Climate Change Concerns: Australian flood - Is it no big drama?

Deep flood waters are beginning to recede in some regions of Queensland, according to a recent news clip.

And according to a few Aussies, they’re getting used to big troubles.

After reading a short news bite in the Jan. 5 issue of The London Free Press (i.e., “the small town of Dirranbandi was an island. “It’s totally surrounded by waters,” said Mayor Donna Stewart), I Googled ‘dirranbandi flood’ and linked to an article by Dan Nancarrow of the Brisbane News and read that, to some, it’s no big deal.

For example, I read the following:

“The small southwest town of Dirranbandi could be completely cut off from the rest of the state by this time next week, but that doesn't seem to faze its unflappable residents.”

“Last year's floods were the worst the town had seen since 1890.”


["Will we just grow used to extreme conditions?"]

"It's no big drama - we're getting used to it," Mr. K. Smith said.

“...we're lucky compared to these other little towns, Theodore, Condamine and all these other towns that went underwater, there'd be nothing worse."

Sheep farmer Gerry Grant said... "I went into St George on Thursday last week and I got a bit of extra food, we keep it in the freezer, so we're pretty right for a while. We know what to expect this time where in March it was unknown.”

Dirranbandi resident Phyllis Howard said... she was prepared for the town to be isolated once more. "We were cut off for three weeks last year and we managed.”

So, to some it’s not a drama, folks will manage.

But yesterday, after reading that “the state is the biggest exporter of coal used in steel making" (Jan. 5, London Free Press), I wondered if nature was just biting back because of rising carbon emissions.

And today I wonder, as climate instability worsens in the future and other towns go underwater (like the aforementioned Theodore and Condamine), will we too just get used to it and shrug it off as if there’s nothing we can do about it?

Common sense tells me that if we don’t learn from present day disasters of great magnitude, then disasters of greater magnitude will follow.

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Is nature biting back in Queensland?

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