Start clearing for buildings: developers’ call to Canberra
“THE Federal Government should immediately begin planning to sell the 1700 hectares of land it bought for a second Sydney airport in the city’s west, developer groups say.”
No, don’t do it. Sydney needs this area for food production. We still have rain in the Sydney basin and it’s close to the city. Vegetable farm in Longleys Rd >>
A 20 year long planning for an unnecessary airport has already ruined a community
http://www.smh.com.au/national/decision-comes-too-late-for-a-ruined-community-20091215-kuo2.html
(1) Global warming means that ultimately food production West of the Dividing Range will become impossible
“The catchments west of the Great Dividing Range are expected to become drier than the coastal catchments”
http://cana.net.au/water/changes/other.html
Weather statistics for Badgerys Creek are here: http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_067108.shtml The graph shows rainfall in Badgerys Creek from 1996 to 2008
Therefore, we must retain agricultural land near to the coast, East of the Dividing Range. But:
Western Sydney faces water crisis, scientists warn
“THE State Government must consider curbing population growth in western Sydney because there will not be enough water to sustain agriculture, recreation and environmental flows in the region, scientists say.”
This is an earlier report:
THE FUTURE OF AGRICULTURE IN THE PERI-URBAN FRINGE OF SYDNEY
http://www.regional.org.au/au/asa/1998/7/069johnson.htm
echoed in this recent case:
Development threatens historic farming site
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2009/s2776373.htm
(2) Peak oil means that long distance transport of food will become very expensive and finally – in the oil end game – physically impossible.
(3) Any new residential areas in green fields will become highly oil vulnerable already in the next years as Australia is in the last quarter of its oil age and global net oil exports are in decline
http://www.crudeoilpeak.com/?p=182
(4) Rising temperatures in Sydney’s West mean that power requirements for airconditioning in additional residential areas will go through the roof while coal fired power plants at Lithgow are running out of cooling water.
People versus Power Station as water levels plunge
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/people-v-power-station-as-water-levels-plunge-20091118-imjy.html
Recommendation 1: Immigration must be reduced
Recommendation 2: The Federal Minister for Agriculture together with his NSW counterpart must calculate the food requirements for Sydney, where this food will come from and how this food will be transported, that is how much diesel will be needed for this supply chain.
Recommendation 3: The NSW Energy Minister should calculate what the electricity requirements are for new residential areas and where the CO2 free primary energy will come from
Recommendation 4: The NSW Planning Minister should abandon the perpetual growth strategy for Sydney which is already unsustainable now. If unlimited growth is allowed and promoted, things will get only worse.
My submission to recent planning proposals of the NSW government (Sydney Region Growth Centres)
http://www.growthcentres.nsw.gov.au/planning-67.html
can be downloaded as PDF here:
Critique Sydney Growth Centres Planning Dec 2009 [7.55 MB]
Topics: Oberon’s dwindling water supplies, timetable of events until 2020, why the Sydney Metropolitan Strategy is totally flawed, housing policy, how a sustainable city would look like (masterplan), Sydney’s oil vulnerability (research from Griffith Uni), why we’ll see the end of our car culture in the next 10 years, peak oil update, sea level rise details and a 10 point program what to do.
Related links:
Sydney doesn’t need a 2nd airport http://www.crudeoilpeak.com/?p=670
Aviation White Paper argues debt crisis down, ignores peak oil, means flight path to a stormy future
http://www.crudeoilpeak.com/?p=838
Sustainable Cities Master Plan
http://www.crudeoilpeak.com/?p=412