pmccarthy Posted February 8, 2019 Share Posted February 8, 2019 The original Rio Tinto mine in Spain destroyed the forests for tens of miles all around, back in the 17th Century. Then the king of Spain decreed that no one could chop down a tree and they replanted. Trees all grew back big and strong, a beautiful forest. The a socialist government came to power, the king was overthrown, and the peasants destroyed the forest again in just a few years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yenn Posted February 9, 2019 Share Posted February 9, 2019 Someone is chopping down pine trees as fast as they can go. I see dozens of triple trailers of logs going into Gladstone port, every day. Not sure where they are coming from but the tonnage is multi thousands. Funny thing we can see this all over the place and on an interstate trip lasy year i noticed the trucks going both North and South, in Vjc, I think it was. they are even doing the same in New Zealand. Probably something to do with hancocks in Qld. they have a 99 year lease of what used to be Qld Forestry Service. Supposedly they will plant replacements in the felled areas, but i doubt they will be any more ecologicly responsible than the miners who are not making good the mes of open cut mining. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kgwilson Posted February 9, 2019 Share Posted February 9, 2019 The timber industry from planted Radiata Pine is huge in NZ. It started during the depression in the 1930s as a way to employ people planting trees. 30-40 years later and they were ready for harvest.This has continued ever since. A lot used to be exported as logs to Japan. Logs & Chips are still exported. Good straight ones now go into house framing timber. A lot is exported to Australia and most is treated to be borer & termite resistant. Ply is also made from it. The lesser quality is chipped and made into MDF & chipboard. My brother used to be Chief Engineer at Golden Edge, a huge MDF plant near Nelson at the top of the South Island. It is a fascinating process & MDF is a great product for all sorts of things. When areas are harvested they are replanted within a year & the cycle continues. There was a news article recently in NZ that they were struggling to find people to plant trees as the reckoned $400.00 a day wasn't enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
facthunter Posted February 9, 2019 Share Posted February 9, 2019 Because it's all been sprayed with 1080 and IT kills everything. Good money's not much help if you end up with cancer a few years later. You get plenty of soil erosion too. Radiata pine rots and is not good in the open unless it's treated with Copper , Chrome and arsenic. compounds. and you aren't even supposed to come in contact with it afterwards ..Nev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacesailor Posted February 9, 2019 Share Posted February 9, 2019 NZ used to have prisoners planting the tree's. One metre apart, & if out of spec, "kick them over then replant to specification. spacesailor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willedoo Posted February 9, 2019 Share Posted February 9, 2019 Because it's all been sprayed with 1080 and IT kills everything. Good money's not much help if you end up with cancer a few years later. You get plenty of soil erosion too. Radiata pine rots and is not good in the open unless it's treated with Copper , Chrome and arsenic. compounds. and you aren't even supposed to come in contact with it afterwards ..Nev Nev, wouldn't the tree planting workers be warned against picking up or touching 1080 baits? I've never heard of it being sprayed; I doubt it would be effective as it breaks down in the soil into non toxic compounds. Is it possible you're confusing 1080 poison with one of the herbicides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacesailor Posted February 9, 2019 Share Posted February 9, 2019 They dropped LOTS of 1080 through-out the Forrest area to stop rodents eating the young plants, and for anything that moves, even had it dropped in our back garden, Which adjoined National Park, & over the road were there was not a single tree, Forestry land, denuded and not replanted. When I lived in KiwiLand. spacesailor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Litespeed Posted February 9, 2019 Share Posted February 9, 2019 I find it very hard to believe they can't get tree planting done for $400 a day assuming its a wage and not expecting inhuman work rate and unreasonable hours. Sounds more like a excuse the employers use hear in Australia to import labour on the cheap. I would happily go to Nz to plant trees for that rate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kgwilson Posted February 9, 2019 Share Posted February 9, 2019 Apparently the rate is based on the number of trees you plant, something like 1 a minute. Years ago I saw blokes planting pine trees & they had a back pack full of seedlings & a narrow spade. They made a cut in the ground with the spade, put a seedling in it, closed the cut with their boot & moved a couple of metres & did the same thing again. It took about 20-30 seconds each time. Not a lot of skill involved. They are seedlings about a foot high. See $400 a day to plant trees but no-one wants the job As for 1080 there is a lot of controversy over that in NZ. It is mainly used to control possums imported to NZ from Australia in the 1800s for the fur trade. Unfortunately they found the lush bush to their liking and when the fur trade disappeared the population exploded. Possum fur is really soft and amazingly insulating. The current population is around 80 million. It is a national sport to try to run them over when they cross the road at night. In the last 150 years they have evolved much bigger than their Australian ancestors. 1080 is only dropped in pellet form & there is sometimes collateral damage when it is eaten by domestic animals. Overall though it has had a beneficial effect with denuded native forest returning to good growth & returning bird life. NZ possums have a particular liking for birds eggs & the rarer the species the better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
facthunter Posted February 9, 2019 Share Posted February 9, 2019 1080 ends up in the carnivore food chain and wipes out eagles etc. Residual herbicides are used too to stop weeds. that compete. Glyphosate is supposed to be neutralized easily too according to the makers Monsanto but that is being questioned. and there are associated cancer risks coming to light. Bayer bought into it recently and it's been associated with bee population decline, and banned in some countries. Nev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willedoo Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 1080 ends up in the carnivore food chain and wipes out eagles etc. Residual herbicides are used too to stop weeds. that compete. Glyphosate is supposed to be neutralized easily too according to the makers Monsanto but that is being questioned. and there are associated cancer risks coming to light. Bayer bought into it recently and it's been associated with bee population decline, and banned in some countries. Nev Nev, I'm familiar with 1080; they bait for wild dogs regularly in my district, but use physically installed bait stations and not aerial dropping. I was just a bit confused when you said they sprayed it. Just a figure of speech, I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
facthunter Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 You're right. I meant dropped. It's usually pellets. dropped from the air in inaccessible country It has a bad name with Wedgetail Eagle decline. and domestic pets eating the dead birds etc I doubt any of these poisons just dissipate and get neutralized in the soil. Insecticides are some of the worst things for the environment, and for you to be in contact with. and it ALL ends up somewhere. Nev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yenn Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 What is a Wedgetail Eagle. Now I think about it I havn't seen one for months and they used to be regular visitors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Koreelah Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 A good news story from WA: The farm shed invention that could power this whole town with clean energy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
facthunter Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 Making charcoal from wood waste for inclusion in soil might also be encouraged. Our topsoil has little of it and it's extremely beneficial to soil productivity. Not burning stubble is a start for retention of biomass which is different from charcoal. Topsoil and water are two things we need to treasure here. Stop building houses on the BEST arable land. It's stupid. Nev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yenn Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 We need to think about the future in everything we do. If we start using biomass to produce a lot of power we will be moving it from where it is produced to near some town. We don't got something for nothing and to get biomass we have to grow it. Growing plants takes nutrients, which come from the soil usually, or in the case of modern agriculture they come out of a bag. When the total of growth is removed from the growth area it results in a decrease of the soils ability to support growth. In China they use the nightsoil to grow crops. we can't do that here due to health regulations. When I was a kid I used to go with the truck driver to a sewerage teatment plant near London to get a load of sewage sludge, which was then put on the ground to grow vegies for the Covent Garden market. We are a terribly wasteful society, just recently I was shocked to see on TV that all the fish killed in Menindee, where the water quality was toxic, were sent to landfill. They should have been used as fertiliser. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coljones Posted February 12, 2019 Share Posted February 12, 2019 well o k just goes to show there is two sides to every story sorry neil Chinese recycling companies looking for a government handout, I would imagine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coljones Posted February 12, 2019 Share Posted February 12, 2019 WHO is this "everyone" person. Seems to be quoted often but none find him/her. It's like Nobody's perfect but he's on this site. and available... so ask him."Silent majority" don't make any noise about anything. Squeaky wheels get oil. The left wing has equal influence on an aeroplane in flight.. Solar Panels aren't a silly con. THAT'S what they are made of (one of the most common substances in the earth's crust Neil is fighting a losing battle with this topic. Even the Business Council of Australia want stuff he hates. Wind farms make you sick, endanger the spiflicated warbler and cause climate change, ( if they are turned up too far), and they blow powerlines over in SA. THOSE winds were not a natural climate event. They didn't happen before windfarms .. 2+2 make er something or other. Anyhow it's obvious the two are connected. It just doesn't add up if you can't see that. Blind Freddy CAN see it. It's as plain as the nose on your face Coal is the answer to poverty in the developing world but will make a few millionaires a lot richer as well, (especially the generous ones who kick in for the Party) if we don't let the POOR to get solar first. ALL the talk about pollution is made up by greenies who have a vested interest in having trees to hug.THEY want Timber mills to close down, before all the forests are used up. What a waste.!. Another thing.... Queensland has a great future as the landfill capital of the world. All the big coal mine holes are potential GOLD mines really, Like they will make GOLD (money) get it? if you have eyes to see.. We need as many big holes as possible for the future disposal of the stuff from Bunnings, plus, 3 year old cars, birthday presents for last year. PLASTIC..bags. Hospital waste. etc. You don't want it down the end of your street, do you? (By the way the last question is NOT in the exam . It is too contentious and divisive, I am advised. Nev Fly over Singleton - very big holes there which would make landfill sites. I doubt that the NSW (or even Cth.) has binding laws, licences or agreements in place to force mining companies to remediate. Much easier to flog the company off to the Cayman islands and walk away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 The idea that action to save the planet is URGENT is new and not accepted much. Not like an invasion of aliens would be accepted. But I have to admit that there are limits to what I'd be prepared to do, and I really believe that urgent stuff is needed. Most don't. Take using human waste for fertilizer.. yes I would accept this but only if it were done in conjunction with population controls and similar stuff. ( human poo is ok for cooked food but not for salads, where tapeworm eggs survive most sewage treatment works). We are one of the few countries where it is safe to eat lettuce for example. I really like living here but it's not sustainable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
octave Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 The idea that action to save the planet is URGENT is new and not accepted much. Not like an invasion of aliens would be accepted.But I have to admit that there are limits to what I'd be prepared to do, and I really believe that urgent stuff is needed. Most don't. Take using human waste for fertilizer.. yes I would accept this but only if it were done in conjunction with population controls and similar stuff. ( human poo is ok for cooked food but not for salads, where tapeworm eggs survive most sewage treatment works). We are one of the few countries where it is safe to eat lettuce for example. I really like living here but it's not sustainable. Bricks Made From Human Waste Could Be The Future of The Construction Industry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty_d Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 Bricks Made From Human Waste Could Be The Future of The Construction Industry[/url] Sh!t a brick!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmccarthy Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 Holy crap! You could build churches out of that stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacesailor Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 How many of us city folk throw our grass cuttings in the bin, & NOT compost it. Start now, Make or buy a compost bin !, Have you got a WORM farm, off to Bunnings with you, get your own backyard in order. Well it's a start in the right direction. PUT in your Rain water catchment system. stop the rivers flooding, & rain water your garden. PS buy second hand solar panels & cut some $ off that power bill spacesailor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty_d Posted February 18, 2019 Share Posted February 18, 2019 Bricks Made From Human Waste Could Be The Future of The Construction Industry[/url] Actually, with sufficient fibre in the diet and some genetic engineering to turn what was circular into a square, people could produce not only the ingredient but the finished product... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomadpete Posted February 18, 2019 Share Posted February 18, 2019 Shitting bricks! I'd rather just pay extra tax for someone else to do it..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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