NEED-MORE-EVIDENCE ?
. . . . . . . . . . . . .WEST WYALONG, Australia (Reuters) - Farmer John Ridley won't be harvesting so much as a bag of wheat this season from fields that stretch to the horizon as Australia's worst drought in 100 years takes its toll on the country's grain belt.
Beneath a cloudless sky, 60-year-old Ridley, a descendant of one of Australia's pioneering farming families, pulls a clump of brittle stubble from the dusty earth.
"It should be this high, waving green in the breeze," he says. "Farmers are in a stunned state at the moment. In a state of disbelief, shock, helplessness."
Ridley's farm is in the epicenter of devastation from the drought, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) west of Sydney. Prime wheat growing territory, the district normally grows much of the wheat that makes Australia the world's second-biggest exporter. Yet this year the district will produce almost nothing.
Drought which has struck intermittently since 2002, and which farmers hoped had ended in April with rains that prompted them to sow their fields, returned three months ago and devastated the crops of entire farming communities.
This is the first time in over 40 years of farming that Ridley will not harvest any wheat from the 2,500 hectares he planted at a cost of around A$500,000 ($445,000). It is a total loss, and it follows drought which fried last year's crop too.
Farmers say that even after the massive financial loss of crop failure and the hollowing out of social structure in the countryside, it is the swirling clouds of dust from the parched earth that finally cracks nerves.
"I've never experienced so much wind in my life," Ridley says, batting at a swarm of flies buzzing around his face. . . . . . . . . .NEED ANY MORE PROOF OF CLIMATE CHANGE . . . . . .READ THE ABOVE STORY FROM AUSTRALIA . . . . . . . . . . . .THE CLUES ARE ALL AROUND US . . . . . . . . . .ONE THING FOR SURE . . . . . .IF WE AS A CIVILIZATION . . . .IGNORE IT . . . . . . .IT . . . .WON'T . . . . . . . . .GO . .AWAY. . . . .MY GUESS IS THAT IT'LL GET WORSE.
Beneath a cloudless sky, 60-year-old Ridley, a descendant of one of Australia's pioneering farming families, pulls a clump of brittle stubble from the dusty earth.
"It should be this high, waving green in the breeze," he says. "Farmers are in a stunned state at the moment. In a state of disbelief, shock, helplessness."
Ridley's farm is in the epicenter of devastation from the drought, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) west of Sydney. Prime wheat growing territory, the district normally grows much of the wheat that makes Australia the world's second-biggest exporter. Yet this year the district will produce almost nothing.
Drought which has struck intermittently since 2002, and which farmers hoped had ended in April with rains that prompted them to sow their fields, returned three months ago and devastated the crops of entire farming communities.
This is the first time in over 40 years of farming that Ridley will not harvest any wheat from the 2,500 hectares he planted at a cost of around A$500,000 ($445,000). It is a total loss, and it follows drought which fried last year's crop too.
Farmers say that even after the massive financial loss of crop failure and the hollowing out of social structure in the countryside, it is the swirling clouds of dust from the parched earth that finally cracks nerves.
"I've never experienced so much wind in my life," Ridley says, batting at a swarm of flies buzzing around his face. . . . . . . . . .NEED ANY MORE PROOF OF CLIMATE CHANGE . . . . . .READ THE ABOVE STORY FROM AUSTRALIA . . . . . . . . . . . .THE CLUES ARE ALL AROUND US . . . . . . . . . .ONE THING FOR SURE . . . . . .IF WE AS A CIVILIZATION . . . .IGNORE IT . . . . . . .IT . . . .WON'T . . . . . . . . .GO . .AWAY. . . . .MY GUESS IS THAT IT'LL GET WORSE.
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