Symphony under the Stars a success
Last Saturday evening together with an audience of over 600 people I listened to an amazing evening of classical music "Symphony Under The Stars" performed by nearly 100 young Mount Isa musicians.
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As I sat there quite amazed at the talent in our City and the leadership displayed by the organisers of this truly remarkable event I couldn't help but wander if the pioneers of Mount Isa would have ever envisaged that this city would be the home to so many talented classical musicians.
As we approach our 100 birthday I believe that "it's time" to consider the gigantic steps that we as a community have made from our very humble beginnings.
Today we can compete and succeed with cities and towns throughout the world.
Its difficult to single people out and name them but I am convinced that we can compete against the best in the world and beat them.
Events such as we had last Saturday evening need financial support to stage and once again our business community came to the assistance with their sponsorship both financial and physical.
The real message of last Saturday evening was that this community has the talent to arrange, organise and deliver a spectacular evening a superb entertainment.
I am tempted to name people who masterminded this remarkable evening but I wont I will rest in my belief that it was the Mount Isa community who once again rose to the challenge and presented an evening of remarkable classical entertainment.
These people have made a long time resident of this City so very very proud.
Its quite obvious to me that the MICE Committee, directors and music students worked tirelessly throughout the year to bring to fruition this Symphony and their decision to commission Isaac Glover (ex MICE Member) was to show that learning and playing music can and indeed does take you places and Isaac is a prime example of this.
Lets remember that this can happen again as we celebrate our 100 birthday.
Tony McGrady,
Mount Isa
Bob Katter and Future Feed
I was interested to hear Bob Katter on the radio this morning stating that any movement towards zero carbon emissions by 2050 would destroy the cattle industry.
This is a classic example of political misdirection.
The real threat to the cattle industry is climate change itself, not taking measures to mitigate its effects.
For a number of years we have had the solution to methane emissions from cattle - we can reduce it to almost zero by a seaweed based food additive.
Either Bob Katter is ignorant of this solution, or he is exploiting the cattle industry's ignorance for political gain.
Over ten years ago scientists from CSIRO and James Cook University discovered that by adding 1% of a species of seaweed to ruminant feed they could reduce methane output to almost zero.
They called this seaweed additive FutureFeed and looked for commercial partners, but with limited funding this has been painfully slow.
If FutureFeed were adopted by the majority of Australia's beef and sheep produces we would see the Agriculture sector's contribution to Green House gases fall to around 8%; significant, but compared to other sectors this contribution is relatively small.
Ironically the seaweed species used in FutureFeed, Asparagopsis, is largely found in the waters of Northern Queensland.
If Mr Katter really had the interests of his electorate at heart he would be promoting FutureFeed as a new industry for his electorate (one that has export potential) and provides a solution to the cattle industry's greenhouse gas emissions.
Phil Jones BSc(HONS), MSc(HONS),DipEd