Australia – Leading demographer plays down population growth concerns

Author: JOSEPH SAPIENZA A LEADING demographer has rubbished claims Australia's population growth over the next 40 years will have a significant impact on its environment and living standards. According to a demographic report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australia's population is growing at twice the rate of the rest of the world, after crashing through 22 million late last year. The report shows the population grew at 2.1 per cent in the year to the end of September, outstripping the Philippines, Malaysia, India, Indonesia and Vietnam. The world population grew 1.1 per cent in the same period. Western Australia recorded growth of 2.9 per cent. The population also increased in NSW (1.7 per cent), Queensland (2.7 per cent), the Northern Territory at 2.3 per cent and Victoria at 2.2 per cent. WA's population is expected to reach 3.5 million by 2050 while Australia is forecast to reach 35 million over the same...
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Look at the big picture

Author: HELENA BOGLE Via: http://www.farmonline.com.au HYDEN farmer Kent Mouritz said the biggest issues which struck farmers last year were the low grain prices, high input costs and low yields. Mr Mouritz spoke at the recent crisis meeting held in Kulin. "We can't handle all three at once, which was proved last year," Mr Mouritz said. "To get out of the crisis, it has to rain, the input costs have to come down and we need an average grain price." Mr Mouritz spent $450,000 on fertiliser and chemicals for his 5000 hectare program last year, which was 40 per cent more than usual. "It was a very poor start to the season and very staggered - there was no real weed germination due to no reasonable rain event," he said. "The staggered germination of ryegrass, radish and barley grass made it harder to kill the weeds; therefore we had to spend more money on chemicals. "The crop only...
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Warmest since records began: 2009

Author: MATT CAWOOD Via: Farm Weekly - online NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) has placed 2009 as the warmest year in the Southern Hemisphere since records began 130 years ago, and the past decade as the warmest globally. Globally, 2009 tied with 1998, 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2007 as the second warmest year on record after 2005, according to the GISS analysis of planetary temperatures. The decade from January 2000 to December 2009 was clearly the warmest since modern instrumentation was introduced in 1880. "There's substantial year-to-year variability of global temperature caused by the tropical El Nino-La Nina cycle", said GISS director James Hansen. "But when we average temperature over five or ten years to minimize that variability, we find that global warming is continuing unabated." Over the past three decades, according to the GISS analysis, the global average temperature has increased 0.2 degrees Celsius a decade. The Australian Bureau of Meterology (BoM) is waiting on the results of a similar analysis by the UK Met...
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Peak phosphorous: mankind’s latest threat

Author: MATT CAWOOD Source: http://fw.farmonline.com.au SOME believe that dwindling supplies of potable water is humanity's great resource challenge; others think it is the imminent prospect of "peak oil". But an equally important milestone in modern history will be an inevitable tightening of global supplies of phosphorus. Phosphorus has underpinned the leaps made in agricultural productivity since World War II, and the world's economies and population levels have become dependent on a continous supply of the element. Unlike nitrogen, which can by synthesised from the air, or the use of renewable energy to substitute for fossil fuels, there is no substitute for phosphorus. All the world's phosphate fertilisers come from mined phosphate rock, making it a finite resource. Various analyses suggest "peak phosphorus" - the point at which supply falls behind demand - will occur around 2040, with all currently known reserves potentially exhausted within 50 to 100 years. However, University of Technology Sydney researchers Dana Cordell and Stuart White warn that for most countries, a phosphorus squeeze...
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Live export demand defies rising prices – Australia

Author: TRAVIS KING DESPITE the sharp rise in sheep export prices over the past eight months, demand for Australian sheep in the Middle East is holding strong. And this demand is not expected to drop off according to Livecorp livestock services manager Peter Dundon. Mr Dundon, who is based in Bahrain, said if Australian producers were debating whether they should be sticking with sheep or not, he would strongly suggest they do. "While there is some resistance to the higher prices, importers are still keen to source Australian sheep simply because of the food security issue," Mr Dundon said. "While the fact that there are higher prices has seen some importers look to northern Africa to source sheep, no one can guarantee supply like Australia can. "Bahrain demands 2500 sheep per day and Australia supplies 95 per cent of that market. "If the trade to Bahrain stopped tomorrow, a whole lot of people would not have access to fresh meat. "Somalia is probably our biggest competitor and are...
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