Jennifer Marohasy

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Can Whaling and Whale Watching Coexist? A Note from Ann Novek

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In the whaling countries, Norway, Japan and Iceland, whaling and whale watching exists side by side.

In Norway the whale watching industry is focused on sperm whales and killer whales and whale watching doesn’t happen near minke whale hunting grounds. In Japan as well, most whaling happens off shore, far away from coastal whale watching.

But in Iceland the killing of minke whales and the watching of minke whales occur in close proximity.

The Icelandic whale watching industry is unhappy and has commented:

“Whale watching in Iceland is being highly jeopardized, first by the resumption of the so-called “scientific” whaling in 2003 and now by the resumption of commercial whaling, announced and immediately performed in October 2006.

“161 minke whales have been caught for scientific purposes and their stomach contents analyzed to seek justification for the depleting fish stocks. However, at the last IWC meeting in June 2006, Iceland’s research was critized by the Scientific Commitee of the IWC for not being scientifically viable. The whales had been caught too close to shore, often within whale watching areas, and the study results are therefore insufficient.”

We have discussed here on Jennifer’s blog, what will happen with the Australian humpback whale watching industry, when Japan resumes humpback whaling this Austral summer for “scientific” reasons.

The whale watching industry is concerned the whales may become easier targets.

Comments from Australians include:

“Wally Franklin: The whales have become very used to these vessels and will come up to and roll over and present their underside and their belly to these vessels. Now are they going to do this, of course, to the Japanese harpooners in Antarctica?
That’s … we’re hoping they won’t.”

“Steve Dixon: Well if a season was added to the Hervey Bay calendar through whale watching and that industry suddenly becomes endangered, or the whales stop trusting the whale watchers, then it will have a severe economic impact on the whale city, because suddenly that fleet that goes out from July though to the end of September will suddenly find itself going out and looking at dolphins.”

So what will the impact of Japanese whaling be on the Australian humpback whaling industry?

My guess: The whale watchers may only experience the skittish animals that have been left – detracting from the whale watching adventure.

Cheers,
Ann Novek
Sweden

New Report Backs GM Crops: Media Release from Peter McGauran

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Australian farmers and consumers can find the information they need to make informed decisions about GM canola in a new report released today by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Peter McGauran.

Mr McGauran said that GM Canola – an information package, commissioned by the Australian Government,brought together a wide range of current information.

“Covering everything from regulation, supply chain management and market acceptance of GM crops to agronomic, economic and legal liability issues at farm level, this package is intended to make a well-informed contribution to the current debate about the GM crops,” Mr McGauran said.

“With reviews of the moratoriums under way in four states, Australian farmers will potentially start growing GM canola from 2008.”

Mr McGauran said today the report found that Australian farmers stood to gain significantly from the introduction of GM technology.

“The study concludes that Australia’s main competitor, Canada, has been growing GM canola for 10 years without any appreciable loss of market share or prices, while enjoying significant agronomic benefits,” Mr McGauran said.

“It also found that GM canola offers some solutions to the problems facing conventional canola in Australia and is likely to make a valuable contribution to farming systems once farmers are able to access the technology and adopt it to their individual circumstances.”

Key points in the report are:

● Canola is an important crop in Australian winter crop rotations;

● Canola has benefits for farming enterprises beyond the direct returns the crop generates. Other crops in the rotation benefit from the weed control and disease management options canola provides;

● Weed resistance to conventional canola chemicals and disease pressures are threatening canola’s contribution to farming systems in Australia.

The report was produced by the consultancy firm ACIL Tasman.

“This report adds further weight to the argument that State Governments should immediately lift their moratoriums on GM crops so that Australian farmers can have access to the benefits of this technology,” Mr McGauran said.

“Australian farmers are extremely efficient and innovative producers, but to remain internationally competitive, need to be able to compete.”

The report is available at http://www.daff.gov.au/agriculture-food/biotechnology

End media release.

Australia’s climate sceptic MPs

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CANBERRA, Australia: Four Australian governing party lawmakers rejected on Monday the idea that humans are causing global warming, the conclusion reached by their colleagues on a parliamentary committee.

Read more here:

Coalition MPs dispute climate finding

Garrett questions PM’s climate change stance

Australian governing party lawmakers doubt human contribution to global warming

Heat on Australia PM over climate sceptic MPs

Let the Poor have Water, not Ideology: A New Paper from Alex Nash

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This year’s World Water Week will see activists gather in Stockholm to discuss ways of getting clean water to the 1 billion people around the world who are currently without it. But, if water activists remain blinkered by ideology and continue to oppose private water provision, this goal will not be met – as explained in a new paper from the Sustainable Development Network.

Even though private water provision sees clean and safe water delivered to millions around the world, many politicians and NGOs remain irrationally opposed to the idea that profit should be made from “essential resources” like water.

According to the paper’s author, Alex Nash, a water engineer with experience of both public and private sector water projects in less-developed countries, this mindset is actively hindering universal access to water, and with it the achievement of several Millennium Development Goals.

The truth is that many public utilities in less-developed countries suffer from endemic corruption and rarely deliver services equitably – even refusing to recognise and connect slum-dwellers:

“The reality of many state run utilities is not pretty. Bribes, extortion, kickbacks, nepotism, patronage, shoddy technical standards; it’s all in a day’s work.”

Meanwhile, it is the private sector – from individual water porters to larger companies – that fill in the gaps left by dysfunctional state utilities.

The World Bank estimates that in most cities in less developed countries, more than half the population get their water from suppliers other than the public utility. This is the case in many peri-urban areas, as in Asunción Paraguay where 500 aguateros work to supply water to 500,000 people. But political opposition to private water could spell the end of such vital services.

“The net result of these ideologues’ well-meaning efforts is a staunch defence of the corrupt, lazy or incompetent utility managers and mayors. It is a defence of the comfortable middle classes in developing countries who have cheap water while their poorer compatriots queue and walk all day.”

Read the full paper: “Water Provision for the Poor- How ideology muddies the debate”,
by Alex Nash, published 13 August 2007 by the Sustainable Development Network – available for download at http://www.sdnetwork.net/files/pdf/Water_Provision_for_the_Poor.pdf

Newsweek Editor Debunks Newsweek Story on Global Warming Deniers

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Last week the magazine Newsweek published a cover story on global warming suggesting global warming “deniers” were well funded, influential and unscrupulous. This week the magazine has essentially debunked its own story.

Contributing Editor Robert J. Samuelson writes:

“We in the news business often enlist in moral crusades. Global warming is among the latest. Unfortunately, self-righteous indignation can undermine good journalism. Last week’s NEWSWEEK cover story on global warming is a sobering reminder. It’s an object lesson of how viewing the world as “good guys vs. bad guys” can lead to a vast oversimplification of a messy story…

“Against these real-world pressures, NEWSWEEK’s “denial machine” is a peripheral and highly contrived story. NEWSWEEK implied, for example, that ExxonMobil used a think tank to pay academics to criticize global-warming science. Actually, this accusation was long ago discredited, and NEWSWEEK shouldn’t have lent it respectability…

“The mainstream media have generally been unsympathetic [to the skeptics] … The first NEWSWEEK cover story in 1988 warned the greenhouse effect. danger: more hot summers ahead. A Time cover in 2006 was more alarmist: be worried, be very worried. Nor does public opinion seem much swayed. Although polls can be found to illustrate almost anything, the longest-running survey questions show a remarkable consistency. In 1989, Gallup found 63 percent of Americans worried “a great deal” or a “fair amount” about global warming; in 2007, 65 percent did.

“Journalists should resist the temptation to portray global warming as a morality tale—as NEWSWEEK did—in which anyone who questions its gravity or proposed solutions may be ridiculed as a fool, a crank or an industry stooge. Dissent is, or should be, the lifeblood of a free society.”

Read the complete column by Samuelson here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20226462/site/newsweek/page/0/

Read Marc Morano’s comments here: http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=58659aa0-802a-23ad-49d7-3d18075e69c3&Issue_id

Many thanks to Marc Morano for alerting me to the article by Robert J. Samuelson entitled ‘Greenhouse Simplicities’.

UK mathematician alleges IPCC Urban Heat Island fraud

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The allegations by British mathematician Douglas J Keenan concern the following 2 papers co-authored by Wei-Chyung Wang, a professor at the University at Albany, State University of New York:

Jones P.D., Groisman P.Y., Coughlan M., Plummer N., Wang W.-C., Karl T.R. (1990), “Assessment of urbanization effects in time series of surface air temperature over land”, Nature, 347: 169-172.

Wang W.-C., Zeng Z., Karl T.R. (1990), “Urban heat islands in China”, Geophysical Research Letters, 17: 2377-2380.

The pdf of Keenan’s report is here and an appraisal is here.

The report concludes:

First, there has been a marked lack of integrity in some important work on global warming that is relied upon by the IPCC. Second, the insignificance of urbanization effects on temperature measurements has not been established as reliably as the IPCC assessment report assumes.