A scorched future for farmers

The Sydney Morning Herald

Australian farmers like me are suffering, said Louise Freckelton. Climate change has parched my land and killed my livestock and crops. I live not far from Canberra, in southeastern Australia, and from Christmas Day through New Year’s we had an “intense heat wave” with temperatures in the upper 90s all day and near 80 at night. “After this kind of solar radiation onslaught, we won’t have any pasture left, we won’t be able to feed our sheep.” Like most Aussie farmers, I long ago adopted best practices, raising native grasses and rotating grazing from pasture to pasture, but these tactics go only so far. The latest climate change

science says Australia is in for more extreme heat and longer fire seasons, and farmers simply won’t be able to cope. “Our dams are nearly dry.” These days we spend most of our time trying to ensure that our chickens and lambs don’t die of heat exposure, by putting frozen bricks in their water and hosing down their pens. Unless our government and others take the lead, we will face a “future of water scarcity, longer, hotter heat waves, and firestorms.” In this year’s national election, Australians can’t let politicians distract them with fears of immigration or terrorism. “There is nothing more terrifying than an increasingly hostile climate.”