Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

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Drop in Rainfall, But Not Wheat Harvest

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Since the 1970s, there has been a drop in rainfall in the wheat growing region of Western Australia, but this has not translated into a decline in wheat production.    Indeed wheat production in Western Australia peaked in 2003 at 11 million tonnes.  

 

The 2003 season was a good one for winter crop production across Australia with record production of just over 43 million tonnes.  

 

 

Data on crop production from ABARE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A new paper* in the journal Climate Change indicates that wheat production in Western Australia has not been greatly affected by the drop in rainfall because most of the reduction in rainfall has occurred in June and July, a period when rainfall often exceeds crop demand.    

 

Indeed farming systems, like natural systems, are complex.     

  

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*Impacts of recent climate change on wheat production systems in Western Australia, by Fulco Ludwig, Stephen Milroy and Senthold Asseng, Climate Change, 2008.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/m10h53183l763734/fulltext.pdf

 

Hat tip to Paul Biggs for the reference.

Paul’s new blog is now up and running, have a look http://climateresearchnews.com/  

Bankrupt Lehman Brothers Promoted ‘Global Warming’

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The now bankrupt merchant bankers, Lehman Brothers, invested heavily in the politics of climate change.  The bank released two reports last year on the issue broadly embracing and promoting the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Agenda including emissions trading.

 

The second report entitled, ‘The Business of Climate Change ll’, went as far as to suggest that it will be possible to reach an international agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions; indeed within five years.

 

The following extract gives an insight into the flavour of the report:

 

“The introduction of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), which covers a little under half of the industrial carbon emissions in Europe, has triggered discussion and concern about the impact of such a carbon trading scheme on (European) industrial competitiveness. The concern is that, by acting unilaterally, European firms may be disadvantaged, and the economy thereby damaged relative to non-EU firms and economies.

 

“As considered in the chapter Emissions trading: grandfathering vs auctioning, any scheme – be it cap and trade, a carbon tax, or whatever – that limits emissions thereby raises the (relative) price of carbon, a proportion of which is in turn passed on to intermediate and final prices. Depending upon whether the emissions permits are issued free or auctioned, firms may or may not experience a decrease in profit. Either way, however, firms stand to be disadvantaged relative to competitors abroad which do not face the increased marginal cost of carbon.

 

“This loss of international competitiveness could be resolved by the region (Europe in this case) imposing a border tax on imported goods according to their carbon content; or by other economies raising the relative price of carbon, whether by joining the carbon trading scheme or otherwise. The risk with a border tax is of retaliation, and the potential for a trade war.

 

“More likely, we judge, is that some sort of global scheme to limit carbon emissions, and quite possibly a global cap-and-trade scheme, will be in place within the next five years.”

 

On the issue of the Stern report and the associated controversy over discount rates, Lehman Brothers again come down on the side of those promoting immediate action against global warming backing “the correct ethical position” over what many would consider prudent economics.

 

The Lehman Brother’s report acknowledges the assistance of Dr. James Hansen, Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and advisor to Al Gore.

 

 

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The Business of Climate Change ll: Policy is accelerating, with major implications for companies and investors. By John Llewellyn and Camille Chaix, Lehman Brothers, September 20, 2007

The Moratorium on Whaling as a Reflection of the “Muddled Cosmological Beliefs” of the West

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The International Whaling Commission (IWC) was established in 1948 at the initiative of the United States to establish a new world order in whaling.   Initially 15 governments were party to the IWC with Japan at the time under occupation and without the right to join.   

 

The Commission’s objectives included safeguarding the great natural resources represented by whale stocks and providing for the “orderly development of the whaling industry” recognising that whale stocks will increase if whaling is properly regulated.

 

But by the 1960s an anti-whaling movement had emerged in the West and the IWC focus started to change.  In 1972, at the United Nations Human Environmental Conference held in Stockholm, the United States lobbied for a moratorium on commercial whaling; a moratorium that came into effect ten years later. 

 

Japan initially took action to be exempt from the moratorium in accordance with Article V of the convention.   Japan made the case that the moratorium infringed upon provisions within the convention in particular that decisions of the IWC be based on scientific findings – at the time the scientific recommendation was that the moratorium was unnecessary – and take into consideration the interests of consumers of whale product. 

 

 The United States threatened that unless Japan withdrew its objection it would revoke fishing allocation for Japanese trawlers off the west coast of Alaska.   Japan withdrew its objection, but the US nevertheless phased out its fishing allocation to Japan.

 

In a book, ‘Reviving the Invisible Hand’, by Deepak Lal, a well known economist born in Indian, reference is made to the West’s obsession with promoting its “habits of the heart” including through the propaganda of the NGOs, most of whom espouse various environmental causes (pg. 233).   Lal explains that the bread and butter of environment groups involves arousing the fear of “Apocalypse Now” (an enduring superstition of mankind) along with the “muddled cosmological beliefs of the West” about how one should live.     

 

He refers to organisations such as the International Whaling Commission as transnational institutions created after the Second World War to legislate our Western morality around the world and that the infiltration and use of these institution by NGOs as source of potential serious disorder (pg. 234). 

 

What the West doesn’t seem to understand is that while Japan, to again quote Lal, joined the bandwagon of globalizing capitalism, they have done this without sacrificing their culture or cosmological beliefs and see the demand from countries like Australia that they give up their tradition of eating whale – a tradition that can be traced to the Jomon Period of approximately 5,500 BC – as a form of cultural imperialism.    Masayuki Komatsu and Shigeko Misaki in ‘Whales and the Japanese’ (The Institute of Cetacean Research, 2003) indicate that the Japanese don’t like others to dictate what “our habits should be” and suggest that the anti-whaling lobby is practicing ethnic and cultural discrimination (pg. 103-104). 

 

At a summit of traditional Japanese whaling communities held in March 2002, it was affirmed that “the basis of Japanese whaling tradition and culture, characterised by the total utilization of the whales and a spirit of gratitude, should be maintained and perpetuated”.   

 

The Japanese have a strong connection to the Shinto and Buddhist religions and believe that deep respect should be afforded animals that are killed so we may eat.   This respect involves not wasting any of the animal and so the Japanese have made a virtue out of utilizing every part of the whale.    There is also a cemetery for whales in the Koganji Buddhist Temple in Nagato City where the fetuses of whales that “did not live to swim in the sea” are buried and kakochos (books of the dead) dedicated to the whales that gave their lives for the well-being of humans.  A service is held once a year in the temple to pray for the souls of the whales.   

 

The Japanese want an end to the moratorium on commercial whaling and the right to continue to harvest whales.  They see the moratorium as reflecting Western arrogance and believe that they will prevail, simply because “we are right”.

 

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This is my fourth blog post on whaling following my recent visit to Japan.  

 

 

Deepak Lal was elected President of the Mont Pelerin Society at its 60th Anniversary Meeting in Tokyo.  

 

The picture was taken in the garden of the Orion Hotel, Chinzanso, on September 12, 2008.

 

 

Residents of Adelaide Waste Water?

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The Queensland Farmers’ Federation have suggested that residents of Adelaide should use less water rather than continually demanding that more water be sent to South Australia.  According to ABC Online: 

“Executive officer John Cherry says 55,000 megalitres of water a year would be saved if Adelaide residents lived under the same water restrictions as Brisbane.

“Last year, Adelaide households used an average of 235 litres per day compared with 153 litres in Brisbane.”