Research on the Causes Behind the Abnormal Weather Conditions in Australia

As the result of highly effective research, I have found that Australia is being widely affected by Global warming and the El Nino weather pattern which have both contributed to the abnormal weather conditions such as the drought we have been experiencing the past two years. El Niño occurs every three to seven years and has serious consequences for Australia. Uncertainties about the intensity and timing of El Niño weather patterns make it difficult to predict or prevent the low precipitation and the increased chance of drought. Therefore, better preparation is needed to store water supplies in the wetter months and plan for these periods of low rainfall in the southern parts of Australia.

Since weather recording began in the late 19th century, Australia has experienced three widespread droughts – The Federation Drought (1895-1903), The drought that corresponded with WWII, and the Millennium Drought (2001-2009). More recently, mainly eastern Australia has been suffering through dry conditions and abnormally high temperatures in the past winter months. On average, over the past fifty years, Australia’s gross farm product has declined by 25.5% during droughts. The more recent droughts appear to have a worse agricultural output than those of earlier times. This is because Queensland and New South Wales have more regionally concentrated, whereas Western Australia has been experiencing normal weather conditions and has accounted for a larger share of Australia’s crop production.

This could mean introducing more farms in Western Australia where it isn’t as affected by drought or get Western Australia to help the states that have been highly effected. From research and investigation, I have found that the droughts in Australia will continue to get worse in the future if we continue to misuse greenhouse emissions and warm the climate to an exaggerated degree where Australia can’t cope with the misery caused by drought.

Droughts are extremely catastrophic and devastating to many Australians as they are damaging many parts of our country. Droughts in Australia are massively impacting many parts of the economy due to this severe impact on the farmers. Drought could lose 12 billion dollars from Australia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to a recent Commonwealth Bank of Australia report. This statistic illustrates the decrease in Australia’s economy experienced during the drought periods. Drought reduces livestock numbers, destroys crops, and results in soil erosion and loss. The local loss of production has potential effects on employment, local processing as well as exporting incomes. Drought can have wide-ranging effects on our health, including the impacts on nutrition, infectious diseases, forest fires causing air pollution and also mental health. For example, a study in New South Wales found that the relative risk of suicide can increase by up to 15% for rural males aged 30-49 as the severity of drought increases.

This highlights the impact that droughts may have on the mental health of farmers in rural areas and shows the effect it can have on Australians during a drought. The fact that farm workers have to deal with so much pressure during a drought is tough to hear and we should be helping so they can make good produce for Australia. Ecosystems have also been affected by Australia’s drought as it associates with the decline of water supplies for animals and plants. For example, the River Red Gum Tree is an endemic tree to Australia and is dying over many areas in the Murray Darling Basin from drought. Urban water supplies are also an ongoing challenge faced through droughts and major cities of Australia are placing a high demand on the urban water supplies as populations continue to grow.

Drought continues to have a serious impact on the future of farming in Australia. There has been financial distress affecting farmers in particular in the Southern parts of Australia. Federal and state governments need to provide more financial and other assistance to farmers and rural communities during periods of severe drought. The El Nino event this summer has caused the drought in eastern Australia to continue well into 2019, causing similar effects to the droughts of the early 2000s. From a long- term perspective, it seems droughts are occurring more often than in the last century. This is almost definitely a result of climate change and shows emphasise on the damage ongoing climate change will bring; higher temperatures, more frequent droughts, more frequent and damaging storms and floods, and higher rates of soil erosion. Sadly, it could well be that farming may no longer be sustainable in the more drought prevalent parts of the country. Therefore, the Australian drought relief policies may need to consider the possibility of some farming communities needing assistance to move out of farming and into another area in the long term if changes aren’t made to help prevent climate change.

However, there is a solution to this problem that climate change is causing the farmers. As seen in the film ’2040’ by Damon Gameau, there are new approaches and solutions to global warming that the government needs to implement. In 2017, the government reviewed its climate change policies to ensure they remain effective in achieving Australia’s 2030 target and Paris Agreement commitments. These plans include; reducing emissions by 5% by 2020, doubling Australia’s renewable energy by 2020, encouraging businesses, communities, households and individuals into ongoing actions to reduce emissions through recycling etc. Gameau highlighted that everyone needs to take responsibility for the future of the planet and the government needs to be firmer in enforcing rules and regulations around reducing these emissions. For example, electric cars are an excellent way of transporting in the future, so these cars should be more readily available, and the production of other cars ceased. Countries such as Sweden have taken the battle against climate change very seriously. More than half of Sweden’s national energy supply comes from renewables and thorough legislation aims at further reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

They are leading the way in waste management, acid rain prevention and recycling to secure sustainable energy and Australia should follow in their footsteps so that the effects are not so detrimental to the farmers. As already pointed out, we could use more solar power, and continue more no till farming. Perhaps we need to stop growing cotton and other intensive water use crops, as this may take some of the impact off the river system. Australian farmers are highly regulated, and people need to understand this. The alternative would be purchasing food from overseas where there are no regulations on issues such as land clearing, pesticides, herbicides and they chop down rainforests, so they can grow more food. But this will not help Australians at all, so we need to work together and reduce the growth of climate change immediately.

Through the primary research questionnaire to farmers, it was highlighted the importance of better use of water supplies in Northern Australia to help the southern parts during drought. It was suggested that the Federal Government needs to implement a scheme where the water can be harvested and redirected to the areas of need by way of pipelines. The government has implemented an On-farm emergency water infrastructure rebate scheme to help primary producers in drought-affected areas in 2018-19, however, in some cases, this has been too late as the farmers have already lost too much stock and many have lost their farms. Water needs to be a top priority for governments to supply, so farming can continue to be one of Australia’s most important products. I suggest we improve our irrigation systems and weather forecasting, so we can be more prepare, we can then collect as much water as we can in rainy months and especially in the north where water is wasted. We need to work together to create a pipeline system sending water from the North down to the south, so it can be used to help drought affected farmers

In conclusion, drought has had a large impact on Australia, not just the country but also the people involved. Many farmers have had to suffer throughout the past two years as they require a specific climate to grow their produce to make a living. The El Nino effect is a random weather pattern that contributes largely to droughts in Australia. As the westerly wind becomes the prevailing wind and blows the cool ocean water from South America into Eastern Australia, we can no longer produce adequate rainfall needed for the land. Although this weather pattern is random, and we can’t stop it, we can minimise the consequences by preparing for the event. By introducing better weather forecasting systems and better irrigation systems we could plan for the worst, by saving as much water as possible in the non-drought periods so that when a drought occurs, we can be more prepared. I think the government needs to help introduce a better way of saving the rainfall that is being wasted in the North and provide a pipeline pump system that can send this wasted water to the drought affected areas.

The main improvements we have to make as a country to try and reverse global warming is to decrease the extensive amount of greenhouse emissions we use in contemporary society. The reduction of the emissions used in Australia could be highly effective if we all work together and help one another. Because if we keep going in the same direction, many of Australia’s farms will die out and we will have to import crops from other countries, which will have a devastating affect for all Australians.