Friday, August 03, 2018
The Worsening Threat - Drought
It's not at a crisis level yet, not globally at least, but severe drought is hammering farmers from Australia to Europe. Reuters has produced this video of the conditions being endured by livestock farmers in Australia's New South Wales state.
And this, from Bloomberg:
Meanwhile, heatwaves ravaging Europe are causing wheat prices to spike. Extended drought is also expected to hit Russian crop yields.
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Below shows the location of the existing desalination plants worldwide. Desalination plants operate in more than 120 countries in the world, including Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Spain, Cyprus, Malta, Gibraltar, Cape Verde, Portugal, Greece, Italy, India, China, Japan, Australia and Israel. There is a good reason for Water pipes. Anyong
Desalination plants are a double-edged sword, Anyong. The water produced, compared to traditional water sources of irrigation, is costly. On the scale needed for ranching or farming that can be significant to viability. Unless they're solar powered the can be fossil fuel intensive. Then there's the costly and inconvenient problem of disposing of the brine with its concentrated contaminants. It seems better suited to providing water for essential human use - drinking, cooking and sanitation - than for industrial purposes.
That rancher said it, his cattle can't compete with the kangaroos. Guess what. Kangaroos are native to Australia; cattle are European imports. For the life of me I can't understand the point creating all sorts of environmental degradation for the sake of cattle as a cash crop. Here in North America the bison were slaughtered almost to extinction to make room for cattle. That type of thinking is nuts. One can eat kangaroo meat. Or bison, deer, caribou, gators, crocs, etc. So why cattle? Probably for export markets in Europe where people might get squeamish about dingo on their dinner plates.
Mound, I know the point of the video is about the Australian drought but I'd have a lot more sympathy if that rancher wasn't trying to force nature to satisfy his cash crop needs.
Good on you 2:31. To add to that, yes it is costly Mound but it would be a help. Israel produces its water from this technique almost totally and why it is a green country while the Palestinians grumble when they could be doing the same thing. Anyong
.. Anonymous 3:21 seems out of touch re desalinization in Palestine.. 'grumbling? Israel has control of water supply and sanitary disposal in Palestine. Israel understands how to de-stabilize & trind down Palestine. They have already seized all Palestine's offshore energy assets.. via blockage and naval ships. Palestine has no navy last I looked.. and Israel has proven they will fire murderously, even on school children playing with a soccer ball on the beach. Resources to build such plants to provide fresh water ? I believe Israel has that sorted out.. intermittant or occasional electric power in Palestine.. Catch 22 - build it via miracle.. and Israel will ensure there is no electric power to run it
Another tactic is Israeli 'settlers' chopping down olive groves, and grape vines.. to destroy the income and livlihood of Palestinians - after come the soldiers in tanks.. and bulldozers. This is chokeholding with Israel firmly on top.. Palestinians face down in the sand & choking. tRump et al USA is currently sending 38 billion in 'aid' to Israel.. to Palestine ? Send money ? Uh.. that would be 'anti-semetic.. no ?
Oh!...I am corrected. I have several Israeli friends who live in Israel. On Monday the Associated Press reported that as one of Barack Obama's final actions in office before the inauguration of President Donald Trump, he released $221 million to the Palestinian Authority.
However, the payment itself has been frozen by the State Department under President Trump. The EU has promised an extra €42.5 million to Palestinians for state-building efforts. That comes after the US decision to withhold millions in funding from the UN agency that supports Palestinian refugees. Danish and Norway, Germany, Britain, France, Sweden, Saudi Arabia is one of the largest providers of aid to the Palestinian people. ... Through the Arab League it has provided more than $250 million for the Palestinians, and pledged $500 million in assistance. Canada has pledged $50-million in foreign-aid funding to support vulnerable Palestinians coping with the effects of the continuing humanitarian crisis and boost economic prosperity for women and youth in the West Bank and Gaza and Russia sends aid to name a few. Anyong
The Australian Government will provide an estimated $43.0 million in total ODA to the Palestinian Territories (PTs, consisting of West Bank and Gaza Strip) in 2018-19. Australian aid to the PTs is a tangible demonstration of our long-standing support for the Middle East peace process. Australia’s assistance helps strengthen the economic and social foundations of a future Palestinian state.
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