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NUCLEAR POWER - NO SOLUTION TO CLIMATE CHANGE OR PEAK OIL. Mitra Ardron


With the recent call by John Howard and others to reopen the nuclear debate, it is worth addressing why Nuclear is not a good idea. It boils down to three areas.

1: It won't solve Climate Change.

2: It's not safe.

3: Even if both the above were true, it’s not economic

Climate Change.

Nuclear power stations have a huge cost in terms of energy to build them. Estimates are that a power station will not repay the energy or Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions used to create it for around 20 years of operation. So there is no net benefit in GHG emissions during the critical 20 years when we need to be drastically reducing emissions.

If nuclear was to become a significant part of the world's power source, there is not enough uranium or other fuels available to last more than (20?) years.

Safety.

The nuclear fuel cycle is dangerous at all stages.

1: Digging it out of the ground, wherever it has been done has caused significant environmental damage, the impact typically happens to already marginalised people - the impact on Native American reserves having been particularly significant.

2: Operations: When it is claimed that nuclear hasn't killed nearly as many as coal since Chernobyl, what is missed is that nuclear accidents, while rare, have the potential for a huge disaster. Estimates for Chernoboyl range as high as 200,000 lives . In today's world of fear of terrorism, the risks are even higher.

3: Waste: Even after 40 years of nuclear industry, we still don't know how to get rid of the waste safely, both the smaller quantity of high-level waste, and the much larger quantity of low-level waste, and in particular that created when the power station is decommissioned.

Economics

Generating our energy from nuclear power is very expensive. It is already more expensive than the much more environmentally benign wind. And the cost of even one or two nuclear reactors would be enough to boost solar volumes to where it was being cost-effective. These costs get obscured because they are externalised, in particular:

Insurance costs shouldn't be capped (as they are in the US), the risks of major accident are calculable and can be reflected in insurance premiums.

The cost of proper cleanup of the mine sites, including tailings dams abandoned by previous mining.

The full cost of taking care of the waste, including securing it for as long as thousands of years - as it is dangerous.

The cost of securing the sites - for example surface to air missiles are reputed to be being installed around nuclear plants in the US.

All these costs need to be paid by the power companies, and included in the costing, not paid by the public.

 
Reducing our footprint in an Age of Greed. Adrian Begg


Future generations will remember our Age not for its achievements, but for the greed of the few.

In just a few hundred years we have squandered vast quantities of the world's resources, wiped out thousands of species of fauna and flora, polluted the oceans, degraded major river systems and destroyed billions of hectares of forests.

In the 200 years or so since the beginning of the industrial revolution our mining, manufacturing, and transport industries have pumped the air so full of pollution it has changed the climate, possibly for ever.

Yet few have reaped the rewards of this wanton plunder of Mother Earth. More than half the world's people live and die in poverty, while the minority in the developed world enjoy a lifestyle of wealth and privilege that far surpasses Earth's ability to sustain it.

And still the mantra is growth and we, the few, go on spending Earth's resources like there is no tomorrow.

At a macro level, governments led by reckless and dangerously ignorant politicians destroy wealth at a rate that is breathtaking to behold. Multinational conglomerates are given free rein to rape and plunder the environment in the name of profit. Devastating wars fought with costly weapons of mass destruction destroy billions upon billions of dollars that could be used, not to kill but to raise living standards of the poorer nations. Even space exploration, mankind's 'proud conquest of new frontiers', will most likely be regarded by people in the future as a futile waste of Earth's diminishing resources.

But at a micro level too, we have to take responsibility. It is, after all, our greed as individual consumers that supports economic expansion. Every time we buy a product or use a resource that we don't really need, we contribute to the Age of Greed. If we waste food, or energy, or throw away things that could be re-used or recycled, we contribute to the Age of Greed.

All things come from the Earth and as future generations will discover, when Earth's resources are gone they will be gone for ever . cartoon

M o s t Australians live way beyond Earth's capacity to sustain them. We are second only to the Americans as the world's greediest nation.

Environmental scientists have developed a formula to measure our ecological footprint - the amount of land space required to sustain our needs.

Allowing that we have to share the planet with more than six billion people and around 30 million other species, the biologically productive area per capita available for human use is 1.7 hectares. In Australia the average footprint is 7.6 hectares per person according to the Earthday Network, a global consortium of environment organisations, and even higher according to other sources. Globally, the average footprint is 2.3 hectares, which is 35 per cent larger than the available space.

For Australians to maintain current lifestyles without depriving other people and other species of their needs, would require the resources of at least five Planet Earths.

A CSIRO report to Government in 2002 called Future Dilemmas warned that Australians face drastic lifestyle changes in the near future such as halving household consumption and imposing energy quotas on individuals. It highlighted a number of resource strains including oil shortages from 2015, natural gas shortages from 2030, the potential loss of 10 million hectares of agricultural land due to salinity and soil acidification, and plummeting stocks of marine food. While still available on the CSIRO web site, Government response has been muted and the report is gathering dust in some minister's 'too hard' tray.

The dilemma for all of us is the simple truth that economic growth is unsustainable. Mother Earth can no longer sustain the greed of the few if She is to feed the many and take care of future generations.

Some people are already well down the pathway to a sustainable lifestyle. They are the torch-bearers who are showing us the way. The journey need not be daunting, and every small step we take is incremental in reducing the size of our ecological footprint.

Sustainability begins at home. Every time we turn off a light, walk instead of using the car, re-use an item instead of throwing it away, or do any of the other multitude of things we can do around the home to be less wasteful, we are reducing our footprint.

Koori philosophy, which has been sustaining our land for 40,000 years or more, tells us that we cannot take more than Mother Earth has to give us. If there are four fish take only two and there will be fish again tomorrow. Take all four, and tomorrow the pond will be empty.

Check your own ecological footprint with a simple quiz on the Earthday Network web site: www.earthday.net/footprint.
Far North Coast Regional Strategy: Take what we are given? Valerie Thompson

Amidst very little fanfare the NSW state government released its long-awaited draft Far North Coast Regional Strategy in March 2006. The date and location of the launch were hidden from the general public and the government sought to keep an even lower regional profile for the duration of the submission period with only 60 disgruntled groups and individuals around the region registering their disgust.

The draft Stategy, essentially a recipe for biodiversity loss and coastal sprawl within the region for the next 30 years, involves the development of around an extra 7000ha of land as urban sprawl within the region. A massive 70% of undeveloped urban lands shown are of identified high conservation value. A further 1500ha (or 1/3) of land currently not zoned urban contains conservation values or other physical constraints rendering it unsuitable for development.

We can reasonably assume all available environmental data was ignored. The draft even goes a step further, and provides for development outside of this identified 'urban footprint' in hinterland areas west of the highway. It also fails to provide for the protection of the region's biodiversity and ecological functions, Aboriginal cultural heritage, agricultural lands and important natural landscapes.

Ironically, the draft Regional Strategy was originally an initiative of the North Coast community itself, seeking a greater level of regional co- ordination and autonomy in planning based on the region's particular environmental, social and economic attributes. Through the Northern Rivers Regional Strategy, then Planfirst as well as a range of other regional initiatives over the last 10-12 years, extensive community input has been sought - and now ignored in this final government-usurped document.

An alternative vision.

Over the past 18 months, 30 community and environment groups around the region have come up with their vision for the future of this region:

-An end to coastal sprawl: no further lands zoned for urban development east of the highway;

-Real protection of our biodiversity: all vegetated lands and high conservation value ecosystems to be protected from urban and employment development;

-A network of regional corridors protected and linked;

-A region of villages: existing village character of the region protected , with future settlement reinforcing inland village communities;

-Protection of our hinterland - the metrobased broad brush 'Sustainability criteria' removed from the draft Strategy. Any real sustainability criteria to guide new development must be specific to this region, ensure the protection of existing vegetation and natural ecosystems, important agricultural lands and rural landscapes;

-Regional planning that protects Aboriginal cultural heritage and sites, meets the transport and employment needs of the community and provides for affordable housing;

-Real planning direction: a statutorily binding Far North Coast Regional Strategy which requires local planning to meet sustainabiity outcomes;

-Funding mechanisms to pay for regional environmental protection without further erosion of our biodiversity, landscape or communities.

In a bizarre twist the government has received an assault from all sectors of the community over its draft - from the environment movement to the social justice advocacy groups, to the key economic and development representatives in the region. Full credit to all those within these different sectors who have had the foresight to realise that a state-imposed blueprint for‘more-of-the-same’ is counterproductive to what makes this region exactly what it is.

At the Regional Community and Environment forum held in Byron Bay in May, it was generally agreed to reject the Draft Strategy as currently written, on the basis that it:

-Is non-statutorily binding and too vague in its provisions;

-Can not replace the function of the Regional Environment Plan (likely to be lost once a Far North Coast Strategy is in place);

-Doesn't apply environmental constraints or biodiversity mapping in the identification of urban development areas;

-Provides inadequate protection of agricultural lands;

-Doesn't adequately include Aboriginal and social considerations;

-Includes 'Sustainability Criteria' which undermine the protection of the region's rural hinterland;

-Does not adequately consider and incorporate climate change;

-Provides no real regional energy and infrastructure solutions;

-Does not include a transport and rail strategy;

-Fails to address the region's infrastructure needs, including social infrastructure and services;

-To develop an alternative Far North Coast Strategic plan by, and for, the region;

-That the region's REP needs to be protected and updated.

We are still waiting on the government's response to these submissions, but nobody, I believe, is holding their breath.
 
greenhouse cartoon
CURRENCY STANDARDS REWARDING WORTH. Benny Zable


Monetary rewards are primarily built on the exploitation of stolen Natural Resources- our Natural Capital. The currency standard for worth of work is measured against the value of gold and the US dollar. These currency standards compound problems that affect life on Earth because they ultimately reward greed and power by sacrificing the well being of our environment. The Lake Cowal gold mine is a symptom of this destructive culture. [1]

There is a need for a standard/s that encourages people to live lightly on the Earth, making all humans accountable for negatively impacting life on Earth and rewarding those who are nurturing the living Earth.

Here are some sources that I wish to share with you to help tackle this problem. In 2003, an International Parliamentary network, launched an initiative to highlight 10 priorities [2] that would help the Johannesburg Conference- Save the Earth Summit, produce concrete results for sustainable development, including the installation of a Tobin type tax. [3]

Global Warming is a sure indicator that the Earth cannot take these assaults any more as graphically illustrated in 'An Inconvenient Truth' a recent book and movie by Al Gore. [4] Gaia theorist James Lovelock, brings this to light in his latest book 'The Revenge of Gaia' he says: 'Gaia, the living Earth is old and not as strong as she was 2 billion years ago. She struggles to keep the earth cool enough for her myriad forms of life against the ineluctable increase of the sun's heat. But to add to her difficulties, one of those forms of life, humans, disputatious tribal animals with dreams of conquest even of other planets, has tried to rule the Earth for their own benefit alone.' [5]

Architect and visionary Paolo Soleri, who I had the privilege to meet, and work and play in his arcology/ permaculture village ARCOSANTI, calls out to "miniaturize or die". [6] Hyper-consumerism is killing us.

The Australian Greens have crafted policies that challenge the mainstream conservative exploitative culture.[7]

The Earth Charter (a declaration of fundamental principles) seeks to inspire in all peoples a new sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the wellbeing of the human family with the larger living world. [8]

The Global Solution Strategy known as the Earth Repair Charter, details a strategy for reclaiming the health and well being of this planet.[9]

LETS, (a Local Economic Trading System) [10] and WOOFing (Willing Worker On Organic Farms) are alternative means of exchange without having to use money. [11]

Meditation retreats are great for tuning into ones connectedness with the nature within and around us. Insight Meditation teachers Christopher Titmus and Subhana Barzaghi are leaders in this field. Check into their programs. [12] [13]

John Seed and Joanna Macy developed a ritual, THE COUNCIL OF ALL BEINGS whereby we play out and speak out for other life forms in order to challenge human centered thinking. [14]

The Wittenberg Center in Woodstock, New York, have exercised Native American transformative rituals to foster a spiritual connectedness with nature.[15]

Aboriginal cultural lore holds the essence for spiritual connectedness, and stewardship for the earth. This lore demands permanent protection of our living capital consisting of all areas of sacred and significant values, places of archeological significance: the remaining natural heritage of unique ecosystems including old growth native forests, grasslands, wetlands, water, and high conservation value areas. As an integral part of healing the earth it is our obligation to recognise Aboriginal Sovereignty and Aboriginal Sovereign governance over this ancient land and worldwide wherever traditional lands have been dispossessed.

One active group outreaching aboriginal justice is ANTaR, an aboriginal support group in Victoria who played a major role in the recent protests at the Stolenwealth Games.[16]

Reg Dodd, Aboriginal elder and leader of the Arabanna community in Marree SA, once told me that 'the Earth will sort us humans out if we continue abusing her'. I painted on the Arabanna Centre these words from an International Indian Treaty council report to an NGO (Non Government Organisation) conference on Indigenous peoples and land in 1981:

"If the transnational and colonialist governments
continue to defy the natural
order of things in their quest for material
wealth, mother Earth will retaliate, the
whole environment will retaliate and the
abusers will be eliminated. Things come
back full circle, back to where they started".

History has shown that this fortress domineering mentality (greed) leads to perpetual wars, as we are experiencing now. The slogan THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY was coined by Rene Dubos, advisor to the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in 1972 and has helped inspire the movement of global action for local healing. [17]

As Chief Seattle in his wisdom stated 'Humankind has not woven the web of life. we are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. all things are bound together. All things connect. [18]

Hopi Prophecy states:"When the earth is dying, there shall arise a new tribe of all colours and all creeds. This tribe shall be called the Warriors of the Rainbow, and it will put its faith in actions not words". [19]

[1]rainforestinfo.org.au/gold/lakep.html
[2]europesolidaire.org/article.php3?id_artcle= 400
[3]cowles.econ.yale.edu/faculty/tobin.htm tobintaxcall.free.fr
[4] www.climatecrisis. net
[5] ecolo.org/lovelock/
[6] geocities. com/arcology_IT/chapter4.htm
[7] greens.org.au
[8]earthcharter.org/innerpg.cfm?id_menu =19
[9] earthrepair.net
[10]pcug.org.au/~normc/lets/welcome.htm
[11] wwoof.com.au/overseas.html
[12] translucents.org/titmus.htm
[13] users.bigpond.net.au/subhana
[14]rainforestinfo.org.au/deepeco/coab.htm
[15] wittenbergcenter.org [16] antarvictoria. org.au/BlackGST.html
[17] medicalecology.org/dubos.htm
[18] mountainman.com.au/thchief2.html
[19]manataka.org/page235.html#HOPI%20PROPHESY

 
GLOBAL WARMING'S WARNING FOR ESTUARIES. Dailan Pugh


Global warming is here to stay. While we continue to procrastinate and dither, it is accelerating out of control. Even if we put the brakes on hard and reduced global greenhouse gas emissions by the 60-80% required, the consequences of the atmospheric damage we have already done will be felt for centuries to come.

After a six thousand year standstill, sea levels are on the rise again due to the thermal expansion of the seas as they warm and the melting of the world's terrestrial icemasses. Once some of the changes we have already initiated pass critical thresholds they set in train irreversible consequences.

One which may have already crossed the threshold is the melting of the Greenland ice-mass, which when complete will by itself raise sea-levels worldwide by 7 metres. Hopefully we have time to change our ways before the melting of the Antarctic ice-mass, and a raising of sea-levels by a further 63m, becomes inevitable. The International Panel on Climate Change's 2001 estimate was that globally sea-levels could be expected to rise by between 9-88cm by the end of this century.

Recent trends indicate that the rise is more likely to be 80-100cm or higher. For Byron Shire, depending on the slope of the seabed, sandy coastlines will retreat 85-135 metres for every one metre rise in sea level. Byron Shire Council has recently reaffirmed its 1988 commitment to planned retreat, and, in a rare unanimous vote, not to pursue any further the proposition of undertaking sand-dredging off Cape Byron for “sand nourishment”. There is still a long way to go to actually achieve the orderly fall-back of both sand dunes and houses as the coastline retreats, though at least the intent has been reconfirmed.

Byron Shire has yet to account for the changes that global warming will initiate in its estuaries. The Brunswick River and its tributaries are always open to the ocean, so water level rises within the estuary will directly correspond to sea-level rises. The recently exhibited Brunswick Estuary Management Plan gives as one of its 5 strategies and actions “recognise and accommodate natural processes and climate change”, and yet here is no further mention or consideration of climate change in the document. For the exhibition the Director of Planning added a brief covering note recognising” climate change as an issue and maintaining that the plan's recommendation for protection of a 50m riparian zone either side of the estuary will compensate for this over sight.

For the Brunswick estuary accounting for global warming is relatively easy. While detailed modeling is required to account for the full ramifications of global warming (ie increased rainfall and storm intensities magnifying flood events), simplistically what is required is forward planning (ie at least until the end of the century) that accounts for global warming by adding around a metre (vertically) to estuary levels and a metre to flood levels and planning for the consequences of this. A 50-100m horizontal riparian buffer needs to be applied to the 1m vertical buffer. Such plans must address the need for riparian ecosystems (i.e. mangroves, saltmarshes), littoral rainforest and freshwater ecosystems to migrate landward in response to these changes, as well as limiting further development of affected coastal floodplains.

The mouths of Tallow Creek and Belongil Creek are usually blocked by sand and closed off from the ocean, meaning that waters within the estuaries build up until they sporadically break through the sand barriers. These are termed ICOLLs - Intermitently Closed and Open Lakes and Lagoons.

For the ICOLLs forward planning is not so simple. For the Belongil estuary the natural height to which water would have built up to behind the sand barrier is around 2.6 metres above mean sea level before breaching would occur, though for decades Byron Council has been artificially opening the estuary mouth when waters reach 1.2 metres, with this being recently reduced to 1 metre. This interference will have had profound consequences for the ecosystems which were previously subject to periodic inundation.

While Byron Shire is increasing its manipulation of the Belongil, Government policy is shifting towards reducing artificial manipulation of entrances and allowing ICOLL's to experience a full natural range of water level conditions.

Byron Shire's recently exhibited Draft Local Environmental Plan for the Byron Bay area is actively promoting development within what would have naturally been the Belongil's estuarine system, and within areas that that will become so thanks to global warming. Trying to maintain the opening of the sand bars at their current levels as sea-levels rise is an impossible position - though this is what the LEP and Becton are proposing. Becton's proposed development is almost entirely less than 2.6 m above mean sea level and so is within what was naturally the Belongil estuarine system, with estuarine waters still extending into the centre of the site. Even if the estuary continues to be maintained open at 1m above mean sealevel, within 100 years half of Becton's proposed development may be within the estuary.

Any decision to now allow increased levels of development of areas vulnerable to erosion or flooding due to climate change is likely to be New Brighton floodirreversible in the future without massive compensation - particularly from the Council or Government that ignored the evidence and allowed it to proceed.

It is of course the community that will pay for the future consequences of the folly of ignoring global warming's impacts on our estuaries. It is the community that will be expected to pay for future remediation, protection and compensation. It is the community that will be effected as friends or families loose their assets, are dislocated or suffer distress and hardship. It is the community that will be expected to volunteer their time to rescue people and repair damage.

Unless we leave room for them, our mangroves, saltmarshes and wetlands will be squeezed between the rising waters and coastal development. Their loss will have major consequences for many species and profoundly affect the productivity of our marine ecosystems and fisheries.

Byron Shire already has too many people and too much property exposed to the consequences of coastal erosion and flooding as global warming proceeds. Byron Shire can not afford environmentally, socially, or economically to continue to ignore the consequences of global warming for our estuaries.

New Brighton.June 2005 photo: Peter Wadams
BIODIVERSITY IN BYRON SHIRE 2006 Cr. Peter Westheimer


Biodiversity has become a mainstream word and thank heavens for that!

The basic principles of the award winning Byron Shire Biodiversity Conservation Strategy are to retain/protect and restore biodiversity. This means hang on to what we've got, fix the problems and then maintain them.

The Shire's vegetation has been heavily impacted by rural and urban development and has resulted in a matrix of fragmented patches of remnant vegetation with regrowth forest often dominated by camphor laurel trees and other environmental weeds. Most of the “pretty'green paddocks of the Northern Rivers area were originally densely vegetated as part of one of the largest areas of subtropical rainforest in the world (known as the Big Scrub).

The recently released NSW Department of Planning, draft Far North Coast Regional Strategy incorporates biodiversity mapping which begins to show some real linkages throughout the region. A new regional plan to guide councils in implementing conservation outcomes is to be prepared by the Department of Environment & Conservation [DEC] and the Department of Planning.

Local Environment Plans [LEP's] are the key local government planning and legal documents to protect and zone land with respect to agriculture, vegetation, habitat, waterways, wetlands or coastal values. Byron Shire since 1995 has been prooactive in developing strategies and plans to protect its environment. Key documents include the Brunswick and Belongil Estuary Management plans, The Rural Settlement Strategy [set to be revised later in 2006], the 1999 Byron Flora and Fauna Strategy and the Biodiversity Conservation Strategy with its concept of establishing and consolidating wildlife corridors and habitat through revegetation and natural regeneration across properties.

These values have been translated into major planning documents such as the recently exhibited draft LEP. This draft Byron Bay, Suffolk Park and Ewingsdale LEP is good news regarding control of development in wildlife corridors with development to be located where it has the least impact.

Issues addressed include environmental management work to compensate for the impacts of development , general enhancement of biodiversity values through rehabilitation of degraded habitats or breaks in corridors and an overall plan to prevent fragmentation of vegetation habitats. Landholders in mapped cleared corridors will be simply encouraged and supported to plant out corridors however if they are developing they may be required, depending on the level of impact, to compensate i.e. more impact - more compensation.

Often this offset may not be sufficient to re-establish the full extent of corridors but will begin to link up the matrix. Property owners will thus play a role then in re-establishing corridor values through the DA [Development Application] process and through education and incentives not through coercion.

Council's Biodiversity extension officer will work cooperatively with landholders in giving advice and assisting in making property vegetation plans focusing on repair and enhancement [as well as providing info on all the other biodiversity issues and problems] .There are also opportunities to establish farm forestry plantations [using local native] species within cleared corridors. Sometimes all this can be a bit of a freak out for some of the more traditional farmers, especially those who are running cattle on their land. However simple measures such as appropriate fencing of remnant vegetetation, riparian [creek & river] areas or corridors allocated to bush regeneration or treeplanting can be adequate.

A 2% Biodiversity levy over four years, equating to approximately $16 a year per ratepayer is the current funding source. The Biodiversity Conservation Strategy is also being applied now to the ongoing conversion of 18 multiple occupancy properties [MO's] to Community Title properties [CT's]. The CT's generally lend themselves to better environmental outcomes through more clustered housing i.e. approximately 1 hectare per house and 4 to 13 houses per 40 hectares, with allocation of the residual land to planned outcomes.These areas are called Neighbourhood lots as in a strata plan for flats/units where the garden area is owned and managed by everyone through a body corporate plan.

The strategy is helping define how to change many of the MO properties from essentially a fairly haphazard placing of house sites and bush, to having integrated property plans with areas designated for corridors, ecological repair/enhancement or sustainable agriculture. This can only benefit the landholders and the whole community in the long term.

Most of the documents referred in this article to can be accessed from Byron Shire Council's home webpage www.byron.nsw.gov.au [Go to Publications & then Community Planning]. Request for access to or purchase of the documents can be made at the Mullumbimby council Headquarters. Some documents may be available at public access points throughout the shire.

[Thanks to Hank Bower, council ecologist for comments].

 
INVASIVE AND TOXIC CAMPHOR LAUREL: A 'Threatening Species' Joe Friend


Camphor Laurel Cinnamomum camphora is a highly invasive introduced tree in subtropical eastern Australia, where it is supplanting native bushland, particularly the wetter types. It rapidly becomes dominant in disturbed areas where native rainforest is trying to regenerate.

There are up to 35 known chemotypes of Camphor Laurel, with seasonal variation between individuals. Within the tree's parts there are at least 18 known biocidal compounds. These include narcotic molecules such as camphor, benzene-o-compounds, naphthalene and vanillin,(Overton 1901, in US-EPA 1991) which are currently not known to be made by, or present in, any southern Australian plant species (the 'Gondwanan flora'). Therefore, most of our fauna, including bird species, may not have evolved to deal with the seasonally harsh, volatile defense chemistry of trees like Camphor Laurel. That is, most of our sensitive fauna are not adapted to a wide range of northern hemisphere toxins, especially camphor which is the principal narcotic found in all these trees, and in all their parts (Cronin 1989; Wilson 1997).

Camphor is a botanical insecticide and repellent, is moderately powerful in effect, and it can volatilise for years from cut Camphor Laurel wood. Also, camphor can cause long-term chronic toxicity (Sittig 1985; Briggs 1992), and is a cumulative poison to higher orders of animals, including humans. Camphor Laurel seeds contains two cytotoxic (ribosome inactivator) or sterilising compounds (Ling Jung, Lin Wang et al. 1995). The most toxic chemotypes in Australia appear to be derived from Taiwanese _ Japanese subspecies hybridizing; the original Taiwanese subspecies importation arrived via Kew Botanical Gardens.

Camphor is confirmed internationally as a hazardous chemical (Sittig 1985; Weiss 1986), yet is being disseminated by tree weeds widely spreading in countries on three continents, with very little remedial action, because most people cannot see the chemical damage or the colourless chemicals being expelled. Many Camphor Laurel populations in NSW now consist mainly of the more toxic chemotypes, since the less toxic chemotypes have been largely logged over the past 50 or more years.

It is not yet known how hazardous camphor and its various related narcotic and sterilising compounds are, and how cumulative they are in the environment. Camphor (naturally derived or artificially produced) has no or incomplete material safety datasheets for its safe handling or disposal. That is, there are no agreed-upon international safety standards for the sale and dissemination of camphor-containing products, or the spread of plants that disseminate the toxin into the air, soil, or into waterways with the aid of saponins and similar compounds exuded by neighbouring plants.

Since droughts of the 1940s, a range of livestock has been recorded as having been killed after eating the bark, leaves or fruits of Camphor Laurel (Everist 1974; Qld Dept Primary Industries, Brisbane, and NSW Agriculture Veterinarians, Wollongbar, personal communications 2001-2004). Onfarm experiments, using free-range and confined birds and 'control' flocks with full access to Camphor trees through the fruiting season, have established the reversible sterility of gamefowl, poultry and domestic geese after they have eaten camphor seeds. Results for separate farms at Corndale, Murwillumbah and Mallanganee (NSW, 1998-2002), from independent observers, have been published (e.g. Tweed Times 18.04.1998; Northern Star Rural Supplement 10.1998).

After anecdotal reports of egg and fowl infertility, and inedible flesh, when free-range poultry ate fallen Camphor berries, penning of geese (to prevent access to Camphor) restored fertility although their flesh remained inedible ('camphorated'). There is compelling evidence, albeit circumstantial at this stage, that Camphor Laurel may be adversely affecting the populations of many species of native birds in north-eastern NSW. As well as poisoning or sterilising birds via consumption of toxic fruits and seeds, camphor may alsovolatilise in high concentrations from trees in hot weather, and the resulting aerosols may narcotise or repel birds in the vicinity.

Owing to its significant, albeit low, solubility in surface waters at above 25°C, camphor is believed to be capable of toxifying waterbirds via surface water intake. Camphor also kills aquatic organisms, and hence poisons or depletes the food resources of waterbirds. Long-time residents in the area of concern believe that many frugivorous and aquatic birds have declined greatly in areas with dense infestations of the more toxic Camphor Laurel chemotypes. There have been mass bird deaths beneath the trees, and birds otherwise inexplicably dead have been found, on dissection, to contain Camphor fruits or seeds. Native birds are rarely or never recorded nesting in Camphor Laurel limbs, forks or hollows of old or lopped and regenerating Camphor trees.

Camphor Laurel stands have been extolled as interim 'stepping stones' or movement corridors, and food sources, for frugivorous birds (including threatened fruit-doves) in northern NSW, until native rainforest regenerates. My surveys of weed species growing within and under or adjacent to roadside Camphor Laurels across three NSW Northern Rivers shires reveal a wide range of other toxic weeds of northern hemisphere origin (e.g. Broad-leaved Privet and Rhus), all proven capable of chemical defences and, in turn, capable of withstanding the severe chemistry of the shading Camphor canopy. More than two times as many exotic weed species readily seed under Camphor trees, compared with a limited range of native plants that are usually stunted, or in 'locked succession', under Camphor Laurel canopies.

Joe Friend is Principal Research Scientist- Ecologist, @Camphor Laurel Research Centre(CRC), Lismore, NSW .2480
www.camphorlaurel.com
Existential dilemma
CHEMICAL FREE - CONTROL OF CAMPHOR LAUREL. Geoff Dawe

Before considering control:

1. In a world of global warming, all vegetation, particularly trees, act as a sink for greenhouse gases.

2. Camphor Laurel feeds animals including native animals.

3. Farming soils in western agriculture are not able to retain organic matter levels and Camphor is an extremely efficient producer of organic matter in this area at this time. The importance of organic matter return to soil is still not wholly recognised in the society. Camphors taken down are often burnt with extensive loss of nutrients, rather than the wood and leaves more efficiently directly returned to soil.

4. Chemical free bush regeneration and sustainable agriculture are one.

5. Camphor Laurel may be a pioneer species for regeneration. It is sun loving and therefore able to take up niche positions in cleared land, but it is possible that over time it will be out competed by rainforest that has the advantage of being shade tolerant. The completion of such a cycle may well span many human lifetimes.

Control in Forested Areas.

Use as tool: Essentially leave the Camphor but consider it a tool of regeneration. Camphor shade restricts many other weeds and this provides a major saving in human energy compared to sites that are subject to lots of sunlight. Chemical free weed control finds that weeds lowest on the seral succession to forest, such as grasses, are most demanding human labour, and the highest, weed trees, the least. With weed trees rather than other weeds, the regenerator has a major advantage.

Sadly, one often sees the approach with Camphors is to remove them first and create a worst weed scenario than when they existed. Such a philosophy is often essentially blind to what Camphor Laurel does offer. Areas that have native regeneration can be strengthened by planting additional natives or by regulating sunlight with judicious pruning of Camphors to favour assisted regeneration.

Strategy: Strategy involves extending pockets of natives outward rather than working in sunny areas. In effect, there is not one site of native regeneration, but many, and year after year they are gradually extended outward, making use of the shade provided by the Camphors as they abut them. Camphors can be “taken down” by simply ringbarking them at the time when it is considered the abutting natives could make use of more light. This does not kill the Camphors, but harvests their dead limbs and suckering growth for use as mulch. (Falling dead leaves and wood cause minimal damage compared to the wholesale dropping of a live tree.)

All regeneration sites require regular input. Suckering regrowth is “score” to mulch natives. It is known that smaller Camphor stumps, taxed for their suckers and in shade from natives, can succumb and die. A group at Bellingen has recently found that stripping the bark layer from the ground to 30 cms above ground by using the butt end of a tomahawk to loosen and remove the bark, will cause death of the tree by desiccation.

Suckers have to be removed regularly, and I am told, it may be up to seven years before the tree dies.

Ring Barking: With conventional ring barking of Camphor Laurel, the sap layer of the tree is relatively thick and ring barking therefore needs to be comparatively deep. Chemotypes: In our area there are 36 chemotypes of Camphor Laurel identified so far. Some of these chemotypes provide an allelopathic effect guarding against the successful germination of other species within their sphere of influence.

Toward the Overcoming of Allelopathy: Planted natives are different to those germinating in the area, in that they are older and perhaps more in touch with a relatively advanced immune system function more capable of overcoming the effects of allelopathy. There is evidence also from 'The Living Soil' by Eve Balfour that allelopathic influences may be reduced with the use of compost. It makes sense that the more complex and numerous life forms in compost have greater facility to neutralise any toxins present in soil.

It is worth considering that Camphor Laurel appeared as soils degraded. Degraded soils are not as rich in soil biota as fertile soils. The long term effect of Camphor Laurel may be to provide greater organic matter to soil than before they were here, and as soil improves soil life may have greater facility to neutralise allelopathic exudates and allow in greater rainforest regeneration as a result.

Wattles see to their own replacement. It is possible Camphor Laurel does too!

Native Figs as Regeneration Tools: Bill Mollison suggested bush regeneration could be done by planting a Blue Fig at half mile spacings and visiting these trees enough to see to their maturity. Birds visiting the trees for fruit would be the carters and planters of seed for further regeneration. In harmony with this suggestion is the one that facilitates the planting of Strangler Figs within the branches of Camphor Laurel. Throughout the shire can be seen many examples of Strangler Figs overtaking Camphor Laurel. They may be a foretaste of rainforest eventually usurping the function of pioneer species.

Liz Gander (6687 1309) at Bangalow can provide a kit of Strangler Fig seedling in small Hessian bag with accompanying water crystals for placement in Camphor Laurels.

All the aforesaid suggestions apply the precautionary principle. Camphor Laurel is far too complex an organism for humans to singularly declare that it does not have a right to an existence in this area. As with all noxious animals and weeds, when conditions change and niche positions for it extinguish, its influence will be noticeably just part of the balance.

Control in Pasture: This method does not assume large acreage pasture. It assumes in accord with development toward sustainability in agriculture, that farms and grazing in this area are smaller than traditionally, as farmers reduce oil use, move toward polyculture, become organic and eschew the wholesale export of food and fibre. Camphor Laurel trees in pasture are cut down rotationally. That is, one or a few trees are cut down at one time, and their wood and leaves are tiled around the stump. Tiling is done by cutting limbs so they are light enough to be carried and butted against a neighbouring limb on the ground. The effect is to cut off access to that land by stock, until the wood has decomposed enough to allow a return to grazing…rotational grazing. The stump is allowed to sucker until such time as it is to be cut again in the rotation.

All trees, including Camphor, are comparatively deep rooted and therefore adapted to mine and bring to the surface nutrients and minerals leached deeper into the soil profile than those accessible to pasture grasses. The tiled area, is in effect rested from stock, and organically fertilised at the same time from a source that would be lost if trees were not part of the rotation.

Allelopathic Influence of Cut Wood: I have yet to be shown an allelopathic reaction to the use of cut or dead Camphor Laurel. Henry James, a Tweed Shire councillor upon questioning Council nursery staff, reported that they could see no difference in the growth of trees from Camphor chip or other chip. My own experience is that the garden beds improved with normal organic means and with Camphor chips as a mulch, earth worm activity is prolific. I assume that though there may be toxins present in the freshly cut wood and leaves, at a certain stage of decomposition, that toxicity is neutralised.

Camphor in Cattle Diet: Of interest too is that fact that in pasture that is comparatively sparsely populated by Camphor Laurel, the canopy will be browsed to cattle eating height. It could be assumed that small amounts of Camphor Laurel are an acceptable part of cattle diet, and that it is possible that Camphor oil may act as a vermifuge. But that is speculation that needs chasing with science.

Control in Orchards: This method assumes the efficiencies related to non-tractor use are keenly sought. The orchard is perhaps now set out on the contour rather than down slope for instance, and orchard interplanting is a viable possibility. Camphor foliage is simply harvested every year and used as mulch. The carpets of new Camphor seedlings that worry so many are harvestable mulch that saves the journey to Rural Buying Services for bales of hay. In terms of the efficiency of human labour, allow stems to develop to approximately 2 cms, and then use loppers, some of which have a simple cog system, as efficient as a bicycle, which allows comparatively little effort to gather quite thick stems. On no dig garden beds branch material is lopped further to 15 cms long and used as mulch. Branches as mulch in an orchard need to be cut so that the wood is laying down rather than sticking up. Slashing is then carried out as though the top of the wood layer is actually top of soil.

Beyond slashing is orchard interplants such as Pigeon Pea, Crotalaria and dwarf Leuceana.

Geoff welcomes your feedback: 02 6680 1689.
Whale Power: Dean Jefferys

"Despite losing in most of the votes atWhale protest 1 the 58th IWC meeting, Japan seems to have bought enough votes to pass “the St. Kitts and Nevis Declaration”, a general statement calling for the resumption of whaling 33 votes in favor, 32 votes against. Japan would like to resume full scale commercial whaling. It’s imperative the Australian Government does more to stop Japan killing whales and immediately start proceedings against Japan in the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS). If our government doesn’t act and the Japanese government continues to kill over 1000 whales under the guise of "scientific whaling", consumers will have no choice but to launch a campaign to boycott Japanese goods and services such as Sony, Toyota, Mitsubishi and Japanese Airlines.

People power via a boycott and e-mail campaign, recently managed to force Nissui a major shareholder in the Japanese whaling fleet to sell its shares. When a country is so out of step with world public opinion then peoples’ consumer power can bring them back into line.

Japan plans to put 10 Fin whales and 50 humpback whales on the menu along with up to 900 other whales it wants to kill this coming summer."18th of June was the official start to whale watch season Howie Cooke said, "As of June 7 this year, with more and more coastal communities identifying with specific named whales we can increase our appreciation of known individuals and rejoice and pray for their safe return and that of the whole migration. Hervey Bay has taken NALA as their icon whale, Sydney has VENUS and Byron has"Yumbalehla"
The name was determined through consultation with Trish and Wally Franklin, whale conservation groups and Arakwal representatives. "Yumbalehla" is Arakwal for "always on the move" which represents the whale migration and Byron, as a "meeting place".
THE INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION. Part 1. Robin Harrison


Survival of our species. In the first of a three part series Robin Harrison envisiages the possibility of intentional communities becoming a corporate role model in a global economy.

Our global life-support systems are collapsing. The damage we are doing to our planet is growing exponentially, potentially changing our environment and threatening the survival of our species. If we are to reverse this process we must develop strategies that are capable of growing, globally, faster than the damage.

Our survival is unlikely without a healthy environment, a healthy society and a healthy economy. A society in harmony with the planet and each other has the potential to perform and be prosperous well beyond our present economy's capabilities.

As a social species trade has always been one of our most civilising forces. As such, our global economy is vital. However, our current, exploitive, fossil fuel based, global economy is not sustainable. Can we use the resources of the global economy to effect the changes we need, and bydoing so, change the nature of the global economy?

The growth of suburbia over the last 60 years is the most obvious contributing factor to the increase of environmental disharmony. The suburban way of life has been made possible by an abundance of oil and is dependant on a constantly increasing demand on a rapidly decreasing supply. Much of today's consumption patterns appear to be created and driven by deep dissatisfaction in many areas of the suburban life style, a phenomenon exploited widely by the advertising industry. This is not to suggest that consumption per se is undesirable, rather, non-driven consumption of goods produced in environmentally beneficial ways with renewable resources by prosperous, empowered people, is more desirable.

In the development marketplace, the only choice of lifestyle is suburbia; dormitory suburbs, hungry for non-renewable resources, where the inhabitants are obliged to commute for practically everything. Most supplies are trucked in and most profits and wastes are trucked out using even more non-renewable resources. Suburbia and the massive road systems needed to service it replace agricultural production on some of our most fertile land.

The majority of the third world aspires to a suburban lifestyle. It is the most prosperous lifestyle currently available. An alternative to suburbia that is more attractive, prosperous, culturally flexible and affordable, would probably perform well in the global marketplace. If it were also an earth, society and economic repair kit, the more rapid the growth the better.

Can we envisage a global economy where the bottom line for every member of our species, is prosperity? The experiments and developments in sustainability over the last 30 years in this region, and others around the world, have been prodigious. We now have a vast fund of information and the practical knowledge needed to establish intentional communities with the optimal goal of securing a prosperous society of individuals in harmony with each other and the planet.

The Corporate Model.

We know that one-off intentional community developments experience great difficulty accessing income in their early years and are usually obliged to access income and resources from outside, reducing focus on the community. If the initial set-up costs could be deferred and the inhabitants could access an income for setting up the community for the first couple of years then the community would be able to develop high levels of consensual living and work skills in an environment of prosperity.

The corporate model could enable such a cost deferral with great potential as an investment vehicle. There are large amounts in the money market desperately looking for secure long-term investment with good sustainable growth. One of the major inefficiencies of corporations is their pyramidal power structure. The more efficient corporations are becoming so, by flattening the pyramids, broadening the management base. The corporate model envisaged, by new settlers entering as shareholders, would have an inbuilt pressure to flatten the pyramid.

Such a flat management system could be the ideal model for a harmonious society and bring with it significant advantages. The corporate structure is perfect for interfacing with the resources of the global economy and with the most powerful model operating at its greatest potential; that could be a major resource. Since the growth would be incremental and by personal choice, it would be achieved non-confrontationally- the only way to achieve harmony. Of course a corporation must have a product; so what would that be, beyond supplying the growing market for clean foods, clean energy and renewable resources?

The investment is in communities of peo ple living in harmony with each other and our planet; an environment which values and nurtures creativity and innovation, recognising one of our species' greatest resources. The people, the creativity and innovation and the probable resultant enterprise, are the product. This is an investment in sustainability, which must be the economy of the future; if we are to have a future.

It would also enable many industries to redefine themselves, with great benefit to ourselves. Consider, as just one example, our manufacturing sector and the seemingly unbreakable nexus with non-renewable resources. Our vehicles and white goods, for instance, are built out of steel because they are part of the steel fabrication industry, not because it's the smartest material to use. Plastics can be sourced from vegetation rather than petrochemicals. We can benefit by breaking the current nexus. An alternative vehicle building industry could have complete choice of materials and motive power. Alternative energy is already approaching cost effectiveness with grid power. The greater efficiencies due to larger scale, diverse, manufacturing and attendant R and D are likely to make it far more cost effective. We already have a prodigious development
base, in all areas, to work from.

Mobile Factories

Buckminster Fuller first raised the possibility of creating factories that could be in one place for 5-10 years then moved to a new location. This would enable each village to have a manufacturing capability for as long as it was needed. The factory would have available an educated workforce highly skilled in consensual work practices and conflict management and one highly motivated as shareholders/owners of the corporation. Since, initially, the corporation would be manufacturing for it's owners, widespread use by shareholders of their own products could well create demand in the wider community if the products are as good as we expect them to be. Advertising, a major cost to most corporations, would be a minimal requirement in this model since, rather than being a separate entity, it would be an integral part of the production/consumption chain.

In part 2 Robin explores the idea of a community of individuals and how that can be expected to function succesfully.
To read the complete article on-line, click here.


 

The BEC is the quarterly journal of the Byron Environment Centre. It is available in hard copy and is distributed throughout the Byron Shire. The Editor welcomes comment on any aspect of THE BEC at mail to:byronenvirocent@australis.net.The hard copy version of The BEC is printed by Mullumbimby Printers and sponsored by Mark Baker & Company Solicitors, and Inky Business, the printer and cartridge specialist (6680 7776).

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