Australia: Frost decimates crops

A SEVERE frost on the night and early morning of September 20/21 may have far reaching implications for farmers hoping for a bumper harvest this year.
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Unconfirmed reports of damage in the district vary from 30 to 40 per cent to 90 per cent of crops, particularly barley and canola.

However, local agronomists say it is too early to put a definite figure on it and the true picture will only be known once the headers go into the paddocks.

Farmers say it was a “ripper” of a frost with paddocks white to the top of hills, roofs of sheds turned white and pools of water turned to ice.

Governor rejects climate-change institute at UC

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has sought to build an international image as an environmental champion in the fight against climate-changing carbon emissions, rejected an unprecedented attempt to create the first-of-its-kind research institute into reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The proposal, authored by Senate Leader Don Perata, a Democrat, would have created the California Climate Change Institute at the University of California. The institute would have been financed, in part, with roughly a $1.20-a-year levy on millions of private and public utility customers. The institute would have had an annual budget in the neighborhood of $50 million and financed research into the causes and solutions of global warming, a phenomena that many scientists believe is an irreversible result of modern industrial expansion.

In vetoing the bill, SB 1762, the Republican governor agreed with the state Chamber of Commerce, the California Manufacturers and Technology Association, the major retailers and the California Taxpayers Association, among others, who opposed the bill.