Australia is actually only about 20 percent desert, and another 50 percent semi-arid, whereas the continental US (about the same size as Australia) is about 30 arid or semi-arid - but Australia has only about 7 percent of the population the US does, so you're getting six times the amount of non-arid/semi-arid land per person in Australia.
It's also notable about 55 percent of the landmass is used for agriculture.
Semi-arid areas will probably become greener as a result of climate change (increased rainfall), and already have an annual boom and bust cycle -
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The east coast covers the latitude of 10 degrees south to 45 degrees south and the Pacific Ocean moderates temperature, so temperature extremes are much rarer. For example, the city of Brisbane is in the middle of the Australian east coast but -
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In addition to agricultural security, Australia also has basically all the minerals a modern economy requires and is one of few countries that would do relatively fine in a global nuclear winter. There's tremendous capacity for solar power and pumped hydro batteries, and has the world's largest acquifer with 64,900 cubic kilometres of water covering about 25 percent of the continent.
Australia is actually only about 20 percent desert, and another 50 percent semi-arid, whereas the continental US (about the same size as Australia) is about 30 arid or semi-arid - but Australia has only about 7 percent of the population the US does, so you're getting six times the amount of non-arid/semi-arid land per person in Australia.
It's also notable about 55 percent of the landmass is used for agriculture.
Semi-arid areas will probably become greener as a result of climate change (increased rainfall), and already have an annual boom and bust cycle -
The east coast covers the latitude of 10 degrees south to 45 degrees south and the Pacific Ocean moderates temperature, so temperature extremes are much rarer. For example, the city of Brisbane is in the middle of the Australian east coast but -
In addition to agricultural security, Australia also has basically all the minerals a modern economy requires and is one of few countries that would do relatively fine in a global nuclear winter. There's tremendous capacity for solar power and pumped hydro batteries, and has the world's largest acquifer with 64,900 cubic kilometres of water covering about 25 percent of the continent.
Thank you very much for the detailed info! This is interesting reading.