A bit wet

[mantra]

It will be impossible to cover it up - it's been on the news for days. The Victorian government blamed the Greens for the 2009 Victorian bushfires - when actually it was their incompetence and lack of co-ordination which exacerbated the destruction. Unfortunately for the Qld government - they can't fob this disaster off onto anyone especially with all the controversy surrounding the Greens anti-dams stance.

It would be a refreshing change if our politicians just accepted responsibility for their mistakes, admitted them and learnt from them.

[Outlaw Yogi]

Damage control typically means deflecting accountabilty. So I spoze a royal commission type enquirery gives them time to work out which official to publicly sacrifice, and find another govt bureacracy/department/corporation to hide them in, or top up their super fund for early retirement.

[Outlaw Yogi]

Qld's extreme weather product of climate change: researcher

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/na ... esearcher/

An expert says Australia will see a higher incidence of extreme weather events like the flooding in Queensland.

Global Change Professor Peter Grace from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) says greenhouse gases and global warning are contributing factors, whether people want to accept it or not.

[mantra]

An expert says Australia will see a higher incidence of extreme weather events like the flooding in Queensland.

We need to see a graph for these natural disasters covering the last century. Just googling them indicates that Australia has had them at regular intervals since the 1800's. A graph would indicate whether they occurred in any sort of pattern or just randomly.

With every incident of flood, extreme heatwave, extreme cold cycle, cyclone etc. - there seems to have been a similar occurrence at least as bad decades ago.

[Jovial Monk]

I think those are caused by El Nino/La Nina cycles Mantra. The effects of AGW are still subtle but will become ever more noticeable at an ever accelerating rate. this flood in Brisbane would have been much worse but for the Wivenhoe Dam.

[mantra]

this flood in Brisbane would have been much worse but for the Wivenhoe Dam.

I didn't read it that way Monk.

This followed growing concerns about whether flooding could have been avoided had the operators of Wivenhoe Dam, north of Brisbane, released water earlier.

Obviously these floods were considered worse than 1974, although the levels weren't quite as high from what I read. I believe that it's possible global warming will become more noticeable - but perhaps not in our lifetime.

Surely overdevelopment and overproduction in the past few decades has mitigated worsening disasters - here and globally. You only have to look at the landslides caused through deforestation and the ever increasing number of homes being built in flood zones and the bush. Some scientists believe deep sea drilling into the tectonic plates causes earthquakes and volcanic activity. We also know that nuclear bombs can affect the weather.

Us humans can certainly be blamed at times for instigating and exacerbating disasters. We have no respect for the earth that sustains us.

[Jovial Monk]

There is no deepsea drilling into the tectonic plates—no oil in the ocean floor. Deep sea drilling is still on the continental shelf. (There might be the odd geophysical research hole but that does not cause earthquakes.)

Wivenhoe Dam maybe could have been emptier—should have been emptier but it had been dry for 10 years so people didn’t want that water to go to waste—but still saved heaps of flooding.

[mantra]

There is no deepsea drilling into the tectonic plates—no oil in the ocean floor. Deep sea drilling is still on the continental shelf. (There might be the odd geophysical research hole but that does not cause earthquakes.)

My misinformation. I'll replace my statement with this.

In its most generic sense, the word earthquake is used to describe any seismic event—whether a natural phenomenon or an event caused by humans—that generates seismic waves. Earthquakes are caused mostly by rupture of geological faults, but also by volcanic activity, landslides, mine blasts, and nuclear tests.

[Outlaw Yogi]

[

We need to see a graph ... would indicate whether they occurred in any sort of pattern or just randomly...
there seems to have been a similar occurrence at least as bad decades ago.

Not a graph and pardon the puny size online (I have the poster) but this 1890-2004 rainfall chart is good for a good visual reference.

http://www.longpaddock.qld.gov.au/produ ... index.html

[mantra]

That is an excellent chart Yogi. I've saved a copy of the site. The graph at the bottom seems to indicate that there isn't any substantial change to the weather pattern. There seem to be cycles of similar changes approximately 40-60 years apart.