State government projects to secure the basic stuff of life – water – include an estimated $3.1 billion Wonthaggi Desalination Project, a $1 billion Food Bowl Modernisation program and the $625 million north-south pipeline, which will take water from the Eildon Reservoir to Melbourne (plus the recent Federal plans to have a plan). As we …
There are 1,000 jobs vacancies on offer in logging that are secure, well paid and conflict free. Labourers, fallers, truckies, admin. staff, logistics, mechanics, engineers and supply staff are all needed to get the plantation industry running in Western Victoria. Trees are now mature and screaming to be processed but there is a shortage of …
You might have seen the government telling us they protected 20,000 ha of South Gippsland’s long-suffering forests. There are only tiny remnants left of this once vast expanse of tall wet forest that supported the tallest trees on earth. Conservationists down that way mapped out what they call the Cores and Links in 2001 – …
Governments and big polluters are claiming to be able to “solve” the global warming problem by capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) and burying it in a big hole a mile underground, hoping it will stay there forever. The plan is called CCS, short for “carbon capture and storage”.This would be the largest hazardous waste disposal project …
By May 2004, the Victorian Government had funded the clearfelling of forests burnt in the 2003 fires to the tune of $6.9 million. Another $4 million was given to help the woodchip industry continue its access the following year. Then in 2007 we taxpayers gave at least $868,000 to help the industry clearfell the 2006 …
In early February 2008, tree grower Great Southern Plantations announced an export deal to Asia of 400,000 tonnes of eucalypt woodchips. This means it will send almost half a million tonnes a year for five years to Hokuetsu Paper Mills in Japan, starting in 2009. Using estimates from the BRS 2007 hardwood plantation chiplog supply, …
Everyone alive contributes to the environmental degradation of the world. Those in developed countries like Australia have a larger impact, even while trying to practice a low-impact lifestyle. Dr Barry Walters is Clinical Associate Professor of Obstetric Medicine at the King Edward Hospital in Perth. He has proposed a baby levy or carbon tax for …
The Brumby government is playing the walnut and pea trick with our reserves. After protection was offered to some areas of old growth in the lead up to the ’06 state elections, our government might now be offering other reserves as a trade off for their protection. We wrote to the Environment Minister Jennings, asking …
We know it’s often been scoffed at but it’s true! Even Garnaut reckons so. The final report of the Garnaut Climate Change Review states in off-putting technical language that: “livestock emissions from enteric fermentation releasing methane play a large role in the emissions profile of the agriculture sector. About 34 % of the agricultural emissions …
It’s not workers vs the elite anymore; it’s environment vs business greed. What with temperatures rising, taps running dry, food becoming a valuable commodity – all coupled with peak oil – the economy, the environment and the voters are about to cop a serious body blow. It could be too late for changing governments priorities …
