Blowing Up Australia - Iron Ore

My work involves finding rare or endangered species that live, quite happily, eating and mating in Western Australia's unique ecosystems, pre-dynamite. The term 'pre-dynamite' is the issue here...

Australia-China Iron-Ore Trade

No country is more desperate to make steel than China, and no country is more happy to supply them with iron ore than Australia. At 39%, China is already the world's largest producer of iron ore by a mile, but like wheat, China is also earth's largest importer. In 2009, Australia produced 17% of the world's iron ore, ranking second. 68% of this ore went to China to produce steel, a lot of which they can sell back to us.

Exploding Mountains!

Australia is the least tectonically active continent, with no active volcanoes. So when a mountain blows apart, explosives are behind it. Leveling a mountain in the Pilbara region of Western Australia is one of the best ways to access large deposits of iron-ore on Earth, and luckily for the mining companies, there are plenty of them on offer. Coincidentally, it's the best way to bury the mountain's plants and animals alive.

Got a problem? Just keep throwing money at it.

This is the general philosophy of most mining companies in Western Australia, and solves most of their problems. Mining companies generally contract environmental consultants to carry out their compulsory environmental assessments or surveys. In theory, finding a federally listed species (endangered, vulnerable or migratory species) should, in some cases, prevent the development of a mine, or at least in the areas where they occur within the mine. However, this is laughed at by the mining companies when such a species is found. To get around the matter, they throw more and more money to the environmental consultants that found the species, until they can produce a report stating "no significant impact to the species is anticipated", or "the species is unlikely to occur". If the environmental consultancy can't state this, they contract a consultancy that can. Unfortunately, there are environmental consultancies that cater to this market.

The safety of WA National Parks and Reserves is in question

Following the approval to develop a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant on Barrow Island Nature Reserve (a Class A Reserve, the most protected crown land in the state) in 2009, Western Australia's environmental legislation is obviously insufficient. Recently, I found out of plans by a leading iron-ore producer, to construct a railway for transporting ore through the heart of one of WA's most spectacular reserves, Millstream Chichester National Park. Have I missed something here, or are National Parks no longer protected forever?

Since arriving in Western Australia a year ago, I have not seen a square-inch of land protected from mining in areas I have worked, even after finding threatened species...and all I can say is, if you haven't been to the Pilbara, get there now.


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Dirty oil and The Great Bear Rainforest. Is it worth the risk?

There has been 14 oil spills so far in 2010. Deepwater Horizon and Taylor Energy Wells in the Gulf of Mexico; Exxon Mobil spill in the Niger Delta; Talmadge Creek oil pipeline spill in the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. And many more. With all of the news in the last year regarding big oil disasters, one would think that we might begin to re-think our processes of extraction and shipping... maybe even push harder to re-think our heavy reliance on oil in general?

The very same company responsible for the Kalamazoo oil pipeline leak, Enbridge inc. has a proposed pipeline called Northern Gateway that will run from Alberta's 'tar sands' to the British Columbia coast, carrying 83 million litres per day of what has been referred to as "the worlds dirtiest oil". It will run straight through the Great Bear Rainforest.

The Great Bear Rainforest is the name given to the remote north central coast of British Columbia (BC), Canada. At 6.4 million hectares, it represents one quarter of all the remaining ancient temperate rainforest in the world.

It is home to Wolves, Grizzly Bears, Eagles, Cougars, Salmon, Black Bear and the Kermode 'Spirit' Bear, a subspecies of Black Bear which features a recessive gene that makes about one in every ten bears completely white. The Western Red Cedar trees here can be 1000 years old, and the Sitka Spruce more than 90 meters high. It is a very rare and very endangered eco-system.

The Great Bear Rainforest has been the epicentre of environmental dispute for the last two decades. And rightly so. It is worth fighting for. It is an intricately woven, beautifully symbiotic ecosystem. The ocean and the land are merely continuations of each other here. The salmon runs that feed the bears, eagles and wolves are the same that fertilise the trees, and feed the orcas, marine mammals and the people who call this coastline home. An oil pipeline spill, or tanker spill would quickly destroy this habitat.

And it's not unlikely. These are treacherous waters. The channel where Exxon Valdez hit Bligh Reef in Alaska in 1989 was 10 km of navigable water wide. Douglas Chanel, where the supertankers will need to transit to reach Kitimat, the end of the Northern Gateway pipeline, is only 1.3 km wide at it's narrowest point. Add the notoriously difficult and unpredictable weather patterns of Hecate Straight, and massively increased marine traffic, and it's not difficult to picture a spill happening.

Enbridge can greenwash it's website all it wants. (And it has.) The reality is that an oil spill, as "rare" (their word) as they are, either by tanker or by pipeline could happen. And even the small ones are devastating. Is it really worth the risk?

Oh, and in case you're wondering, "rare" to Enbridge inc. means:

• 2007 Enbridge reported 65 "reportable spills" which leaked some 2 million litres from their pipelines

• 2008 Enbridge reported 93 spills which leaked more than 900,000 litres of oil.

• 2008 The State of Wisconsin sued Enbridge for more than 500 wetland violations and land disturbances during the construction phase of a pipeline.

• 2009 Enbridge reported 2 spills in the first 2 months of 2009. These leaked more than one million litres of oil.

• 2010 Kalamazoo River Enbridge oil pipeline spill in July. More than 3.3 million litres of oil spilled.

Sounds pretty common to me.

For a detailed account of ecological impact of oil tankers and spills on the BC coast, check out:

http://www.raincoast.org/publications/reports/whats-at-stake-the-cost-of-oil-on-british-columbias-priceless-coast/

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The second favourite meat - Beef

Our second favourite meat
After chicken, beef is the most consumed meat in Australia. It's estimated that the average Aussie eats 32.5 kg, 71 lbs, or the equivalent of 361 McDonald's Big Macs a year.

Cattle Farms - a huge area
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, over 43% (332 million hectares) of the Australian landmass is used for farming cattle to produce beef and veal. This enormous area covers all of Australia's states and territories, and makes up 75% of the country's agricultural land. Interestingly, this massive usage of our land only contributes about 1% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP)...

Exported around the world
Australia produces 4% of the world's beef, and is the second largest producer after Brazil. In 2008/2009, 67% of the beef and veal produced in Australia was exported to over 100 countries. Indonesia tops the list, with 80% of our exported beef ending up on their plates.

Australia wasn't made for hoofed animals
When you travel around inland Australia, especially in the southern half, it's hard not to notice the damage cattle have done to the country. Dirt has replaced the grasslands, cow carcasses lay along the now muddy-edged waterholes, and a host of small marsupials that once thrived are virtually extinct, due to pressures from trampling and over-grazing.

Grass-fed organic beef
On the odd occasion that Jaime and I eat beef, we choose the organic option for several reasons:

• nutritionally speaking, grass-fed animals can have 2-4 times more omega-3s (or good fats), a third less total fat, and 4 times as much Vitamin E than grain-fed animals;
  
• organic beef also has the regular benefits of no pesticide and fertiliser contamination, added hormones, genetically modified organisms, or antibiotics; and
  
• most of all we like supporting local small-scale organic farms and produce, ensuring a sustainable future!
  

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