An obsession of mine is researching how countries handle threats of #food & #water insecurity.
#Germany for example, has secret locations in which it stores legumes, grains & milk powder.
#Finland has 6 mths of grain & fuel & a min. of 3 months of medicine.
In terms of water security, 9 countries in the #MiddleEast will have extreme lvls of water stress by 2040.
But this will also be dire for #Australia, #USA#China & #India.
@mythologyandhistory well in England we privatised our Water Companies 35 years ago and since then we haven't built a new reservoir. The companies have also been glacially slow in fixing leaks in the distribution system. So our resilience is pretty crap, but against that the companies have made a lot of money.
@mythologyandhistory@jkbecker@glynmoody a pound of cheese is basically enough calories for a single person for a single day. So that's enough to exclusively feed the entire US population for 4-5 days.
I was curious. I could only find actual nutritional information on a photo on Wikipedia, and the one most visible, says 70 kcal in 28g or 1 oz. Google tells me there are 16 oz in 1 pound, so 1120 kcals in total.
As a short woman, that covers me, but probably not many other people. But we're assuming dire times here, so it's probably ok for a limited time.
However, I'm not sure if it would be stomach-wise possible to eat 1 pound of cheese - even if one's lactose-tolerant!
australia is a shemozzle of mismanagement. natural resources inconveniently dare to cross state boundaries. Many water ways run underground.
the Indigenous people of pre-/post invasion Australia have always had the best ideas: look after water. don’t shit where you live. water will last longer if you leave it where it is. only take what you need. if it’s not water season, don’t travel there - common sense. (you would think)
then my people arrived. we moved rivers, and soiled them. many kms of rivers which once served cargo carrying paddle steamers are now barely navigable. rivers are now where fish go to die.
the murray darling basin authority sells water rights to cotton and rice growing megacorporations. A second major water system is the Lake Eyre Basin.
a hydro electric scheme (built 1949) straddles the border between New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria.
Largest population centres are state capitals Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. Melbourne once relied on two major dams - twenty years ago it was possibly to walk across eildon weir the bottom completely dry. The state government built a dirty great pipeline to carry water 70km from one of our northern rivers in time of need. too bad if you live where it starts.
water restrictions are not unusual. new houses must now have (small) rainwater tanks for toilet cisterns, tanks which we regularly fill from mains water. dual flush toilets have been standard for years. (tanks were once common, but fell out of favour because of lead in the air from petrol). Victoria also has a desalination plant which cost obscene amounts, and has to date contributed little water.
I suspect the main plan is for federal govt to subsidise fossil fuels and mining exploration indefinitely. when the country floods we have more water than we know what to do with. and we will then be reliant on water in plastic bottles.
you can ignore the southernmost island state of tasmania. most australians do. also it is just an ecological freak
I currently live in SA, AUS. When I came here, they had water restrictions in place.
But I don't really "get" them. They have more exceptions then implimentation.
Even the tiniest hamlet has a massive, green footie field. Every house has a (usually non-native) grassed front yard (my rental included). Those dual-flush toilets would make more sense if the public ones properly worked, etc.
@mythologyandhistory In Australia, our last govt caused a stir by securing fossil fuel back up storage, but it's located in USA. I'm sure that will be very helpful in a crisis.🙄
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