In the same section, Pearce outlines illogical water importation and exportation practices. By comparison, humans use just a gallon and a half of water a day for drinking, washing, and toilet use. It takes 250 to 650 gallons to grow just one pound of rice, 3,000 gallons to produce the meat for one hamburger, and 400 gallons to make a pound of sugar. According to Pearce, humans use the most water to produce food. In the first section, “When the Rivers Run Dry…The Crops Fail,” Pearce educates the reader about the amount of water it takes to fuel our daily lives. Pearce is a writer at the London-based New Scientist magazine and focuses on global environmental issues. The book is information-heavy, broken up into ten sections of thirty-four short chapters. For his research, Pearce canvassed more than thirty countries to assess the political, ecological, and historical factors that have led to a mismanagement of water. People under 15 must be accompanied by an adult.When the Rivers Run Dry (2006) is a survey of the world’s water crisis by Fred Pearce. *This film has been exempt from classification and is restricted to people over 15 years. Australia cannot afford to lose this fight. The Barkindji cannot afford to lose this fight. This film is both a celebration of the resilience of people and nature, and a call to arms. It will shine a light on what is happening and manifest how we, as a country, need to bring this immense, beautiful and remote river system back from the brink of catastrophe. When the River Runs Dry is a pivotal moment in Australia’s environmental history. The Barkindji survived because of the Barka, the Darling River, and now, due to the decimation of this vital river system, it is being taken from them and they no longer feel connected to their dreaming, their totems, or their culture. The film brings Indigenous voices to the fore in the form of the Barkindji, the people of the River, who, after one hundred and seventy years, have become dispossessed and marginalised. When the River Runs Dry shines a spotlight on the appalling plans of the NSW Government, the big-business greed selling of water, and the Murray Darling Basin Management who are responsible for implementing those plans, which will culminate in the ‘decommissioning’ of the Menindee Lakes, a 30-million-year-old lake system. Who was to blame? And what could be done? News that the Darling River, or Barka, as it is known to its people, was in a state of ecological collapse had disappeared from the media and, although people were shouting about what was happening, no one was listening. Australians were horrified, and politicians blamed drought, while ecologists and water management specialists claimed it was due to the over-allocation and over-extraction of water. In January 2019, a viral video showed grown men near Menindee weeping as they held dead Murray Cod, decades old, which had perished in yet another environmental disaster. With water rights and security becoming increasingly vital issues for communities, When the River Runs Dry offers hope for a better water future. An Australian-made exploration of the rules governing the Murray Darling Basin and how they are destroying the environment, causing extinction-level events, and displacing communities.
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