Tuesday, 5 October 2010

TELL BRUMBY & CO TO GET RID OF HAZLEWOOD : NO MORE COAL FIRED POWER : DO THE SWITCH TO RENEWABLES

PLEASE FIND BELOW 
A NUMBER OF OPPORTUNITIES 
TO PROTEST AGAINST HAZELWOOD
wind_and_solar_not_hotair

PROPOSED NEW VICTORIAN COAL-FIRED POWER STATION
GOES TO THE EPA FOR APPROVAL – LAST CHANCE TO SAY ‘NO WAY’

Submissions close THIS Wednesday


One of 12 new coal fired power stations proposed for Australia by the coal industry is scheduled to start construction next year! And in Victoria, if approved, this proposal will increase Victoria’s greenhouse gas emissions by up to 4.2 million tonnes each year and keep Victorians locked into a dirty, coal dependent future for decades to come.


The new application to the EPA by HRL-Dual Gas to build a coal-fired power station in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley was made public on 15 September and they have given the public only 3 weeks to make comment. Environment Victoria is calling on the EPA and the State Government to reject the proposal, and rule out any new coal-fired power stations for Victoria. 


We need to make sure that the Premier and the head of the EPA have heard from thousands of concerned Victorians. This is the final approval stage so it’s a crucial decision.


We know that the EPA needs to take into account community concern about the power station as a guiding principle for making its decision about whether or not to approve the power station.


Info: Kelly, Environment Victoria 9341 8100


Please go here for information about the forthcoming
Switch Off Hazlewood Protest 




PREPARATION 
FOR THE RALLY 
TO REPLACE 
ALL OF HAZELWOOD 

Walking from the State Library to Parliament House  
Saturday 6 November 1pm Melbourne

As a visual feature for the event we’d like to make 8 two-meter high smokestacks 
just like the ones on Hazelwood power station, 
to be carried by the crowd. 
We think this will look great, but it will involve a bit of creative work. 
We’re hoping to find eight local climate action groups 
(or bunches of friends, 

or hockey clubs or whatever) 



who are able to construct one of the smokestacks 



and decorate it with your own message.


This would also be a way to attract some local media interest in your area
 in the lead up to the event, 
eg. by marching down your local main street with your single stack, 
or inviting the local paper along to a smokestack working bee, 
to show how people in your area are getting ready for the rally.
Environment Victoria can provide instructions 
on how to build it and help source the materials you’ll need.
Info: louise.matthiesson@greenmedia.org.au



Related reading:
Coal-Fired Power Stations in Australia: Coal-Fired Power Stations in New South Wales, Coal-Fired Power Stations in Queensland
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Monday, 4 October 2010

The day no birds would sing…

…and no bees will buzzz. 
It seems this week that I have a focus on the birds and the bees.  Perhaps it is just spring.  I think that’s the reason.  Spring has an expectancy, a longing.  We love to see the blossoms, we love to hear the birds coming out from the rain and singing, and we do like to know that the bees will do their vital part in the continuation of this precious cycle.
I would ask you, Networkers, to pop across to Duncan’s blog where he says
As I walked through the bush I saw and heard no birds, and failed to see the flowering shrubs and plants that used to delight the eye, and as things stand I can only see the situation getting worse with further losses of biodiversity.
Birds and plants are not the only groups suffering of course, In the sixty five years I’ve been observing nature in the local area, native mammals have disappeared, frogs and reptiles have declined, and native fish and other aquatic life have taken a big hit from reduced stream flows and the introduced European carp.
Have we done this or is this just nature doing its thing?  Is this changing climate or a change in the cycle?  Let’s not ask questions.  Instead, let’s put our energies into thinking about our behaviours, what we consume from the planet – to the extent that there is not enough water, air, food for the birds, the bees, the fish and us.  And please read Duncan’s blog.
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Sidebar information and wisdom: the failure to share : the privatizaton of what was once public


Networkers, I don't know if you ever get as far as scrolling down my sidebar on the right.  While there is a bit of blog-related stuff promoting me, posts, and the blog - there is a lot of stuff which, if you click into it and follow-up with the information provided at the sites, is like an information trip around the world.  You will note that I have a few blogs which have feed subscriptions.  One of these is Sharon Astyk's marvellous simple but intelligent, Casaubon's Book

Just last week she wrote about The Water Fountain.  Now call me psychic if you will, but just last week when all this was going through Sharon's head, I too was thinking of the old fashioned in the park/public place water fountain.  Sharon discussed this but also takes the topic further into a discussion of sharing, and the public becoming privatised.  I might add for a lesson in the sociology of the USA, the comments on Sharon's posts can be quite instructive/destructive.  

Please read Sharon's post and the comments on it for yourselves, Networkers.  But just in case you are tempted not to, here is an excerpt:

It is easier to plan for ourselves. It is easier in many ways to carry our water bottle. It is easier not to talk to other people, it is easier not to need other people, or have to share and accommodate them. It is easier to pick the people you want to share with, to be exclusive rather than inclusive. There are all sorts of reasons not to think in public terms, and only, I think, two major ones to do so.
First of all, if we are to break out of our isolation, we have to, and second, because we have no choice - privatized solutions are too costly, too exclusive, too limited. Anyone who goes into peak oil and climate change imagining you will be one of the rich and lucky who will always be able to afford your bottle of water is, I think, betting on winning the lottery.
Further reading:
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The native bee at work.


Further to a recent post wherein I discussed the native bee, I have been doing some catch up reading over at Ben Cruachan, Duncan Fraser's wonderful nature blog.  Follow the last link, and you will see where this picture came from and why Duncan has posted it.

Duncan Fraser at work

Go to this link for an ABC interview with Duncan
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Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games open successfully and beautifully


Networkers, I am sitting here pie-eyed watching the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.  It has been a sporting day because, as a dedicated Rugby League fan, I watched the Rugby League Grand Final come to a satisfying conclusion with St. George Illawarra  (The Dragons)coached by that modern-day hero, Wayne Bennett, winning an absolutely marvellous game.  Congratulations to The Roosters for providing such strong competition.

I sit here to-night watching the nations of the Commonwealth of Nations entering the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.  The lead up to the opening ceremony focussed on the insufficiencies of the athletes' accommodation.  To-night as I watched nations from around the globe coming into the stadium, I was reminded once again about what the Commonwealth Games and the Olympic Games are all about.  They are to be joyous competitive sporting events devoid of international politics.  The Australian athletes arrived to be pleasantly surprised with what awaited them.  It seems that in spite of or because of all the controversy, all with be well for the athletes - all manner of things will be well.

I know we were concerned and I think our concern was compounded with memories of terrorism in India in 2008. 

We did forget something of our own history, though.  In 2000, Sydney staged a successful Summer Olympics which was declared the best ever, and is still remarkable in spite of two other Summer Olympics since then.  Those Olympics in Sydney were held for two weeks followed closely by the paralympics.  When we think back, our memories become a bit like the memories surrounding childbirth.  We forget what led up to the successful event.  We forget the pain, the agonies.

Michael Knight was the Minister for Sport as Sydney prepared for the Olympics.  There were all sorts of disagreements within the team preparing for the Olympics.  It was reported that, in the Christmas-New Year break early in 2000, Michael Knight discussed his situation with his family.  He is supposed to have explained to them that, if he was to continue in his role, there would be a lot of unpalatable and hurtful discussion in the media. 

Michael Knight continued in his role - but it cost him his political career in the end.  Michael Knight may never have become Premier of New South Wales... but he would have been a contender.  The toughness required to get the Olympic show on the road did not lay a good foundation for winning friends and influencing people, for developing the relationships necessary for a successful leadership role in politics.  

The Olympic Games was no automatic economic panacea for Sydney.  I lived in Elizabeth Bay at the time and long-standing landmark tourist accommodation was, in the wake of the Olympics, turned into residential apartments.  Overall, there was an economic let-down, not an economic windfall as was hoped.  

So we remember the happiness of the event - and the friendliness that surrounded it.  People travelling on City Rail were friendly, cheerful, and spoke to one another for two weeks.  After that it was back to the early morning Sydney sullenness and hiding behind newspapers!

I think Delhi may turn out to be like that.  The Commonwealth, that old band of international friendships, will come together.  Unhappiness in the preparations will be buried within a successful event.  India - the largest nation in the Commonwealth - is doing its best.  It wants everyone to enjoy being in India - and it will want us all back if it ever gets to hold an Olympics.  

And we do learn a lot.  

For instance, I had no idea, until to-night, that Rwanda was a member of the Commonwealth.  I searched the net (finished up on Wikipedia as usual) and found that it Rwanda is only a recent member under the provisions of a recent document which allows nations with a link to at least one other Commonwealth nation to join.  Rwanda is part of an organisation called the East African Community - and the other members are all Commonwealth nations.  It appears that Rwanda could not be left apart in this economic arrangement, and so has joined the Commonwealth.  All I had known was the Rwanda was a former Belgian and German colony and a Francophone nation.  Now Rwanda is one of us.



In 2009, Rwanda became the second Commonwealth member admitted to not have any such constitutional links. It was formerly a Belgian trust territory that had been a German colony until World War I.[37] Consideration for its admission was considered an "exceptional circumstance" by the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Let's Go, India!
Good Luck, Australia!
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Sunday, 3 October 2010

Tulele Peisa : Sailing the Waves on our Own : Climate change refugees

"Sailing the Waves on Our Own" 
the story of a people not defeated in the front line of Climate Change

When: 
Tuesday 5 October at 6.30pm for a 7pm start 
Where: 
RMIT Research Lounge, 
RMIT University Building 8, Level 5, 
Swanston St, Melbourne
Cost: 
$20 (wine and cheese included)

Natalie Lowery writes:

Dear Friends,

If you are in Melbourne please make the effort to hear my dear friend Ursula Rakova speak and support her organisation, Tulele Peisa (“sailing the waves on our own”) in the relocation of her people from the Cateret Islands to Bougainville.


Ursula will share her moving and inspiring stories of a people not defeated by the tough challenges of climate change in a country where the Government is too weak to respond to any crisis.

Comedian Rod Quantock will entertain you with his good humour consistent with the spirit of the Pacific islanders in the face of adversity.

The Carteret communities live a low-carbon lifestyle and yet they are bearing the full force of climate change. Coral atolls are geologically dynamic, but extreme weather events consistent with climate change have been creating havoc.

The story of the Carterets is one of hardships, courage and inspiration. They have progressed slowly but steadily despite not having received a single cent of the billions dollars worth of official climate change adaptation funds floating around the system so far.


Proceeds go to Tulele Peisa, the NGO set up to facilitate an ecologically and culturally sensitive relocation and resettlement program as well as for their advocacy work to call for an international CO2 emission reduction target of 350 parts per million, the safe limit for humanity according to scientists.
Book now: 
or pay on the door
If you are unable to book online,
 please RSVP by email: apvollie@acfonline.org.au 
for cash payment on the night
You can also make a donation online if you cannot make it: 
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The Wisdom of Birds: their songs, their sex life...and us

When I walk up Leicester Street in Carlton from Victoria Street, before one reaches the Green Building there are terraced units.  One of these has a postage stamp of a 'garden' with a lot happening in it.  Usually, I am walking up there to a meeting in the early evening.  Yesterday, I walked up Leicester Street en route to a conference in Queensberry Streeet just before 10 am.  The 'garden' was a hive of activity because of visitors - sparrows going to and fro.  Reason?  To greet other members of their species in aviaries on the front patio.  Trees, birds, chatter.  In spite, of the imprisonment of some, the whole scene was - to this member of a foreign species - quite joyful.

This provides my intro to this charming encounter arising from a Tweet by my desert blogging buddy, Robbo:
and here it is:


Make up your mind whether you would like
a bullfinch, a nightingale, a well-equipped male bird,
or even Professor Tim Birkhead himself.
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The locust, the bee and the farmer: another contribution to our environmental history - what consequences?


In the last few days, I have posted here and here about the so-called locust plague and Eris O'Brien's viewpoint. The Stateline story is now up on their website.  You can look at it - and particularly note Eris O'Brien's thoughtful presentation - here.

My interest began with my friend Denis over at The Nature of Robertson who has done quite a number of posts on the locust situation which you will find by going here.  Denis's postings are quite extensive and explicit and I won't attempt to comment - but please read his posts.  They are important.

I do want to say that it is about time that we of the human species woke up to ourselves.  Who/what is the greatest threat to our wildlife, our food and water sources, our environment?  It is us.  Not the locusts.  Us.  We are a plague to our planet.  And we are not considering wiping ourselves out are we?  What we do have to do, though, is ask ourselves a few questions about what we are doing and what direction we are taking.  And we have to learn from the mistakes of our past.  And the most eloquent voice in all this was Rachel Carson.  Perhaps Carson was not the first.  However, in our times her voice has been the most significant, far-reaching and followed.

Australians, in particular, need to look at their own track record.  Point me in the right direction, Networkers, if I am wrong but I think we could take the cake for the biggest environmental vandals on the planet.

We are up there with extinctions.  We are brilliant at land clearing.  We have a penchant for importing animals which become feral: the rabbit, the fox, the cane toad, etc.  They are the highly visible ones.  Go here for more information on our toxic importations.  Australians' use of pesticides, particularly in our food chain, continues with only limited abatement.  You might like to have a look at the article below, Networkers.

Over at The Nature of Robertson, Denis asks:
I have a view about this which might not be popular, but if the Victorian Government told their electors that they were going to spray vast areas of the State with many different chemicals, nearly all of which are highly toxic to bees - what would the reaction be?


Finally, I would like, Networkers, to draw your attention to the bee.

The blue-banded native bee with a tomato blossom

Much is made of the European honey bee and the fact that Australia is now the only country in which there is a wild population. In fact, Networkers, did you know that European honeybees collect 90% of available nectar and pollen but pollinate only about 5% of our plants?  In short, European honeybees are bludgers, free-loaders.  They can take their food without doing anything useful in return - like pollination.  The really hard yakka in the bee world in Australia is done by our very own native bees.  

One of the things we might all consider, Networkers, is our gardens and how our small urban and suburban patches can make a positive contribution to Australia's ecology. Here I would like to put in a word for that great native bee attractor, the Native Frangipani.  When I lived in tropical North Queensland in the shadow of the World Heritage listed rainforest, I grew a beautiful specimen.  My neighbours were busy planting foreign palm species - and had to ask what my huge and beautiful (yes it did get to be huge) tree was.  I believe it can be grown in quite diverse regions - besides the tropics.  Its beautiful, tiny, fragrant blossom attract those little black native bees well - like bees to a honeypot.  




I would ask, Networkers, that you have one more look at the Stateline program.  Look and listen and analyse what is being told to you in images and words in this locust segment.  It begins with Victoria's premier, John Brumby.  He doesn't say much - but it is clear that his presence gives this segment his imprimatur and adds to its stature.  Because of Brumby's presence, this gives status and stature to the locust story.  But how detailed is the information provided by the proponents of spraying?  I would say insufficiently detailed.  Insufficiently describing and circumscribing safety.  This contrasts with the detailed argument put forward by Eris O'Brien.

Related reading:
Australian Bee Lore and Bee Culture: Including the Influence of Bees on Crops and the Colour of Flowers and Its Influence on Bee Life [ 1912 ]




Commercial honey bees (Apis mellifera) reduce the fecundity of an Australian native bee (Hylaeus alcyoneus) [An article from: Biological Conservation]








Further reading:

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Saturday, 2 October 2010

Lateline & the lie that built the Northern Territory intervention

The Lie That Built The Northern Territory Intervention
at 6pm Wednesday October 13.

However, Networkers, it will be coming to somewhere near you.
Chris Graham outlined this in Melbourne 
at the Aboriginal New Way Summit back in July.
I didn't post about Chris's presentation then because it is done
with his commentary interspersed with the dissected video interview
telecast back in 2007 from Lateline.  
I found it difficult to convey its impact in a post.
So when Chris returns to Melbourne with this expose,
please go to see it.
You will see that the lie on which the NT Intervention is founded
is not only a lie - it is a conspiracy.

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Friday, 1 October 2010

Victoria and the coming chemical kill-off of locusts....wildlife & other insects

Eris O'Brien

Further to my previous post on Eris O'Brien and the locusts, Eris was part of a segment on the locusts on Victoria's Stateline to-night. Eris uses the term locust migration instead of locust plague.  He also speaks of other options.  He spoke of the experience of long-ago farmers in the Wimmera district who used repellent methods other than chemicals to deal with the periodic extremes of numbers of locusts.

I find amazing some omissions from the public information.

Firstly, we are not told exactly how organic farmers - agricultural and horticultural - are managing or what their views are.  Organic food production is on the rise.  There is an increasing demand for it from consumers.  I would like to know what organic food producers are planning to do in their part of the food cycle.  It is said there is not ready availability of organically suitable pesticides.  Is this correct?  Will these types of insecticides be in widespread or limited use?  What assurances do we have to their safety both for humans, for wildlife and beneficial insects?

Secondly, I have not heard from any food activists (ones that you hear from in regard to genetic modification of food or in  discussion about ethical consumerism) of their views on the chemicals about to enter our food chain.

Nitrothion 1000 appears to be the chemical of choice for killing the locusts and I have above published a document which can be downloaded in this regard.

On Statewide, all sorts of assurances were given:  there will be buffer zones; no spraying near waterways, beehive sites, and environmentally sensitive areas - so we are told.

The manner of conveying this information was brief and offhand.  Where Eris O'Brien is clear and detailed in explaining the situation from his viewpoint, the proponents and deliverers of death by insecticide to locusts and, I believe, other wildlife were not trying to convince anyone really.  Their words were placed - as far as I could assess - as an afterthought and merely as a matter of form  There was little or no attempt to explain, convince and assure.  And the whole Stateline segment appeared to have the imprimatur of John Brumby, Premier of Victoria, who participated in the beginning of the segment.  He did the reassuring with a well spoken version of  "she'll be right - we have the sprays" attitude.

The only one who put forward a point of view based on reason, experience, and science was Eris O'Brien.  He was convincing.  A pity the dominant view couldn't be bothered.  The dominant view clearly doesn't believe it has to convince anyone - and that everyone will just fall in behind their point of view and their execution of what is required to do a chemical kill-off of the locusts.  I would advise them to think again. I for one am not convinced.

I am new to Eris O'Brien's arguments - and, at the moment, I find his argument convincing.  Most convincing indeed!
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Nnimmo Bassie - environmental hero - an example of right livelihood


'Alternative Nobel Prize' Awarded to FoEI Chair Nnimmo Bassey
Friends of the Earth International,
the world's largest federation of grassroots environmental organisations,
is proud to announce that its chair, Nnimmo Bassey from Nigeria,
will be a recipient of the 2010 'Right Livelihood Award'.
The Right Livelihood Award,
often referred to as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize'
will be delivered in Stockholm on December 6.

PRESS RELEASE
Friends of the Earth International
September 30, 2010

'Alternative Nobel Prize' Awarded to FoEI Chair Nnimmo Bassey

STOCKHOLM (SWEDEN) / LAGOS (NIGERIA), September 30, 2010 – Friends of the Earth International, the world's largest federation of grassroots environmental organisations, is proud to announce that its chair, Nnimmo Bassey from Nigeria [1], will be a recipient of the 2010 'Right Livelihood Award'. [2]

The Right Livelihood Award, often referred to as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize' will be delivered in Stockholm on December 6.

The announcement that Nnimmo Bassey is one of the four 2010 Laureates was made today at a press conference at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Stockholm.

Nnimmo Bassey, who is also Executive Director of Friends of the Earth Nigeria, was nominated “for revealing the full ecological and human horrors of oil production and for his inspired work to strengthen the environmental movement in Nigeria and globally.”

Nnimmo Bassey, who is currently in Africa, said: "This award is a vindication of the just and resolute struggles for environmental justice by impacted communities globally. We want to see an end to the corporate crimes committed by oil giants like Shell in Nigeria and around the world.”

"Friends of the Earth and four Nigerian farmers recently filed a groundbreaking court case against Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell in the Netherlands for its massive oil pollution in Nigeria and we look forward to the first hearing which will take place in the coming months,” he added.

Nnimmo Bassey is one of Africa’s leading advocates and campaigners for the environment and human rights. Bassey has tirelessly stood up against the practices of multinational corporations and the environmental devastation they leave behind, destroying the lives and trampling on the rights of local people.

Official logo of the Right Livelihood Award.
Image via Wikipedia 
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