Dynamite Greenhouse Report Delayed For Election?
“Slash herd and flock numbers” says AGO
“What?” says The National Party.
The Australian Greenhouse Office is delaying the release of a report that recommends Australian graziers slash flock and herd numbers to reduce methane emissions.
“While we haven’t seen the document – which was due out a month ago and is apparently ‘delayed at the printer’ – we know the position of the scientists leading the methane team,” says Climate Change Coalition candidate for Parkes, Michael Kiely. “The document will say, first and foremost, we must run fewer animals.” (See Dr Richard Eckland reference below)
“Let’s hear what the National Party has got to say about that.”
“I’d like to know if the economics of these recommendations been analysed.” (See reference below)
The IPCC (the International Panel on Climate Change) has re-configured agriculture’s contribution to global warming to include its ‘transport footprint’. This is a departure from the Kyoto Protocol principles and will have the effect in Australia of enabling extremists to claim that agriculture emits more GHG than the stationery energy industry.
“This policy is insane. It could destroy the regenerative agriculture movement and lead to a decline of native grasslands. It would certainly increase soil degradation and desertification,” says Mr Kiely. “The only way to meet the Methane threat and retain stock numbers lies in SOIL CARBON volumes. This can offset the new high levels of CH4 and retain animal impact.”
Many techniques for capturing and storing soil carbon will be on show at the world’s first Carbon Farming Expo & Conference will be held in Mudgee on 16th-17th November, 2007 – a week before the election.
Scientists have found that native perennial pastures, properly managed, can sequester as much carbon per hectare as plantation forests and native vegetation.
Australia’s sustainable farmers are getting the most rapid C increases using combinations of grazing management, pasture cropping and biological farming. “But the dominant paradigm - that Australian soils are too old and depleted to retain soil C (though no credible data supports this conclusion) -- remains the official position,” says Mr Kiely.
And the madness piles on madness: reducing herds will cause LESS carbon to be stored in the soil!
“The Climate Change Coalition seeks to rally the grazing management community to challenge the "stock is bad, de-stock is good” argument. We recommend Council of Crisis involving HM, RCS, the CMAs and prominent practitioners to educate the AGO in the immense potential of agricultural sequestration. Good grazing management should be central to its BEST PRACTICE regime.
“I am standing in the seat of Parkes for the Climate Change Coalition to alert the electorate to the threats to regenerative agriculture and the soil carbon opportunity to radically transform rural landscapes.”
REFERENCES
http://www.greenhouse.unimelb.edu.au/
http://www.greenhouse.unimelb.edu.au/BMPsSummary.pdf
GIA Summary May 2006 1
Reducing uncertainty and best management practices for minimising
greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture
A summary of the research currently being conducted by the Greenhouse in Agriculture
program, under the CRC for Greenhouse Accounting.
(Adapted from a paper by Dr Richard Eckard, Program Manager Greenhouse in Agriculture.
CRC for Greenhouse Accounting, The University of Melbourne and Victorian Dept Primary
Industries. Presented at ABARE National OUTLOOK Conference 2006.)
Animal numbers
An obvious management practice would be to run fewer animals, but to manage each animal to be more productive. By improving genetic and nutritional management, production can be maintained from a smaller herd. Associated with producing more per head on pasture -based systems is an increase in the emission/head, but this is more than compensated for by less animals. ….
• Animal stocking rate - The higher the stocking rate the higher the volume of
nitrogen deposited in dung and urine per unit area. Dung and especially urine are
very inefficiently recycled in the soil plant system, with up to 60% of the nitrogen in a
urine patch being lost to the environment. Higher stocking rate systems demand a
higher nitrogen input regime (either fertiliser or imported feed) and thus result in a
higher nitrogen content excreted in urine. A urine patch from dairy cow commonly
contains between 800 and 1400 kg N/ha effective application rate with the patch. A
higher stocking rate also leads to greater pugging (hoof compaction) of the soil;
pugged soils tend to be more anaerobic due to hoof compaction leading to higher
nitrous oxide losses.
…….
These options will all need to be economically assessed prior to being
communicated to the agricultural community to ensure a positive driver for adoption.
The adoption of greenhouse specific management practice is not likely to be a high priority for the farming community, and there are currently no policy drivers or market incentives for adoption of these practices. Researchers and policy makers would therefore be unwise to publish greenhouse -specific best management practice manuals, but should rather aim to seamlessly integrate greenhouse best practice into existing industry adoption pathways and mechanisms. This also ensures that these greenhouse best management practices are consistent with other industry best management practices, thus improving the adoption and the opportunity for a win-win outcome; this is the approach taken by the Greenhouse in Agriculture program team.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
This is John Howard's Autralia
John Howard set out to transform Australia, to remould our society from what he calls ‘the old order’ to what he describes as ‘the new order’. Unions are part of the old order. In John Howard’s Australia, workers are isolated from the support of their coworkers and left to fend for themselves in negotiations with management.
In John Howard’s Australia, every one can have a job, but they need two jobs because wages are too low to pay the mortgage or tollways
In John Howard’s Australia, every home can have a plasma screen television, but not hospital services worthy of a civilised society.
In John Howard’s Australia, we declare a national emergency and send the Army in to stop the Aboriginals abusing their children, but they don’t find much evidence of it.
In John Howard’s Australia the Prime Minister defends Pauline Hanson’s right to make racist remarks and dark-skinned people from the Middle East are locked away in concentration camps in the middle of the desert for up to 7 years – including children – but no white people. Then we express surprise at the Cronulla riots – “race riots” – the ultimate outcome of John Howard’s ‘dog whistling’. Moslem women are spat upon in the streets.
In John Howard’s Australia, the Minister For Immigration demonises one community (Sudanese), accusing them of being violent, lawless and incapable of living peacefully in a civilised society. He neglects to mention that these legitimate migrants from a war-torn African nation were dumped here without support and left to fend for themselves.
In John Howard’s Australia, neighbours are encouraged to spy on each other and report any suspicious activity to security forces. Our banking and telephone activity records are trawled by secret police for evidence that we are terrorists.
In John Howard’s Australia we ban books that the Attorney General believes are likely to encourage terrorism. He defines terrorism. Anyone critical of the Government’s foreign policy could qualify as a terrorist or one encouraging terrorism.
In John Howard’s Australia, the Prime Minister does publicity for a company set up to build nuclear power plants, despite the fact that the majority of citizens are against nuclear power.
In John Howard’s Australia, young people show no respect for authority, but what example have they had? The Prime Minister introduced to our children the concept of the ‘non-core promise’. He explained the lie of ‘keep interest rates at record lows’ by saying he only told the lie for 2 days. He told some very public lies – like ‘they threw their children overboard’ and “Saddam has weapons of mass destruction”.
In John Howard’s Australia, country people are left without decent mobile phone coverage and third world Internet access, even though the nation owned the biggest telecommunications company in the market. With the compliance of the National Party – the true blue defenders of country peoples’ rights – the Government sold Telstra, using another lie: that country people would not be left behind.
In John Howard’s Australia, government scientists are gagged when their findings about global warming contradict government policy. Reports were rewritten or not released.
In John Howard’s Australia, we can see the countryside disintegrating under the weight of a freak drought, but refuse to call it Climate Change. When we finally admit that it might be Climate Change, we refuse to do anything serious to curtail emissions because the coal miners and energy companies might suffer a reduction in profits.
In John Howard’s Australia, a $35billion tax cut to bribe voters is more important than reducing our greenhouse emissions by 30% by 2030 – which would cost the same amount.
In John Howard’s Australia, everyone is better off, but no one feels better off. Youth suicide is at a record high. Rural males are killing themselves in record numbers. Mothers are murdering their children.
How can there be such despair in our booming economy?
There is something wrong in John Howard’s Australia.
What is it?
In John Howard’s Australia, every one can have a job, but they need two jobs because wages are too low to pay the mortgage or tollways
In John Howard’s Australia, every home can have a plasma screen television, but not hospital services worthy of a civilised society.
In John Howard’s Australia, we declare a national emergency and send the Army in to stop the Aboriginals abusing their children, but they don’t find much evidence of it.
In John Howard’s Australia the Prime Minister defends Pauline Hanson’s right to make racist remarks and dark-skinned people from the Middle East are locked away in concentration camps in the middle of the desert for up to 7 years – including children – but no white people. Then we express surprise at the Cronulla riots – “race riots” – the ultimate outcome of John Howard’s ‘dog whistling’. Moslem women are spat upon in the streets.
In John Howard’s Australia, the Minister For Immigration demonises one community (Sudanese), accusing them of being violent, lawless and incapable of living peacefully in a civilised society. He neglects to mention that these legitimate migrants from a war-torn African nation were dumped here without support and left to fend for themselves.
In John Howard’s Australia, neighbours are encouraged to spy on each other and report any suspicious activity to security forces. Our banking and telephone activity records are trawled by secret police for evidence that we are terrorists.
In John Howard’s Australia we ban books that the Attorney General believes are likely to encourage terrorism. He defines terrorism. Anyone critical of the Government’s foreign policy could qualify as a terrorist or one encouraging terrorism.
In John Howard’s Australia, the Prime Minister does publicity for a company set up to build nuclear power plants, despite the fact that the majority of citizens are against nuclear power.
In John Howard’s Australia, young people show no respect for authority, but what example have they had? The Prime Minister introduced to our children the concept of the ‘non-core promise’. He explained the lie of ‘keep interest rates at record lows’ by saying he only told the lie for 2 days. He told some very public lies – like ‘they threw their children overboard’ and “Saddam has weapons of mass destruction”.
In John Howard’s Australia, country people are left without decent mobile phone coverage and third world Internet access, even though the nation owned the biggest telecommunications company in the market. With the compliance of the National Party – the true blue defenders of country peoples’ rights – the Government sold Telstra, using another lie: that country people would not be left behind.
In John Howard’s Australia, government scientists are gagged when their findings about global warming contradict government policy. Reports were rewritten or not released.
In John Howard’s Australia, we can see the countryside disintegrating under the weight of a freak drought, but refuse to call it Climate Change. When we finally admit that it might be Climate Change, we refuse to do anything serious to curtail emissions because the coal miners and energy companies might suffer a reduction in profits.
In John Howard’s Australia, a $35billion tax cut to bribe voters is more important than reducing our greenhouse emissions by 30% by 2030 – which would cost the same amount.
In John Howard’s Australia, everyone is better off, but no one feels better off. Youth suicide is at a record high. Rural males are killing themselves in record numbers. Mothers are murdering their children.
How can there be such despair in our booming economy?
There is something wrong in John Howard’s Australia.
What is it?
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Vote 1 Climate
Climate Change Coalition
Candidate for Parkes
Michael Kiely
believes….
The people of the Parkes electorate are treated like second class citizens by both sides of politics.
The two major parties assume we are poor relations. The quality of life out here is disintegrating as services shrink. … City people wouldn’t stand for it. But country people put up with it. And they can’t blame anyone but themselves.
There’s an old saying: “People get the politicians they deserve.” That’s because they vote for them. There’s another old saying: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got.”
The majority of people in the bush vote for the same old Party. And so they get what they deserve… what they always got: declining living standards, shrinking services, low prices for the produce they grow.
Every National Party politician I have met has been a decent, likeable person. They are all good people. I’d vote for them myself. But… For anyone planning to vote for the same old Party, I have a two words: “Remember Telstra”. The Nationals voted with the Howard Government to sell off the telephone company that you and I owned… that used to give country people subsidised services. It’s now owned by wealthy people who live, in the main, comfortable lives in cities.
Black Jack McEwen would never have stood for it. But the heart of the old bastard does not beat in the chests of his descendants. McEwen would have threatened to break the Coalition on the spot over Telstra. He had guts.
I believe farmers have got guts. They stare despair down every day. They get knocked down and they get up again, and again. They take more risks than city-based businesses. They take on the climate, everyday. No backstops. No safety net. God. How this country needs their spirit. Man, woman, and child.
They must have the right to make choices about managing their land to be economically sustainable. The real farmer does not want to destroy the natural base that they rely on to make a living. If Governments want woody weeds to cover pasture or croplands, the landholder must be compensated. Farmers who are working as environmental managers should be rewarded with stewardship payments.
I believe government scientists and advisers should live and work on a working property (or have done so) because the reality of farm ecologies and economies must become second nature to them. Research based on unrealistic methodologies creates bad science and bad science leads to bad conclusions and bad decisions.
The science of climate change is about to change the way every primary producer can manage their property. If that science is based on unrealistic methodologies, rural communities will be dealt another blow. The science of methane emissions appears dangerously unrealistic.
I believe landholders deserve the right to have the research explained to them, so they can understand how the findings were made. Science is not religion. Every good scientist I know wants people to understand what they do.
I believe that land managers deserve the right to trade carbon credits based on the soil carbon they can grow with changed land management. The science of soil carbon has been misinterpreted and misused, to the farmers’ disadvantage. We want a fair go.
I believe we must bring the city and the country closer together. People should know where their food is coming from and where the fibre for their clothing is grown. Bring city people to the country and let them see for themselves the realities of life. They want to help; they feel bad about the way we are treated.
We need new ways to selling our produce that give the farmer a fair return. We need new structures and new leadership with new ideas. The leadership of my industry, the wool industry, is like the Howard Government. Dead, but it won’t lie down.
We’ve only got ourselves to blame for this. Only we can change the game and earn some respect. We have got to remember Black Jack McEwen. Don’t stand for it.
Don’t vote for the politicians who took Telstra away. Shock them. You get no respect when you let them roll over you, time and again.
Finally, I have a message for the other parties and candidates standing in this historic election – the first Climate Change federal election. The message is this:
“It’s the Climate, stupid.”
From all sides we have hand-wringing, half-baked ideas, grasping at straws, hoping it will go away. Well it is here to stay. It’s not simply an issue. It is THE issue.
It flooded Newcastle and smashed Lismore and belted Orange. Who’s next?
Climate Change is strangling our rivers and crushing agriculture. The people of Parkes electorate have been living with the first Climate Change natural disaster to strike a developed country for close to a decade.
The rest of the world is watching us. How have we acted so far? Like a bunch of chooks without heads. Squabbling about minor details and even absurdly denying it exists. We lost precious time. Kyoto was not perfect, but it was the best chance we had to protect the future for our children and grandchildren.
The Howard Government has blocked attempts to head off the worst of climate change, simply to please their mates in mining and energy. Read former Liberal staffer Guy Pearse’s book High & Dry. Go to the ABCTV website and read the transcript of the 4 Corners program “Dirty Politics”. Read the testimony of CSIRO and NASA scientists who were gagged. Read how President Bush’s oil industry connections rewrote scientific reports to play down the threat. Watch the Canadian documentary “The Denial Machine”. It would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic.
I say this to those who deny Climate Change: If I am wrong, the worst that can happen is a world economic recession. We’ve survived several of those before. But if you are wrong, the worst that can happen is the destruction of civil society and the breakdown of law and order, like New Orleans after Cyclone Katrina. So, are you willing to risk the lives of my children and grandchildren?
What must we do about Climate Change? I believe all politics is personal first, local second, and national last. At a personal level, we must ask ourselves the Climate Change Question: “How should I live my life?” We must choose. Freely.
As a farm family, we are adapting to new practices to make the most of whatever rain falls and protect the soils that sustain us. Every business must choose. Freely.
As a community we must choose. Will we take half measures and hope it will blow over? Or will we get serious and make the changes necessary?
Think of this: A leaked Pentagon Report back in 2000 posed the question: would the US armed forces fire on swarming refugees arriving on Australia’s shores to the north on a flotilla of Tampas and fishing boats, after their low-lying countries had been engulfed by rising sea levels. (Australia would appeal for assistance under the ANZUS treaty.) More recently, the Commission for Federal Police Mick Kelty said Climate Change is the biggest threat to national security – for exactly the same reason. Guns won’t stop this tsunami of humanity.
I believe Climate Change is like War. Ask our WWII diggers and their spouses. Wartime brings sharp changes. No one likes change. But when Charles Darwin said only the fittest survive, he meant only those who could adapt to changing situations can make it through.
Australians are the most adaptable people in the world. We are inventors and innovators. “Stringy bark and rawhide” technology “will be the saviour of Australia”. We can lead the world… or we can hide behind a rock. I stand with those who believe that it’s never too late. We can change the future with our bare hands.
I am offering the voters of Parkes the opportunity to send a message to whoever forms Government after November 24th:
“It’s the Climate, Stupid.”
Vote 1 Climate Change Coalition in both Houses.
Do it for the children.
Visit vote1climate.blogspot.com
Candidate for Parkes
Michael Kiely
believes….
The people of the Parkes electorate are treated like second class citizens by both sides of politics.
The two major parties assume we are poor relations. The quality of life out here is disintegrating as services shrink. … City people wouldn’t stand for it. But country people put up with it. And they can’t blame anyone but themselves.
There’s an old saying: “People get the politicians they deserve.” That’s because they vote for them. There’s another old saying: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got.”
The majority of people in the bush vote for the same old Party. And so they get what they deserve… what they always got: declining living standards, shrinking services, low prices for the produce they grow.
Every National Party politician I have met has been a decent, likeable person. They are all good people. I’d vote for them myself. But… For anyone planning to vote for the same old Party, I have a two words: “Remember Telstra”. The Nationals voted with the Howard Government to sell off the telephone company that you and I owned… that used to give country people subsidised services. It’s now owned by wealthy people who live, in the main, comfortable lives in cities.
Black Jack McEwen would never have stood for it. But the heart of the old bastard does not beat in the chests of his descendants. McEwen would have threatened to break the Coalition on the spot over Telstra. He had guts.
I believe farmers have got guts. They stare despair down every day. They get knocked down and they get up again, and again. They take more risks than city-based businesses. They take on the climate, everyday. No backstops. No safety net. God. How this country needs their spirit. Man, woman, and child.
They must have the right to make choices about managing their land to be economically sustainable. The real farmer does not want to destroy the natural base that they rely on to make a living. If Governments want woody weeds to cover pasture or croplands, the landholder must be compensated. Farmers who are working as environmental managers should be rewarded with stewardship payments.
I believe government scientists and advisers should live and work on a working property (or have done so) because the reality of farm ecologies and economies must become second nature to them. Research based on unrealistic methodologies creates bad science and bad science leads to bad conclusions and bad decisions.
The science of climate change is about to change the way every primary producer can manage their property. If that science is based on unrealistic methodologies, rural communities will be dealt another blow. The science of methane emissions appears dangerously unrealistic.
I believe landholders deserve the right to have the research explained to them, so they can understand how the findings were made. Science is not religion. Every good scientist I know wants people to understand what they do.
I believe that land managers deserve the right to trade carbon credits based on the soil carbon they can grow with changed land management. The science of soil carbon has been misinterpreted and misused, to the farmers’ disadvantage. We want a fair go.
I believe we must bring the city and the country closer together. People should know where their food is coming from and where the fibre for their clothing is grown. Bring city people to the country and let them see for themselves the realities of life. They want to help; they feel bad about the way we are treated.
We need new ways to selling our produce that give the farmer a fair return. We need new structures and new leadership with new ideas. The leadership of my industry, the wool industry, is like the Howard Government. Dead, but it won’t lie down.
We’ve only got ourselves to blame for this. Only we can change the game and earn some respect. We have got to remember Black Jack McEwen. Don’t stand for it.
Don’t vote for the politicians who took Telstra away. Shock them. You get no respect when you let them roll over you, time and again.
Finally, I have a message for the other parties and candidates standing in this historic election – the first Climate Change federal election. The message is this:
“It’s the Climate, stupid.”
From all sides we have hand-wringing, half-baked ideas, grasping at straws, hoping it will go away. Well it is here to stay. It’s not simply an issue. It is THE issue.
It flooded Newcastle and smashed Lismore and belted Orange. Who’s next?
Climate Change is strangling our rivers and crushing agriculture. The people of Parkes electorate have been living with the first Climate Change natural disaster to strike a developed country for close to a decade.
The rest of the world is watching us. How have we acted so far? Like a bunch of chooks without heads. Squabbling about minor details and even absurdly denying it exists. We lost precious time. Kyoto was not perfect, but it was the best chance we had to protect the future for our children and grandchildren.
The Howard Government has blocked attempts to head off the worst of climate change, simply to please their mates in mining and energy. Read former Liberal staffer Guy Pearse’s book High & Dry. Go to the ABCTV website and read the transcript of the 4 Corners program “Dirty Politics”. Read the testimony of CSIRO and NASA scientists who were gagged. Read how President Bush’s oil industry connections rewrote scientific reports to play down the threat. Watch the Canadian documentary “The Denial Machine”. It would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic.
I say this to those who deny Climate Change: If I am wrong, the worst that can happen is a world economic recession. We’ve survived several of those before. But if you are wrong, the worst that can happen is the destruction of civil society and the breakdown of law and order, like New Orleans after Cyclone Katrina. So, are you willing to risk the lives of my children and grandchildren?
What must we do about Climate Change? I believe all politics is personal first, local second, and national last. At a personal level, we must ask ourselves the Climate Change Question: “How should I live my life?” We must choose. Freely.
As a farm family, we are adapting to new practices to make the most of whatever rain falls and protect the soils that sustain us. Every business must choose. Freely.
As a community we must choose. Will we take half measures and hope it will blow over? Or will we get serious and make the changes necessary?
Think of this: A leaked Pentagon Report back in 2000 posed the question: would the US armed forces fire on swarming refugees arriving on Australia’s shores to the north on a flotilla of Tampas and fishing boats, after their low-lying countries had been engulfed by rising sea levels. (Australia would appeal for assistance under the ANZUS treaty.) More recently, the Commission for Federal Police Mick Kelty said Climate Change is the biggest threat to national security – for exactly the same reason. Guns won’t stop this tsunami of humanity.
I believe Climate Change is like War. Ask our WWII diggers and their spouses. Wartime brings sharp changes. No one likes change. But when Charles Darwin said only the fittest survive, he meant only those who could adapt to changing situations can make it through.
Australians are the most adaptable people in the world. We are inventors and innovators. “Stringy bark and rawhide” technology “will be the saviour of Australia”. We can lead the world… or we can hide behind a rock. I stand with those who believe that it’s never too late. We can change the future with our bare hands.
I am offering the voters of Parkes the opportunity to send a message to whoever forms Government after November 24th:
“It’s the Climate, Stupid.”
Vote 1 Climate Change Coalition in both Houses.
Do it for the children.
Visit vote1climate.blogspot.com
Save Our Soils, Save the Family Farm, Save the Planet
Australia’s soil crisis undermines our national security.
Hello, I am Michael Kiely, Climate Change Coalition candidate for Parkes
AND HERE IS A SUMMARY FOR THE TIME POOR:
•Breakthrough strategy for agriculture crisis
•Australian soils robbed of organic carbon for 200 years by ‘strip mining’ land management
•Lost 50% topsoil and 80% soil organic carbon in 200 years
•Soil carbon critical for growing pastures and crops; holding water in soil; preventing salt infestation; resisting drought.
•Composting can restore agricultural soils
•12 million tonnes city garden waste, food scraps go to landfill sites each year
•Should be going onto agricultural soils
•Cost of transport is the barrier.
•Solution: empty coal and wheat rail trucks returning from terminals
•National Crisis Partnership: composters, rail transport authorities, coal miners, wheat industry.
…….
The catastrophe facing Australia’s soils should be declared a national emergency. Our soils are the source of our food and clothing. Their degradation is a national security issue. Some people seriously argue that Australia’s natural environment should not be subject to the strain of agriculture. Hand it back to the kangaroos. But where will our food come from? Overseas?
Two words: “Food security”. You cannot let foreign countries decide if you will be fed.
Soil degradation and desertification has led to the fall of great civilizations like the Incas and the Egyptians. A sustainable society is based on sustainable agriculture. But today Australian agriculture is not sustainable.
Since the first plough turned Australian soil, we have lost 50% of our topsoil. The half we have left has lost 80% of its nutrients: organic matter, like humus, has been strip-mined from our soils by generations of Australian farmers following government advice.
The more soil organic matter we lose, the faster erosion eats into our greatest national asset. Loss of soil fertility by ‘strip mining’ agriculture leads to the breakdown of soil structure,. Poor soil cannot hold or use water effectively. It lacks essential minerals. It produces sickly plants which in turn produce sickly animals. And we eat those plants and animals. If soil biology is right, grasses, crops and animals are healthy.
The active constitutent of soil organic matter is carbon (captured by the plants during photosynthesis and stored down near the roots). In Australia, approximately 75% of soils now contain less than 1% organic carbon. And 80 % of Australian soils are estimated to have lost up to 50 % of the total soil organic carbon in the top 20 cm of the soil profile (Australian Greenhouse Office, 2000). Globally, grassland and forest soils tend to lose 20 to 50 % of the original SOC content after 40-50 years of land use change.. In Australia, the loss of carbon varied from 10 to 60 % over 10-80 years of cultivation (Dalal and Chan,
2001).
Even with the most sophisticated modern chemical fertilizers, crop yields continue to fall. Land that was once grazed in central Australia is now abandoned. Land that once grew hard wheat now grows only oats for stock feed.
While this is going on in the country, in the cities of Australia around 12 million tonnes of compostable organic matter – garden waste, food scraps – are going into landfill sites each year – at great expense. Once there it leaches methane as it decomposes. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, 23 times more powerful than CO2. At the same time trillions of litres of human wastes are being pumped into our oceans. All valuable compost.
Our soils are staggering. Our landfill sites are overflowing. Our oceans are being poisoned with sewerage. Will someone see the connection? The Federal Government should declare a national emergency and immediately ban all compostable matetrials going to landfill, as the British Government is doing gradually. Then the Australian composting industry should be engaged to produce soil-renovating compost.
The major problem has always been the cost of getting the compost to the farm. Well the cost of not getting it there is far higher. Doesn’t the State Government own a rail system? Surely it could be dragooned, as the armed services have been in other national emergencies. What about all those coal trains carrying coal from country locations to the coal loaders. Don’t they go back to the mine empty?
Our soils need organic matter so they can produce healthier plants and animals. So that they can capture more CO2 and store it as soil carbon. So they can be restored to their former health. This is a national emergency, Prime Minister. And there is a solution staring you in the face.
Michael Kiely can be contacted via Michael@carboncoalition.com.au
A FEW FACTS
• “The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself”, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
• “We stand, in most places on earth, only six inches from desolation, for that is the thickness of the topsoil layer upon which the entire life of the planet depends” (Sampson 1981).
• Loss of topsoil has been a major factor in the fall of civilizations. You end up with a country like Iraq, formerly Mesopotamia, where 75% of the farm land is a salty desert.
• Iowa has some of the best topsoil in the world. In the past century, half of it’s been lost, from an average of 18 to 10 inches deep.
• Productivity drops off sharply when topsoil reaches 6 inches or less, the average crop root zone depth.
• Crop productivity continually declines as topsoil is lost and residues are removed.
• Erosion is happening ten to twenty times faster than the rate topsoil can be formed by natural processes
Hello, I am Michael Kiely, Climate Change Coalition candidate for Parkes
AND HERE IS A SUMMARY FOR THE TIME POOR:
•Breakthrough strategy for agriculture crisis
•Australian soils robbed of organic carbon for 200 years by ‘strip mining’ land management
•Lost 50% topsoil and 80% soil organic carbon in 200 years
•Soil carbon critical for growing pastures and crops; holding water in soil; preventing salt infestation; resisting drought.
•Composting can restore agricultural soils
•12 million tonnes city garden waste, food scraps go to landfill sites each year
•Should be going onto agricultural soils
•Cost of transport is the barrier.
•Solution: empty coal and wheat rail trucks returning from terminals
•National Crisis Partnership: composters, rail transport authorities, coal miners, wheat industry.
…….
The catastrophe facing Australia’s soils should be declared a national emergency. Our soils are the source of our food and clothing. Their degradation is a national security issue. Some people seriously argue that Australia’s natural environment should not be subject to the strain of agriculture. Hand it back to the kangaroos. But where will our food come from? Overseas?
Two words: “Food security”. You cannot let foreign countries decide if you will be fed.
Soil degradation and desertification has led to the fall of great civilizations like the Incas and the Egyptians. A sustainable society is based on sustainable agriculture. But today Australian agriculture is not sustainable.
Since the first plough turned Australian soil, we have lost 50% of our topsoil. The half we have left has lost 80% of its nutrients: organic matter, like humus, has been strip-mined from our soils by generations of Australian farmers following government advice.
The more soil organic matter we lose, the faster erosion eats into our greatest national asset. Loss of soil fertility by ‘strip mining’ agriculture leads to the breakdown of soil structure,. Poor soil cannot hold or use water effectively. It lacks essential minerals. It produces sickly plants which in turn produce sickly animals. And we eat those plants and animals. If soil biology is right, grasses, crops and animals are healthy.
The active constitutent of soil organic matter is carbon (captured by the plants during photosynthesis and stored down near the roots). In Australia, approximately 75% of soils now contain less than 1% organic carbon. And 80 % of Australian soils are estimated to have lost up to 50 % of the total soil organic carbon in the top 20 cm of the soil profile (Australian Greenhouse Office, 2000). Globally, grassland and forest soils tend to lose 20 to 50 % of the original SOC content after 40-50 years of land use change.. In Australia, the loss of carbon varied from 10 to 60 % over 10-80 years of cultivation (Dalal and Chan,
2001).
Even with the most sophisticated modern chemical fertilizers, crop yields continue to fall. Land that was once grazed in central Australia is now abandoned. Land that once grew hard wheat now grows only oats for stock feed.
While this is going on in the country, in the cities of Australia around 12 million tonnes of compostable organic matter – garden waste, food scraps – are going into landfill sites each year – at great expense. Once there it leaches methane as it decomposes. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, 23 times more powerful than CO2. At the same time trillions of litres of human wastes are being pumped into our oceans. All valuable compost.
Our soils are staggering. Our landfill sites are overflowing. Our oceans are being poisoned with sewerage. Will someone see the connection? The Federal Government should declare a national emergency and immediately ban all compostable matetrials going to landfill, as the British Government is doing gradually. Then the Australian composting industry should be engaged to produce soil-renovating compost.
The major problem has always been the cost of getting the compost to the farm. Well the cost of not getting it there is far higher. Doesn’t the State Government own a rail system? Surely it could be dragooned, as the armed services have been in other national emergencies. What about all those coal trains carrying coal from country locations to the coal loaders. Don’t they go back to the mine empty?
Our soils need organic matter so they can produce healthier plants and animals. So that they can capture more CO2 and store it as soil carbon. So they can be restored to their former health. This is a national emergency, Prime Minister. And there is a solution staring you in the face.
Michael Kiely can be contacted via Michael@carboncoalition.com.au
A FEW FACTS
• “The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself”, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
• “We stand, in most places on earth, only six inches from desolation, for that is the thickness of the topsoil layer upon which the entire life of the planet depends” (Sampson 1981).
• Loss of topsoil has been a major factor in the fall of civilizations. You end up with a country like Iraq, formerly Mesopotamia, where 75% of the farm land is a salty desert.
• Iowa has some of the best topsoil in the world. In the past century, half of it’s been lost, from an average of 18 to 10 inches deep.
• Productivity drops off sharply when topsoil reaches 6 inches or less, the average crop root zone depth.
• Crop productivity continually declines as topsoil is lost and residues are removed.
• Erosion is happening ten to twenty times faster than the rate topsoil can be formed by natural processes
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