When the Soviet Union existed and included Kazakhstan and Usbekistan, tremendous volumes of water were diverted from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers to grow cotton. This resulted in the drying up of the Aral Sea a once huge body of water in … [Read more...] about Has Anybody Visited the North Aral Sea Lately?
Water
Reflections on World Environment Day 2006
It's World Environment Day and I woke to hear Australia's MInister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer talking up the possibility of the Australian Government building a nuclear power station to run a water desalination plant for Adelaide. Adelaide … [Read more...] about Reflections on World Environment Day 2006
Reconciling with the Murray River
I lived for the first six years of my life in a mud brick house up the hill a bit from a creek in the Northern Territory. I remember the water as black and very deep. I remember as a child jumping as far into the middle of that creek as I could, … [Read more...] about Reconciling with the Murray River
Dam the Yangtze, But Not the Mary?
The largest dam in the world, The Three Gorge Dam on the Yangtze River in China, was completed, and ahead of schedule, just last week. And last week controversy errupted where I live in south eastern Queensland, Australia, over plans to dam the Mary … [Read more...] about Dam the Yangtze, But Not the Mary?
But Reed Beds Need Water!
I have previously expressed concern that graziers in the Macquarie Marshes are diverting environmental water from the Ramsar-listed nature reserve to private land. About two weeks ago I asked the NSW government whether the levy bank, as shown in … [Read more...] about But Reed Beds Need Water!
More Water Won’t Save the Macquarie Marshes
Yesterday the Sydney Morning Herald ran yet another nonsense story about the Macquarie Marshes. I reckon that their journalist, Anne Davies, was hoodwinked. There is a strong belief that more water, in particular more environmental flows, will … [Read more...] about More Water Won’t Save the Macquarie Marshes