Water for Australia
Sam Carana
tropical north, which typically runs straight into the sea. Many have
therefore suggested to catch some of that rain and transport it to the
rest of Australia by means of pipes and canals.
Another idea is to recycle more of the rainwater and tapwater that
currently flows into the sea, through stormwater drains and the
sewerage system.
In response to a call for such ideas by radio personality Alan Jones in
1998, John West came up with the idea of a 2,300km canal to split
Australia in two, from Darwin in the north to the Spencer Gulf in South
Australia. The canal would allow ships to access the center of
Australia and provide water for irrigation by means of desalination
plants.
As far back as 1883, there were plans to pipe or channel water from the
Spencer Gulf into Lake Eyre, a usually dry saltwater lake which at its
lowest point is 15 meter below sea-level. Flooding Lake Eyre would
create rain for inland Australia. The government of the day rejected
the proposal.
In his book Man Made Mountain, L.H Hogan proposed to construct a
mountain range, 2000km long, 10km wide at the base, 4 km tall and with
a 2km plateau at the top, from the south of Australia to the Timor Sea
in the north, so as to create rain in the dry interior of Australia.
Many such proposals are too expensive, they require more resources than
they will generate, while it's dubious whether they will produce rain.
Furthermore, they may destroy precious ecosystems and sites that are of
archeological and cultural significance. However, we should keep trying
and come up with ideas and put them up for discussion at places such as
this.
Earlier in this group, I discussed the initiative of positioning shield
in the sky above Earth. Large shields could be positioned in orbit in
the sky to make areas such as deserts receive less sunlight and thus
become more fertile. Such shields could deflect sunlight selectively,
their positions remotely controlled from Earth, so that one area could
be shielded from the sun at one period, and another area at a later
period. Also, the shields could be moved into a parallel position for
minimal shielding. Anyway, such shields could reduce temperatures at
selected places, which could avoid some of the negative effects of
global warming, while it could also result in areas changing from
deserts to habitable, fertile land.
I look forward to feedback on all this.
Cheers!
Sam Carana