The use of groundwater is “a major determiner in Australia’s future when it comes to water”, according to Professor Craig Simmons, director of the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training.
READ MORESinking the Top End dams and food bowl plan
Andrew Campbell, director of the Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods (RIEL) at Charles Darwin University, writes: Here we go again. The Coalition proposal to dam rivers in northern Australia to create a massive food bowl has been floated before, as have various schemes for harvesting water from what is perceived to be the over-watered [...]
READ MOREFloods around the world
The Queensland floods have dominated local media in the last week, and rightly so. However, other regions across the globe, including Sri Lanka, Brazil and South Africa, are also suffering severe flooding, although their governments may not be as equipped to cope with the devastation.
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Rockhampton flood crisis: attack of the blood suckers
Anton Lang (writing as TonyfromOz) writes from flood affected Rockhampton: The flood peak looks to have finally made it here into Rockhampton city, and fortunately, it only made it to 9.2 metres. The expected peak was 9.4 metres and some of you may think that extra 8 inches may not be much, but that 8 [...]
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A Sunrise climate cock-up and reading cat’s paws
Journalist Graham Readfearn writes: So you’re the news producer on a prime time Australian television breakfast show that’s been breathlessly covering the devastating affects of the Queensland floods and you’re looking for a new angle. How about a crack at climate change? For television, the floods are the epitome of the story that has everything. [...]
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Rockhampton flood crisis: flood peak arrives, life goes on
I feel a little guilty that even though I live here in Rockhampton, the centre of this massive flood crisis at the moment, it’s more through good fortune than anything that I have been lucky enough to be unaffected by any of the inundation.
READ MOREThe Rockhampton flood crisis: playing the waiting game
Anton Lang (writing as TonyfromOz) writes from flood affected Rockhampton, yesterday: Here in Rockhampton, it’s now a matter of waiting, waiting, waiting. I have no further images to add, because the last thing needed now is rubbernecks with cameras taking up space (see previous images here). The river level at the flood marker currently stands [...]
READ MOREFighting for survival in Cancun
Climate change is already affecting the lives of many of our Pacific Island neighbours. Phil Ireland caught up with Pelenise Alofa from Kiribati to hear a Pacific perspective on how the UN climate negotiations are unfolding in Cancun.
READ MOREMurray Murmurings: The costs of business as usual
Professor Rupert Quentin Grafton, director of Centre for Water Economics, Environment and Policy, writes: Water reform needs to include the knowledge, skills and leadership in Basin communities to develop new futures and support vital services needed for thriving communities. This not only requires political leadership and funding from Canberra and the States, it demands that [...]
READ MOREMurray Murmurings: What happens when two extremist ideologies meet
Tony Kevin writes: Farmer David Furphy’s comparison is apt: Australian city dwellers would certainly resent it if a Government-commissioned report was put out for public discussion, recommending that one third of their electricity supply, or one third of their suburban road network, should be closed down. Irrigated agriculture systems, like electric grids and city road [...]
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