Dry times are worrying

From The Country News of Tuesday, June 19 -

State Government announces $30 million plan to help farmers with their energy bills

Today's Country News tells of a Victorian Government announcement of $30 million in funding to help farmers manage their energy costs (should you not be able to read this, grab a copy of today's Shepparton News, which includes this week's Country News.

'Solar boom' can be heard around Goulburn Valley

The solar boom can really be heard around the Goulburn Valley with a story in today’s Country News in the Shepparton News telling readers more about plans for major solar farms in the district.

The story in today's Country News.

Rodney Woods tells his readers of two new solar farm proposals at Glenrowan and near Cohuna.

“They further enhance northern Victoria’s status as a sun-drenched region,” he reports.

“The Glenrowan proposal by ENSO Pacific, if successful, will cost over $170 million and see 245 ha of private land replaced by 360 000 solar panels that will generate 120 MW.

“The second proposal, by Leeson Group, is set for Horfield (8km south of Cohuna).

“It will cost $45.5 million, cover 82 ha pop a 128 ha property (with the best retained for farming)  and will generate enough from 104 00 panels to power 8000 homes,” Woods reported.

Dry conditions to continue

The last three weeks have been very dry in our regions. The main reason has been the stationary intense high pressure systems. 

The last three weeks have been dry in
and around the Goulburn Valley.

Over the past week an East Coast low has been sitting in the North Tasman Sea, delivering heavy rainfalls along the NSW Coast from Nowra up to Byron Bay and this has acted as a blocking situation. 

Once this East Low deepens and then moves away which appears likely by next week , this blocking pattern breaks down allowing rain bearing fronts to affect us eventually. 

Read Peter Nelson’s story on Country News - “Dry conditions to continue.”

Rain pressures water storages in northern Victoria

Lake Eppalock spillway on October
 5 feeding the Campaspe River.

Some of the smaller northern Victorian water storages are spilling after recent heavy rain has filled them to capacity.

Lake Buffalo and Lake Eppalock are spilling but Eildon still has only 70 per cent of its capacity.

GMW Manager Water Resources Mark Bailey said G-MW was continuing to monitor and manage the flooding situation and now expect the situation in most areas will ease.

Read the Country News story - “Rain pressures water storages.”

Man of action turns to the pen to press his ideas

Tatura’s Terry Court prefers action to words, but today employed the latter to urge readers of The Shepparton News and its associated publication, Country News, to act on climate change.

In a letter to both newspapers the Beneath the Wisteria supporter and active committee member of the Shepparton-based Slap Tomorrow said:

Average global temperatures in 2015 were the hottest on record.

In Victoria, March is shaping up to be the hottest on record, with maximum temperatures currently approximately nine degrees above average. Weather forecasts to the 14^th March indicate very hot conditions which will see maximum temperatures across the state soar to 10 degrees above average. Unless there is unprecedented cooler conditions for the remainder of the month, March 2016 will, most probably, be the hottest March on record.

Over the next week we will all experience the prolonged hot spell. Some of us will keep the air conditioner on longer, others cannot do that.

Hopefully, we will reflect on what we and the nation can do to mitigate the enormous negative impact of global warming will have on us unless we act now.

Taxation changes that penalise big polluters would be a great start.

'Make no mistake' - it's global warming

A

discussion about climate change appeared in Page six in today’s Country News, the McPherson Newspaper Group’s specialist rural publication.

The story, headed “Climate change leading to more hot weather” said:

Make no mistake about it – global warming is increasing the odds of hot, record-breaking weather conditions in Australia, climate experts say.

Professor David Karoly.

Five papers released in October, including three from the University of Melbourne, have analysed Australia’s changing climate throughout 2014 as part of that annual extremes issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorology Society.

The papers look at the role of climate change on a series of extreme weather events that hit Australia last year, including:

-      Two baking hot days during the G20 World Leaders Forum in Brisbane.

-      The January heatwaves in Melbourne and Adelaide.

-      A 19-day nationwide heatwave during May.

-      The hottest spring on record.

-      An unusually stalled weather pattern that led to severe frost across the south-east of the country.

University of Melbourne atmospheric scientist David Karoly says the five papers together demonstrate just how much global warming has become a part of today’s climate.

“We have just experienced Australia’s hottest October on record and globally 2015 looks likely to smash the hottest year on record yet again,” he said.

“The expected and obvious signals of climate change confirm that global warming is already with us as we move towards the Paris talks.”

He said in almost every case, climate change was found to have a significant impact.

“Climate scientists have long expected an increase in extreme heat events to be the first apparent symptom of global warming,” Professor Karoly said.

“The pronounced increase in these events show how global warming has started to change our world.”

University of Melbourne research fellow Dr Andrew King authored a paper investigating the G20 summit.

He found the 34 on the first day of the Brisbane summit was 25 per cent more likely due to climate change; and 38 November days are now 44 per cent more likely.

But investigations into January heatwaves the struck Adelaide and Melbourne during the Australian Open are less clear.

Understanding a little about food security and climate change

Food security has been discussed by those who gather Beneath the Wisteria and how it would be impacted by climate change.

It was agreed, generally, that few of have any real comprehension of what food security really means when our supermarkets are bulging with foodstuffs from every corner of Australia, and the world.

It is indisputable that as climate change settles upon us, food and its reliable availability will become foremost in our thinking.

A story in the Huffington Post headed: “Climate change threatens your dinner (but not if you live in Canada)”, help us understand a little about the complications associated with our changing climate.

Coincidently, I have written a column for the Shepparton News (to be published on Monday, October 28) also discussing food security, but from the point of view of the additional complication of oil scarcity - http://www.mateology.blogspot.com.au/.

Interestingly, just today I have engaged the editor, Geoffrey Adams, of the largest circulating weekly newspapers in the Goulburn Valley, Country News, in a conversation about being somewhat more disciplined about publishing letters to the editor from climate change deniers.

Geoffrey argued that was not a path he wished go down indicating that he was most interested in balance rather than disallowing the publication of certain letters.

He was alerted to the fact that the realities and urgencies of climate change far exceeded the now aging and inappropriate good journalism rules to which newspapers have long adhered.