Learning with the Fang » water

We need to talk about saving the murray, darling!

mseyfang — Thu, 15 May 2008 19:23:30 +0000

South Australia IS in the midst of a water management crisis and we need to have some robust discussions with each other and our upstream neighbours to find a way forward. According to Professor Mike Young we have a small window of opportunity to influence the detailed implementation of a memorandum of understanding signed by the state premiers. And if we are smart we will lobby for a system based on shares rather than volumes – in which the ‘books’ or ledger can be effectively balanced.

UPDATE:

Paul Dalby from LitFuse points out that we can leave a message for Minister Penny Wong HERE.

Prof Young provides a detailed explanation of one such scheme in this podcast from the Climate2030 seminar series.

A recent episode of a science show on the ABC concludes with Prof Young and David Paton talking about the state of the end of the line – the coorong. The entire episode is worth a download and look from the show’s vodcast site (episode 12, 2008). There is a special enhanced online viewing version of the murray darling episode here. Watch the episode, listen to podcasts like this, this and this ripper from the late Peter Cullen.

Most importantly start your own conversations, if you don’t know how – join this one by leaving comments on this blog post.

Fang – Mike Seyfang

Are water prices fair?

mseyfang — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:03:13 +0000

Interesting press release came thru my RSS reader this morning – suggesting local policies punish the poor and discourage water saving. Reminds me of this podcast discussing Professor Mike Young’s thoughts on the subject. I wonder what our new bloggers from last week’s ‘litfuse bootcamp’ think?

Fang – Mike Seyfang

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Movie of PodCast of my Talk – Water Industry Alliance

mseyfang — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:24:06 +0000

Inspired by good feedback on the PodCast of my ‘New Media’ presentation to the Water Industry Alliance, I have added slides and movie clippings of the demonstrations.

The talk has been published on blip.tv where you can go to get all the goodness, from files to download and make your own remix to versions you can watch on your favorite device or even stream to your computer.

Alternatively, you can download the half size (20mb) or full size version of the movie from:

media.mikeseyfang.com/WIA-PostPitchfesMikeSeyfangTalk-Small.mov
media.mikeseyfang.com/WIA-PostPitchfesMikeSeyfangTalk.mp4

Right mouse, save as the
Download (90mb) movie.

Thanks to all the folk listed in the credits for use of their digital work in the remix, especially Paul and Mark who provide large chunks of content and/or inspiration. Shout out to Mark and Shane and Michael for their surprise inclusion!

Fang – Mike Seyfang

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Adelaide water: Get out of the nile and choose a trainwreck

mseyfang — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 01:42:37 +0000

Prof. Peter Cullen recently delivered the Schultz oration. Listening to the podcast of that talk really got me thinking:

I should think before launching into ‘those mongrels upstream are wasting our water’ conversations that seem to pop up quite frequently (maybe we should think about taking the high ground of fixing issues in our own back yard – like Adelaide plains groundwater)
S.A. (driest state, driest continent etc…) has only 1 year’s reserves of water, whereas other states have more than three. We must invest in infrastructure upgrades that spread the risk.
QLD households currently use 140 litre/person/day, we use around 388.
We have a good blueprint for action, it’s time to act. C’mon Government, Govern us, show some leadership, choose a Trainwreck and get on with it.

Trying to figure out likely future rainfall reminds me of trying to pick the stock market when only looking at a few day’s figures. Like Global warming, it’s really hard to be sure if our climate is drying up and at what rate. Whenver we get a decent rain it’s tempting to relax and thing she’ll be right. Even if we get several years of good rain we can still be in a long term cycle of dryer climate – which only gets worse with global warming.

Peter presents a rather pessimistic view of future rainfall. So what is the downside of acting too quickly on pessimistic predictions?

We spend money upgrading infrastructure (that will need upgrading anyway) too soon.

The downside of doing nothing?

Serious hardship for everybody.

As you listen to Peter you will understand this is a complex issue and there are many things that can and should be done. Cramming these interrelated complexities into soundbytes for the mass media and politicians is one of the factors that contributes to delayed or ineffective action. There is a great opportunity for deep, extended conversation using the tools of new media – blogs, podcasts etc. I am proud to be supporting Dr Paul Dalby as he facilitates such robust discussion through his LitFuse website. Get over there and get involved in the discussion.

www.litfuse.com.au

Fang – Mike Seyfang

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Presenting newmedia to Water Industry Alliance

mseyfang — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:51:01 +0000

Just finished a very lively presentation to the Water Industry Alliance.

UPDATE: Movie of the PodCast available HERE:

As a follow up to last month’s PitchFest event I took the audience on a rather brisk journey from the world of web sites and e/mail into the unchartered waters of read/write culture. Along the way we looked at the basics of blogs, podcasts and video remix – using information from and conversations about the PitchFest event.

Fang – Mike Seyfang

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On the second day of water week

mseyfang — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 01:07:32 +0000

My Prime Minister promised me…

Prime Minister John Howard says, if he wins the election, the Government will spend an extra $80 million to help secure Adelaide’s water supplies.Campaigning in northern Adelaide, Mr Howard has promised to spend $40 million to double water recycling efforts in that area.

He has also committed $10 million toward planning for a desalination plant for Adelaide and $30 million toward a waste water recycling pipeline the State Government has announced will be built between Glenelg and the city parklands.

Mr Howard says desalination would end Adelaide’s reliance on water from the River Murray.

Premier Mike Rann says he is deeply concerned that the Prime Minister thinks Adelaide should become independent of the Murray for its water supply.

Fang – Mike Seyfang

p.s. The abc news site is becoming an interesting platform for social debate about news items. Take a look at the tags feature. I think it would be interesting for groups with strong views on certain subjects to experiment with tagging news items on sites like this.

Tags: pitchfest, litfuse, waterweek, adelaide, water, abc