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https://theconversation.com/megadroughts-helped-topple-ancient-empires-weve-found-their-traces-in-australias-past-and-expect-more-to-come-191770>
"Most Australians have known drought in their lifetimes, and have memories of
cracked earth and empty streams, paddocks of dust and stories of city
reservoirs with only a few weeks’ storage. But our new research finds over the
last 1,000 years, Australia has suffered longer, larger and more severe
droughts than those recorded over the last century.
These are called “megadroughts”, and they’re likely to occur again in coming
decades. Megadroughts can last multiple decades – or even centuries – with
occasional wet years offering only brief relief. Megadroughts can also be
shorter periods of very extreme conditions.
We show megadroughts have occurred several times across every inhabited
continent over the last two millennia. They’ve dealt profound damage to
agriculture and water supplies, increased fire risk, and have even contributed
to toppling civilisations.
Unless we incorporate the full potential of Australian drought into our
planning, management and design, their impacts on society and the environment
will likely worsen in coming decades."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
