Sunday, November 4, 2012

Dam filled in - Deep pits dug - Country turned to dust

The clip you're about to watch portrays the extensive and continued destruction caused by woodside's exploratory works at James Price Point. The very large cleared area midway through the clip is the site of a recently filled in dam built to hold water extracted from the aquifer for tests. The large pit towards the end of the clip is one of two which were excavated recently.

Woodside has applied for permission to enter and damage the sand-dune country west of Manari Road near James Price Point (A short distance from were these images were taken). The outcome of their Section 18 Heritage clearance application will be known very soon.

This particular country has enormous cultural and environmental values. There are several heritage sites, the Song Cycle between Broome and One Arm Point passes through there and the monsoon vine thickets are a Threatened Ecological Community.

Broome community members are calling on Woodside to abandon its plans to drill and excavate sand dunes as part of its investigation for port facilities for the proposed gas refineries at James Price Point.

The sand dunes and rare Monsoon Vine Thickets have been recommended for protection by the WA Environmental Protection Authority twice in the past twenty years because of their environmental significance and their cultural heritage values.


produced by: Shane Hughes

The WA Museum also recommended they be protected in 1989 because of their outstanding archaeological and cultural significance.
"Woodside need to read these previous recommendations for the protection of this area so they get an understanding of how sensitive and important they are environmentally and culturally," said Broome Community No Gas Campaign spokesperson Nik Wevers.

"Anyone who reads the government reports that recommended there be no disturbance to the west side of Manari Road will come to the conclusion that what Woodside is proposing is not acceptable. We are calling on them to abandon their clearing and drilling work in this area," said Ms Wevers.
Such is the concern about Woodside's plans that Community members have already begun mobilising to protest any destruction.

"Many people in the community are concerned about Woodside's plans and are organising to take action to protect the sand dunes. This coast is Broome's backyard. It's where people go to recharge after a hard working week in town, it's not a place where we want to see drill rigs and excavators," Ms Wevers said.
"What we're seeing is that the community who love that coast are saying they're drawing a line in the sand and they're going to stand up and be counted for this one," Ms Wevers said.

Thank you for watching this clip and sharing to all and many ..

1 comment:

  1. How the things that really matter never get a mention.

    Paper a whitewash of the environment

    THE most glaring weakness in Julia Gillard's white paper on the Asian century is its failure to factor in the high likelihood that mounting environmental problems will stop Asia continuing to grow so rapidly - as well as limit our ability to take advantage of what growth there is.

    To be fair, most of the environmental problems that could trip up Asia's economies and ours are mentioned in the bowels of the 300-page document.

    But it doesn't join the dots. Asia's environmental problems are dismissed merely as among the various ''challenges'' to be overcome. As for our own environmental problems, the government's existing policies have them well in hand.
    ..
    While most economists (and SOME business people) are prepared to acknowledge particular environmental problems - climate change, water, soil, fish stocks, biodiversity - they're not prepared to see them as symptoms of a much bigger problem: we may be reaching the physical limits to continued growth in natural resource use.
    ..
    It's an uncontroversial statement that the global economy - the production, consumption and other economic activities of humans - exists within, and depends on, the natural environment.

    It's obvious to anyone with eyes that certain economic activities are damaging the ecosystem, which is already rebounding on the economy in the form of costs and disruption (hurricane Sandy, for example). It's not hard to believe these costs and disruptions are likely to multiply unless we start organising the economy differently.

    It thus makes all the sense in the world for economists to integrate the environment and the economy when thinking about what the future holds. So why don't they? Because they never have and find the idea pretty frightening.

    Economists' standard way of thinking about the economy effectively assumes away the environment. That's because their conventional model, which has changed little in 100 years,...
    ..
    To put things in context, at present the developed world accounts for just 15 per cent of the world's population, but 51 per cent of gross world product.

    At present, the 19 per cent of the world's population living in China, has a standard of living equivalent to 20 per cent of America's. The white paper expects that to reach 40 per cent in 13 years.

    India and Indonesia accounts for a further 21 per cent of the world's population and their standard of living could also double, from 10 per cent to almost 20 per cent.

    Of course, living standards in other parts of Asia are also supposed to be rising rapidly, meaning more than half the world's population is applying to join to the profligate rich club.

    Have you any idea what that would mean in additional use of the world's energy and other natural resources?

    The white paper advises that, in the 19 years to 2009, Asia's energy consumption more than doubled and its share of world energy consumption jumped from 25 to 38 per cent. China is now the world's biggest energy consumer.

    Having gone from consuming less than half as much energy as the US in 2000, China now consumes slightly more.

    In 2009, fossil fuels accounted for about 82 per cent of Asia's energy mix. Asia accounts for about 40 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions - up from 31 per cent in 2001. China recently overtook the US as the world's largest emitter.

    The white paper happily assumes effective global action to limit climate change will be forthcoming, so makes no allowance for it in its projections.

    It's not the done thing for economists to imagine we could ever run out of natural resources. Prices may rise a bit, but this will merely call forth the solution to the problem, whereupon prices will fall back. Every textbook leaves you thinking this process happens seamlessly.

    So, no need to worry. Our faith in unending growth remains unshaken

    ReplyDelete