Drought is The New Norm For The World's Weather
Pastor Dale Morgan
Drought is The New Norm For The World's Weather*
Canberra, Australia (SPX) Sep 18, 2006
Droughts are slow, tortuous emergencies that seem to sneak up on us. It
doesn't have to be that way, say a climatologist and a political
scientist who point to a better way. It's perfectly possible to plan for
droughts and minimize the losses they cause. In fact Australia has set
in place policies that blaze a trail for the US follow to some extent,
says Linda Botterill, a political scientist at the Australian National
University in Canberra.
Botterill is presenting drought policy lessons learned in Australia at
the Geological Society of America conference entitled Managing Drought
and Water Scarcity in Vulnerable Environments: Creating a Roadmap for
Change in the United States. The meeting takes place 18-20 September at
the Radisson Hotel and Conference Center in Longmont, Colorado.
"In policy terms drought is no longer considered a disaster," said
Botterill, of the fundamental change in perspective when Australia
adopted a national drought policy in 1989. The shift made perfect sense
because of Australia's climate, in which drought is always an issue.
"We have one of the most variable climates on Earth," said Botterill.
"We really don't have a 'normal' climate." Therefore it's absurd to
treat every drought as an emergency, she said. "It should be managed as
any other risk. Farmers need to factor in that they are not always going
to get needed rainfall."
Like Australia, the most normal thing about climate in the Central and
Western U.S. is that it has no norm. Unlike Australia, however, the U.S.
still reacts to droughts as if they are unexpected emergencies - which
they aren't, says climatologist and drought policy specialist Donald
Wilhite of the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of
Nebraska in Lincoln.
"Drought is always out there," said Wilhite, who was part of a team that
built the U.S. Drought Monitor website. "It's always affecting some part
of the country."
What's more, reacting to droughts is more expensive than planning for
them, says Wilhite, who will speak at the meeting on what's needed for
the U.S. to shift from drought crisis mode to a more proactive risk
management mode. Wilhite is also serving as the technical program chair
of the conference.
Climate change and increasing population are not expected to make
droughts any easier in the U.S., according to Wilhite. So there is no
time to lose in creating a national drought policy.
"On average, drought losses are in the neighborhood of $6 to 8 billion
per year," Wilhite said. "They're right on par with hurricanes and
floods." In severe drought years like 2002 and 2006, the losses run much
higher.
"We're trying to bring together all the players to work on the early
warning side," Wilhite said. That means states, federal agencies, tribal
governments, and municipalities pouring information into one place. Data
collected and monitored will include soil moisture, rainfall, snow pack,
stream flows, and groundwater levels.
Two bills are pending in the House and Senate to authorize funding for
the program for the next several years. Called the National Integrated
Drought Information System (NIDIS), the program is currently being
implemented by NOAA.
The GSA meeting is not the first time Botterill and Wilhite have
addressed this subject side-by-side. They've also co-edited a book
entitled From Disaster Response to Risk Management: Australia's National
Drought Policy (2005).