Water and the Land
April 15th 2010 03:25
Since the Industrial Revolution some 250 years ago man has been increasingly abusing the planet which we all need to live on. Mining and forestry operations have turned large areas of land into wastelands. The ever increasing demand for crude oil for petrol and diesel for our cars and trucks is making holes under the surface which we know next to nothing about. And to top it all off we burn so much and pollute our own air, and waterways, that we are slowly creating the circumstances which could spell our own doom. We even build our densely populated cities on good farmland then seal it all off with roads and buildings so we cannot grow a damn thing on it. The world, our world, is short of food, yet we still persist in destroying the land we need to grow it.
I do know that some gum trees genetically modified to make them grow faster are now turning waters in a river toxic to crustacians and the like downstream of the plantation trees. Falling leaves decompose a little, wash into the river and create this toxin. The naturally grown trees in the next door valley do not do this even though they are the same species of tree, I wonder what concoction of toxins are being bred by genetic modification processes.
Cotton needs water and per acre is said to be an economic user of water. The problem in Australia is that so many acres of cotton are sown that just to water the total acreage twice in a season would use the complete flow of the rivers from which the water is drawn. This is apparently what has happened in the inland of NSW where few rivers actually have water running their full length. The lower reaches of many rivers are merely dry river beds.
At this moment in time there are massive floods in Queensland, record floods. All the flooding rivers which flow south run into the Darling River, on to the Murray and eventually to Lake Alexandrina in South Australia. Sadly little of the floodwaters will reach the Murray mouth.
It is being siphoned off in Queensland, and the Darling River is not running in its lower reaches so water will soak away in the dry earth, fill up the dry wetlands which are crying out for water, and generally vanish before it gets to the ocean.
Having said all that I wonder what would happen in Queensland if another series of rain bands caused an even bigger flood up there. All the water storage facilities are now full; every dam, every pond and every lake. There is no way flood damage could be mitigated by pumping water from the rivers when they fill up. Potentially a major disaster for the states economy. An even worse one for the landholders trying to make a living.
What do we do now to allow for the improbable? Climate change is always going on and always will, it's a natural phenomenon. We humans, poor things, have little choice but to learn to manage whatever climate we are confronted with, and make the best of it. Drying up one of the major river systems in the world for irrigation purposes is not the way to do it. We have four states involved in this river system and there must be some give and take, as well as making allowance for natures requirements.
Come on all you Governments, get together and, just for once, do something constructive.
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