The native-forest-logging boat is sinking. It’s old and leaky but the Labor Government keeps burning out bilge pumps trying to keep it afloat. Yet another costly pump is about to be installed. An Industry Transition Taskforce (ITT) Mark 4, will be established to try to help logging workers deal with the ‘challenges’ they face. The …
Backpackers and tourists seeking a nature experience have increased by 55% in Gippsland since 2005/2006. Visitors primarily come from Western Europe and the UK to see what they don’t have over there – wild spaces, unmanicured forests, and big, old trees. For some reason, the government have been historically reluctant to promote the green hinterland …
The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) audits how well the DSE scrutinises logging contractors. Their audits have come under some criticism over the last four year so the EPA have appointed Sinclair Knight Mertz (SKM) to review how it does the audits. So SKM will check the toothless EPA checks of the monitoring by government foresters …
The current carbon market actually encourages cutting down some of the world’s biggest forests, which would unleash millions of tonnes of climate-warming carbon into the atmosphere, according to a new study reported in the August Public Library of Science Biology. Under the Kyoto Protocol, there isn’t a profitable reason for the countries with 20% of …
When the Snowy Hydro Scheme was completed in 1967, it captured 99% of the Snowy River headwaters.The Expert Panel Environmental Flow Assessment of the Snowy River Below Jindabyne 1996, recommended 28% annual natural flow as the minimum environmental flow required for the Snowy below Jindabyne Dam. Steve Bracks won government in Victoria in 1999 with …
The Victorian Renewables Bill allows the clearfelling of native forests to burn for ‘renewable’ energy. A Greens amendment to prevent this was defeated on the 9th of August when Labor, Liberal and National MPs voted to allow native forests to be thrown into furnaces. Greens MLC, Greg Barber, said that in the run-up to the …
Australia will need to create a wildlife corridor spanning the continent to allow animals and plants to move to cope with the effects of global warming. The impacts of climate change should be less severe in systems that remain intact and healthy. The 2,800-kilometre climate ‘spine’ has been approved in principle by state and national …
Federal ALP leader Kevin Rudd took a further step to the right on July 23 when he announced full support for logging old-growth forests in Tasmania. Rudd also announced his support for Gunns Ltd’s $2 billion pulp mill project proposed for the Tamar Valley, north of Launceston, in the federal electorate of Bass. Responding to …
We have to be very careful of applauding carbon-trading schemes as the solution to reducing emissions. The NSW government’s greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme is so flawed some participants are rewarded for ‘cutting pollution’ when their emissions have in fact increased. Researchers at the University of NSW showed two Queensland coal-fired power stations earned millions …
The Prime Minister’s stacked Emissions Trading Task Group is comprised of airline, coal, banking, aluminium and mining interests, as well as hand-picked bureaucrats. What’s missing is any objectivity – there was not a single scientist, enviro rep. or independent person. The terms of reference required the group to protect the coal and uranium industries at …
