“Is carbon trading a shallow exercise in carbon-shifting and guilt abatement?” Forests – a major player in climate calming. Protecting forests and reforestation could account for 31% of government greenhouse targets set for 2020 according to a report from global heavyweight business consultants McKinsey and Company. The McKinsey Report found that Australia could cut emissions …
Another curious approval is that of the low lying desalination plant proposed for Wonthaggi. If it ever happens, it will supply Melbourne with 330 gigalitres of water a year and cost $3.1 billion (pre-blowout estimate). The plant will emit 945,000 tonnes CO2 a year, equal to putting another quarter of a million cars on the …
Animal factory farms have allowed a huge increase in global meat eating in recent years. Assembly-line animal factories use enormous amounts of energy, pollute water supplies, generate greenhouse gases and use mega tonnes of feed grains, which has meant destruction of vast swathes of the world’s tropical rainforests to grow them. Today, we eat twice …
When it comes to saving water, showering with a bucket or using grey water on the garden are little more than token “feel good” gestures. Studies by authoritative bodies such as Sydney University, CSIRO and the Australian Conservation Foundation suggest that 15,000 – 50,000 litres of water are needed for animal feed and meat processing …
MOST of the trees logged in Victoria’s native forests last year ended up as pulp, much of it exported to Japan to become photocopying paper. More than 85% of the 1.59 million cubic metres of the state’s native forest logged last financial year, the equivalent of 4745 MCGs, was turned into woodchips, sawdust and waste. …
Recently, a Freedom of Information request of VicForests showed that at least 85% of our native forests are used for cheap throw-away paper and cardboard. The last VicForests Annual Report revealed that we tax payers are aiding the industry to log our native forests. This is on top of their existing subsidies. Now we learn …
After a lengthy process, the Sambar Deer has formally been listed as a threat to biodiversity in Victoria, and will be listed under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act. Deer populations are increasing every year in Gippsland and their behaviour is threatening very sensitive areas such as rainforests and riparian forests. They can grow up …
“European settlement certainly brought an extraordinary increase in both frequency and intensity of fire in south-eastern Australia. People lit fires everywhere, at any time, to burn off or to clear land. Rural manhood was forged in fighting fires.” Paul Collins, author of BURN
Brown Mountain was assessed and listed as an old growth National Estate area by the Commonwealth Heritage Commission in the 1980s. That means it has the same values as a National Park. The management of these areas were handed to the state government which promptly set about clearfelling them in 1989. The protests on Brown …
In 2006, the then premier, Steve Bracks, made a promise to protect all significant stands of old growth currently available for logging. This, with several other areas called icon forests amounted to about 41,000 ha. However, he also promised there would be no impact on the logging industry – an impossible undertaking. A few days …
