Australia

[cooloola]

Appeared today in the Noosa News

Hatchery Bass Mutate
by Nicola Kerkenozov

Reports of hundreds of thousands of 2-headed fish developing at a Boreen Point hatchery have prompted a call for the ban of the agricultural chemicals endosulfan and carbendazim.
Fish vetinarian doctor Matt Landos is calling for urgent bans and testing of the chemicals he believes caused the mutation of the hatchlings.
University of Sydney honorary lecturer and research associate said mature bass caught in August from the Noosa River - recently named one of the cleanest waterways in the state - were induced to spawn as part of a restocking program, however, 90% of the larvae had 2 heads and perished within 48 hours.
Carbendazim was removed from use in the U.S. in 2001 for its effects on reproduction in humans.
Endosulphan is also banned in the European Union, US and New Zealand due to damaging environmental impacts.
In Australia these chemicals are legal and registered. Dr Landos believes farmers are using the chemicals carefully but is calling for testing on fish larvae. Up till now toxicology testing has been conducted on adult animals.
Commercial fishermen report a 90% drop in fish numbers since 2001.
Acting premier Paul Lucas said "Fish don't have two heads. They generally have one. Lets not jump to conclusions here. It may be something totally unrelated to farming. It may be a natural genetic variation"

(reminds me a little of Joh that one)

[cooloola]

Bob Brown has called for the government to invest in green energy job creation strategies after BHP Billiton sacks thousands in the mining sector.
Good idea.

[Flying Binghi]

I'm a peak fuels believer and think we need more research on alternatives, though lets use what we currently got going for us in Oz - which is coal.

German polys learned what the voters think about the money wasted on so-called green jobs. The Canadians have learnt - Mr Brown is yet to learn.

A few words from Mr Bolt -

GLOBAL warming believers told us this year to look at the Arctic - and heed the awesome lesson.

And, boy, were they right.

In fact, Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull especially should check it out, from the North Pole to Canada, which went to the polls last week.

Of course, the reason the religious told us to look north was that they were sure a warming world had reached a deadly "tipping point".

Last year's summer melt had been so fierce that climate scientists warned that the warmed seas gave us a 50-50 chance of an ice-free Arctic this summer.

"It's hard to see how the system may bounce back," fretted Washington University's Ignatius Rigor.

Countless headlines around the world blared this latest "proof " of global warming (which, sshhh, actually halted in 1998). The ABC and Fairfax flew reporter Marian Wilkinson up to file scary reports from an ice-breaker, declaring: "Here you can see climate change happening before your eyes."

Eco-explorer Lewis Gordon Pugh even announced he'd paddle a kayak all the way to the Pole to draw attention to this terrifying loss of ice.

But, oops. Pugh actually had to quit paddling when he found 1000km more ice in front of him than he'd expected.

Indeed, there was at least 9 per cent more Artic ice this summer than last, and the refreeze so far this autumn is so extraordinary there's a third more ice than there was this time a year ago.

Canadians have sure felt this cold, too, enduring a miserable summer.

Perhaps it was this growing mismatch between the heat the alarmists predict and the cool we actually feel that explains the mood of Canadians on election day. Or maybe the financial crash made people suddenly leery about grandiose green promise that costs money and jobs.

Whatever, voters last week gave the Left-wing Liberal Party its worst hiding in a century, returning the Conservative Party of Stephen Harper.

What hurt the Liberals was their promise of a Green Shift – a global warming tax on carbon dioxide emitters, with compensation to the poor for the higher power bills.

Sound a bit like a plan pushed by any government here? An effective tax on emissions from 2010 with compensation for the worst off?

Canada's Prime Minister denounced the Green Shift as a job-killing disaster: forget useless gestures to "save" the planet; save your jobs....
Full article via - Polls shaken by poles | Herald Sun

[Flying Binghi]

Bob Brown has called for the government to...

Carefull there cooloola, apparently anything to do with Oz politics is off-topic in this "Australia" thread

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by Flying Binghi

Carefull there cooloola, apparently anything to do with Oz politics is off-topic in this "Australia" thread

Since when?

If I had any money i would be organising myself to buy BHP or at least some shares.
They own most of the uranium and copper in the world and in a few years time this recession may be over.

[cooloola]

I'm not surprised by the cool arctic/canadian season and I don't think that the occasional cool season will debunk global warming. Making the most of our coal reserves is in my mind not good for the environment, global warming/not warming aside it's a dirty fuel and we can do better.

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by cooloola

Bob Brown has called for the government to invest in green energy job creation strategies after BHP Billiton sacks thousands in the mining sector.
Good idea.

We are building the biggest solar collector in the S. Hemisphere, if not the world and
giving grants for home solar units
and
water tanks.

I thought PETA might be on to us Ozzies about this soon; poor, baby Air Kittens

Locusts shrivel in the heat

Thursday, 22/01/2009

Hot weather has killed locust populations in northern Victoria.

Locusts which hatched after January 10 have found it tough to cope with days over 40 degrees and have started to perish.

Warren Medwell, from the Victorian Department of Primary Industries, says once the hot weather hit, juvenile locusts disappeared.

"We had some on grasslands down there, they were there one day and we went back and the little fellas had died by the next day."

Locusts shrivel in the heat - 22/01/2009
(Quoted in full as I own the ABC)

Bloody hot today.

[Michaelangelica]

Fifty things you might not know about Barack Obama
Australia

51. He won't give up his "blackberry" despite SS objections.
52. My spell check does not recognise Barack Obama

[cooloola]

Michaelangelica - bloody hot here too and your spellcheck soon will

[Flying Binghi]

Bloody hot today.

bloody hot here too

Hot here as well... i think its related to all that heating in Antarctica