Plug the Pipe targets Brumby family farm
Environment Protection Authority chairman Mick Bourke’s comments came as plans by a water protest group to rally at Premier John Brumby’s farm near Bendigo were abandoned.
Speaking at a waste water conference in Melbourne, Mr Bourke was asked how long it would be before Victorians were drinking recycled water.
Steel post prices jump on eve of Olympics
The industrial shutdown, which started earlier in the year, has halted all metal production within a 160-kilometre radius of the capital.
The inevitable flow-on has caused a serious shortage in many steel lines used in agriculture, including steel posts and barbed wire.
South Eastern capitals face 50 degree days
From the Australian MELBOURNE, Adelaide and Sydney will blister in temperatures of more than 50C by 2050, according to the first hard look at the impact of climate change on extreme weather. The forecast is part of a long-term prediction that temperatures on the hottest day of the year will rise dramatically in parts of Continue Reading →
Arctic oil reserves relieve economic pressure
From the ABCÂ US Government scientists say they believe the Arctic holds as much as 90 billion barrels of oil, which is enough to meet the current world demand for almost three years. The report by the US Geological Survey also estimates that the Arctic contains as much natural gas, more than 1,600 trillion cubic Continue Reading →
Wheat gamble in Western Australia falters
Western Australia’s grain handling giant CBH has predicted the State’s harvest this year could fall one million tonnes short of the 8.5mt haul in 2007 if the nagging dry spell continues.
CBH operations manager, Colin Tutt, says the weather conditions have taken their toll on seeding operations across the Wheatbelt, with many growers forced to stop or dramatically reduce their programs.
Soil carbon scheme takes off in USA
Implementing a voluntary low-cost soil carbon credits scheme that doesn’t need much auditing has got United States farmers focused on producing soil carbon, and could work similarly here, an American expert says.
David Miller of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, who will be a guest at the Australian Grains Industry Conference (AGIC) in Melbourne in late July, believes that Australian agriculture could make a start on soil carbon using the loose averaging model developed by the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), and work out more specific accounting methods as it goes along.