Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Archives for November 2006

An Iceberg Off New Zealand: A Note from Paul Biggs

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Hi Jennifer,

An interesting news article appeared in Sci-Tech-Today on November 17, 2006 entitled ‘Iceberg Spotted from New Zealand Shore’. The article reads in part:

“An iceberg has been spotted from the New Zealand shore for the first time in 75 years, one of about 100 that have been drifting south of the country.

The giant ice chunk was visible Thursday from Dunedin on South Island but has since moved away, driven by winds and ocean currents. The flotilla of icebergs – some as big as houses – were first spotted south of New Zealand early this month.

Last year, icebergs were seen in the country’s waters for the first time in 56 years. But the last time one was visible from the New Zealand shore was June 1931, said Mike Williams, an oceanographer at the National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research.

Scientists have been reluctant to blame global warming.

“We’ve been monitoring these things for such a short time, it’s impossible to see. To say this is unusual and related to global warming is just not possible,” Paul Augustinus, an Auckland University glacial geomorphology lecturer, told the New Zealand Herald earlier this month.“

This observation is interesting in light of the below average sea surface temperatures that are currently observed in the Southern Hemisphere high latitudes. In the November 17 2006 analysis, the cold anomalies extend north to the South Island of New Zealand.

The news article makes the standard comment on whether or not this event is related to global warming. The more appropriate climate science question, however, is whether the geographic distribution of icebergs in both hemispheres have changed over the last several decades, and, if so, why?

In the case of this event, could colder than average ocean conditions in this region be part of the explanation?

Regards,
Paul Biggs

Has Bad Weather Saved Right Whales from Lobster Fishermen?

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I received a note from a reader of this blog, Lamna nasus, last Wednesday in which he suggested that the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whales are currently threatened by the start of the commercial lobster fishing season in the Bay of Fundy in Canada. He repeated this concern in a recent comment and that we should be more concerned about Right Whales than minke whales.

The commercial lobster season was scheduled to start in the Bay of Fundy last Monday, and about 50 right whales were yet to leave the area as part of their annual migration. It was feared the whales would become entangled in lobster fishing gear.

But by the time I received the note from Lamna, it appeared the start of the lobster season had already been delayed, not by the whales, but by bad weather. It also appeared that the Canadian fisheries department was well aware of the situation and was keeping an eye on the whales.

I agree with Lamna that North Atlantic Right whales are more deserving of our attention and a concerted conservaton effort, than the very common minke whale which captures our attention every year because Greenpeace likes battling the Japanese on the high seas. There are perhaps just 350 Right whales in the North Atlantic while there are perhaps more than a million minke whales in the earth’s oceans.

Boat strikes seem as much a problem for Right whales as fishing gear. So what is the future for this species of whale?

Miranda Devine on ‘Mine Your Own Business’

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It is generally assumed that mining companies are bad and green groups are good. This general impression is so well entrenched within western civilization that many environmental activists have got used to being able to tell stories about mining, logging, fishing and farming operations that are misleading, exaggerated or simply wrong. They have got used to professional journalists just repeating their propaganda.

Of course, not all environmentalists mislead, just like not all mining companies are bad. But gee it can be hard getting people to accept this. Most environmentalists are seen as angels with absolutely no vested interests.

It can also be hard getting people to understand that “making poverty history” is about more than attending a rock concert or making a donation. Development and industry are real solutions to poverty and they often involve some environmental harm. Miranda Devine makes some comment on this issue and also gives the new documentary ‘Mine Your Own Business’ a plug in her column in today’s Sydney Morning Herald:

“AT U2’s Sydney concerts last week, Bono urged the audience to text their names to a Make Poverty History phone number. Later he flashed the names on a big screen and sent a thank you text to all those mobile phones in Telstra Stadium. As an act of charity it doesn’t come much easier, unless you count wearing wristbands.

This is not to sneer at Bono for raising consciousness of the world’s poor, or his audience for making a gesture.

But as protesters and green activists gather in Melbourne this weekend to lay the usual blame for poverty on the greed of developed nations, a powerful new documentary shines light on a different villain.

Mine Your Own Business, which opens this week, shows that the “powerful group telling the world’s poor how to live, how to work, even how to think” are not the world leaders gathered in Melbourne. They’re not even wealthy multinational corporations, but wealthy multinational environment groups such as Greenpeace.

Read the complete article here: http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/make-poverty-history-first-by-getting-rid-of-the-greens/2006/11/18/1163266827937.html

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For information on when and where the documentary is screening this week in Australia visit: www.ipa.org.au

Japan Begins Annual Whale Hunt: A Note from Ann Novek

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Hi Jennifer,

Six Japanese whaling ships have set sail for their annual hunt in south Atlantic. Japan’s fisheries agency says the fleet has a target of 850 minke whales and 10 fin whales.

As usual we are waiting for the annual outcry from anti-whaling countries against this hunt in the Southern Oceans Sanctuary.

So why does Japan support whaling? Here’s an analysis from a Japanese political scientist: http://www.csun.edu/~kh246690/whaling.pdf .

Best regards,

Ann Novek.

PS. We have a heatwave in Sweden this weekend, temperaure about 10C.

Mine Your Weekend Reading

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The campaign to stop mining
November, 15 2006
By Jennifer Marohasy

Across the world too many people still live in poverty. A new feature-length documentary by former Financial Times journalist Phelim McAleer explains how environmental activists are part of the problem.

Mr McAleer visits controversial mine sites in remote Madagascar, Chile and Romania and interviews local young men who want the jobs and opportunities offered by the mines, while media savvy western environmentalists campaign to stop development and save the environment and the “quaint” lifestyles of the poor villagers.

Read the complete article:
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=5157

The documentary will be screening in Sydney, Hobart, Perth and Melbourne next week. After the screening there will be opportunity for discussion with Phelim McAleer. For more information and to reserve your place visit: http://ipa.org.au/events/event_detail.asp?eventid=120 .

Bring dingoes back to stop species extinction
November 2, 2006
By Rachel Nowak

Bizarrely, reintroducing dingoes – Australia’s top natural predator – could improve the survival of smaller marsupial species that they often prey on, researchers say. The Eastern hare-wallaby? Gone. The lesser bilby? Gone. In the past two centuries, 18 mammals have gone extinct in Australia, accounting for almost half the mammalian extinctions in the world over that time period. Biologists usually blame that infamous record on a complex set of circumstances, including changes in how people use fire to clear land, the introduction of rabbits and disease, and sheep farming. But, according to a surprise finding from a team led by Chris Johnson at James Cook University in Townsville, the true cause is far simpler – the persecution of mainland Australia’s one and only top predator, the dingo.

Read the complete article:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10432-bring-dingoes-back-to-stop-species-extinction-.html

The Climate change industry’s stake in Kyoto
November 15, 2006
By Bart Mongoven

Negotiators in Nairobi, Kenya, are preparing to wrap up two weeks of discussions about the future of international cooperation on climate change. The conference — officially the second meeting of parties to the Kyoto Protocol — gathered to discuss what comes after Kyoto, which will not be in force after 2012. Central to the discussions have been questions about gaining U.S. participation in the treaty, winning emissions-reductions commitments from major developing countries (such as China and India), and determining the strength of the international community’s commitment to drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

The talks in Nairobi also have revealed the new role that a diverse group of companies will play in the future of the climate change debate. These companies come from many industries, but they share a common interest in finding ways to profit from global concerns about climate change — particularly the provisions in the Kyoto treaty intended to better control greenhouse gas emissions. This industry bloc includes the major innovators in the cleantech sector, but it also includes older industries that are finding ways to make small adjustments in their business processes in ways that, due to Kyoto’s market mechanisms, now yield significant revenues.

Read the complete article:
http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?id=280649

Consumer Awareness of Biotechnology – Separating Fact from Fiction
November 6, 2006
By Terry Etherton

There are many important aspects that consumers and dairy producers [in the US] need to appreciate about rbST-free milk*. These include: 1) defending the right of dairy producers to use a safe and effective biotechnology that improves profitability; 2) the tactics employed by some cooperatives to “persuade” producers to stop using the biotechnology (these involve paying a small premium for discontinuing use or levying a charge if use of rbST continues); and 3) the rationale used by some cooperatives, processors and retailers that rbST-free milk is being promoted in the marketplace because of consumer concern about the technology. My view is that the latter argument is simply a “manufactured” justification since there is no evidence from well-organized and conducted surveys of consumer attitudes about food safety that indicates there is any basis to make this distinction from a food safety perspective.

Read the complete article:
http://blogs.das.psu.edu/tetherton/?p=51

*rbST is the synthetic version of a natural growth hormone used by dairy farmers in the US since 1994 to increase milk production. It is banned in Canada, Australia and the EU.

It was Cold & Wet Yesterday in Western Victoria, Australia

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I flew to Melbourne and drove out to Halls Gap (western Victoria) yesterday morning, past Ballarat where it was snowing! There was no mention of global warming on the local radio stations, just mention of the unusually cold weather.

Anyway, today, this morning, I visited a friend with a farm in the Glenelg Hopkins catchment. Their winter wheat and canola crops had failed because of the drought and across the district was being converted into hay for the sheep.

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A bailed failed wheat crop.

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Ba ah ah.

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Bone dry Lake Buninjon.

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About Ararat.