I arrived in Melbourne yesterday. Sydney has been having rain and is lush, but it is a different story in Melbourne. The gardens are dry and most lawns are like this one, just dust.
On the way south I read about farmers who have had to leave their land after unremitting drought. Environmentalists have long pointed out that growing water intense crops like cotton is nonsensical in a climate like ours but governments kept selling water rights. The magazine article showed a picture of a family of 5 standing in their dry-as-a-bone irrigation channel that normally irrigated their cotton crop. No water despite the farmer paying $25,000 for x gigalitres. Perhaps the irrigation industry lobby should be sent to talk to the rain Gods?
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