Sorry, Guys, but Your Drought is Our Rain (Updated).

Our world is interconnected.

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It’s official, the Bureau of Meteorology has declared a La Niña event. It’s the second La Niña in a row, which is relatively unusual. Perhaps because of that it’s expected to be less intense and less prolonged than is common with such events (it’s expected to last until next January, but it could last the whole summer).

Okay, but what is La Niña and why does it matter?

This brief video, from the BOM, explains those events and their effects on rain over Eastern Australia.

 

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Two things that video did not mention explain why that matters. One concerns those living in the eastern half of this Great Southern Land, the other those living in the Americas, particularly in the South West US and around the Amazon Basin.

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As the video says, La Niña brings increased rain to Eastern Australia.

That, many Aussies fear – with some reason to be sure – will mean less beach time as summer approaches in the Southern Hemisphere. However, a few others, slightly more far-sighted, fear something deeper.

Water is a precious commodity here, yes? But it has been raining a lot, even before this event had been declared. The soil is already saturated with water. More rain shall bring more floods. Many regional centres have already been affected. It has also affected negatively their crops (hopefully, it may also have drowned the renewed mice plague that was developing around south QLD, central NSW and northwestern VIC).

It also brings cyclones. You see, warmer ocean areas means low atmospheric pressure over those areas. This is the origin of cyclonic activity. And, of course, there is the Great Barrier Reef, which runs along the QLD coast. Excessively warmer waters could lead to bleaching.

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If I believe Blogger, few South Americans ever read this blog, but Yanks and Canucks do and they may be asking what about the Americas?

Well, this:

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In fact, that is a bit of an old news. And, at any event, it makes good sense, doesn’t it? Compare those maps with those in the BOM animation. If warmer waters near Eastern Australia bring increased rainfall, what should cooler waters around the western coast of the Americas bring if not decreased rainfall?

And both the US South West and the Pantanal and south/south-west of Brazil are already facing historical droughts. In the US they are going into a potentially dry winter, but in South America, like here, they are going into summer: a dry one. Reuters has an excellent article, which I highly recommend.

However, this chart, from a companion Reuters graphic, speaks for itself:

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Summer 2021-22 over here may not be much fun, but I think over there it may not be fun at all. As I hate being the bringer of bad news, I’ll say this to people in the Americas: cheer up, it may well be that your next biblibal flood is our hellish drought.

Either way, neither us here nor you guys over there have much to gain from climate change.

Update:

24/11/2021. James, from Unions NSW, writes to inform us that the letter campaign asking NSW State MPs not to pass a bill repealing financial protection to essential workers affected by COVID19 was delayed. Some 80,000 letters were sent.

However, this week the State Government finally tabled the bill, and it is due to be voted soon.

James writes

If we cannot maintain the pressure this week, these MPs will start to think the public anger has gone - "the storm has passed".

This is why I'm humbly asking you take action today

This is the tool NSW residents can use to quickly email their MP to tell them to support essential workers and vote against the repeal bill. Thank you for your solidarity.