The racial divide between climate change in the Australian desert? – Watt?

Eric Worrall's paper

In Coober Pedy, white people live in cozy canoes while the Aboriginals are stuffy. But is this indeed the racial divide of climate change?

Climate change widens the racial divide in Australia's inland areas

The Story of Michael E. Miller

Coober Pedy, Australia – From her front door, Sonya Crombie can see the sandstone hills, where white men carved the land in search of opals, and then stayed, turning their mines into elaborately constructed underground houses isolated from the desert heat.

But when Crombie's air conditioning broke out in November, just as the hot summer was approaching, the 60-year-old Aboriginal woman had no shelter tunnel. Crombie struggled to breathe when the temperature of her state-owned house exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Emergency workers flew her 500 miles to the hospital.

“I almost died,” she said. “This heat will kill you.”

…

Underground, the town's mostly white residents live in “Dugout” – bought, sold and expanded in some communities – with temperatures as low as mid-70s, electricity bills are not high.

…

On the ground, Aboriginal people make up 17% of the town’s Aboriginal people, without air conditioning or paying a huge electricity bill. Kronby owes the district council nearly $11,000, thanks largely to the use of her now-breaking air conditioner. Records show that there are 76 account holders, many Aboriginal and poor people, owing a total of $350,000.

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Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/world/in-the–australian-acustralian-ack-climate-change-widens-widens-racial-divide/ar-aa1bdlc9

This must be one of the most fake climate stories I have covered.

I've never been to Coober Pedy, but I've been to Broken Hill in the summer and the climate is similar. That place is very hot. The satellite mount on my windshield melted in the desert sunlight.

However, in winter temperatures in the Cooper Mountains, the high temperature is in the 60s or 70 seconds low.

Why don't the Aboriginals have quite a few canoes?

Most of these canoes start from mines, and miners are looking for opals. The whites did not steal mines from the Aboriginal people, they dug them themselves, or used their own money to buy underground houses from the people who built them.

I didn't expect a 60-year-old who was able to dig out multiple tons of solid rocks, but their younger and more athletic relatives could easily dig a few dogs for parents and grandparents, or dig a house by themselves to keep grandparents in the hotter months. Coober Pedy's summer daytime temperatures are unbearable, but once you get a few feet of underground temperature, the underground temperature drops sharply, keeping a comfortable 23-25C (73F – 77F) year-round.

Young people didn’t help their distressed elders say more about social collapse in Aboriginal communities than climate change.

Hope the young Aboriginals take action and start taking care of their old songs. You will never know that they may even find some opal when digging out new homes.

Click here for interesting articles about Coober Pedy's history.

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