Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

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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.

Burke’s Backyard Infested with Native Invasive Scrub: Media Release from Community Group

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The following media release was distributed by a group called the NSW Regional Community Survival
Group* after TV personality Don Burke was interviewed by radio personality Alan Jones in Sydney yesterday:

“Australia’s pioneer lifestyle presenter and Chair of the Australian Environment Foundation, Don Burke, has called upon the Iemma Government to make further changes to native vegetation laws so that farmers in western NSW can control infestations of invasive scrub.

“Premier Iemma must act fast to stop the destructive invasion of native scrub before it is too late for the environment
and farmland of western NSW,” said Don.

“Recent changes to native vegetation regulations announced by the NSW Government are a step in the right direction, but they still don’t provide farmers with enough flexibility to rehabilitate land degraded by invasive scrub.
“Hundreds of farming families will be forced off their land if this problem is not fixed: who then will be left to care for the environment of western NSW?” Don said.

Invasive scrub (also called woody weeds) are native shrubs that have increased greatly in density over the last 130 years, invading the formerly open grassy woodlands of western NSW from the Queensland border to the Riverina in southern NSW.

Scrub infestations now cover up to 12 million hectares of western NSW – an area twice the size of Tasmania – with another 6 million hectares vulnerable to invasion when the drought breaks. It is estimated that up to 1,000 farms are fighting the problem.

“I was invited by farmers from Nyngan and Cobar to view first-hand the destructive impacts of invasive scrub on the landscape of western NSW. What I saw was not a natural feature of the environment.

“I was shocked to see how near ‘monocultures’ of scrub had out-competed native grasses for moisture and nutrients, leaving the soil prone to severe wind and water erosion.

“Vast tracts of land are now an ecological desert, exacerbating current drought conditions,” said Don.

Don said that for thousands of years, Aboriginals used fire to suppress outbreaks of scrub.

“Original infestations of scrub can be traced to a lack of bushfires after the land was first settled and coincided with periods of above average rainfall in the 1860s and 1870s. High rainfall seasons in the 1950s, 70s, 80s and 1990s resulted in further outbreaks. Overgrazing in the distant past – including by rabbits – also contributed to the invasion of scrub,” explained Don.

“With the introduction of tighter land clearing laws in 1996, farmers in western NSW have been ‘straight jacketed’ ever since in their efforts to stop the insidious spread of native scrub. With native grasses virtually obliterated in the last ten years, the country will no longer carry a fire, so it can’t naturally thin dense areas of scrub.

“Clearing and short term cropping are now the only effective tools to remove scrub and suppress regrowth, giving
native grasses a chance to rejuvenate,” said Don.

“Farmers want to restore the landscape to its natural state of open woodlands and grasslands, but political pressure from radical greens has put a bureaucratic handbrake on land restoration.

“In return, farmers are prepared to set aside a minimum of 15 per cent of their land for the preservation of native
woodlands. Combined with rehabilitated native grasslands, this will lead to an average cover of 50 to 60 per cent of
native vegetation on farms in western NSW.

“After making statements about the vital role that farmers play in protecting the environment, I’m calling on moderate
green groups such as the Australian Conservation Foundation to support farming families in their efforts to rehabilitate the degraded landscape of western NSW,” ended Don.

———————
* The NSW Regional Community Survival Group was established about a year ago to draw attention to the problem of invasive woody weeds in western NSW. Some of the groups members were interview by the Sunday Program as part of its feature on ‘The Great Land Clearing Myth’.

A Rare Rainforest Rhinoceros

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Rhinoceros are usually associated with the African savannah, but interestingly there are species which also occur in rainforests in Indonesia. The one-horned Java Rhino and the two-horned Sumatran Rhino are the rarest rhinos on earth.

Here’s a picture of a rainforest rhinoceros from one of the many camera traps Richard Ness has had set:

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There are only a few hundred Java and Sumatran rhinos remaining in the wild.

Interestingly in Africa, white rhino numbers increased from about 200 individuals in 1904 to over 11,000 in 2004 thanks to conservation programs. In contrast, black rhino numbers dropped from perhaps 60,000 sometime before 1970 to may be 15,000 in 2004 no thanks to poaching.

Net Increase in Forest Cover Globally

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For years, environmentalists have been raising the alarm about deforestation. But even as forests continue to shrink in some nations, others grow — and new research suggests the planet may now be nearing the transition to a greater sum of forests.

A new formula to measure forest cover, developed by researchers at The Rockefeller University and the University of Helsinki, in collaboration with scientists in China, Scotland and the U.S., suggests that an increasing number of countries and regions are transitioning from deforestation to afforestation, raising hopes for a turning point for the world as a whole. The novel approach, published this week in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, looks beyond simply how much of a nation’s area is covered by trees and considers the volume of timber, biomass and captured carbon within the area. It produces an encouraging picture of Earth’s forest situation and may change the way governments size up their woodland resources in the future.

Read more: http://newswire.rockefeller.edu/?page=engine&id=549