughts-and-flooding-rains-from-1782-1865-in-australia/
And that was when the climate was “perfect” and carbon dioxide levels were low..
This can be neutralized with two questions:
When has this not happened before?
What would be evidence that anthropogenic climate change isn’t happening?
As for nuclear power, I think that it will become a necessity soon, because of AI. I’ve said before that nukes and natural gas are the way to go, not just if you want lower emissions, but if you want affordable power, period.
I love a sunburnt country
A land of sweeping plains
Of ragged mountain ranges
Of droughts and flooding rains
Dorothea Mckellar, one century ago
I love a sheepish country
Its fleece is white as snow
And everywhere the sheepies go
The Kiwis sure follow
(have to be quick though – don’t want to get an ugly one 🙂 )
What we have here is failure to communicate catastrophic man made weather change.
Of course. Claiming climate affects weather is backwards thinking. Weather causes climate change, climate is 30 years of weather in a given area. The climate cant change if the weather doesn’t change first.
Here is 20 minutes of weather locations that show no warming, many are in Australia and NZ. If any continent isn’t experiencing any impact of Climate Change, it is Australia, and the charts prove it.
https://app.screencast.com/YhtT15qlGLIsC
If Climate Science was a real science the question they would be asking is “why are there so many locations on earth that aren’t showing any warming with an increase in CO2?” In any real science you do a controlled experiment trying to isolate the impact of the independent variable on the dependent variable. Australia is a natural control for isolating the impact of CO2 on temperatures, and many locations show no warming.
I keep getting the reply, ” its warmer than otherwise”. Ie the nonwarming places would be cooling more.
Totally unfalsifiable.
Climate alarmists like Karoly invariably have three rather annoying traits.
Was it D. Karoly who had to withdraw a paper he co-authored because the math was just plain wrong?
Yes, yes it was –
https://joannenova.com.au/2012/10/gergis-hockey-stick-withdrawn-this-is-what-95-certainty-looks-like-in-climate-science/
These sorts of stories are only one step away from claiming God is sending plagues to punish us for our immoderate use of fossil fuels, and if only we repent, and embrace ‘The Climate Science™’; life will be all milk and honey with perfect weather. One problem, the weather has always been random and wild. Coming soon, the Climate Inquisition. Only renewable powered electric red hot pokers of course.
With no acceptance that the same God (choose your favourite one, as I do) put the fossil fuel there.
If not to be used similar to other energy producing materials like trees, grasses, berries, root vegetables, milk, honey, etc then what for?
I didn’t expect the Climate Inquisition.
Nobody expects the Climate Inquisition!
I thank you.
Anxiety over climate change has degenerated into a moral panic. “It must be worse than ever, and it’s because we sinned, and Gaia is punishing us for our sins!”
The weather isn’t worse than ever, or rapidly worsening, but that doesn’t play well on the 6 o’clock news. It’s hard to build a career on philosophical detachment from long-term trends no one can control. Ask someone how many “catastrophic” floods it took, over how many millions of years, to form the Grand Canyon. You’ll get a blank look.
Besides, some people like being scared out of their wits. No science is necessary. Pseudo-science or outright humbug will suffice. Quivering in superstitious fear is more exciting than studying facts.
Every landmass on earth has abundant evidence of recurring floods and droughts. Vast flood plains flank major rivers on every continent from the Brahmaputra River to the Arkansas, from the Amazon to the Yukon, from the Rhine to the Mekong. Eroded land forms abound from the red rock sandstone deserts of the American West to the dust-choked Australian outback. But geology isn’t popular, either. Geology is a real science, but it’s tedious, and requires understanding patterns played out over eons of time. Plenty of people prefer to scare each other like teenagers telling ghost stories at a slumber party, rather than study facts.
Garbage In, Garbage Out is a worldwide phenomenon, and it always has been. It predates by millennia the goofy computer models promoted by media. GIGO represents the mental laziness of preferring sin & superstition to study & science.
Geology is also dirty – one get’s one hands dirty in the field. Of course, there needs to be some feminine geology, which will be kinder and gentler, and clean – no field work required.
The CAGW jokers don’t give a damn about climate, science, economics, evidence or the truth. The only thing they care about is power to control others. It is that simple.
Of course lots of “all that coal waiting to be mined” is going to be mined but for export not use at home in Australia!
46 coal mining for export projects are underway in Australia almost 50% of all such projects underway across the world. Canada and South Africa have the next highest number of export projects with 9 each.
IEA ‘Coal 2024 Analysis and Forecast to 2027’ (Dec. 2024)