Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

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HundredsThousands Protest Global Warming

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IT was predicted to be the largest demonstration yet against coal and climate change, 10,000 activists to descend on a coal-fired power plant in Washington DC.

According to the Capitol Climate Action website, they are there now, as I write, “courageous activists have occupied three of five gates at the Capitol Power Plant. The march of thousands is continuing to circle the plant. The situation is peaceful, non-violent, and of course inspiring…

“The atmosphere is charged with hope and excitement. People are bundled up in their warmest coats and staying active by chanting. I hear ‘Coal can never be clean.’ There’s a prayer vigil in the south section of the park.”

There may have been even more people including celebrities from New York at the rally, if it wasn’t for the unseasonal cold weather and large snowfalls delaying flights into Washington.

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Global Warming in Perspective: A Note from William Happer

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“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.

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To Tax or Trade Carbon

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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

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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

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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.

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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.