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July 7, 2008
Australia is already suffering the effects of climate change, with droughts predicted to occur twice as often and be twice as severe. The early signs can be seen in the Murray-Darling Basin. We will experience sharp increases in the number of regions facing years of exceptionally low rainfall in Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and southern Western Australia by 2040. Professor Ross Garnaut predicted the Murray-Darling Basin would be all but wiped out by the end of the century. Will it last that long?
Petty
For workers of every age in every community, industry and service, the transition to a low-carbon economy will require new training and re-training. New technologies will be introduced, energy-wise products developed and older products retired. Communities dependent on farming and forestry will face depopulation, workers will be made prematurely elderly because the cost of retraining is considered uneconomic.
Everyone claimed a victory at the recent CoAG meeting because they had at finally signed an agreement to hand control of the river to an independent national body. But no one said when this body would begin, what it would be called, who would run it, how it would operate, and when its national plan for managing the basin would be developed.
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Agriculture makes up 67% of usage in NSW (in 2005) to Household's 8%. In gigalitres the agricultural breakdown is:
2,590 : Livestock, pasture, grains etc
1,921 : Cotton
1,921 : Rice
401 : Dairy
214 : Fruit
174 : Grapes
96 : Vegetables
Why is a water intensive enterprise as rice being grown on a dry continent?