Taking a few more minutes, I also checked to see if the Oz Bureau of Meteorology had something consistent with these stories, and they do.  In fact, from the dates it appears likely that this BOM statement led to the stories.    

There have been some epic rainfalls on the coast in the last quarter, but this isn't where most of the farming is, its where the people live. These rains boosted the water supply to some of the major cities  , but have done little to relieve the drought inland.

Despite this, the state government has just approved two HUGE new coal mines. Whilst they talk about tackling climate change, their actions are a serious part of the problem.

undy

Better would have been something like, "Every four days, another farmer kills himself."

Clearly there can be no more serious subject.  The BBC reporter should therefore have treated it with due respect, and taken greater care in expressing it.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

The whole nation is joining the farmers in commiting suicide.

Put the Carbon Back

That is backed up by a link to another article:

http://climateprogress.org/2006/12/19/australias-facing-w ...

Which says "Along with the United States, Australia has suffered a major drought this year, "the worst for 1000 years."

That is backed up by a link to another article, not from a scientific journal, but from a newspaper:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2& ...

which says "Australia is facing its worst drought in 1000 years.

The prediction, made at an emergency summit on Australia's mounting water crisis, is 10 times worse than earlier forecasts and prompted urgent action to secure drinking water supplies for Adelaide and rural towns."

So -- suddenly it's now a "Prediction" not a fact.

Texeme.Construct(function(x)=Participation(x))

For example, here in Texas we generally have seen an extra 12 inches in rainfall over the last few months, which knocked the cotton crop down by 30-50%.  Many farmers went out of business as a result.  It all comes down to sol moisture - for the last two years before this wet cycle, there was absolutely no moisture in the top 16 inches of soil.  This caused more brackish water from pumps and the Rio Grande to be used, which caused poorer soil condition due to salting.  Glad I'm not a farmer.

Coal seems to be a different topic but before we jump on the Aussies for exporting coal, we need to look at what we're doing here in the US.  Ever seen Powder River coal mines from an airplane?  How about topped mountains in Appalachia?  Not only are our coaling operation massive, but we burn the stuff here, too.  /sammie

Onward through the fog

And shortly after that we had a pertient reminder that statistics quoted in the media are often pulled out of the journalist's butt.

The statistic in question turned out to be (a) two decades old, (b) was every six days anyway, not every four, and (c) completely un-related to the current drought.

Although the current drought is very bad and clearly related to climate change, suicide patterns of farmers probably have more to do with a lack of social support in rural areas, particularly for men who are trying to fit into a socially acceptable role of tough Aussie bloke.