Alan Jones lacks wind at protest

AAP © Pro and anti-wind farming activists will hold separate protests in Canberra on Tuesday.

Alan Jones has lost a battle of the “wind wars”, with a rally against wind farms headlined by the radio shock jock failing to draw large crowds to Parliament House.

The lacklustre attendance at Tuesday’s protest was seized upon by supporters of clean energy, who claimed victory in the “wind wars” by staging a much larger counter rally in Canberra’s city centre.

The anti-wind farm website stopthesethings.com had encouraged participants to bring deckchairs for the event on the front lawn of parliament.

But only about 100 people turned up to rally against the “fraud” of wind farms, which they claim destroy rural communities and cause illness through turbine noise.

There were signs claiming “Wind Wrecks Health and Jobs” and “Wind Power Will Cost the Earth”, but none of the “Ditch the Witch” placards that caused a stir at the last major climate protest hosted by Mr Jones.

The Sydney radio host paid tribute to those who attended but conceded numbers were down.

“There aren’t a lot of people here,” he told the rally on Tuesday.

“They don’t have the time, they don’t have the resources to be able to make the kind of statement they want to make.”

Organisers of the counter rally claimed more than 1000 attendees in support of clean energy.

The “Rally 4 Renewables”, staged by activist groups GetUp and Friends of the Earth, was attended by Australian Greens leader Christine Milne, independent MP Tony Windsor and parliamentary secretary for climate change Yvette D’Ath.

Liberal senator Chris Back attended the anti-wind rally but independent South Australian senator Nick Xenophon was a no-show, despite being invited to speak.

Senator Xenophon said he remained “fully committed” to a bill he co-sponsored on wind turbine noise, and didn’t want his absence from the rally to be misinterpreted.

• Oliver Milman
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 18 June 2013 18.32 AEST

Environmentalists have pushed for greater federal government involvement in national parks due to pro-development decisions made by state governments. Photograph: Corbis

Environmental groups have forecast a huge public backlash to proposed logging, shooting and prospecting within national parks, after the government backed away from adding federal oversight to conservation areas.

The Greens put forward an amendment to a government bill – on protecting water tables from coal seam gas drilling – that would have given the commonwealth greater power to protect national parks.

Under the current the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, the federal government can intervene only if an endangered species, heritage area or place of “national significance” is affected by development.

It is understood a proposal by federal environment minister Tony Burke to include a national parks trigger was rejected at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday night.

A spokesperson for Burke said that the government supports its bill “as it stands” and that separate 2011 proposals, which would have brought most national parks under the commonwealth’s remit, were “still under consideration”.

Environmentalists have pushed for greater federal involvement in national parks due to their dismay at pro-development decisions made by state governments.

Last year, the New South Wales government said it would open up 77 of its national parks and reserves to amateur hunters to shoot feral animals, despite concerns over the safety to people.

The Queensland government is conducting a review of all protected areas put aside since 2002, with a view to allow logging in certain parks, while the Victorian government has introduced 99-year private leases for tourism development in all of its national parks.

Lyndon Schneiders, national campaign director of the Wilderness Society, said that the public was strongly against the erosion of national parks.

“Millions of people use national parks,” he said. “Governments that are driving these changes to realise commercial opportunities don’t really realise they are biting their constituents. Most people out there can’t really believe what is happening is real and that it is being allowed to happen. The backlash is already there and it’s only going to get bigger.

“The individual impacts of each development are bad, but what’s most disturbing is that there is now a section of politics that has decided that national parks aren’t worth it. This is a lost opportunity because the states have shown they can’t be trusted. We’ve encouraged the government to do something on this for three years, but they’ve dragged their heels and now they are barely functioning. This is a skirmish in what will be a much longer debate around nature conservation. We are at a crossroads moment about how we best protect national parks and other areas.”

Matt Ruchel, executive director of the Victorian National Parks Association, said he was “disappointed” by the lack of federal oversight.

“If the states go feral and undermine the integrity of national parks, who else will provide the checks and balances but the federal government?” he asked.

“National parks are the cornerstone of conservation. They are well respected by the Australian community, they are a major draw card every day of the year, they clean air and water and draw carbon from the atmosphere.

“Up until recently, protecting national parks was a bipartisan issue. I don’t understand why there’s been a shift away from that approach. It’s deeply concerning.”

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India monsoon floods kill at least 64 people, leave thousands stranded

Updated 9 hours 58 minutes ago

Photo: Residents and travellers as they stand on the remains of a flood-damaged road in the state of Uttarakhand (AFP: Indian Army)

Map: India

At least 64 people are dead and tens of thousands have been left stranded after early monsoon rains caused flooding and landslides in India.

The rains are at least twice as heavy as usual in north-west and central India, with the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand the worst hit.

The Indian Air Force has scrambled a dozen helicopters to reinforce a military-backed rescue mission in Uttarakhand, often referred to as the “Land of the Gods” because of its many Hindu religious sites.

Local government officials in the state capital Dehradun say they are overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster.

“So far, we have found 54 bodies and 17 others are still missing,” top disaster management official Piush Rautela told AFP.

“The situation is really very bad out there. More than 600 buildings have toppled or been swept away and there are 75,000 people including pilgrims stranded at various places.”

Among the dead in Uttarakhand state are four members of the same family, who died when their home was hit by a landslide as they slept.

The rains have washed away bridges, roads, houses and multi-storey buildings in the state.

Rising water levels in some towns have also swept away cars, earthmoving equipment and even a parked helicopter.

A giant statue of Lord Shiva was submerged up to its head in the tourist hub of Rishikesh.

Roads in many areas have been destroyed, leaving hundreds of pilgrims stranded on their way to visit shrines in remote areas.

Photo: A Hindu devotee tries to take a holy dip in the flooded Ganges river in Haridwar (Reuters)

Authorities have cancelled pilgrimage trips, fearing further rains and landslides in the state.

“Right now our priority is to save as many lives as possible and the scale of destruction will be assessed later,” Mr Rautela said.

Missions underway to help thousands of stranded people

Air Force helicopters have air-dropped commandos to help rescue some of the 50,000 people who are stranded.

The Uttarakhand district has also set up 32 camps to provide food and water, while the state government is readying food parcels and drinking water to be dropped by helicopters to remote villages.

In neighbouring Himachal Pradesh state, the death toll from rain-related accidents stands at 10.

Around 1,500 people, including 150 foreign tourists, are stranded in the state.

In the eastern state of Orissa, flash floods have destroyed at least 600 homes.

The monsoon, which India’s farming sector depends on, covers the subcontinent from June to September, usually bringing some flooding.

But the heavy rains arrived early this year, catching many by surprise.

The country has received 68 per cent more rain than normal for this time of year, data from the India Meteorological Department shows.

The weather is expected to ease next week.

ABC/AFP

UNESCO postpones decision about adding Great Barrier Reef to ‘in danger’ list

Updated Tue Jun 18, 2013 9:01pm AEST

Photo: There are concerns about water quality and the loss of coral on Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef. (AFP)

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Map: Townsville 4810

UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee has deferred a decision to place the Great Barrier Reef on its “World Heritage in Danger” list.

The World Heritage Committee, currently meeting for its annual session in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, has been tasked with determining if the Great Barrier Reef is in trouble.

UNESCO raised concerns about the level of development along the Queensland coast and its impact on the World Heritage site, including water quality and the loss of coral.

The committee was considering whether to adopt UNESCOs recommendations to stop new approvals for port developments along the Queensland coast.

Kimberley Dripps from the federal Environment Department told the hearing that progress was being made to address their concerns and stated that Australia was committed to protecting the site.

The Queensland Government has representatives in Phnom Penh as well.

Premier Campbell Newman denies his Government is doing little to protect the World Heritage site.

“Au contraire – that’s exactly what we are doing,” he said.

“The former government believed in people just being able to draw a line on a map and saying we’re going to set up a new port somewhere on the Queensland coast. We’ve made it very, very clear that we’ve stopped that.

“We also have wound back the crazy plans at Abbott Point up north of Bowen, and we will be making that case.”

The committee agreed to adopt a draft decision to defer the matter until the next UNESCO meeting in 2014.

The dredging involved with port development and increased shipping through the reef have sparked widespread concern among conservationists.

Louise Mathieson from Greenpeace says the decision gives the state and federal governments a chance to wind back port developments and improve the quality of the reef.

“We want to see both sides of politics acting to stop the industrial port developments along the Great Barrier Reef coast,” she said.

“By giving Australia another year to act, the world community is really giving the next prime minister another chance to do better than what this Government has done.”

Felicity Wishart from the Australian Marine Conservation Society is calling on the State Government to make its conservation plans for the reef public.

“The Government did commit to what’s called a strategic assessment, which is sort of like a grand plan for looking at managing the reef and all the different impacts,” she said.

“The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has done a lot of work that we’re aware of with good consultation with the community for their part of that plan, which is the marine component.

“The Queensland Government is responsible for the coastal side of that plan, and we’ve seen less information and less consultation on that.

“The whole report was due out in March – it’s still not out, we don’t know where it’s at. So the first thing we need to see is that put on the table.”

Meanwhile, the UNESCO committee has decided to remove Iran’s ancient Bam citadel from the danger list.

The citadel was almost completely destroyed by a major earthquake in 2003.

The “remains of the desert citadel, which reached its apogee from the 7th to 11th centuries, had been sufficiently stabilised and its management was sound enough for the site to be declared safe,” UNESCO said in a statement.

Topics: conservation, great-barrier-reef, oceans-and-reefs, environment, townsville-4810, mackay-4740, cairns-4870, qld, cambodia

First posted Tue Jun 18, 2013 4:01pm AEST