Eat A Camel or Kangaroo to Save Planet

Australians first received patriotic pleas to eat kangaroos. Based on a three year study, the next request is more urgent, the wild and proliferating camels are destroying the desert ecosystem. Eat them. It is part of the new age million camel herd control plan urged by the government. To ensure the example starts at the top, civil servants in Canberra are putting a camel on the "barbie" for their annual BBQ. Water, already an issue is a commodity that is being consumed by the animals that are now reaching out of control numbers. Same could be said for humans too - but we already know which will consume which and blame the other in the name of preservation. What a way to get over the hump.

But as they increased in numbers, they also increased greenhouse gasses and helped turn some environments into deserts, destroying plants and animals.

According to the Northern Territory natural resources department, Australia's feral camel population is doubling every nine years.

Says department spokesperson Glenn Edwards: "Because camels are cautious animals and beautifully camouflaged, and because these areas are sparsely settled, most people are simply unaware of the sheer numbers of these introduced pests – or of the extent of the damage they are causing." (Camel Herd Photo: Hans Boessem)

More than a century ago in the name of progress and needing animals better suited to the dry conditions, the great camel pack "horse" arrived for immigrants to make their way to the Australian interior hauling their survival necessities. Transportation methods drastically improved making the camel no longer required. They were set free and Voila!, a veritable camel population explosion ensued. Now, Australians in charge of policy are tying novel culinary methods to change the balance of environmental power and justice.

While Territory Camel sends some meat interstate and overseas, most is eaten in and around Alice Springs.

Camel dishes include a camel, kangaroo and crocodile pizza served at the King's Canyon Resort, and the traditional Middle Eastern "baked camel", in which carp are stuffed into turkeys, which are stuffed into a sheep, which is stuffed into a camel, which is wrapped in banana leaves and baked in coals for two days.

Monir Samad, owner of Afghan Village restaurant in Camberwell, has never eaten camel — watching them being slaughtered outside his house when he was a child was enough to put him off — but said he would certainly serve camel meat in his restaurant if it became readily available.

I am not sure about the image of being replete after eating a marsupial versus consuming filet of camel hump, but it appears to be of no concern to many. On the other hand, eating the animals to control their numbers has been part of the human condition since walking upright. Meat eating is a known accelerant to global warming so there is an "upside" to partaking. These are the latest to be put on the list as causes of methane gas that heat the earth, especially in drought stricken Australia.



One of the great food books that talks about where the food originates to the time it hits the taste buds is from author Michael Pollan. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals puts it all in perspective. Carnivores have ruled the earth for eons, now find out what greens and vegetables have been hiding along with all the processed food available at every price point. Eye opening, but not exactly mouth watering.

Hunger Bows to Financial Crisis Carnivores

It is one of those chicken and egg first type things. Hungry people need money to purchase foods to quiet the pangs of an empty stomach. Stable financial systems are needed to ensure people have a proper diet. One does not exist without the other in an endless feedback loop but the 2008 celebration of World Food Security: The Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy continues apace without a trace of irony.

The disparity between the issues culminates in an annual World Food Day to bring attention to the ongoing horrible lack of food for much of the world. In the wake of economic collapses in all the swanky market indexes, a day of hunger lost its prominence for much of the participants who gave food and money to stop hunger. A terrible irony as money woes and growling guts coincide in twin tragedies enveloping the world that would cheer a trail of bread crumbs right about now. Only 10& of the world's pledges to stop hunger have been fulfilled to the Food and Agriculture organization (FAO) as the year goes into its eleventh month rebounding from the crashing stock markets around the globe. The motto of the FAO is Fiat Panis or Let there be Bread.

"The media have highlighted the financial crisis at the expense of the food crisis," said Jacques Diouf, head of the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome. The World Food Programme's Executive Director Josette Sheeran acknowledged that even citizens of wealthy countries had been affected by high food prices and the financial crisis.

"But for those who live on less than a dollar a day, it's a matter of life and death," Sheeran said.

Proponents of more urgent measures questioned why the world's richest nations could not show the same urgency to save people from starvation as they did when rushing to rescue banks.

The sadder part is pockets of the world are being hit harder than reeling developed nations. Even inside first world countries there are pockets of heartbreak and a ravaged middle class that are showing up at the local food banks grateful for any assistance. The strongest nation on earth cannot properly feed all of its people even though there is an export market for American foodstuffs. America will cough up 5.5 billion in contributions. Juxtapose that against a defense spend of $10 billion a month just in Iraq. Pope Benedict pulled no punches about Sin when he pointed out the amount of money going to military efforts, horrendous corruption schemes leaving a declining amount to feed the world's citizens.

"The means and resources that the world has today are able to provide enough food to satisfy the growing needs of everybody," Benedict told the Rome-based agency.

Benedict blamed food shortages on "feverish speculation" that drives up prices, along with "corruption in public life or growing investments in weapons and sophisticated military technologies to the detriment of people's primary needs."

Mix in natural devastation from climate conditions like flooding or drought and the crisis gives acid reflux to the world.


Raj Patel brings an experts critical eye to the food imbalance that siezes on the twin polar conditions involving food, too much for some - too little for others as food undergoes profound changes to make it more of a business commodity. Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System takes the reader on a hunger tour via the thoroughly inedible written word.

England Claims Giving Birth to Champagne

England & France have needed European marriage counseling since the Dark Ages. France famously touts its epicurean delights while thumbing their noses at the oxymoron of an Escoffier English chef. Bangers and mash or fish and chips versus haute cuisine croissants and flambéed Crêpes Suzette. The crux of the latest battle du jour is the birthplace of sparkling wine, champagne. Dom Pèrignon is effervescing in friarly indignation in his grave right now after being asked to come up with a way to make the wine bottles stop exploding in the abbey wine 'cellar'.

Champagne merits special stemware for events that warrant hors d'oeuvres as it is a regal drink of bubbly celebration or splashing the side of a newly launched cruiseliner. France has whole regions of the countryside named Champagne from the medieval period or large swaths of land dedicated to maintaining its pure-blood/wine grape lineage. The most famous names of Champagne began in the 18th century, Taittinger (1734), Moët et Chandon (1743) and Vueve Clicquot (1772). Out of a late summer rain cloud comes this cider-making English bloke from Somerset with a differing provenance of a 1632 Royal Society wine enthusiast who preceded Dom whose cuvée pedigree lasts. En garde.

Mr Crowden, from Chard in Somerset, researched Merret for his book on the history of cider called Ciderland.

He believes that the popularity of sparkling wines began when British cider-makers added sugar to acidic French white wine and then learnt how to control the resulting secondary fermentation. The sugar caused secondary fermentation in the bottle, which created sparkling wines.

Merrett also invented the thick green bottle strong enough to contain the pressure of secondary fermentation. French wine-makers had been plagued by the problem of unintended fermentation, which could cause whole cellars of their fragile bottles to explode. By learning to control it they were able to create sparkling wine by design rather than accident.

Heavens to murgatroy and exploding bottles and French minds everywhere. The plot thickens because the premise is based on a book release occurring with the week along with a presentation to today's English Royal Society citing the glass to contain the rowdy bubbly was also Merret's invention. This peer review could turn itself into another over the channel blood feud between the Saxons and the Normans. The French do not have a sense of humour about champagne - at all. There are laws and no, I am not kidding.

In 1941, the Comite Interprofessional du Vin de Champagne (CIVC) was founded to protect the champagne market. Yep, right in the middle of WWII, champagne interests superseded Panzer divisions breaking into the country. In 1891, the Treaty of Madrid, made it clear that only sparkling wine produced in certain areas meeting specific standards could use the name champagne. World War I participants affirmed that ruling in the Treaty of Versailles. these words were legend in France and not usable elsewhere: méthode champenoise or champagne method. That's why this new theory is going to come under a cultural assault or a walk of roses from vintners and other interested parties the world over. Switzerland had a town named Champagne and they agreed to lose the name in 2004. I'd say get your popcorn, but that is so plebian to wash down with champagne from Champagne.

The new enfant terrible of champagne books, Ciderland is from the Somerset chap, James Crowden. For those seeking a tour de fource in the sparkling beverage's royal lineage need look no further than the well researched 4000 Champagnes from neutral Swedish expert author , Richard Juhlin.

Enjoy your French bubbly, oui?

Hurricane Havoc Continues as Hanna & Ike Move In

(AP Photo Mississippi during Gustav)

Fay flooded Florida after making landfall four different times, each visit filled with water wrung out of the the sky as if it were a sopping dish cloth. It was enough that Fay as a Category 1 hurricane made people move with a bit more alacrity to protect life, limbs and property when Gustav roared into the Gulf after wreaking havoc throughout the Caribbean. Over 600,000 people are in need of help with just over 200,000 still trapped by floodwaters in Haiti.

Haiti and Cuba took a lashing and up came Gustav, devastating Haiti in ways most cannot appreciate. The poorest nation in the western hemisphere has no trees to stop the erosion of hillsides as mud tumbled onto the meager amount of arable land burying their food supply. The people of Haiti are slowly starving to death while water borne diseases could reach epidemic levels. Bodies are floating Katrina style in the rivers created from the floods. The Red Cross & Red Crescent are moving in with some supplies but it is nowhere near enough for the amount of people in need. It is heartbreaking as even children are going days without food or fresh water, especially as the floods remain and Ike could cause more catastrophic damage to the flooded port city of Gonaives. (AP Photo above, American Red Cross just below)

"I am worried because the soil is completely impregnated with water and there is no way for the rivers to take more water," said Max Cocsi, who directs Belgium's mission in Haiti of Doctors Without Borders. "We don't need a hurricane -- a storm would be enough."

Cocsi, who arrived in Gonaives on Thursday, told The Associated Press that no one knows how many have been killed. The focus now is on reaching the living, not recovering bodies.

Late Thursday, a few blocks from where U.N. peacekeeping troops stopped to dish out cooked rice from their own food supplies to a small crowd of hungry orphans, a woman's corpse in a floral dress was floating in a submerged intersection.

Hanna is going to blow into South Carolina and leisurely make her way up the eastern seaboard sprinkling buckets of rain over the weekend. Hanna is being taken a little more innocuously, much like rainmaker Fay that tied Florida in flood insurance knots. Maryland upgraded from a Storm Watch to a Tropical Storm Warning with expectations of beach erosion and flash flooding along Chesapeake Bay.

In Charleston, Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. said there was no reason to flee, but urged residents to stay inside when Hanna blows through with wind gusts that could reach 65 mph.

"Stay home, protect yourself, look out for your neighbors and we will get through this just fine," he said.

Several counties in both North and South Carolina opened shelters, and hotels further inland offered discounts to those fleeing Hanna's path. But on the thin barrier islands that make up North Carolina's Outer Banks,
vacation home owner Joe DiStefano checked out the forecast early Friday and said Hanna appears to be moving too quickly to cause much damage.

Ike blew up to a category 4 monster then shrunk to a major category 3 hurricane with winds sustained at 125 mph as it chases Hanna across the ocean seas. Ike looks like it won't mess with an already drenched and miserable Haiti, but just drying out Florida residents will be a bit more uneasy. Ike means no respite for the hurricane weary over the next week.




Chris Mooney gives insight into the links between global warming and the scope and scale of storms in Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics and the Battle Over Global Warming. This book is a bargain at Amazon in hardback chock full of storm research and

Gustav Deluges Caribbean, Oil Market Next?

Haiti, already suffering the tortures of the damned, watched precious crops go under the stalled onslaught of water from Hurricane Gustav. A trash filled Port-au-Prince and other populated areas are starting to see floods and no emergency assistance in sight. During the deluge, outbreaks of food price protests are still rocking the capital - literally! The Haitian people are throwing rocks in Les Cayes wearing plastic bags as raincoats. Havana, Cuba is watching it streets and beaches become at one with the water as rainfall will be somewhere between 6 to 12 inches just two weeks after Fay. The Dominican Republic sees mudslides turning tragic with a mounting death toll.

Gustav was moving slowly, an ominous development for Haiti where hillsides have been stripped of trees and heavy rains frequently cause disastrous mudslides, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

At least two people were killed on Tuesday in a mudslide in Haiti.
In the neighboring Dominican Republic, eight people -- seven from the same family -- were buried under mud when a hillside collapsed just north of Santo Domingo.

Havana, Cuba 26 August, 2008 (Photos Reuters)

Gustav was rated a tropical storm, but could return to Hurricane status at any time once out over the warm waters of the Gulf Of Mexico. Jamaica issued tropical storm warnings along with all of the Cayman Islands. Haitians are being told to prepare evacuate. Floridians are not taking anything for granted anymore when former hurricane, Tropical Storm Fay made a record breaking 4 landfalls just sitting there dispensing rain and misery on each visit. Eastern Cubans are being warned that Gustav is packing a more powerful punch than Fay.

There's nothing but cash induced adrenalin in the hearts of oil speculators as the price of oil wobbles with the Gulf filled with oil rigs and the potential for disaster to oil supplies making the prices jump like a wet cat.

Concerns that Hurricane Gustav would strike installations in the Gulf of Mexico in coming days sent energy prices higher. Crude futures climbed $1.16 to $116.27.

Gustav is "still a long way from oil and gas infrastructure, but gas traders will be keenly focused on direction/magnitude of this summer's first storm to potentially impact energy markets," securities firm Tudor Pickering Holt & Co. told its clients Tuesday morning.

All around the Gulf coast people are eying reports with trepidation as Gustav is expected to regain Hurricane strength. The map lines represent Gustav's possibilities with Florida heaving up prayers of relief.

It is already a deadly and active hurricane season as we come up on the anniversary of America's most devastating hurricane to human and national reputation alike, Katrina, on 29 August. New Orleans sits well within the possibilities as Gustav slowly moves back out to sea where refueling could supersize the storm into a monster hurricane.

Stockholm Hosts World's Biggest Water Fight

It's another conference about water, mainly everybody's waste water. Much of the world's population, 2.5 billion people go to the bathroom leaving behind much of the water unfit for human use because a toilet does not exist. An epidemic of over 1.4 million kids die all over the world from diseases directly associated with the lack of clean water, year in and year out. Everybody needs to get a little pissed. With over 2500 water experts from 170 organizations debating and discussing the issues of fresh water, sanitation and hygiene in Stockholm, its bound to get a bit tense over a lack of urgency on issues related to water. That is happening at the World Water Week again in Stockholm this year at the annual conference. Most of the globe's population remains oblivious that conservation is about to take over all our lives as water resources dwindle and issues about who controls it makes the world military powers have itchy trigger fingers.

"We've had a luxurious lifestyle during the last 25 years, not caring at all about the environment. It's necessary to change the way people consume, buy, eat," said British professor John Anthony Allan, winner of the 2008 Stockholm Water Prize.

Almost half of the world's population lacks proper toilet facilities, a situation that can have dire consequences on public health and which poses a challenge to resolve since water is becoming an increasingly
scarce resource.

"Sanitation is one of the biggest scandals of all times. It's something that we have to put on our radar screen," insisted Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, who heads up the UN Secretary General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation. (Photo Prince Willem-Aexander)

Biofuel discussions are causing mental meltdowns as many scientists urge people to eat less red meat. Even in the US, vegans versus vegetarians versus carnivores is no joke as animal waste is causing massive food recalls from outbreaks of E coli and other waterborne diseases. Royals are piping up all over the world on food and water issues. Organic farmer, Bonny Prince Charles himself went nuts over genetically modified foods, calling them an environmental disaster and an experiment gone seriously wrong was roundly criticized for his remarks.

The conference will also look at the problem of increasing water stress throughout the world in the wake of global warming, with climate scientists estimating 1.8 billion people will be living in regions with absolute water scarcity by the year 2025. High on the agenda will be the effect human beings are having on the world's climate.

"We have to understand that what we eat and the products we buy have an immediate implication for the availability of the world's water resources," Blenckner said.

Plus this:

A British professor, John Anthony Allan, said the effect of the growing use of biofuels "is too frightening to even begin to realize."

Allan, 71, of King's College, London, was awarded the 2008 water prize for his concept of "virtual water," which measures amounts of
water used in the production of food and industrial products.

He also urged people to cut down on meat consumption, saying it was "bad for the environment."

"Nonvegetarians consume five cubic meters" or 176 cubic feet, "of water per day; your bath is a tiny puddle compared to that. It is the water for food that is the big problem," Allan said. "Be rational and eat less meat."

UNICEF declared 2008 the International Year of Sanitization. In western nations with sewage infrastructure in place, the unpleasantness of being human and the disposal is taken for granted on a large scale. Almost 40% of the world's population does not have the same luxury, leading to shortened life spans and a drain on everyone's resources for aid and large migrations of people fleeing war torn areas as fights over perishing fresh water continue in earnest. Nobody is shying away from the tough stuff at the conference either. India, China and Vietnam regularly use waste water in their agricultural practices. Just don't expect something so important and basic to get carried on the US evening news.

The meeting, which opens Monday and is entitled "Progress and Prospects on Water: For a Clean and Healthy World," will focus in particular on the dangers that the lack of adequate toilets and hygiene facilities presents to 2.6 billion people.

"It's not very popular to talk about toilets and excrement and where to go when you are menstruating. This is something that makes people feel uncomfortable," Stephanie Blenckner, spokeswoman for the Stockholm International Water Institute that is organising the event, told AFP.

Last year's post: World Water Week in Sweden Affects Us All. This year's annual water fest ends 23 August, 2008. Mark your calendar's Global Handwashing Day is 15 October, 2008 for the entire world. Everyone must have clean water to wash their hands.

Overweight Zimbabwe Dollars Sheds 10 Zeros

Inflation running at 15,000,000 percent has Zimbabwe in a vice grip, sparking international pleas for revaluation of the currency. A billion Zimbabwe dollars does not put a loaf of bread on the table. Just over a quarter of a billion Zimbabwe dollars does buy a can of baked beans. Food on the shelves in Harare is subject to price increases several times in the same day. Carrying money in Zimbabwe is burdensome because the weight to carry that many bills render wallets and small pocketbooks obsolete. One needs wheelbarrows and a great back. There is speculation that the current ongoing economic crisis could put the president of Zimbabwe, the dastardly Robert Mugabe, in further dire political straits so soon after his sham June presidential election.

Harare is fast becoming a city of unemployed, impoverished zillionaires - struggling to spend thick wads of banknotes in empty supermarkets before the cash becomes worthless, and increasingly dependent on funds sent home by the millions of Zimbabweans who have already fled abroad.

In the subdued, seemingly half-empty capital, people wait in long queues outside banks to withdraw a maximum of a 100bn dollars a day.

In bars, the price of beer goes up between rounds.

Many people are reduced to eating one meal a day.

Beyond the inflation, the decrease in farming and one of the highest illiteracy rates in Africa are frog marching Zimbabwe to failed state status. Once, Zimbabwe was to be on the golden path of joining first world development by being prepared to meet their governing challenges. Kind of odd that the current crisis springs from the place that gave the world scouting. Once upon a time, in real life Zimbabwe also had 50 pound notes. One zero involved. Today's action was to make the equivalent of 10 billion Zimbabwe dollars the province of one. They are also bringing back coins which were stricken from the official money register almost twenty years ago. Jingling change is now real money again.

Gono said the new money would be launched with 500-dollar bills. He also said he was reintroducing coins, which have been obsolete for years, and told people to dig out their old ones.

That could be a boon for Fungai Matambo, a 33-year-old vendor of airtime for cell phones who said she has kept a large milk pail full of old coins.

"I'm very happy now," she laughed. "In the old terms, I'm a multi-trillionaire!"
But, she noted, there was little to buy in the shops.

Zimbabwe's armed forces are paid with the inflated dollars and troop anger is on the rise. The situation is fraught with enough tension that South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki, flew in to continue his Mugabe protection efforts. Mugabe in a nationally televised address threatens to take an ominous emergency posture as profligate businesses take advantage to squeeze as much profit as possible out of the nation's misfortune. The almost eighty year old Mugabe's ruthlessness against political opponents is legendary.


When A Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa is the real life story told by a child of Zimbabwe that experienced the fall of Rhodesia at Mugabe's hands. Peter Godwin finds out about his Polish Jewish ancestry upending all thoughts he had about his identity.

Future Asparagus Garden on Lopsided Mars?

After a one way ride jetting one hundred seventy million miles, the very expensive pre-garden tester, the Phoenix Lander, scooped up a few tablespoons of frozen earth on Mars, nuked it in TEGA ovens and behold, water sublimation. A few more tests made scientists and researchers reach for their almanacs and see possibilities of virgin Martian soil supporting skinny asparagus stalks, turnips and snapping green beans. There is salt, alkaline on Mars just like the stuff out behind the house. Chemically necessary nutrients and mineral traces are in the soil resembling the dirt found in the Antarctic region. Exorbitant food prices on Earth these days make planting opportunities a futuristic dream state desired now. Martian asparagus can you imagine the sticker in the market? (AP Photo/NASA/JPL/CalTECH/University of Arizona)

The project's lead chemist, Samuel Kounaves, from the University of Arizona says he is flabbergasted by what has come back.

"We basically have found what appears to be the requirements, the nutrients to support life, whether past present or future," he said.

"The sort of soil you have there is the type of soil you'd probably have in your backyard, you know, alkaline.

"You might be able to grow asparagus in it really well - strawberries probably not really well."

The quest continues to find carbon to make it really in the HZ or Habitable Zone. For this solar system, Mars orbits just outside it by about a half of an AU or astronomical unit. Finding elements of planetary habitability spurs more missions to explore Mars in a multitude of international projects. The Mars Science Laboratory is the granddaughter/son of the rovers with more agility. Russia and China have a joint mission with a return with soil and rocks component in Phobos-Grunt from the Martian moon. in 2013, the European Space Agency will launch sophisticated ExoMars rovers of their own with a bigger drill. With each find of all of the equipment and technology launched to Mars, the space race heats up to get to Mars and stake claims. Interesting Martian land rush for a planet that has taken some megaton blows, has radiation because of a thin atmosphere and needs to drill down to get to the buried treasures that may contain microbes or other life.

Mars suffered a direct T-bone impact of a rock or asteroid the size of the phenomenon formerly known as planet Pluto colliding with Mars at about 21,000 mph. It left Mars lopsided and flat near its north polar region with a scar crater or flat plain of 5300 by 6600 miles or half of Africa if it happened on Earth. Further south, Mars' topography is full of canyons, dead volcanoes and valleys. 365 million years ago when earth had its own cataclysmic event, dinosaurs and the prevailing ecosystems died. Both events happened eons ago near the same time with Mars taking the bigger hit.

Writing in the journal Nature, three groups of scientists describe how four billion years ago, soon after the formation of the solar system, an asteroid between a half and two thirds the size of the moon struck the planet at an angle of 30 to 60 degrees.

The impact unleashed an explosion equivalent to 100bn gigatonnes of TNT and created a scar 10,600km long and 8,500km across, the largest impact crater known anywhere in the solar system. The crater, a giant basin that covers 42% of the planet's surface, is roughly the size of Europe, Asia and Australia combined.

Everyday Mars becomes more interesting. In the last week we have learned of water, that the soil can sustain a hearty green veggie garden, peaks and valleys on one side with flat plains the result of an asteroid face plant at the same time as Earth.



No doubt, there is an anticipatory scientific community of thousands that would do anything to catch the first manned one way rocket to explore Mars. Scientist, William K. Hartmann puts it in perspective in his book, A Traveler's Guide To Mars.