Irrigation is the biggest water loser
WorldChanging has this excellent post on water and irrigation, Saving The World, Drip By Drip, with an interesting discussion in the comments about irrigation and water wastage. (I made a point about Australia's drought situation and cotton's water inefficiency, which I've posted on before.) The post's author, Jeremy Faludi, insists that:
inefficient irrigation wastes more water than all the people of the world use (efficiently or inefficiently) for all their drinking, bathing, manufacturing, and industry.Sobering thought, considering my last spray about nuclear power and water missuse.
Labels: Australia, environment, farming, water
posted by Mark Lawrence @ 12:18 pm
2 comments
2 Comments:
It is utterly amazing isn't it? I can't work out why we continue to be so bad about finding solutions to the issue in Australia, when we are so aware of the scarcity of water. It seems that there is still such a taboo about questioning farmers about their practices and analysing how they impact on our environment.
Hi Cristy, thanks for your comment. You have a point about there being some taboo about questioning farmers in Australia about their farming practices. Is it something about how farmers are somehow the salt of Australia's earth, more 'real', more 'Aussie', more 'authentic', and so beyond our criticism? Or is it to do with the political power of the industrial agriculture lobby in Australin politics?
However, I wouldn't suggest that there are no farmers who are reflective or questioning about their farming practices and their impact on our environment. The cotton farmer who was central to that ABC radio cotton farming experiment would be one such.
Did you check out the WorldChanging article? I think you'd appreciate it.
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