Bushfires: Scientists warned us this was going to happen
Photo “Fire over the ridge at dusk” by Kath Knight, used with permission.
In the wake of the most devestating natural disaster to ever hit Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald is saying what many of us are thinking, writing “Scientists warned us this was going to happen“.
The fires of Saturday were not “once in 1000 years” or even “once in 100 years” events, as our political leaders keep repeating. They were the face of climate change.
They were the result of the new conditions that climate change has caused: higher temperatures, giving us hotter days, combined with lower rainfall, giving us a drier landscape. Let’s stop using the word “drought”, with its implication that dry weather is the exception. The desiccation of the landscape here is the new reality. It is now our climate.
The Australian climate has changed; of that there can now be no doubt. Rains meant for the south-central east coast are either veering north to Queensland, where some of the most serious flooding in a generation means wild crocodiles are roaming town streets eating children, or the rains are veering south, missing land entirely and falling in the ocean.
These fires, this flooding, they are both the predicted consequences of the global warming we have, unwittingly at first, brought upon ourselves. Despite the shrill cries of the denialistas, their pockets lined with coal and oil soaked blood-money, the observable facts about global warming are lining up perfectly with the predictions. The world is getting warmer; the seas are rising; weather patterns are changing, seasons are shifting, species are dying out in droves.
Our economic addiction to unbridled consumption is the root cause of the problem. The planet may get some relief from the global economic crisis as Chinese junk factories shut down. We must take the opportunity now to restructure the economy, eliminate those externalities that make disposable goods viable, teach people how to live sustainable lives and sever our energy supplies from dangerous greenhouse gas emissions. We won’t get another chance to fix the problem so cheaply. — DS