Is it the end of the world?

Nathan says:

08:26am | 23/09/09

Is it mere coincidene that now Kevin Rudd is overseas and Julia Gillard is acting PM that everything has turned orange? Rangas unite!

watty says:

08:43am | 23/09/09

Must have something to do with John Howard and Global Warming.

R.E.L. says:

08:47am | 23/09/09

Everything that happens in the universe is for the ultimate good, even if we can’t understand it while it happens…

Dani says:

09:02am | 23/09/09

Yeah, we had scenes like that in SA on Monday. Pretty crazy weather all around by the sounds of it.

ange says:

09:18am | 23/09/09

I work at Alice Springs hospital, and I used to have a 6-shot sequence of a dust storm in Mutitjulu, sweeping across a playground, up on the wall behind me in my work area (anyone at ASH reading this will know who this is)

Simmo says:

09:24am | 23/09/09

Would anyone really care is Sydney was swallowed up into the centre of the earth?

I love it how this happens once in a city and people all freak out yet in rural areas it happens all the time and no-one gives a hoot…

acker says:

09:44am | 23/09/09

Sad that it takes something that many of us are used to in country areas, to get a lot of urban people to stop and take notice, that there is a pretty serious long term drought out there beyond suburbia and climate change is impacting on us now.

ed says:

09:51am | 23/09/09

in Roma, SW Qld today visibility is down to about 250m the sun looks like the full moon. Dosent seem to be causing much comment from the locals other than it is cooler today than the 35deg we had yesterday.
Syndey has it easy.

Zeta says:

09:56am | 23/09/09

I ran out of ammunition on the weekend, unleashed about 300 rounds down range at the glorious Botany Bay National park, and thought to myself, ‘of course I won’t need any more bullets during the week, I can pick some up next time I go to the range.’ Little did I know that the apocalypse scenario for which I even own a gun might creep up on me. I was gripped with fear when I stared upon the blood red sun this morning and realised, that should shuffling zombies really stumble from within that grave, crimson haze I would have only a trenching tool, several machettes and a chainsaw in my inner city appartment to defend myself with.

At 6:00am this morning, 2GB talkback callers, the only source of information a gun owning patriot like myself can trust when the sky turns to blood, were vague about the exact source of this dusty threat. I turned to the internet to find my nearest source of ammunition, and was shocked to discover I’d need to travel to Belmore, from the CBD, to stock up.

This is totally unacceptable. Thanks to Clover Moore and her socialist, gun hating policies, me and my family were placed in grave danger by the lack of a nearby shooting supply store in the early hours of this morning. It’s just damn lucky I don’t have a family, or else the consequences of the anti-gun elitist left could have been so much more grave.

Sydney needs to learn this lesson. Keep ammunition on hand at all times, the apocalypse could come at any moment. Today was a good drill for the real thing in 2012.

papachango says:

09:59am | 23/09/09

This happened in Melbourne in the late 70s or early 80s - I was at school and it stopped all the classes as evryone ran out onto the oval.

ed says:

10:30am | 23/09/09

@zeta
I truly sympathise.
No lack of available ammo in Roma though,(and the shop is next to the pub) your problem is basically living in the city.
In my humble opinion, Sydney could use a bit of a post apocalyptic zombie invasion to shock it out of its southern city dweller complacency. unfortunately unlikely to happen though.

why do you listen to those pinko new age sensitive socialists at 2GB? they wont do you any good.

Little Miss SciFi says:

10:32am | 23/09/09

Pfft. Dust storms are so yesterdays news. Canberra had them before Sydney.

I suppose things aren’t important unless they’re happening in Sydney.

acker says:

10:39am | 23/09/09

@ papachango it was a late afternoon in February 1983, I had just turned up to work an arvo/night shift in North Melbourne and I could see it building up just after I arrived…then one week later Melbourne was covered in the smoke of Ash Wednesday….an early glimpse of the effect of climate change in Australia. Hard to believe 26 years and another devastating bush-fire later Australia still is yet to have an Environmental Trading Scheme up and running…we are one of the nations that climate change will have the biggest impact on. Imagine a future where we are all cashed up but still can not obtain food after our nations crops fail through drougt..never say never.

http://www.climatechange.vic.gov.au/dpi/vro/vroimages.nsf/Images/dust_storm/$File/sand_storm.jpg

AFR says:

10:47am | 23/09/09

To those who are using this as a Sydney bashing exercise (how original) - remember that Sydney also hosts 20% of the countries population, many of whom who have never seen a dust storm, so of course its news. When it happens in Roma or Leeton is doesn’t make news - 6000 people live there, and it apparantly happens there all the time.

Sydney girl says:

11:12am | 23/09/09

Well said AFR. :o)

RT says:

11:18am | 23/09/09

No big deal. Just an unwelcome reminder to Sydneysiders of what it could be like if we lived in Melbourne or Adelaide instead. Commonplace, there.

acker says:

11:29am | 23/09/09

No doubt the Sydney based Liberal party poll takers and focus group leaders will have some questions in the next few months such as..

*Has the recent dust storm changed your thoughts about climate change ?

*Where do you think the Liberal party should stand on climate change ?

*Will climate change influence your vote at the next election ?

Front Row says:

11:36am | 23/09/09

Little Miss Sci Fi -
And Broken Hill had them before Canberra…

martinX says:

11:45am | 23/09/09

Acker that is so sad. And probably true.

Stephen says:

11:54am | 23/09/09

We would not have this slight annoyance once every hundred years if the government just bloody concreted over the entire outback… We’d have an unemployment rate of 0!!!

Sorry to all the people from the rural areas who are offended by City Slickers commenting on a dust storm. Im sure the rural folk would comment too if something entertaining happened there.

David C says:

01:14pm | 23/09/09

What an excellent event to ligheten up the mid-week, and a great excuse to get out the camera.
Acker we will just buy our food from the supermaket as always

acker says:

01:43pm | 23/09/09

@David C…....With more of Australia being parched by drought, there is no guarantee that our farmers will in a calamitous year be able to produce enough food to feed our nation, and during such a possible catastrophic agriculture production year their is no guarantee other nations will not also be experiencing the same or we would be able to source food.

Add to that the risk of crop failure due to disease.

Cash on hand helps with food security, but growing your own food is the only way you can guarantee food security.

David C says:

02:29pm | 23/09/09

I repeat, we will just buy it from the supermarket as always

MarK says:

03:39pm | 23/09/09

@ Simmo, well no one that matters,
@AFR, like we (the 80% who dont live there, remember) need an excuse to bash Sydney

Bruce says:

04:15pm | 23/09/09

Beauty !! Needed the top soil !!

acker says:

04:54pm | 23/09/09

@David C…...and if 90% of the products in that supermarket are no longer on the shelves ?
eg: 20 people fighting to buy 5 loaves of bread scenario…..

David C says:

05:12pm | 23/09/09

Well Acker if you believe that is going to happen I cant really help you sorry.

Anthony says:

07:07pm | 23/09/09

Acker, you have been fooled.

Julie Coker-Godson says:

08:48pm | 23/09/09

As I understand it from all the stories on the red dust, the reason this is such a big issue for people on the coastal cities is because it is very rare for the dust/soil to travel so far.  Apparently it has travelled 1500 kilometres and was 600 kilometres long!  There is no reason for playing the “blame game” either I think that is just so nonsensical and does nothing about the fact that so many tonnes of topsoil from the west has now just disappeared into the ocean!  Replacing that loss is the issue to be dealt with, not an East v. West or City v. Country war in the blogs that I have been reading.  People get too emotional over this issue.

Timmo says:

10:41pm | 23/09/09

Timmo says that the reason for crop failures which are now a reality world wide is of the possible demise of the European Honey Bees. Honey Bees are disappearing because of Chemical Sprays and possibly geneticly modified pollens from GM crops. It was with the introduction of the European Honey Bees into America, Australia, New Zealand in the 1800s that allowed the large scale production of foods in these countries. The demise of the Bee will obviously reverse this and there could be world famine on a scale never seen before Increased food crops have allowed the populations of the world to increase to catastrophic numbers. The World can no longer support us. Our Creeks and Rivers already poisoned by the agriculture. We have to stop consuming right now, otherwise our grandchildren may be sitting on the side of the road somewhere with nothing. This World is ruled by the natural law and we have all contributed however innocently to its possible collapse. The World leaders meet regarding climate change but still support comsumerism. They have to keep us consuming as our way of life demands it, but it is the very thing that may well destroy us all. We have to wake up and listen to the scientists who have studied the collapse of the natural world of which we are an intregal part. We should simplify our lives. Sure we need food and clothing we always have and will, but can we make things last longer. Maybe making a more durable product that we don’t have to throw away after 6 months or so. Maybe we can wear that shirt for a few more years, drive the car for 10 years. Live in our house for 2 generations instead of driving an price driven real estate market. We only live 75 or so years and our way of life is killing us before that. Cancer and other diseases on the rise, not good health in old age on the rise. Doctors Surgeries full, Hospitals Full, cost to the communities over the top. What are we doing to ourselves?!!. Everyday when we wake up we should say to ourselves. I WILL STOP CONSUMING AS MUCH AS I DID YESTERDAY. I WILL BE HAPPY WITH A SIMPLER LIFE AND FROM THAT BETTER HEALTH WILL COME. If everyone did this our nature would improve in its health, and we may divert a natural disaster of proportions which will horrific for us all including the other animals we share this planet with. It’s hard to write and put thoughts together on subjects like this. Our biggest enemy is our intelligence i feel. We all feel we have the answers and what I have written here has been said and written before so I make no claim to be greater than the wise ones, but maybe it’s time to listen and act wisely for our own welfare. HOPE WE CAN, WHAT DO YOU THINK.?

Jason says:

11:43pm | 23/09/09

Melbourne in 1983 was similarly cool and spectacular.  I was swimming in the backyard pool at the time after a 7+ year drought and awesome heatwave…(we did have droughts and heatwaves before it became Al Gore and cronies figured out how to make a profit from paranoia)

trader says:

12:33am | 24/09/09

Acker,

Please note the ongoing global oversupply of agricultural commodities. Wheat, Corn and Soy prices are tanking as a result.

Im curently buying high quality wheat from growers for less than $150 a tonne. The ongoing industrialisation of Brasil, Agrentina, Russia, Eastern Europe and China is untapping astonishing increases in agricultural output.

Eat up.

Sam says:

04:59am | 24/09/09

That orange is the Melbourne Storm!  Lets hope that cheap timber from overseas (apparently China is planning on planting a forest the size of Finland) means we dont have to clearfell here.

Keith says:

09:51am | 24/09/09

It may have a lot do with the Saturn-Uranus opposition, ask Lucy.

jimmy says:

10:03am | 24/09/09

no, its adelaide united everywhere!!!!
just making our presence felt in sydney an brisbane, we are the reds of australia, fire up united supporters, this amazing since it came from adelaide….

digit says:

03:05pm | 24/09/09

looks like 1000 smokey’s have been ripped