Submarines or water?

[Bruce]

Two items of current news have prompted this gripe.

 

Firstly, certain NSW towns are having such severe water shortages that the fire-fighters can't fill their tanks.

 

Secondly, the Collins Class submarines are due for scrapping.

 

SO what if the billions spent on those submarines had been used for water infrastructure?

 

Associated questions: How much did those submarines cost during their whole lives? What did they achieve?

 

( My answers are 150 Billion and nothing )

 

What could we have done with water infrastructure?

 

( my answer is implement a Snowy type scheme where coastal water was pumped with solar power over the Great Divide. this would have been way cheaper I reckon).

 

Feel free to criticize.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

An old argument. Water flowing into the sea isn’t wasted. Instead of buggering up our natural systems even more, why don’t we take a good hard look at how much water we waste.

 

One change could save the Murray- Darling system: transition to growing hemp, which lasts mobs longer, uses less chemicals and water than cotton.

 

 

[Bruce]

We sure do waste a lot of water... I once called my wife Dame Washalot and my daughter Princess Showeranhour.

 

I blamed them for destroying the Murray-Darling system.

 

Years later, I made sure that the farm we got was outside the Murray-Darling basin.

 

 

[Bruce]

I like the idea of hemp instead of cotton. Is this not already possible at a farm level?

 

 

[facthunter]

 Then you might have enough rope to hang yourself. Australia is the driest continent Barring the south pole area, and it's getting drier. Greed and corruption have "damned" the Darling River. Irrigation is often only a short time thing with salinity the issue long term, and over allocation making it unsustainable.. Removing trees is one of the main contributor to salinity.  Monoculture doesn't work for long either. A perfect situation for pests and disease to proliferate. Nev

 

 

[Litespeed]

Simple answer

 

......

 

Ban cotton farming, nothing uses as much water and chemicals for so little return. We can have food from the system or a small export of cotton. Not both.

 

A handful of cotton uses as much as the rest of the system. 

 

Yes hemp is a great crop and also can replace large amounts of concrete in construction. 

 

 

[facthunter]

ALMONDs are worse. Cotton and rice can be omitted on a bad year. Trees have to be watered or they die. There are many things you should not do in deserts or you will destroy them as they are a very fragile environment needing care or they end up in New Zealand or destroyed by salt. Nev

 

 

[old man emu]

A proposal for a water diversion scheme in North Queensland was presented in 1938,   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradfield_Scheme , however, detailed analysis of the data used to identify possible results was found to be flawed - overestimating water inflow, and loss. That's not to say the concept is totally flawed. In 1938 (eighty years ago) our construction skills and equipment were not as good as they are now. Also, our expertise in hydro-electric power generation has grown. 

 

But water management relies heavily on our understanding of Australia's drought cycle. Until the results of studies such as this: http://theconversation.com/500-years-of-drought-and-flood-trees-and-corals-reveal-australias-climate-history-51573 become more widely known and extended, can we grasp the environmental concepts affecting us.

 

As a word of warning on Mankind's effects on the environment, this is from the above article:

 

Data show that there is a strong relationship between the phases of the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) and drought - until around 1976. After that the relationship gets weaker. Why is a question for further research, but one possibility is human-caused climate change.

 

 

[Yenn]

News today from the ABC is that we in Australia are No 2 in the world for arms imports. That is we are next behind Saudi Arabia. Why do we need all these imports. my theory is that we have to keep spending with the yanks, so that they will play Daddy to us.

 

We have a big dam in Qld, actually called Paradise. The are going to drain it back to about 30% I think was the figure quoted, because they have discovered it may not be safe.

 

A few years ago I was advised to evacuate, when the dam upstream of me was flowing 8m over the spillway, they never admitted it, but they were afraid of it busting.

 

I don't know how much water the Qld government is giving to the Adani mine, but it has all the graziers and farmers worried.

 

 

[facthunter]

They missed their chance to have an effect at the last election. Good water and land are more valuable than a few years of coal profit? caused destruction. Environmental damage assessment HAS to be taken into account, or we are deluding ourselves about profit and loss... Profit for some  (Mainly offshore ) comes at the expense of US having to cope with the end result when the offenders have long quit the scene.Nev

 

 

[willedoo]

News today from the ABC is that we in Australia are No 2 in the world for arms imports. That is we are next behind Saudi Arabia. Why do we need all these imports. my theory is that we have to keep spending with the yanks, so that they will play Daddy to us.

 

Yenn, there might be some points to your theory. When our fearless leader was having his recent slurpfest with Tomato Head in Washington, one thing he was proudly spruiking is that we are now spending 2% of GDP in defence spending. That's the figure Donald was trying to push NATO to, so we now have many, many brownie points with our big buddy. And to top it off, Donald thinks we buy 100% American equipment.

 

 

[spacesailor]

I liked the "Trick" the Queensland government did about Silica -Sand mining on Fraser island.

 

Bad the export of it.

 

Now, Queensland government should Ban the water to Adani altogether.

 

Let them bring in there own water.LoL

 

spaceailor

 

"I don't know how much water the Qld government is giving to the Adani mine,

 

 

[Yenn]

Today there is speculation about the interest rates. Will the reserve bank drop the rate again. I fail to see how repeating failed movements such as dropping the interest rate can be expected to work. According to Shane Oliver who is quoted often by the ABC, one of the aims of the reserve bank is to lower the Aussie dollar. That seems a stupid idea to me as we don't manufacture anything in Australia, it all has to be imported. So who benefits from a lower dollar. Oh I forgot, it's the coal miners.

 

The reserve bank has been lowering interest rates time after time, just so the miners can benefit and to hell with the pensioners who had mortgages up to 16% and any money they managed to save no brings in stuff all.

 

Also todays news is that Trump has asked our PM to find dirt on whoever brought on the Russian interference in the US election scandal. Have'nt heard a word from Scomo.

 

 

[facthunter]

 When the interest rates have to go to "crazy Unrealistic figures" the economy is in the $#!T. IF you haven't lost confidence in this lot of confidence men, your eye is not on the BALL. Lack of wages growth means LESS spending and that means "Slowing Economy"  We also have all of our eggs in one basket with luck also on the Iron Ore price due problems in Brazil. .  People relying on a bit of interest to keep going are stuffed,  especially if the "deeming" rates are not adjusted. Nev

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

... Donald thinks we buy 100% American equipment.

 

The US arms industry now has so much control over American foreign policy that any nation contemplating buying  defence items from Russia or China is threatened with sanctions. This forces much of the world to buy expensive and possibly lower quality American weapons. The Saudis spent up large on US defensive systems that recently failed to protect them from a few drones.

 

Are Australia's expensive American weapons up to scratch, or are we just subsidising their arms industry?

 

 

[facthunter]

The Military-Industrial Complex has always RUN America. It's used to make the world stay Capitalist and make foreign governments subservient to the Trade  deals and Lawyers who back them up. NO country is permitted to make laws restricting corporate profit. Even if the PEOPLE want it. Nev

 

 

[Yenn]

From past results we are not subsidising their industry, we are funding their research and development.