<OT>We are going to be in trouble

[Keith Antoine]

By we I mean Australia and especially Queensland. I do not suppose for 
one moment that we get a mention in the news overseas and specifically 
in the US. We are in the grip of a vicious drought, which is not unusual 
for us being that we are the driest country/continenet in the world. 
However we have now officially crosssed the line of worst drought for 
over 100 years and no sign of any rain.

Our water supply for the Gold coast, Brisbane, Sunshine coasts: i.e dams 
have dropped to below 35% capacity. We are on strict water restrictions 
and in October we will go to stage 2 restrictions. We are not allowed to 
use hoses in gardens or wash cars, showers are no more than 5 mins, 
flush WC only for solids, turn taps off while brushing teeth or shaving etc.

There does not appear to be a good forcast for rain this side of the end 
of November. Some farmers have had to walk off their properties, but the 
big worry is crops not getting water or if they do the rain comes when 
not wished for in the planting cycle. So the predictions of the CSIRO in 
the late 70's when they predicted the Oz could not support bmore then 16 
million people, due to its fragile ecology are proving correct (we have 
21 mill. Out west bores into the great artisian basin are now failing or
new bores are cutting pressure to others.

Our great worry too (bit too late) is salination of water and land. We 
are paying the price of heavy deforestation ( as Montana is somewhat to 
a lesser degree in the US) in an very fragile ecology plus the 
introduction of cloven hooved animals plus rabbits. Admittedly we came 
here some 200 years ago with european farming techniques, which were 
totally damaging to this environment. The Governments were mostly 
destructive and its only in the lst 40 years that we have learnt 
scientifically how we have raped this land. Now we are going to pay for 
our ignorance.

What saddens me is that Indonesia is burning off land, well the farmers 
are, and Malaysia is experiencing heavy smoke from them and some people 
have died there because of its toxicity. Wont we ever learn from others 
mistakes.

Sorry for the rant but I do not think others outside Australia really 
know, and once agin even some ordinary Australians do not want to 
believe it. There are now hefty fines in place and some are learning the 
hard way.

-- 
Keith Antoine AKA "Skippy" or 'Gandalf the beardless' Online with Dual 
boot Suse Linux 9.3 64bit OS
18 Arkana St, The Gap, Queensland 4061, Australia
Practising Registered Geriatric: Sometime Electronics Engineer: Brain in 
Storage: