The Murray rarely flows out to sea naturally. Lake Alexandrina at the mouth of the Murray is normally closed off by sand bars, and only the biggest floods get through.There is more flow down the Murray today than ever, thanks to the harnessing of water that would have flowed down the Snowy.Dont forget that between 1900 and 1910 the Murray river stopped flowing twice.There was no rice or cotton industries then, so to blame the current low flows on these industries is fallacious.

If you close down the rice industry, there would be instant and devestating effects on rural communities.Look at the effect lack of water allocation is currently having on towns such as Deniliquin (which has the 2nd largest rice mill in the southern hemisphere). The town is near dead as there is little income coming in from farmers, and most workers at the rice mill have been laid off.

Rice and cotton are both reasonably labour-intensive sectors.A cotton farm in northern NSW will often employ 10 workers year round, whilst having work for another 10-20 at cotton-chip (done by hand) and pick (harvest).These jobs flow onto the surrounding towns in the form of more money spent in the local economies, thereby creating more jobs.If these farms were converted to wheat growing (for example), 2 employees would be more than enough, as well as getting most of harvest out of the way.Rice is an intensive industry, with the average size of a rice farm around Deniliquin being 1200acres. That is as opposed to the grazing properties less than an hour away which can be up to 90,000acres, run by one family with 1 employee. Again, think of the flow of money into the local economies. To say that these communities would benefit is just plain silly. For any benefit to occur, a replacement would need to be found that generates as much income and as many jobs. Have you any practical suggestions?

Country Gal,
I do not agree or disagree with you, as a city slicker I am well aware of the need to retain those industries, and if they could be expanded, so much the better. My feelings on the matter are two fold
Firstly: We "greenies" are not advocating getting rid of rice or cotton, we are advocating that the cotton industry, and industry in general become enviromentally aware, and cause "much less" damage to our planet, in other words to be inovative, not conservative.
Secondly: If industry in general does not/ will not adapt, and continue to damage the planet, a job may be the last thing one would need, see Mad Max movie. We have a decade to turn things around, or see the gradual extinction of "our" species.

Country Gal,

The economy IS a subset of the environment. Pick an industry any industry, they all involve consuming (meaning burning/degrading/co-mingling) the environment/natural resources (such as soil carbon & minerals, ore bodies, hydrological systems, fisheries) or are otherwise entirely dependant upon industries that do. Natural resources is the polite name humans give to the biophysical capital we extract for our purposes, reguardless of any previous function. And then we wonder where all the fish went and why it isn't raining any more.

Naming your spending on environmental damage control the Department of Environment limits the problems only in the tiny minds of commercial journalists and speechwriters. How many decades have locals & scientists been warning on the Murray River? And how many billions have been spent on bandaids while the systemic problems ("plenty of water, its my right!" "this region needs development!") worsened.

Sure the initial stock of natural capital was big, but humans are pretty big these days too. Expanding population, meet limits of finite planet. Planet being of fixed size - i mention this because its often revelatory news to sky god fundamentalists, but its a strange kind of Country Gal who doesn't understand limits.

Endless growth on a finite planet is insane, and we all know it. Sadly, it looks like the fundamentalists will maintain their fantasy till the end - taking us with them.

Liam, You couldn't be more correct, everything in nature is related to something else. When we humans disturb the balance we don't know what the consquences will be in the long term.

Sadly what we do know is being ignored for political expediency, by the two worst polluters of our asmosphere, Bush and Howard, because of profit. Profit and wealth will count for zilch when the crunch comes, sadly I'll be leaving my daughter to face that world, something I'm ashamed of on behalf of all common senseical people.

Country Gal The Murray is critically ill. The Murray had healthy flow most years before it was tampered with and only dried during the worst droughts. Today is barely flows. What you saw when you visited here is a stagnant and saline weir. Lake Alexandra is dying through rising salinity , having not having its natural flushes for decades. The Coorong is also dying as fresh water is replaced with sea water. Fisheries in the Southern Ocean are also suffering as nutrients are not entering fish breeding areas and there is no fresh water for species which need to incubate in lowsaline water.
For every job cotton and rice create we can assume thousands are lost as those incompetent and wasteful industries destroy the livelyhood of the majority down stream. We should reward good and appropriate farming but we must penalise practices that serve to undermine our nation. Environmental degredation is undermining this nation. As an Australian I do my part by Never purchasing products containing Australian grown cotton or rice. Austraia is too important to me than the greed of a few.

Louise, those who deny that anthropogenic activities contribute to environmental damage or get defensive on a personal level, need to think more of the big picture.

Forgetting the climate change issue, hydrocarbon emissions and farming practices are killing humans. "OK" some might say, "it's one way of reducing the hordes". Trouble is those who are physically and perhaps mentally damaged from exposure to hydrocarbon emissions, or pesticides and insecticides, often develop gene altering diseases which are inherited by the offspring. This exposure is continually weakening the species, which I believe is occurring big time!

For the health of communities alone, the release of uncontrolled, unregulated stack emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, must cease!

For the health of communities alone, farmers must cease dumping millions of litres of hazardous, toxic chemicals on to our fresh and processed produce and into our factory farmed animals. The issue is not exclusively economic - but a moral and ethical one!

We are now eating produce which is unfit for human consumption!

We are now breathing air which has been privatised and contaminated by serial polluters and unfit for humans who are developing the awful, insidious diseases from the excessive exposures to fossil fuels, pesticides and insecticides - and that's scientific!

Therefore, climate change or not? Anthropogenic? Biogenic? It matters not! We will continue to self-destruct because 'people before profits' is not part of the equation! Farmers are not entirely "goodie two shoes" and have shirked a responsibility to effectively reduce their use of pesticides and insecticides!

And, Louise - no connection to the "Greens" and have never voted for them - at least not yet - though things sure are achangin'!