« January 2007 »
S M T W T F S
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30 31
Entries by Topic
All topics  «
about editor
advertise?
aust govt
big media
CommentCode
contact us
corporates
culture
donations to SAM
ecology
economy
education
election nsw 2007
election Oz 2007
free SAM content
globalWarming
health
human rights
independent media
indigenous
legal
local news
nsw govt
nuke threats
peace
publish a story
water
wildfires
world
zero waste
zz
Blog Tools
Edit your Blog
Build a Blog
RSS Feed
View Profile
official indymedia
Sydney
Perth
Ireland
ecology action Australia
ecology action
.
Advertise on SAM
details for advertisers
You are not logged in. Log in

sydney alternative media - non-profit community independent trustworthy
Monday, 8 January 2007
Real safety at home, streets ..... mental health funding: Greens
Mood:  bright
Topic: election nsw 2007

[Press release follows, bold added]

MEDIA RELEASE
8 January 2007

Increase in funding first response to mental health crisis 

Greens MP Lee Rhiannon said today that the present crisis in the mental
health system will continue while the NSW and federal governments
continue to underspend in this crucial area.

*The death of a nine months old baby is an indictment of a mental
health system in crisis and responsibility does have to come back to
government policy and lack of adequate funding,* said Ms Rhiannon.

*Premier Morris Iemma said mental health was one of his three
priorities when he came into office. His track record has not matched
his fine words.

*In 2004-5 the mental health budget was underspent by approximately
$10 million. NSW has spent less than other states and territories in
this area.

*The death of this baby should be a giant wake up call for Premier
Iemma.

*Australia spends far less on mental health compared to equivalent
countries. Because of this lack of funding only about 40 per cent of
people with a mental illness are diagnosed and less than half of those
receive adequate treatment.

*This means that only one in five people with a significant
psychological problem is getting the treatment and care they need.

*A World Health Organisation report released last year on the most
appropriate treatment for mental health found that a 30 per cent
increase in funding would lead to a 90 per cent improvement in the
number of people recovering from a mental illness.

*An increase in funding would be an important step to preventing
another innocent person being killed by a person suffering from a mental
illness. It would also be a highly cost-effective investment in reducing
the number of hospitalisations from acute mental illness.

*A boost in funding would allow for an expansion of community-based
services across the state, particularly in regional and rural NSW.

*The Greens are campaigning for the expansion of facilities such as
Callan Park across the state,* Ms Rhiannon said.

For more information: Lee Rhiannon ....


Posted by editor at 10:33 AM EADT
Plastic bras and ribbons better than bags
Mood:  amorous
Topic: zero waste

More from irrepressible Lyndall McCormack, internet agitator and  green granny from Padstow, in the wake of high profile Ian Kiernan on the ABC 702 radio this morning calling for 'the next step' on our dodgy plastic bag habit:

Plastic bag levy failing

[To be fair Lyndall sent this through before the Herald story but I was busy cycling to Killara (see previous story) in topic 'election Australia 2007':

Why did student activist now minister Tony Abbott punch Peter Woof?]

Here are some constructive (?) uses of recycled plastic via the Lyndall net vacuum cleaner:

# 1

Bows bows bows, everywhere you look. I love it! I've not worn a ribbon in my hair since I was knee-high to a grasshopper and I don't think I could get away with wearing one now. So this Plastic Bow Barrette from Urban Outfitters is a nice grown up alternative (yeah right). Now you can wear a bow in your hair without looking like a sap or an overgrown schoolgirl. Best part is it's on sale for a paltry $6.99, bad news - only in the US [insert full on girly tantrum here].

[Indeed so popular it looks like its been sold out at the link above: editor]

 

# 2

JAPAN: Triumph launches shopping bag bra

9 November 2006| Source: just-style.com

In a bid to highlight waste caused by the use of free plastic shopping bags, Triumph International Japan has showcased new lingerie that can be converted into a shopping bag.

http://www.just-style.com/article.aspx?ID=95570&lk=ht

[submission login required]

#3

Sustainability: Free Master Recycler Plastics Roundup Feb 3 2007

[How they round up the plastic waste in Washington USA]

#4

DIY sector in UK comes under waste reduction scrutiny in UK

http://www.packagingnews.co.uk/newsproducts.php?category=Industry+News

Sunday, January 07, 2007

WRAP turns attention to home improvement sector

Packaging use in the home improvement market is to come under scrutiny from the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) as it seeks to add to its progress in the grocery sector.
WRAP staged a dinner for some of the home improvements sector’s biggest players last month to kick off its programme of work in the area, which will include looking at how packaging can limit damage to products.
Mark Barthel, WRAP’s special advisor on retail and innovation, said the DIY and home improvement sector was “second only to grocery in terms of the impact it has on lifestyle behaviour”.
Later in the year WRAP will also turn its attention to the packaging employed by major internet retailers, including Amazon, and the grocery retailers’ web sales channels.
WRAP’s main focus so far has been on the grocery sector, where it has signed up 13 retailers and three brand owners to the Courtauld Commitment, the landmark agreement implemented to reduce packaging and food waste.
WRAP is also seeking applications for its £8m Waste Minimisation Innovation Fund in two new streams.
One will provide funding for schemes that can reduce household packaging waste. The deadline for applications is 31 January.
For more information, visit www.wrap.org.uk.

 


Posted by editor at 9:40 AM EADT
Why did student activist now minister Tony Abbott punch Peter Woof?
Mood:  quizzical
Topic: election Oz 2007

The editor had an interesting interview recently with long time qualified high school teacher here in NSW, and Canada, Peter Woof, a long time supporter of environmental causes.

He tells an interesting story from his parents lounge room in Killara  (a pretty exclusive north shore suburb of Sydney):

In 1978 25 year old Woof stood up to student politician, now federal government health minister, Tony Abbott who he says was allegedly caught doing unethical or perhaps illegal things like changing the locks on the student union offices and other things.

Woof says Abbott, a well known boxing enthusiast now if not then, punched Woof in the face. Woof was a 24 year old technician employed at Sydney University.

The date can be corroborrated by reference to civil assault suit documentation against Abbott presumably created for Woof in the Glebe local court at the time. Woof represented himself but was totally out muscled financially, he says, by 'half a dozen' barristers and lawyers who turned up at the preliminary hearing turning the civil suit into a high risk of huge legal costs against the alleged assault victim Woof.

Woof assumes these expensive lawyers taking a student activist dispute to another level were paid for by Abbott's 'rich father'. (It also suggests a serious fear of a  blossoming conservative political career almost destroyed at birth.)

This legal bullying tactic arguably at the expense of justice has the echo of the vexatious legal suit by Gunns Ltd bullying of Tasmanian environmentalists in the last few years.

Woof withdrew the civil suit he says under financial duress.

Peter Woof is a very experienced and qualifed person. He has an engineering degree. He is a qualified radio operator and mechanic who ws driving an LPG 4 cyllinder sedan in the early 1980's years before LPG was so popular. He owns his own house.

Woof is no shrinking violet. He is a friend and colleague of anti pirate whaler Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd fame.  Woof has participated in environmental protests including conviction for entirely peaceful protests against a nuclear warship in Sydney Harbour and the docking of a rainforest timber ship in the 1980ies and 90ies. During this period in 1986 Woof held down a high school teaching job in Bombala, a well known 'Timber Town' in NSW.

The Canadian teaching accreditation authority are aware of this lively history and have endorsed Woof's employment as a talented and committed non prosletising high school teacher. He is flying out today to continue his teaching job in remote Saskatchewan Canada

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provinces_and_territories_of_Canada

Woof notes that global warming has massively contracted the viability of traditional 'winter roads' (over frozen swamp and bog) in remote Saskatchewan, such that only one month mid January to mid February is now safe for high volume road transport during winter. This is too small a window he says to properly provision remote areas prefacing a depopulation of large swathes of North America in the future.

Peter Woof can be contacted by email on:

[pwoof dot bigpond dot net dot au]

Woof whose eyesight is suffering long sightedness in middle older age is no longer able to do much close work but obviously has some very interesting tales to tell still in his career of environmental advocacy back to the Franklin River blockades and earlier.

The alleged assault by Tony Abbott was openly discussed at a recent reunion of the Sydney Bushwalkers Club in 2006 and there are likely to be several sources to corroborate this version of student activist history of the 1970's here in Sydney.

One such witness in the 1970's approached Woof (attending with his elderly parents) at the dinner and said words to the effect of "It's a pity Peter you didn't knock Tony Abott's block off when you had the chance."

Obviously the student politics back then was very willing. Woof's social companion who made this comment unprompted is now a senior executive with a NSW Govt agency (details held by the editor).


Posted by editor at 8:58 AM EADT
Updated: Friday, 13 July 2012 9:07 AM NZT
Sunday, 7 January 2007
Debnam targets ALP slush fund where it hurts?
Mood:  d'oh
Topic: election nsw 2007

The state election skirmishing is hotting up as reported here previously in the ecology topic list at:

 

'Dioxin in Sydney Harbour is much bigger than a quick and dirty $40M fix?' index.blog?topic_id=1083693

 

Today's press carries veteran Alex Mitchell on the choreography of the election debate here: Deep-seated differences create a debate debacle

 

But what really caught this writer's eye was this story in Fairfax about the abuse of taxpayer's money yesterday:

 

 Leaflet on water drips with spin: Opposition

 in a rerun of the Carr ALP green tinted advertising strategy in 1999 about 'saving forests and jobs'.

 

(In fact 1 million tonnes of woodchips was shipped off from NSW out of natural forests in 2006 by the same ALP govt, as per every year since their 1999 advertising eg refer http://www.forests.org.au/chipstop).

 

This is in a long line of fraud policy performance on the environment by the Carr now Iemma ALP NSW govt documented here:

 

Carr alp dodges 1999-2003

 

and here

 

Carr dodges 95-99

 

and here

 

Lake Cowal Scandal in Central NSW, cyanide leaching for gold

 

and here

 

Nov 06 - Alarm of independent greens over miner 'Environment Foundation' pay off to badly compromised 'peak' greens

 

This writer can't quite recall the green tinged abuse of tax dollars in govt adverts in the 2003 NSW election but it's a well worn path now, and at Coalition Federal government level too abusing taxpayer funds as a party political slush fund.

In truth money politics has broken democracy in Australia as we sleep walk to dangerous climate change. That's why both ALP and Coalition get away with this corruption.

 

This quote from the article seems quite worthy:

 

"The Opposition Leader, Peter Debnam, has promised to legislate if he wins office to get the Labor Party to pay back the money [$1.25M plus $4M?] for the advertisements."

 

in Leaflet on water drips with spin: Opposition Sydney Morning Herald 6/1/07

 

Will Debnam keep that promise if he wins? That's a very big IF.

 


Posted by editor at 8:10 AM EADT
Updated: Sunday, 7 January 2007 9:04 AM EADT
Plastic: What's in it, and is it safe?
Mood:  sharp
Topic: zero waste

Lyndall McCormack of Padstow, a waste reduction activist writes with this confronting story

Plastic: What's in it, and is it safe?
January 2, 2007


By Romana King, CBC News


We bathe with it, clean with it, play with it and eat off it. Plastic. It's a petroleum engineer's dream and a product manufacturer's best friend. It allows for lighter, tougher and better packaging and provides cheaper options for gifts and merchandise.

Yet, the very substance that revolutionized consumer goods may actually be harming us.

Plastic is raising concerns among researchers that in some forms it may be toxic and dangerous - not only to the environment but also to human health. While it's everywhere in modern society, there are options for those who want to minimize the use of plastic.


Toxins

While plastics haven't been definitively linked with health problems, studies show the prevalence in our bodies of chemicals used in plastic and the correlation between these chemicals and health issues.

One study, released in June by Environmental Defence, a national advocacy group, tested a sample of Canadian children and parents for the preponderance of 68 chemicals, all found in consumer products. The findings showed that on average the participants' bodies contained levels of 70 per cent of these contaminants. What's worse is that children had higher levels than their parents.

According to Kathleen Cooper, senior researcher at the Toronto-based Environmental Law Association, plastic itself is not the problem. It's some of the material used to make plastic that is harmful.

"Manufacturers all over the world use chemicals that soften, stabilize and create malleable plastic products. These chemicals contain phthalates and other dioxins that are known endocrine disruptors," Cooper said.

Add in toxic metals, such as lead, which is used for colour, stabilization and as a flame-retardant.


Lax regulations

"The use of these chemicals is totally unregulated internationally," Cooper said. "So even if there is a voluntary agreement in domestic markets, the cheap stuff from developing countries or export processing zones makes it on to our shelves and into our homes."

Among the more worrying materials for contaminate leaching is PVC (polyvinyl chloride), commonly referred to as vinyl. The chemicals leached during the PVC lifecycle include mercury, dioxins and phthalates. PVC is used in numerous consumer products, including adhesives, detergents, lubricating oils, solvents, automotive plastics, plastic clothing, personal-care products (such as soap, shampoo, deodorants, fragrances, hair spray, nail polish), as well as toys and building materials.

Organizations including the U.S.-based National Toxicology Program, the Environmental Protection Agency, the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health agree that vinyl is one of only 52 chemicals/compounds designated as a confirmed human carcinogen. As a result, many groups, including Greenpeace, Children's Health and Environmental Coalition (CHEC) and the US-based Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ) advocate a restriction or prohibition of PVC in all consumer products including toys, building materials and packaging.

Even though numerous studies, including a 2003 Center for Disease Control research report that documented human exposure to 116 chemicals, show heightened levels of toxins in people linked to PVC exposure, governmental and industry regulation in North America is minimal at best.

In the past decade there has been only one voluntary withdrawal issued in North America for toys containing one specific phthalate. In contrast is the European Union's responSE: Seven years ago the EU banned six separate phthalates in children's toys, and it continues to review and amend its list.

"Ultimately, governments have a responsibility to regulate things that impact people's health," says Brian McCarry, department head of chemistry at McMaster University and an expert on environmental contaminants. "The European Union is by far ahead in this capacity; they are more prepared to step in and use precautionary principles."


Consumer responsibility

In the absence of government controls, many advocacy groups are calling on consumers to get involved. Particularly, Cooper said, since the current method of regulation allows trade to trump health.

"People need to get upset about this. It has to be consumers voting with their wallets; consumers expressing concern," Cooper said.

By demanding alternatives - through letter-writing campaigns and purchasing power - consumers are creating a market for less toxic, more sustainable products. While the number of products made of toxic PVC can seem overwhelming, there are alternatives as the number of viable, natural and non-chlorinated plastic substitutes in the market grows.


Labels and packaging

At present, labelling laws do not require manufacturers to list all toxins used in the creation of their product. However, there are easy ways to recognize a PVC-based toy or produCT: Look for the three-arrow "recycling" symbol with the number 3 or the initials PVC, which indicates polyvinyl chloride. If neither symbol is present, then call the manufacturer's question/comment line (usually a toll-free 800 number) listed on the package or label.

Another clue to look for is the use of malleable or soft plastic. This can be found in toys, but also on clothing, bed linens and packaging. Read the labels and when in doubt, opt for a different product.


Toys

For those concerned about what's in toys but unable to do extensive research on what they contain due to the holiday-buying rush, pick toy manufacturers who opt for non-PVC-based plastic. These brands incluDE: Chicco, Evenflo, Gerber, International Playthings (including Primetime and Early Start), Lego, Sassy, Thomas and Tiny Love. According to Greenpeace's Toy Report Card, Discovery Toys and Manhattan Baby also provide an extensive selection of PVC-free toys, but some products do still contain it.

Another alternative is to purchase toys made from organic cotton or certified sustainable wood. Companies that specialize in these fibres incluDE: Brio, Lamaze, Melissa & Doug, Thomas and Woodkits, to name a few.

Alternatives to PVC

While avoiding all plastics is advised by some, it is not always practical. Thankfully, not all plastics are created equal.

Look for other plastics that are considered less harmful, such as #1 PETE, #2 HDPE, #4 LDPE and #5 PP. While these plastics also leach chemicals, studies suggest that their level of toxicity is not as great as with PVC products.

Here are some suggestions for ways to avoid plastic this holiday season:

Packaging

a.. Choose refillable containers. Glass, for example, can be re-used for food storage.
b.. Choose packaging that's made from truly recyclable materiaLS: paper, glass, metal cans. (Purchasing recycled paper products completes the recycling loop, too.)
c.. Buy in bulk, whenever possible. It's the least-packaged option.
d.. For wrapped foods, choose butcher paper, waxed paper or cellulose bags.
e.. Bring cloth bags when you go shopping, rather than using PVC-based plastic bags.
f.. Choose things made from #1 (PETE) or #2 (HDPE) whenever plastic cannot be avoided. These are the most commonly recycled plastics.
g.. Avoid plastics that aren't readily recyclabLE: #3 (PVC), #4 (LDPE), #5 (PP), #6 (PS), #7 (often polycarbonate).
h.. Avoid single-use, disposable packaging.
Other tips
a.. Bring your own non-plastic container to salad bars, yogurt shops, etc. - any place you'd otherwise be served food in plastic containers.
b.. Avoid plastic cutlery and dinnerware. Use stainless steel utensils and look for recycled paper products.
c.. Microwave foods and drinks in oven-proof glass or ceramic dishes with lids. Never let plastic wrap touch food while in the microwave, as this is one way chemicals are suspected of leaching from plastic into food.
d.. When purchasing cling-wrapped foods from the supermarket or deli, slice off a thin layer where the food came into contact with the plastic and store the rest in a glass or ceramic container, or in non-PVC cling wrap.


remote Posted by editor at 7:48 AM EADT
Updated: Sunday, 7 January 2007 9:06 AM EADT
It's all going to happen in the next 5 years: native Ecuadorian
Mood:  cheeky
Topic: local news

The editor took a cycle (not the bike in this image) down to the Glebe Point Rd cafes yesterday, saving petrol and parking headaches, improving the cardio-respiratory health, to check out the really beautiful people you don’t read about in the press: Glebe Market – too much fun on a Saturday silly season holiday.

 

A superb café called Fair Trade was surprisingly calm as I chewed through the Sydney Morning Herald for story lines, tea, coffee, toast (as reported here:

 

index.blog?topic_id=1083704

 

It's the kind of cafe you could find Nick Possum 

 

http://www.brushtail.com.au/

 

drinking cider in. 

 

I read about kids falling out of the sky to be caught by public heroes, and other kids tragically hanging to death in a copy cat of YouTube judicial murder of Saddam: No doubt as unsympathetic a case as you will ever find, yet proving why the death penalty is stupid for degrading humanity generally. In true form Saddam with the aid of the Western puppet Iraqi government unintentionally manages to kill a few more on the way out.

 

As I read on a toddler exclaims “…. and toast too, and toast too?” which sounded fine to me. Another toddler grimaced and whimpered at the sight of the amazing carved crocodile coffee table to strains of pater “It’s okay, it’s not real”. Obviously not a Bindi Irwin fan yet.

 

Time to kick on to the market. This fine young woman in blue was collecting for the UNHCR, that is refugees, more here http://www.unhcr.org.au/

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To assuage my guilt and relative poverty I explained I sent my money direct to Clean Up Columbia:

 

Clean Columbia help 1/06

 

And before that to a so far winning Chilean campaign:

 

Patagonia project

 

Phew! We agreed her short term approach and my long term approach were complimentary regarding tens of millions of greenhouse refugees. For the record she told me no photographs were allowed by her employer. Curiously the collector for admirable Medicines San Frontiers

 

 http://www.msf.org.au/

 

said the same. Big media causing trouble again?

 

Into the stalls and the crowd of indeed beautiful young adults. John Fogarty CD in concert. Not today. Flick through a book on pre Columbian art, Hieronymus Bosch etc and a good chat about medieval history with the stallholder. Onto another curious one about Russian spies and of course Pilger but not today. We are deep in bobo i.e. bourgeoisie bohemian territory already when I chat with a 2nd stall guy who sells me 30 Van Gogh postcards for $5. He also has the ‘2 disc special edition of the original Wages of Fear, and Clooney/Kidman’s The Peacemaker DVDs for $5 each. Choice again, with a mean side serving of West Wing tv series etc analysis.

 

Another stall and another book I can’t resist: Sydney's Mark Aarons et al‘The secret war against the Jews’ with Spycatcher’s Peter Wright on the dust jacket. This will test my own politics I reckon.

 

A circuit around the alluring clothes racks, chat with the stylish recycled bling table, the stick button shop, and then wow, I see a dream and for a second we stare into eachother's eyes (Gene Wilder’s The Woman in Red springs to inadequate mind, in light green  actually, fair complexion and long straight reddish hair. What does Mark Knopfler sing – “made me feel 19 again”. Yep, that’s Glebe Market with not a Paris Hilton or Nicole within cooee.

 

A sweet south American folk song at a craft stall lingers so I ask the indigenous Ecudorian player what’s it about: Disturbingly he explains it’s of an older man in love with a younger woman in Spanish thankfully. We chat about politics. He tells me natives were being castrated in the jungle up to 30 years ago, and killed for $40 a head. No warning, just wham, let me have it unvarnished and oh so real. Our western comfort zone is so fake. 

 

I tell him about the very scary Herald story on climate change: “It’s all going to happen in the next 5 years” he says “I tell you, I know. I am having dreams about it every night.” We shake on that sad thought.

 

A delicious falafel roll (garlic sauce with a dash of chilli) fair value at $6.50 eaten next to this sign which reads "Land clearing/It's tearing NSW apart" courtesy The Wilderness Society, God bless 'em:


A chat on the phone to my disabled vollie Carol and I am about to “cut a track” as they say when I spot a book through the wire fence ‘Touching the void’ by Joe Simpson. Must have it for the pictures alone – a true record of a dissolving reality.

 

Declaration: The Glebe Market advertises with the Alternative Media Group which employs the editor of this otherwise independent www.sydneyalternativemedia.com/blog

 


Posted by editor at 7:18 AM EADT
Updated: Sunday, 7 January 2007 9:31 AM EADT
Saturday, 6 January 2007
Terrorists won't kill Sydney's real estate market, but global warming will
Mood:  don't ask
Topic: globalWarming

All the press in Sydney today, and the lead story on ABC 7pm tv news are awash with the 5 odd rocket launchers that are allegedly in the hands of local terrorists. The leading coverage has been in the Fairfax press, as here:

Stolen launchers 'target N-plant'

Five stolen Australian Army rocket launchers are in the hands of a home-grown terrorist group, say police.

The American Express building in the CBD as well as Lucas Heights Nuclear Reactor in outer suburban Sydney are mentioned as targets.

This writer through community newspaper distribution over the last several years can vouch for the suspiciously high security in the vicinity of the American Express building. Similarly there are two other places at least in inner Sydney we are aware of with similarly curious increase in security: The extra police nearby, the rubbish bins removed, the official staff scanning patrons entry and exit. That kind of thing. And not the most obvious places like the Sydney Opera House or Harbour Bridge.

As for Lucas Heights Reactor, recently replaced at enormous and wasteful cost, as an avowed anti nuclear person the delivery vehicle for Alternative Media press carries this poster:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some experts are quoted today saying the reactor has such thick concrete a rocket would never get through. The problem with this advice is most never would have believed the twin towers could collapse on Sept 11 2001 in New York either. Secondly even a military dunce can envision multiple rocket strikes onto an already weakened concrete shell etc etc.

As the guy running the climbing gym at Tempe commented today as he scanned his newspaper "this is a real worry". What are the odds most of Sydney who aren't too busy having holidays will be thinking exactly the same thing with consequent broad political impact? National security credentials of the federal government are indeed being "questioned".

But the Fairfax SMH press excelled itself for scaring the bejesus out of it's readers today on another front: Errorism is one thing of perhaps limited if extreme impact (absent reactor meltdowns), but dangerous climate change on the other hand will almost certainly finish Sydney and sooner than people realise the way things are going now.

The full page feature

 Cold comfort in climate change

spilling onto a second page, quoting eminent scientists like James Hansen of NASA, was if anything worse than terrorist rocket launchers or even radioactive plumes. Curiously the article is last on their web index of national news but it was alot more prominent in the weekend paper version and for good reason too. 

An early quote is indeed chilling:

"Chemical analyses of the tiny bubbles of air in Greenland ice cores establish that the last ice age started to teeter about 14,700 years ago. As it gathered momentum, melt-water poured into the oceans, raising levels by half a metre or more each decade. The sea moved inland like a slow tsunami at a rate of up to 450 metres a year."

[bold added]

Another quote just as serious:

"[James Hansen of NASA] concludes in an article in Climatic Change on the storing of heat in the oceans that "any increase in global temperature beyond 1 degree could trigger runaway melting of the world's icesheets". Shrinking ice means less sunlight gets reflected and more gets absorbed, exacerbating the problem of warming. "Even 1 degree additional warming may be highly undesirable; 2 to 3 degrees is clearly a different planet," he says.

The first act looks to have played out in the Arctic Circle this northern summer, when large freshwater lakes formed on the Greenland icesheet and then drained away to the depths. Fred Pearce, writing in Britain's The Guardian, records how scientists observed, within hours of the lakes forming, that the vast icesheets rose up, as if floating on water, and slid towards the ocean. The Penn State University glaciologist Richard Alley commented: "We used to think that it would take 10,000 years for melting at the surface of an icesheet to penetrate down to the bottom. Now we know it doesn't take 10,000 years; it takes 10 seconds."

Pearce says: "This highlights why scientists are panicky about the sheer speed and violence with which climate change could take hold. They are realising that their old ideas about gradual change - the smooth lines on graphs showing warming and sea-level rise and gradually shifting weather patterns - are not how the world's climate system works." (New research on the Ross Ice Shelf reveals that collapses over the past 3 million years have taken place very rapidly, with sea levels rising by between 7 and 17 metres.)

The quickening pace of that understanding is proving daunting to climate-change science watchers (but not, it would seem, the politicians).

Hansen stresses the urgency of the policy response. "I think we have a very brief window of opportunity to deal with climate change … no longer than a decade," he said last year.

If he is right we now have nine years at most, and there has been no let-up in emissions growth since then. And the latest UN conference on climate change could not even agree on a timetable for vital decisions on curbing emissions."

[bold added]

Yet in October last Fairfax was running on it's front page a graphic claiming only a 1 metre rise by 2100 here

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/10/29/1162056867073.html

in a story called "Our vanishing future" on page 1 that had all of Sydney talking, but were they misled into false mild concern?

The opening text is here under the following image of a token, highly manageable, 1 metre sea rise:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Caption] "Now and then … the Herald's digital projection of how the approach to Spit Bridge might look by the next century."

Our vanishing future

Wendy Frew
October 30, 2006
THIS is a picture of Sydney's future. Rising sea levels will submerge or threaten billions of dollars worth of property, both public and private, by 2100. 
Based on conservative projections of the effects of climate change, scientific modelling done for the Herald by University of Sydney researchers show many waterfront areas, including the Spit Bridge, Manly ferry terminal and Nielsen Park, are at risk from a sea level rise of less than a metre." [bold added]

This writer lampooned the 1 metre figure at the time (on the currently defunct Sydney Indymedia website) as bogus and more like "7 metres" and this view is corroborated by Fairfax themselves today. Seems the Fairfax earlier version of reality is already redundant. By the above equation in the revised version of reality 6th January 2006 we are talking at least 4.5 metres sea rise by 2100 at 1/2 a metre a decade. That will kill Sydney as we know it in 94 years time, but it will also kill the property economy NOW.

How so? Well who is taking out 30 year mortgages on flood prone land for the rest of their lives? That's how sensitive the issue really is - the economic and political impacts now.

Funny revision too by Fairfax because their own science writer at least countenances a 6 metre sea rise back in August 2006 as here:

http://blogs.smh.com.au/science/archives/2006/08/science_hoaxes.html

But how could this sea rise happen so soon and so dramatically stuffing the plans of so many economists and politicians and industrialists and their triumphant western capitalist system? A quote in today's article gives the answer so it is worth repeating from above:

"We used to think that it would take 10,000 years for melting at the surface of an icesheet to penetrate down to the bottom. Now we know it doesn't take 10,000 years; it takes 10 seconds."

It's those damn crevasses, like the one that swallowed up and killed Australian Mountaineer Sue Fear earlier this year: The melted water gurgles to the bottom of the ice shelf and loosens and floats the ice into the ocean much faster than anyone realised. In short dangerous climate change.

.............................

On a lighter note, and everthing is lighter than the end of civilisation as we know it, the press today had some silly season uplifting stories:

- Two guys in New York apparently caught, like a football, a toddler falling from a high balcony and saved the lucky child's life.

- Another hero in New York jumped onto the train tracks and saved a man suffering an epileptic fit, with both retrieved from under the train's 2nd or so carriage intact, and despite the electrified third rail. Go figure.

- A fiesty goat that counter attacked the knife man, was duly called George after the US President and spared from slaughter in a middle eastern country.

- The 'G team' from Australia won the World University Debating championships. Really. Doesn't auger well for Teams A to F or Oxford and Cambridge teams does it? Or perhaps they are just the champs they are now truly acknowledged to be: Meet the G whizzes who beat the rest of the world

- There was even a big feature story in Fairfax on ethical reasons to bail out the world's poor by author/professor Peter Singer called "Hey buddy, you can spare a few billion" (not online). Which raises the whole question of a global rich tax for the poor.

- a guy called Dave Evans who dumped ACDC to join a band called Rabbit in 1974 and thus made way for Bon Scott, will do a tribute to Bon (who got this writer through an at times mind numbing double uni degree with the anthem "It's a long way to the top".) RIP Bon Scott: www.bonscottconcert.com.au

- last but not least the blonde airheads were in force in the gossip pages but not this snippet: My source who sells bling at the Roscoe St market stalls at Bondi says Paris Hilton was given a sarong from another stall down there and wore it for a whole day recently. Seems usually she is paid $1000s to change 4 times a day to model designer rubbish, so this is considered quite a retail coup. Go figure. Meanwhile the dear and highly intelligent Nicole Kidman of The Interpreter etc is still being harrassed by stupid "paps".


Posted by editor at 10:43 PM EADT
Updated: Thursday, 8 February 2007 7:06 AM EADT
PM Howard wins 'most embarrassing' Australian in 2006: FHM Magazine
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: big media

 

A contributor has emailed us this 'strange but true' story in the NZ Herald of 3rd January 07 based on a Reuters report which perhaps is equal parts summer silly season, and real politik sledging as the tide turns on W Bush Presidency with the Democrats taking ostensible control of both houses of Congress in the USA as here:

"The Democrats are back: Pelosi opens a new era in Washington"

as reported 6th January 2007 in the UK Independent here:

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2125400.ece

The story on so called embarrassing Howard relies on the 'impeccable popular culture source' ahem, that is FHM magazine which is a porn glossy published by Emap in 15 countries and is said to be "the biggest selling men's magazine in Australia & New Zealand" (refer below), based on a blokey survey of a very big sample of 10,000 readers:

The NZ Herald story runs as follows:

Howard voted most embarrassing Aussie

Wednesday January 03, 2007

SYDNEY - Australian Prime Minister John Howard may be popular with voters, winning four elections in 10 years, but he has been voted the nation's most embarrassing Aussie in a survey of 10,000 readers of a major men's magazine.

The 2006 "Bloke Awards" in the latest FHM magazine ranged from best real and fake boobs, best beer, movie and punch, biggest sook and most embarrassing Australian.

Howard, who is often ridiculed by cartoonists and comedians for his diminutive stature and bushy eyebrows, picked up most embarrassing Aussie for 2006, narrowly ahead of recently retired Olympic swimmer Ian Thorpe.

Thorpe is regularly lampooned by Australian media for his "metrosexual" fashion style.

Biggest sook went to Australian drug smuggler Schapelle Corby, who is serving a 20-year sentence in a Bali jail after being caught with a surf bag stuffed with marijuana. She claims she was set up by corrupt airport baggage handlers.

Best punch went to Australian rugby league forward Willie Mason for his "king hit" on British player Stuart Fielden, which left Fielden so concussed he reportedly forgot his mother was dead and had to be reminded by team mates.

And best beer went to Crown Lager, the country's original premium beer launched in 1953 to celebrate the coronation of Britain's Queen Elizabeth, who is also Australia's monarch.

REUTERS"

at

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10417635

The low brow fleshy flavour of FHM is here:

http://www.fhm.com.au/

A run down on publisher Emap, an international media company, is here:

http://www.emap.com/

 FHM is described thus:

"FHM is the biggest selling men's magazine in Australia & New Zealand. Every issue, FHM offers the best fashion and grooming pages, plus sections dedicated to health, sports, motoring, relationships, alcohol, IT, gadgets, games and all the latest in book, film and music reviews.

The worlds fastest growing men's lifestyle magazine, published in over 15 countries. Each month, we follow a simple philosophy, if it's not funny, sexy or useful, you won't find it in FHM. But you will be guaranteed to be entertained, whether it's an exclusive photo of Jennifer Lopez or Anna Kournikova, or how to add spark to your home brew, you'll find it in FHM.
"

You can get 12 copies of this esteemed publication for only $79 apparently.
Here is the FHM advert at PBL's ninemsn site run by James Packer's PBL Ltd, usually seen as Howard loyalists, today:

http://shopping.ninemsn.com.au/results/shp/?bCatId=3264

Our view this sledge of Howard by the swinger and rich playboy crowd probably won't hurt him in the beltway church going seats, or with women voters either. 

SAM's editor can't remember too many political adverts this last 10 years promoting Howard's Crown Lager swilling, punching rugger style, as he manipulated the latest IT gadget with a blonde airhead on his arm. This survey might reinforce FHM readers self image as cool and free living but it won't bother so called Mr Average John Howard's grip on power in Australia.

But the tidal shift in the US Congress probably will.


Posted by editor at 7:36 AM EADT
Updated: Saturday, 6 January 2007 8:52 AM EADT
Friday, 5 January 2007
Oz uranium deal with China a big mistake say Greens
Mood:  blue
Topic: nuke threats

Press release follows

Selling uranium to China a mistake

5 January 2007

Australian Greens Senator Kerry Nettle said the federal government's
decision to permit the sale of Australian uranium to China was a mistake
which will fuel regional insecurity and that Prime Minister John Howard
will bear responsibility for the consequences.

The government today announced that Australia and China have ratified an
agreement to permit the sale of Australian uranium, from as early as
this year.

"Selling uranium to China is a mistake with potentially catastrophic
consequences", Senator Nettle said.

"Prime Minister Howard has ignored serious concerns in paving the way
for Australian uranium sales to China and he will bear responsibility
for the consequences.

"A report by federal parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Treaties
on the bilateral agreement to permit this trade last month highlighted
serious shortcomings in safeguards, including deficiencies in the
international inspection regime and the ability to ensure our uranium is
not misused.

"The world doesn't need more uranium and nuclear power. Australia should
be developing and selling clean and safe renewable energy technology to
China, not adding to regional instability.

"The Greens call on Foreign Minister Downer to rule out selling uranium
to India, which is not a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty."

Contact: Max Phillips 0414 ... ....


Posted by editor at 8:30 PM EADT
Updated: Thursday, 8 February 2007 7:05 AM EADT
Little Terns nesting on site of planned port terminal at Botany Bay
Mood:  crushed out
Topic: ecology
HI ALL,
Please pass this on to any bird watchers you know.  Little Terns are nesting at Penrhyn Spit - right where the new port terminal will be built.  There are eggs and chicks and National Parks has fenced off the area.  Please lend your support by coming down (with binos) to take a look (at a distance) and alert other users of the area of how important this event is.
Lynda Newnam
www.botanybay.info

remote Posted by editor at 8:00 PM EADT
Updated: Friday, 5 January 2007 8:15 PM EADT

Newer | Latest | Older