Abstract

Deliberate misrepresentation of the rainfall patterns of Australia: There are norainfall reductions in Australia caused by the globally increasing anthropogenic carbon dioxideemission

Author(s): A.Parker, C.D.Ollier

This work presents the truly measured rainfall patterns of Australia. Two recent works by Delworth and Zeng[1] and by Karoly[2] have wrongly claimed a reduction in rainfall for selected areas of Australia, allegedly caused by increasing anthropogenic carbon dioxide emission. Here we show that the rainfall pattern of Australia is actually quite stable when compatible time windows are compared and the rainfall is globally increasing. Since climate parameters oscillate with a quasi 60 years interval it makes sense to compare periods related to these 60 years periodicities rather than select a peak with a valley of the same oscillation. Even if the map of the measured rainfalls does not show any general sign of rainfall reduction, it is possible that selected sub-regions may show such a reduction. Such a local effect may result from many possible causes including change of land use, urbanization and water management, and there is no reason to suppose from the start that it is related in any way to global carbon dioxide emissions.We also showhere thatmeasurements of carbon dioxide fluxes show Australia is a top sequestering rather than a top emitting country. The predictions of Delworth and Zeng[1] and of Karoly[2] are based on models rather than observations and are a false explanation of a problem that does not exist.