Articles in the "Weekly Times" today put further doubt on some of the climate change claims. The current drought is not caused by climate change. Bob Beeton, Chairman of Australia's 2006 State of The Environment Committee claims the Federation drought was much worse than the current one, but there have been three much worse than even that, one in the mid 1700's, one in the late 1300's and one in the 300's. The drought in the mid 1700's lasted for about 20 years and the Burdekin River stopped flowing for 30 years. However Michael Coughlan of BOM claim that record high temperatures are making the current drought worse, yet authors of Australia's 2006 State of the Environment Report claim that evaporation rates across Australia have declined by 5% from 1970 to 2002.
One of Australia's leading hydroclimatologists, Dr. Anthony Kein, said he was constantly frustrated by the myth that increased greenhouse gas emissions were causing the drought. Paleoclimatic reconstructions of the past 400 years show there have been alternating wet and dry periods, each lasting 20 to 30 years, so recent dry events have not been abnormal.
