Doing some reading on climate variability, I ran across a web page for the Climate Variability in Agriculture program, an Australian research effort. My research has been focused on the southwestern U.S., so I don’t know a lot about the nature of decadal-scale climate variability Down Under, but the underlying theme of the CVA project seemed entirely sensible – thinking about climate variability not as some weird aberration from the way things are supposed to be, but rather thinking about it as the norm. Climate varies…

DCV is very important for Australian cropping systems. While there have been many examples where farming practices in Australia have been developed during periods of above-average rainfall, research found that in later decades reliable rainfall patterns did not persist. In some cases this led to environmental degradation, a rapid decline in productivity, and increased farm abandonment, all of which have been at a great cost to individuals and the nation as a whole.