Topic: ecology
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This post is not a comprehensive survey of federal or NSW Govt policy and performance. Rather an activist wannabe politician's intuition and insight into some evolutions in the last several days.
* We called Bob Walshe OAM yesterday as friend, colleague, role model.
Now 85 years old, joint founder of Total Environment Centre in 1972 when he gathered 12 people together and asked Milo Dunphy to be the director. Also founder of Sutherland Shire Environment Centre. He's been known to wear bad brown suits and is a wiry bright eyed intrepid thinker. However he is not so well at the moment but still loved and respected in that part of the world for being so real. Last year he had us loading boxes of leaflets and distributing my share of 10,000 or so.
Our excuse was to congratulate him on being recognised as one of 100 top "most influential people" in Sydney in 2008 in the Sydney Morning Herald colour magazine. This guy is green. The Herald story didn't have a picture of the man in action because he has been resting at home. We've been searching for a picture at a recent rally outside Macquarie St where Bob was present and we might find it yet. Here he is in a related newspaper:
* The same day we heard Nathan Rees as new Premier on abc radio refer to NSW as smart, energetic (or something like that) "and green". Well we wonder.You can say it Mr Rees. But it's going to take alot more than a few solar panels to change the real record. It's a good thing you are young - it's a long long journey ahead champ. The trouble with ALP politicians is that when the heat is on they tend to melt like chocolate figures. We reached a different conclusion about the real ALP years ago as the loggers won 20 year resource guarantees from the then Carr Govt in 1999 - in effect just as intense level of logging in the public's estate for private profit.
* Just recently the Rudd Govt, which is indeed close to the Rees NSW Govt, was on front of The Australian newspaper being pressured by other world leaders like Nobel Prize winner Al Gore, former US Vice President, and Prime Minister of the UK Gordon Brown. Their concern was Australia backsliding on commitments to the next round of treaty negotiations on climate change emissions. Recently Monica Oliphant an Australian from the International Solar Energy Society noted 193 countries of smaller emissions than us are watching our efforts in Australia as a symbolic indicator of the real intentions of the developed world. These 194 countries in total comprise 30% of global emissions.
Not surprisingly The Greens, with their official party status in Federal Parliament now see an opportunity to further shift the whole political spectrum despite sledges by PM Rudd on 7.30 recently about aggrieved "radicals" and preferring the middle path. Al Gore? Gordon Brown? 193 countries that expect better? Mmm. Here are The Greens in a Media Release recently:
Wong's Howard game at climate talks will send voters to the GreensSent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 10:06 AM
Hobart, Wednesday 10 December 2008
The electorate will not forgive the Rudd Government for holding back
global progress towards responsible emissions reductions, the Australian
Greens today.
Climate Change Minister Penny Wong is taking the Howard Government's
negotiating tactics to the Poznan meeting, adopting the same positions
and even flying the same negotiators, led by Jan Adams and Robert Owen
Jones, to the conference. The Greens now provide the only real
alternative for voters who want to see action to protect the climate.
"Australians who voted last year to end the Howard decade of climate
denial will be deeply troubled by what the Rudd Government is doing,"
Australian Greens Deputy Leader and Climate Change Spokesperson, Senator
Christine Milne, said.
"As Minister Wong prepares to deliver plans for Australia which will
refuse to grapple seriously with the problem, she is laying the
groundwork in Poznan by help to hold back global progress.
"The clear reports from Poznan are that Australia is still blocking the
25-40% negotiating range in order to justify what it plans to do next
week.
"There is no way that Penny Wong will allow the rest of the world to
show up Australia's backwardness by adopting a 25-40% negotiating range.
"Nobody should be in any doubt that the Rudd Government is intent on
trying to save its own image at the expense of people and ecosystems
from the poverty-stricken in Bangladesh to Queensland's coastal
communities to farmers in the Murray-Darling."
Australia won runner up "Fossil of the Day" award from the Climate
Action Network yesterday for supporting Japan's move to shift the agreed
emissions baseline from 1990 to 2000.
The Rudd Government is also playing a dangerous game over forestry
negotiations.
"The hypocrisy of continuing to log our own tremendous carbon stores in
Tasmania and Victoria while lecturing Indonesia and PNG on protecting
their own forests is beginning to provoke angry responses.
"It is utterly reprehensible that the Rudd Government will not take on
the State Governments and require them to stop logging these magnificent
stores of carbon and biodiversity that are our beautiful forests.
"Australians voted 12 months ago to move on from Howard-era climate
politics, and they will be deeply troubled to see that very little has
changed under Kevin Rudd."
Come join the conversation at GreensBlog <http://greensmps.org.au/blog>
* Forests of course are greatly related to climate regulation because of the "green carbon" not only above ground but in massive quantities in the soil of a living healthy forest according to ground breaking research by CRES at Australian National University. Which makes the ALP's evil attitude to destruction of forests so disgusting. We have written often of this over the last 2 years. Here are some reminders and some other issues that show the theme of "beige" ALP:
Picture above and more below: Community rally at Botany Bay Beach off Foreshore Rd, Botany Saturday 3rd March 2007, against expansion of Port Botany guaranteed to increase toxic transport congestioni??in most of southern metropolitan Sydney. Shade was a premium under the burning late summer day.
