Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Archives for July 2011

Agroforestry out of Carbon Tax Smells like Snake Oil

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SOMEONE needs to tell the Prime Minister that global warming and agroforestry are yesterdays failed fads.

According to an ongoing media study by Max Boykoff and Maria Mansfield interest in anthropogenic global warming is on the wane.[1] It is difficult to see the situation turning around unless there is a climate catastrophe of some sort that can be blamed on carbon dioxide emissions.

Indeed issues come and go, and anthropogenic climate change is likely to be one of those issues that are eventually forgotten; a fad that passes with the passing of time.

In Europe and the US, legislative initiatives are being shelves, yet the Australian government seems determined to push on with its carbon tax.

As part of a package of sweeteners to accompany the new carbon tax to be announced tomorrow by the Australian Prime Minister, farmers are likely to be encouraged to invest in carbon sequestration schemes in particular to plant trees and store carbon in the soil. [2]

Investing in soil carbon makes good sense, but investing in agroforestry… Such schemes were pushed hard a decade or so ago with lots of promise and lots of subsidises but many have already ended with financial ruin.

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[1] http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/media_coverage/

[2] http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/sa-business-journal/riverland-unearths-carbon-pilot-plan/story-e6fredel-1226070406388

Spectator Australia Debate on Carbon Tax

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POLLS show strong public opposition to the minority government’s policy of increasing the price of energy to combat climate change. Meanwhile, a global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions remains elusive. In this environment, is the proposed carbon tax justified?

Join the Spectator Australia debate on Wednesday 3 August at Tattersalls Club, Sydney, between 6 p.m. and 8.30 p.m.

WE need a carbon tax to help combat global warming

FOR the motion:

• John Hewson, chairman of GSA and former federal Liberal leader
• Benjamin McNeil, senior fellow at the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales
• Mark Latham, Spectator Australia columnist and former federal Labor leader

AGAINST the motion:

• Lord Nigel Lawson, former British Conservative chancellor and author of An Appeal to Reason
• Ian Plimer, geologist at University of Adelaide and author of Heaven & Earth
• Gary Johns, associate professor at the Australian Catholic University and former federal Labor minister

$50 ticket
$40 for Spectator Australia subscribers

TO BOOK
visit www.stickytickets.com.au/6064

Live Export Ban Lifted

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FEDERAL Agriculture Minister, Joe Ludwig, has lifted the live export suspension to Indonesia at a press conference in Canberra.
Minister Ludwig said agreement had been met with the live export industry on international standards for animal welfare treatment, while exporters were ready to meet those standards and Indonesia ready to issue import permits.

Mr Ludwig said cattle exporters can seek an export permit and in seeking that permit need to prove they can implement supply chain assurances for animal protection, from the paddock, in their transportation, through to feedlots and abattoirs, with transparency and independent auditing.

Read more from Colin Bettles at Farm Online here: http://theland.farmonline.com.au/news/nationalrural/livestock/cattle/live-export-ban-lifted/2218607.aspx

Asking Difficult Questions of the Environmental Establishment

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Hi Jennifer,

As you probably know, we have been annoying lots of people by daring to practice journalism and ask difficult questions of the environmental establishment. We’ve rounded up for you some of the highlights of the last few months.

The third installment of our Hypocrites series – with a look at Prince Charles’s eco-Hypocrisy as he jet sets across the world telling us to live with less – attracted a lot of publicity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhpNJAKq7dE&utm_source=NOT+EVIL+ALL+CONTACTS&utm_campaign=cb79456fee-Josh+Fox+Q+%26+A+E-blast+3&utm_medium=email

The UK Independent reported on it overseas, and closer to home, it was picked up by blogs and media including the The Washington Post and Fox News.

Then, Phelim questioned Josh Fox on the accuracy of his Oscar-nominated documentary Gasland, that claims drilling for gas with fracking method makes tap water flammable. Fox, who admitted leaving out facts, he deemed “not relevant”, got so upset about us posting online a video from the Q&A, that he got his lawyers to pull it down, first from YouTube, then from Vimeo. We don’t like inaccurate documentaries and dislike censorship even more, so we created our own website to host the video, where people can see what this environmental filmmaker was trying to hide from them.
http://fightgaslandcensorship.com/?utm_source=NOT+EVIL+ALL+CONTACTS&utm_campaign=cb79456fee-Josh+Fox+Q+%26+A+E-blast+3&utm_medium=email

[Read more…] about Asking Difficult Questions of the Environmental Establishment

Polish Scepticism Tempers Alarmist EU Agenda

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“ON June 22, Poland opposed all the other EU countries to block the conclusions of the EU environmental ministers council. Were it not for Poland’s opposition, the council would have adopted stricter carbon emission targets, endorsing the commission’s 2050 Roadmap calling for a 40 percent cut in carbon emissions by 2030, a 60 percent cut by 2040 and a 80 percent cut by 2050, compared to 1990 levels.

“Just days before, Brussels audiences were shocked to hear a statement from the EU budget commissioner, Poland’s Janusz Lewandowski, who declared to national media: ‘We already have overambitious agreements on CO2 emission reduction. There is a notion that the thesis that coal energy is the main cause of global warming is highly questionable. Moreover, more and more often there is a question mark put over the whole [issue of] global warming as such.’

“Such reactions were not unpredictable for Poles: inside the largest of the new member states, scepticism towards climate change science and defiance of the EU climate and energy package has predominated in governmental and mainstream media discourses for months…

Read more here: http://euobserver.com/9/32570

Coal-friendly Poland: a bad climate leader for the EU by Kuba Gogolewski, June 30, 2011
Via Benny Peiser