Again.....the Rudd Government fails?

What a disgrace this Rudd Government is becoming. Before the election Rudd and is merry gang of lefties were all guns a blazing on environmental issues.

We will take Japan to court for killing whales, we see the environment as the single biggest issue of our generation and are going to lead the world with 40% emission cuts, we will lead the world in the development of renewable technologies etc etc etc.

What a load of crap, what have they done

1. 5% emission reduction
2. The Japs ares till killing whales for no reason
3. Renewable energy sector still on its knees

Rudd you are a shameful man and you should be ashamed. I hope your kids give you a hard time about this.

Will any government anywhere in the world get it right??? Obama the pressure is on!

Will the Great Barrier Reef survive??

There has been an interesting story floating around that has been suggesting the Barrier Reef is in the same condition as it was 50 years and that the Greens and Queensland government have been beating the wrong drum on the reef.

This bloke Mr Cropp who is a shark expert and has been diving on the reef for 50 years says nothing has changed. He was also one of the few people who came out against the crown of thorns starfish in the 1980's. For those who can't remember these things were going to kill the reef as well.

Hopefully Mr Cropp is correct this time as well?

Well done to the Sea Shepherd

I am pleased to announce to those who have not heard that the Sea Sherpherd has found the Japanese whaling fleet and has started to disrupt their operations.

It is a great pity that they are not getting any support from the Rudd Government or Green Peace.

Keep up the good work Sea Shepherd - smash the Japs

What is it with Australian Business Leaders?

There was a recent article in the Australian newspaper by Lenore Taylor. It was an article that outlined the response to the governments 5% ETS, which in its self is another post. These heavy industries, namely Coal, Cement and Aluminium are still complaining that they are being hard done by. I think these guys will quickly become the new 'Farmers' always complaining that they are hard done by!

Are these people that selfish and that greedy that they cannot cop some changes to the way they do business and to the profits they make, clearly none of these people have children and if they do they obviously do not care about them.

Wake up people, we are a smart a resourceful country and be grateful that this gutless Rudd government did not do what should have been done and slugged you lot with a 25% reduction. Maybe, just maybe this would have forced all of you to consider diversifying your businesses into renewable energy.

What will it take to put environment on par with economics?

Are our Whales doomed?

Have the whales been left for dead, is it no longer trendy to save the whales, has the fad past and are there more noble causes now?

I ask these questions because I have been reading lately how Green Peace have abandoned the whles in the southern ocean, they are not taking a ship down this year, I also read that the Australian Government has abandoned the whales this year and they are not sending a observation vessel down this year - and guess what - the bloody Japs are still going, the Japs plan to kill 700 Minke whales this year and it has been left to the Farley Mowat and the Sea Shepherd Society to help the whales.

Peter Garrett, what a disgrace, you more for the environment as a lone spokes man, then you are doing as a minister, mate get on with your job and start to make use of your position and chnage what is happening!!

Green Peace, well you guys are soft, what are you thinking abandoning the whales and giving the Japs a free for all this year, whats with your beggers on the streets asking for money to save the whales, what has happened to your organisation. Know more oney from me, I will give it all to the Sea Sheperd Society.

If only the world would amit that the whalingt debate is really about the control of fishing in the southern ocean and specifically Tuna. The dam Japs think that if they lose the whaling war they will ultimately lose the Tuna war, maybe they will, maybe they won't however is it worth losing our whales?

Can people like this really be called 'EXPERTS'

The world is going mad, 'EXPERTS' have discovered a new disorder "CARBOREXICS' these are peopled who are deemed to be to caring about the planet and the future of our planet?

WHAT IS CARBOREXIA? (The Sunday Telegraph, Nov 2, 2008)

- A fanatical concern about a person's own carbon emissions which severely affects their lifestyle and normal daily activities
- Consistent Checking of Gas and Electricity metres.
- Worrying about the carbon footprint of others and interferring with their lives without their consent

The 'Anxiety Disorder Clinic' at the University of Sydney need to have a good look at their own disorders, what a complete load of bull!

1. Someone who is concerned about their carbon emissions that they change their lifestyle, what is wrong with this, isn't this what we are meant to be doing?

2. Consistent Checking of gas metres, what a great way to save money?
3. Worrying about other peoples carbon footprint and interfering without consent, this is called the 'Government'

Remedies for this disorder

1. Buy a Hummer and leave it running 24/7
2. Leave all the lights in your house on 24/7 and leave the stove running 24/7
3. Sack the government, destroy the planets eco systems, problem solved.

Can someone please stop giving these Doctors and clinic airtime??

Is this the future of conservation?

While I understand that this has been goingon for a while, I guess it is good to comment of some good environmental news. This was story written in the Weekend Australian Newspaper on the 11th October 2008 by Natasha Robinson.

Stockman Frank Shadforth has been farming the Northern Territories gulf country since the 70s and says he has noticed and experienced the disappeance of many animals including a woodpecker and small kangaroo. Now this stockman, whose father was the first aboriginal to purchase a longterm lease in Australia, has signed an historic sub lease agreement with the 'Australian Wildlife Conservancy' www.awc.org.au to help manage over 100,000ha of Mr Shadforths Seven Emu Station.

This station lays claim to over 300 species of reptiles, amphibians, fish, birds and mammals as well as 500 species of plants.

This is a fantastic story and I believe this type of arangement is a great model moving forward and should be encouraged through tax breaks and government grants as a way to encourage more of this behaviour.

Will this drought break or get worse?

According to David Jones from the Bureau of Meteorology Southern Australia has just successfully been through the worst drought on record, this drought has now been running for 12 years and we have seen the average temperature is up 1C. They say this is due to climate change, well I would agree. Everything that has been written over the past 10 years has forecast this to happen and here we are!!!

They are forecasting a very hot and dry summer for 2008 and 2009.

Do we pray that the rains will come or do we start to act, we need to act, long term there is a good chnace that Victoria and South Australia will become the next deserts?

Are we doing enough to prevent this???

When will the worlds leaders recognised the 'Great Ecological Crisis?'

I watch the reaction to the financial crisis facing the world with amazement. While I support the moves being made by Governments around the world, what I wonder is when will these some people realise that we are also facing an 'Ecological Crisis' and support it with the vigour as they are supporting all the banks and insurance companies.

Imagine if the US Government allocated US$700bn to save the worlds rainforests and other woodlands, I mean these are our carbon banks. What about allocating this money to poverty and thus preventing the continued destrustrion of forest for farming.

I am no expert on the cost of saving forest however I am sure US$700bn would go a long way in Indonesia or Brazil. not to mention all the money the rest of the world governments are allocating to save their own institutions. Australia alone is giving $4bn to the non bank lenders.

What about allocating these funds to research on renewable energy?

Do you think we could focus the governments of the world to the environment with the same intensity as they do with the finance sector, time will tell?

Will the purhcase of large farms for water help the Murray Darling river system

As some of you may be aware the NSW and Federal governments just purchased the cotton station 'Toorale' in outback NSW. The reason for the purchase was to get its hands on the 80 gigalitres of water that it uses each year for it farming business. This coupled with the Queensland government agreeing to release 11 billion litres of water into the Murray Darling river system. To me these are fantastic steps in the right direction to save the Murray River and the lower lakes.

Will it make any difference?? Yes, is my view. All these little steps will help in the overall scheme of things. On its own it will make no difference however if the governments keep buying and closing down these properties it will make a difference in the long term. The government is eyeing several other properties, like Cubby Station in Queensland. The land will be turned into National Park and rehabilitated, this is another fantastic step.

What of the towns that rely on these stations for employment and other business. Well they will have to retrain and re-purpose themselves to stay employed and viable. I will probably never understand why these people complain, don't they understand that if we maintain business as usual they will be stuffed anyway, don't they think about their grand children and great grand children before complaining, what about their future. Further more we only have one go at getting this right, let's go. For gods sake towns folk, stop being so selfish and think about the future generations!!

In my view, as I have said before, get rid of these cotton farms, they are no good to us, only destructive to our environment.

I think these moves by the Federal and State Governments are a huge step in the right direction and they need to do more, keep it up as it will make a difference.

What do you think??

Will we ever get a goverment with the balls to make hard decisions on Climate Change?

The rhetoric and lip service we have received from the Rudd government over the past 9 months has been quite extraordinary. All the big pre election decision about the environment, 'We will make the hard decisions' what a load of rubbish this has become, In my memory I have never known a more gutless PM so full of crap in my life. This coupled with Prof Garnaut who came out all guns blazing 6 months ago about 30% - 40% cut in emission by 2020 is now suggesting that somewhere between 5% - 10% will do and only if the rest of the world signed and agreement. Who got to this guy, what was he paid, why the sudden back down. He has also suggested that we need to sacrifice the Great Barrier Reef and Kakadu and this is part of the cost. This is a mind blowing suggestion, what gives the soft cock academic the right to sacrifice these 2 world heritage areas, this made my blood boil.



I get that Australia overall green house gas contribution is minimal and that any thing Australia does will have very minimal impact on whole issue, I get that without China, India and the USA cutting emission we are buggered anyway.



My view is that Australia should show the world that we can make the hard decisions, we can show the world that it is possible to live without coal. New technologies can replace coal, I have made mention of this in one of my past postings.



Will it ever be possible to get a government with balls to make the hard decisions and show the world how to do it, geeeeee! we may surprise ourselves and have some influence on our neighbours to change their ways, one can only hope.



If I was the PM for a day with full authority I would make the following changes



1. Decentralise water and energy, put water tanks and photovoltaic on every home. We no longer need dams or centralised power stations.



2. Fund solar, wind and geo-thermal technologies.



3. Stop logging and forestry, shut down Gunns. Put a stop to mono culture tree farms and encourage diverse tree planting schemes that reflect the real environment



4. Put a stop to cotton and rice farming



5. Pipe irrigation channels



I could go on and on. I know this is an ideal world however it would be a good start.



Will we ever see a Government with the balls to do any of the above??

Can we force positive change on business through innovation

All this carry on about the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), business people complaining that it will cost them more to do business or that it is going to force some business to close their doors. I believe a recent survey found that over 70% of the Australian population where willing to pay more for energy and other products if it meant a better future for our children and was beneficial to the environment. Doesn't this negate the complaints from business.

The brown coal industry, aluminium industry and the mining sector need to have a hard look at themselves and the damage they are causing, think about their own children/grand children as well as all of ours and look to change some of their business practices.

I am a business man and I am quite surprised by some of the reactions of these companies and the people who run them, I mean if people are willing to pay additional cost them pass the cost on and stop the complaining. Maybe these businesses that say they will not survive should close their doors anyway, who needs them, if they cannot find a way to their part for the environment. Maybe these people have not worked out that we only have 1 planet earth and we need to look after it.

I am truly surprised that these companies are not looking at ways they can innovate, come up with new technologies that can start to minimise their impact. Look at the solar industry, geo thermal, tidal energy, geo sequestration, wind, my god there is so much opportunity out there for these big emitter's to invest in small technology companies that are trying to make a difference.

I would like take this opportunity to congratulate the Rudd government on its recent investment in Geo Thermal, $50 million if I recall, about time. Private sector should take note and start to invest.

Can we through private investment develop some of this energy technology into base load energy??

The Murray Darling and its lower lakes

What a bloody disgrace this government is becoming on environmental issues, one broken promise after another, one more committee appointed for the sole purpose of delaying another decision and in my view an easy decision. Save the lower lakes of the Murray River wher eit meets the ocean.

What right do any of us humans have to make a decision to flood these lower lakes and destroy a ecosystem that has existed for thousands if not millions of years, what right do we have to destry all the flora and fauna that have developed and adapted to live in this environment. NONE!!!!!!! this government needs to have a look at its self and its water buy back scheme. The we need to look at the type of farming we do in this country.

I am only going to touch on this in this post and will re-visit this topic later.

Let's look at the farming conducted in this country and the irrigation techniques

1. Rice Farms - What a joke, why would we farm rice, a flood irrigation crop, on the driest continent on earth. Let's look at where rice is grown, on the monsoon belt, why.....rain and lots of it. Get rid of the rice farmers, they contribute next to nothing to this country and do a lot of damage.

2. Cotton - another very very thirsty crop as well as a crop that requires ahuge amount of insectisides and pesticides to grow it. Again.....shut it down, we do not need it. The damage sheep do is bad enough, we do not need both wool and cotton

3. Irrigation Channels - why not pipe them, we hear talk about it but it never happens. I remeber Richard Pratt once challenged all the state and federal government to match him dollar for dollar to pipe the irrigation channels. No government agreed. Around 70% of all water in these channels is lost to evaporation. If we could reduce this lose, the water could stay in the rivers. Wouldn't this be an investment in our future, is this not consider vital infrastructure just like a dam or road or bridge.

As I said I have a lot to say on this topic and will come back to it later. The government needs to have a hard looka t itself and start making the tough decisions. Does the value of Rice and Cotton out weigh the value of the murray river and particularly its lower lakes???? I don' think so

What do you think?

Bring on the big end of town........

What a refreshing article.......congratrulations to the Australian Financial Review (Weekend Edition 16th - 17th August 2008) and to their journalist Ben Woodhead.

This is an article on a new initiative by Macquarie Bank to buy large tracks of rain forest all over the world as an investment in carbon credits. This new area is Macquarie's climate change practice and is heade by a guy called Oliver Yates. Why are they doing this? as quoted by Yates ' This is the biggest growth market you're going to see" Damn right it is, well done Oliver Yates and Macquarie Bank. A lot of people put a lot of shit on Macquarie Bank for paying large bonus's and being a greedy money making machine, well let me say, if institutions like Macquarie did not do this then they would not be able to take such a massive punt like this nor would they attract talented people like Oliver Yates. I say get off their back and encourage this type of investment. As Yate's says " If organisations aren't moving now to stake a claim in this market [Carbon Credits] are already falling behind their peers".

I know that there are a large number of Ethical or Green Funds that we can all invest in and these funds do a fantastic job in investing in Solar, Wind, Hydro, Geo-thermal which is fantastic and it should be encouraged. The difference with this Macquarie Bank initiative is that it is saving native and virgin rain forest. Why is this a good thing?

Well....if we cn save these native forests then we are saving the biodiversity in these forest, we can give the local people jobs in conservation and allows us to continue to find medical cures. Further more it will mean that the planting of tree farms and other mono cultures can slow up. All in all it is a win for everyone.

While this is a very limited summary of this article, I would encourage all people interested in this scheme to contact Macquarie Bank.

Hopefully....as more of our large institution start to realise the benefits of these types of investments we will see more and more of these types of initiatives and you never know maybe one day one of these organisations will buy up all of the native forests in Australia, well what is left of them, and preserve them forever.

WHat do people think of these types of initiatives and should it be allowed to happen?

More ETS

More interviews tonight on the ABC News. Again........complaining about the cost of this scheme to households and business!

Let me ask the following questions

1. What is the cost of not being about to grow food anymore due to a colapse of the ecosystem
2. What is the cost of running out of fresh water or hugely reduced water resources
3. What of the cost of wiping out flora and fauna that keeps the environment healthy and balanced
4. What about the cost of destroying the tourist attractions of the barrier reef, rainforests
5. What about the cost of not being able to go to the beach anymore
6. What about the increased cost in insurance as storms and droughts become more severe and regular

I could go on. Can we afford to gamble with the science. We need to take some pain now for long term gain?

Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)

Can you believe the government and their ETS, how soft. In todays Financial Review and in most other daily papers it outlines the fact that the government is going to bend to the opposition request and offset the impact on petrol through a reduction in excise, further to this they are going to compensate households and emission-intensive industries to soften the blow. How is this going to be effective??

This is madness, isn't the whole idea of the ETS to change behaviour, to encourage investment in new technologies. I get that we need to remain competitive until the rest of the world falls into line, however how is the government going to change behaviour if it continues to let people and business off the hook???

Don't get me wrong, I think the Rudd government is taking a huge step in the right direction, I just wish he had stuck to his guns!

Take a look at the Opposition, Brendan Nelson, what a complete knuckle head, the best he could come up with on the news tonight was 'Well the Rudd Government has just confirmed the introduction of a new tax on Australian families" what a complete idiot! This guy clearly does not get it.

The reality is that the cost of living will go up, tough.

I say we should include petrol and emission - intesive industries and use the money to build more train lines and buses, what about investing in R & D for new sustainable energy solutions or build a large fibre optic network to make workiong from home more realistic for those that can. We never hear the politians talking about this type of investment. The sooner we make it easier for people to buy green energy or catch more trains the sooner the supply/demand issues on pertrol will decrease.

There are some sensible and practical solutions available, they just require some investment.

Give me your thoughts on the ETS so far?

Green-inculous!

Hi there

This is a new posting. In this section I am going to discuss and highlight some of the more outrageous, left field and downright ridiculous environmental ideas and comments I come across. I would welcome every to post similar things and comment on these ideas and concepts.

Opening Remarks

Hi,

I have set up this blog because I have a personal interest in the environment and the issues facing all of us today. I believe I can make a difference through what I do on a day to day basis and publishing it for other people to read and hopefully find useful.

I have an opinion on most things environmental. I am an avid reader of the daily papers, email newsletters, the latest environmental books, relevant blogs and the broader internet. I always have or soon develop an opinion what is being said and while my wife and 9 month old patiently listen to me and my world view (I am a believer of educating our next generation early!) - I am keen to cultivate a wider audience and dialogue on all things environmental - and recieve feedback on my views from a wider community.

I am very interested in seeking other people's opinions and views both for and against the environment and would encourage people to express themselves. I will convey my general view on 'the environment' in my next posting.

I will openly share my sources of information and reference all sources correctly and would ask that everyone do the same.

What else will appear on this blog

1. I am in the process of taking the organisation that I work for to a point where we will be certified 'Carbon Neutral'. I will not disclose the name of this organisation, however I will publish regularly and keep everyone informed about our progress and insight into our initiatives and any issues we face along the way.
2. We are already a member of the "Rainforest Alliance' and are a Certified Free Trade Company.
3. I have also launched the 'Environmental Business Institute of Australia'. While I am building the foundations and in early stages, the website is taking shape. Visit http://www.ebia.org.au/ and take a look. I hope to have a complete site up and running over the next month or two.

That is all for now. As topics arise, I will publish them and add new sections.

Thanks