It was in the news yesterday that the Thomson dam, Melbourne's main water storage facility that provides for over 60% of the cities drinking water, has dropped to a level of 20% full for the first time in its 24 year history. This for the dam that was supposedly drought proof when constructed. It just goes to show that politicians usually have no clue when it comes to talking about anything vaguely technical. The problem therein lies, that the general public looks to these politicians for advice on such matters as to whether we have enough water and how are we going to solve the problem. This is yet another example of the folly of the thinking that we have conquered nature as a species. We must not forget that we are still just the tiniest pin prick in natures eye. One thing is for certain, that although we are destroying the planet at an evermore alarming rate - once we are gone and this seems more of a certainty perhaps this century than any before it, nature will recover and the universe will scarcely even notice that once there was a species homo-sapiens who lived on a small beautiful blue world in a remote corner of a far galaxy...
This brings me back to my main story I guess and the inspiration for this post. I now realise, more truly than ever before, what an amazingly lush and beautiful country New Zealand is. Seeing the scorched and burnt countryside of Australia makes my heart bleed and I can't help but feel that this is a dying country. This drought will break though, and I only hope that global warming will not prevent the land from having time to recover before the next one hits.
I must say I am deeply disappointed with much of the engineering profession, who have by in large to this date, chosen to pretend that global warming is non-existent, or at the very minimum due to natural causes alone. The IPPC a bunch of internationally respected scientists has gone to all lengths to remove uncertainty from their most recent forecasts, so much so that the biggest 'devil' that climate change apologists and deniers used to rely on, the variation in solar radiation, has now been proven to have at most only 1/10 the effect of the anthropogenic emissions of CO2. It baffles me that engineers have turned their back on global warming in such a way. Engineers are doers, creators and problem solvers and more than ever before are the foundation of modern industrialised society. It strikes me as bizarre that so many of us would revolt to such a degree to ignore the greatest challenge of our time. Engineers used to be so linked to the science and scientists from which ultimately their profession was born. Now we have chosen to ignore them in perhaps our greatest showing of arrogance.
Despite the doom and gloom, I remain optimistic - I think you have to in these times. I believe that the majority of the world, will recognise the symptoms of our planet that are mounting up and becoming more obvious by the year - widespread glacial and ice melting, more frequent droughts and more intense cyclones to name a few. We will be forced to modify our lifestyles and their will be breakthroughs that will help us to overcome the global warming problem. Engineers can, must and will play a fundamental role in helping the world to solve this problem.
