This is unbelievable. Where the hell are they going to buy food, China? yeah, sad joke, I know, but seriously.... probably, yeah. American farmers are going nuts planting corn to burn up in our cars. Christ what a world we've made. And me too- I should have thought about it, I should have wondered why the 'sunburnt country' was making such good inexpensive wine. Unsustainable irrigation, that's why. Add a major major drought, maybe some general temperature rise, and, well, it's out.
"The Murray-Darling basin in south-eastern Australia yields 40 per cent of the country's agricultural produce. But the two rivers that feed the region are so pitifully low that there will soon be only enough water for drinking supplies. Australia is in the grip of its worst drought on record, the victim of changing weather patterns attributed to global warming and a government that is only just starting to wake up to the severity of the position.
The Prime Minister, John Howard, a hardened climate-change sceptic, delivered dire tidings to the nation's farmers yesterday. Unless there is significant rainfall in the next six to eight weeks, irrigation will be banned in the principal agricultural area. Crops such as rice, cotton and wine grapes will fail, citrus, olive and almond trees will die, along with livestock.
A ban on irrigation, which would remain in place until May next year, spells possible ruin for thousands of farmers, already debt-laden and in despair after six straight years of drought."
LINK
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