On dry ground

Over the last couple of days I've been reading bits and pieces of the article in the April National Geographic, Australia's Dry Run, chronicling the devastating 7-year (and counting) drought and the mismanagement of water resources, both before and since the drought began, the perilous state of Australian ecosystems, the destruction of the lives of farmers who have lived off the land for generations (or for just years, where the water has been dangerously misallocated), the psychological impacts - depression, suicide watches - on its human victims, and the harbinger of change that this represents for the rest of the planet as we face worldwide climate change.

The Los Angeles Times has now picked up on this story as well, and tries to connect some of the political dots.

Scientists are frustrated that such dramatic anecdotal and empirical evidence hasn't sparked equally dramatic action from Australia's government. They suspect the inaction can be partly explained by examining the nation's relationship with coal. Australia is the world's largest exporter of coal and relies on it for 80% of its electricity. That helps make Australia and its 21 million people the world's highest per-capita producers of greenhouse gases in the industrialized world.