In a world with a global carbon price, carbon efficiency will also become a new competitive battleground. Those economies that offer a more energy-efficient operating environment will become increasingly more attractive places to invest. Economies that refuse to act on climate change will run the risk of retaliatory tariffs from others. Read more here from Australia’s Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd.
Opinion
Organic Food not Nutritionally Better than Conventional
A SYSTEMATIC review of literature over 50 years finds no evidence for superior nutritional content of organic produce.
There is no evidence that organically produced foods are nutritionally superior to conventionally produced foodstuffs, according to a study published today in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Consumers appear willing to pay higher prices for organic foods based on their perceived health and nutrition benefits, and the global organic food market was estimated in 2007 to be worth £29 billion (£2 billion in the UK alone). Some previous reviews have concluded that organically produced food has a superior nutrient composition to conventional food, but there has to date been no systematic review of the available published literature.
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Reducing Emissions Must Ultimately Mean Less Stuff
WESTERN governments are trying to have it both ways: they want to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and they want to stimulate economic growth by us spending more money including on stuff. But this is not realistic.
Either the government impresses on the population that it must be content with less including smaller families, smaller houses and fewer pairs of shoes etcetera or there will be more emissions.
I’m happy to go along with less – I’ve never aspired to a luxurious lifestyle or a big family. But most of the rest of the population doesn’t seem to get it?
Viv Forbes does – see below, but Malcolm Turnbull doesn’t. [Read more…] about Reducing Emissions Must Ultimately Mean Less Stuff
Gurr the Toy Maker: A Note from Larry
BEFORE Jane Goodall’s pioneering study of wild chimpanzees, most of us believed that tool-use and especially tool-making were exclusively human activities. Goodall was intrigued when she first observed a chimp poking a stick into a termite mound, waiting a minute, pulling out the stick, and then licking off the termites.
But a Border Collie named Gurr and his toy-making is one notch above chimp termite-fishing.
On 13th August 2005 I set out for a hike with a friend, Kanako, and the large handsome Border Collie mix.
We set out from Sacramento County to hike the little-known Bassi Cabin loop trail. The hike is a symphony of coniferous forest, running water, and glacier-polished granite. [Read more…] about Gurr the Toy Maker: A Note from Larry
Resisting Climate Hysteria
The fact that the developed world went into hysterics over changes in global mean temperature anomaly of a few tenths of a degree will astound future generations. Such hysteria simply represents the scientific illiteracy of much of the public … Read more here… from Richard Lindzen at Quadrant Online.
Copenhagen in December: The Decline of the West – And Money
IT is generally recognized that the west is in decline and that China will emerge as a superpower some time later this century.
It is also generally recognised that it is the west that has spear-headed the campaign against the so-called climate crisis. And the west is desperate to get the rest of the world to a United Nations meeting in Copenhagen in December to discuss solutions to this issue.
The UN’s top climate negotiator, a Dutchman Yvo De Boer, has already said the west will have to put $10 billion on the table to get the developing world – read China and India – to agree to anything at Copenhagen.
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Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.