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Water bird numbers down 70% in the Murray-Darling Basin over ~30 years (1 Viewer)

Absolute Madness !

So taxpayer money designed to help the environment is actually being used to harvest more floodplain water from ever reaching the rivers and to fund investment in completely inappropriate irrigated agriculture on some of the flattest hottest land in the basin ?!! Absolute Madness !!! :storm:

The Federal Government is withholding the latest tranche of funding from NSW because it has not completed submitting it's 'plans' ..... given the rorts and environmental destruction this money has been used for maybe this is in some ways a good thing? :cat:
https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp...r-funding-from-nsw-in-murray-darling-standoff


https://www.google.com.au/amp/amp.abc.net.au/article/11279468

https://farmtable.com.au/forests-flooding-while-rivers-run-dry-two-tales-of-one-river-system/





Chosun :gh:
 
Chinese company approved to run water mining operation in drought-stricken Queensland

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...i72tTMwmU11qy-Yqgj6FjG2BhpO-FmP4nDfgUUua17LqQ
".... to allow Joyful View to pump 96m litres from the aquifer until 2111 – another 92 years."

"A 2009 study, which was relied upon by the Queensland government when extending the water extraction licences, raised significant uncertainty about whether the continued pumping of water from the aquifer at Cherrabah was sustainable in the long term.

The study concluded there was “insufficient recharge data” to model the sustainability of the aquifer beyond a year, and that there was a “risk” the aquifer would deplete in times of low rainfall.

Joyful View has this year commissioned a second study, which was summarised in a council report but has not been released publicly. According to the council summary of the study, it claimed there would be minimal impact on the water resource of surrounding properties. However, the report also acknowledged that test pumping was “extremely challenging to analyse” and that the authors did not attempt to model the long-term drawdown of the water resource because doing so would not be reliable."





This is the Stupidocene - the age of human induced stupidity ......







Chosun :gh:
 
Don’t Blame Nature For The Disasters We’ve Created

https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/arti...9CV-EErd7xsiwLfM00RGnbGU-H785Jw3lQVagNDGmqZqc

"Professor Head laments that in January last year, when the fish kills became a big story, Indigenous and other communities in the region had long-before run out of water and had been drinking donated bottled water for months."

“But that wasn’t enough to set off this outcry. It needed dead fish and white men crying.”







Chosun :gh:
 
'Pure bastardry': Anger from NSW Government, river council, over QLD water rules

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2724499704337059&id=175716459215409

"Murray-Darling Basin war of words over northern irrigators extracting water from potential river flows"
https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2020...HFcOxEUmUwVGQOlX3Ft2CWfs4hxPCGcxvSv8zKUC1f8Lg

"NSW water minister Melinda Pavey said her government had seen satellite images showing Queensland irrigators were extracting water from some rivers in the northern Murray-Darling Basin.

As widespread rain was forecast across much of that region this week, Ms Pavey said Queensland must impose bans to ensure some water from any potential flows crossed the border."








Chosun :gh:
 
Ffs !

The corporate exploitation resumes at the very first opportunity ..... as suffocated fish still rot, and flames still smolder ........

https://www.theguardian.com/austral...ZG8_4-CLZNd7kutX458h_eLmgbnsnmBsz_bZQou9M01MI

NSW green light to irrigators to harvest rainfall angers downstream residents

Menindee’s Graeme McCrabb, who raised awareness of mass fish kills, says he is heartbroken by the state government’s decision ...... “You should see it: mussels dying on the side of the river, dead fish every day. Words just don’t describe how terrible it is here,” he said."

"Stuart Le Lievre, the vice-president of the NSW Floodplain Association, which represents farmers other than irrigators, said it was “a dreadful decision” and possibly illegal because the water-sharing plans put water for towns and stock ahead of water for irrigation."

"the Greens said it defied logic to start harvesting overland flows.

“When parts of the Darling are still dry, it defies logic that corporate upstream irrigators would be permitted to pump water and harvest floodplains, preventing precious flows from making it downstream,” the Greens water spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said."



"Mayor slams floodplain harvesting"
https://www.brokenhill.nsw.gov.au/C...l8H2yrAFGmynZ2G5x3LYfFVc3qrwBA6ukWuDVVKR1RkLA







Chosun :gh:
 
Last edited:
Defcon 4 ........

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...0DOVZXpRkzNL1UcOIZP5hjU6LN98-dW82TWKh_ss69sbQ

"Australia’s rivers are being hit by a “triple whammy” of impacts that will have serious and long-term effects on species and could push some to extinction, according to experts."

..... “There’s a real risk of losing species that we have not even gotten around to describing yet.”

..... "Prof Max Finlayson, of the Institute for Land, Water and Society at Charles Sturt University, told Guardian Australia that while the individual impacts on rivers such as floods, droughts and bushfires were “not new phenomena”, it was the combination of impacts – together with the scale of the fires – that was “the big difference”.

“We have hammered these streams and lakes and they’re already under pressure from land clearing, development, pollution and [changes to] flows. The remnant populations [of species] are now subjected across a large area to a bigger threat. It’s extending the problems in a big and nasty way."

.... “We need actions, not just talk. We are at high risk of not just losing populations but whole species. Once we lose them, they are gone.”








Chosun :gh:
 
We need to get a big shift in the way people do things

https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.c...awTgSvCYZZO253lyqX-U2dqhhs47Cqu-kvAkjCI4DygsU

" ..... recent years have seen this system completely dry up in the north west of the state, which hasn’t been seen before in living memory.

An unprecedented drought is how it’s been described. However, those out there on the land tell a different story. And while this does involve a lack of rain, it also includes a number of human caused factors that exacerbate this, such as water mismanagement, theft, privatisation and speculation.

The Australia Institute outlined in December that flood plain harvesting – or water hoarding – continues to take place in the Northern Basin in an “unmeasured and unregulated” manner. And a new licensing scheme is set to increase the sustainable diversion limit.

This harvested water is being diverted into private dams. The institute has further documented that around 20 to 30 taxpayer-funded dams have recently been constructed along the Murray-Darling, which do nothing to “help drought-stricken towns, struggling small irrigators or the wider public”.

........

"First, we need a royal commission to investigate it, because there’s lots of corruption going on. We need to make these people accountable."








Chosun :gh:
 
I'm posting this because the concept is applicable globally, and merely for people to have a think about ....
https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2020...jEP5tKA-iaZd6lVtLeErrbTFRc0fAZtu7f8o7UmjRiEYs

My own view is that I disagree with most of it. When the drought cycles come, the panic tends to be on - calls for even more dams to be built (water harvesting). The value of wetlands and floodplains doesn't get a look in - particularly if it then rains and the immediate needs are met. This is just another form of that essential floodwaters harvesting. There are also the usual proposals to regulate, control, and allocate 'rights' to certain entities.

Having said that the holistically uninformed and unsustainable extraction component of the equation is already under way the world over. I don't think the way to solve that particular problem is by making a whole new problem - it certainly won't help the birds .....



Chosun :gh:
 
Almond demand for water a 'train smash ' waiting to happen

https://www.theland.com.au/story/66...bwJJMi9PVdcAzxC0YFlLm4C66fGV2oG5SAakqo5GT6fOA

This is madness. :storm:
Through taxpayer funding, the activity has been reset in the basin for even more water extraction intensive investments in even more unsuitable water demanding permanent plantings for private profit. It's:-
Lose for the river, the environment, and Indigenous peoples.
Lose for suitable sustainable economic activity that supports communities.
Lose for the taxpayer who has funded this mess, and bears the cost of the ongoing debacle and environmental degradation.





Chosun :gh:
 
When the River Runs Dry .....Australian TV - NITV ch34 12pm today

This excellent mind blowing documentary will be replayed in ~ 1/2 hr at midday today AEST NITV ch34.

An excellent summary for all Australians and our International friends - Must Watch :t:

I'm sure Australia is not the only country that is being fleeced by the robber barons ......... :-C





Chosun :gh:
 
The destruction of this world significant ecosystem continues apace - committing cultural genocide in the process. So depressing is the unbridled greed that I have not posted every bit of news emerging.

The basic situation remains the same - destroying a real earth for real profit in a fictitious financial system. The absolute hide of using taxpayer funds to 'illegally' harvest floodplain waters - thus preventing natural regenerative processes and negatively impacting the health of the entire system - just beggars belief.

A Royal Commission, or better yet a Nuremberg trial for 'crimes against humanity' is long overdue.

https://www.theland.com.au/story/69...NE4J6cliySzWtO7kthfrMOvl5FvzCWNwG5xnV5kkri12s







Chosun :gh:
 
Macquarie Marshes come back to life after drought/ fire -(Is it enough ? Long term ?)

Disappointingly, this article mentions none of the floodplain diversions, and over extraction that saw serious degradation done to the Marshes. It's not all 'climate change'. Clearing, destruction of the soil sponge and hydrological cycle - even the presence of dams in themselves, are key factors in the degradation and destruction throughout the whole basin. Precious wetlands (permanent and ephemeral) more so.

Is this little drink enough to save the Marshes and boost bird numbers back to full strength ..... ? :cat:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10...Bruq3stru6n4W9MBLSr2ClpVqpRGvW9jTlkv8B-ArmJ68







Chosun :gh:
 

Water from Murray-Darling Basin plan not being delivered to wetlands, Australian-first report finds​

Overall, only 2 per cent of all the wetlands throughout the Murray-Darling Basin that could be inundated with environmental water controlled by the Federal Government were actually watered each year, he said.

"This is a $13 billion reform program, and we think that the Australian public would expect a better rate of return than 2 per cent per year," he told the ABC.










Chosun :ninja:
 
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