🚀 go-pugleaf

"DonH" <donlhumphries@bigpond.com> wrote in message 
news:YPrqo.1068$Bv4.528@viwinnwfe01.internal.bigpond.com...
> So, the Murray-Darling area had lots of rain this year.
> Is the drought now broken, and happy days are here again?
> Or is it unwise to generalise on one instance?
> Will, the rains come next year, and year after, etc?
> Maybe, play it safe, and plan accordingly - as there is no surety in all 
> this?
>  Which has priority - the River, or the Irrigators?
>  And can the lesser reaches, which affect Adelaide, be ignored, as of 
> little account?
>   Will river Redgums, almost dead due to prolonged water deprivation, 
> revive; or are they too far gone, and who cares anyway?
>    Yeah, lots of questions.  Let's not rush the answers.
>

# It seems that even the minimalist recommendations of the Murray-Darling 
Basin Authority may be "watered down", due to irrigators protesting loss of 
jobs and livelihoods.
   Fair enough, if economic and social factors prevail over environmental 
(loaded dice?, of 2:1), and the river system expires under weight of humans 
parasitic on it.
   But is it a simple choice, or can specifics enter the debate?
   Take rice, and cotton, farming - these tend to be large scale, and not 
characteristic of a temperate climate.
   Rice is usually a tropical crop, and needs lots of water, in ponding 
fashion.  Let's ban it as a farming enterprise south of, say, Brisbane.
   Cotton is typical of Deep South of USA; so why not confine it to Deep 
North of Australia?  Not south of, at least, Sydney.
   The Murray-Darling generally should be used for growth of fruit and 
vegetables, now erstwhile orchard/market garden arable land is covered by 
domestic housing, with expansion of suburban Sydney and Melbourne.
   While more efficient practices by irrigators (no open channels; 
drip-feeding) may help, there are probably just too many such farmers, and 
some may have to be found other occupations.
    But one thing is sure, and that is: if there is no river (just a series 
of mud-holes) there will be no irrigators to impose on it.
Better some cease farming, than all go; and Basin becomes dust Bowl.
    And recent good rains need fool no one; global warming is continuing 
relentlessly, so we are looking at a drying continent.
    "The drought is broken!"  Yeah?