Fed:Drought natural process, not greenhouse:CSIRO researcher

AAP General News (Australia)
12-27-2006
Fed:Drought natural process, not greenhouse:CSIRO researcher

SYDNEY, Dec 28 AAP - The drought gripping Australia's south-east is due to natural
climatic change and not the greenhouse effect, a CSIRO researcher says.

Barrie Hunt says a CSIRO model of 10,000 years of natural climate variability put the
current drought in perspective, The Australian reports today.

The findings undermine a recent claim that the current drought was a one-in-1,000-year
event brought about by climate change.

SA Premier Mike Rann last month reported that a water summit in Canberra was told the
current dry was worse than a one-in-100-year drought, warning it offered a glimpse of
the future with climate change.

But, Mr Hunt said the drought was more likely a natural process.

"It is very, very highly likely that what we are seeing at the moment is natural climatic
variability," The Australian quoted Mr Hunt as saying.

"When people talk about it as a 1,000-year drought, they haven't got the information.

They don't understand that according to natural variability we could get another one in
50 years or it might be another 800 years, and there's no way of predicting it."

The CSIRO's global climate model incorporates measurements of air pressure, temperature
and wind at different levels of the atmosphere, sea surface temperatures and rainfall,
the paper said.

AAP jnb

KEYWORD: CLIMATE

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