LINKS CONTACT:  podcast@worldorganicnews.com Podcast Like a Pro: mrjonmoore.com FREE .PDF One Square Metre Garden: square@worldorganicnews.com Blog: www.worldorganicnews.com Facebook Page:  World Organic News Facebook page.   While politicians question the reality of climate change, farmers and businesses act http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-05/farmers-and-businesses-take-action-on-climate-change/9502320 The  Cairns Group http://cairnsgroup.org/pages/default.aspx   What happens when we start producing more electricity than we can consume? http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-07/solar-power-what-happens-when-theres-too-much/9522192   This is the World Organic News for the week ending the 12th of March 2018. Jon Moore reporting! As I discussed last month with the new vision statement for the podcast and blog, “Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil.”, in mind I’m calling on my listeners to put forward ideas for an interview episode once a month. If you know anyone who is doing either part of the vision, I’d love to hear from them or, indeed, from you if you are on the front line doing the work. This week we have an article for the ABC news site entitled: While politicians question the reality of climate change, farmers and businesses act This article is the written version of a TV program aired last Monday night here in the antipodes. The title pretty much says it all but let’s dig a little deeper. Quote: David Bruer has been growing vines and making wine at his Temple Bruer vineyard in the Mount Lofty Ranges in South Australia since 1978. In his vineyard laboratory, weather records for every vintage for nearly 40 years are stacked in plastic folders. They clearly show a steady increase in maximum temperatures over that time of about 1 degree. It might seem like a relatively small change but the impact has been dramatic. And from further in the article: "Thirty-four years ago we used to pick in the middle of March," he said. "We're now picking in the middle of February." End Quote. Grapes have always been a marker of world climatic conditions. During the Medieval Warm Period when Vikings were able to navigate a relatively ice free north Atlantic ocean, reaching Newfoundland as well as colonising Iceland and Greenland, grape vines were growing in England. Because grapes are a perennial crop, they are in the ground for many years. Planting requires a commitment to the future. Changes, rapid changes in climate can have catastrophic effects on the grower. David Bruer’s quote above shows rapid change in a relatively short period. Clearly n=1 is not a reason to raise concerns but the article and the TV program goes onto to talk with a wine making company with weather records going back much further. Quote: About 800 kilometres to the east of Temple Bruer, Ross Brown from Brown Brothers Wines has an even longer weather record on file. His family has been making wine in Milawa, Victoria, for almost 130 years. Mr Brown says he used to be a climate change sceptic but his vintage charts are indicating things have changed. In Milawa, Brown Brothers is also picking earlier and their records show temperatures are rising. Some of the cool climate varieties his family always used to grow here — like pinot noir and sparkling whites — have now become too unreliable so the company has moved some of its operation to cooler country in Tasmania. End Quote. If this is effecting wine growers it will be effecting orchardists, soft fruit growers and pretty much anyone in agriculture. The perennial growers have movement issues, that is vines and trees are pretty much going to stay where they are. Cereal growers and graziers have a little more flexibility but not as much as they’d like. The real punch from the article and the program came at the end. Farmers in Australia don’t receive the subsidies that US and EU farmers do. They are, as a result of Australia being part of the Cairns Group, free traders, even if they’d happily receive subsidies. Howev