Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Junior]

The driest continent on earth is experiencing its worst drought and has been undergoing a sustained drying out period.

Soon they may have to shut down all agriculture.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3992231.stm

But its not only Australia. China is becoming a dustbowl too, and I doubt they can sustain their pace of development.

[mnhnhyouh]

There is much truth to this, for most of Australia. However, it is about 4000 km from top to bottom, with the top near the equator. The northern part has distinct wet seasons, and one town has an average annual rainfall of a tad over 4m, that is more than 12 foot.

h

[happeningthang]

Maybe so, but there's not a lot of infrastructure up in Australia's deep North, and no major rivers to sustain irrigation. It's going to take a lot of work to relocate the bulk of a country's agriculture.

PM Howard, and treasurer Costello are already talking about high prices, and exporting food, and the Murray -Darling River is facing collapse. Very annoying that the PM's river rescue plan was implemented just as it faces complete failure, since this has been a recognised problem, and debated since the 80s. Political expediency, and the path of least resistance, means that they only act when it's too late. Disgusting, and history will want to find someone accountable if it kills off farming in the Eastern states.

Perth recently installed a desalination plant in expectation of becoming a much drier place than it has been in the past. It's funny to see politicians scrambling to revisit and implement a water pipeline scheme from the Kimberly region (which gets huge dumps of rain during the 'wet') which was openly mocked when originally proposed by Aboriginal Ernie Bridge. Bridge has been talking about this for the last decade.

http://www.abc.net.au/gnt/people/Transcripts/s1223860.htm

[chris_J2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_restrictions_in_Australia

[mnhnhyouh]

[Natalia]

I've been in my part of Australia for two months. It hasn't rained once, and there's no rain predicted for the next four months - at least. Most of the trees here - even in people's gardens - are marked pink. Meaning they are going to be cut down because they died in the drought. As it is we cannot wash our cars, and only parts of our gardens can be watered (and then only in the early morning or in the evening every second day).

But a number of years into water restrictions, most Australians seem to be ignoring them. It's infuriating.

[Octavius Hite]

Jared Diamond's book "Collapse" has a detailed section on Australia and the many problems it faces. It is unlikely that Australia will be able to support a population of more then 10 million people by the end of this century.

But if they make major changes economically, socially, politically, etc they may be able to save their continent.


http://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Societies-Choose-Fail-Succeed/dp/0670033375

[happeningthang]

[mnhnhyouh]

Yep, I think the Murray Darling is totally stuffed. In '86 Barry Jones said that if it was going to be fixed, they had better start right then. Well they didnt, and it is now too late.

h

[jinju]

It already is unliveable what with all those Australians there.

[chris_J2]

[rocklee]

When I went back to Australia just recently I couldn't even wash my car! I think the situation ihas leveled up to stage 4 in Melbourne.

[huffdaddy]