Beechworth Urban Landcare and Sustainability

Australian and European Union officials will discuss how to link their emissions trading schemes, Prime Minister Julia Gillard says.

Ms Gillard met European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso in Canberra today and discussed climate change and a raft of other issues.

Climate change is turning rivers of Mekong Delta salty, spelling disaster for millions of poor farmers

Vietnam’s rice bowl threatened by rising seas | Environment | The Guardian.

by Charlie Robinson Most high rise office blocks are equipped with speakers that transmit a form of subliminal static termed “white noise”.  This enables office workers to conduct conversations at reasonable volumes without distracting everyone on their particular floor.

Unfortunately, the media creates its own white noise in the form of newspaper articles and programs that distract people from the really important issues, such as the survival of the planet.  The Global Financial Crisis, Paris Hilton’s newest car, and the latest blockbuster movie, are all examples of this white noise.

Consider this. A recent Met Office report to the British Government predicts that the planet will heat up by 4 degrees C within the next 50 years.  This analysis is supported by the Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) who stated on the ABC’s 7:30 Report that the planet is warming at the upper end of predictions and, at current trends, will reach 6.4 degrees C by 2100.

At the same time, Dr. Megan Clark (CSIRO Chief Executive) has warned that the world must produce as much food in the next 50 years as it has since the dawn of humanity to feed our growing population. Does anyone see the contradictions in these two paragraphs?

Thawing permafrost in Siberia is liberating mammoth remains that is exciting some scientists as they seek clues that may warn of human extinction. Unfortunately, thawing permafrost is also evidence that catastrophic amounts of helium could be released into the atmosphere, and soon.  Helium is far more effective as a greenhouse gas than CO2 and its release will seriously exacerbate an already precarious scenario.  As Greens senator Christine Milne has stated in her June 17, 2009 speech to the National Press Club, once this release occurs “all bets are off as far as global warming is concerned”.

I mentioned in a previous article that New Scientist magazine expects that a 4 degree rise in global temperatures will wipe out 6 billion people and leave remnant populations on northern Siberia, Scandinavia and Antarctica.

So where’s the outrage?  Where’s the sensational headlines? Where’s the concerned politicians outlining their tactics to overcome this crisis?  On page 16 after the report on the latest pain free diet!

It’s blindingly obvious that you and I can no longer sit back and hope that “someone else” will fix the problem.  I predict that the Copenhagen climate summit will not produce the necessary strategies to ensure the survival of humanity beyond the next half century.  Therefore, everyone will need to bear the burden of producing food and ensuring , wherever practicable, their own water security.  We need to prioritise our time and spend a lot more of it developing coping and adaptive strategies for the extremely harsh conditions that we will face in the near future.  If Beechworth is already experiencing 46 degree summer days with less than one degree of warming, how will we fare with two degrees, then three?

One of the aims of Beechworth Sustainability is to provide people with the necessary tools to adapt to a rapidly-changing environment. These tools include the ability to grow your own food, conserve water, improve energy efficiency around the home, and to adopt alternative power sources.  Please refer to the calendar on this website for some exciting events in October and November and we can be sure of a dynamic program in 2010.

Is it an impossible dream to have a water tank, a vegetable garden, and a solar power system in every residence in Beechworth?  This should be an achievable aim but, in the end, the choice is yours.  Just don’t be beguiled by the white noise.

By Charlie Robinson

I’m tiring of the word “sustainability”.  It must be one of the most over-used words in our lexicon and every politician and company executive must be on a mission to include this word in at least every second sentence or press release.

I watch “lifestyle” shows that describe the construction of so-called sustainable homes where the owners have gone into crippling bank debt, family borrowings and maxed-out credit cards to pay for it.  Sustainable? Hardly. Sustainability should include financial factors as well as other impacts when describing an entity, whether it be a building or a way of life.

When accepting two recent awards on behalf of Beechworth Sustainability, I mentioned that even our title is purely aspirational and bears no resemblance to the lifestyles of its members or those who we seek to motivate and inspire. All of us waste too much water, use too much power, and drive cars as if our oil supplies were as abundant  as our coal reserves.  On the other hand, we do very little to store and conserve our water, few of us grow our own fruit and vegetables, and we are only just beginning to realise the benefits of solar and other alternative energies.

Since my article on food shortages in our region (June 2009), the big dry has claimed the bulk of this year’s wheat and canola crops in western Victoria and NSW (for some farmers, the tenth consecutive failure), and the Victorian dairy industry is on the brink of collapse following poor rainfalls and crippling commodity prices.  A local politician recently speculated that we may soon be importing our whole milk from New Zealand.

Australia’s population rises by around 500,000 people a year, Melbourne has 1700 new residents per week and our politicians talk about sustainable growth when water and food supplies, globally and locally, are declining (in some instances, rapidly).  While Kenya, where 4 million people are on the verge of starvation and their local politicians are in denial (sound familiar?),  may be the canary in the coal mine of the impending global food catastrophe, I see no affirmative action to support Australian farmers and to encourage greater agricultural innovation.  On the contrary, the ACC C seems to favour  the dumping of excess foreign production into Australia, at the expense of local producers, while investment into agricultural research is declining.

Where is the investment in renewable energy?  ABC’s Four Corners program of 14 September revealed the futility of the government’s investment in Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology and the very next day the largest solar power array in Australia went into receivership – what an unfortunate juxtaposition of events.  Sustainable energy?  Phooey!!

Despite the bleeding obvious evidence of our demise into potential chaos, I see very little corresponding evidence that people are “joining the dots” and taking the hard decisions necessary for their future survival. I continue to see overseas holidays, new cars, and plasma TVs taking precedence over water tanks, solar power systems, and fruit and vegetable gardens.  The only ray of hope I’ve witnessed lately is the news that chickens have doubled in price on the back of increased demand for backyard chook runs, even in Melbourne.  And Yates announced a few months ago that the sale of their vegetable seeds had risen 35% – pity they’re now owned by Monsanto!

If you’re taking the high moral ground because you’ve converted to low wattage light bulbs or low flow shower heads, you may be smoking hemp rather than wearing it – the changes we are all required to make to survive will need real sacrifice (even foregoing the third car) and commitment.  This means setting financial priorities which may require keeping the old banger for one more year and buying a water tank instead, or (heaven forbid) delaying the holiday in Acapulco and using the savings to purchase a solar hot water system.  It amazes me that people will incur debts of $30,000 or more to buy the latest Commodore but flinch at purchasing a grid-connect PV system because the Government rebate has reduced.

Finances are hardly an issue with growing your own food – next month our group will be conducting its annual seed swapping day. Keep an eye on our calendar for more details.  Our tomato seedlings are doing well and should be ready to plant outside once the danger of frosts has passed.  These seeds were saved from last year’s plantings of heritage tomatoes and we can continue this practise in perpetuity.  You can do the same with peas, beans, capsicums, carrots, brassicas and corn.  Once you can grow your own food, and swap seeds with your friends and neighbours, you are well on the way to real sustainability.

by Charlie Robinson

Although the visual similarities are tenuous at best, I feel a bit like Alice in Wonderland at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.  Let me explain. Shortly, I and millions of other Australians, will receive $900 which the Government hopes will be spent to revive an ailing economy. At the same time, along with other stimulatory measures, the Government is spending up to 43 billion dollars to upgrade the countries internet system. Am I missing something?

The last time I looked, southern Australia (in particular the Murray-Darling Basin), which produces a fair proportion of our domestic and export food, was in dire straits due to the ravages of climate change. Inflows into the basin are the lowest ever recorded and 2009 is forecast to be another dry year. Recent comments by a DSE spokesman suggest that climate change refugees may emanate from towns along the Murray River.

At a global level, a poll of climate change experts conducted after last month’s Copenhagen climate change conference revealed that a rise in global temperatures of 4-5 degrees is likely by 2100. Of those who said that 2 degrees is still achievable, it was acknowledged that their opinion was more out of hope than belief. A recent article in New Scientist drew the same conclusions but acknowledged that their forecasts did not include the effects of methane release from melting permafrost or the cessation of the Gulf Stream.  Either of these events could alter global temperatures by 6 degrees.

What does a rise of 4 degrees mean for this area?  Essentially all of Australia will be uninhabitable due to excessive temperatures and lack of rainfall.  An article in the Melbourne Age (April 15, 2009) states that, at 4 degrees increase in temperature, food will only be grown in polar regions while the New Scientist estimates population losses of 6 billion people, with remnant populations in northern Scandinavia, northern Siberia, Antarctica and New Zealand.

A recent report by the Victorian Government using CSIRO data revealed that, for Beechworth, we can expect (in the worst of three given scenarios) temperatures to exceed 40 degrees on only three days by 2070.  The report also suggests that temperatures will rise by only 1.9 degrees by 2070. With eleven days over 40 degrees recorded on our verandah this summer, we have evidence enough that we are tracking well above the direst climate change predictions.

Did you know that Beechworth’s average annual rainfall, up to 1990, was 1000mm? Since 2006, less than 600mm has fallen in our rain gauge each year.  Even with the latest rain event (I can still hear the raindrops beating on the roof) we are tracking for a similar year to the last three.

In this context, it is criminal that we devote huge financial outlays to improve internet connectivity and to stimulate spending on things we don’t need with money we don’t have. We seem to be living in parallel universes where, on the one hand, it’s “business as usual” and “don’t mention the war”, while on the other hand, the future of human civilisation as we currently recognise it hangs in the balance.

What can we do?

I’m suggesting that we deal with those events over which we have some control and we don’t stress about those issues outside our area of influence. Next week I will commence a series of articles outlining practical ways in which the climatic challenges of the future can be mitigated at the local level.  It’s sure to be controversial and confronting so I look forward to some interesting debate with our new comments feature !

COP15 report from Jennifer Hawkins.

Jennifer is a local (well, regioanlly speaking!), a member of Australian Women in Agriculture (AWIA) and currently completing her Nuffield Scholarship on “The implications of Carbon Policy for Australian Agriculture”. She has kindly allowed us to reproduce some of her impressions from the conference.

I have been here for 3 days and have seen  many displays, information, lectures covering a huge cross section of factors that  different groups believe impact on Climate Change Policy.  Desmond Tutu  spoke today what a wonderful ‘show-man’ he is and his grasp of humanity and humour was knock out.  He had the people in the palm of his hand with simple messages  ” If the world disappears we disappear with it ” It is a pivotal moment in history and the commitment of great people to this process makes the Climate sceptics look frivolous in their mindset. This is what I have learnt -  that the modelling and the science is fragile —but the issues of food security, poverty, political stability, adaption/mitigation, trade, economic systems,commodity trading, third world development, credit access, land tenure, population growth, education, etc these are the issues that have grown out of “globalization” and are propelled by our basic human relationships with our environment.  So what ever they say to distract you from your commitment to the world being more sustainable in the true sense of the world we need to drown out their negativity.

I went to the IFAP Ag & Rural Development day yesterday and had a saturation of agricultural issues. Bumped into David Crombie over a cup of tea !!! ( first Australian I have met in 5 weeks )  I spent much of the day quietly writing until some bloke from US Sect Ag from California got up and said that Australian Ag had collapsed !!  So at that point I waved for the mic.  I had 2mins what did I say -  “  farmers will listen and learn from farmers all over the world.  I am very lucky to be a female farmer in a developed world and part of the 70% of the demographic that feed the world.  I want to share my opportunities and knowledge with them directly.  Women farmers need each other across the world – the capacity building starts there.  Then I used the example of our 6 years of drought to provide the guy from the US with some correct info ” Australian Ag has not collapsed as my husband & I are experiencing our 6th yr of drought we ADAPT all the time to the challenges its thrown us.  Its a gradual process of adaption to our changed environment – and we have still managed to produce food for Australia to eat and export as well. “”  Then I sat down………………

suffice to say the issues discussed included:

• business as usual is not an option MDG’s & global food security will not be achieved
• Ag practices & use of natural resources are not only part of the challenge but also part of the solution
• effective ag adaption & mitigation activities offer the propsetcs of win-win outcomes
• Major gaps in knowledge about ag & climate change must be addressed
• the climate change,food security & rural development agendas need to be coherent
• Ambitious financing & policy reforms are needed

so for those of you that THINK AG HAS A BLEAK FUTURE THINK AGAIN….. the last word of the discuss on went to a “lady farmer from Australia “  who said that the “Literacy of Climate Change Policy ” need to be addressed so that all farmers can understand the issues.  To speak in an understandable language that brings the science into action.  And when at the end of the day that got into the recommendations ( communique round up ) well I nearly cried with delight !!!

I hope you have found this interesting and when I get home and get drawn into the vortex of my life  ..I will ponder upon my visit to COP 15 and know that each one of us can sometimes make a difference, but better in numbers….hope my report may have given you some insight into Copenhagen lets hope they get some outcomes because there are plenty here ……