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  • Yarrow

    One of the oldest herbs used by humankind, yarrow has always been associated with ritual & tradition.
    Counted as one of the nine herbs sacred to the Anglo-Saxons, the name Yarrow is in fact a modern corruption of its Anglo-Saxon name – gearwe.
    Yarrow was also sacred to the Druids who used the stems to divine the weather, and if we are to believe ancient writers, with much more accuracy than we do today with modern satellite imaging.
    Similarly in Chinese divination the dried and stripped stalks of yarrow were thrown to consult the I Ching – Book of Changes.
    The highlanders of Scotland traditionally made yarrow ointment for application to wounds, a tradition which has continued up until modern times.

    Known to the ancients as ‘ herba militaris’ or ‘the soldiers herb’, it is on the battlefield throughout the ages that yarrow  provided one of its greatest services.
    Wounds from swords, spears or arrows were not stitched; instead yarrow was applied directly to the wound and even packed inside the wound to staunch blood loss and reduce the amount of swelling, enabling the wound to swiftly close by itself. Many other common names reflect this usage including “Wound-wort”, “Staunchgrass”, “Sanguinary” and “Knight’s Milfoil”.
    We may attribute this valuable function of yarrow to its potent astringency. Astringent herbs tighten, tone, bind and contract, effectively equalising fluid levels in body tissue. Because of this balancing effect astringents have on fluid levels in the body, herbalists prescribe yarrow for conditions which involve fluid loss including diarrhoea, dysentery and both internal and external haemorrhages; and for those involving fluid retention i.e. oedema.
    Another common name “Nosebleed” gives further testament to its astringency.
    A fresh leaf of yarrow placed in the nose will cause a nosebleed and relieve the pressure which is caused by certain types of migraine. Alternately a much smaller dose of yarrow can staunch a nosebleed. A treatment which should not however be attempted by anyone who does not possess professional training and experience.

    Yarrow is of most use in the household when the dried aerial parts of the plant are brewed into a tea. Prepared as such, yarrow can be used to help overcome cold and flu, lower a fever and as a general tonic when the days load seems more than you can bare.
     It is not a drink that should be relied on regularly but rather one that should be used only in times of real challenge, for that extra bit of strength. Pick a piece of yarrow from the garden next time you happen to cut yourself whilst preparing dinner or shaving, apply it to the wound, and watch as this truly amazing plant goes to work.

    As every organic gardener knows, this herb is as useful in the garden as it was on the battlefield in days gone by. One of the five herbs used in composting, yarrow acts as a catalyst in the process, speeding up the rate of fermentation to such an extent that you will be astonished, and the pile will be ready to turn out within 8 weeks. Only a couple of leaves is all that is required for an average sized compost bin, if you add any more it will have the opposite effect.
    Not only does yarrow provide strength to humans, but it also has a healthy effect on all plants in the garden that grow within a close proximity to it.
    Being such a hardy plant, rarely troubled by insect pests and spreading rapidly, once introduced into the garden you will always have more than enough yarrow on hand to meet your household and garden needs as well as those of your neighbours.

  • Sweden takes EU helm and vows action on climate change

    Sweden takes EU helm and vows action on climate change








    July 01, 2009



    Article from:  Agence France-Presse


    SWEDEN has taken over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union, vowing to tackle climate change and combat soaring unemployment in Europe following the global economic crisis.

    “The financial crisis and climate change, with the preparation of the Copenhagen conference, will be our main priorities,” Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt told reporters on the eve of the Swedish presidency.

    Stockholm wants to get the EU to sign up to a new UN global warming treaty to be negotiated in Copenhagen in December and which would replace the Kyoto Protocol on cutting carbon emissions that expires in 2012.



    “We need a global answer to this global problem,” Reinfeldt said.

    But Reinfeldt and his centre-right government, which took over the reins on Wednesday after a turbulent Czech presidency, have their work cut out for them for the next six months as the 27-member bloc finds itself in a period of limbo.

    A new European parliament has just been elected and is in the process of settling in, a new Commission will be installed – and it is not yet certain who the next president will be – and the bloc’s institutional framework may be altered depending on the outcome of a referendum in Ireland on the Lisbon Treaty in October.

    The Scandinavian country, which like the Czech Republic is not a member of the eurozone, nonetheless aims to restore confidence in the financial markets by establishing “a European body to supervise stability”.

    “We need to work in a more coordinated and cross-border way for supervision,” Reinfeldt said.

    Sweden also plans to “lay the foundations for a new growth and employment strategy” to help the millions of unemployed Europeans, according to its work program.

    Other priorities include EU enlargement, of which Sweden is a fierce advocate, improving European judicial co-operation, and developing a strategy to improve the Baltic Sea’s marine environment and the region’s growth potential.

    Reinfeldt’s government will host the European Commission for a meeting in Stockholm on Wednesday that will formally open the Swedish presidency.

  • Secret letters reveal pulp mill fears

    Secret letters reveal pulp mill fears


    By Conor Duffy for The 7.30 Report


    7.30 Report | abc.net.au/7.30


    Posted 1 hour 5 minutes ago
    Updated 39 minutes ago



    The plan by timber giant Gunns to build a massive pulp mill in Tasmania’s north is the biggest private investment in the island’s history. It has captured attention across the country, particularly during the last election.


    But for years some residents of the Tamar Valley have claimed that the mill would leave foul odours and would adversely affect the region’s wine and tourism industries.


    Last night the ABC’s 7.30 Report revealed new documents that have been secret for four years.


    They reveal that Tasmania’s peak planning body, the Resource, Planning and Development Commission (RPDC), shared those concerns and was worried emissions from the mill could affect the quality of life for the people living nearby.


    In a letter dated July 2005, the then-head of the RPDC, Julian Green, wrote to Gunns chief John Gay to raise concerns about fugitive emissions.


    “These potential emission points number some several hundred,” he said.


    “Although each is usually quite small in volume, their effect in aggregate has proven in all kraft [process] pulp mills constructed to date – of which the commission is aware – to cause significant nuisance and diminution in quality of life for people living in the mill area on many days of the year.”


     


    Mr Green declined to speak with the ABC, but his fellow RPDC member Warwick Raverty said the odours from pulp mills are amongst the most objectionable known to science.


    He said that Mr Green experienced them first-hand 10 months after he had written his letter, during a trip to view pulp mills in Sweden.


    “When we got out of the minibus in the car park, Julian Green very quickly became distressed – he couldn’t breathe,” Mr Green said.


    “I found the odour intensely objectionable and within a matter of minutes, Julian Green was gasping and saying ‘For God’s sake, get me out of here.””


    The 2005 letter from Mr Green went on to say that where the pulp mill is being constructed is a particularly sensitive area.


    “Gunns’ proposal to site the mill in the Tamar Estuary, where air is frequently stagnant and covered by a thermal inversion layer, and within the Tamar Valley air shed – itself subject to widespread concerns over levels of aerial pollutants from other sources – means that the commission must be proactive and take particular interest in this aspect of the proposal,” the letter said.


    It finished with a sternly-worded rebuke:


    “I reiterate that the commission has not had even a vestige of an indication from Gunns, or its consultants that this potential problem – that has been a major source of community nuisance and concern in the two other kraft mills in Australia – firstly exists, or secondly and more importantly, about how it is to be addressed,” it said.


    Gunns defends mills


     


    For its part, Gunns insists it has addressed all the issues raised by the RPCD.


    In another letter obtained by the ABC, Gunns said it would address the emissions issue in its draft integrated impact statement.


    And in a statement to the 7:30 Report, Gunns insisted it had since addressed the issue many times.


    The statement reads: “Fugitive emissions will not occur from the Bell Bay Pulp Mill. Gunns has given extensive evidence, including expert witness statements from some of the world’s leading pulp scientists, as part of the IIS process.”


    “We identified emissions as a concern at the start of the proposal and are installing two extra burners at significant cost to help prevent odours.


    “Newer pulp mill technology has removed the risk of odours from fugitive emissions.”


    However Mr Raverty and other mill opponents insist the issues weren’t properly addressed during the fast-track assessment after Gunns withdrew from the RPDC process this morning.


    That’s disputed by Barry Chipman from Timber Communities Australia.


    This morning local residents in Tamar were calling in to ABC local radio to voice their concerns.


    A Gunns spokesman also called in to say the story was old news.


    Earlier this week, the company announced it had progressed negotiations for a joint venture partner.


    Mill supporters have been hoping construction on the mill will start in weeks or even months.


    Tags: business-economics-and-finance, industry, environment, land-clearing, pollution, timber, australia, tas, bell-bay-7253

  • Major Economies Zero in on Climate Goals

    June 25, 2009, 1:21 pm

    Major Economies Zero In on Climate Goals


    By Andrew C. Revkin


    Reuters has a useful update on the latest meeting of the  Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, which concluded yesterday in  Cuernavaca, Mexico. The article cites a draft two-page text circulated at the meeting, which appears to indicate movement toward long-term (2050) and near-term (2020) steps to curb emissions of greenhouse gases — although with all of the soft language required to get both developing and rich countries on board.


    According to Reuters, the text says, “We support an aspirational global goal of reducing global emissions by 50 percent by 2050, with developed countries reducing emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050.”


     


    Developed countries would take “robust aggregate and individual mid-term reductions in the 2020 time frame.” In that same span, developing countries would make a “significant deviation from business as usual” to slow a rise in their emissions while still pursuing an end to poverty, according to Reuters.


    The next stop for the forum, which was assembled by the Obama administration in a process created under President George W. Bush, comes on July 9 in Italy when leaders of participating countries gather at a meeting on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit of industrial powers.


    President Obama has pledged repeatedly to make the  United States a leader in efforts to craft a new climate treaty this year. Look for a strong final push from his climate team to get some meaningful language adopted in July.

  • A weather forecast we daren’t ignore

    A weather forecast we daren’t ignore





    It is an old axiom of politics that people do not necessarily engage with an issue until they feel it has some personal impact on their lives. Thanks to the UK Climate Projections 2009 report released by environment secretary Hilary Benn last week, that impact is now clearly laid out.


    The result of 12 years research by Met Office scientists, the report suggests that summer temperatures in London could regularly reach 40C by 2080 and that wildfires, blistering summers, storm surges and crop failures could become common events across southern Britain. In the North, meanwhile, there is a serious risk that winter rainfall could increase dramatically, with devastating consequences.


     


    There are caveats, naturally, about the uncertainties involved in any long-term weather forecasts. But it would be a mistake not to try to get the most accurate possible picture of our meteorological fate. Without that, we will be exposed to major loss of life from heatwaves, flooding and fire. The report is a welcome source of potential guidance over the siting of new flood defences, changes in farming practices and the need for the health service to prepare for the impact of soaring temperatures.


    But there is another factor involved. The report provides a range of scenarios and stresses that the worst can be prevented if carbon emissions are minimised. We still have a chance to control our destinies.


    The key here lies with the development of ways to generate energy cleanly. And of these, the technology with the most promise is the one that will allow us to continue to burn coal, the world’s most abundant fossil fuel, without generating carbon dioxide. That point was stressed by E.On chief Paul Golby last week. He argued that carbon capture and storage (CCS) schemes, in which carbon is removed from coal and buried below ground, may prove to be the most important of all forms of clean energy generation. He is right and the government apparently agrees, hence its recent praiseworthy decision to support CCS development.


    Coal is a filthy fuel. But the world needs to balance economic vitality and environmental security. To understand what will happen should we fail with CCS, we need look no further than last week’s projections report.

  • Have the climate change deniers abandoned us during the heatwave ?

    Have the climate change deniers abandoned us during the heatwave?


    If a UK cold snap persuades climate sceptics that global warming isn’t happening, then a heatwave must convince them that it is




    We’re still waiting. During the cold weather last winter, Gerald Warner, Peter Mullen and a host of other climate change deniers lined up to suggest that there must be something wrong with global warming theory, because some snow had fallen in Britain. Clearly they possessed the mystical ability to divine a long-running global climate trend from a single regional weather event. This clairvoyance could be very useful to climate researchers, so I hoped they would continue to favour us with their insights.


     


    But, to general wailing and gnashing of teeth, they appear suddenly to have abandoned us. Where are these oracles, now that we need to consult them about the current weather event? If a single cold snap in the UK persuades them that global warming isn’t happening, then a single heatwave in the same place must surely convince them that it is. Logic would dictate that the world must now be destined for a century of heating – until the next cold snap, whereupon it is obviously destined once more for a century of cooling.

    It would be sacrilege to accuse these seers of inconsistency, so it can be only a matter of time before they issue their revised assessment of global climate trends. I understand that, pending their pronouncement, Nasa and the Met Office have put their research programmes on hold. Please don’t keep us waiting too long.


    monbiot.com