Jennifer Marohasy

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After 10 Years, Still No Evidence to Convict Herbicide in Mackay Mangrove Dieback

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About 10 years ago the Pioneer River which runs through the North Queensland town of Mackay flooded and some mangroves died.   A few years later the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) launched its ‘Save the Reef’ campaign focusing on claimed impacts of farming on the Great Barrier Reef and an academic at the University of Queensland, Norm Duke, released a report implicating cane farming in the mangrove dieback at Mackay in particular farm runoff containing the herbicide Diuron.  

The WWF campaign generated political momentum for some sort of action and a Reef Taskforce was formed to advise government.  At the time I was working for the Queensland Sugar Industry and made a member of the Taskforce.  It was clear that there was no substantial evidence for an impact from farming on the reef, but the government had committed itself to there being a problem and the Taskforce was to conclude as much.   

Dr Duke’s unpublished report to the Queensland Fisheries Service became a key document for the Taskforce, purportedly providing evidence for “localized deterioration on individual nearshore reefs” from farm runoff.  

At the time I explained that the Duke report, and the hypothesis that the dieback was a consequence of the herbicide Diuron, had some major flaws, including: “Only four of 21 potential sites were tested for Diuron. Traces of Diuron were found in the sediment at all four sites. This included the control site at which there was no mangrove dieback. In other words, Diuron was found at one site where there was no mangrove dieback as well as at three sites where there was mangrove dieback. No evidence was presented to indicate that the levels of Diuron at any of the sites were herbicidal.”

But the campaign against the farmers supported by a compliant media rolled on, politicians were elected on the basis they cared about the reef including mangroves, plans were developed to save the reef from farming, hundreds of millions of dollars provided for research programs to save the reef from farming.    Indeed there is now a large bureaucracy including academics and sugar industry personnel associated with saving the reef.

There is ongoing monitoring of the stands of mangrove in the vicinity of Mackay but there is still no evidence implicating the herbicide Diuron in the mangrove dieback.      

Indeed today I was assured by those who have spent years monitoring the mangroves that diuron can still be found in sediment, but it doesn’t seem to be affecting the mangroves that “there is no indication that the herbicides at the levels detected in the Pioneer River estuary have impacted on the health of the mangroves.”

I had a wander around the mangroves, including in the Bassett Basin near Barnes Creek, today with Carl Mitchell from Reef Catchments and John Abbot from the University of Queensland. 

 

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Additional reading:
Jennifer Marohasy & Gary Johns, 2002, WWF Says ‘Jump!’, Governments Ask ‘How High?’ Institute of Public Affairs, Occasional Paper

Canadians Want More Debate on Climate Change

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“Canadians are deeply frustrated by the quality of politicians’ discussions of climate change and global warming according to a nationally representative poll carried out for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy by COMPAS Research and completed September 29, 2008. Such frustrations cut across regions and party groupings.  Most Canadians tend to subscribe to the anthropogenic viewpoint that human activity is responsible for global warming and climate change.  An overwhelming majority of the public nonetheless does not believe that the causes of climate change have been fully identified or that the debate has been settled. By a more than 4:1 margin, the public calls upon the media to provide more multi-sided reporting on the issue.”  Read more here.

Dramatic Urbanization Warms California

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Global warming due to increasing greenhouse gases is responsible for some of the overall heating observed in Los Angeles and the rest of California. Most of the increase in heat days and length of heat waves, however, is due to a phenomenon called the “urban heat island effect.”  Read more here.

Key Australian Government Advisor Hands Down Final Report on Climate Change

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The Australian Government’s climate change adviser, Professor Ross Garnaut, says a global agreement must be reached to successfully reduce the world’s carbon emissions and has urged action without delay.  Indeed Professor Garnaut went so far as to suggest in a televised address that, “On a balance of probabilities, the failure of our generation on climate change mitigation would lead to consequences that would haunt humanity until the end of time.”

 

On the issue of the need for a worldwide response Professor Garnaut suggested:

1.     An International Adaptation Assistance Commitment would provide new adaptation assistance to developing countries that join the mitigation effort

2.     Early sectoral agreements would seek to ensure that the main trade-exposed, emissions-intensive industries face comparable carbon prices across the world, including metals and international civil aviation and shipping

3.     A World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement is required to support international mitigation agreements and to establish rules for trade measures against countries thought to be doing too little on mitigation

 

On the issue of an Australian emissions trading scheme, the Professor suggested:

1.     The Establishment of an independent carbon bank with all the necessary powers to oversee the long-term stability of the scheme

2.     Implementation of a transition period from 2010 to the conclusion of the Kyoto period (end 2012) involving fixed price permits

3.     Credits to trade-exposed, emissions-intensive industries to address the failure of our trading partners to adopt similar policies

4.     No permits to be freely allocated

5.     Scheme coverage that is as broad as possible

 

Such a trading scheme would be very different to the European Model where I understand credits have been freely allocated and petrol, for example, is exempt.

 

Professor Garnaut has accepted the science of climate change as explained by the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and  sections of his earlier reports read like oversimplified versions of the IPCC reports.    

 

Professor Garnaut is close to Australia’s Rudd Labor Government and this final report is likely to reflect Australian government thinking on this issue.   The Australian Prime Minister, Kelvin Rudd, and his Climate Change Minister, Penny Wong, have both used climate change as a vehicle for self promotion nationally and internationally and are deeply committed to the idea of a climate crisis.

 

The Garnaut Climate Change Review was commissioned by Australia’s Commonwealth, state and territory governments to examine the impacts, challenges and opportunities of climate change for Australia. A Draft Report was released on 4 July 2008. The Supplementary Draft Report Targets and trajectories was released on 5 September 2008. The Final Report was released yesterday on 30 September 2008.   All documents can be downloaded from the Garnaut Review website.

http://www.garnautreview.org.au

Financial Crash, Not Good for Concept of Carbon Trading

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The proposed $700 billion bailout of Wall Street failed to pass the US Congress last night.   Across the world disappointed investors are now fleeing stock markets as the global economy teeters on ruin.

 

With the likely arrival of more austere times it is unlikely national governments will have a lot of time or interest in environmental issues, including global warming. 

 

The belief that Australia may be somehow immune from hardship because of our mineral wealth and proximity to China is likely to be challenged, along with the idea that we can forge ahead with an Emissions Trading Scheme.  Indeed it is resource shares that have been most affected this morning. 

 

During this period of intense market instability, it is likely to be increasingly difficult to justify any additional stresses to the economy particularly one based on the idea of trading a commodity, carbon, for which there is no real market.