New South Wales - Everything's Dried Up And Communities Begin To Crack - SMH

[hatrack]

FISH lie belly-up on the cracked bed of Lake Cargelligo. Like the lake it is built around, the town is drying out. Lake Cargelligo, a settlement of 1300 in the geographical heart of NSW, was once a holiday haven for swimmers and waterskiers. Now empty shops line the street and even the post office is for sale.

On Tuesday hundreds of those who are still here gathered to listen to a travelling roadshow of water bureaucrats about what was going to be done with the little bit of water that remains in the dam upstream. The Lachlan River, muse of Banjo Paterson and lifeblood to tens of thousands in the region, is being cut off at Condoblin, with only small flows being released below. Towns further south-west will go without. If they did not do this, State Water staff told the meeting, the dam would be sapped by February.

The plan was met with uproar. ''Why are we expected to take the pain for the whole valley?'' one man yelled. ''You've forgotten a whole section of the river,'' a woman said through tears. In splitting the river, the State Government has split the people of this region. It is not the first time water has been held back to conserve what is left. A similar plan involving controlled releases is in place for the Namoi River.

EDIT

Ten years ago Wyangala Dam was at 99 per cent, a wall of water 25 storeys high licked the top of its wall. Since then the inflows have been the lowest on record, less than half of what they were during the Federation drought. The dam is now less than 5 per cent full. As water disappears, cracked creek beds and muddy embankments are left exposed. Animals searching for water are getting bogged up to their necks. The Herald saw a farmer crawl out on logs and sink his hands deep into the thick mud to wrench out his neighbour's sheep. Most of the people the Herald spoke to are sceptical about climate change, but according to CSIRO and other climate models, they are some of the hardest hit. ''Certainly the southern part of the Murray-Darling Basin, which includes the Lachlan, looking at hotter and drier projections in the future,'' a senior research fellow at the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of NSW, Dr Jason Evans, said.

EDIT

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/everythings-dried-up-and-communities-begin-to-crack-20091127-jwww.html

[bhikkhu]

1. Here's one thing that sticks out in the story

Most of the people the Herald spoke to are sceptical about climate change

Sometimes I just don't get it; you have a whole region devastated, and the people most affected don't want to know about it. It strikes me mostly because I live in a medium sized agricultural community and those closest to the land seem the least interested in climate change. For the most part they listen to talk radio and partake in derision rather than conversation on the subject.

[hatrack]

2. My guess - they haven't been hit over the head with the Reality Stick long enough . . .

:shrug:

[kristopher]

3. Cause and effect.

The link between cause and effect is too subject to a host of other variables besides human behavior. Those variable can be used to construct alternate explanations that work to reconcile any cognitive dissonance engendered by their plight, their belief structure and the actual cause of their plight.

For example, have you ever known a battered spouse that makes excuses for the abuser? Not a precise analogy, but it demonstrates the same capacity for placing false beliefs above observable reality.

[hatrack]

4. True enough - see also the Monbiot article I just posted

It gets into all sorts of psychological mechanisms for denying death, which kick into particularly high gear when the threat becomes massively obvious.

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. They don't want to hear it because if it was true it would be devastating.

So they stay in denial where there's less pain and desperation, I guess.

[n2doc]

7. Yep. Just like if one is diagnosed with an incurable disease.

Easier to just stick one's head in the ground and hope it all goes away. Unfortunately for them and us, it won't.

[pscot]

6. Looks like the future is arriving

sooner than expected. It's a shame nobody could have predicted this We might have been able to do something to head off the crisis. At least we can be glad it's not happening around here.