Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Australia, Farmers, Drought, Global Warming what are we doing?

I have been travelling now for the past two years and every now and again I feel a longing to be back in my homeland of Australia. I did go back for only two months in September last year and was shocked at how the effects of Global Warming and El Nino had impacted the land in the Golburn Valley district. My mother told me when I was there, and after researching further, that one farmer every four days was committing suicide across the state of Victoria due to the massive drought that has been happening for the past ten years. I was suprised, though not shocked that these statistics were being rarely documented on the media if not at all, so I set out to right my song Farmers For the Fair.

Dry Dusty Winds are blowin down Ky Valley way
No rains in winter, now the dry summer plagues
This winter is the worst that we have ever seen
Frosts that fraught the fruit trees and no seedlings appeared with ease

Who knows Us?
And who really cares?
Who knows US?
'Cause we are the Farmers for the Fair!

We're born to the tractor and the snowy gum trees
turning the top soil, before Autumn colours the leaves
Salt filled lakes absorb any water that we've seen
Crusty blocks of dirt reep havoc across the plains

Who know Us?
And who really cares?
Who knows Us?
'Cause we are just the Farmers for the Fair

We're fighting the people just to water save
It's taking its toll and now suicide reigns
Well a friend of mine who lives just two miles down the road
Has taken his life and left his kids and wife alone

Well now that's the hundredth farmer across the Victorian State
How many more before the Government awakes
No catchments being built because money is needed for war
Now we have seen our first Aussie soldier die bloody hell what for?

Who knows us?
Who really cares?
Who knows us?
'Cause we are just the Farmers for the Fair

Try another thousand no food to feed the kids
In all the small country towns and the cities that is
Well they started to import from overseas instead
But what about our lively hood that we were born and bread

From the great shearers and drovers that built this arid land
Well they will all be non existent nothing with an Aussie stamp

I performed at an environmentalist convention called Bioneers on the Bay in the New Bedford Theatre the other week and I have to say it was one of the most thorough conventions I have seen on how we are impacting this earth. Please take care of the land around you it is essential in our survival, open your eyes visit http://www.bioneers.com/ Thankyou :)

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