Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

jennifer

Martin Ferguson Promotes Australian Forestry

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“Australia has 155 million hectares of native forests. About 10 percent – 11 million hectares – of those forests are managed for wood production with less than 1 percent being harvested in any one year. The small proportion of forests that is harvested annually is regenerated so that a perpetual supply of native hardwood and softwood is maintained in this country.

And let me say that Australia is fortunate to have some of the best foresters in the world working to maintain our forest assets in perpetuity.”

So began a speech by Martin Ferguson, the Australian Labor Party’s resources and forestry spokesman, to the National Association of Forest Industries titled “Australia’s role in the global sustainability of forestry and forest industries” on 28th November 2005.

The speech was the focus of an opinion piece in today’s The Australian in which Glenn Milne suggests that,

“Ferguson’s speech amounted to the most unrelenting attack on the Greens from a figure of substance on the Labor side of politics since the defeat of the Keating government in 1996. Brown is now on notice. In the words of one senior Labor figure supporting Ferguson: “We’re about sending a message to Tasmania. Some sections of the Labor Party now no longer believe that the rainbow alliance is the way forward, especially when it’s our economic credibility that’s under question. Running around chasing the Green tail just means we’re ignoring our base, and that includes small contractors.”

In the speech Martin Ferguson tries to take the moral high ground on environmental issues as well as shafting the greens.

As Milne reported, Ferguson said, “The Greens are a political movement chasing votes like any other party. The campaign being run by the Greens is aimed at capturing votes, it has nothing to do with the environment or sustainability, and above all, it is dishonest.
The result of the Greens actions could well be to scare international customers away from sustainable forest resources in Tasmania to countries where illegal logging leaves a trail of total devastation, but where ignorance is bliss.”

While the forestry industry and me have been saying as much for a long time, I haven’t read anyting like this in The Australian by a regular columnist or heard anything like this from a federal Labor leader – ever.

The Shadow Minister was talking to the timber industry when he gave the speech. Milne is suggesting the speech is part of a new realignment by the Labor party.

But how will federal Labor promote a pro-forestry policy and also retain some of its inner city seats won at previous elections at least in part because of its popularist pseudo-green credentials which have historically been about opposing logging in Tasmania.

Read the speech here, download file here (51 kbs).

Christmas Eve 2005

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It feels like Christmas Eve …

It is so hot here in Brisbane. I have eaten too many fruit mince pies and I have three packets of unopened Christmas cards that were to be written in and posted earlier this week.

But nevermind. My Christmas tree has been decorated (no lights to save on electricity and thus greenhouse gases). I have a fridge full of food and drink and have found my favourite Christmas CD (Morningtown Ride to Christmas by the Seekers).

A reader of this web-log sent me the following image,

HOHOHO on NameCalling.jpg .

I wonder what Rudolf did with the carcasses?

According to Wikipedia: Reindeer meat is popular in the Scandinavian countries. Reindeer meatballs are sold canned. Reindeer stew is the best-known dish in Lapland. In Alaska, reindeer sausage is sold locally to supermarkets and grocery stores.

I also recieved the following message about Rudolf:

“According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, while both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year, male reindeer drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, usually late November to mid-December. Female reindeer retain their antlers till after they give birth in the spring.

Therefore, according to EVERY historical rendition depicting Santa’s reindeer, EVERY single one of them, including Rudolph, had to be a girl.”

I don’t know. I thought young males also kept their antlers over Christmas?

But anyway, I think Santa’s Reindeers are a whole different species or subspecies given they can fly? Given there were only 9 of them, Rudolf should surely be listed as endangered or something. There’s a job for Rog for the New Year!

Anyway, to all readers of this web-log, for tomorrow, may peace and happiness be with you.

Intelligent What? Not Science.

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This is the best news that I have heard in ages, from the Boston Globe Online:

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Pennsylvania yesterday ruled that intelligent design is “nothing less than the progeny of creationism” and should not be taught in public schools.

The ruling, handed down by a judge appointed by President Bush, is a major legal setback for proponents of intelligent design, which holds that living organisms are so complex they cannot be explained by evolution and must be the work of a higher power. Christian right leaders have argued that it should be taught in school systems across the country.

The ruling, the first legal test of intelligent design, comes after a six-week trial in which expert witnesses and parents on both sides of the dispute took the stand to argue their positions on a Dover, Pa., school board policy requiring science teachers to inform students of “gaps” in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and to share competing views, including intelligent design.

Intelligent design proponents, mindful of legal barriers against teaching creationism in public schools, have long argued that their theory passes constitutional muster because it is not based in religion. They use the term “intelligent designer,” rather than God, to describe an omniscient force behind life on Earth, and they draw on a pool of scientists to raise questions they say Darwin’s theory fails to answer.

But in a sweeping 139-page opinion that went far beyond the legality of the Dover policy, Judge John E. Jones III concluded that intelligent design is religious and that its inclusion in public school violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

The ruling rebuked prominent intelligent design theorists, saying their assertion that evolution cannot coexist with religious beliefs is ”utterly false.” Jones also harshly condemned the Dover school board members who backed it.

Those school officials, Jones charged, “time and again lie[d] to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose” behind promoting the theory of intelligent design, which he said was to promote religion.

Jones is a lifelong Republican who ran for Congress and narrowly lost more than a decade ago. He has described his mentor as Tom Ridge, the former Pennsylvania governor who served as homeland security secretary. Bush appointed Jones to the bench in 2002.

Click here to read more…

Update 30th December

The actual judgement can be read by clicking here.

Pilot Whales, Really Just Sheep?

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It is great news that the 100 pilot whales stranded on a beach at the top of New Zealand’s South Island have been refloated and are on their way back out to sea.

But you have to wonder who gave these dolphins, that seem unable to orientate for themselves, the name ‘pilot whale’?

The New Zealand stranding apparently occurred because the entire pod followed a leader who couldn’t navigate.

Almost as many pilot whales beached themselves at Cape Cod in 2002. Then it was thought that the leader of the pod was:
1. Chasing a school of squid, or
2. Just got lost in the maze of channels that wind between sandbars of Chapin’s extensive flats, or
3. Was sick and sought the refuge of shallow water, where he wouldn’t sink.

The rest of the pod just followed.

Why? Are pilot whales really just sheep – colloquially speaking?

Anyway there are a few ideas at this website titled ‘Irish dolphins’, click here.

Who Writes What for Whom?

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John Quiggin comments at his blog today that a senior fellow at the CATO Institute in the US has resigned because he received cash for specific promotional articles.

It reminded me of a newspaper article I was sent last week outlining the extent to which articles in medical journals are increasingly written by ‘ghost writers’ with professors putting their names to the articles after they’ve done a bit of a review, click here for piece in the Pittsburg Post Gazette. It adds a whole new dimension to the concept of peer review.

Then there are people like me who have the privilege of receiving a salary to monitor, research and write on issues of my own choosing, in my own way, always seeking to take an evidence-based approach. And I am accused of being “a paid PR consultant with a role to attack opponents of GM”, see comment here from non-GM farmer.

It is interesting to ponder that over my 20 year career, first as a government-employeed research entomologist (1984-1996), then as environment manager for the Queensland cane growers (1997-2003), and now as director of the environment unit at the IPA, that I have never had such freedom to research and write on the issues that I consider to be of importance, as I have now.

How Big is Your Christmas Turkey?

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According to today’s NEWSMAIL@YOUR.ABC.NET.AU:

Tasmania’s main turkey producer is warning customers to expect more than they have ordered, after climatic conditions resulted in bigger-than-usual birds.

Nichols Poultry owner Robert Nichols says the company thought it courteous to let its customers know “we’ve overshot the mark a little bit this year”.

He says a cool growing season has seen the turkeys gobbling down their food like there is no tomorrow.

“We just found that it’s been such an exceptional season that they’ve just eaten that much better this year and performed that much better that it’s quite a surprise,” Mr Nichols said.

“Just so unusual. So difficult to predict as well.”

Mr Nichols says customers who have ordered smaller birds will be most affected.

“Christmas market dictates that we have to have a whole heap of birds from small birds and around about the two to three kilos, right the way up to large birds for catering trade of 11 and 12 kilos dressed weight,” he said.

“But this year we’ve really struggled with some of the smaller sizes, the two and three kilo birds have just shot out of their skins and they’re just so much better performing than they’ve been in the past.”

Mr Nichols says because the birds have to be supplied fresh, they cannot be killed when they reach the right size.

“I was hoping that maybe we could all look towards bringing forward Christmas Day to the 19th,” he said.

“I think that would work quite nicely for us, but I think if that won’t take off we’ll have to go a few sizes larger on our birds.”

But Mr Nichols says the big birds do not make him feel like a bit of a goose.

“We’re playing with Mother Nature … we don’t have any artificial control over the climate that we put our birds through so as with any farming venture you’re in the lap of the gods,” he said.

So it has been the warmest year on record (click here for the BOM media release) – except in Tasmania?