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Australia launches billion-dollar drought plan

17 Comments
By William WEST

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17 Comments
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Fresh water pipelines from the coast with desalination plants providing the water, to the center of constant drought areas. If they can pump oil across Europe and Asia then we can pump water to areas prone to long term droughts. Fix it once and you wont have to pay out billions every few years to prop up farmers. Cheapest permanent solution to this almost yearly problem.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

And if Elon Musk can set up the world's largest Tesla lithium-ion battery in the middle of the Australian outback in absolutely no time flat, then nothing should be impossible.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Cape Town had a really bad one last year when the reservoirs went dry.

Everyone breathes a sigh of relief when the rain does eventually fall, but our memories are so short. If this new money could just be used not just for 'temporary' financial relief but for some grand plan to bridge the extremes between drought and floods...

5 ( +5 / -0 )

peter that actually makes sence, sadly making sence not politicians strong point.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

to help farmers struggling with the latest "big dry".

this bought of ‘big dry’ has been going on fir a decade and it’s taken a decade for the government to respond. Their response of low cost loans is pretty lain too. Thousands of people have been involved in donating money, animal feed, money and time to help these stricken farmers. Convoys of volunteer trucks have been traveling all over eastern Australia delivering water, supplies and stock feed. But! The best these government wankers can do is offer a loan? None is not going to buy rain. These people need help, not money!

4 ( +4 / -0 )

kurisupisu - Australia needs to desalinize the seawater there...

Two of the largest desalinisation plants in the world are in south eastern Australia. (roll eyes)

2 ( +3 / -1 )

 It's very easy for the muppets to start jumping up and down about climate change, but cyclic severe drought in Australia has been going on for tens of millions of years.

No one is denying that - the problem is that humans are accelerating the rate of climate change and making them worse. We can't stop nature, but we can stop influencing it.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/israel-proves-the-desalination-era-is-here/

Israelis seem to have solved the problem of how to desalinate sea water cheaply. According to the article, over half of the fresh water used in Israel, including for agriculture, now comes from desalination plants. I was looking at the price, and it is about one-half the cost of what we here in California are paying to ship water from Central California to Southern California. There are currently at least two desalination projects in construction over here, one in San Diego, and another at the Salton Sea. Seems to me that if this technology is as cheap and reliable as it is claimed to be, it needs to be built up around the world in drought stricken areas that are close enough to the ocean to make the idea practical. Still, we need to address all the problems facing us.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

With no rain, no income and no hope it’s just what the farmers need - another loan! The only thing that can fix this is proper rain and it will still take a season or two to get back to normal production and revenue after that anyway. Who knows when that will come.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I spent ten days in Oz and not a drop of rain.

Australia needs to desalinize the seawater there...

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Countries need to start investigating how environmental programs can help/ mitigate global climate change.

As a start, see,

England established BREEAM, https://www.breeam.com/

USA established US Green Building Councilhttps://new.usgbc.org/

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Correct. The climate change zealots need to refocus their attention towards finding ways for mankind to live on a warming planet. They believe that they can actually stop global warming

Given that those who trust scientists understand the climate is cyclical and don't believe we can completely stop global warming, which is not the correct term, there is no reason tonread this post past them third sentence.

Accuracy matters a great deal, especially in critical discourse.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

The uk has probably had the wettest autumn on record, the Ozis, are welcome to all of this blasted rain that we keep getting, any one who says that climate change is not happening is living on another planet. ooo, doesn't good old Donny think its a load of rubbish?

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Jtsnose - Countries need to start investigating how environmental programs can help/ mitigate global climate change.

Severe drought in Australia has nothing to do with recent climate change issues. Australia has been in and out of drought cycles since it separated from Antarctica some 85 million years ago. Accurate records have only been kept for the last 200 years or so. However, the fossil records show many cycles of drought through the millennia. Each century records around 25-30 years (25-33%) of severe drought. Recent human activity has contributed by deforestation and damming and diverting rivers, which has exposed to much top soil and removed flood plains. These have had a disastrously negative effect on many areas of inland Australia. Australia is the world's second driest continent, next to Antarctica. It's very easy for the muppets to start jumping up and down about climate change, but cyclic severe drought in Australia has been going on for tens of millions of years.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Throw money at the problems arising from climate change?? Duh, Morrison has no plan to deal with climate change at all, other than throw money at it?

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Disillusioned - Australia is the world's second driest continent, next to Antarctica. It's very easy for the muppets to start jumping up and down about climate change, but cyclic severe drought in Australia has been going on for tens of millions of years.

Correct. The climate change zealots need to refocus their attention towards finding ways for mankind to live on a warming planet. They believe that they can actually stop global warming. Since climate change has been occurring since Planet Earth was formed, and the current CYCLE of global warming began during the last ice age, the global warming zealots have been unable to come up with any plan that could possibly stop global warming.  

Countries really do need to start investigating how environmental programs can help/ mitigate global climate change, which will allow mankind to adapt to warming temps. More insulation, more air conditioning, and more energy.

And they should stop trying to scare the children.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

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