Australian Environment Foundation(AEF)

ANNUAL CONFERENCE

A Climate for Change

The AEF Annual Conference will be held at the Rydges Lakeside Hotel Canberra on the weekend of October 11th and 12th 2008. The theme for the conference will be A Climate for Change.

Professor Don Aitkin, social scientist, retired Vice-Chancellor and President from the University of Canberra, Professor Bob Carter, marine geologist from James Cook University and William Kininmonth former head of Australia’s National Climate Centre and a consultant to the World Meteorological organization’s Commission for Climatology will all speak on climate science.

More details can be found here

LAUNCH OF THE AUSTRALIAN CLIMATE SCIENCE COALITION

A new organisation dealing with climate science will be launched at the AEF conference. This group has the backing of a number of eminent Australian scientists and more information can be found here

Conference Presentations on YouTube

Climate change is CO2 the cause? Professor Bob Carter
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

RIVER PLAN WILL SINK

Draft proposals for the changed management of public land along the Murray River by the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council have ignited community passion and galvanised the mood of local communities in the face of further regulation of their activities on public land.

The draft proposals, released for public discussion in July, recommended a number of major changes in the Murray River region.

These included the establishment of five new national parks, large reductions in timber harvesting, an end to cattle grazing in many areas of public land, the re-classification of 23 state game reserves to exclude hunting, bans on camp fires, reduced camping opportunity and less access to the river.

The major proposal from the investigation is an overbank flood of 4000GL every five years to relieve stress on the red gum forests, due to a lack of natural flooding.

But what is the true picture of red gum forests? Can they be saved only by a massive 4000GL flood — roughly equal to the capacity of Dartmouth dam — or have the massive changes to the floodplain in the past century made that sort of event impossible to achieve?

Even if the water was available, it would be worth in excess of $5 billion.

Can we afford $1 billion a year in environmental flows? Is this the best use of our water or our financial resources?

Some environmentalists say relieving the stress on the forest is worth any amount of water at any cost, but it is clear that not all of the forest is under stress. It is equally clear that the regulation of water, primarily to suit agriculture, has had an effect on the forest that reducing timber harvesting, hunting or camp fires will not alleviate.

The allocation of water to the red gum forests is of such paramount importance and potentially impacts on so many stakeholders in the wider Murray Darling Basin that it should be considered separately from the other recommendations contained within the draft proposals.

Protection and successful management of the natural environment will succeed when it takes into account the needs of the people, in balance with the needs of the environment.

(Originally published as a letter to the editor in The Weekly Times, October 31, 2007 by Max Rheese, Executive Director, Australian Environment Foundation.)

Woody Weeds Debacle

AEF Chairman, Don Burke visited Cobar for the Landcare Forum on September 1st. See Fight for better clearing laws in war on woody weeds (FarmOnline):

Invasive native scrub now covering vast areas of western NSW is a threat to native wildlife and groundcover plants, and a cause of erosion. The amount of land affected continues to grow each year because of prescriptive native vegetation laws that prevent landholders from controlling these weeds. Calls to change the laws have been strongly resisted by green groups such as the Wilderness Society. See Green hypocrisy and environmental vandalism.

Don Burke welcomes the statements made by the Australian Beef Association calling for changes to the NSW Native Vegetation laws. Click here for media release.

Water Crisis Avoidable

AEF chairman Don Burke says Australia's water crisis can be blamed on poor planning by state governments. Read news story at ABC Newsonline.

AEF Director, Jennifer Marohasy, wrote in support of recycled water for Brisbane in August 2006, click here for the article which was published in the Brisbane Courier-Mail : http://www.aefweb.info/articles51.html .

A Documentary about the Dark Side of Environmentalism

"Mine Your Own Business" is a journey through the dark side of environmentalism. It demolishes the cosy consensus that environmentalists are well meaning agenda free activists and shows them to be anti-development ideologues who think the poor are happy being poor and don't want the development that we, in the west, take for granted.

www.mineyourownbusiness.org

Youtube trailer Buy the DVD

GM decision a win for science over ideology

COMMENTS by Premier Brumby on the lifting of the moratorium on genetically modified crops in Victoria that his Government is a supporter of science should be reassuring to all Victorians. The Government needs to be applauded for making the decision based on science and not ideology or emotion. The facts are these: overwhelming scientific evidence supports the social, environmental and economic benefits of GM crops.

The Government has consulted all stakeholder groups over a considerable period of time, despite the assertions of those opposed, and has made a decision that it sees in the best interests of the community based on the advice of its chief scientist.

All major players, including the Government, support adequate labelling requirements so that consumers have a choice on what they buy. Farmers now have a choice that will make them competitive on world markets and they can choose not to grow GM crops.

The environment will be the big winner in the adoption of GM cropping by Victorian farmers as the smaller ecological footprint of GM food production has been clearly demonstrated around the world during the past 10 years. GM food production will enhance our clean, green image with the proven reduction in the use of chemicals.

See also:

A presentation by Dr. Jennifer Marohasy at a Forum on GM at the Victorian Parliament May 22nd 2007

GM: debate the science not the values

GM Canola or Nothing Soon

NEWS UPDATES

Here is a paper with some interesting things to say on why people adopt and hold on to wrong ideas.

'Ignorance is Contagious, the importance of critical thinking in environmental management', presented by Dr Ian Woodward at a recent Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand seminar in Tasmania.

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"If everyone switched to organic farming, we couldn't support the earth's current population - maybe half." - Nina V. Fedoroff . According to the New York Times, Ms Fedoroff is an Advocate for Science because of her views that science supports the introduction of GM foods. Read the interview here.

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Mark Poynter writes at On Line Opinion on the reasons behind the rise of blog sites and community dissatisfaction over the media coverage of environmental issues, in particular the Rivers and Red Gum Environment Alliance campaign to see the introduction of community friendly public land classifications. Read the article here

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AEF director Jennifer Marohasy had a feature article published by the Weekend Australian on August 23rd presenting some facts on salinity levels, rainfall and temperature. The article dispels many of the popular myths that abound on these subjects. To see the graphs which support the article go to Case of the warm and fuzzy.

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Green Threat to Reason is an article on Andrew Bolt’s Herald Sun blog about AEF member Professor Ian Plimer’s recent speech in Brisbane about the new religion of environmentalism. It can be viewed here

A CALL FOR CHANGE IN PUBLIC LAND MANAGEMENT

Edwards River near Moulamein framed by red gums

An article in The Weekend Australian August 9th 2008 Keeping hands off our lands covers a number of interesting points with regards to the current state of play with land management around the country.

Former AEF chairman, Barry Cohen talks of his heartbreak in dealing with bureaucracy whilst trying to set up a wildlife reserve.

Doug Humann of Bush Heritage Australia believes in involving private enterprise in biodiversity protection to achieve goals that government cannot.

The article author, Greg Roberts makes the statement “National parks are no longer seen as necessarily the primary means of protecting biodiversity”, which is what AEF members have been saying for years.

This creeping change in public sentiment with regard to the way our public land is managed is epitomised in the struggle for the red gum forests of the Murray River. The Victorian Environmental Assessment Council has recommended five new national parks to ‘ensure biodiversity protection’. This has inflamed the rural community in particular, that have had enough of restrictive land management practises imposed upon them.

This change in thinking was the theme for a new land management plan [go to pdf file] of the river red gum forests that saw a recommendation for Ramsar Reserves to incorporate the ‘wise use principles’ of the internationally accepted Ramsar Convention. This plan was launched at the Victorian Parliament on July 31st 2008 and is now being considered by the Victorian Government.

RIVER RED GUM FOREST INVESTIGATION

The Rivers & Red Gum Environment Alliance launched its alternative plan to the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council [VEAC] proposals for the River Red Gum Forests of the Murray River at the Victorian Parliament on Thursday July 31st 2008.

The AEF is one of the 25 organisations that make up the Alliance and contributed to the compilation of the report.

The major recommendation of the Alliance Conservation & Community Plan is the creation of 104,700 hectares of Ramsar Reserves to allow for multiple use management of the forests and a higher level of biodiversity conservation. Read more on the launch and the Alliance plan here

SAVING AUSTRALIA'S FORESTS: and its implications

A book by Mark Poynter

Written from the perspective of a long career caring for and managing forests, this book challenges the conventional wisdom that ceasing local wood production and placing huge swathes of forest in national parks is the best way to protect the environment. It examines the implications of this policy in terms of climate change, bushfire management, biodiversity conservation, water production and the rising level of rainforest timber imports.

This is an important book for anyone wishing to make up their mind about the native forests question free from the emotional rhetoric that invariably accompanies its elevation onto the political stage prior to each state or federal election. Purchasing details.

The Macquarie Marshes: an ecological history

A report by Gillian Hogendyk

After years of research the cloak of misinformation about the Macquarie Marshes is lifted. More details.

Also see the AEF media release on the Marshes.

Changing Attitudes to GM Foods

Craig Cormick, Manager of Public Awareness, Biotechnology Australia, argues on ABC radio that there is increasing support for GM foods.

“We have long known that concerns about a new and unknown technology diminish over time, and in regard to gene technology and biotechnology we're now seeing that played out in the public's minds...

"The second factor was a perception that genetically modified crops could be of benefit in helping to address a range of new concerns in people's minds, which included drought, climate change, rising salinity levels and fuel shortages…

"Now this is going to present a challenge for many environmental groups who will be overjoyed to know that the public are increasingly concerned about the environment, but will be less overjoyed to know that the public strongly support gene technology as a possible solution to environmental problems, when many environmental groups are not particularly supportive of gene technology.

"I suspect that many of these groups might need to reconsider, or update, their positions and at least consider that the mantra of 'all gene technology is bad' should be re-examined carefully and modified to a more realistic statement of 'some gene technology is bad, but some gene technology is good.' ...

Read more here

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