Are we ready for the next El Niño?

Around 200 years ago, Peruvian fishermen recognized that from time to time, around Christmas, the oceans would begin to warm up. El Niño (the boy child) and La Niña (the girl child) are not new climatic phenomena. El Niño and La Niña are opposite climate patterns that arise from changes in the sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. El Niño and La Niña can affect weather patterns around the world.

Differences in sea surface temperatures June 2026 - WMO

We now have the knowledge and expertise to predict the oncoming of these events – although it can be complicated. There are strong predictions for an El Niño event for later this year, extending into 2027, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

Sea Surface temperature indices - BoM

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (YouTube) is expecting a transition to an El Niño a bit later this winter, which will bring hotter and drier weather to eastern Australia. The Black Summer Bushfires of 2019/20 (Wikipedia) - 24 million hectares burnt, 3000 buildings destroyed, 33 lives lost - were a direct result of the 2018/19 El Niño event. 

Shade trees reduce the urban heat island effect during periods of extreme heat

The ever-increasing frequency and strength of El Niño events, combined with global warming due to climate change, makes urban tree cover an obvious obligation!

Why is Australia’s crisis in nature invisible to many people?

Australia’s isolation for millions of years has produced a bewildering array of endemic species. More than 80% of our plants, our mammals, our reptiles and our frogs are found nowhere else in the world. Nearly 50% of our birds are only found in Australia.

Last year, 42 new species were added to the national Australian threatened species lists. In 2024, 54 species were added, and in 2023, a staggering 144 species were added to our threatened list. It is estimated that, in Australia, between 1 and 3 species of invertebrates become extinct every WEEK! Habitat destruction, invasive species and climate change are all contributors to this country having the highest mammal extinction rate in the world.

Southern Brown Bandicoot - Endangered (F&FG Act & EPBC Act)

Even the smallest amount of investigation of the subject will soon convince the researcher that Australia has a nature crisis. The decline is ongoing and accelerating. Disappointingly, we seem not to care.

The parade of recent federal Minister’s for the Environment, despite their heartening election pitches, seem able to achieve little to amend the situation. Environmentalist and conservation groups such as the Invasive Species Council, the Australian Land Conservation Alliance, the Australian Conservation Foundation, and the State and Territory Conservation Councils of Australia, were all highly critical of the recent Labor Government’s budget announcements.

Glen Nayook cool temperate rainforest community - Threatened (F&FG Act)

Even Labor’s much vaunted Nature Positive Plan introduced in 2022 by the then Minister for the Environment and Water, Tanya Plibersek, has recently been watered down: environmental standards have been diluted; mining and business interests have successfully blocked the strengthening of the EPA powers; the use of biodiversity credits for offsetting environmental damage have been altered and remain highly controversial; and more.

Gang-gang Cockatoo - Endangered (F&FG Act & EPBC Act)

Perhaps though, we shouldn’t be blaming our politicians – entirely. Recent public surveys for example found that 20% of respondents believed that foxes were native to Australia and a straw poll at a barbecue, conducted by a journalist at The Age, found that no one knew what a Quoll was!

Cobra Greenhood - Endangered (F&FG Act)

And yet, in March last year, a survey of over 3,000 respondents by the Biodiversity Council, found that there is, “… a growing concern among Australians about the state and future of nature”. There seems to be a dichotomy here.

It appears that successive generations of Australians are losing touch with our native environment in a form of cultural amnesia. While we acclaim our gum trees, our kangaroos and emus, we seem to be very unaware of the harmful processes that are re-shaping our environment.

It’s already too late for some of our special species. Will we wake up in time to save the remainder?

 

 

 

Pin Oak

Some of Drouin’s Pin Oaks are looking their best at the moment

The Pin Oak, Quercus palustris, is native to North America but is grown widely around the world as a street and parkland tree.

In its natural state, the Pin Oak is a wetland tree. It grows best on poorly-drained soils and it doesn’t tolerate shading from other trees particularly well. Quercus means oak, and palustris means marshland or swamp giving rise to an alternative common name of Swamp Oak.

The classical pyramidal shape of the Pin Oak is a result of the branches growing in a distinctive pattern: upper branches tend to point upwards, middle branches are roughly horizontal, and the lower branches often droop.

Unlike many other trees in the oak genus, Pin Oaks tend not to be long-lived – little more than 100 years usually. The Jarupa Oak in California, Quercus palmeri, is a clonal plant thought to be 13,000 years old!

Of interest: Pin Oak Court in Vermont South, named for the trees that once defined it, has another famous name, Ramsay Street – ring any bells?