Nexus - 0202 - New Times Magazine-pages

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500 TOWNS IN CLEAN-UP DAY NEXT MARCH cause of poverty and environmental destruction. The bank points out that approx 1/4 of the world’s population live on less than the equivalent of $A460.00 per VLLEAIN“UrT WAT NEXT MARCH The 1991 Clean Up Australia Campaign will be held on Sunday March 24th. It is estimated that 300,000 people volunteered to help clean up their area during the 1990 clean up, resulting in 15,000 tonnes of refuse from parks, foreshores and waterways. 100,000 RADIATION DEATHS At least 500,000 Soviet citizens living near a nuclear test site in Central Asia have suffered from the effects of radiation, and 100,000 of them have died of cancer, according to a leading Soviet researcher year. Apparently the “relentless march of new mouths to feed and jobs to pro- vide” is undercutting the bank’s goal of reducing poverty and improving economic growth. Da Reuters (I think I am going to be sick - Ed) waterways. 100,000 RADIATION DEATHS HOMEOPATHICS PERFORMS WELL IN NEW STUDY At least 500,000 Soviet citizens living near a nuclear test site in Central Asia have suffered from the effects of radiation, and 100,000 of them have died of cancer, according to a leading Soviet researcher. Dr Boris Gusev, head of the Soviet Radiology Research Institute, said the Soviet Union carried out more than 200 tests in the air between 1949 and 1965 at the Semipalatinsk test site in cen- tral Kazakhstan. Tests were halted in October last year because of anti-nuclear protests by people living near the site. (Agence France Presse) A double-blind study, reported in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and the Lancet Magazine, showed that almost twice as many patients given Oscillococcinum 200, a homeopathic medicine, recovered from influenza with 48 hours as did patients given a placebo. Neither the 487 patients nor the almost 150 French physicians knew who received the remedy or who received the placebo. Also, neither the physician nor any of the patients knew that the medicine that was being given to them was a homeopathic remedy. (Brtsh Jrnl. of Clin. Pharm. 1989 V.27:329-335) SPY CAMERAS EVERYWHERE IN NSW The recent use of traffic cameras to obtain ‘close-ups’ of Aboriginal demon- strators outside NSW Parliament House in October has served as an unpleasant reminder that there are now very few places one can escape them. John Laws' comment in the Sunday Telegraph (21/10/90) says it all. “A few years ago no one could have pre - dicted that an integral part of daily life in the 1990's would be the spy camera. It's the sort of thing most people would have associated with iron curtain countries - pre-Gorbachey. But now spy cameras - it's an awful description - are everywhere. At traffic lights, at toll gates, in banks, at automatic teller machines - you name it, we've got it. Now trucks and coaches will be photographed and timed by a network of spy cameras along the NSW highways. And helicopters will hover over subur - ban backyards and photograph swimming pools that aren't properly fenced. If you're camera shy or otherwise averse to having your photograph taken, then I'll tell you what: NSW is no place for you.” GREENHOUSE OR ICE-AGE? EDUCATION OR BRAINWASHING? Norwegian glaciers are growing bigger in apparent defiance of global warming. One wall of ice, reclaiming ground uncoy- ered for years, is slowly splintering its way through a forest and is now 30 metres longer than it was last year. Professor Olav Orheim, head of the Antarctic section at the Norwegian Polar Research Institute, said global warming theories had largely missed the side-effects of higher tempera- tures - such as more snow. A Federal Government brochure on the greenhouse effect, which was issued in July this year by Ros Kelly contains some alarming mistakes. For example it claims that CO2 emission since 1850 had risen 80%, whereas most greenies dutifully repeat other experts’ figures of only 25%; it claims the rise in nitrous oxide emission as 90%, while the CSIRO claim it is only 5%; and then it claims methane emissions had risen 60%, while the CSIRO cites this figure as 125%. Any explanations? (Reuters) Earthworms are proving to be a potential recycler. If you place worms on wet shred- ded cardboard, covered with manure and slightly rotting organic matter, the worms will convert (within six weeks) this mess into vermicast, which is suitable for use as a potting mix or topsoil. It is calculated that 1,000 worms and their descendants will convert one tonne of organic matter in 12 months. Apparently the catch is shred- ding the cardboard. BIG BROTHER WATCHING THE TREES WORLD BANK PUSHING FOR BIRTH CONTROL A new method developed at the Keith Turnbull Institute in Victoria will enable satellites to monitor the illegal clearing of trees. The technique is so accurate it will be possible to detect the removal of single large trees, or distinguish between pine trees and native trees. The researchers, After decades of helping to fund the ori- gins of our current environmental and eco- nomic problems, the World Bank would have us blame population growth as a NEXUS - 9 ANYONE FOR WORMS? FEBRUARY 1991 *- YEAR BOOK