Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Archives for December 2006

GM Canola Arrives in Australia by Ship

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It is a pity that GM canola has arrived in Australia, not as a crop for farmers to grow, but as a shipment of seed grown in Canada ready for crushing in Australia.

Indeed yesterday a shipment of genetic engineered canola came into the Port of Newcastle.

Robert Green, from Cargill was interview by ABC radio Newcastle* and he said:

It is a matter of supply and demand. If we had not imported the grain there would have been companies shutting down and more oils being imported into the company. We consulted widely with the various government offices to make sure we were not breaching anything. Australian exports do not get preferential treatment for the GM free status. If you look at yields in export markets and trades our exports are falling behind. The canola will be used for oil and a protein meal. The customers who use the products will be within the food standard guidelines and labelling will be where it needs to be.

Greenpeace responded with comment that:

Australian crops could be at risk with now the first ever imported shipment of genetically engineered canola arrived in Newcastle.

I am not sure what Australia could be at risk from except more misinformation from Greenpeace. The bottomline is that Canadian farmers have been growing GM canola for about 10 years and much of the world eating the oil from this canalo for about as long.

The reality is that Greenpeace ran a campaign beginning in about 2001 to block the planting of GM canola varieties in Australia on the false premise that food from genetically modified (GM) crops is inherently dangerous. The NSW, Victorian, South Australian and Western Australian governments gave in to the Greenpeace campaigning and there is now a moratorium preventing the planting of GM food crops in those states. Cotton is exempt on the basis it is grown primarily for fibre, nevermind that locally grown cotton seed is crushed and turned into vegetable oil for Australian consumption.

As I recently explained in a piece for ABC Counterpoint, Australian agriculture is becoming increasingly uncompetitive as farmers give in to luddites: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/counterpoint/stories/2006/1782111.htm

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* ABC Newcastle (Newcastle)
Mornings, 05/12/2006 09:49AM Compere: Garth Russell

In Defence of Industrialisation and Mining: A Note from Jack Sturgess

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During a career in the mining industry, I lived and worked in Australia, PNG, Canada and the US; I also worked for months at a time in New Zealand and South Africa and for weeks at a time in Alaska, Mexico and Indonesia. I only had to move around with my eyes open to see that people living in industrialised and mineral-intensive communities enjoyed better health and welfare, more individual freedom and greater opportunity for personal development than those in non-industrialised, less mineral intensive communities.

However the debate on the value of mineral-intensive industrialisation seems to have remained at a tactical level, conducted in terms of flora and fauna versus jobs and tax revenue. Flora and fauna have won. The two vital strategic drivers of human behaviour are not flora and fauna; they are survival and caring for the young. These drivers are conveniently quantified as life expectancy and infant mortality rate (IMR). The intrinsic civilising value of industrialisation and mineral use is found not in tactical economic factors but rather in the beneficial strategic contribution they make to reducing the rate of infant mortality and increasing life expectancy.

My reference is “The State Of The World’s Children”, an annual publication of the United Nations Children’s Fund. The table below is an extract from Table 1 in the 2005 issue.

mining Jack Sturgess.JPG

I have concentrated on IMR because it is quantifiable and “bulletproof”; every rational person agrees that a high IMR is bad and a low one is good.

A low infant mortality rate does not happen without industrialisation.

Industrialisation does not happen without a reliable supply of metals and energy minerals.

The connection is also transparently causal. Industrialisation has been driven by electricity for the last 100 years. The generation, transmission and distribution of electrical power are essential to industrialisation and social development. Copper, aluminium, steel, energy minerals and concrete are required in large amounts to provide these services. It is also self-evident that the life-sustaining benefits of industrialisation require intensive mineral use, such benefits as a reliable supply of food and water, hot water, refrigeration, hygienic waste disposal and modern medical facilities. Widespread access to such facilities, a privilege available only to industrialised communities, requires large amounts of metals and other minerals.

A lower IMR has not been restricted to the industrialised (wealthy) countries. Since 1960 the infant mortality rate has fallen by 84% in the industrialised countries, 42% in the least developed countries and 55% in the whole world. During this interval the population of the least developed countries has increased almost 200%, that of the industrialised countries 25%. Less developed countries derive “slipstream” benefits from the more industrialised countries in the form of trade, technology transfer, foreign investment and aid in various forms including family planning and education assistance, especially the education of girls and women.

An encouraging aspect of the slipstream effect is that countries today are achieving a reduction in the rate of infant mortality with a lower degree of mineral intensity than was required in previous decades. For example, Argentina in 2003 had an IMR of 19 and a copper use of 1.2 kg per head. The Netherlands in 1960 had a similar IMR but with a copper use per head of 2.8 kg. This phenomenon is widespread and persistent.

The potential sources of extra minerals are numerous. The crust of the Earth is 30km to 45 km thick under the continents. Almost all metal production to date has been extracted from the top one kilometre. Much remains to be found and extracted below this. Extensive resources also will be recovered from more accessible deposits in South America, Central Asia, Africa and elsewhere. Mineralised nodules on the sea floor might also be recovered. Extensive coal and gas reserves exist currently; exploration in deeper water will discover more oil and gas and increasing prices will increase oil reserves.

Jack Sturgess is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.

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Thanks Jack for sharing your thoughts and analysis with us.

Stranded Pilot Whales Moved on Donated Mattresses

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Almost thirty long-finned pilot whales were stranded on Strahan’s Ocean Beach, Tasmania, on Friday. Five animals were saved.

According to the Sunday Tasmanian:

“Rough surf made it impossible to return the whales to the water in the same place they were stranded, so a massive rescue mission was launched early yesterday morning to transport them by trailer to Macquarie Harbour.

The whales — the biggest weighing about two tonnes — were each lifted by an army of 10 people on to the back of a trailer, which was lined with mattresses donated by a local hotel.

The whales were then driven 11km away from Ocean Beach — a well-known spot for whale strandings — and returned to the water in Macquarie Harbour in an operation that took almost six hours.”

Bravo to the volunteers.

See some pictures of the whales here: http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,20862210-3462,00.html

National Park Declaration Didn’t Save Tinkrameanah Forest in the Pilliga

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As part of the campaign to have State Forest converted to National Park in the Pilliga-Goonoo region of central western New South Wales, the Western Conservation Alliance held a forest protest in the Tinkrameanah State Forest in August 2002. The main thrust of their media release* announcing the sit-in was that : logging was a threat to the beautiful and high conservation value Tinkrameanah forest because contractors were not supervised.

Tinkrameanah State Forest became national park just over a year ago and timber harvesting is now banned.

This last week there have been bushfires in the Pilliga-Goonoo region with over 100,000 hectares burnt.

Volunteer fire fighters have been working around the clock, but in the Tinrameanah nature reserve they couldn’t put in a fire break because national parks officers were concerned about the potential environmental impact.

Yesterday I received an email from a woman who lives in the Pillaga near Tinrameanah, Juleen Young wrote:

“Tinkrameana was under State Forestry control but went under National Park’s control with the Brigalow decision. They have not had it 12 months and it has been incinerated, gone.”

Perhaps it was inevitable that the Tinkrameana forest would one day burn?**

The Pilliga forests are only new. Early explorers described the country as open grassland and woodland. Early European settlers followed with sheep but they didn’t survive the drought. Then there were flood in the 1880s triggering massive germination of native cypress and Eucalyptus. A timber industry established and flourished until about 1967 when the state government started converting the working forests to National Park beginning with the 80,000 hectare Pilliga Nature Reserve.

In May last year then NSW Premier Bob Carr announced a ban on logging over a further 350,000 hectares describing the decision as achieving ‘permanent conservation’ of the iconic forests. As the timber workers were chased out of their forests, they explained that without active management there can be no conservation. They said that the Pilliga forests need to be tended – including thinned and protected from wildfires.

Indeed foresters have a vested interest in not letting their forests incinerate, and that vested interest has benefited barking owls and koalas.

I’m sure that the Western Conservation Alliance, not to mention the Wilderness Society, are disappointed that the Tinkrameanah is gone. But the bottom-line is that while campaigning so hard to have State Forest converted to National Park, they didn’t budget for fire prevention.

In fact environmental activists in NSW have lobbied hard for restrictive fire intervals for prescribed burning and heavily conditional licensing and on top of this the National Parks and Wildlife Service is chronically under funded with inadequate reources for effective hazard-reduction (see ‘When Will We Ever Learn?’ by Jim and Aled Hoggett).

The Tinkrameanah forest may start to grow back one day, but with timber workers excluded will it ever be as biologically diverse? Indeed if the cypress is not thinned it may just develop into thicket void of koalas and barking owls?

The Western Forest Alliance was wrong to suggest the greatest threat to the Tinkrameana was logging, indeed the long term survival of biologically diverse healthy forests in the Pilliga region may depend on sustainable use conservation, in particular getting timber workers back into the forests.

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* Media Release
Embargoed until 12 noon, 9 August 2002

Western Forest Protest: First ever in region

Today the Western Conservation Alliance is holding the first-ever forest protest in the region against destructive logging, including the destroying of hundred-year-old grass trees in Tinkrameanah State Forest, near Coonabarabran.

“Management of this beautiful forest by State Forests is seriously lacking. Logging contractors are either failing to follow new licence conditions negotiated last year, or they are working under old, inadequate licences with no supervision”, said Friend of the Pilliga representative, David Paull.

“Either way it’s obvious that when land is designated state forest, it is in harms way. National park protection would ensure such damage would not occur.”

The WCA is calling for an immediate investigation into the logging and a moratorium on all logging of high conservation areas in the Brigalow Belt South Bioregion, such as Tinkrameanah State Forest, until the Western Regional Assessment is finalised.

‘Conservationists from all over the Western Region and NSW are concerned about the ongoing destruction of western woodland remnants and other poorly conserved forest communities’ said Bev Smiles from National Parks Association of NSW.

‘The protest highlights the need to stop logging key western forests and start planting hardwood timber lots on degraded agricultural land’, she said.

The Western Conservation Alliance wants Tinkrameanah State Forest to be protected in the Western Regional Assessment, to be finalised this year.

The peaceful protest in Tinkrameana State Forest, 40 km east of Coonabarabran and just to the west of Tambar Springs is being held on Friday 9th August. Further protests are planned.

** See comment from Luke (December 2, 3.21pm) following my recent blog post ‘Pilliga Forest Burns’ for a history of fires in the Pilliga.

Weekend Reading & Listening

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GM cottonseed could feed millions
By Will Dunham
November, 20 2006

Scientists have found a way to use the cotton plant, long a source of fiber for clothing but inedible* by humans, to feed potentially half a billion people a year. Texas A&M University plant biotechnologist Keerti Rathore and colleagues reported they have genetically altered the plant to reduce the levels of the toxic chemical gossypol in cottonseed, making it fit for human consumption.

“It actually tastes pretty good. It reminds me of chickpea. It’s a fairly good-tasting seed,” Rathore said in an interview.

… The new-and-improved cottonseed could be ground into a flour and made into bread and other foods.

Read the article here: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N20300910.htm

[* In fact we already make vegetable oil out of crushed cotton seed.]

Intelligence of dolphins cited in fight against hunt
by Rick Weiss
November 20, 2006

A coalition of marine scientists has launched a campaign to halt Japan’s annual “dolphin drive,” in which thousands of bottlenose dolphins are herded into shallow coves to be slaughtered with knives and clubs.

…This year 21,000 dolphins can be killed, Fukuda said, of which 15,000 or 16,000 have already been killed.

Read the article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/19/AR2006111901250_2.html?referrer=email

The good behind the bad and the ugly cane toad
by Richard Macey
November 22, 2006

THERE may be a surprise silver lining to the cane toad’s relentless march across Australia.
Research suggests cane toads may be an ally in the war against another pest, the mosquito.

Rick Shine, from the University of Sydney’s School of Biological Science, has studied cane toads for more than five years as they approached, then occupied, Fogg Dam, in the Northern Territory.

… Professor Shine said yesterday there was evidence Australia’s native wildlife was evolving, or at least learning to cope with the invader. And the toad could even offer benefits for human health.

His team found that mosquito larvae laid in water containing toad tadpoles produced insects much smaller than normal. This was important because smaller mosquitoes were thought to be less able to spread disease.

Read the article here: http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/the-good-behind-the-bad-and-the-ugly/2006/11/21/1163871403111.html

Nature and Religon
Michael Duffy interviews Walter Starck
November 27, 2006

Michael Duffy: In recent times, Counterpoint has talked about a number of environmental issues; mining, timber cutting in New Guinea, the proposed pulp mill in Tasmania. We’ve involved environmental activists in some of those discussions. You’ve heard from Greenpeace and the Tasmanian Greens. I suspect there’s a common theme linking all these campaigns and we’re joined now by a man who has some very interesting ideas on it…

Walter Starck: Thank you.

Michael Duffy: I know you like to distinguish between conservation and environmentalism. What’s the difference?

Walter Starck: Conservation is an earlier ethos which was aimed at trying to preserve and not overexploit the natural environment. But environmentalism is a more recent development and it has taken on many of the aspects of a religious crusade.

You can read the full transcript and/or listen to the interview here: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/counterpoint/stories/2006/1798342.htm

And finally…

What is the most green and ethical way to commit suicide?
By Ethan Greenheart
November 16, 2006

Dear Ethan, After careful consideration I have decided to end my life. Things haven’t been going very well for me lately, but more importantly I am keen to reduce my carbon impact on the planet. Like the average Briton I probably produce around 9.3 tonnes of carbon each year. I am 26 years old, and reckon I could live for another 60 years; if I end things now I will save a total of 558 tonnes of carbon, for which I believe future generations should be grateful. But I have a question: what is the most ethical way to commit suicide? I don’t want my self-destruction to be destructive to the planet!

Details here: http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/2100/

Pilliga Forest Burns

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Large areas of Pilliga scrub are burning right now in central western NSW with large koala populations threatened.

The forests were declared national park less than 18 months ago, with many timber workers losing their jobs*. At the time the timber workers warned that unless National Parks and Wildlife officers maintained fire breaks and control burnt the entire forest could convert back to grassland.

Today a new group, the NSW Private Native Forestry Group put out a media release about forests and fires with particular reference to the fires now burning in the Pilliga:

“With predictions that this summer will see the worst bushfires in the state’s recorded history, farmers and foresters are warning that further government restrictions on the management of forests on private land will dramatically increase the threat and severity of bushfires.

“It’s time the NSW Government knew what farmers and foresters have known for decades: sustainable management of forests reduces the risk of catastrophic bushfires,” said Andrew Hurford, forester and spokesperson of the NSW Private Native Forests Group.

“Farmers and foresters help to reduce the frequency and intensity of bushfires by managing dangerous fuel loads that accumulate on the forest floor before they become a problem. We also play a crucial role in maintaining fire trails so that firefighters can access remote areas quickly.

“Farmers and foresters are the best ‘frontline of defence’ against bushfires: we are the ‘eyes and ears’ of the forest, helping to put out fires as soon as they occur. It’s in our best interests to protect these forests from catastrophic wild fires,” said Mr Hurford.

Mr Hurford said that radical green groups would have politicians believe that the policy of ‘Fence and Forget’ is the best way to conserve native forests on private land: a theory that totally ignores the fact that Aboriginals actively managed Australia’s bushland for thousands of years.

“Just look at how this policy has been an absolute disaster for fire management in our National Parks. For example, in the last forty-eight hours, 100,000 hectares of the Pilliga Forest near Coonabarabran in Central West NSW has been incinerated,” said Mr Hurford.

“Today, over 8.5 million hectares of private land in NSW (an area larger than Tasmania) are able to be looked after and sustainably managed for timber production by farmers and foresters.

“Millions of hectares of native bushland and millions of dollars worth of rural infrastructure, such as fences and sheds, will be incinerated if radical green groups get their way on locking-up private forests,” Mr Hurford said.

In August this year, the NSW Government was forced by angry farmers, timber mill owners and workers to shelve its plan to introduce a ‘Code’ that would have seen 60 per cent of forests on private land ‘locked-up’ into de facto National Parks.

“Without private landholders, who will be left to safeguard bushland from fires?” said Mr Hurford.

The 2003 ‘State of the Environment Report’ for the Australian Capital Territory lists that nearly 6.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide were emitted into the atmosphere during the January 2003 Canberra wildfires: equivalent to 1.6 million new cars on the road for a year.

“The radical green policy of ‘Fence and Forget’ will lead to more catastrophic bushfires and more greenhouse gas emissions – the very thing governments are trying to prevent!” said Mr Hurford.

The NSW Private Native Forests Group is made up of timber mill owners, forest workers and farmers who harvest timber from private land. The Group is supported by the NSW Forest Products Association, Timber Communities Australia and Australian Forest Grower’s. Private native forestry is the long term and sustainable management of native forests on privately-owned land. The industry employs approximately 3,000 people and generates over $300 million for the NSW regional economy. Around a third of all native forests in NSW (or 8.5 million hectares) are on private land.

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* At the time I wrote several blog posts on the issue including:

Timber Communities and National Parks (Part 1), 21st April 2005
https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/archives/000563.html

Pilliga-Goono Lockup Announced, 5th May 2005:
https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/archives/000590.html

And I wrote about enviromentalism and the forests for On Line Opinion in June 2005:
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=3535