Climate Change Benefits The Rich At The Expense Of The Poor, Study Finds

Independent - Matt Payton

'We tend to think of climate change as just a problem of physics and biology'

A fisherman cuts a fish at the fishermen dock in La Libertad, El Salvador Reuters

Everyone knows that wealth feeds wealth and the rich are getting richer.
But now a new study has found that even what is seemingly the most universal of threats is also increasing the inequality gap.
Climate change, it has been found, is causing important natural resources to move towards the Earth's poles, thereby taking wealth away from the poorest nations nearest the equator.
Rises in temperature are forcing fish, plants, trees and other species to move away from temperate zones towards the poles.
According to a paper entitled "Wealth reallocation and sustainability under climate change", which was published in the journal Nature Climate Change, this mass redistribution of resources both natural and human benefits the wealthiest countries in the northern hemisphere.
The study used fish migration data and a mathematical formula to illustrate the correlation between the movement of resources and the movement of wealth.
Because the effects of climate change are unevenly spread across the world, such a physical redistriubtion of resources to the poles will be similary uneven.
Dr Malin Pinsky, from Rutgers University, said: "What we find is that natural resources like fish are being pushed around by climate change, and that changes who gets access to them.
"We tend to think of climate change as just a problem of physics and biology.
"But people react to climate change as well, and at the moment we don't have a good understanding for the impacts of human behavior on natural resources affected by climate change."

Defence White Paper: Climate Change Threatens Regional Security

New Matilda - Thom Mitchell

US Sea Hawk helicopters in Kuwait. (IMAGE: New York National Guard, Flickr).

Malcolm Turnbull's Defence White Paper has done what Abbott's energy equivalent failed to do, acknowledging climate change as a fundamental and overarching influence on Australia's long-term future and the stability of the region.
There is a growing awareness among international security experts, already embedded in the long-term plans of other nations, that climate change has huge potential to force geopolitical instability, shape conflicts, and require humanitarian deployments.
As New Matilda has previously reported, the toxicity of Canberra's debate on climate change had contributed to Australia's tardiness in incorporating it into strategic plans.
Indeed an issues paper released in 2014 by then Defence Minister David Johnston, when Tony Abbott was Prime Minister, didn't mention climate change at all.
But then, hardly either did the Abbott-era Energy White Paper, said to be 'technology neutral', which mentioned climate change only twice to reference the Coalition's Direct Action policy.

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

The full Defence White paper released today goes a little further. "Climate change will be a major challenge for countries in Australia's immediate region," the paper concedes.
"Within the South Pacific, variable economic growth, crime and social, governance and climate change challenges will all contribute to uneven progress and may lead to instability in some countries," it states.
"Climate change will see higher temperatures, increased sea-level rise and will increase the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. These effects will exacerbate the challenges of population growth and environmental degradation, and will contribute to food shortages and undermine economic development."
The White Paper also acknowledges the threat that climate change poses to the 'defence estate' – Australia's Navy bases will be impacted by rising seas and "more extreme weather events more frequently putting facilities at risk of damage".
Ultimately, beyond 2025, climate change will contribute to a need to develop "new bases, wharves, airfields and training and weapons testing ranges".
That's pretty much the sum-total of the paper's focus on climate change, though. Despite anticipating climate change will be an important contributor to state fragility – one of six key drivers that the paper says will shape Defence thinking out to 2035 – it's mentioned less than 10 times, and only in a perfunctory sense.

Rob Faulkner, Flickr

As New Matilda reported in June last year, other countries have been making more serious and methodical attempts to integrate climate change into their long-term strategic thinking.
A former senior advisor to the UK government, Rear Admiral Neill Morisetti said at the time that other countries are now "instinctively saying 'we must factor in the impact of a changing climate along with all the other points'".
He said the "political context presents a challenge in Australia".
Defence was being hampered, and political influences dissuading proper acknowledgement of climate change's pervasive presence as a 'multiplyer' of other threats to geopolitical stability, a report from the Centre for Policy Development suggested.
Today's White Paper shows the first signs that those roadblocks to an un-politicised approach to strategic planning may be coming down under Turnbull's leadership.
Clearly, though, there's still plenty of work to be done to put flesh on the bare bones that are outlined in the Defence White Paper.

Links

• Defence White Paper fails on climate change
• Defence white paper shows Australian forces must safeguard nature too
• Defence White Paper: A Recipe For Big Spending And Bigger Risks

New Australian Climate Developing

Australian Grains Export Innovation Centre

Seasonal rainfall zones shift across Australia since 2000

A new climate is emerging in Australia, according to new maps released by the Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre (AEGIC).
AEGIC analysed data from more than 8000 Bureau of Meteorology stations around the country and discovered that traditional rainfall zones have changed significantly since 2000.
The findings will be presented as part of a talk entitled “South-west Western Australia is losing its Mediterranean Climate” by AEGIC agro-meteorologist Dr David Stephens at the 2016 GRDC Perth Grains Research Update (Perth Convention Centre, 29 February-1 March 2016).
Dr Stephens said the new analysis revealed striking changes to the Australian climate over the past 16 years.
“Since 2000, there has been a general increase in summer rainfall across Australia, and a corresponding decrease in winter rainfall, leading to shifts in rainfall zones extending for hundreds of kilometres,” Dr Stephens said.
“Rainfall between May to October over much of the heavily populated regions of southern Australia has decreased 10-30%, while summer rain has increased up to 40% in some areas.
“This change in climate has major implications for farming and pastoral systems as the profitability of different crop types changes, disease risk changes, and the composition of rangeland grasses changes with stocking rates.”
The analysis revealed significant shifts in rainfall zones since 2000, which can be seen in the maps above.

Summary:

• For regions with a Mediterranean climate, winter (and winter dominant) rainfall zones are contracting in a south-westerly direction.

• In northern and eastern areas, summer (and summer dominant) rainfall zones are expanding southward.

• Between these regions, there is a uniform rainfall zone where summer and winter rainfall are similar. The southern boundary of this zone has shifted from southern/central New South Wales down into central Victoria and the Mallee region of south-east South Australia.

• In the south-west of Western Australia, a uniform rainfall zone has appeared along the eastern edge of the wheat-belt from Beacon to Southern Cross to Grass Patch.

• Most rainfall zone boundaries have typically shifted 100-400km over the last 16 years. The only expansion of the winter rainfall zone has occurred in southeast Tasmania where winter rainfall has become more reliable.

Dr Stephens said the analysis highlighted that the shift to earlier sowing of winter crops measured recently by AEGIC should continue because early sown crops take advantage of any additional summer soil moisture.
“They also experience a lower evaporative demand through the growing season, and are less affected by declining rain in October and rising spring temperatures,” he said.
“In pastoral regions in much of Western Australia, increasing summer rain with a reduction in rainfall variability has assisted perennial C4 (tropical) plants at the expense of C3 (temperate) grasses (especially in southern areas), while in central and northern Queensland, an increase in rainfall variability has been detrimental on pasture production and stocking rates”.
“Australia is going to need some of the most water-efficient farming systems in the world to mitigate the effects of a drier and warmer climate in Southern Australia. Research in this area is vital because Australian crop yields have been among the most affected by climate change compared to other grain exporting nations.”

More Information
These changes appear to be related to changes in barometric pressure, sea surface temperatures and upper level westerly winds.

• In the mid-1970s, there was a weakening of the Indian Ocean Trough to the west of Perth which appears to be related to a decline in winter rainfall since then. In the 2000s, this trough has weakened further in conjunction with strengthening high pressures over Australia.

• In addition, sea surface temperatures have warmed in all seasons, which is beneficial for summer rainfall.

• However, a more marked warming in oceans west of Perth in winter has an inverse relationship to rainfall and has contributed to weaker cloud-band activity in recent years.

• At a Hemispheric scale, one of the drivers of weather is the temperature gradient between the equator and the South Pole. This gradient dropped at the beginning of the 2000s as westerly winds in May-July weakened over Australia.”

• The variability in annual rainfall across Australia has changed since 2000. Reduced variability in some regions is due to the loss of wet years, as in south-west Australia, or more consistent average to above average rain, as in the north-western parts of the country and southern South Australia.”

• In contrast variability in annual rainfall has increased in inland Victoria, southern New South Wales and much of central Queensland.