The influence of the ground beneath us on the air around us could be greater than scientists had previously thought, according to new research that links the long-ago proliferation of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere to a sudden change in the inner workings of our planet.
Seagrasses are a vital part of the solution to climate change and, per unit area, seagrass meadows can store up to twice as much carbon as the world’s temperate and tropical forests.
Pak speeds up work on its 4th N-reactor Jagran Post Washington: Pakistan is half way through the construction of its fourth nuclear reactor at Khushab, which will give it capability to speed up plutonium manufacturing, latest US satellite imagery has revealed. On completion, the reactor would enable … See all stories on this topic »
Despite lively opposition, Shell, with President Obama’s support, will start test wells in Alaska’s North, in a moment of major promise and considerable danger.
A crucial highway linking the Queensland coast to the coal-rich Bowen Basin has seen 550 crashes in 10 years and has been likened to roads in the Third World.
The 273-kilometre Peak Downs Highway runs from Clermont in the west, past the mining town of Moranbah, and on to Mackay on the coast.
The stretch of bitumen is crucial to the national economy – about 200 million tonnes of export coal came out of the Bowen Basin last year – much of it from mines off the Peak Downs Highway.
Yet road safety experts say that on a five-star scale, parts of the highway would rate just two – equivalent to roads in Bangladesh.
Phillip Dowler and his crew at CQ Rescue are often the ones that have to deal with the highway’s toll.
“It’s a road designed in the ’60s and ’70s, for quite small traffic movements. Now it’s subject to thousands of cars a day using it to travel from Mackay to the coal mines in the west,” he said.
Someone is killed or seriously injured on the Peak Downs Highway on average about once every two-and-a-half weeks. Fatigue causes close to four in 10 accidents.
Many using the road are coming off 12-hour shifts in the coal mines. They finish work – often at night – and then they jump in the car to make the 300-kilometre drive back to Mackay.
The crash zone
Mining services contractor Dave McNeil knows the dangers too well.
Just over two years ago, he was driving from a mine site to Mackay behind a ute and a truck. A fatigued driver coming the other way veered across the road.
“He hit the red ute right on the rear wheel driver’s side which then catapulted that car round behind him, he then impacted the front of the truck,” he said.
“The truck impacted, went up on its nose, rolled down the embankment.”
Mr McNeil says the truck then caught fire.
“The guys were screaming, ‘get us out of here, it’s on fire, it’s on fire’,” he said.
Mr McNeil rescued the truck driver and his passenger before it incinerated but the driver of the Commodore wagon who had caused the crash was not so lucky.
Mr McNeil says the highway would be better described as a goat track.
“You’ve got people driving 110, 115, 120 kilometres an hour, you’ve got close interaction between heavy vehicles, fatigued people, all fatigued people. There’s nothing you can do, it’s just a recipe for disaster that highway,” he said.
Real estate heaven
The highway runs through the town of Moranbah – home to thousands of miners – making it heaven for real estate agents.
A basic three-bedroom weatherboard house rents for $900 a week and in the newer part of town nothing rents for less than $2,000. For buyers, the market starts at $800,000.
This high cost of housing combined with the lure of the coast pushes workers towards drive-in, drive-out from the mines.
The Peak Downs Highway was the subject of a special conference in Mackay last week.
Steve Smyth from the CMFEU says it is a disgrace that nothing has been done upgrade the road.
“They generate most of the wealth not just for Queensland but for this country them coal towns,” he said.
“The money’s not being spent back into the community. It’s alright to have a flash highway down the middle of south-east Queensland. You drive from Mackay to Moranbah on the Peak Downs Highway – it’s a disgrace.
From bad to worse … Craig Thomson. Photo: Andrew Meares
Federal MP Craig Thomson says he’s been told the Nine Network’s A Current Affair is planning to air an interview with a prostitute who claims he was a client.
Mr Thomson has told News Ltd that the producer of ACA spent 90 minutes in his parliamentary office yesterday to seek his response to the claims from the anonymous prostitute.
News Ltd reports it’s understood the prostitute was paid $60,000 for the interview.
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Mr Thomson said he was told the woman had identified him from a photo and said he had refused an offer to view a DVD of the interview.
“They said they have got the tape if you want to see it. I asked them if they paid for the interview and they said ‘yes’,” Mr Thomson was quoted as saying.
He said: “To buy a story from a prostitute is chequebook journalism at its worst.
“Who is going to take this seriously when they pay a prostitute money?
“It has absolutely no credibility.”
The program’s producer, Grant Williams, has not made any comment about the planned expose or when it might be broadcast.
The program may not be aired until next week, according to the report.
Mr Thomson also claimed ACA had offered to pay his wife “a substantial amount of money for an interview”.
ACA is yet to confirm the claim.
A Fair Work Australia report says Mr Thomson, who was HSU national secretary from 2002 until his election as a Labor MP in 2007, misused members’ funds for escorts, lavish meals and electioneering.
The MP, who is suspended from the ALP caucus, denies the allegations.
The parliamentary privileges committee is charged with examining whether Mr Thomson misled parliament when he addressed the allegations on Monday.
The committee met for the first time on the matter last night.
It could decide to call witnesses, including current Health Services Union officials and an industrial investigator, to test Mr Thomson’s statement.
Optimists and politicians like to remind us that U.S. exports are booming. Unfortunately, so are imports.The trade deficit in March, from Calculated RiskAn increasingly large part of the “rosy” exports picture centres around our energy exports, which means coal exports. I was pleased to see Worse Than Keystone by Alyssa Battistoni, which appeared in Salon last Friday. Alyssa actually did some research, and provided some useful links, which always makes me happy.Environmentalists are focused oil and gas, but a bigger carbon disaster may be brewing…
