Australia's drought natural, researcher says - Reuters

[Eugene]

Australia's drought natural, researcher says
28 Dec 2006 03:44:00 GMT
Source: Reuters

CANBERRA, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Australia's crippling drought, which some lawmakers
have called the worst for 1,000 years, is a natural ocurrence and has no link to
global warming, the country's top science organisation said on Thursday.

Australia had experienced around 30 periods of drought over a period of about
10,000 years, said Barrie Hunt, a researcher at the Melbourne-based Commonwealth
Scientific and Research Organization (CSIRO) atmospheric research centre.

"I think it's probably a bit too early yet to say we're having a greenhouse effect on
rainfall," Hunt told local radio.

-snip-

But Hunt said that while global warming from a build-up of greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere was a reality, crippling droughts of up to 14 years in length had
occurred previously in the world's driest populated continent.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SYD222080.htm

In short, Hunt and Australian policymakers believe that the drought will break.
While global warming is for real, it did not cause the drought.