Cartoon by Nicholson from “The Australian” newspaper: http://nicholsoncartoons.com.au
Economics
Measuring the Financial Crisis in Terms of Reduced Carbon Emissions
THERE is a lot less “stuff” being produced in the US and China as a consequence of the financial crisis.
According to Joe Kishore writing at The World Socialist Website:
“Manufacturing in the US is collapsing, with a key index falling to its lowest level in 20 years on Friday. Other figures released yesterday show a downturn in production throughout the world.
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Church Invests with Al Gore
The Church of England’s Church Commissioners have gone green, investing £150 million with former US Vice-President Al Gore’s environmentally minded investment firm, Generation Investment Management. Read more here.
Dishonest Advertising on the ETS: AEF Media Release
GetUp’s global warming television ads (to air today) are dishonest and inaccurate, according to Dr Jennifer Marohasy, Chair of the Australian Environment Foundation.
“For all sorts of reasons a number of groups, of which Internet campaigners GetUp.org.au are one, are pretending that the Rudd Government’s proposed Emissions Trading Scheme is a minor 5 to15 percent adjustment to our way of life”.
“In fact, the government’s ETS will reduce the amount of energy available to every man; woman and child currently living in the country by an extraordinary 35 percent, absent the discovery and implementation of an unknown source of carbon free energy in the next ten years”.
Dr Marohasy said that this would be the equivalent of closing down all of Australia’s manufacturing and half its rural industries.
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Store Carbon as Biochar
One solution to “carbon pollution” is biochar, but according to the Australian government’s policy on emissions trading, the science of biochar is not fully developed – so it can’t be included in any emissions trading scheme.
According to Environmental Scientist, Professor Syd Shea:
Biochar is a fine-grained, highly porous charcoal that helps soils retain nutrients and water. The carbon in biochar resists degradation and sequesters carbon in soils for hundreds to thousands of years, providing a potentially powerful tool for mitigating anthropogenic climate change. When the biochar is made from agricultural and plantation wastes that would otherwise decompose within a few years, emissions of greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere are avoided and that carbon is permanently stored in the biochar.
The Rainbow Bee Eater team, named after a beautiful bird that lives in the regions where they work, has been working on biochar for several years. They are planning to implement a pilot scale operational biochar trial on a 23 thousand hectare wheat belt farm in Western Australia in 2009.
Why the EU Backpedalled in Poznan
There are… growing doubts about the long-term viability of the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme. Read more here.
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.