Nobody understands climate change like farmers

I’VE worked on my farm since the 1970s, and climate change scares me to death, writes Jim McDonald. I’ve had my light bulb moment, now I need politicians to have their own.

THE recent rains are a welcome reprieve for properties everywhere that received them.

Yet, like most of my fellow farmers, here in Quirindi, NSW we remain very much in drought. Despite early planning, our paddocks lie bare in stark contrast to the rich green fields the Liverpool Plains are known for.

Our changing climate is taking its toll on rural and regional Australia, but our country’s leaders are failing to recognise how serious it is. In the frustrating absence of political leadership, us farmers are having to step forward and fight for the future of our land.

The Rural Futures Taskforce — of which I am a part of — released a new report in Canberra on Tuesday, seeking action on a national strategy for climate and agriculture. The report calls on government to work with farmers and rural communities to develop a plan that tackles the very real impacts of climate change. Impacts that we are experiencing first-hand.

I’ve worked my farm since the late 1970s. We expect droughts, floods and changing seasonal weather patterns. Making small adjustments in response to these fluctuations has been part and parcel of life. However, recent events have shown there’s only so much we can do with what’s available.

With rising temperatures we now have to avoid summer crops flowering in the summer sun.

Cattle on a dry paddock in the drought-hit area of Quirindi in New South Wales. Picture: Glenn Nicholls/AFP

Our winter crops growing season is being squashed as the frost window is expanding. This has now put us at major risk of frost damage and yield losses.

I have introduced new farm enterprises, a lamb feedlot, but with failed crops due to the drought, I have to buy in feed, now unaffordable due to rising feed costs. To further protect our family farming enterprise we are sharefarming our neighbour’s pivot irrigation.

We are now in desperate need of some new tools.

Recently completing two Graduate Certificates in Environmental Science and Natural Hazards, brought into sharp relief the bigger picture of what I was seeing — what I was slowly adapting to — climate change, as it’s commonly known, but I think of it in terms of climate disruption. The climate we once had — is no more.

The changes I’d made on the farm were so gradual I hadn’t noticed how dramatic the shift in our practices over the decades had been.

My study, my observations and an extraordinary drought scared the living daylights out of me. So much so, it galvanised me to join the agricultural movement Farmers For Climate Action calling for co-ordinated and brave climate action.

So here we are at the end of 2018, in the midst of one of the worst droughts in recorded history, and the Federal Government’s response to the IPCC ‘Global Warming of 1.5°C’ report is beyond disappointing.

Dry farm paddocks and no rain in sight in Quirindi. Picture: Glenn Nicholls/AFP

The world’s leading scientists outline the implications for Australia if we don’t take swift and decisive action to reduce the threat of climate change by controlling greenhouse gas emissions.

Already, we know that average summer maximum temperatures in my region have risen 2.5 degrees celsius over the past 30 years. The past two summers have seen a 300 per cent increase in the days over 35 degrees celsius and an 800 per cent increase in the days over 40 degrees — most of our plants stop photosynthesising at that point. I shudder to think of the consequences as these figures continue to rise.

The problems that climate change are bringing to rural and regional Australia are multifaceted. There is no simple answer: complex and wicked problems demand innovative and transformative ways of thinking.

The task ahead to remove greenhouse gas emissions and reduce further climate disruption, could provide exciting opportunities for rural and regional communities. But to continue with an assumption that historical growth industries based on the extraction of fossil fuels is our future is wrong. We need new industries, technologies and practices and we believe many will benefit our regions and agricultural futures.

The Rural Futures Report doesn’t claim to have all the answers. Instead it aims to spark a conversation about our future; to channel the support and energy we have in these communities into thinking about a future based on principles of sustainability and resilience which empowers, not undermines, regional communities.

I’ve had my ‘aha’ moment on climate change. I’m hoping the release of the IPCC ‘Global Warming of 1.5°C’ report, along with the harsh realities of this drought, will be the ‘aha’ moment for others — especially our country’s politicians.

Jim McDonald is a farmer from Quirindi and member of Farmers for Climate Action.

Originally published as Nobody understands climate change like farmers