Australia’s drought linked to global warming

SYDNEY (AFP) – An unprecedented drought that has withered Australia’s major food production zone could be a taste of things to come as global warming ramps up, experts said Friday.

Prime Minister John Howard, who said the six-year drought was so extreme the country’s prime farmland could be left without irrigation water this year, has refused to blame the crisis directly on climate change.


“I recognise the ongoing debate about the link between the two things and I don’t vary from that,” he said Thursday, announcing that the country faced an “unprecedentedly dangerous” drought crisis.

But scientists said the link between climate change and the drying up of rivers in the vast Murray-Darling Basin, which threatens the survival of Australia’s prime agricultural zone, was strengthening.

AFP