NZ Cabinet Ministers Discover Violent Weather Also Has High Price Tag

[hatrack]

Who needs wars when there is the weather to destroy economies.Recent climatic excesses have been a massive burden around the world, taking many lives and costing countries many millions of dollars. And after the South Island snow-storms and this week’s flooding, once again in the central North Island, our economy is certainly going to feel the pinch. No wonder Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Jim Anderton is concerned.

Our reliance on a stable climate for farming and forestry means that climate change poses a greater threat to our economy than in other developed nations. It appears that climate change, and consequential climate instability, has started and will pose huge challenges for New Zealand producers. After the hammering this region took in Cyclone Bola and many lesser but still damaging floodings, we are well aware of the dangers posed by these storms.

Mr Anderton is right to urge every New Zealander to look at what each of us can do to contribute, no matter how insignificant these actions may seem. Climate Change Policy Minister David Parker warned yesterday that the nation had to find ways to protect the agriculture base.

If sea levels continued to rise by 2cm a year, a 1m lift over the next 50 years would be devastating. Initial policy decisions later this year will include a short-term forest policy to try and stop deforestation. In fact, New Zealand’s forests are actually shrinking as land is turned back to more profitable forms of agriculture, such as dairying, in advance of 2008.

EDIT

http://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/article.asp?aid=5604&iid=455&sud=41

[Dead_Parrot]

1. The predictable surprise has been the speed.

NIWA (The Kiwi version of NOAA) had been saying these events would occur, and the recent storms fitted thier models nicely. Except, of course, it wasn't expected to start in earnest for another 10-20 years, which has caught lots of people on the hop. Still, it might give Son-of-Carbon-Tax a boost.

[NNadir]

2. You guys should build more ethanol farms.

I have heard, so as to fully credit it, that the solution to global climate change is ethanol farms, especially if you're expecting big droughts.

:shrug:

Here in the US, they've become a very sexy investment.

[Dead_Parrot]

3. You'll be the first country to produce dehydrated ethanol...

Comes in powder form, just add water and drop in your tank :silly:

New Zealand, being - well, New Zealand - has it's own solution:

Biodiesel is produced from vegetable oil or animal fat and used as a substitute for, or blended with, ordinary diesel. In New Zealand the biggest single source is tallow, an animal fat by-product from the meat processing industry. New Zealand produces enough tallow to meet around 5% of the country’s annual diesel consumption.

http://www.emprove.org.nz/news/newsitem.aspx?s=e&id=173

There is no problem that can't be solved by having more sheep, it seems.

[NNadir]

4. Well, the fact that I personally don't eat sheep (or cows or pigs or dogs)

it does seem to me that this is a good use of tallow, if you must have it.

The biodiesel trips seems to work best with wastes. I don't think it's quite as good with virgin oils, but it's quite good with material that is otherwise waste. I think biodiesel has a lot to recommend it.

I believe that with oil better than $70/barrel, biodiesel is competitive, even with virgin rapeseed. So one doesn't necessarily need sheep for it, but one does need water with which to grow the rapeseed.

I recently referenced a review article from Chemical Reviews here, http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x59526 that gives some idea about what we in the US could do with our yellow grease. Here's an excerpt:

A number of waste triglycerides are available including yellow greases (waste restaurant oil) and trap grease (which is collected at wastewater treatment plants).37 Yellow grease is used in the manufacturing of animal feed and tallow, although concerns about mad cow disease are limiting its usage as an animal feed. Trap grease has a zero or negative feedstock cost but is contaminated with sewage components.37 A recent study of 30 metropolitan areas in the U.S. indicated that the U.S. produces 4.0-6.0 kg/(year-person) of yellow and trap grease, respectively.37 ultiplying this number by the population of the U.S. indicates the potential production of biodiesel of 1.3 billion and 1.9 billion L/year from yellow and trap grease, respectively.33 The U.S. consumed 160 billion L of diesel fuel in 2003 in the transportation sector;9 therefore, biodiesel derived from yellow and trap grease could only supply up to 2% of the annual diesel fuel consumption in the U.S. However, trap grease must be disposed of, and converting it into biodiesel would be an efficient way of using an inexpensive waste material...

...The feedstock costs decrease from canola oil > soy > tallow and lard > yellow grease > trap greases...

I have just text searched the article to see how such a business might apply to large native deposits of sheep, but unfortunately sheep aren't mentioned. But tallow itself seems to be cheaper than rapeseed (canola), and at current prices, at least until demand rises, canola oil is competitive.

[Dead_Parrot]

5. The "waste" aspect is a key one, methinks

If it's possible to turn any "waste" into "something useful" we should be doing it: whether it's corn stalks, tallow , newspaper or used McFat (or, indeed, a used nuclear fuel rod). Sticking it in the ground has got to be A Bad Thing.

The problem arises when we start to deliberately produce such "useful" waste - like hacking down rain forest for easily-processable biomass. Therein lies our doom.

The availability of tallow, FWIW, depends on the nature of the regional exports. NZ tends to export processed/butchered meat rather than live animals, so the "waste" gets left here: This might not apply to TX, or the UK, or anywhere else less than 1,000 miles from the nearest market. I guess NZ is fairly unique in this respect.

We have a plentiful supply of chipped bark for the same reasons.

On a sideline: As a meat-eater, I was occasionally scolded by vegetarians using the "work in a slaughterhouse and see if you can still eat meat" line. As luck would have it, I then spent 6 months at an "Anglo-Beef Processors" slaughterhouse (working with lambs). It's the only job I've had where I felt hungry the the whole time. :evilgrin: Plus, I am now capable of taking a soft, cute, innocent fluffy lamb and turning it into a freezer full of meat, a rug and a novelty ashtray in about a hour. One of life's carnivores, I guess.

A pint or two of biodiesel is a bonus.

[NNadir]

6. Without the biodiesel, working in the slaughterhouse couldn't have been

fun.

It would have been even better if you could have lectured the sheep, before leading them to their deaths, about the vast potential of renewable energy.

[donsu]

7. every day global warming causes more 'newly poor'

nt