Category: Sustainable Settlement and Agriculture

The Generator is founded on the simple premise that we should leave the world in better condition than we found it. The news items in this category outline the attempts people have made to do this. They are mainly concerned with our food supply and settlement patterns. The impact that the human race has on the planet.

Cape York row threatens Rudd’s $60m UN bid

admin /28 May, 2009

Cape York row threatens Rudd’s $60m UN bid

By News Online’s Nic MacBean

At stake: a lily grows in the Watson River lagoon on Queensland’s Cape York. (Supplied: Tim O’Reilly)

The Federal Government is pressing ahead with its bid for a seat on the UN Security Council, despite warnings it could be derailed by a row over Indigenous rights and the World Heritage proposal on Cape York.

Professor Ken Wiltshire says the UN bid will be doomed if the Federal and Queensland governments continue to stumble over their handling of Indigenous concerns about the proposed gazettal.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Environment Minister Peter Garrett are entering two very different political challenges which are linked by the common thread of human rights.

Mr Rudd, who has spent a significant period of his first term in office building his foreign policy credentials, is committed to bidding for a temporary seat on the UN Security Council.

Soy irresponsible: WWF picketed by its peers

admin /27 May, 2009

Soy irresponsible: WWF picketed by its peers

Last week, the WWF became, to the best of Eco Soundings’ knowledge, the only international green group to have been picketed by other international environment groups.

The problem is the Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS), a talking shop that was set up a few years ago by the WWF to give companies, especially in Latin America, “the opportunity to jointly develop solutions leading to responsible soy production”.

Ho-hum, say 60 environmental groups, including Friends of the Earth International, the Soil Association and Via Campesina, who say the RTRS is just greenwash – especially as it is about to vote to include GM soy as “sustainable”. The environment groups from around the world are incensed.

Wildlife corridors ramp up biodiversity

admin /24 May, 2009

Research by a North Carolina State University biologist and colleagues shows that using landscape corridors, the “superhighways” that connect isolated patches of habitat, to protect certain plants has a large “spillover” effect that increases the number of plant species outside the conservation area.

The study found that corridors caused such a wide range of “spillover” beyond the patches – to more than the area of the patches themselves – that the results were a surprise, says Dr. Nick Haddad, associate professor of biology at NC State and a co-author of a paper published online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He adds that the finding has broad implications for conservation efforts – most importantly that the benefits of landscape corridors, the strips of habitat that connect isolated patches of habitat, extend well beyond those borders.

“Most conserved areas are small – two-thirds are less than one square kilometer – so the spillover effect with corridors gives a larger conservation bang for the buck,” Haddad says. He adds that exotic or invasive species of plants showed no signs of spillover effect.

Australia slams US dairy export subsidy

admin /23 May, 2009

Australia slams US dairy export subsidy

Saturday May 23, 2009, 5:42 pm

US government plans to reintroduce dairy export subsidies are a “serious backward step” towards protectionism and could lead to other nations following suit, the federal government says.

The move to reinstate dairy export subsidies “flies in the face made by G20 leaders not to impose protectionist measures“, a joint statement between Agriculture Minister Tony Burke and Trade Minister Simon Crean says.

The announcement by US secretary for agriculture Tom Vilsack on Friday follows the recent reintroduction of dairy export subsidies in the European Union.

“In taking this step, the US sends a negative signal to countries around the globe that are tempted to introduce their own protectionist measures,” the statement says.

World Heritage listing plan fires anger on Cape York

admin /23 May, 2009

World Heritage listing plan fires anger on Cape York

Patricia Karvelas, Political correspondent | May 23, 2009

Article from: The Australian

A MOVE to begin World Heritage listing for Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula has opened a deep rift between traditional owners and the Rudd Government, jeopardising Kevin Rudd’s promise to tackle Aboriginal disadvantage.

Cape York leader Noel Pearson declared yesterday he could no longer trust the Rudd Government to properly consult and gain consent from traditional owners after state and territory environment ministers dismissed his objections and moved ahead with the first steps towards World Heritage listing for Cape York.

Mr Pearson is locked in a bitter dispute with the Queensland Government over plans to ban development of the cape’s “wild rivers”, which he argues will destroy opportunities for Aborigines to create economic development in the communities. He sees the Rudd Government’s silence over the issue and its failure to stop the move towards World Heritage listing as a breach of faith.

Biochar – an answer to global warming or a menace?

admin /23 May, 2009

May 21, 2009 — Sometimes you have to hand it to capitalism. It’s sheer magic the way the system takes promising concepts, steeps them in the transformative power of the market – and turns them into howling social and environmental disasters.

Take biofuels, for example. With fossil fuels warming the planet, why not, indeed, take advantage of the fact that plants use carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to produce sugars and oils that can be turned into substitutes for petrol and diesel?

We all know where that finished up. A big chunk of the US corn crop was distilled into grain ethanol. Corn prices soared on the extra demand, increasing costs for a broad range of food production. Anyone unable to pay went hungry. When US drivers filled up with bio-ethanol, they were in effect burning the tortillas of the Mexican poor.

But is the technology the problem? Or the system?

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