Great Flood of Queensland

The above shows the great flood surging through the town of Toowoomba, with the flood level peaking beyond 25 meters.

Brisbane, the third largest city in Australia, will face peak flood level tomorrow as the Brisbane River rises to a new record of more than 15 meters. More than 75% of Queensland has been declared a disaster zone.

Everything has been swept away. Mercifully, the death toll has been low, less than a 30 people has died in the floods. Even then, any death in such a situation is unfortunate.

This massive flood is the result of man not respecting Mother Nature.

Queensland has been enjoying a the fruits of a huge economic boom because it has been raping Mother Earth through open mining vast areas for coal, emptying the streams and rivers to grow more produce for export and building towns and villages on flood plains.

Just 2 months ago, in Nov 2010, many farmers in Queensland and New South Wales were up in arms about their water rights when the Federal Government revealed its Water Plan for the Murray-Darling basin. Many faced cuts in their allocations even though there were enough rain at that time to bring the 10-year drought to an end.

Isn't it ironic that Mother Nature has now flooded these areas with more water than they can handle? La Nina has spoken and girl, did she screeched!!

And of course, the State Government of Queensland got a lot of the economic rewards. The pity is that it did not spend these abundance wisely but wasted it on superfluous projects and government spending, thinking that there would be lots of money coming from its vast natural resources.

All this is really karma.

Because of man's selfish actions, it has disrupted the natural order of Mother Nature. With indiscriminate burning of fossil fuels, like coal and oil, the earth has gotten warmer over the years. With that, storms have gotten fiercer and hurricanes are stronger. As a result, the damages have been more serious.

Well, Mother Nature has spoken and it will costs tens of billion dollars to recover from this calamity. Produce will costs more as a lot of top-soil has been washed away in the floods. Many areas may suffer desertification.

In the years to come, many countries which import most of their food will face increasing costs in their food. There will be riots and war over hunger and the lack of water.

May people, who has endured this suffering, be awaken to the consequences of their actions. May they be wiser in their dealings with Mother Nature and be grateful for the blessings of abundance that they have enjoyed for so many years...