The new normal? How climate change is making droughts worse

The hardest part of drought is the retreat. Communities withdraw into their shell. Workers leave town as they lose jobs and often housing, animals are sent away, class sizes drop, activity shrinks, dust drifts in through every crack in the house. It’s slow, which is why it messes with your head, creeping forward until something snaps and what begins as confusion reaches consensus.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison holds up a photo
from February 2016 of what sheep and cattle graziers Stephen
 and Annabel Tully's property used to look like. 

When Scott Morrison became prime minister in August, nearly seven years after the Queensland dry began, he announced drought was his first priority. He headed up Quilpie way, in the south-west of the state, and stood with farmers as he was asked pointed and persistent questions about climate change.

“Whether it is climate change or it is not,” Morrison said, “is completely irrelevant to everybody here.”

For people suffering from lack of income, both in town and farm, drought is awful and relentless as each day dawns an overwhelming blue. Often communities get so focussed on surviving from day to day, it is difficult to see a bigger picture. While the consequences of drought for regional communities don’t change, the conversations about it are changing, centring more and more on best management in a changing climate. What if this is the new normal?

Read the story from The Guardian - “The new normal? How climate change is making droughts worse.”