Regrow Qld 5 October Issue 39 Vol 2 (Subscriber)
Please Explain, Jakarta tightens air quality rules, From the sea to avocadoes, great new renewable energy graphics, and the first edition of 'Dear Blabby'.
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Editorial
Anna Hitchcock
I was barely back from holidays (which were busy) when we slipped into a long weekend. A rarity these days, this was a long weekend where I wasn’t going anywhere. No visitors darkened my doorstep (even the welcome ones!), and no events required dress any more formal than leggings and a T-shirt. Bliss.
You know those internet memes where they say: ‘could you live in this shack for one month with no internet and we’ll give you a million dollars’? My answer to that question is ‘show me the money’. Matter of fact, I’d probably ask to extend my stay.
It’s great to be out doing things in the world, but it’s also good to take some quiet time to do things slowly by yourself. Given that the silly season is ramping up, make sure you take a little time out every now and then to catch up with yourself.
To give your best self to the world you need to look after number one.
Anna
Letters
Please Explain
Last month One Nation leader Pauline Hanson wrote a letter which was full of her usual inflammatory statements and outright nonsense. Are the bureaucrats that give advice on law to governments left-leaning? Is their objection to pork-barrelling left-leaning? Ploise explain.
The same day Ms Hanson published her letter, the Swedish company Hybrit announced that it had made the world’s first green steel sale to Volvo, i.e. steel manufactured without any fossil fuel.
Ms Hanson, as a duty of care, should investigate how Australia could quickly move to a negative greenhouse gas economy. The scientists know how to do it affordably, but Ms Hanson is more interested in obtaining votes from some of the 20,000 Qld coal miners while ignoring the 64,000 people who stand to lose their full-time jobs when the Great Barrier Reef is no longer worth seeing.
She purports to know a lot about what happened millions of years ago but cannot read simple graphs today which show temperatures and sea levels rising in lockstep with greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. Why does she accept the science from the past but not the science before her eyes?
She carries on about China but does not mention that Australia’s per capita CO 2 emissions are 2.5 times greater than China’s. China is implementing its plans for a carbon neutral position by 2060.
Australia doesn’t even have a plan. Her silliest statement is that the IPCC proposes that Australia stop mining, manufacturing, and agriculture, when actually it is only opposing fossil fuel mining, drilling, and industries not using clean energy. She says our competitive advantage is our resources industry. She would have been correct if she had said ‘our abundant non-fossil fuel resources and industries’.
It is not the UN or the IPCC that will close manufacturing and fossil fuel use. It will be other countries that no longer want our coal and gas that do that, because they have surged ahead developing clean manufacturing that needs clean energy.
Last month, for a short time and for the first time, more than half of Australia’s electricity was supplied by solar. The transition to clean, cheap energy is happening right now.
Hugh Bridge
Gladstone
NEWS
From Future Crunch - sign up here: https://futurecrunch.com/
“California just became the first US state to say it will ban the sale of new internal combustion engines, starting the clock on a future that would’ve been unthinkable a few years ago. Automakers now have 15 years left until their products become illegal in one of their most important markets. It's a big deal. California consumes about 1% of global oil production. NPR”
“The announcement came less than a day after China pledged to go carbon neutral by 2060. The move is largely symbolic given the lack of details. It does however, bring the world's third biggest economy into a loose but vitally important consensus with the second largest (EU), fourth largest (Japan), and fifth largest (California). Four of the world’s six largest economies now have end dates for their carbon emissions. Bloomberg”
“A court in Jakarta has ruled that the Indonesian government has failed to protect citizens’ rights to clean air. The landmark decision requires the President and ministers to tighten national air quality standards to protect human health and the environment, and oversee efforts to cut pollution that directly affects air quality in Jakarta. The Independent”
“Some of Australia's most beautiful natural sites, including the Daintree, the oldest tropical rainforest in the world, have been returned to Aboriginal custodianship. After years of negotiations, four parks covering more than 160,000 hectares will now be co-managed by the Queensland government and the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people, and eventually transition to being run solely by First Nations people. ABC”
A historic moment as elders and traditional owners receive the deeds.
Forward thinking -
Peter van Beek (i)
Building Soil Carbon – Nature’s way - 3
From the sea to avocados
Building Soil Carbon - Nature’s way is, amongst other things, about diversity in the soil biology and feeding it with what that needs. They need more elements than what artificial fertilisers provide. One source of the most complete range is the sea where anything that has been washed away finishes up.
Sea minerals are being harvested as a left-over product after removing table salt from seawater. It contains 32 minerals known to be needed, some in extremely small amounts but still vital for some soil organisms. The list of those elements can be found at [ii].
Soil biology is already established in existing orchards otherwise it would not produce much. But has this biome all it needs for optimum tree health and productivity? To find out, a test was carried out on an Avocado farm in Childers.
The treatment consisted of applying Humic Acid at the rate of 15L/ha and Sea Minerals at the rate of 5L/ha to three rows of the Sheppard variety. The application was by injecting the liquids into the under-tree irrigation. The first application was on 3 October 2018, a second on 29 November and a third on 26 February 2019. The treated rows were in the centre of a field and the rest of the field was the control. The results were excellent.
By 8 May, the soil in the treated area was softer and held more water. This was assessed by feel by two farmworkers and two trained ag-consultants who all agreed.
At harvest, the average bin weights in the control rows each side of the treated rows was 416 kg. The 10 bins from the 3 treated rows averaged 460 kg, an 11% increase in weight. This indicates more sugars and minerals in the fruit.
Sugars are produced in leaves through photosynthesis. This is the complex process in which plants combine sunlight with water from the soil and carbon from the air into sugars. It needs many minerals to work well.
Leaf sugars were measured with a refractometer[iii] on 2 April and 8 May 2019. On both occasions, the results, called Brix[iv] readings, were 10% higher in the treated rows compared with adjacent control rows. Higher Brix readings mean healthier plants and the healthier a plant is, the less attractive it is to insects and the more resistant to diseases.
An increase in sugars also indicates an increase in the minerals that gives fruit its distinctive taste. It means that plants have more sugar to feed the soil biology so it in turn can increase soil carbon levels and structure. This provides more minerals back to the plant in exchange for the sugars, and starts a virtuous upward cycle of improvements.
Avocados are sold in trays of 5.5 kg and bigger fruit means more trays. An important test is if extra trays mean more dollars, as well as improving the soil and giving better taste.
Working that out in detail is beyond this article. But a rough calculation suggests that the per hectare extra income from more trays can be $600/ha or more. It means that investing a small amount of income in biology will pay itself back in one harvest, as was also shown in a soybean trial.[v]
Farmers do NOT have to wait years before getting their money back as is commonly believed. The next harvest will pay for it handsomely.
[i] This article may be copied and re-distributed under Australian Creative Commons Licence with attribution of author and source: Peter Van Beek - Regrow QLD – Gladstone Conservation Council.
[ii] https://www.gladstoneconservationcouncil.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Factsheet-Liquid-Sea-Minerals-vs1.pdf
[iii] A refractometer is a hand-held device that measures the sugar content of a solution and is expressed units called Brix.
[iv] One Brix is 1 gram of sucrose in 100 grams of a pure sucrose solution (Wikipedia). It is also an indicator of the minerals in the leaves required for optimal photosynthesis.
[v] https://www.gladstoneconservationcouncil.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Factsheet-Soybean-trial-using-high-fungal-tea.pdf
Eco Friendly Living
It’s harvest time for the cherry tomatoes. These are naturalised in my garden, and they come up in spring, necessitating a very odd mowing pattern as I avoid the seedlings. They will scramble along the ground or anything available, so I pick out the healthiest seedlings and fence them off to let them get established. Of the 5 or 6 that I have treated this way, 2 or 3 will survive a traditionally dry spring, and I then put an outer row of fencing around each patch to keep the chooks from eating them all.
Don’t feel sorry for the chooks, they get to eat all the rest as they ripen, and the remnants of my harvested patch. Chooks must have good red/green colour vision as they always eat the fruit as soon as it starts to turn red.
I generally pick a handful as I go past, and pop them in the fridge on a plate. Cherry tomatoes make an excellent cool snack just as the days are warming up. If you have a really big harvest, they can also be frozen whole for later use or added to stews and casseroles as is. They have a different flavour which is more like a fried or roasted tomato when you cook them this way. The tiny tomatoes cook inside their skin and then burst, letting the lovely juices out and adding a big flavour hit.
Delicious.
Anna
What we’re watching:
This fantastic video gives a really clear explanation about how we will convert the world to renewables with the most amazing graphics. 21 minutes and worth every second.
Opinion:
Greg Bray
Dear Blabby
Today I, Blabby St. John Elstonwick, will respond to some of the concerned letters I receive daily from my fans.
Dear Blabby,
I’m a serving moderate LNP minister, and I’ve told Our Glorious Leader, the Prime Minister, that it is possible to be both a conservative and believe in climate change. What are your thoughts?
Modern Traditionalist of NSW.
Dear Modern Traditionalist,
If you’ve really had this discussion with the PM, then brace yourself sir, you’re about to be ‘served’ into the political wilderness faster than a call to a 24-hour couch steam cleaning company.
Dear Blabby,
I live in a modest 10-bedroom domicile in an upper middle-class, leafy suburb, where the sound of expensive saloons can be heard burbling around our exclusive cul-de-sac at respectable times of the day.
One of my neighbours has purchased an EV and he won’t stop talking about it. I am extremely worried he will soon start wearing hemp suits and asking us to be concerned about the environment! Should I decline to invite him to future bridge evenings?
Rutherford, P.K of Victoria.
Dear Rutherford,
You still play bridge? Most of us have gone back to Monopoly… you, you, Communist you!
Dear Blabby,
My country club has installed solar panels and is using water saving technology to keep the golf course hydrated. Prunella, Margot and I are worried that this is the thin edge of the wedge and we’ll be forced to carry our own golf bags soon!
Lady Cressida Femmington-Smythe
Dear Lady Cressida,
Please, allow me to allay your fears about lugging your designer golf bags around the course in future. A team of developers will soon rezone your golf course for community housing. The great news is, the grass, trees, water and electricity are already in place so that will save a few dollars!
Dear Blabby,
My brother manages a coal mine and is looking very worried about all the clean solar and wind power being generated lately. What can I do?
Cosplay Dinosaur from CQ.
Dear Cosplay Dinosaur,
I was initially going to suggest you get acquainted with renewable electricity by taking a fork and placing it carefully, but firmly, into the nearest wall socket, but, I’m an enlightened conservative so let me propose this instead: find your brother another job!
Dear Blabby,
I usually work a couple of months of the year, in between taking frequent, free holidays overseas. Recently I worked two whole weeks in a row sorting out several large messes I’d created. My finger is getting very tired from having to point it at others all the time.
I am keen to enjoy a free trip to Scotland soon, but worry that the other guests at my luxury hotel will treat me with contempt because I sort of keep lying to them. Can you help me?
Blameshifter of Canberra
Dear Blameshifter,
You don’t have to go all the way to Scotland to get the sort of contempt you can get for free here at home.
Dear Blabby,
I am the leader of a prominent political party hoping to win office at the next election. Would raising my green credentials help improve my popularity?
Mr Wishy Washy
Dear Mr Wishy Washy,
Are you really sure you want to inherit the mess this mob have made? Still, why not? Give it a go, I mean, seriously, you couldn’t do any worse and what have you got to lose?
Dear Blabby,
Weatherboard NINE! GreeNies! Burp! Stuff politicians! SheEp! CoalnGAS! Free dRinks! Big hat! Rm WiLliams! Gina!
Blarney Bluster, Sheep Drench Pastures
Dear Blarney,
The medication! For goodness sake take the pills son! Where’s your minder?!
Greg Bray