Snippetts Plus’ February 2010 50. 22. 24th
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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100224165225.htm More Tropical Cyclones in Past Could Play Role in Warmer Future More frequent tropical cyclones in Earth's ancient past contributed to persistent El Niño-like conditions, according to a team of climate scientists led by Yale University. 5 Their findings, which appear in the Feb. 25 issue of the journal Nature, could have implications for the planet's future as global temperatures continue to rise due to climate change. The team used both cyclone and climate models to study the frequency and distribution of tropical cyclones (also known as hurricanes or typhoons) during the Pliocene epoch, a period three to five million years ago when temperatures were up to four degrees Celsius warmer than today. The team found that there were twice as many tropical cyclones during this period, that they lasted two to three days longer on average than they do now, and that, unlike today, they occurred across the entire tropical Pacific Ocean. "The Pliocene is the best analog we have in the past for what could happen in our future," said Christopher Brierley, a Yale postdoctoral associate and an author of the study. "We wondered whether all these storms could have contributed to the warmer climate." In fact, the team discovered a positive feedback cycle between tropical cyclones and upper-ocean circulation in the Pacific that explains the increase in storms and appears to have led to permanent El Niño-like conditions. Today, cold water originating off the coasts of California and Chile skirts around the region of tropical cyclone activity on its way to the Equator, where it results in a "cold tongue" that stretches west off the coast of South America. During the Pliocene, however, the team found that this cold water could not avoid being hit by one of the many tropical cyclones, which would churn up and mix warmer water into it. This warming at the Equator led to changes in the atmosphere that in turn created more tropical storms -- and the cycle would repeat. The team hopes to study how much mixing could result from tropical cyclones in today's ocean waters -- something that is hard to incorporate in global climate models, said Alexey Fedorov, an associate professor at Yale and lead author of the paper. Fedorov cautioned that there is not necessarily a direct link between what happened during the Pliocene and what might happen in the future, as the team's results for this epoch differed in many respects from current projections for future global warming. For example, the existing consensus is that, while the number of intense hurricanes will increase, the overall number will actually decrease. "However, unless we understand the causes of these differences, we will not be sure whether our projections are correct," Fedorov said. "Changes in the frequency and distribution of these storms could be a significant component of future climate conditions." Other authors of this paper include Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Funding for this study was provided by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy Office of Science, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
Irrigators have warned the Federal Government risks losing farm sector support for its water reforms because they are still too heavily focused on buybacks, there is no environmental accountability, and promised infrastructure upgrades are far from a reality. Frustrated farm and irrigation lobby groups say the time for the Government to "get out and explain" its new plan for water use in the basin and the looming cuts to irrigation entitlements is now, with farmer uncertainty at an all time high. Farm leaders say there is major angst, confusion and frustration about what further cuts to water use will be announced in June when the Murray Darling Basin Authority releases its draft plan, which will be finalised and ready for use in 2011. Already its clear irrigators will take a big hit to their entitlements thanks to a new cap, or sustainable diversion limit, as the environment's share of water increases and new competing uses for water other than irrigation - creeping in outside the entitlement process - like forestry, groundwater, unauthorised losses, farm dams. Among a raft of criticisms the National Farmers Federation has for the SDL, it says the importance of agriculture has been minimised, and that has to change. On top of that, both the NFF and National Irrigators Council (NIC) say the water buyback scheme has been accelerated markedly, with about 82 per cent of funding to be spent over three years of a 10 year program, while infrastructure upgrades have barely begun. This week, the 600th day rolled around since the signing of an agreement between the Commonwealth and Murray Darling Basin states that committed $3.7 billion to irrigation infrastructure, with only one project underway, according to the National Irrigators Council. Last year the first phase of the on-farm upgrade component worth $300 million was announced, yet the initial tender process is not yet complete, so the start of any farm projects is a good 12 months away. NFF chief executive officer, Ben Fargher, said the goalposts for farmers just keep shifting. "There's so much uncertainty and rule change that they just can't keep up," Mr Fargher said. "For irrigators that have been going through water reform programs since 1993 or 1994 they want stability and certainty.”They want to be able to get on with business on their properties and have a period of 10 or 20 years of certainty where they know what the rules are, where there won't be a heap of changes over the next five years." NFF and the NIC has been urging the Government and the Murray Darling Basin Authority to immediately declare what environmental assets farmers and the community are protecting, saying it is "unacceptable" that there is no itemisation or accountability available until after the draft plan is delivered. Mr Fargher said they are also calling on the Government to try and rebalance its approach so there is a more equal focus on infrastructure upgrades, to give farmers a choice to stay in agriculture rather than just selling their water to the Government. He believes one of the problems with getting on-farm funding on the ground quickly is the program has been wrapped up in so much "process" and red tape. Mr Fargher acknowledged the Federal Government was frustrated by the slow progress but added there was also a lot of blame shifting between the State and Federal Governments in the area of infrastructure. 6 "We're criticising the balance without saying the whole thing should be chucked out," Mr Fargher said. "The whole thing about buying back water from the market and investing in infrastructure was fine, but it's completely out of whack. "There's no sequencing, and the balance has shifted." National Irrigators’ Council CEO, Danny O'Brien, said irrigators had "just about run out of patience" with both the Commonwealth and State governments over the delays. Mr O'Brien said the 600 day wait was an "indictment" on governments given the Commonwealth had spent more than $1.2 billion on buying water from irrigators in the same time. "Irrigators have generally been supportive of reform on the understanding there would be investment in irrigation infrastructure that would help them maintain productivity in a future with less water," Mr O'Brien said. "Doing more with less has been the government’s mantra.”The fact it is taking so long to get works happening on the ground is very frustrating and is leading many irrigators to question government commitments to infrastructure projects." Mr O'Brien said the NIC understood the only projects that had been completed were various pipelines around the Lower Lakes in SA - mostly involving no efficiency savings - and some pilot projects in NSW. http://sj.farmonline.com.au/news/state/agribusiness-and-general/general/ec-assistance-knocked-back-for-11-sa-areas/1761248.aspx?src=enews EC assistance knocked back for 11 SA areas The Federal Government has accepted independent advice and will extend Exceptional Circumstances assistance in 34 areas of NSW, South Australia and Victoria. Minister for Agriculture, Tony Burke, said the independent National Rural Advisory Council (NRAC) had reviewed the areas, which are due to expire next month. The committee recommended Exceptional Circumstances assistance be extended for two-thirds of the areas and found it should not be extended for one-third of the areas. Mr Burke acknowledged many farmers continued to face difficult conditions across Australia. "The Government recognises that the drought continues to place extraordinary pressure on many farming families across Australia," Mr Burke said. "We also acknowledge the current system is not working for farmers and are working to finalise details of the new drought support system.”Under the current system, we wait until farmers are in crisis to step in and help them. "We want to help farmers before the next crisis hits so they can better face the challenges of the future." *NRAC’s recommendations on the 34 EC declared areas can also be found at www.daff.gov.au/agriculture-food/ drought/ec SA areas in which EC assistance will continue until March 31 2011:
SA areas in which EC assistance will expire on March 31, 2010:
http://sj.farmonline.com.au/news/state/agribusiness-and-general/political/saff-sends-wish-list-to-politicians/1761147.aspx?src=enews SAFF sends wish list to politicians Agricultural policies have not been at the top of the list for the major political parties in the lead-up to the March State election, according to South Australian Farmers' Federation president Peter White. "Food production has a $12.4 billion impact on SA's economy, yet neither party leaders have bothered to come out and talk about it, which is pretty disappointing," he said. The comments come as SAFF released a list of election priorities - 'Farming the Future' - on Monday. 7 Food security, federal water management, abolishing stamp duty and a first farm owners' grant were among topics outlined in the 12-page document, which was also advertised in SA media last weekend to ensure maximum coverage in the city and country. "The farmer concerns we have highlighted are extremely important," Mr White said. They concerned people living in the city and regional SA. "Food security matters no matter where you are because everyone has to eat," he said. "We're suggesting voters don't wait around for candidates to come door-knocking. "Get in first and ask the hard questions - before spin doctors tell you what to say." The document says the "draconian" 1971 Mining Act is in need of a major overhaul. SAFF wants an exclusion zone to stop further mining in the fertile Greater Adelaide area (outlined in the State Government's 30-year plan), and greater protection for pastoral areas. "The Act is totally out of date," Mr White said. "Back then (1971) there were no water entitlements, climate change, etc, which impact on agriculture and mining to some degree because it is a big user of water. "Let's rewrite the Act so that it reflects where we are today and gets some equality for farmers and the mining companies." A statewide, viable, scientifically-based water management plan was also needed to enable farmers to carry out essential irrigation, along with research and development funding for new agricultural methodologies requiring less water. "We want the whole Murray Darling Basin managed by one completely-independent federal authority," Mr White said. "The River Murray, Darling, and its tributaries belong to Australia, not individual states. The upstream/downstream mentality really has to stop and this is about getting a fair and reasonable entitlement right across the basin." http://www.news.com.au/world/scientists-find-giant-plastic-rubbish-dump-floating-in-the-atlantic/story-e6frfkyi-1225834562266 Scientists find giant plastic rubbish dump floating in the Atlantic Scientists have discovered a giant rubbish tip made up of plastic bottles, bottletops and toothbrushes floating in the Atlantic Ocean. The discarded plastic, which lies north of the Caribbean, is known to harm seabirds and marine life. Sea Education Association's Dr Karen Lavender Law said that the problem in the Atlantic had been "largely ignored". Researchers said the dump has 200,000 pieces of debris per square kilometre but it was impossible to measure the exact size of the patch as much of it floats beneath the surface. "That's a maximum that is comparable with the 'great Pacific garbage patch'," Dr Lavender Law said. The great Pacific patch lies between Hawaii and California. During the study, researchers collected more than 64,000 tiny bits of plastic after carrying out 6100 sweeps of the North Atlantic towing fine mesh nets behind a research vessel. It is the longest and most extensive record of plastic debris in any ocean basin. The revelations come after the results of a 22-year study were unveiled at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Portland, US. The Pacific and North Atlantic patches are called gyres, which are areas of relatively little movement surrounded by strong ocean currents. The currents create spinning vortexes and once plastic floats into the area it cannot escape and accumulates over time. There are now thought to be five major oceanic gyres and all are likely to form large plastic patches. Read more at The Daily Mail.
Former Australian Defence Force chief Peter Cosgrove says Australia should adopt nuclear power as its response to climate change. General Cosgrove mounted the argument while giving the opening speech to a Liberal ideas forum in Canberra last night. He called for action on climate change and suggested bipartisan support is needed to set up a Commonwealth climate change commission with powers to enforce a long-term mitigation strategy. He says Australia should be using its uranium to generate electricity and owes it to its neighbours to take action on climate change. "If we don't do it, a country with our values, a country presently in the top 20 wealthiest countries in the world ... how can we expect other nations to act and thus offset our lack of action?" General Cosgrove said. "Let's not muck about any more and start now to resolve the problems that we own.”I anticipate the outcry that nuclear materials are horribly unclean. "Of course they are, if their care in operation and custody overall is deficient. But if you look after that side of it, then in a climate change sense there's hardly a cleaner energy resource." Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott told General Cosgrove that he does not entirely share his judgment on the state of the climate change science. Mr Abbott, however, says he agrees that nuclear power is the only realistic way to reduce carbon emissions while maintaining living standards. "That's not the policy of the Liberal Party. It will not be the policy of the Liberal Party between now and the next election. Nevertheless, it is a debate that this country should have," Mr Abbott said. General Cosgrove also says he is not in favour of Australia expanding its role in Afghanistan. He says he does not think there would be enough public support in Australia for sending more troops to Afghanistan. "In my view the weight of policy value and political risk are against an expanded and thus extended Australian role and military presence in Afghanistan," General Cosgrove said. Stick to soldiering! http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/26/2830732.htm Drought support extended for lower Murray, Murray Mallee Exceptional circumstances assistance has been extended for another year for the Murray Mallee and lower Murray and its lakes. The regions are the only ones in South Australia to get an extension, with federal assistance ending in 11 other SA areas. A former Riverland financial counselor Bill Wilson says the grants have been a vital support for growers in a period of prolonged drought. "I'd like to think we could move out of being in exceptional circumstances but the trouble is we can't," he said. 8 "We do have 55 per cent of irrigation water availability at the moment, certainly that's a lot of better than what we've had in the past but there are many many people, irrigators in particular, who are still suffering from the effects of the drought."I think most of us are hoping that the good times are just around the corner, you know, the drought's been very prolonged and it's left a lot of people in a very difficult situation financially and this has provided a glimmer of hope that perhaps it will see them through until we reach good times again." http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/26/2831534.htm More turbines for Hallett wind farm Another 25 wind turbines will be added to AGL Energy's wind farm at Hallett in the mid-north of South Australia. The company says it has entered an agreement for construction of stage five at Bluff Range. The first stage of the wind farm opened in 2008. Stage five is expected to be finished by the end of the year and will cost $120 million. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/26/2831513.htm Farmers' changes bypass climate debate Many Australian farmers are accepting the variable nature of the weather and adapting their practices to deal with climate change, rather than getting caught up in the political debate on whether that change is natural or man-made. Farmers say the lack of water and unpredictable weather patterns over the last decade have already forced them to make major changes to their operations, a case of adapt or perish. Victorian dairy farmer Brendan Martin told ABC's Landline his irrigation allocation has fluctuated between 100 and 29 per cent in the past decade. But rather than be a slave to it, he has sought an alternative source of water. "It's reclaimed sewerage water, we shandy it into our wheel allocation at 3:1 and that way it's a sustainable use of that water and we irrigate our lucerne and crops and pastures with it." The reclaimed water is supplemented with water bought on the open market. Along with careful pasture and feed management, Mr Martin says his cows are now producing up to 30 per cent more milk on 40 per cent less water. "It's about trying to be as efficient as possible in every area," he said. He says sometimes small changes, like the type of feed trough you use, can make a difference. "We went to concrete troughs to increase our efficiency or decrease our wastage on feed. I reckon we can save an extra 10 per cent on feed, and if you feed a lot that adds up to a lot of dollars pretty quick," he said. He has also split the calving times for his herd. "We used to predominantly calve in the spring [but now] we've moved to split calving with autumn as well," he said. "We currently calve about a third of our cows in autumn and that's to make use of the price increase in winter months and also use the grass and the cereals that we grow through the winter." Mr Martin says the mix of pasture he grows has also been completely changed to deal with the changing climate. "We've gone from traditionally irrigated perennial ryegrasses which we'd irrigate right through the season [to lucerne]. The lucene's fantastic," he said. "We can stop and start our lucerne if we think we're not going to have enough water to go through. We can dry it off for a couple of months, irrigate it and we've virtually got feed within three weeks, after irrigation. "It means we can avoid the really hot part of summer where our water use efficiency is not that fantastic." http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201002/s2831357.htm Young irrigators want more time to comment on MD Basin plan Young irrigators say the Federal Government hasn't given enough time for communities to have a say about the future plan for the Murray Darling Basin, with a draft to be released mid-year. The group, from several states across the Murray Darling Basin, is in Canberra this week to talk about irrigation farming's future. Lloyd Polkinghorne, representing the rice industry, says the time frame for implentation of the Basin Plan is "very tight" for getting a thorough consultation with the communities. Lachlan Bull, from Deniliquin, NSW, agrees that the time frame is a bit too soon. He says the plan hasn't taken into account the full social and economic impacts, and has focused mainly on the environment. While the group is concerned about the lack of government spending on water infrastructure and the drought, they're upbeat about their prospects. Let’s wait until the plan is at least released.
That means Senator Wong is celebrating the loss of 5599 jobs. Once Senator Wong spends the full $3.1 billion the government has allocated to buying irrigators' water entitlements, she will have wiped out 13,669 jobs in irrigated agriculture. That's before we even start talking about the flow-on effects to the rest of the community. Even more frightening is the impact of further cuts to irrigators' entitlements to be made under the new MDB draft Sustainable Diversion Limits to be announced mid-year. 9 The tragedy for the MDB's 2.2 million people is Mr Rudd's failure to counter the loss of water and wealth from these regional economies with the promised roll-out of the government's $5.8 billion investment in irrigation infrastructure. By June 30 this year the government will have spent less than 8 per cent of the $5.8 billion - a large chunk of which includes spending by the previous Howard Government on the Wimmera Mallee pipeline. Yet the worst aspect of the $12.9 billion Water for the Future program is that all this water is being taken from irrigators without a list of what environmental assets the government wants to revive. Details were meant to be outlined in a long-awaited environmental watering plan for the basin. But neither Senator Wong or the MDB Authority have responded to demands for details on what assets and what volumes are needed to revive the basin. Every Australian taxpayer should be worried that Mr Rudd's government is spending $12.9 billion of their money without first setting its environmental targets. It seems the Government is more than willing to risk the economic viability, jobs and even lives of some Australians in its mad rush to implement its green policies. The Government's home insulation scheme has cost four workers their lives and led to enormous wastage of public funds. Then there's the solar panel and hot water schemes. These roof-top technologies have flooded the market with cheap renewable energy certificates (REC), forcing down REC prices from $50 a megawatt hour to about $30/MWh, during the past 12 months. In its rush, the Government last year gave household solar panels five times their real worth in RECs and introduced a $1600 rebate on solar hot water systems. Once these cheap and phantom credits flooded the REC market, prices collapsed making dozens of large scale wind, solar and wave power projects unviable, given they rely on selling their RECs to fund the projects. Pacific Hydro has put $2 billion of investment in wind farms on hold and AGL's Macarthur wind farm is on hold. Portland wind tower manufacturer Keppel Prince Engineering has put 70 workers on forced leave and warns it will be forced to sack 120 workers if the federal Government doesn't resolve the REC market's failure. The massive cost of these green projects has forced the Government to make cuts in other programs, some of which are crucial to agriculture. The Government has axed Land and Water Australia, saving itself $19.3 million, cut and imposed savings measures on the Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries, saving it $10 million a year, and cut the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation funding by $3 million. All this from a Federal Agriculture Minister, Tony Burke, who constantly harps on about Australia's role in maintaining global food security. But the real risk to rural Australia's long-term viability is about to emerge in the form of cuts to the nation's research and development corporations. Mr Burke has set the ball rolling with a Productivity Commission Review, which seems clearly aimed at cutting their government funding. It seems Kevin Rudd and his team are pursuing their green dreams without any respect for the millions of regional Australians who will bear the losses for years to come. Yüklə 86,26 Kb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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