Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Soil scientists say farmers don't need the money

"There’s a virtual consensus among soil scientists that Australian farmers shouldn’t need any extra incentives to increase their levels of soil carbon." Thus spake Ecos, the mouthpiece of CSIRO, which, according to legend, is the hungriest research body when it comes to funds, so say the many scientists it has worked with in collaborative projects. Now the author of this line in a Sept. 15 article on trading soil carbon - Adam Barclay - was either being naive or deliberately provocative. No matter, for here we have the reason why so many scientists work actively against farmers' rights to sell the carbon they grow. They don't believe that the farmers deserve to be paid for performing environmental services. Which explains the torrent of articles like this one, that raise complexities without seeking to resolve them, implying they make trading soil C impossible. Most of these complexities are either solvable by someone with an imagination, something few scientists possess, or they are irrelevant window dressing.
For the sake of accuracy and for the public record we will do a thorough job on the many absurdities in this ECOS article soon.

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