A little bit about canning, & the consumption of tuna

Posted on December 25, 2011 by cmckay

On the 2nd of October, 1946 the London Evening News contained an abstract discussing how an American scientist was weighing up the “comparative benefits bestowed on humanity” by the discoveries of atomic theory and canning. In 1949, Osman Jones wrote of the article, “the column regards the can as one of humanity’s major blessings; if the tin has tomato soup inside, or asparagus, it becomes the sort of thing which deserves a poetic paean, a fanfare on the trumpet, and half a column of a specially chiselled prose” (p. 2). In a contemporary context, the can has become a juggernaut of social study; in 2000 Simon Naylor wrote “the can, like almost no other technology, is thoroughly ingrained into, and seemingly indispensible to, human life as we understand it” (p. 1637). To understand the mentality which created comments such as these, an investigation into the history of canning must be completed.

The History of Canning

First things first; a step away from the modern conception of the ‘can’ needs to be practiced if the genesis of canning is to be located. Indeed, many contemporary definitions of the ‘can’ assume the use of specific materials – “a container made of sheet iron-coated with tin or other metal” (Macquarie, 1992) – but an inquest into the history of canning will show otherwise. In 1795 a prize of 12 000 francs was offered by the French military to the person who could find a way of preserving food for longer periods of time so that Napoleon’s army would be able to sustain long journeys and conflicts. That person was Nicholas Appert, a confectioner and chef from Paris. His success involved the preserving of materials in tightly corked glass jars, which were sterilised in a bath of boiling water (Howard, 1949). Continue reading →

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Reverse Garbage & The Bower: Mitigating Urban Waste

Posted on November 29, 2011 by admin

Promoting sustainable practices in urban environments is essential. It is essential if we are to realize many of the sustainability goals that need to be achieved in order to ensure a better and more efficient use of resources. This is particularly pertinent in an age where raw resource hungry developing nations such as China, India and Brazil, which are attempting to attain the quality of life that us here in the West have enjoyed for decades, swiftly attain higher individual and aggregate wealth through rapid industrialisation. As a technologically, socially, and institutionally advanced economy, Australia should be leading the way in mobilizing technologies designed to mitigate the copious amount of urban waste produced annually. However, this is largely not the case. Indeed attempting the tackle the issue this way may even be missing the point completely. Whilst there are underlying psychological, technical, and structural impediments in the way of us collectively and holistically embracing a sustainable paradigm, there are examples that emphasize the effectiveness of smaller-scale bottom-up approaches. These approaches both mitigate the perverse amount of waste that is produced in urban environments, whilst also serving to empower local communities through encouraging them to find innovative ways to deal with the problem of waste. Continue reading →

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The controversy over the science behind the Murray-Darling Basin plan

Posted on October 27, 2011 by tylerking

The Murray-Darling river system is the largest in Australia, comprising 440,000 kilometres of rivers and an average annual flow rate ranging from anywhere between 6,500 and 117,000 GL/year. The scientific assessment on the status of this river system has recently been subject to controversy.

Since the 1900’s, major river and wetland systems have had their flows altered through the construction of upstream dams, altering the processes that occur further down the system. Policies were put in place to extract the maximum amount of water from the river, with all water left considered ‘wasted’, as it didn’t benefit human needs (Kingsford, 2000).

Although there is now an understanding of the importance of environmental flows, there is still resistance in proposed reductions of water for irrigation. But through environmental observations of decades past, there is more and more data being accumulated that suggest that current environmental allowances are not enough to support diverse ecological communities (Kingsford, 2000; Rayner et al., 2009).

This paper will highlight some of the main scientific conflicts that are occurring around the formulation of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan (MDBP), and will provide strategies and alternatives to achieve a more educated and scientifically supported argument.

The main controversy with the proposed MDBP falls with three things: The accuracy and reliability of the hydrological flow models, the limited use of peer-reviewed scientific literature to support the proposed changes, and the use of climate change models to predict water availability. The MDBP draft was published in October 2010 to provide an overview on the issues currently facing the Murray-Darling river region, and how to best address the environmental issues that have been developing over a decadal period. Continue reading →

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Autocatalysis: The Carbon Tax and the Facilitation of a New Economic Paradigm

Posted on July 21, 2011 by spacetrout

The carbon tax is perhaps the single most significant economic reform since the Hawke/Keating labour market reforms of the 1980s/90s. Not only is it by itself a substantial economic reform, but it also signals the beginning of the internalisation of environmental systems into the economic cycle. This internalisation of the environment into economics is of particular importance because it has been driven by, and will indeed further drive, the acknowledgement by the public that environmental assets must be valued economically in order to ensure that they are both protected and maintained. This autocatalytic process – whereby reforming the economic system acts as the catalyst for both environmental valuation and the re-allocation of capital in the marketplace – will, I posit, eventually meld the traditionally divergent paths of economics and the environment into a single interwoven trajectory. This trajectory, I argue, will subsequently enable the facilitation of positive, pragmatic, and above all, collectively beneficial environmental and economic outcomes. In presenting examples to support my view, it can be asserted that two products of this paradigm shift in valuation would be, one: the higher value assigned to native forests as carbon sinks than as woodchips; and two: that instead of exhibiting the sincere lack of thrift that currently characterizes them Continue reading →

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Urban Sprawl: Shifting Paradigms and Policies

Posted on July 12, 2011 by spacetrout

Urban sprawl can be defined as low-density and non-contiguous development along the urban – rural fringe. In the context of  Sydney, poorly planned urban  sprawl on the peri-urban periphery has characterized much of its growth, with severe underinvestment in public infrastructure, and an acute lack of visionary planning methodology resulting in a situation whereby unsustainable urban sprawl has become synonymous with population growth, in addition to being acutely representative of how not to organize cities. This urban sprawl is exemplified by sprawling, low-density suburbs such as Kellyville, Bella Vista, Hoxton Park, and Stanhope Gardens, all of which are colonized by ostentatious dwellings and located in poorly-integrated transport black-holes whereby the carbon-intensive automobile is often the only viable way to get around. Indeed, the Norwest Business Park, which lies within the jurisdiction of Bella Vista on Sydney’s North-Western fringe, is a prime example of how not to organise a commercial centre – with pedestrian walkways being completely subservient to the bituminous needs of the almighty automobile. Although whilst Rouse Hill Town Centre, a few kilometers further west, represents a better example of an integrated, aesthetically benevolent, pedestrian-sympathetic urban environ, its location in amongst kilometers of un-metered sprawl underwrites the individual assets it has to offer. It is in this context that the virtuous design and planning methodology of individual structures, such as the Rouse Hill Town Centre, need to be more broadly instituted and forcibly applied if unsustainable growth trajectories are to be curtailed, and if design is to take precedent over monotonous exurban expansionism. Continue reading →

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Two Sides of the Same Coin: Marxism & Neo-Liberalism and the Problem of Ideological Purity in a World of Complexity

Posted on July 6, 2011 by spacetrout

The purity of idealism must always be looked upon with suspicion. Purity and absolutist conviction – as exemplified by Marxist doctrine, Maoist thought, and American Puritanism – simplifies social, political, cultural, and economic transactions into a determinist ethos that doesn’t account for the inherent complexities of life, nor acknowledge the uncertainties implicit in the future. Neo-liberalism – a contemporary version of classical liberalism – is yet another radical ideology wherein the complexities of global social, economic, cultural, and political fabrics and motives are ignorantly disregarded by the pseudo-religious laissez-faire philosophy of its adherents, who, like the hard-left Marxists of the early 20th century, represent significant political clout in contemporary Western democracies.

Whilst it has been argued that neo-liberalism is purely pragmatic and as such not governed by an overarching ideology, its readiness to sacrifice traditional historical wisdoms and cross-disciplinary complexities (such as social, cultural, and religious institutions) with the ideologue of linear economic determinism, situates it alongside Marxism – which was characterized by its own myopic breed of economic determinism – as a fanatical ideology blindly convinced that its own dogma represents universal truths. Neo-liberalism, I argue, is a radical way of thought that if not kept in its place, could implicate countless societies, and ultimately the global society, into what I believe is an illusion of American history advocated by extremely subjective zealots who lack a broader acknowledgement of the complexity intrinsic to social structures, political systems, and cultural histories. Continue reading →

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Christianity on Tikopia: Ethics, Morals & Environmental Realities

Posted on June 29, 2011 by spacetrout

Whilst ethics and morals do, at one level, play an important role in the facilitation of environmental awareness and stewardship, their effects alone on the way in which people view their own place within the environment, are sufficiently limited. For instance, how can contemporary Western-centric ethical, and in particular, moral codes adequately balance the issue of population growth with the issue of environmental welfare? This is of particular importance considering that these codes oppose both coercive population controls (such as China’s one child policy) and the infanticide once widely practiced by traditional societies such as the Tikopian Islanders of the South-Pacific – who utilized such population control procedures in order to prevent them exceeding the ecological carrying capacity of their small island. What is particularly interesting with respect to the latter is how the influence of Christian missionaries on the Tikopian way of life undermined their traditional cultural practices which included environmentally logical population control measures – measures that were systematically undone through the imposition of European Christian values. This superimposition of anthropocentric religious dictums – Christianity being notoriously anthropocentric in its outlook – onto a society whose sustainable economy and society had arisen and evolved over a period of 3,000 years, provides an example of why ethical and especially moral codes, ones that are deeply rooted in Western religious and political doctrine, are not adequate at addressing the complexity of environmental issues, particularly population control. It also presents an example of why the sudden upheaval of traditional land management practices results in exploitation and the eventual degradation of the environment. Continue reading →

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Adam Smith and the Irish Elk: Libertarianism and the Environment

Posted on June 24, 2011 by spacetrout

Environmental systems – the biophysical entities that provide the conditions in which humanity has been able to prosper – transcend political ideology. In the context of two closely associated and geopolitically omnipresent political ideologues: liberalism, and its more militant cohort, libertarianism, the environment has not been accorded the value it truly deserves, and as such, has been unsustainably exploited ad infinitum. Why have these ideologies, as the most ubiquitous socio-political ideologies of the 20th and 21st centuries, failed to adequately account for the environment? Why do these two systems of economic, social, and political thought, as major advocates of freedom and the liberation of the individual from meddlesome interventionist actors, continue to fail in the protection of important and irreplaceable environmental assets? This brief discussion on the subjects of liberalism and libertarianism in the context of economics and the environment attempts to explore these complex questions.

In recent decades, tariff reductions on imports, deregulation of national economies and the intertwining of communications, technology, and culture have fashioned a global society vastly different from any such society that predated it. This global economy is fundamentally a product of the political philosophies of liberalism and its neoclassical economic muscle – wherein economic growth and population growth provide the backbone that supports the political apparatus, and wherein the superfluity of capitalist growth and its dissemination throughout society combined with technological advancement, reinforces the infatuation we have with the growth economy. The deeply interwoven trajectories of growth economics and the aforementioned political ideologies can be evidenced in the political implications of the Great Depression of the 1930’s; the Oil Crisis of the 1970’s; and the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-09, wherein the lack of economic growth stifled the ability of the economic system to operate effectively, and in doing so undermined both political leadership and legitimacy, and social stability. The problem with such a dynamic and volatile system with respect to the environment is that it is inept at sustained environmental protection – this is because in times of economic downturn financial support for environmental management is often reallocated to other sectors of the economy in order to boost growth – this is precisely what happened in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis Continue reading →

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The Future Feasibility of Maximum Energy Decentralisation

Posted on June 20, 2011 by spacetrout

Decentralisation is the process of dispersing decision-making governance closer to the people. In terms of energy, the concept of decentralisation is of particular significance – particularly with respect to the role it can play in curbing carbon dioxide emissions and ensuring energy security and resilience in the face of natural disasters, terrorist attacks, supply failures, etc. It is widely acknowledged that the decentralisation of energy will assist in reaching the emissions targets that are so pivotal to the attainment of a low-carbon economy. In addition to this, decentralisation provides opportunities to increase energy efficiency so that the large amounts of energy being currently wasted in heat, are retained and utilised for other purposes – currently 65% of energy produced by centralised utilities is lost in heat and transmission. Indeed in mobilising technologies such as cogeneration and trigeneration, this lost energy can be effectively fed back into the system to provide heating/air-conditioning to people who live in close proximity to the energy source, thus maximising efficiency whilst at the same time producing sizeable economic savings.

However whilst acknowledging that the mobilisation of decentralised renewable technologies is a positive way forward, and that the triple dividends – employment growth, lower emissions, and an increase in economic savings – that renewable energy utilities offer are a good thing, there are also some notable issues. Firstly, in a low-carbon economy, where an increase in competition (due to myriad renewable energy utilities coming online to compete with conventional energy sources such as coal) will inevitably result in lower energy prices, what is there to stop wind farms, solar plants and tidal turbines from taking over the landscape? This might seem alarmist and largely irrelevant, but it must be viewed in the context of high competition which usually means low prices, because in a situation wherein energy is cheap, and the guilt associated with using that energy is nil – due to it being derived from renewable sources – what is to stop excess energy use by the consumer and thus, the utilisation of sizable swathes of land that could otherwise be used for the production of some other good being used to over-supply people with energy that they do not actually need. Whilst this is all hypothetical, I still feel it is necessary to explore, particularly in light of recent ‘green-washing’ campaigns, where consumers are deceived into believing a certain product/service is good for the environment, when in fact it is not. Continue reading →

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Cesium: A Brief Exposé

Posted on May 29, 2011 by admin

Discovered by Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchoff in 1860 cesium (Cs) was the first element to be detected spectroscopically. Initially important in its application in the chemical and electrical industries, it later rose to prominence as a high-performance industrial metal (Strod 1957, p. 212) and as a constituent of photoelectric cells. Cs is a soft, silvery-gold alkali metal mined predominately from pollucite ore bodies. It reaches melting point at 28 degrees, making it one of five elemental metals that form a liquid at room temperature. Cs has one stable isotope – Cs-133, amongst 11 radioisotopes of anthropogenic origin, with Cs-134 and Cs-137 being the most hazardous of these, exhibiting half-lives of 2 years and 30 years respectively. Cs is perhaps most well known as a waste material produced by nuclear power plants and as the nuclide radioisotopes that were dispersed into the environment between 1945 and 1980 by nuclear weapons testing (Gal 2007, p. 8 ). Moreover, elevated levels of cesium from the extensive nuclear fallout caused by the melt-down of Chernobyl reactor 4 in 1986 have been detected all over Europe, making it a particularly ubiquitous element on that continent and consequently resulting in prolonged and omnipresent radio-ecological problems Continue reading →

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