400 "Sydney Harbours"

The ramifications of climate change (some still call it a drought) can be seen all to clearly at the end of the Murray System at Goolwa. The once great river is now just a series of ponds.

A new study shows drought has stripped the equivalent of 400 Sydney Harbours worth of water out of the Murray-Darling Basin. (Source ABC)

Professor Mick Young of Adelaide University has been quoted on ABC sites:

Professor Mike Young is the Director of the Environment Institute at the University of Adelaide and a water policy specialist.

He says the study is a further indication of the type of environmental pressure the Murray-Darling basin is under.

"I think it emphasises that the situation we're in in the Murray-Darling basin system is not just a crisis for the river," he said.

"It's a crisis for our groundwater system and also for the entire landscape as a whole.

"We're in a much, much drier regime and it underscores the point that even if we get massive rains, like we had back in 1956, we will basically just re-wet the system.

"We won't have the floods we've had in the past, because the system is so dry."

And locally we have our Premier Mike Rann and his government felling over 500 trees for a tramline extension to the entertainment centre.

Mike has stated that for every tree removed, more new ones will be planted. But will they survive without water?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/20/2575443.htm