Joe O’Brien(ABC News24 TV) with the help of an Oakey local has been spruiking how dire the drought is at Oakey. Joe gave a long time to a local guy who believed climate change was diminishing his rain but although Joe briefly said there were alternative views they got no air-time. Here is a chart of annual rain to end 2017 which shows there were dryer times in the Millenial drought, the mid 1990’s, and before and after WWI. The two sites overlapped 1971-1984 and the Post Office averaged 47mm PA more rain across the overlap so the composite chart takes that into account. Data from BoM Climate Date Online. Oakey Post Office 41077 and Oakey Aero 41359 For clearer chart
Totally agree with you, Warwick.
Saw an interview on the ABC with the mayor of Murrurundi regarding the drought. The mayor commented that the one thing he was sure of was that it was getting hotter in his town.
Obviously he hasn’t checked the data.
Murrurundi data (from BoM’s CDO and DWO sites).
From 1911-1940 the average max temp was 23.8C.
From 1981- 2010 the average max temp was 22.9C.
Of all the years in the top 10% decile for max temps, only one appears after 1970.
Here’s the CDO graph.
www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/cdio/weatherData/av?p_display_type=dataGraph&p_stn_num=061051&p_nccObsCode=36&p_month=13
Why do journalists let them get away with these type of statements? Either they do not do their research or they are complicit in the deception of their listeners.
I saw the interview, there is no way Joe O’Brien would give any alternative or opposing views any airtime. So much for supposedly ABC objective and nonpartisan news reporting.
I saw an ABC news segment on the water shortage at Murrurundi but heard little that was sensible about water supply. This has much of what was on TV News –
Drought-hit town of Murrurundi has three months of water left. What happens then?
www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2018-08-05/the-town-about-to-run-out-of-water/10073762
Amazing the ABC doomster question left hanging there. What happens then? Duh!! As if between the council, NSW Govt and engineering experts a better water supply could not have been planned and built for the place over the years.
This drought is bad but no worse than the late 1930s – early 1940s.
The purpose of ABC News seems to be not to report facts but just to air opinions that reporters agree with.
What would it have cost Joe to actually present those “alternative views” that he clearly knew about?
As to what those views might have been, well it’s just a guess, but what’s the bet Joe rang the Bureau, was told there was nothing unusual about the current dry, and decided not to report that?
There sure is nothing to write home about, given the actual data as shown in Warwick’s graph. OK the last 3 years’ rain totals are all below average (although only just in the case of 2015). But before WW1 there were five years in a row that were lower than ANY of the last three years, and as recently as 2005-7 there were three in row lower than the last three.
@Ian George
>”Either they do not do their research or they are complicit in the deception of their listeners”
It’s both. Research is not conducted in order to deceive the audience. It’s called an agenda.
Another example:
anero.id/energy
has for quite a while published real time graphs of the actual national power demand/supply with actual generation figures by power source (ie. black/brown coal, wind, solar, hydro etc). This has been more useful than the more popular “Dashboard” but very embarassing to the AEMO and other loudmouth activists as one could see at a glance over a 24hr period just how little use the unreliabubbles really are.
Just yesterday (I think) the format of the graph changed. The activists have partially nobbled anero.id to relieve some of the embarassment. Now we have the unreliabubbles stacked on top of the hydrocarbon production and all prettily coloured. A casual uninformed public observer will now be of the impression that the unreliabubbles are supplying almost all of the national power demand.
The activists lie and lie and lie and … utterly and despicably shameless.
I haven't caught up with the changes to Aneriod yet but I guess the kind of reality the Turnbullites in particular and the renewables cheer squad generally are desperate to hide is the one which emerges when you see just how utterly useless unreliables are as in this composite Aneroid based graph of Victorian wind and brown coal generation for the month of February 2018. Notionally a bad month for brown coal generation in Victoria with a few forced outages, just compare with the pathetic level of wind generation output in a "normal" month of wind performance.
The misinformation will be thick on all news about the NEG and our electricity grid.
Just now I can not get the Aneroid Energy monthly wind charts up. Too busy to do much till late this month.
Right now NSW has the most expensive wholesale power @ $106.32 while they are importing 1,900MW while their coal gens are only providing 6,240MW from an installed coal capacity listed at AEMO of +10,000MW. We have little idea of the state of the unused NSW coal capacity but next summer might provide some answers. Links to info are here.
Thanks for that ian.
And well spotted.
Listening to Labor’s Mark Butler today you would never guess coal is usually carrying ~70% of the generation load in NSW, Qld and Vic. A visitor from Mars might think coal was some minor issue too small to matter. Do not forget the recurring media over years about South Australia still pushing for a third and larger interconnector, this time to NSW near Mildura. With a Fed election looming I can see our Lame Duck PM offering to fund this.
SA Premier Steven Marshall pledges $14m boost to accelerate interconnector project with NSW
www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-11/state-government-boost-for-sa-interconnector/10109486?WT.ac=statenews_sa
Proposed Robertstown to Buronga to Wagga 750MW
www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/nsw-push-for-electricity-interconnector-with-south-australia-20160930-grspxa.html
SA’s rising renewables share could cause blackouts, says AEMO 28 Oct 2015
www.afr.com/business/energy/sas-rising-renewables-share-could-cause-blackouts-says-aemo-20151028-gkkpex
Second interconnector to South Australia ‘will boost’ competition in national electricity market
www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-15/second-interconnector-to-sa-will-boost-competition/7510994?WT.ac=statenews_sa
A power line to somewhere, anywhere? The wind power cheer squad's claim that "the wind is always blowing somewhere" is simply a fantasy. The reality is the entire Australian Eastern grid is often without any significant wind generation anywhere, as this paper by Paul Miskelly confirms.
So for South Australia with its power grid now near ruined by renewables, building more grid interconnectors/power lines is a bit like setting out on a journey along the "yellow brick road". With the Federal and Victorian Andrews governments determined to shut down the remaining reliable coal generators and the NSW situation almost as bad, finding reliable power at the end of the power cord has something of a "somewhere over the rainbow" ring to it.