Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Opinion

Unethical Forest Protestors in Tasmania: A Note from Alan Ashbarry

By

IN a rare display of sympathy and understanding for forest contractors, ABC journalist Tom Tilley has put the hard word on protestors in the Upper Florentine Valley, accusing them of perhaps even being “unethical”.  

You can play the interview at the ABC Triple J website  while watching a slide show. [1]
  

The issue is ongoing conflict at a blockade in the Florentine Valley along a road that was constructed in the mid 1960’s. Until recently a protest camp has blocked the path of a new spur road to access forest harvesting areas.  The timber of the Florentine Valley, together with the Styx Valley, was granted to a consortium of media companies in the late 1930’s to create a newsprint pulp and paper mill and jobs at the end of the last world recession.

[Read more…] about Unethical Forest Protestors in Tasmania: A Note from Alan Ashbarry

Global Warming in Perspective: A Note from William Happer

By

“BUT the climate is warming and CO2 is increasing. Doesn’t this prove that CO2 is causing global warming through the greenhouse effect? 

“No, the current warming period began about 1800 at the end of the little ice age, long before there was an appreciable increase of CO2. There have been similar and even larger warmings several times in the 10,000 years since the end of the last ice age. These earlier warmings clearly had nothing to do with the combustion of fossil fuels. The current warming also seems to be due mostly to natural causes, not to increasing levels of carbon dioxide. Over the past ten years there has been no global warming, and in fact a slight cooling. This is not at all what was predicted by the IPCC models.”

So explained William Happer, a professor of physics at Princeton University, to the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on February 25, 2009.

[Read more…] about Global Warming in Perspective: A Note from William Happer

To Tax or Trade Carbon

By

Australian economist Alan Moran considers the advantages of taxing versus trading to reduce carbon emissions and concludes the best policy for Australia is to do nothing till 2020, then catch up by 2050, given the Treasury’s estimate at 3 percent of GDP.  Read more here.

Shark Numbers and Shark Attacks

By

THERE have been three shark attacks in Sydney waters over the last three weeks, but there is no agreement as to whether shark numbers are on the increase – or not.

According to NSW Deputy Premier, Carmel Tebbuts, there is no evidence of increased shark numbers in NSW but Ms Tebbuts does admit cleaner waterways around Sydney (via SMH).

According to the Department of Primary Industries chief scientist, Steve Kennelly, because waters are cleaner there are more sharks.  Hang on! This is not what the Deputy Premier said.

Professor Kennelly explained we are seeing a healthy ecosystem, “to the point where we’re getting whales underneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge and … lots of good bait fish coming in, tailor, king fish and so on and sharks feed on those things (via ABC).

Professor Kennelly did not mention that there have also been bans on commercial fishing in Sydney Harbour since a dioxin scare in January 2006 – this would also probably mean more fish.  

According to Professor Kennelly not even new bans on hunting sharks (due to new fishing quotas) will impact on the risk of shark attacks (also via ABC Online).  

Let’s summarize, sharks eat fish, so if there are more fish you might expect more sharks, add to this, new bans on hunting sharks, so again expect more sharks.   More sharks might increase the risk of shark attacks.   “Nah”, suggest some bureaucrats and politicians!

Wouldn’t it be better if government admitted that policies intended to increase the numbers of fish and sharks, are having an effect, and so the risk of shark attack could increase – and then explain how to mitigate like not swimming at dawn or dusk.

Imposing Our Prejudices on the Value of Flood Waters: A Note from Cathy Green

By

WHEN nutrient rich water flows into Lake Eyre it is considered good for the environment, but when nutrient rich water flows into the Great Barrier Reef lagoon it is considered bad for the environment. 

Indeed every time that Lake Eyre in central Australia floods, our oh-so-sensitive-to-nature journalists provide us with the sort of happy purple prose that we see on the front page of today’s The Australian, where Jamie Walker says:

“The torrents that swept down the swollen Georgina and Diamantina rivers, mixing in Goyder Lagoon before surging through Warburton Creek and into the lake proper, carry a bounty of new life: nutrient-rich sediments to feed the thirsty native vegetation that has erupted all around it, and in turn herbaceous native rodents; fish for the mass of birds tracking the flood; all the water the wild camels from the Simpson Desert can drink.”

Meanwhile, every time it rains hard enough in north Queensland for rivers to flood into the Great Barrier Reef lagoon, which represents precisely the same phenomenon as the Diamantina feeding Lake Eyre, journalists at The Australian provide us with much lamenting and concern like the following:

“A MASSIVE surge of polluted water has spewed onto the Great Barrier Reef following heavy rains that hit north Queensland last week, environmentalists say.

The WWF estimated up to one million megalitres – enough polluted water to twice fill Sydney Harbour – entered the reef after a monsoon brought drenching rain to north Queensland.

Mr Heath said satellite imagery confirmed water flows travelled to mid-shelf…”

Nature herself simply doesn’t care about the big environmental impacts and changes, no matter how much birthing, killing or (from our perspective) environmental degradation they may cause – it’s all just part and parcel of being a dynamic planet.

*******************

Cathy has a PhD and lives in Far North Queensland.

The photograph of the pelicans was taken by Jennifer Marohasy below the Torrumbarry Weir, Central Murray Valley, in October 2007.  Pelicans (Pelecanus conspicillatus) can be found in coastal and inland Australia – where ever there are fish.  Some fishermen say that when there are floods on the land there is bounty in the sea.

Money and Australian Universities

By

“There are many dangerous beasts in this world.  Betrayed partners, taipans and Collingwood supporters all score highly. But above all, never come between a sandstone university and a trough of money.”  The Australian Financial Review, pg 54, February 26, 2009.