Record rainless spell coming

Over the last twelve days of August, Melbourne has had no rain - and none is forecast this week. It is likely, despite the 28 Day Rainfall Oulooks saying otherwise, that Melbourne will break its record 40 day rainless spell - which would mean no rain by 29 September.

With the city headed for its driest year on record after ten straight years with rainfall below the 1885 to 1996 average, I am awfully angered that people do not realise we are already in runaway climate change mode and that within a few years rainless spells of months will be the rule in Melbourne.

As I imagine it, once the winter westerlies disappear for good - which models suggest they will very, very soon, Melbourne will be the driest place in all of Australia with a rainfall of around 10% averages from 1885 to 1996.

It is this, together with Australia's unacceptable greenhouse emissions record - it should be decades ahead of any country in Europe and internationally required to achieve zero emissions long before now - that has made me prone to violent temper outbursts which my mother calls “ranting”. By ranting she means loud, fast, angry speech - which I had used long before climate change set in over Australia.

I know very well ranting is unpersuasive, but it is difficult to dissociate the radical changes in the attitude of Australia's meek, merciful population to start a plan to radically reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions from my own behaviour.

I actually feel that being more angry and less happy would help Australians greatly because they would be more able to see what power they have through collective action to challenge those responsible for Australia's exceptionally high greenhouse emissions - from measures to combat climate change to radically changing laws to fit the fragility of our environment - this would mean all those who had contributed to any carbon dioxide emissions would be prosecuted - I often imagine the car company executives working on destroying the (in my opinion) wasteful freeways their power has created.