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The Generator news service publishes articles on sustainable development, agriculture and energy as well as observations on current affairs. The news service is used on the weekly radio show, The Generator, as well as by a number of monthly and quarterly magazines. A podcast of the Generator news is also available.
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APEC climate proposal damned

admin /19 August, 2007

Draft resolutions being prepared for the APEC summit in September and leaked to the ABC called for avoiding deforestation as a partial solution to climate change. The proposal has been criticised by Greenpeace clean energy campaigner, Ben Pearson, as being a step backward from Kyoto. "It is a return to the aspirational targets of the Continue Reading →

Farmers and tree huggers form climate alliance

admin /18 August, 2007

The Agricultural Alliance on Climate Change was formed to provide a focus on the challenges and solutions for securing our rural future in the face of a changing climate.

Seven organisations, from a range of perspectives – Country Women’s Association of Australia, Westpac, South Australian Farmers Federation, AgForce, Visy, Australian Conservation Foundation and The Climate Institute – determined that there is one thing they have in common – a heightened sense of urgency to respond to the challenges and opportunities of climate change and secure a viable, vital and productive future for rural Australia. The organisations recognise that there are significant gains to be made from working on this issue collaboratively and so created the Alliance.

The Alliance supports the recommendations of the Australian Business Roundtable on Climate Change, in particular that Australia can deliver significant greenhouse gas reductions at an affordable cost; while the longer we delay acting, the more expensive it becomes for business and for the wider Australian economy.

We need to secure our future – decisive action is needed to move us to a clean energy economy now.

World Bank censored climate change report

admin /18 August, 2007

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2861732.ece

The Bush administration has consistently thwarted efforts by the World Bank
to include global warming in its calculations when considering whether to
approve major investments in industry and infrastructure, according to
documents made public through a watchdog yesterday.

On one occasion, the White House’s pointman at the bank, the now disgraced
Paul Wolfowitz, personally intervened to remove the words "climate change"
from the title of a bank progress report and ordered changes to the text of
the report to shift the focus away from global warming.

But the issue predates Mr Wolfowitz’s appointment as president of the bank
in June 2005. According to the Government Accountability Project (GAP),
which has tracked efforts to censor debate on global warming, environmental
specialists at the World Bank tried unsuccessfully to press for
consideration of greenhouse-gas emissions in a paper written — but never
published — in 2002.

Arctic metldown will release greenhouse gas

admin /18 August, 2007

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rifkin9aug09,1,5146638.story

Any lingering doubts about how ill-prepared we are to face up to the reality of climate change should have been laid to rest this month when two Russian mini-submarines dove two miles under the Arctic ice to plant a Russian flag made of titanium on the seabed. The government of Vladimir V. Putin claims that the seabed under the North Pole, known as the Lomonosov Ridge, is an extension of Russia’s continental shelf and therefore Russian territory that will be open for oil exploration.

Russia is not alone in making such a claim. Geologists think that 25% of Earth’s undiscovered oil and gas may be embedded in the rock under the Arctic Ocean. No wonder Norway, Canada and Denmark (through its possession of Greenland) are all using the continental-shelf argument to claim the Arctic seabed as an extension of their own sovereign territories. The suddeninterest in Arctic oil and gas has put a fire under U.S. lawmakers to ratifythe 1982 Law of the Sea Treaty, which allows signatory nations to claimexclusive commercial exploitation zones up to 200 miles out from their coastlines.

What makes this development so depressing is that the interest in prospecting the Arctic seabed, and subsoil, is only now becoming possible because climate change is melting away Arctic ice.
 
There is another alarming aspect to this story, though. The permaforest surrounding the arctic contains a vast storehouse of organic matter that will thaw, releasing vast amounts of greenhouse gas. Both the oil and the permafrost are feedback mechanisms that will both accelerate global warming and be activated by global warming.

Farmer on international crusade against GM crops

admin /14 August, 2007

Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT LOCATION: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2002/s599018.htm Broadcast: 04/07/2002 Farmer on international crusade against GM crops Reporter: Sarah Clarke KERRY O’BRIEN: The new age of genetically modified crops is moving so fast it’s hard to keep up. But for some Australian farmers crunch point has arrived. Canola farmers have to make a choice between Continue Reading →

GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD CROPS

admin /14 August, 2007

 

GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD CROPS
Page: 4900

The Hon. RICHARD JONE, Independent [18/09/2002, 6.31 p.m.]: Tonight I again express concern about genetic engineering [GE] as it relates to food crops. Whilst it has been accepted by the community that genetic engineering has had an impact on cotton crops, it has not been accepted that it has had the same impact on food crops. I received a briefing paper from the Soil Association in the United Kingdom, which today released a study on the effects of GE on food crops. That briefing paper states:

      The evidence we have gathered demonstrates that GM crops are far from a success story. In complete contrast to the impression given by the biotechnology industry, it is clear that they have not realised most of the claimed benefits and have been a practical and economic disaster. Widespread GM contamination has severely disrupted GM-free production including organic farming, destroyed trade and undermined the competitiveness of North American agriculture overall. GM crops have also increased the reliance of farmers on herbicides and led to many legal problems…

The profitability of growing GM herbicide tolerant soya and insect resistant Bt maize is less than non-GM crops due to the extra cost of GM seed and because lower market prices are paid for GM crops.

  • The claims of increased yields have not been realised overall except for a small increase in Bt maize yields. Moreover the main GM variety (Roundup Ready soya) yields 6-11 per cent less than non-GM varieties.
  • GM herbicide tolerant crops have made farmers more reliant on herbicides and new weed problems have emerged. Farmers are applying herbicides several times; contrary to the claim that only one application would be needed. Rogue GM oilseed rape plants (‘volunteers’) have become a widespread problem in Canada.
  • Farmers have suffered a severe reduction in choice about how they farm as a result of the introduction of GM crops. Some are finding themselves locked into growing GM crops…
  • Widespread contamination has occurred rapidly and caused major disruption at all levels of the agricultural industry, for seed resources, crop production, food processing and bulk commodity trading. It has undermined the viability of the whole North American farming industry. As I said earlier, I received this briefing paper from the Soil Association in the United Kingdom, a well-respected organisation. The briefing paper continues:
  • Contamination has caused the loss of nearly the whole organic oilseed rape sector in the province of Saskatchewan, at a potential cost of millions of dollars. Organic farmers are struggling practically and economically; many have been unable to sell their produce as organic due to contamination.
  • All non-GM farmers are finding it very hard or impossible to grow GM-free crops. Seeds have become almost completely contaminated with GMOs, good non-GM varieties have become hard to buy, and there is a high risk of crop contamination.
  • Because of the lack of segregation the whole food processing and distribution system has become vulnerable to costly and disruptive contamination incidents. In September 2000, just one per cent of approved GM maize contaminated almost half the national maize supply and cost the company, Aventis, up to $1 billion-
  • GM crops have been an economic disaster. As well as the lower farm profitability, GM crops have been a market failure internationally. Because of the lack of segregation, they have caused the collapse of entire exports to Europe and a loss of trade with Asia-
  • Within a few years of the introduction of GM crops, almost the entire $300 million annual US maize exports to the EU and the $300 million annual Canadian rape exports to the EU had disappeared, and the US share of the world’s soya market had decreased.
  • US farm subsidies were meant to have fallen over the last few years. Instead they rose dramatically, paralleling the growth in the area of GM crops. The lost export trade as a result of GM crops is thought to have caused a fall in farm prices and hence a need for increased government subsidies, estimated at an extra $3-$5 billion annually.
  • In total GM crops may have cost the US economy at least $12 billion net from 1999 to 2001…
  • One of the most unpleasant outcomes of the introduction of GM crops has been the accusations of farmers infringing company patent rights. A non-GM farmer whose crop was contaminated by GMOs was sued by Monsanto for $400,000.
  • While biotechnology companies are suing farmers, farmers themselves are turning to the courts for compensation from the companies for lost income and markets as a result of contamination. In Canada, a class action has been launched on behalf of the whole organic sector in Saskatchewan for the loss of the organic rape market…
  • Many US farm organisations have been urging farmers to plant non-GM crops this year.
  • The US and Canadian National Farmers Unions, American Corn Growers Association, Canadian Wheat Board, organic farming groups and more than 200 other groups are lobbying for a ban or moratorium on the introduction of the next major proposed GM food crop, GM wheat.

I met with the Minister today. I thank him for the time that he spent with me. However, he seems to be unaware of the international ramifications of not introducing legislation in this State that will allow him to declare the whole of New South Wales, or parts of New South Wales, GM free. I ask the Minister again to look at the possibility of introducing legislation that will give him those powers. He must wake up to the problems being caused by genetically engineered food.

Source: Parliament of New South Wales: http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/PARLMENT/hansArt.nsf/V3Key/LC20020918029  

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