"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
FarmI wrote:


I know I've done a lot of travel through various bits of rural NSW
and Vic over recent years and whatever is happening and why is not a
pretty picture. I think our rural areas are pretty well stuffed.


My wife was talking to an old timer (80ish) in the district who was
pointing out that in her memory of the 1930s and in her parents' memory of
the 1900s there were worse droughts and dust storms than in recent years.
This informant went on to say that there was no point in complaining, that
you had to put up with whatever you got, and that the droughts of old
showed there was no climate change. This is by no means an isolated case
of this type.

The old timer is right that there have been bad droughts and duststorms in
the past and that these had nothing to do with climate change. The
problem arrises when you extend this to saying that therefore the droughts
and duststorms now cannot be due to climate change, or conversely since we
had droughts before that were not caused by climate change and we have
droughts now, therefore climate change doesn't exist.

Yep.

I don't think any scientist is saying that the droughts we have had
recently are simply and solely due to climate change. What they are
saying is that existing climate factors that can bring drought like ENSO
are likely to get more powerful or more frequent. So the first part of
the reason for denial is the confusion between shorter term events like
weather, middle term events like ENSO and the long term.

There is a second part which I believe it is another common origin of
climate change denial in country districts. The way that it works is that
when you are on the land you are taught to be a survivor, to find methods
of coping, to fix the problem if you can and to endure it if you cannot do
anything about it. This is admirable and makes much sense in the
environment. The problem comes when attitudes that go with the philosophy
are extended beyond their useful scope. In learning to be Stoic and to
endure whatever nature throws at you, you are taught not to whinge. To
whinge is a sign of weakness, a sign of a pointless attitude that you wish
the world to be as you desire it and that you are too stupid to accept it
as it really is.

If you blame drought on an external agency like climate change you are
whingeing, blaming somebody or something else instead of taking
responsibility and getting on with the job. If you are a self sufficient
farmer whose pride keeps you going in tough times then emotionally you
cannot blame climate change because that is admitting you cannot cope.
Therefore it doesn't exist. The sad thing is that if they did accept that
something bigger than them was going on and put their coping skills to use
in new ways they would be better off. We may not have time to wait
until younger sons and granddaughters take over with newer attitudes.

These are some observations of part of rural NSW that you might find
interesting. I am not trying to suggest that any of this necessarily
represents you or your situation.

Yep. Fits in with the Beyond Blue campaigns etc too. But I also think that
is both a bit overly pessimistic and a bit too global in how some of our
farmers are learning to cope/adapt/innovate. I certainly see where you're
coming from though.

I was a bit glib when I threw in my 'stuffed' comment. I should have made
more effort to explain. As a gardener, I tend to look at growing things and
plants that have died. It's when you see trees that must be hundreds of
years old dieing or dead or in stress that make you wonder what is going on.
These trees have withstood droughts before, have been stressed before and
yet have managed to survive - till now. Isolated trees will die but when
you see huge numbers dead or so far gone that you know thye won't recover,
it rings alarm bells.

I do know that our Fed politicians have been told that the future will bring
much drier conditions to both the south east of Oz and the south west.
That's our food growing areas so not a pretty picture.