|
.Drought
River
Run
Adventurer
Steve
Posselt
set
off
on
a
seven-month
canoe
trip
from
Brisbane
to
Adelaide
yesterday,
but
he
is
probably
in
more
danger
of
going
thirsty
than
drowning.
Mr
Posselt,
of
Ipswich,
figures
he
may
have
to
drag
his
wheeled
canoe
about
2000km
through
the
great
inland
Murray-Darling
river
system,
such
is
the
impact
of
the
drought.
He
plans
to
finish
by
Christmas
but
does
not
really
know
how
much
paddling
and
walking
he
will
do
by
then.
Mr
Posselt,
an
engineer,
said
he
decided
to
do
the
trip
simply
because
no
else
had
done
it.
"I
used
to
paddle
8km
along
the
Brisbane
River
every
day
to
work
and
one
day
I
was
thinking
it
was
pretty
easy
so
I
started
thinking
about
what
sort
of
trip
an
old
bloke
like
me
could
make,"
he
said.
Mr
Posselt,
54,
wants
to
highlight
climate
change
as
he
passes
through
Australia's
inland."We've
got
one
political
party
that
doesn't
get
climate
change.
The
other
gets
it
but
doesn't
know
what
to
do
about
it,"
he
said.
"(Premier)
Peter
Beattie
talks
about
clean
coal.
Geez,
that's
a
bit
like
talking
about
healthy
cigarettes.
"You'd
think
that
at
the
least
he'd
be
looking
at
getting
wind
farms
and
solar
power
up
and
running
in
Queensland.
"Mr
Posselt
said
governments
had
to
set
mandatory
renewable
energy
targets
and
then
let
private
industry
sort
out
the
most
efficient
way
of
going
about
it.
The
Australian
Conservation
Foundation
says
the
Murray-Darling
Basin
covers
one-seventh
of
Australia.
An
average
14,000 gigalitres
pass
through
its
rivers
a
year
and
of
that
11,500 gigalitres
is
removed.
Article
by
Brian
Williams
|
