Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

News

Value Adding in Australia, The Beginning of the End: A Note from Viv Forbes

By

News Alert: Smelting and refining of Mount Isa copper in Queensland to cease

The recent Xstrata decision to phase out their world class copper smelting and refining operations in Australia tells us that the taxes, processing, transport and energy costs that Xstrata expects in Australia are already uncompetitive.

The dreamers in the Canberra cocoon always drool about “value adding”. Their carbon tax will surely cause all mineral processing plants in Australia to lose value, and some will surely close. Low cost coal and diesel power will no longer support our high wages. The value adding will take place in Asia.

We are watching a slow tragedy unfold – the end of an era. Once the mineral processing plants leave, they will never come back. We will be back to the pioneering era of mining – dig it out and ship it off.

And the final tragic irony of the Isa story is this – sending partly processed copper concentrate overseas, instead of smelting it at Mount Isa, will about triple the transport burden and do the same to carbon dioxide emissions.

[Read more…] about Value Adding in Australia, The Beginning of the End: A Note from Viv Forbes

The Left Mobilizes to ‘Save the Murray’

By

THE left in Australia can mobile very quickly with ‘Getup’ securing over 18,000 signatures on its petition to ‘Save the Murray’ since it launched the campaign just yesterday.

The letter they sent out is full of misinformation including comment that:

“The Murray Darling Basin has been sucked dry by decades of over extraction. Despite recent rain and floods the Murray Darling Basin is on the brink of ecosystem collapse. Already over 90% of the floodplain wetlands have been destroyed along with native fish and bird populations.”

I guess the truth has never stood in the way of a good campaign?

[Read more…] about The Left Mobilizes to ‘Save the Murray’

More Government Waste on Unsustainable Lake System

By

Driving home late this afternoon I heard Tony Burke, the Federal Minister for Water and Environment, on ABC news radio explaining that because of “over-allocation” in the Murray Darling Basin the Coorong had suffered during the recent drought. So, he visited the region today to provide an additional $118 million to ensure a “healthy and sustainable future for South Australia’s Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth region”.

The claim of “over-allocation” is behind the Basin plan, but it ignores the reality of the allocation system already in place in particular that during drought allocations are significantly restricted and so crops like cotton and rice are not planted. That the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth region are now awash with water despite significant areas being planted to cotton and rice this last summer also defies the Minister’s logic.

Since arriving home, I have had an opportunity to read a bit more about today’s announcement on the internet and I see it was made with Paul Caica, South Australian Environment and Conservation Minister, who claims the money is part of a plan to ensure the Lower Lakes “remain freshwater”.

I was repeatedly told about the plan to secure a “freshwater future” for the Lower Lakes when I visited Goolwa in March.

When I suggested to the Mayor of Alexandrina Council, Kym McHugh, that the plan was absurd because the combined Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth region is just too vast an area to be reliably supplied from upstream storages, he replied well that is what we as a Lower Lakes community have decided and that is what we intend to see implemented by the South Australian and Federal governments and he then gave me a fridge magnet with the slogan “Securing a fresh water future” below the word “Alexandrina” and told me the same words were emblazed across the top of every piece of official correspondence that left his office.

Of course, water for Lake Alexandrina comes at the expense of upstream environments, communities and industries.

But many Lower Lake residents don’t seem to care. As one business explained to me, “We can import our rice and cotton from overseas, but we can only get our freshwater from upstream”.

In reality the “freshwater future” plan has nothing to do with the environment. Indeed if Ministers Burke and Caica were serious about long term sustainability and building “resilience” as they claimed today, they would be talking about the “saltwater solution”.

The Lower Lakes formed about 6,000 years ago during a period of sea level rise. Studies of fossil foraminifera – tiny protozoa with shells of calcium carbonate – preserved in the sediments of the Lower Lakes show that the Lower Lakes had a maximum marine influence 5,255 years ago and a maximum freshwater influence 3,605 years ago. The period of maximum freshwater influence is thought to have coincided with the period when the Murray Mouth was greatly restricted or closed because climatic conditions in the catchment were much drier. The change in the foraminifera complex over the most recent 2,000 years indicate a general trend of increasing marine influence, up until the construction of the five large steel and concrete barrages that now block the natural ebb and flow between the Lower Lakes and Southern Ocean.

Until construction of five barrages in the 1930s, the Lower Lakes were estuarine meaning there was a strong tidal influence. The barrages were built to stop these natural inflows and create a permanently fresh system. This system now evaporates more Murray River water each year than the total Murray River water allocation for South Australian agriculture.

If the Gillard government wishes to waste an additional $118 million on tree planting to beautify this unsustainable artificial lake system, and to dismantle regulators installed at the height of the drought because the South Australian government refused to open the barrages to seawater, it should not use the pretext of environmentalism. And that Minister Burke included with today’s announcement disparaging remarks about upstream irrigators – perpetuating the myth that they are to blame for the woes of the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth region – indicates that the Gillard government really is contemptuous of irrigated agriculture in the Murray Darling Basin.

**********

Learn about the geography of the Lower Lakes region here:
http://www.mythandthemurray.org/map/

Read about Sean Murphy’s saltwater solution here:
http://www.mythandthemurray.org/blog/

Consider leaving a short comment at one of the following online news sites to correct the misinformation from Minister Burke and Caica

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/federal-government-announces-118m-to-future-proof-murray-mouth-coorong-and-lower-lakes-in-drought/story-e6frea83-1226058275179?from=public_rss

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/9464915/coorong-lower-lakes-get-118m/

http://www.fiveaa.com.au/article_funding-to-save-the-lower-lakes_108434

New Alliance Opposed to Carbon Tax: The Galileo Movement

By

“The principal aim of this Movement is to first win the battle against the currently threatened tax on carbon dioxide and then to win the war against any drive for ever putting a price on it,” said Case Smit announcing the launch of the new Australian-based website and movement, The Galileo Movement.

Mr Smit, and his business partner John Smeed, have backgrounds in science and engineering. Their experience is in environmental protection and air quality.

At first they simply accepted politicians’ claims of global warming blamed on human production of carbon dioxide (CO2). When things didn’t add up, they each separately investigated. Stunned, they discovered what many people are now discovering: climate claims by some scientists and politicians contradict observed facts.

Read more here: http://www.galileomovement.com.au/galileo_movement.php

How to Push-Up Sea Levels

By

Data on sea level rise does not support past dire predictions, so the official data is being corrected up. That’s right the official data is going to be adjusted up to ‘correct’ for expanding ocean basins and La Nina.

“One important change in these releases is that we are now adding a correction of 0.3 mm/year due to Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA), so you may notice that the rate of sea level rise is now 0.3 mm/year higher than earlier releases. This is a correction to account for the fact that the global ocean basins are getting slightly larger over time as mantle material moves from under the oceans into previously glaciated regions on land. Simply subtract 0.3 mm/year if you prefer to not include the GIA correction.

You may also note that rate of sea level rise over recent years has been less than the long-term average. This is believed to be due to the recent La Nina’s we have been experiencing, though research on this is continuing. We will soon add a plot to the web site illustrating this effect.”

From http://sealevel.colorado.edu/content/new-web-site-new-sea-level-release
Via John O’Sullivan