We'll all be rooned

One thing that environmentalists never seem to understand is that the ecology is not the "fragile" thing they like to portray it as but is in fact very robust and not n need of endless human intervention. Whether you believe that God created a perfect world or that it evolved by random chance, it is going to be a very tough and adaptable thing.

Andrew Bolt observes:

2007

Professor Flannery, an expert on climate change… says the [Murray] river system is in dire need of attention.

“The river is in a really perilous state at present, flows are so low they’re lower than they’ve ever been in the historic measurements and I’m really concerned…

The new [Howard Government] plan aims to give the Commonwealth control of the entire Murray-Darling river system and return the river to a healthy condition through more efficient management of water allocations. However, Professor Flannery says while the plan is a good idea, it is only addressing a small part of the issue.

“You can have the best water plan in the world, but unless you’re getting the rain and unless it’s getting into the river systems, you’ve achieved nothing and that’s why climate change is so important,” he said.

2009

JESSICA Weir says traditional Aboriginal owners along the Murray River taught her that ‘’if we look after the river, the river will look after everything else’’.

Dr Weir, a research fellow at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, is the author of a new book on the Murray River that argues for ‘’an ecological dialogue’’ with the river’s traditional owners. ‘’The book is about examining our relationships with the river and looking at what relationships are important and why,’’ she says.

Actor and screenwriter John Doyle launched Murray River Country at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Federation Square yesterday as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival. Doyle, who travelled down the Murray in a dinghy with Dr Tim Flannery for the ABC television program Two Men In A Tinnie, says large stretches of the river appeared dead and an enduring image of his trip ‘’was the sight of vast areas of dead and dying river red gums’’.

Today

LEAVES are sprouting from century-old river red gums long thought dead as the River Murray - the lifeblood of South Australia - returns to its former glory.

After a decade of crippling drought, water flows are peaking at levels not seen since 1993.

The denuded grey gum tree graveyards that lined the edge of the river for the past 10 years are now metres deep in the Murray, vibrant with ochre bark and deep green leaves.

Riverland district ranger Phil Strachan said the river was completely transformed.

Thanks to reader Alan RM Jones, who observes:

Surely “Aboriginal owners” could have said something about millennia of ecological history and informed someone that gum trees have appeared dead in the past but come to life when water flows again?