Why the heck does CNBC care about a camel cull in Australia?:
After learning the government had announced £10 million for a camel management plan that will include culling, Erin Burnett, an anchor on the US financial news channel CNBC, said: “There is a serial killer in Australia and we are going to put a picture up so we can see who it is,” Miss Burnett said, before showing a large photograph of Mr Rudd.
“He has launched air strikes – air strikes – against camels in the outback.”
Miss Burnett is more accustomed to analysing the stock movements on Wall Street, but she broke away from normal coverage to concentrate on camels, complaining the meat and milk from the culled animals would be wasted.
Jim Cramer, CNBC’s colourful financial guru, said Mr Rudd was guilty of “camelcide”.
Australia is currently struggling to control more than one million feral camels that roam unchecked through the outback.
The herds destroy fragile ecosystems and trample over sacred indigenous sites. [Telegraph]
Everyone that has spent time in the Outback knows that the population of feral camels is out of control out there much like kangaroos in other areas in Australia are likewise out of control. Camels are not native to Australia and thus have no natural predators to limit their population sizes. Kangaroos used to have dingos to limit their population size but since the dog fence was put up many areas in Australia have been over run with kangaroos who face no natural predators as well. The over population of these animals has a negative effect on other species especially a non-native species like camels. Does this crew at CNBC think that non-native foxes shouldn’t be killed either that are preying on endangered marsupials in Australia?
Anyway here is an alternative view of the camel cull that gave me a good laugh:
A Statement by Mr Viv Forbes, Chairman, The Carbon Sense Coalition, Australia:
The Chairman of the Carbon Sense Coalition, Mr Viv Forbes, today claimed that the plan by Australian PM Rudd to cull one million camels may have unexpected carbon tax consequences.Forbes explains:
“PM Rudd proposes to spend $19 million shooting one million wild camels.
“A big camel probably weighs about a tonne, so Mr Rudd is going to let a million tonnes of valuable meat rot under the Centralian sun.
“Each camel probably has about 190 kg of carbon sequestered in its body. As it rots and absorbs oxygen, this carbon will increase into about 700 kg of carbon dioxide which will then dissipate into the atmosphere.
“If the Australian Senate is silly enough to pass the Wong carbon dioxide Ration-n-Tax Scheme this shootout will thus trigger a huge carbon tax liability.
“At a carbon emission price of say $40 per tonne of carbon dioxide, the carbon tax on one million rotting camels would be about $28 million.
“If we add to that the actual cull costs of about $19 million and the carbon tax due on helicopter emissions and other activities, the total cost of the cull is about $50 million.
“This illustrates the dangers of costly unexpected consequences resulting from complex poorly designed bills being rushed through both Australian and US Legislatures by Mr Rudd and his buddy Mr Obama. Luckily Senators in both countries will probably reject this nonsense. [Australian Conservative]
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