It’s all caused by climate change/global warming…. or is it?
Climate evangelists claim that our current weather is directly caused by climate change and global warming and that the recent floods and bushfires are “unprecedented”.
Here are FACTS that relate to events that occurred well prior to industrialisation in Australia.
The worst ever Floods?
Professor Jonathan Nott, a palaeohazards expert at James Cook University in Cairns, says part of the problem is that we “continue to build in the path of floods,” regardless of history, and allow populations to increase in low-lying floodplains. While we are “very good at dealing with emergencies when they arise,” he says, “we are not so good at mitigating against disaster.”
Professor Nott says that though floods are damaging for our agriculture and infrastructure, and can be fatal, they are also an important part of natural cycles, and help to distribute seeds, animals and sediments to new areas.
Dangerous floods have occurred in every Australian state over the last 150 years. Here’s a rundown of some of the worst in terms of loss of life and damage to infrastructure.
1852: Floods destroyed almost the entire town of Gundagai NSW, only 3 houses were left. 89 people died.
1890: Flood levels in Lismore NSW peaked at 12.46 metres and these were not surpassed until March 2022.
1893: Ipswich, Queensland floods caused 35 deaths and 300 injuries.
1916: Floods in Clermont and Peak Downs, Queensland caused 65 deaths and enormous property damage.
1927: Floods in Brisbane, Cairns and Townsville caused 47 deaths and damaged roads, railways, bridges and buildings.
The worst ever Bushfires?
1802: French scientist Francois Peron and colleagues from the ship Geographe were astonished by the multiplicity of fires in SE Tasmania: “In every direction, immense columns of fire and smoke arose from the mountains were burning for an extent of several leagues.” Days later he wrote: “Violent squalls of wind attended with such an extraordinary degree of heat that it was scarcely possible to breathe even in the open air, the wind seemed like the heat from a furnace.”
1836: Naturalist Charles Darwin commented that he encountered: “So many blackened tree stumps as a result of bushfires ….and clouds of dust and volumes of smoke sweeping across the land”. He also experienced a thermometer reading of 48.3 degrees Celsius just outside Bathurst.
1851: Black Thursday bushfires in Victoria killed 12 people and burned 5 million hectares with temperature up to 47C. Ships 30kms off the coast of Victoria reported coming under ember attack.
1898: Red Tuesday bushfires in Victoria killed 12 people and destroyed about 2000 buildings.
1926: 60 people died as a result of bushfires.
1939: Black Friday bushfires extended over 2 months killing 71 people.
1944: A month-long bushfire in Victoria killed 20 people.
Analysis of charcoal records in sediments and isotope-ratio records show that global biomass burning during last century has been lower than at any time in the past 2000 years!
NASA recently reported that the area burned by global bushfires had dropped by 25% since 2003.
IPCC concluded in 2018 that there was “little or no information” about possible links between climate change and fire risks in Australia. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) reported recently that Australia’s average temperature has increased by only 1.4 degrees since 1910.
The Productivity Commission believes that 85% of bushfires in Australia are caused by everyday human activity, not climate change. The Greek government also advised that most of their recent fires were caused inadvertently by human activity or deliberately by arsonists.
In 2019, 21 people were convicted with starting bushfires. Experts estimate that between 25 and 50% of bushfires are deliberately lit or caused by people flicking lit cigarettes out of car windows or not obeying fire bans. A further 15% are caused by lightning.
Greens-led councils, government bureaucracies and so-called ‘environmentalists’ have also hampered hazard reduction for political and virtue-signalling reasons despite the fact that the Aboriginal practice of burning off has proven successful over thousands of years.
And, of course, the media much prefer a ‘bad news’ story – it lifts ratings and sells newspapers.
Smoke
1922: Steamers had to wait outside the Sydney Heads for the smoke to lift.
1936: Signalmen at South Head could not see North Head or incoming ships due to smoke haze.
1944: Smoke haze stretched 500 miles (800 kms) out to sea from Sydney. Sunbakers were covered in charcoal flakes.
1950s: Mascot airport was closed several times due to smoke.
1966: NZ drivers drove with headlights on due to smoke drifting across from the Blue Mountains.
Drought
Climate Change Research Centre director Professor Andy Pitman recently stated: “There is no direct link between drought and climate change.”
According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology: “The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) legacy of widespread warm and dry conditions during the second half of 2019 primed the Australian landscape for bushfire weather and heatwaves this summer. Moreover, in the Pacific Ocean, the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) to the west of the International Date Line remains warmer than average, potentially drawing moisture away from Australia.” Much the same happens in reverse i.e., more rain than usual, during a La Nina event.
1174-1212: Ice cores research found 8 Australian “mega droughts” during this 39-year period.
1790-1793: Settlement Drought, which threatened European settlement in Australia.
1809-1830: Sturt’s Drought, affecting the eastern seaboard.
1861-1866: Goyder Line Drought in South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Territory.
1895-1903: Federation Drought caused an economic depression, rivers stopped flowing and dams were covered in dust.
1937-1945: WW2 Drought caused major disruption to food supplies.
1950s: Drought led to blackouts in Sydney due to electricity production being reduced as a result of dam levels being so low. Airports were also closed several times during this period.
Rainfall
Lowest on record was in 2021 (277mm) but prior to that was back in 1902 (314.5mm).
Australia has recorded more rainfall in recent decades (source: BOM).
Scientists (and other so-called ‘experts’) are always right – or are they?
Doomsayers have been predicting climate and environmental disasters since the 1960s. However, none of the apocalyptic predictions by due date has come true!
While such dire predictions have been and continue to be enthusiastically reported by left-wing media outlets eager for sensational headlines, the failures are typically never revisited and certainly never acknowledged.
EXAMPLES
1970: “Ice age by 2000” claimed James Lodge, a scientist at the International Centre for Atmospheric Research in Colorado.
2000: Within a few years, British children “won’t know what snow is” according to Dr David Viner Senior Research Scientist at the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia.
2004: The Guardian newspaper reporting on a “secret report suppressed by US Defense Chiefs” that predicted “Britain will have a Siberian climate by 2020”.
2006: So-called climate ‘expert’ Tim Flannery wrote of impending doom and mass death, stating that “British scientist James Lovelock has predicted a future human population of just a billion people.” Lovelock later disavowed his alarmist views and also criticised Flannery.
2007: Tim Flannery stated: “Even the rain that falls isn’t actually going to fill our dams and river systems.” Needless to say, he was totally wrong.
2008:US Presidential candidate Al Gore predicted that the North Polar Ice Cap would be entirely ice-free within 5 years!
2008: NASA scientist Dr Hanson claimed “Arctic will be ice-free by 2018.”
2009: Based on new computer modelling, Al Gore predicts whilst addressing the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, that the polar ice cap and all Arctic Ocean ice may disappear by Summer 2014.
2009: Prince Charles (now King Charles) says: “Only 8 years to save the planet!”
2009: UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said we have 50 days to “save the planet from catastrophe.”
2012: Flannery wrote that Victoria’s “changing climate is likely to lead to less snowfall.” There has been abundant snow year after year since then.
2013: US Navy predicts the Arctic will be summer ice-free by 2016.
2013: The Arctic will be ice-free by 2015 according to Professor Peter Wadhams, co-author of a research paper in Nature journal.
2014: French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, in discussion with US Secretary of State John Kerry, claimed we only have “500 days before climate chaos.”
Ref: https://cei.org/blog/wrong-again-50-years-of-failed-eco-pocalyptic-predictions
Just Stop the Climate Liars Part 1
