Rain has flooded almost a third of New South Wales. A big part of NSW has been declared natural disaster areas. Farmers have lost their wheat harvest for the third year in a row. Fear of a shortage has driven prices at the Chicago Board of Trade up six per cent from a year ago. The flooding has heightened already polarised interests on the effects of global warming, and the imperative for Australia to help cut back on the emission of greenhouse gases.
Flooding is one symptom of global warming.
Australia is among the top polluting countries in the world. The NSW floods concentrated attention on Australia's stand at the United Nations COP6 conference on climate change, being held in The Hague at the time. But to farmers and others in the country towns of New South Wales, global warming could not be more real. And it's not just New South Wales. Britain, Thailand, Indonesia - the same pictures are being beamed into Australian living rooms.