October 11, 2006
This saltlake is an environmental consequence of irrigated agriculture along the South Australian section of the River Murray
Gary Sauer-Thompson, saltlake, the Murray series, 2004
The more the farmers irrigate the more the salty groundwater rises and runs into the river. The water authorities pump the salty water out of the River Murray in order to protect irrigated agriculture (vineyards) and they dump it an artifical lake. They then pretend that life abounds in the salt lake. The highly saline water slowly seeps back into the river through underground channels.
Does the opposition to this environmental damage, and to the economic utilitarianism that justifies this mechanized irrigation industry, make one a romantic? Since we are not talking about wilderness, then how does a romantic aesthetic help us to make sense of this opposition? The only romantic aesthetic I know about is an idealist one based around categories such as spirituality, creativity process, uniqueness and diversity. On this interpretation romantic aesthetics indulges in political quietism by escaping from material reality to questions of self-reflection and self-consciousness.
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