Our Changing World !

There is a tendency to dismiss natural disasters that hit Australia because this great continent has always  been prone to bushfires, floods and cyclones.  Science tells us that global warming will simply increase the intensity and make these disasters happen more frequently.

The fire season of the 2020 summer was one we have cause to remember vividly.  There was widespread  evacuations and despite airline tankers bombing the fire front we lost entire towns.  These fires were not contained to individual states and it was  clear that all of Australia was on fire.

We have just had an unusual rain event which flooded most of the east coast of Queensland and New South Wales. The financial loss will be significant and most  will not be covered by insurance.  Replacing lost electrical goods and furniture will force many families into unexpected debt and we are seeing a shortage of new cars readily available to replace those lost in the flood.  As a consequence, the price of second hand cars has jumped sharply higher.

Now another unusual event has occurred off the coast of Western Australia.   We have two cyclones merging with one another in the Indian Ocean and the combination under the name of " Seroja " has come ashore much lower down the coast than the traditional cyclone belt.

It hit the little holiday town of Kalbarri and badly damaged seventy percent of the homes there. This is way south of where cyclones are expected to strike and the buildings are not constructed to repel winds of this force. It is now evident that in the future southern Australia may experience cyclone effects as this phenomenon claims new territory.

Treasury is expecting the damage from weather events will treble in the next twenty years and will reach $ 17 billion a year.,   It predicts that coastal erosion will affect between 39,000 and 46,000 properties and cause a loss of land estimated between $650 million and $ 1.3 billion annually.

We also need to consider the damage that will be caused to our agricultural interests.  Changes to rain patterns, runoff and temperatures will affect what we can grow in our food bowl and it is evident that we will then be looking at a world food shortage.  By necessity, there will have to be a vast diet change to accommodate food scarcity.

The one thing absolutely certain is that a reduction in the world food supply will cause hungry people to migrate to where they hope food may be plentiful.  Once again our borders will be under pressure from hordes of people seeking entry and for self preservation we will need to keep control.

Unfortunately, while many are aware of what is predicted, the time frame envisaged is a lot further into the future.  The effects of global warming are becoming apparent now if we take the trouble to look at what is happening around us.