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Climate modeling has clearly established that the decline of southern Australia's winter rainfall is being caused by a build-up of greenhouse gas, much of it from the burning of coal. Ironically, Victoria has the most polluting coal-fed power plant on Earth, while another of its coal plants was threatened by the fire. There's evidence that the stream of global pollution caused a step-change in climate following the huge El NiƱo event of 1998. Along with the dwindling rainfall has come a desiccation of the soil, and more extreme summer temperatures.
Australia's dry period, now in its 12th year, is still being referred to as a "drought." It's a mirror image of what's going on in America's West, where "drought" has been accelerating wildfires for almost a generation.
Calling these cases "droughts" is like calling John Wooden's UCLA basketball dynasty a flash in the pan. These are two of the earliest, most definitive signs of permanent climate change.
Virginia faces threats on all sides -- the potential for more intense wildfires to the west; the danger of stronger storms and sea level rise to the east. Will we, like Australia, continue to refuse to break our addiction to coal?
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