Austalia today is whole world tomorrow-metaphorically

[KakistocracyHater]

http://preview.tinyurl.com/djwwmj

"Drought, fires, killer heat waves, wildlife extinction and mosquito-borne illness -- the things that climate change models are predicting have already arrived there, they say.
By Julie Cart
April 9, 2009
Reporting from The Murray-Darling Basin, Australia -- Frank Eddy pulled off his dusty boots and slid into a chair, taking his place at the dining room table where most of the critical family issues are hashed out. Spreading hands as dry and cracked as the orchards he tends, the stout man his mates call Tank explained what damage a decade of drought has done .

"Suicide is high. Depression is huge. Families are breaking up. It's devastation," he said, shaking his head. "I've got a neighbor in terrible trouble. Found him in the paddock, sitting in his , crying his eyes out. Grown men -- big, strong grown men. We're holding on by the skin of our teeth. It's desperate times."....

[roamer65]

1. Sounds like the American "Dust Bowl" from the 1930's.

[Delphinus]

2. This is important.

We all (not just DU) need to hear this message.

[malaise]

3. Desperate times indeed

K & R for an important article

[SammyWinstonJack]

4. K&R

[laundry_queen]

5. K&R

Very important article.

[KakistocracyHater]

6. the land Down Under is like a screaming Banshee

siren warning, MAJOR CATASTROPHE! Thank you for the K&R.


...."In rural Victoria, one rancher or farmer a week takes his own life. Public health officials say hanging is the preferred method.

"Fourteen dairy farmers in the valley have committed suicide in the last five years," Eddy said matter-of-factly, staring at his hands at his long, wooden dining room table. "Hangings, they are common but they are not made public. It's really depressing, it's really tough going."...

I just read about some of this in National Geographic, but this article is even worse. Scientists don't understand how politicians won't act-I say those scientists need to run for political positions as lawmakers. Everywhere. & tests should be required for those who run for office, president, vp, def sec & no aptitude tests?

[leftstreet]

7. K&R

[earthboundmisfit]

8. To the Greatest

Needs to be front page all over the world.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. Quite a warning. K&R

[KakistocracyHater]

10. what Australians are going thru I cannot even begin to

imagine. The short-sightedness of the legislators there-lawns all over should be prohibited-drinking water & food should be a higher priority. Those poor farmers pulling up & BURNING their peach trees: FRUITWOOD=PROFIT, they could be SELLING THEIR PULLED UP TREES for cooking fires/charcoal, this should have been thought of by legislators a long time ago. Never try to grow rice in such a dry climate, we Humans are too used to just forcing it, but Arnie should have outlawed growing lettuce last year, it doesn't have vitamins enough to justify watering it. Rice & cotton in Australia are the biggest water drain, according to Robert Draper in nationalgeographic.com/magazine April 2009; Australian lawmakers should have prohibited growing both cotton & definately rice.

California had a big drought in the Middle Ages 1300-1500ish, we could easily slip into a similar situation. Golf courses & lawns should be dropped, farmers should be encouraged towards growing nutricious food, not like lettuce, watering with soaker hoses. Baths take less water than showers, weedy parking lots should be pulled up so rain gets a chance to be stored in Nature's aquifers.

What scares me alot is that northern Australia suffers from massive downpours but tanker-trucks aren't sent there to vacuum up all that water; they should, & put it thru a filter & store that stormwater in water towers or sisterns or nature's own aquifers. Water is the new gold, goes well with gold/gold.

We & they have the technology to quickly rush in & vacuum up the water; why it hasn't been done yet.......?

[Delphinus]

11. You've raised some wonderful

questions and made a lot of us aware of things we might not have known.

I certainly wish the politicians, all over the world, would wake up!

[Catamount]

12. I agree with your warning---unfortunately Australia has.....

Been like this pretty much forever.
Why do you think so few people live there in the first place? With almost the same landmass as the USA we only have approximately 22 million people, and so little arable land to work with.

All the Eastern coastline has been overworked over the lat two centuries, although it certainly looks very beautiful, but it's almost impossible to maintain.
Part of the southern coasts and a bit around the west has been "cultivated"--but nature usually takes over--and the heat is relentless once you go a couple of hundred miles inland from any direction.

I grew up there in the 50s and remember the same horror stories as a child--the terrible fires and droughts, followed by flooding and ruin in every way.

Peter Garrett from Midnight Oil sings all too well about the plight of the people --and that was in the 80s--and now he''s some kind of minister in the Rudd government.

It is a land where only the aborigines can truly survive in the long term, having adopted to the extreme climate.

Both of my kids are living there right now--as are many of my friends--so I do fear for them--but they assure me it's OK they are used to it.

But yes I think you make your point well--about how the rest of the world will become like Australia--unless we have a deep freeze, brought about by other factors in rapid global climate change.
I think I'd rather feel hot than this infernal cold I'm feeling this year --right here in the Great Northwest.

K&R

[Catamount]

13. ..

[Catamount]

14. Sorry abut the doubling up--PC problems