Category: Archive

Clarence to become the new Franklin?

admin /15 April, 2007

Greens Upper House MP and environment spokesman Ian Cohen, today warned that the proposed damming of the Clarence River to provide water for Queensland would be the next Franklin Dam issue.

“Malcolm Turnbull’s proposal to dam the Clarence – the east coast’s largest river – is nothing short of environmental vandalism. This cannot be allowed to go ahead.” Mr Cohen said. The idea is expected to be put forward today in Brisbane, in a report prepared for the National Water Commission. The report was written by the Snowy Mountains Energy Corporation.
   

Conservation Council opposes Clarence plan

admin /15 April, 2007

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200704/s1895860.htm Environmental groups are warning against the Federal Government’s proposal to pipe water from northern New South Wales to Queensland, saying it is a costly and destructive option. Prime Minister John Howard and Water Minister Malcolm Turnbull are pushing the plan to dam the Clarence River in northern NSW and divert the water to drought-stricken Continue Reading →

Tropical forests will address climate change

admin /15 April, 2007

By Dr Govindasamy Bala

We hear almost daily that the planet is warming. Spring is arriving earlier, glaciers are melting, Arctic sea ice extent is shrinking, sea levels are rising and the weather is going wild with more heat waves, more floods and droughts in several regions of the globe.

Do you wonder what is causing our planet to have this fever? Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by humans in the industrial era are blamed.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that the increase in atmospheric CO2 in the industrial era has exerted the largest warming effect on the planet.

That brings us to the question: "How do we prevent or slow down global warming?"

Cutting down fossil fuel emissions and revamping our entire energy systems is clearly the best solution. That is what believers of "prevention is better than cure" would say.

However, some advocates of "climate mitigation" have come up up with several strategies, called carbon sequestration, to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

One of them is the hotly-debated terrestrial carbon sequestration that includes planting new trees. Many companies have started signing up for reforestation and afforestation projects in the US and Europe to offset their carbon footprint. Will this work?

Our recent modelling study suggests that these projects in the temperate and boreal zones are not going to help to slow down global warming. Location is the key to the success of these projects, and planting new trees in regions outside the tropics will actually warm the Earth.

Gunns Woodship Deal Exposed

admin /15 April, 2007

A landmark decision by Tasmanian Ombudsman Simon Allston would force Forestry Tasmania to reveal details of its closely guarded wood supply contract with the proposed $1.5 billion Bell Bay pulp mill, according to Sue Neales in The Mercury, (13/4/2007, p.13). Access to the contract which authorises about two million tonnes a year of native forest timber from the state’s public forests to be sold to pulp mill proponent Gunns Limited for 20 years – had been painstakingly obtained using Tasmania’s Freedom of Information laws.

Some sections remain blacked-out: But the Ombudsman decided that key information, such as the price at which each tonne of timber is sold to Gunns, can remain hidden. The decision has been hailed as a victory for greater public access and scrutiny to financial dealings many government-owned businesses such as TT-Line and Hydro Tasmania want to keep secret for politically expedient, as much as commercial, reasons.

Citipower plans $72m upgrade for Melbourne CBD

admin /15 April, 2007

Citipower proposes $72m in new cables, substations, isolators for for Melbourne central business district CitiPower has proposed a project to enhance the security of the electricity supply to the Melbourne central business district (CBD). CitiPower’s current CBD network security planning standard, at the zone substation and sub transmission system level, was to deliver a network Continue Reading →

Rise Up to End War

admin /15 April, 2007

Bryan Law updates us from Pine Gap – the Empire Strikes Back

by Bryan Law

In May and June 2007 the Gandhian/activist wing of the Australian Peace Movement is going to produce two nonviolent action programs which promote and develop a grass-roots resistance to war.  One action is in the Northern Territory, and one in Queensland.

Pine Gap

On May 29 2007 I and three other Christian Peace Activists (Donna Mulhearn, Jim Dowling, and Adele Goldie) begin our trial before Justice Thomas of the Supreme Court in Alice Springs for our Citizens’ Inspection of the U.S. controlled Pine Gap Terror base on 9 December 2005.  We face up to 7 years imprisonment.

The trial is expected to last two weeks, and outside the Court, at Pine Gap itself, there’ll be several actions taken to further illuminate the darkness and interfere with war.  

A convergence at the front gate of the base is set down for 2 June 2007.  A pictorial essay on our last convergence is here.

Shoalwater Bay

On June 18 2007 the second national Peace Convergence begins at Rockhampton/ Shoalwater Bay.  Hundreds of activists will gather to oppose and interfere with Operation Talisman Sabre – the huge joint invasion exercise involving 14,000 U.S. troops and 12,000 Australian troops.  

Small autonomous affinity groups, as demonstrated at Pine Gap, will feature in the name of peace at Shoalwater Bay.  So will mass actions on 23/24 June 2007

Both these actions address the way in which Australia slavishly serves the U.S. military interest through joint operations and exercises.  Both call upon citizens to rise up in a joyful and spirited way against militarism and the forces of war.  Both represent and prefigure the re-emergence of a grass-roots resistance to war in Australia.