Australia's epic drought: The situation is grim

Australia may be forced to cut the water supply to it's agricultural region if the drought currently afflicting it does not end, making Australia possibly the first developed nation to suffer from a global warming based disaster.

The Murray-Darling basin in south-eastern Australia yields 40 per cent of the country's agricultural produce. But the two rivers that feed the region are so pitifully low that there will soon be only enough water for drinking supplies. Australia is in the grip of its worst drought on record, the victim of changing weather patterns attributed to global warming and a government that is only just starting to wake up to the severity of the position.

The Prime Minister, John Howard, a hardened climate-change sceptic, delivered dire tidings to the nation's farmers yesterday. Unless there is significant rainfall in the next six to eight weeks, irrigation will be banned in the principal agricultural area. Crops such as rice, cotton and wine grapes will fail, citrus, olive and almond trees will die, along with livestock. A ban on irrigation, which would remain in place until May next year, spells possible ruin for thousands of farmers, already debt-laden and in despair after six straight years of drought.

Howard, who has always denied that climate change was taking place, was forced to admit that Australia is facing a disaster.

Mr Howard acknowledged that the measures are drastic. He said the prolonged dry spell was "unprecedentedly dangerous" for farmers, and for the economy as a whole. Releasing a new report on the state of the Murray and Darling, Mr Howard said: "It is a grim situation, and there is no point in pretending to Australia otherwise. We must all hope and pray there is rain."

The reasons for what is occurring in Australia are complex:

Environmentalists point to the increasing frequency and severity of drought-causing El Niño weather patterns, blamed on global warming. They also note Australia's role in poisoning the Earth's atmosphere. Australians are among the world's biggest per-capita energy consumers, and among the top producers of carbon dioxide emissions. Despite that, the country is one of only two industrialised nations - the United States being the other - that have refused to ratify the 1997 Kyoto protocol. The governments argue that to do so would harm their economies.

The changing climate has also had unexpected effects, with snakes being brought out of the Bush seeking water, resulting in an increase in deaths from snake bites.

It is being called Australia's worst drought in 1,000 years, although some experts think even the use of the word "drought" underestimates the magnitude of the problem.

"Drought is too comfortable a word," said John Williams, the New South Wales state Commissioner for Natural Resources. "Drought connotes a return to normal. We need to be adjusting."

Howard has consistently dismissed climate change, although recently he has changed his tune, saying that he now broadly accepts the science behind it.

For Australia's farmers, and indeed for Australia's ability to produce sufficient quantities of food, his acceptance may have come too late.

His best hope now has been to ask the people of Australia to pray. That's what things come down to when, like the current President of the United States, you put your faith in God rather than science.

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Tags: Howard, Australia, drought, rainfall, global warming, climate change, Kyoto protocol