Text 17602, 108 rader
Skriven 2007-07-02 20:48:48 av hap newsom
     Kommentar till en text av Glen Jamieson
Ärende: RE: A SORRY LOT WE ARE 70702
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-> 
-> Good morning Hap,
-> 
Morning? Why son it's the middle of the afternoon! (grin)

->  -> I live on what used to be the standard suburban size quarter acre
->  -> block, so plenty of space.  These days these blocks are frequently
->  -> halved, with a house built on each half.  Maintenance is easier, and
->  -> the occupants prefer to work to earn money to buy their food, rather
->  -> than grow some of it, as used to be done when I was much younger.
->  -> 
->  HN> We used to love our veggie garden and got plenty of good food from 
it
->  HN> in years back...but we ran short of "spare" time to tend to it and 
have
->  HN> not had one in over 10 years now. Our "lot" is is much smaller than 
1/4
->  HN> acre, I think ours is 90'X 120 but I'd have to measure to be sure.
-> 
-> After some quick calcs I see that block is, in fact almost 1/4 acre.
-> During WW2, with a lot of hard work, my parents' garden supplied a
-> large proportion of the food for a family of 4.  We are a lot lazier
-> now, and kids are strangely reluctant to desert their electronic toys
-> for the joys of collecting manure and digging it into an onion plot.
->  
Yes, and as I aged I became less and less interested in doing that same 
chore myself! (grin)

->  -> With the increasing price of water, that subsidy, plus the consumer's
->  -> need to buy less water, is a great incentive to take water saving
->  -> actions.  It also enables the consumer to wash his car without being
->  -> arrested.  :)
->  ->  
->  HN> Water is so cheap here in the great Northwet we hardly figure it as
->  HN> costing anything. We do have our dry spates in summer though and
->  HN> rationing is not unknown.
-> 
-> At present I pay Aus$1.09 per kilolitre (say, $5 per 1000 gallons), and
-> the price is expected to increase considerably in the future.
->  
I'd have to ask what our rate is but I'm sure it's not 1/20th of yours.

->  -> Are the Californicans favoured above the inhabitants of other states?
->  -> If so, why?  Because there are more of them?
->  ->  
->  HN> Well there are a LOT of them, but visionary thinkers who were 
planning
->  HN> things way back even at the turn of the last century, made projects
->  HN> and plans that secured water for them for future growth...which 
panned
->  HN> out quite well for them, not so well for the people that followed and
->  HN> inhabited what was once barren desert (and still pretty much is now).
-> 
-> For which, Arnie's mob can be thankful, and hopefully enough of the
-> present generation will have similar forward thinking to provide for
-> the future generations.
->  
Well, they don't have nearly as many "forward thinkers" now as they did 
then...and the fact that they have "brown outs" every summer and have to 
buy power from us and the Canadians and anyone else who's got a watt for 
sale.
->  
->  ->  -> The next step is to close off some lakes alongside the Murray River
->  ->  -> allow them to dry up, so keeping more water in the river until it
->  ->  -> reaches the point where it is pumped to Adelaide.
->  ->  -> 
->  ->  HN> What a drastic measure! Are the lakes man made or natural and 
what
->  ->  HN> the environmental consequences of letting them dry up? 
->  -> 
->  -> They are natural lakes, covering quite a large area.  The grape growers
->  -> in the regions who have been irrigating from them are not happy at 
that
->  -> thought.  Likewise the owners of tourism businesses who depend on 
the
->  -> lakes to attract people who come for the water sports.  Many 
thousands
->  -> of local and migratory water birds use the lakes at present, and they
->  -> will be dispossessed.  All in all, a sorry prospect.  The whole region
->  -> around the mouth of the Murray was a complex combination of 
wetlands,
->  -> sand hills, lakes and salt water inlets, which used to be a major bird
->  -> habitat until many decades ago, when the swamps were drained and 
turned
->  -> into farmland, and the ecology of the area changed completely.
->  -> 
->  HN> What a devastating thought that is! I could think of a short quick
->  HN> method of solar distillation that would work on a small scale quite
->  HN> well but not well enough to supply water to a whole city. But you
->  HN> certainly could get hundreds of gallons a day from it if done properly.
->  HN> Keep me posted on the lake situation! What a fine mess we can make
->  HN> when we start mucking about with the natural order of things!
-> 
-> That area of South Australia actually has quite a high rainfall, and
-> the swamps were kept wet by rows of ancient sandhills between the 
swamp
-> and the sea.  Drains were cut through these sandhills 80 years ago, to
-> turn the area into pasture, and dairy farms.  It would be easy to block
-> off these drains and allow the swamps to re-form, but would displace
-> the dairy farmers now living there.  The whole area is very flat, so
-> dams cannot be built.   A difficult problem.
-> 
No dams perhaps but earthen dikes could be built with little difficulty. The 
real problems come from maintaining them!
chat with you soon
hap 
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