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Some Thoughts on Emissions Trading Schemes

Kate of Hills and Plains Seedsavers recently made a post on this, and asked what I thought.

I must admit, I’m a little bit cautious and sceptical on these kinds of things. Last year Europe launched it’s emission trading scheme, and it was little more than a circus. Local governments were allowed to issue as many credits as they wanted, flooding the trading scheme, and all that happened was the politicians threw up their arms and promised it wouldn’t happen again. Yeah, right!

We’ve all just seen the big push into unsustainable biofuels take off all over the world. In Europe at least this is in part intended to let the auto manufacturers off the hook by reducing the fossil fuel portion of their CO2 emissions. Since biofuels generate more greenhouse gases than they save, this too is hardly credible.

There has been a lot of discussion here if airlines would have to participate in the trading scheme, and after a lot of public pressure it seems they will. Still to be determined is will it cover travel outside of Europe or foreign airlines, and will they be allowed ‘extra credits’ in order to accomodate their huge growth in recent years and foreign competition. It hardly seems like there will be any serious progress made here either.

I was reading through the 89 page Australian scheme discussion paper Kate linked to, and on page 35 I came across the following:

EU: Australia should explore the possibility of trading with the EU ETS. EU views on excluding forestry and agriculture from ETS may be a problem in the early stages especially given the potential arrangements with Australia’s regional neighbours.

The EU intends to exclude agriculture from it’s emissions trading scheme?! I don’t have enough information on how serious it would be to exclude forestry, but I almost don’t think a trading scheme would be worthwhile if it excluded agriculture. Agriculture is one of the largest, if not the single largest source of greenhouse gases in all of Europe!

Politically speaking, agriculture in Europe is like a rock. It’s immune to public and international pressure, makes most of it’s own decisions in secret, and if it intends to exclude itself from the ETS, it will get it’s way in the end. All the kings horses and all the kings men won’t change this reality.

In the US presidential campaign, all of the serious contenders have stated they will support an emissions trading scheme with the intention of reducing greenhouse gases to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. This seems pretty clear, but by 2050 several presidential administrations will have come and gone. If all the cuts in greenhouse gases are scheduled to be made in 2049, this won’t be very credible or helpful to the environment now! The proof will be in the implementation.

I think in general most nations of the world realize it’s a political reality that they have to participate in an ETS, and Australia is no exception. This 89 page discussion paper that’s been issued is full of potential loopholes, and in the end the effectiveness of any ETS will be in the fine print, and which industries obtain a full or partial exemption. I really have my doubts.

When certified organic foods began appearing in supermarkets, I frequently ran into very excited people asking me if I didn’t think it was great? If I offered even the slightest indication of a lack of enthusiasm, I was usually met with something along the lines of ‘You mean you’re against organic foods!’, and this is what I feel like here. I am not against emission reductions and I am not against ETSs, I just have my doubts on how effective they will be in the end.

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Victory Onion in the Snow

Victory Onion

This plant seems to go by at least a few names, as well as being closely related to some other species. This is Allium victoralis, commonly called the Victory Onion. It’s a wild growing plant, in the same family as leeks and garlic.

This particular variety is native to Kemerovo, Siberia, although also apparently grows on some Norwegian islands as well. I got this plant together with a similar plant originating from Spain a few months ago from Søren. Both plants are growing away happily in pots on my roof.

There are a few leaves missing from this picture, they went into yesterday’s lunch… Normally the plants have three leaves each. The taste is very nice, garlicky and hot. I understand this plant, when pickled, is considered a delicacy in Russia that rivals caviar.

It’s strange that it’s already sent up flower stalks! Does anyone know if that’s normal?

It’s snowing here!

First it snowed on Easter, which is a little unusual especially since it seemed like such a warm winter until now, but the snow has just kept coming and is starting to accumulate. They were even salting the roads here last night.

Some parts of my garden are under water at the moment. My potatoes are already in, so I’m a little worried about them being submerged for several days now. I planted them in trenches, which now have several centimeters of water on the bottoms.

I’ve already planted out some lettuce, and it’s taken a bit of a beating. I think some of it may survive. I’ve also set some tomatoes out in my unheated greenhouse, and they seem fine. Nighttime temperatures have been down to -4C.

I’ve been trying to harden some more plants ready to go out soon. It’s been a challenge to find a time during the day when it’s not snowing! Even though the daytime temps are above freezing, the snow lands on the plants and damages the leaves.

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Anarchocyclist Blog

I’ve been reading Anarchocyclist for a few years now. I’ve linked to it before in a few posts here, and for a short time it was in my blogroll. It was in my blogroll because I thought he was going to start a garden and post about it, but the garden never materialized.

This blog is located in British Columbia, I think in the greater Vancouver area. When I first started reading it doviende was working on a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics (I also studied Math) and planning an urban garden. He had even contacted his local authorities and began negotiating a city permit for a front yard vegetable garden. Yes, apparently the city of Vancouver issues permits for these, and they are not that difficult to get.

Anyway, circumstances changed and studying Math was no longer a priority and the Chinese language was much more interesting. This led to travel to China for language study. In the last several weeks he started a class in Punjabi and started planning a garden again! In particular he has been looking into a community garden (allotment). On the assumption a garden will soon materialize, I’m going to put the blog back in my blogroll.

This is an example of a garden blog that has a lot more than just gardening. He certainly sits on the extreme end of the political-gardening spectrum, is an interesting person who writes well and has a lot of interesting things to say. His blog is worth checking out.

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Asparagus

Asparagus Sprout

After more than a month of waiting, my asparagus seeds finally started to germinate. They are truly some of the most unimpressive sprouts I have ever seen!

I’m growing two kinds of asparagus this year, Mary Washington from purchased seeds and wild asparagus from seeds Gintoino sent me.

Most people probably prefer to grow asparagus from crowns, but I can’t easily buy these around here. While I can sometimes find them, they are almost always unnamed varieties, possibly F1 hybrids, and I prefer to know what I’m growing.

If I thought waiting a month to see the first sprouts was a long time, I still have a lot longer to go. If you start with crowns you always first have to wait one year without harvesting, and the second year you can only harvest lightly. It’s only the third year you get a more or less normal harvest. But this is when you grow from crowns, and since I am starting with seeds, I’ll have to wait an extra year.

Starting with seeds I have a choice if I plant the seedlings out into a prepared asparagus bed, or grow them closer in a normal bed in order to grow crowns for transplanting. I haven’t decided which I will do yet, as I’m not sure how much garden space I’ll have.

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Tibet Protests

Tibet Flag

I would like to join the chorus of voices condemning the Chinese government in their recent acts of violence against protesters in Tibet. The number of people left dead has no justification, in addition these people have legitimate grievances and deserve to be heard.

In recent years the Chinese government appears to have adopted a policy of not constructively engaging His Holiness The Dalai Lama, preferring instead to let him die of old age and expect the issue of Tibet will vanish at the same time. Not only is the Chinese government short sighted in this respect, by not taking advantage of the Dalai Lama’s help in peacefully and justly settling the issue, but the world won’t forget Tibet and the resolve of it’s people.

For more information on the campaign to save Tibet, see here.