Hume Weir - Drought and Global Warming
The effect of the drought, seen at the Hume Weir.
The effect of climate change on Australia’s water resources.
At around 30 metres (100 feet) below the high water mark, long dead and submerged trees in the bed of the Hume Weir present a stark image of the effects of the combination of the regular cycle of drought and global warming.
Dorothea Mackellar wrote:
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!
The current drought has dropped the level of the Hume Weir, and other dams of Australia’s Snowy Scheme, to unexpected levels.
The future for the Snowy Hydro Electric Scheme doesn’t look good. As well as producing a sizable slice of Australia’s electricity, the Snowy Scheme provides irrigation water along the Murray River, in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.
With the prediction that there’ll be no skiable snow on the Australian Alps in 20 years, low and dry dams will become a common site.
Hume Weir - Drought and Global Warming on Wilderness Travel
