Margaret River OR Margaret Creek
The constant talk these days is about drought, global warming, greenhouse emissions and the impact on the environment and us humans going forward. I must admit hearing, reading and viewing aspects of these topics has increased the general awareness - I bloody well hope so!
My vineyard is located on the southern bank of the Margaret River, facing north and sloping steeply to the river. What usually happens is that after good opening rains the river starts flowing about June and stops in November or December, depending on how wet Spring has been. Over summer what usually remain are a series of billabongs which, in the past, have maintained a good depth of water throughout many a summer.
Yesterday I went down to the river to see how low the water was and to my surprise I saw logs and debri as well as parts of the riverbed I have never seen before. They have always been submerged by water. I thought “Where has the Margaret River gone?”
Over the past 13 years I have recorded the annual rainfall on the propert and I thought I would share some of my extrapolations of that data with you in order that we both can understand what has happened over the past few years.
Up until 2002, data from the Bureau of Meteorology Perth going back to 1929 indicated that the mean rainfall for Margaret River was around 1150mm (44 inches in the old currency). My records over the past 13 years show that in only six of those years was rainfall greater than 1000mm and in only one year did it exceed the average. In fact, five of those years were consecutive years from 1996 to 2000.
The Bureau data also showed that this last year (2006) was the lowest rainfall ever recorded - 726mm - some 36% below average. The second lowest recording was 738mm in 2001. That means the two lowest ever rainfall recordings have been in the past six years. This is serious stuff!
I know that averages require highs and lows in order to arrive at the average BUT I think there is no doubt that rainfall is decreasing and that it is impacting on the environment in many ways. The effort needs to be a combined one so that we will always have a Margaret River and not a Margaret Creek.
Vineman
Technorati Tags: drought, global warming, greenhouse emissions, Margaret River
January 24th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
It’s great to see such positive info on the old home town
Wayne
http://waynemansfield.blogspot.com
November 10th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. says it will modify the terms of $70 billion in troubled, mostly adjustable-rate mortgages it holds.
The New York bank inherited many of the loans as part of its September purchase of a failed competitor, Washington Mutual Inc. (NYSE:WM), and its move will cover as many as 400,000 borrowers. J.P. Morgan said Friday the borrowers will be moved into loans carrying lower interest rates, smaller principal amounts or other more-affordable terms, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The move came shortly after the bank received a $25 billion capital infusion from the U.S. Treasury’s program to strengthen financial institutions and get credit flowing.
“Our goal in doing this was to come up with something that we think will lead the industry in helping as much as possible on this issue,” said J.P. Morgan executive Charles Scharf.
John Taylor, chief executive of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, said the action was “a gutsy move on their part. They are bending over backward to try to reach out to these people.”