Celebrating the cycles of nature

With all the agony generated over what must be done to deal with the difficult issue of climate change, it is a welcome change to celebrate the good things happening in the natural world. Weather agencies have declared 2021 the equal sixth-warmest year on record but in Australia the Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed 2021 was the coolest in a decade and one of the wettest. Temperatures have been moderated by the La Nina weather conditions that are a key global climate driver and result from changing temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. Eastern Australia is in the midst of a second La Nina year in a row and as well as producing lower temperatures, it has recharged dams, farms and river systems.

This is a welcome turnaround from the extended drought that ended with Australia’s ferocious bushfires in the summer of 2019-20. While La Nina has cooled temperatures over eastern Australia, conditions are different in the west, which is experiencing bushfires and high temperatures. It has also been only one factor in the global picture. But for farmers, two years of rain have yielded bumper crops across the full suite of commodities we produce. Fortunately, high yields have coincided with high world prices. As we report on Saturday in Inquirer, major dams are full from southeast Queensland to Victoria. Sydney’s Warragamba Dam is at 100 per cent capacity and the average across the Greater Sydney catchment is 96.9 per cent. The Wivenhoe Dam in southeast Queensland, used for water storage and flood mitigation, is at 52 per cent but other dams in the region are full and spillways flowing. In Melbourne, storage levels are 89.5 per cent. Scientists have been quick to warn a dip in temperatures and a couple of years of good rains in Australia do not mean the climate change problem has been solved.

Global average temperatures in 2021 were about 1.1C warmer than the late 19th-century average, the start of the industrial revolution. The cycles of nature dictate that the next drought is just around the corner. But claims the weather is somehow broken are disproved over time. Policymakers have little choice but to focus on meeting the challenges posed by the global push to decarbonise industry and energy. But they must also do better at planning to take advantage of the good times when they come. This includes better water storage and planning to lessen the impact of inevitable bushfires when the rains stop, vegetation dries out and the cycle starts again.