A second letter from Peter Bodle

Peter has had a chamnge of heart having read the latest artcle on Our Food, Our Future

Letter to the editor.

Dear Ray,

I did think my last letter on the global warming et al subject, would be just that...my last letter on the subject.

However as I said, I was intending to pursue some private investigation (as far as one could) on some of the subjects raised. Having read the article support for our food, our future, in the last edition of the Pump, I realised I knew nothing of the N. African aquifer system...so I started reading up.

I had read into the article that extracting water from this system was in some way about to start a major water resource problem in those areas. However the numbers don't seem to support that. It would appear that the total water in the Egyptian system is approximately the equivalent to the total flow of the River Nile for the next 3,750 years. That's right three thousand seven hundred and fifty years. and to cap that, the Nile system is only one of six or seven major systems in the area. The biggest appears to be the Algerian system that has a double layer system each layer being something like 2,000,000square kilometres in area. And at the present usage is enough for that country for the next 1,200 years. (This system is, by the way, being replenished...though to be honest I could not as yet, find out at what rate. So by those numbers, by year 3,200 we could be starting to look at a problem.

Hardly surprising that some sections of the general public see some programmes and articles as scare mongering.

As I said before, several times... a little truth would be useful from time to time.

Peter Bodle