Wednesday 19th June -"this may not be what you expect to hear. but as far as the climate scientists know there is no link between climate change and drought.
That may not be what you read in the newspapers and sometimes hear commented, but there is no reason a priori why climate change should made the landscape more arid.

If you look at the Bureau of Meteorology data over the whole of the last one hundred years there’s no trend in data. There is no drying trend.  There’s been a trend in the last twenty years, but there’s been no trend in the last hundred years, and that’s an expression on how variable Australian rainfall climate is.

There are in some regions but not in other regions.

So the fundamental problem we have is that we don’t understand what causes droughts.

Much more interesting, We don’t know what stops a drought. We know it’s rain, but we don’t know what lines up to create drought breaking rains.”

https://soundcloud.com/sydneyenvironmentinstitute/adapting-climate-science-for-b...

(Starts at 1;10)

Now -
"Andy Pitman says ‘misspoken’ statement has been used by Alan Jones, Chris Kenny and Andrew Bolt to dismiss links between climate change and drought

A leading Australian climate scientist has said his views have been misrepresented by conservative media commentators, who have used a “misspoken” statement to dismiss the links between climate change and drought.

Prof Andy Pitman, director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes at the University of New South Wales, has told Guardian Australia there are clear links between human-caused climate change and drought, but these links are indirect."

"He told Guardian Australia: “I misspoke – I missed a word in my statement and that’s my fault. I should have said no ‘direct’ link.

“I’m confident in the statement that there is no direct link between climate change and drought. I’m equally certain that for some regions there’s an indirect effect of human-induced climate change on drought because of the change in rainfall patterns.”

He said increases in temperatures caused by human activity would also make the impacts of drought worse.

He said: “Background warming does mean that when you get a drought, the system is more stressed than it otherwise would be.” "

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/oct/25/climate-scientist-says-sky-news-...

One slide from the Professor's talk -



The slide bears only a passing similarity to his amended views, but is in line with what was originally said.

The_Barnacle wrote on Nov 1^st, 2019 at 3:25pm:



So this no direct link but a link to climate change shows up where?

Certainly not in the "no trend in the last 100 years".

So climate science can't tell the "sign of the change of future drought" but we can see an indirect link? How exactly?

So "there is no reason...why climate change should made (sic) the landscape more arid".

Not even indirectly?

lee wrote on Oct 31^st, 2019 at 4:16pm:


Even by indirect means?


All these no "understandings"

The_Barnacle wrote on Nov 2^nd, 2019 at 9:18am:



It is strange that only one word was missing. The word "NO".

He then goes into great detail as to the lack of any direct evidence.

He somehow forgets to tell the audience of any indirect evidence. But he is confident "equally certain" that there is.

"Prof Andy Pitman, director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes at the University of New South Wales, has told Guardian Australia there are clear links between human-caused climate change and drought, but these links are indirect."

So why not tell the audience of these indirect links?

Perhaps it is secret climate scientist business.

The_Barnacle wrote on Nov 2^nd, 2019 at 9:18am:


"Do hotter temperatures lead directly to higher evaporation and a higher risk of drought? No."

https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/pitman/11601084

What about higher temperatures not caused by human activity?


Edit: So a whole 0.9C since 1870 is causing drought to be more severe? And that according to CO2 theory is mostly at night.

Sorry it wasn't that he said so to Media Watch . It is Climate Change is causing the "rainfall patterns" to change. That must be Climate Change is changing the wind patterns. Is there nothing CO2 can't do?

"In some regions, this increases the risk of drought, in other regions it decreases the risk. "

- Email, Professor Andrew Pitman, University of NSW, 10 October, 2019

https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/pitman/11601084

So this indirect link can cause either more or less drought. But he is certain.

lee wrote on Nov 2^nd, 2019 at 12:38pm:


Sky News commentators praise climate scientist Andrew Pitman for the wrong reason.

https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/pitman/11601084

So are you going to change your thread title, lee, since it is wrong?

Lots of droughts in Australia they even happened before coal powered electricity became common, before cars were common and long before farmers started clearing the land.

Was this drought caused by climate change?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federation_Drought

This is that thing climate deniers do where they find qualified scientist says something they agree with, so they shout it from the rooftops while simultaneously rejecting the other 99% of that scientists work. Stop cherry picking in a desperate attempt to get some credibility.