In the year 2029, if man is still alive

[jonsey/downunder]

I think fourx's reference is to the bulls**t coming from South Hay.  
The thing is, he is fairly well on the money with that one. Your chances of drowning in that are better than in water (although I would have to say it is fairly well dried out by now).    We have no water out here right now (well maybe enough to drink, for a while). We have been in a drought situation in this area pretty much for the last seven years. During that time the property I'm involved with has cut cropping year by year by around 40% on the previous year, this season we grew no crop at all. Stock numbers where reduced by about 70% at the end of last winter and if things carry on the way they are going we will probably shoot a fair chunk of what we have left in the next few months. There is still some water for stock (we have some artesian water) but no stock food.
We where informed by our Prime miniature last week, that if it doesn't rain significantly in the next two months, all irrigation in the Murray-Darling basin will cease.  The Murray-Darling is Australia's most important agricultural region, accounting for about 34 per cent of the nation's gross value in agricultural production, worth up to $7 billion.
It contains 75 per cent of Australia's irrigated crops and pastures.
The value of irrigated production from the basin is estimated at $3-$4 billion at the farm gate, and four times that after processing.
Key industries are dairy, cotton, rice and horticulture, in particular viticulture. It is described as the country's food bowl, accounting for about 40 per cent of Australia's agricultural produce.
It also provides 96 per cent of Australia's cotton.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray-Darling_Basin

I have been informed by reliable sources that around 300 people have left this town in the last 12 months. That is about 10% of our population, I would assume that that figure would be the same for a lot of the small farming communities in the region. A significant proportion of the work force, mostly heading to the larger regional towns and the coast. (more consumers, less producers). If the situation out here gets much worse, I would imagine that a lot of the property owners will follow.
Now isn't that a nice global warming feeling

Incidentally, a good chunk of Australia is in some sort of water trouble. Most places around the eastern seaboard, Victoria and south Australia, have some kind of water restrictions, fourx's area is probably one of the few that have had any decent rainfall this year.    

[fourx]

Yeah, it's a tough situation, jonsey, and it sounds like you are right in the thick of it.. You are also correct insofar as the NSW mid-North and North coast has had a more normal run of seasons, aside from 2003 when there were massive bushfires throughout the state, including here.
During the late 19th to early 20th century I seem to recall that there were a series of severe droughts at least as massive as this one in the Murray/Darling area, however, and both rivers dried up to a series of water holes...there would have been countless situations as dire as this prior to white settlement,- the one difference being that rather than at least half the population being illiterate, newspapers being a week old before they were read ( or nine months, in the case of overseas print media), no phones, little free time and no electronic media or internet, communication nationaly and internationaly is now instant and the marketing and scaremongering possibilities far too juicy to resist.

[glenn kangiser]

What do you do for Mexicans, Jonesy?  We have a population of about 66% Mexicans in our area CA as far as I know - If our migrant workers left it would be much more than10% - the farmers would not know what to do.  That's part of the reason the feds won't do anything about illegals.

[glenn kangiser]

Pete -- any chance you could send some of this over here.  :-?

massive bushfires

[glenn kangiser]

The other half of the scientists are now chiming in saying that they don't think Greenhouse Effect is causing global warming...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_article_id=440049&in_page_id=1965&in_page_id=1965&expand=true

[fourx]

...and the area refered to in Jonsey's post above has just recieved good rain- the first such in about seven years, but not uncommon in a semi-arid region, and as I pointed out droughts of this size have been common here for thousands of years- it's the driest country on earth, with a fertile coastal fringe about 100 K's in from the sea where 98% of the population live. Same old, same old- bring on the next Green scam...

[jonsey/downunder]

Yep, things are looking good, we have had about 20mm (¾") over the last four days.  Not drought breaking but we should have a nice bit of green pick for the stock if things hold up. I should point out, that to say "we have had no rain in the last 7 years" would not be entirely correct, in fact during that time we have had pretty much normal rainfall and in some of cases above average.

Anyway we have found the solution to global warming, we intend to build a giant beer fridge.  

Pinched from here http://www.abc.net.au/tv/differenceofopinion/ by cartoonist Warren Brown, and where you can find, at least in part, an interesting discussion on climate change.

[glenn kangiser]

I see you have the entire earth in there, Jonesy.  

Do you have some method of ventilation planned :-?  

I love pizza and beer.  

[jonsey/downunder]

No problem Mate, they'll get plenty of air when we open the door to get the beer out. And of course it's a green fridge, totally solar.

[fourx]

Of course, being an ABC fridge ( the ABC is a Left-leaning haven for 70's Sociaist Dark Green zealotry where sweeping statements such as "" polls suggesting that up to 70% of us want something done to address global warming "" are the norm rather than the exception) it will be so slanted in one direction, you'l only have to open the door and the beers will fall out by themselves.

[jonsey/downunder]

Don't panic mate, apparently the right are back in charge.
http://www.roadtosurfdom.com/2007/04/15/good-morning/

[fourx]

..ahhh...what a great read, jonsey. Suddenly my laptop smells of Chardonnay and Latte, and I have an overwhelming urge to dress in black, label everything that fits my PC mindset as ""appropriate"", vote Green and sport a pair of glasses as wide as windscreen wipers.
Ah, well, I knew if I waited long enough I'd find a use for that inflatable Aboriginal disabled dyslexic middle-class multicultural amputee lesbian ABC doll....


Drag yourself on your stumps over here, dear....

[glenn kangiser]

How do you feel about Kath and Kim, Pete?  They still on?

[fourx]

I've heard of them, Glenn, but I havn't had a TV for the last seven years ( we burnt it in disgust during the 24 hour Olympic sports-fest here in 2000) so I havn't seen them.
The ABC in the person of Classic FM, which is the national classical station, is great, and that and the Net and books is entertainment enough.
The journalist side of the ABC has for at least the last thirty years been extremly Left-wing and very biased indeed- pro-gun control, pro-republicianism, pro-feminaziism, pro-Green, pro-Reconciliation- a twee, trendy term for the non-stop taxpayer funded partying which sees Aborigines die seventeen years before whites- you name it...if it's social engineering with a hard-Left agenda, they'l push it.

[glenn kangiser]

I don't have a TV either - can't stand to hear commercials or listening to Bush trying to express whatever it is he has that represents a thought.

Jonesy got me started on Kath and Kim- very funny and a great change from American sitcoms - I refuse to dumb myself down enough to think they are funny.

Speaking of funny - do you know Cane Toad?  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3ENUqV5-bw  
Slightly off color.

[MountainDon]

... Kath and Kim- very funny...

I'm totally in the dark.   :-/

[glenn kangiser]

They are a couple of hilarious Aussie gals - Kath is the mom.

Great comedy -- you don't have to pretend it's funny like you do with American sitcoms such as Friends - etc.

http://www.kathandkim.com/

[glenn kangiser]

Found a few links.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRFUMUKP408 outtakes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mn1yma3bJk&mode=related&search=

[Sassy]

Now, for the not so funny...  :-/  http://www.alternet.org/story/58477/?page=3

Frankenforests: GE Trees Threaten Ecosystem Collapse

By Dara Colwell, AlterNet. Posted August 2, 2007.

Across the U.S. and the world, the timber industry is driving research behind genetically engineered forests. But environmentalists worry that it will open an ecological Pandora's Box.

"Contamination is inevitable and irreversible," says Petermann. "Regulations need to be put in place now to properly address and assess the risk from these trees because the industry is getting them out there without public debate. Once it's too late, it really is too late." con't at link above