The Kimberly Canal
The WA election campaign is hotting up. The main idea in debate is the Kimberly Canal. What a ridiculous idea. The idea of building a canal 3,700km to supply a Perth with water is so filled with holes i don't know where to start.
The first i guess is to look at the history of fiddling with hydrological cycles in this country. Not many have been successful - history tells us, if you dont need to play with river/groundwater, dont. To illustrate this point, have a look at the murray-darling system and the huge effects that salinity is having on the farming systems nation wide.
Second is the huge environmental and social effects removing water from a fragile environment and through a fragile environment. To think that you can remove such large amounts of water from the fitzroy and have no negative effects is a ridiculous concept.
The last main point is as western humans we are intent on manipulating our environment to suit our lifestyle rather than accepting that we live in a harsh, water limiting environment - we should not manipulate and degrade our environment to suit of selfish way of life. A responsible government should be giving 100% rebate to grey water systems and 100% rebates to personal rainwater tanks. We haven't even given thought to ways to use the huge amounts of storm water that flows off our roads and buildings. To spend $2b on a crazy project when we haven't even tried the cheaper more responsible projects is utter stupidity.
The first i guess is to look at the history of fiddling with hydrological cycles in this country. Not many have been successful - history tells us, if you dont need to play with river/groundwater, dont. To illustrate this point, have a look at the murray-darling system and the huge effects that salinity is having on the farming systems nation wide.
Second is the huge environmental and social effects removing water from a fragile environment and through a fragile environment. To think that you can remove such large amounts of water from the fitzroy and have no negative effects is a ridiculous concept.
The last main point is as western humans we are intent on manipulating our environment to suit our lifestyle rather than accepting that we live in a harsh, water limiting environment - we should not manipulate and degrade our environment to suit of selfish way of life. A responsible government should be giving 100% rebate to grey water systems and 100% rebates to personal rainwater tanks. We haven't even given thought to ways to use the huge amounts of storm water that flows off our roads and buildings. To spend $2b on a crazy project when we haven't even tried the cheaper more responsible projects is utter stupidity.
posted by Accidental Academic at 9:01 am
3 Comments:
Yes .... but what do you 'really' think about the idea. :)
I must admit that the idea of pulling that much water out of another area worries me. As a society we've grown used to the idea that if we want something we just need to throw money at it without caring of the consequences.
> The last main point is as
> western humans we are intent on
> manipulating our environment to
> suit our lifestyle rather than
> accepting that we live in a
> harsh, water limiting
> environment
Having lived in Japan and visited Russia I can tell you that it's certainly not just westerners who manipulate the environment - all industrialised humans do it all over the world.
Not that it's always a good thing, but I get tired of the self-flagellation
westerners do to themselves.
I would like to see a unified body of scientists and environmentalists propose a single plan for water use in Australia.
After having read Philip E. Johnson's "Reason in the Balance", I rather doubt "a unified body of scientists and environmentalists" would have all that much to offer.
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