AUSTRALIA’S rural economic forecaster has challenged predictions the world is about to run out of oil, saying it has enough to last at least another 30 years.
ABARE executive director Phillip Glyde told a Senate estimates committee that the peak-oil school of thought, which holds that reserves are near depletion, was wrong.
The Australian: There’s enough oil ‘for at least 30 years’
“Absolute wilderness is those boundless places in the eye of the mind of the beholder where no human footprints can be found and for which all those enter there and become lost have no hope of rescue. Only the most reckless trapper or sibylline shaman venture into the wilderness, as a pebble falls to the bottom of the deepest pool, in the hope of returning to civilization with a fortune in furs or a secret wisdom or allegory thereof. Long before crass and foppish adventurers claimed the wilderness it had already fallen to a more mythopoeia mob for which survival was merely one of many options.
“Wilderness exists today, as always, mainly in the mind’s eye. Once long ago it was always just out there beyond the last black stump. Actually, it still is.
“Today it is called Mars or the mid-ocean ridges.
“And, humankind, as always, has little stomach for it.”
Beyond Darwin, Northern Australia, Photographed October 3, 2005
————–
part 1 https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/archives/000797.html
part 2 https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/archives/003015.html
part 3 https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/archives/003044.html
part 4 https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/archives/003104.html
At the Genetically Modified Crops Summit in Melbourne last week Dr TJ Higgins from CSIRO Plant Industries suggested there was a place for both organic and GM food crops including by using organic methods to cultivate superior varieties breed through the application of biotechnology. He made particular reference to subsistence farming systems in Africa. It was a thought provoking presentation, but unfortunately I don’t have a copy of it or link to it.
Science writer Katie Bird writing in ‘Food USA’ has suggested something very similar. She has written: “The war between the GM and organic movements has been bitterly fought. However in the midst of a global food crisis the time has come for these old enemies to bury their differences and concentrate on the benefits an alliance may bring. With increasing food prices and an estimated 854 million undernourished people worldwide (FAO 2006 estimates), debate is raging over how to feed the world’s growing population. The debate is, however, unhealthily polarised.”
Read more here: http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/news/ng.asp?n=85348-gm-organic-food-security
The issue of rising input costs in conventional farming systems, particularly the cost of fertilizer, was reported by Financial Post reporter Sean Silcoff in a recent article entitled ‘The hungry planet: Is fertilizer the ‘most important business on Earth?’.
Read more here: http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=537032&p=1
There is much for food for thought in both articles – particularly if you consider the value of combining a superior plant variety with an organic method of production in parts of the world where farmers can’t afford much in the way of inputs.
“It can be quite tricky traversing a car dominated city by bicycle, particularly when you need to travel an unknown route to a new destination.
“But the chances are, someone has cycled that way before you. Bikely.com makes it easy for him or her to show you the best way.
“Put very simply, www.bikely.com helps cyclists share knowledge of good bicycle routes.”
Read more here: www.bikely.com
The new Tasmanian premier, David Bartlett, today said the future of the state’s key project, the pulp mill, was in the hands of its proponents and their financiers.
His predecessor, Paul Lennon, tied his political fortunes closely to the mill, which appears to have failed to gain the backing of the ANZ bank.
Read more here: http://theland.farmonline.com.au/news/nationalrural/agribusiness-and-general/general/article/777041.aspx
Of course there has been a sustained environmental campaign against the mill from the Tasmanian Greens and others.
Pulp mills are dotted across Europe but are to be excluded from Tasmania because of the prejudices of some.
I guess the same activists will soon be back to campaigning against the export of product to pulp mills in Japan?
ELEVEN per cent of Mount Isa children have lead poisoning, a Queensland Health study has confirmed.
The results, released today in Mt Isa, confirm stories in The Australian in recent weeks and years.
The study shows that of 400 children aged one to four in the mining town, 45 had blood levels higher than 10 micrograms per decilitre.
Read more here: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23741342-601,00.html
story via: Stephen T. Thanks.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.
Read more