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The Forum > Article Comments > Wild politics and water > Comments

Wild politics and water : Comments

By Susan Hawthorne, published 23/4/2007

A few falls of rain - even some very significant falls of rain - will not be enough to deal with the problems of the Murray Darling Basin.

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Great article, a very clear and sensible argument.

From letters in The Age today

OUR Prime Minister, who art in Canberra, Narrowed be thy Name. To thy kingdom come, Drought has come, for continuing environmental crimes against our Global Haven. Give us this day recognition of Global Warming. And prevent us our Parochial Mindedness, As other countries' efforts only further isolate us. And lead us not into economic obsession, but deliver us from coal-based destruction. For thine is thy future, with renewable power, and water aplenty, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Anthony Poutsma, Albany Creek, Queensland
Posted by billie, Monday, 23 April 2007 9:36:32 AM
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Years ago, a friend loaned me a copy of One Straw Revolution. It was a life-changing book, and relevant to this topic.

As luck would have it, electronic copies can be obtained here (pdf 3 Mb):

http://www.soilandhealth.org/copyform.aspx?bookcode=010140.fukuoka

- I obtained a copy this morning, so it all works.

Fill out the form to obtain an e-mailed link directly to the pdf. Save to a suitable directory.

You can press the "non-join" button to swipe a freebie copy, but I think I'll do the right thing and join, make a donation - whatever.

The Soil and Health Homepage is here:

http://www.soilandhealth.org/index.html

Happy reading - happy dreaming. Cheers.
Posted by Chris Shaw, Carisbrook 3464, Monday, 23 April 2007 10:06:10 AM
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why is all this 'news' to oz agri-businessmen?

perhaps the monoculture extraction of maximum cash from nature is built in to a capitalist society? or are all oz farmers total fools about land management?

more likely, this is just the latest manifestation of the intersection of two lines on a graph: the ever rising line of population multiplied by energy use, and the cyclical line of available resources, tending downwards.

there are visible leaks in the dyke between business culture and the sea of physical and biological reality. bad tines are coming, and that's the good news. if people don't get control of society away from politicians, bad times may be disaster or even extinction.

politicians can not solve this crisis, humanity must be energized by participation in decision making. democracy is vital, pollie-rule is fatal.
Posted by DEMOS, Monday, 23 April 2007 10:47:10 AM
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Growing rice and cotton in Australia is pure madness. Not only because of the dryness of the continent, but also because, by growing rice and cotton we are taking away much of the wealth of our immediate neighbours in Asia and the subcontinent, who need to sell their cotton and rice simply to survive.
I can't do much about the cotton, but at the supermarket I always make sure I'm not buying Australian rice.
Posted by CitizenK, Monday, 23 April 2007 11:07:56 AM
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There seems to be an assumption that long term agriculture is possible in Oz but in fact there is no evidence for this. It appears to be based apon the fervent hopes of the landless peasants of Europe and 3rd,4th and barstard sons of English arisocacy looking to create new dynasty.
There have been at lest 3 waves of people from the North coming to Oz. All these groups had some association with horticulture, the oldest rice growing was 9000 years ago in South Thailand. The last lot in, 8000 years ago difinatly knew of horticulure. There have been traces of horticulture found but these have always been attibuted to later people. Is it not possible that aborignes tried horticulture and it failed. We have no indication farming can continue as present in this country
Posted by Whispering Ted, Monday, 23 April 2007 11:36:53 AM
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If susan had been anywhere near real Australian farmers over the past decade she would understand how far down the learning curve she really is. The capacity to form new, fertile soils, and to increase their depth and water retention capacity has been fairly common knowledge for at least 3 decades. Stubble retention ans zero-till cropping is now very widely practiced. Our rice and cotton yields, as with most other agricultural products, are up with world best yields.

There is the odd smattering of common sense in Susan's article but it is suffering from an overburden of vacuous urban rambling disguised as contemplation. Read "The Land" or "Qld Country Life" every week for three years, and attend a dozen cattle and sheep sales in each of those years, and take the time to actually listen to a dozen people who have survived more than three drought cycles, and then come back for a chat on the real issues confronting Australian agriculture.

And then, Susan, get yourself a farm, add the mortgage that is at least double the median house price, meet the repayments over a 15 year period instead of the urban norm of 20-30 years, and then set aside 35% of your productive capacity for a wildlife refuge that no-one is willing to help pay for.

And then come and give us your opinion on the good residents of Adelaide who are still watering their lawns with water from Tamworth, Toowoomba and Tatong when every farmer downstream has had the tap turned off. And then give us your opinion on the million megalitres of fresh water that evaporates from Lake Alexandrina each year that used to be evaporated from salt water prior to the barrages.

Yes, our farmers have problems but most of them are caused by bad policy delivered by an ignorant urban majority.
Posted by Perseus, Monday, 23 April 2007 11:42:39 AM
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