A new report by Charles Sturt University says that drought is seriously affecting the mental health and educational prospects of children across the Murray-Darling Basin.
One of the worst-affected areas is Coorong Shire at the mouth of the Murray River in South Australia, where increased anxiety and withdrawn behaviour among schoolchildren are being traced to family depression and stress at home.

Aboriginal children in the region are suffering from diseases related to lack of water and poor water quality, and the risk of Ross River fever has increased,

Farm incomes in the NSW eastern Riverina have more than halved in the past seven years, with one farmer telling the Charles Sturt research team the drought had ”brought relentless financial indignities”.  Food and petrol prices in remote rural areas are up to 20 per cent higher than in big cities, with unemployment levels 7 per cent above the national average.

Key findings of the report include:
•    Increased workloads for farm families because of inability to afford paid labor, with children co-opted from school to help out.
•    More farmers taking fly-out jobs in mines and gas fields, leaving their wives to run the farms.
•    School and bus route closures forcing children to travel further.
•    A heightened risk of mental illness, with rural men making 42 per cent of all calls by males to Lifeline seeking help for depression.
•    A doubling in the number of people accessing counselling services in some areas.
•    Debt forcing one in five families in some areas to sell personal possessions, with 67 per cent saying their financial position had worsened in the past three years.

Professor Alston’s report is stark contrast to a second report issued yesterday, by federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke, on the social impact of drought which claims the word ”drought” is too depressing and has called for a ”new national approach to living with dryness, as we prefer to call it”.
Perhaps Burke is right about us needing to learn to live with “dryness” BUT let’s not forget the plight of those who are living with it more than others.  When the most resilient people in our country are pushed to breaking point I think they need our support.

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An expert panel has urged an end to no-strings drought aid, arguing farmers should have a responsibility to attempt to drought-proof their properties before they quality for future taxpayer-funded assistance.  The National Farmers Federation endorsed the report in full

The panel, investigating the social effects of drought, has urged the Government to give farmers positive incentives to adjust to climate change, rather than just doling out relief under its exceptional-circumstances program in times of crisis.

The report, “It’s About People – Changing Perspectives on Dryness”, was prepared by a seven-person panel led by AgForce president Peter Kenny and including former Liberal MP Barry Wakelin and representatives of rural groups including the Country Womens Association.

It also follows a Bureau of Meteorology report released earlier this year warning that climate change would make drought more frequent.

One commentator said that “Perhaps it goes back to the old saying: failing to plan is planning to fail.”

It is a horrible problem because many farming families have been on the same land for 4,5 or even 6 generations and losing their way of life and family history is far more significant than a city worker losing his job due to redundancy.

Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke embraced the report, saying he wanted to make sure the nation was better prepared for the next drought than for previous droughts.   But he added: “We will continue to provide the guarantee for anyone who is currently on levels of assistance that the rules will not change from under them.”

Queensland farmer Tony Wearing was unimpressed by the thought that farmers needed to do more to drought-proof properties.  Like other farmers in the region who have endured seven years of drought, Mr Wearing is struggling to make ends meet.  “It’s tough – we get $700 a fortnight from Centrelink and that’s enough to put food on the table, but we still work to keep the property going,” he said.

Mr Wearing said farmers were constantly adjusting to meet challenges. “Whether it be drought, a drop in commodity prices or whatever, people do what they can to adjust,” he said. “They’ll sell sheep and buy cattle to fit in with what the markets are doing.

“I sometimes wonder if there’s a bunch of people in a room in Canberra playing marbles and then one of them pipes up and says: ‘Here’s an idea, let’s make farmers more efficient in return for drought assistance’. They think that’s clever. I’d love to get them out here and sit them down so they can learn what it’s like.”

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Leaders of 40 of the world’s major cities pledged action to fight climate change, taking measures ranging from promoting solar energy to tracking genetically modified food when they met for 2 days in Tokyo.  Some 40 cities are part of the C40 including Beijing, London, New Delhi, New York, Paris and Sydney. City planners from 32 of them took part in the Tokyo talks.

These leaders warned that crowded urban areas were especially susceptible to the planet’s rising temperatures, and that they need to take the lead in adapting to climate change.

The cities charted out 13 areas for action to prevent the “urban heat island effect,” in which temperatures tend to rise in crowded metropolitan areas.  The ideas include expanding green space in urban areas and building corridors to allow more wind and water to come into cities.  Each city will choose which of the 13 areas it wants to pursue to fight climate change caused by carbon dioxide and other emissions. They will report back on their chosen areas so that they can agree when C40 mayors hold a “climate summit” next May in Seoul.

They pledged to look into renewable energies such as solar power and to introduce water retentive pavements. The widespread use of concrete is a key reason that cities absorb heat more than rural areas.

Another idea was to regulate genetically modified (GM) food and monitor the effects on global warming.  Advocates of GM food say it can solve food shortages in poor nations but critics say the crops’ effects on health and the environment are untested.  The cities that will monitor genetically modified food include Addis Ababa, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Toronto.

Of the cities, Tokyo opted to pursue the most ideas to fight global warming, agreeing to launch studies in nine of the areas.

Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara is an environmentalist with outspoken views who said it was crucial to take more than symbolic action against climate change.

Mr Ishihara renewed his criticism of international deals on climate change.  He blasted as “spineless” last year’s UN-led conference in Bali that set a goal of reaching a post-Kyoto Protocol climate treaty by the end of 2009.

The C40 conference agreed to send a representative to next year’s talks in Copenhagen that are due to seal the new climate deal under the Bali process.

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The head of the UN’s peak scientific body, Rajendra Pachauri, on climate change believes it is still possible for the world to reach an agreement that will avoid the risk of catastrophic global warming.  His optimism about the ability of nations to agree is at odds with the Australian Federal Government’s adviser, Professor Ross Garnaut. Dr Pachauri said world attention on climate change would increase despite the current economic crisis, leading people to call for tougher action to keep global temperatures from rising above 2 to 2.4 degrees.Pachauri  said “If you look at parts of Africa, by 2020 there will be 75 million to 250 million people living under water stress on account of climate change,” he said yesterday. “Are we going to ignore the welfare and, I would say, even the peace and stability of societies that are so vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and say ‘No, we can’t do it’?”

I agree with Pachauri.  I believe people need to know the amounts the need to reduce by and small business and household also need to accept that they can help.  You can all reduce your carbon footprint by turning of things that are just running on standby and being more conservative in our use of air-conditioning. This reduces the amount of energy you use and the amount you spend on energy.  I believe that when people realise there is a problem most of us will pull together to do something about it.  The problem is that many people are confused and don’t really accept there is anything wrong.  They are confused by the loud voiced sceptics and overwhelmed at present by financial fears.

I think when people see that problems of places like Bangladesh, Kiribati and the Maldives,   attention on some of these issues will increase, it will escalate, it will snowball.   Dr Pachauri said: “If you talk to the president of [the] Maldives, indeed the people of the Maldive Islands, they’re living in a state of fear.

Dr Pachauri said that there could be an upside from the present financial crisis and this would be an understanding that “people will no longer accept unbridled capitalism without any regulation, And therefore there is going to be an effort to define how government and business and individuals can work together to see that issues like climate change, like carving out a new energy future can be handled effectively.”

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The major greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, methane and nitorous oxides.  However there are more and the growing gas is nitrogen trifluoride.  This is 17,000 more potent than a similar mass of CO2.  This is one of several gases used during the manufacture of liquid crystal flat-panel TV displays and electronic microcircuits, were previously considered so low that the gas was not thought to be a significant potential contributor to global warming.  It also lasts in the atmosphere 10 times longer than CO2.  As such the gas was not covered by the Kyoto Protocol,

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Imagine a world without the classic Australian icon. According to a new study released by James Cook University, an increase in average temperature by only 2 degrees could have a devastating effect on the kangaroo population.

A James Cook University study provides evidence that climate change has the capacity to cause large-scale range contractions, and the possible extinction of one kangaroo species in northern Australia,

They found that a temperature increase as small as a half-degree Celsius may shrink kangaroos’ geographic ranges. An increase of two degrees may shrink kangaroos’ ranges by 48 percent. A six-degree increase might shrink ranges by 96 percent.

Dr Ritchie says that generally accepted climate models predict temperatures in northern Australia to be between 0.4 and two degrees warmer by 2030, and between two and six degrees warmer by 2070.

And although kangaroo species may be mobile enough to relocate as the climate changes, the vegetation and topography for which they are adapted are unlikely to shift at the same pace.

The antilopine wallaroo, a kangaroo species adapted for a wet, tropical climate, faces the greatest potential risk. Ritchie and Bolitho found that a two-degree temperature increase may shrink its range by 89 percent. A six-degree increase may lead to the extinction of antilopine wallaroos if they are unable to adapt to the arid grassland that such a temperature change is likely to produce

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The global financial crisis must not be used “as an excuse to give up” efforts to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said in an address last night to the London School of Economics.

‘Future prosperity requires action now’

“It is precisely because of concern about our future economic prosperity that we must address climate change now,” Senator Wong also said developing countries that are major emitters must be prepared to accept binding commitments.

She was talking in the right place because the UK is of a similar mind.

“There will never be an easy time to make the transition to a low-carbon economy. But we know the longer we delay, the higher the costs. And delay inhibits our capacity to grasp the substantial opportunities that will come from making this transition,” she said.

“Delaying action, so that the economy is forced to catch up later to the environmental imperative, will only deliver it a sharper shock down the track,” she said.

“It will be the countries that have moved to implement climate change reforms that will be best placed to deal with the global carbon constraint.”

Wong added that Australia was “well placed” to support developing carbon markets in the Asia-Pacific region.

“We are a regional commercial centre with world-class financial institutions, developed capital markets, a skilled workforce, high standards of corporate, financial and regulatory governance and political stability.

“The potential value of such a hub in Australia could have significant benefits for our economy.”
‘Low share of global emissions doesn’t justify inaction’
Wong said it was “not uncommon” still to hear some in Australia argue there is no point in reducing our emissions because they constitute only 1.5% of total global emissions.

“But let me be clear. This is not the view of our Government.”

“Australia, although responsible for only 1.5% of global carbon emissions in absolute terms, has relatively high per capita emissions.

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With an accelerating world shortage of power and rising costs of fuels, many places have started utilising bio wastes. San Antonio generates electric power from human faeces while San Francisco is generating power from pet poo and several large US farms utilize pig litter. Suffolk in the UK has a power plant generating 12.7 Mw of energy and consumes 125,000 tonnes of poultry litter per year and encouraged by its success is now planning a human waste plant in Northampton shire. The UN is also sponsoring a project for power from poultry wastes in Bangladesh.

Power from human wastes will be especially valuable in urban areas but all farm wastes can be effectively used. The world’s 7 billion people produce about 14 million tonnes of feces every day and 25% of this has the potential power to produce roughly 40,000 Mw of energy. India with one seventh of the world population could therefore add some 6,000 Mw to India’s slow growing power capacity.
Furthermore as the technology is quite simple and cheap much of this potential can be made available very quickly.

Rwanda has installed 20 human waste power generating plants of 500 Kw each at some of their big prisons where many thousands convicted of genocide are incarcerated. These now provide about half of their electricity requirements. For this initiative Rwanda earned the Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy with a cash component of $50,000. If little Rwanda can achieve this it is very clear we should be able to do this around the world.  . Forgive the bluntness please, but we are not short of shit!  After extracting the methane, the digested human wastes make a virtually odourless fertilizer. Modern largely automated plants greatly lessen human contact with the bio wastes.

In developing countries each community could sell the gas or power from this gas and earn enough to install a number of cheap public dry toilets designed to efficiently collect the wastes while also making the communities much more sanitary. But there could be a problem as the State Electricity Boards would have to accept this power and pay for it. But as the capital costs are low and the fuel cost is negligible this power would be much more profitable than power from fossil fuels. And by cutting down the methane emissions, that are thirty times more Ozone depleting than CO2, such plants could also earn valuable Carbon Credits to make them still more profitable.

Enterpreneurs can develop small units to provide captive power to small communities. This would be especially popular in many richer rural districts where power supply is erratic or insufficient.

Many entrepreneurs are discovering that there is gold in these bio wastes and some are trying interesting projects like producing N-Viro a blend of waste coal dust and dried bio solids that are made into a solid cake that can be fed into a boiler or used as kitchen fuel. Oil can also be extracted from this bio waste that is flash heated to 500 degrees Centigrade. When people can lift the blinkers of their prejudices the scope for imaginative and profitable uses of bio wastes are limitless.

Sounds logical to spread this also to India but very difficult because of a deep rooted `Brahminical’ aversion for all things polluting which makes use of animal and human wastes difficult.  However over 3000 Gobar Gas cattle dung plants had been set up in India’s rural areas with big subsidies but they are hard to maintain t because Indian workers were unwilling to properly maintain these plants even though there was almost no unhygienic odour in the degassed residues that made excellent organic fertilizer.

I find the overlap of environment, politics and culture totally fascinating.  Humans are very interesting creatures

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Britain will introduce a legally binding pledge to cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, the minister for the newly created Department for Energy and Climate Change has said, up from the existing plan of 60% of 1990 levels by 2050.

The cuts will cover all industries – including shipping and aviation – and, according to the chair of the committee that made the initial recommendations, would cost around one to two per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2050 and was “challenging but feasible.”
Miliband said other laws would be amended to encourage small-scale energy generation through the use of home-based wind turbines or solar panels.

Campaigners welcomed the carbon-cutting pledge, but cautioned that Britain should ensure it lowered carbon emissions locally, and did not rely on the use of carbon offsetting, whereby individuals or companies can pay for green projects elsewhere to “offset” their own emissions.

Britain became the first country in the world to introduce legally-binding cuts in emissions of carbon dioxide, the gas seen as largely to blame for climate change, when the Climate Change Bill completed its passage through both houses of parliament in March.

It is now awaiting Royal Assent, effectively a rubber stamp that shows the monarch has approved it.

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Common birds are in decline across the world. Almost one in four species of mammals is in danger of extinction. If current trends continue until 2050, fisheries will be exhausted. As it is, deforestation costs the world more each year than the current financial crisis has cost in total, one economist argued.

In theory, the world’s governments are committed to limiting the damage. In 1992, at the Earth summit in Rio de Janeiro, they signed a treaty called the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).  But it ain’t working!

The IUCN also released a “comprehensive assessment” of the status of all known species of mammals. It found that 22% were threatened or extinct, and the well-being of a further 15% was unknown. For amphibians, the outlook is grimmer: a full 31% of them are at risk, and the status of a further 25% is uncertain. Sampling of species in other categories suggests similarly dire outlooks, with some 24% of reptiles and 32% of crabs thought to be threatened. For the most part, these findings do not reflect the latest data on global warming. But another IUCN study released at the congress found that 35% of the world’s birds, 52% of its amphibians and 71% of its warm-water corals were “particularly susceptible” to the threats

So we have the “So What” factor.  What does the loss of other species cost humans? A study released this year said the world was losingUS$68 billion in ecosystem services each year because of damage to nature.

Biodiversity underpins ecosystem services. Bees can’t pollinate, nor can trees store carbon, if they have all died. And it seems to matter that ecosystems contain more than a handful of species. Diverse systems are better at capturing carbon, storing water and preserving fisheries. Just how diverse an ecosystem has to be in order to supply the goods and services needed by man is a matter of debate.

In the short term, there is little sign of governments becoming better stewards of nature. Only 30 or so of the 191 countries that are party to the CBD have made plans to protect biodiversity, as the treaty demands. Another study released at the congress found that the world’s biggest economies were spending only a fraction of the money needed to police protected areas; they were also falling short on legal and administrative measures needed to stop the spread of invasive species and eradicate the trade in endangered species. Money, of course, is likely to get tighter as the world economy slows and governments rescue struggling banks.

Many at the congress said that nature, too, needed a bail-out. As Andrew Mitchell of Global Canopy Programme, a forest-conservation group, puts it: “Rainforests work as a giant natural utility company. If we don’t start paying for it, we will get cut off. Instead of simply preventing the next global credit crunch, it is time to start thinking about averting the rainforest crunch as well.” Julia Marton-Lefèvre, the head of the IUCN, agrees. “Business as usual is simply not an option,” she says.

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Jean Cannon is an award winning consultant and trainer helping people and businesses around the world who want to save money by implementing simple and effective management systems. Sign up to discover how YOU can save money with sensible energy management and ISO 14001.

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