Poor nuclear boffin locked away in the cloisters of industry for...

Poor nuclear boffin locked away in the cloisters of industry for so many years must have missed the impact of Australia's rapacious land-clearing on our *local* climate.

"Sydney researchers believe they have found strong evidence that land clearing can trigger devastating climatic changes.

The Macquarie University team also says its findings warn that the climate can respond suddenly and dramatically, almost without warning, to centuries of environmental abuse.

The researchers used one of Australia's most powerful supercomputers to model changing rainfall patterns since the mid-1970s in the south-western corner of Western Australia. Some parts of the region have suffered declines of up to 15 and 20 per cent in winter rain, threatening Perth's water supply.

A previous study started in 1998, called the Indian Ocean Climate Initiative, involved the West Australian Government, the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology. It blamed global warming and changes to atmospheric and ocean circulation patterns.

However, the new research by Andy Pitman, a Macquarie University atmospheric scientist, Macquarie researchers Neil Holbrook and Gemma Narisma, and Roger Pielke, a professor of atmospheric science from Colorado State University, suggests land clearing may be responsible for about half of the rain shortfall."

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/28/1088392606310.html