The Maitland Mercury & Hunter River General Advertiser Wednesday 11 March 1846
That great changes have taken place in the climate of Australia all testimonies satisfactorily prove. It is evident to any observer, at some period, the country has been sub- jected to the mighty action of heavy rains, and of sweeping, deluging floods. The moun- tains and hills are cut and furrowed into deepravines ; the parting ridges are at acute angles, and frequently washed bare of vege- table mould ; and all so precipitous, that the waters are no sooner showered from the blessed heavens than they run off with rapi- dity and fury through the gullies into the recipient creeks, scarcely leaving a witness of their visit, either as running brook, clear spring, or stagnant pool, a few days, perhaps a few hours, after. The aborigines say that the climate has undergone this change since white-man came in country. ”
Gee Whiz!
Who would have thunk? The weather patterns seem to repeat themselves! It is truly worse than predicted!
But the climate never changed when Australia was inhabited by brown people. They never experienced ice ages or interglacials until whitey showed up, and and forced his improved standard of living upon them.
Leaves fell into neat piles and it never rained too much or too little. The porridge was always just right.
It’s a little known fact that ancient aborigines had a highly developed weather record system based on precise thermometer readings and satellite records going back thousands of years – until the white man came and wrecked everything.
It might have helped commenters’ understanding of what Steven is getting at if they’d actually read the SMH link in his previous post “Global Warming Impacts In Australia”.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/more-storms-on-the-way-unless-we-learn-to-manage-the-land-20120101-1ph66.html
The article “More storms on the way unless we learn to manage the land” continues:
Multiple-choice question: what’s it all mean?
(a) Onset of global warming impact.
(b) Latest cycle of El Nino – Southern Oscillation.
(c) Combination of global warming and El Nino.
(d) Monumental mishandling of the landscape.
The most interesting explanation I have heard for the extreme weather comes from a landscape restorer, Peter Andrews.
He chooses (d).
”Our landscape is still on a dramatic downward spiral,” he told me. ”When the heavy rains came recently I saw the Goulburn River was running brown. The river was thick with soil. About one farm an hour was being carried down that river. ”
He discounts the argument that we are seeing the impact of global warming. ”The whole global warming argument misses the point. Yes, we are facing an environmental disaster. Yes, it is urgent. Yes, it is caused by our own activities. But we have misdiagnosed the problem … In terms of dealing with Australia’s problems, the global warming industry is a giant con.”
His philosophy, boiled down to its essence, is that our landscape was working brilliantly at retaining water and soil until European settlement began making ”improvements”.
By changing the landscape, we changed the weather. Transforming the land by cropping, herding and irrigation created a cycle of heating and cooling on the land, a cycle of boom and bust, that could only grow more extreme.
Try reading it – I think he makes sense.
Local weather patterns can be effected by land usage, but are still primarily driven by natural variations. White men did not create a new global, or even continental climate. Airports, cities, interstates, farms etc do have a small local effect, of that there is no question. But the idea that whitey changed the climate of a continent is ridiculous. The oceans far out weigh our little burbs.
I get your point. If you deport hundreds of thousands of convicts to create an island nation you can’t expect the best land management practices being a primary concern in penal colonies. I’m just not sure what importance race or nationality plays in that equation.
In contrast, I recall a time when the Sahara was expanding. Then along came those pesky white european land management specialists and ever since forests and crop lands have replaced the receding sand of the Sahara. Now did the Sahara stop expanding due to the expertise of the land managers or the color of their skin?
By Gaia, has the AGW team become so desperate they are reduced to playing the race card?
They play any card they think they can use!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC4jZ8PufQ8
A great after video exercise is discovering just how hard Gore’s father worked to defeat the Civil Rights Act.
Classy!