The Generator is founded on the simple premise that we should leave the world in better condition than we found it. The news items in this category outline the attempts people have made to do this. They are mainly concerned with our food supply and settlement patterns. The impact that the human race has on the planet.
Katter could yet switch his vote Jacob Saulwick and Mark Davis September 8, 2010 Independents could feel voter backlash Voters in the electorates of independent MPs Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott say their decision to back Gillard could cost them their seat. THE independent MP Bob Katter backed the Coalition yesterday afternoon – but Continue Reading →
A house more divided than ever before
THE nation’s parliament has never been this divided before.
A minority government has been formed by a Melbourne and Sydney-based Labor Party in agreements with two bush independents in NSW, a Hobart-based independent and a Greens MP in Melbourne.
Staring across the dispatch box will be an opposition that relies on the mining states of Queensland and Western Australia for its sense of purpose.
The mining states and voters aged 50-plus will feel most alienated by yesterday’s resolution to the hung parliament.
They voted in stronger numbers for the Coalition than the rest of the nation did for Labor.
This is not to diminish Labor’s authority because a minority Coalition government would have faced the same contradiction at the other end of the nation’s fractured demography because the southern states and young people voted overwhelmingly for Labor or the Greens.
The numbers on the floor for Julia Gillard have no precedent in the deregulation era because they come at the expense of Queensland.
The last federal election where Queensland was on the wrong side of the national result by delivering more seats to the opposition than the government was in 1984.
In every election between 1987 and 2007, the sunshine state picked the winner.
There are almost as many quirks in the parliament as there are members.
Gillard’s is the first government in history that didn’t carry a majority north of the Murray River.
Toxic dispersants in Gulf oil spill creating hidden marine crisis Tom Levitt and Nicole Edmison 6th September, 2010 More than 200 million tons of crude oil have gushed into the Gulf of Mexico since the rupture of Deepwater Horizon. The chemicals used to clean up the spill have received less attention but could have devastating Continue Reading →
Poor harvests and demand from developing countries could push cost of weekly shop up by 10%
Global wheat harvest this year has been hit by droughts and floods. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian
Two years after the last food crisis, when prices surged by nearly 15% in the UK, food inflation is back. Soaring global food prices have prompted City and food industry experts to warn that the cost of the weekly shop is set to rise by up to 10% in the coming months.
As in 2008, rocketing prices are the result of rising demand and supply shortages caused by freak weather and poor harvests. Moreover, these conditions are exacerbated by speculation on commodity markets and changing diets in fast-growing Asian countries.
Low-cost e-waste recycling in China releasing catalogue of pollutants Ecologist 3rd September, 2010 The world’s growing waste mountain of mobile phones, computers and other electronic goods is being illegally recycled in unregulated and primitive conditions in China and causing significant toxic pollution China’s family-run cottage industry for recycling e-waste is releasing dangerous amounts of Continue Reading →
Labor ahead in strategic power game
An illustration by Bill Leak. Source: The Australian
IN the days after the election night counting, a Labor cabinet minister told me the campaign had restarted.
The need to stay on message was alive and well as both parties began wooing the independents to form a minority government.
Although Tony Abbott and the Coalition probably won the formal election campaign, both in terms of rising above the low expectations most people had for their capacity to stay disciplined and because of the many problems Labor created for itself, especially in the second week, Julia Gillard has clearly won the post-election campaign so far.