Rivers of Neglect
Two events happened this week (16-19 March) that overlapped in their message. On Tuesday night at 8pm Foreign Correspondence on ABC TV told the story of pollution of the rivers in the Canterbury Plains region of the South Island of New Zealand. The pollution was such that the rivers are now lifeless due to the growth of algae that lives off the extremely high level of nitrogen and low oxygen in the river system. The culprits are dairy farmers and their use of nitrogen fertiliser to boost pasture growth. To add complexity to the issue the Maori’s of the region are up in arms because of their attachment to the life of the rivers and the hitherto abundance of fresh water fish. The Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has entered the fray and apparently is legislating to ensure the level of nitrogen in the rivers is maintained at a level commensurate with a healthy river system.
Here we have a common problem of a contest based on varying societal needs versus the needs of the environment.
Across the ditch in Australia a similar issue has been happening for years between those who see the Murray Darling River as a vital supply of water for their production systems, and those who fight for the needs of the natural world – the trees, plants, birds and fish – associated with that system. On the 19th March Richard Beasley, who authored Dead in the Water and who was senior counsel assisting the Murray-Darling Royal Commission, gave an account in the Sydney Morning Herald of how environmental progress has been stymied by the MDB Authority. Here is a summary of what he stated:
In 2008, the CSIRO produced a report titled Water Availability in the Murray Darling Basin. The report stated, based on climate change predictions, that the climate will get hotter and dryer. It stated that for each degree rise in temperature there will be 15% less run-off into our river systems. On top of this is the outcome of a series of hot days over 40 degrees.
In 2009 the MDBA prepared a Basin Plan based on “the best scientific knowledge” regarding how much water has to go out of consumptive use (like irrigated agriculture) and be returned to the river. The CSIRO told the MDBA that to do the calculation the “future climate scenarios” needed to be incorporated into the modelling. The response from the MDBA was, according to Beasley, as follows: “We aren’t putting climate projections into our modelling. No further correspondence, scientifically defensible or not, will be entered into. According to Beasley, the CSIRO response stated – “are you guys nuts? The Water Act says you have to draft the Basin Plan on the Best Available Scientific Knowledge”. The MSDA also stated that they are more concerned with how the weather was between 1895 and 2009 rather than climate change predictions.
By 2011 the MDBA has set itself on an “unlawful” and ultimately “mal-administered” Basin Plan according to Commissioner Brett Walker SC, as quoted by Beasley.
To quote Beasley further: “All Australians should be outraged that the MDBA told the CSIRO to effectively stick its expert scientific advice when the authority was preparing its $13 billion Basin Plan. It didn’t do what the Water Act told it to do: To do the sums on the best available Science. It is why Walker described it in his Royal Commission report as having exhibited “Gross Negligence”.”
“And in January 2019” Beasley stated, “we saw scenes in the lower Darling (Baaka) River that looked like something from a biblical plaque. A million dead fish. The Baaka is no longer a river but a series of pools full of toxic algae. Don’t think of these cataclysms as one-offs. This is what the future looks like.”
This story was typed on Sunday 21 March as the East Coast of Australia experienced what many locals call the worst floods ever. This comes on top of the “worst fires ever” last year. All this raises an obvious question: What else might it take to convince people that climate change is real and is happening right now? Once the question is raised and accepted the obvious next question is – What should happen NOW to reduce emissions?