Letter To PM
Fake letter to the Prime Minister of Australia |
Dear Mr. Turnbull,
I wrote this letter to urge you to take action about the global water issues. No one cares about water until the taps run dry. In time we all will, including our Asian neighbours, unless we confront and plan for our water-insecure feature. Whatever the use of freshwater (agriculture, industry, domestic use), huge saving of water and improving of water management is possible. Almost everywhere, water is wasted and as long as people are not facing water scarcity, they believe access to water is an obvious and natural thing. Firstly, global warming is primarily a problem of too much carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere—which acts as a blanket, trapping heat and warming the planet. As we burn fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas for energy or cut down and burn forests to create pastures and plantations, carbon accumulates and overloads our atmosphere. Certain waste management and agricultural practices aggravate the problem by releasing other potent global warming gases, such as methane and nitrous oxide. There is no single solution to global warming, which is mainly a problem of too much heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere. Secondly, El Nino comes around every five years and what usually happens is that warming in the oceans caused by the winds leads to diffusion of this warming all over the globe. It changes atmospheric pressures with consequences for rainfall, wind patterns, sea surface temperatures and can sometimes have a positive and sometimes a negative effect on those systems. Scientists use mathematical models to predict El Nino events. The most complete models aim to represent as wide a range of physical processes as possible. Thirdly, over the years there has been an over-allocation of water entitlements in many areas of the Murray Darling Basin. Water resources have not been able to meet the water needed for environmental flows and human requirements. To address the problem, the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council introduced a permanent Cap, starting on 1 July 1997. The Cap is a limit portion on the volume of water which could be diverted from the rivers for other uses such as dams or irrigation. These are just some of the water issues facing Australia and the world at large. So please, take a minute to think about the Australian civilians living without water and all the water issues facing the whole world, country by country. From coping with El Nino events, to preparing for tsunamis, to the crisis of global warming. People are dying every day because these crises are happening. Just remember, no one cares about water until the taps run dry. Yours sincerely, Jazmin Alison (Year 7 student at Mornington Secondary College) |