Category: Columns

The damned dam debate is back

admin /9 October, 2008

Last Tuesday, Alstonville water engineer, Steve Posselt, pulled into Tweed Heads on his way from Brisbane to Sydney. Unlike the thousands of vehicles winding their way over Sexton Hill a couple of hours after leaving Brisvegas, Steve had been traveling for two days.

Steve is making the journey by kayak.

With him, he has thousands of letters and petitions for environment minister, Peter Garrett, demanding protection for the last breeding ground of the lungfish.

The lungfish is famous as the fish that walked. Named for its ability to breathe air, the lungfish is older than the dinosaurs and is one of the roots of the evolutionary tree from which sprang reptiles, birds and mammals.

Grandparents are great for the earth

admin /2 October, 2008

Last week’s news that grandparents are good for children’s early development will come as no surprise to parents or, indeed, grandparents themselves. If babies bothered to read the newspaper, they’d chortle in agreement too. The role of grandparents as childminders is hardly new. Extended families have been the norm in most societies across most of Continue Reading →

Cameras herald a brave new organism

admin /2 October, 2008

Kingscliff business owner Kelly Craig was quoted in these pages last week seeking the protection of closed circuit television cameras. In contrast to the burghers of Nimbin, most business owners on the Tweed Coast seem to feel the same way. We hope that a watchful eye will keep things under control. Be careful what you Continue Reading →

Sweepers arise – your brooms await

admin /25 September, 2008

There are occasions when we Green people get called party poopers. We have the opposite reputation to the wee green people who epitomise a party wherever they appear. Lepers, rather than leprechauns, perhaps.

The occasions vary. The Howard government felt we spoiled the fun they had locking refugees in cages in the desert. Woodchipping companies feel we spoil their fun trashing a major national asset. This week, some people in Tweed thought that it unfair of Kevin McCready to insist that someone take a good hard look at why voters were officially given the wrong information as they entered the polling booth.

That’s the nature of rules. Every time the police catch someone driving with a blood alcohol of 0.15%, POOF, another party’s over and someone’s hangover arrives depressingly fast.

Byron Forum nails climate fundamentals

admin /23 September, 2008

It may not surprise you, Dear Reader, that a climate change forum in Byron Bay came to a slightly different conclusion from Professor Ross Garnaut. The eight member panel, from well known peace activist Gareth ‘Mutineer’ Smith to Southern Cross Climate Science Professor Graham ‘Aerosols’ Jones, presented their views at a screening of the film The Burning Season.