Australia’s small ski industry is obviously doomed, but there could soon (by 2050) be no white stuff at all in the land of the Man from Snowy River, which is really bad news for the water supplies of Melbourne and Adelaide (and I would expect for the hydro-electric scheme that runs in the area).
The CSIRO reported this week that climate change could all but wipe out snow falls by 2050. The resulting loss of run-off from melting snow would seriously reduce water levels in the Snowy and Murrumbidgee rivers.
… As the snow vanished, Professor Adams said, about half a million hectares of forest that acts as a key rainwater catchment at the head of the river would dry out, leading to massive bushfires that would destroy huge areas of mature trees.
New trees would begin growing to replace those burnt out. But, the professor said, growing trees suck up far more water than mature ones. The thirst of the regrowing forest would “sharply reduce” mountain water running into key rivers and dams, including Lake Eucumbene and Lake Jindabyne, for 30 years.
But there might be some good news in Australia’s current drought – according to this piece it might follow a historic pattern in seeing off, finally, the dreadful John Howard, Prime Minister of the 1950s who has somehow held power in Australia for the past decade and done an awful lot to take the country back half a century.
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