Support our Kickstarter

A Thirsty Island

Renee Verdier
Lake Hume.jpg

Australia’s once lush Murray-Darling basin supplies water for four Australian states. However, due to unsustainable management and Australia's worst drought in 100 years (called "The Big Dry"), the water of the basin’s Lower Lakes has been overallocated and depleted to a disastrous degree. Receding water levels have wreaked havoc on the surrounding ecosystem, raising the salt content of the remaining water to undrinkable levels and inciting a mass evacuation of the area's famous Australian Pelicans.

Scientists believe the basin is destined to become a series of acid lakes.  (In fact, acid sulfates - a byproduct of pollution – already cause the lake bed to burn one’s feet.)  Local farmers are being forced to give up their herds, crops, and businesses as the allocation they’ve enjoyed has finally become unsustainable.

The situation looks grim.  Earlier this month Water Minister Penny Wong declared the Lower Lakes to be “beyond salvation.

Story via The Daily Grail.

Creative Commons Image: "Lake Hume at 4% - 6531" by suburbanbloke on Flickr.

 

Comments

That's just sad to see. .

Submitted by Sancho23 on Tue, 09/09/2008 - 11:33.
That's just sad to see. . .and to read about. There are such things as natural cycles that will produce such things as riverbed dry ups and such, but this appears to be influenced by our activities here on Planet Home. . .just sad.

 

 

 

Black Light in the Attic Podcast w/Serpicody & Sancho

http://blacklightattic.podomatic.com 

it is sad. i feel a bit

Submitted by oneiam4 on Wed, 09/10/2008 - 06:45.
it is sad. i feel a bit ashamed at myself for not knowing more about this, since it's happening in my own backyard. by more i guess i mean more than the general story. this could be a motivator to go and do some research. but then, one doesn't have to search far and wide to come across news of environmental devastation, eco-crimes or the like. in a globalised world, what does it matter whether its in new orleans, mumbai or australia? isn't it cold shit or warm shit, so to speak? in a way it could be seen as being all part of the same general problem... but we're learning to become better global citizens and local caretakers.

Thanks for bringing the

Submitted by Wabi Sabi Wookie on Thu, 09/11/2008 - 06:06.
Thanks for bringing the plight of the Murray-Darling Basin to the world, Renee, much appreciated. I live in Melbourne and we've known about this situation for over a decade -- and authorities have allowed it to go from bad to worse to irreparable. The damage is done, an entire ecosystem will never recover. To give a sense of scale to people not familiar with Australia, the Murray-Darling Basin is over 3000km long and almost as wide. It runs from Queensland in the north, through New South Wales, and down to Victoria in the south, two thirds the length of eastern Australia. This is a MASSIVE and CRITICALLY IMPORTANT ecosystem that we have completely destroyed. The worst thing is why it has been allowed to get this way. The agriculture industry in Australia is worth billions and is a large cog in the economic machine. If it goes down, the economy suffers. And that, in a nutshell, is why the M-D has been allowed to be destroyed -- for the economy. It gets worse. Australia is the driest continent on Earth, and despite over a decade of drought, people are growing water-thirsty crops such as cotton and rice! Yes, we're going cotton in the semi-arid outback! This requires enormous amounts of water, so the M-D has been dammed up and siphoned off, and the river system downstream from New South Wales to South Australia (the Murray River runs through Victoria to South Australia) has suffered terribly. All because cotton, rice, and boutique crops like almonds are making a lot of profit right now. Yes, an entire ecosystem over 3000km in size has been destroyed for SHORT-TERM PROFIT. I'm not exaggerating just how much water has been drained from the M-D Basin for farms growing crops grossly inappropriate to the Australian climate. It is reprehensible, the stupidity and greed of it all is despicable. The drought in Australia has been bad the past decade, without a doubt. But the rivers would have survived. The Australian environment has adapted to dry conditions, it knows how to survive when things get tough. What it can't do is survive human stupidity, greed and selfishness. And my elected leaders, from all sides of politics Left and Right, haven't had the guts to put a stop to it, because the 'economy' is more important than 3000km of fragile ecosystem. The result is the destruction of an ecosystem that will never, ever recover. I'm not being melodramatic, it is scientific fact that the M-D ecosystem will NEVER recover. It makes me sick and sad and angry, and I want the rest of the world to know just how stupid and greedy my fellow Australians have been.