"Babies breaching," someone shouted, and everyone rushed to the side of Sea Shepherd's Steve Irwin vessel, binoculars at the ready under the black Jolly Roger flag flapping in the breeze.
In the distance, several kilometres from the Dampier Peninsula coastline, an adult whale slapped her tail and blew plumes of water as her young calf playfully breached beside her, silvery in the early morning sun.
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| A humpback whale calf off Quandong Point north of Broome. Picture: Annabelle Sandes/Kimberley Media |
"We're just coming into the development area for the proposed James Price Point gas hub … (it) has the highest concentration of whales on the Kimberley coast," he said.
Photo Damian Kelly
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They may be a "left leaning" think tank,but even the Australian has to admit,they do make sense.They will certainly make sense to anyone living in the Kimberley.
ReplyDeleteBarnett as usual just quotes tyhe $1.5 figure to justify this abomination.Blind Freddy passed basic maths and figured out a long time ago,IT'S NOT A MULTIPLICATION SUM - IT'S A DIVISION."
The only multiplier will be in our cost of living.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/woodside-will-burden-west-australian-taxpayers/story-e6frgczx-1226446263244
The institute's examination found "the evidence to support the state government's claim that the precinct will deliver economic benefits is virtually non-existent".
Citing figures from the Strategic Social Impact Assessment, it found the West Australian government was likely to spend more money supporting the project than it would collect in state taxes.
While it had committed to spending $250m over 30 years in grants for a gas hub, payroll tax would deliver less than that. "The project is likely to result in a net loss for the taxpayers of WA," the report said.
Although 6000 to 8000 people would be employed during construction, between 90 and 97 per cent would be fly-in, fly-out workers and few locals would be employed.
One good thing about the collapse in commodity prices is there is no pressure on the Bauxite or Copper mines Barnett has planned "for the more iconic places we see in the brochures."
Mitchell Plateau and Horizontal Waterfalls.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/aluminium-the-biggest-burden-on-bottom-line-20120808-23ukv.html
RIO Tinto's underlying $US5.2 billion profit for the June half was down from $US7.8 billion a year earlier but ahead of estimates by about $US300 million, and its iron ore sector is still a superstar. Rio's vertically integrated aluminium division is the doppelganger: even after big write-downs, it is a $US27 billion nightmare.
Weaker prices were also behind a halving of the earnings of Rio's copper division to $US731 million in the six months to June, but the big hole in the result was the aluminium division that Rio bulked-up five years ago with its $US38 billion acquisition of Alcan.
It earned a paltry $US24 million, down from $US344 million a year earlier.
And what about the workers,better late than never,but this should have been well away ages ago.
http://www.examiner.com/article/gulf-follow-up-study-for-oil-spill-clean-up-workers-those-living-region
Why study people who were not directly involved in oil spill clean up
By comparing workers and the jobs they were involved in with clean up compared to those who just lived in the regions will provide the researchers with information on heatlh issues occurring at a higher rate depending on job of the cleanup workers and compared to nonworkers and just living in the region.
The crazy world we live in.Climate change brings drought and flood,crops suffer,people starve,Goldman Sachs and their ilk trade in scarce food supplies and push up prices.
ReplyDeleteBut you would have to wonder when the likes of Rex Tillerson,(surely the planets no.1 phsycopath),will read about the effect all their smoke is having and actually consider human suffering above profits.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/world-business/global-food-stockpiles-to-shrink-as-droughts-bite-20120809-23vh9.html
Combined inventories of corn, wheat, soybeans and rice will drop 1.8 per cent to a four-year low before harvests in 2013, the US Department of Agriculture estimates. Crops in the US, the biggest exporter, are in the worst condition since 1988, heat waves are battering European crops and India's monsoon rainfall already is 20 per cent below normal.
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For investors, crops are the best-performing commodities this year, and Goldman Sachs, Macquarie Group and Credit Suisse say the trend will continue.
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The American drought is spreading beyond agriculture into power and fuel production. US nuclear plants' output on July 27 was the lowest for the day since 2001 BECAUSE WATER WAS TOO HOT to be an effective coolant, government data show. Parched conditions will spread into North Dakota and central Texas through October and last across the Midwest, the main growing region, the Camp Springs, Maryland-based Climate Prediction Center said Aug. 2.
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The lack of rain is also pressuring natural-gas drillers to conserve the millions of gallons of water used in hydraulic fracturing to free trapped gas and oil from underground rock. Environmentalists in Texas are lobbying lawmakers to pass water- conservation laws next year. In Pennsylvania, the Susquehanna River Basin Commission suspended water intake for companies including Talisman Energy Inc. and Chesapeake Energy Corp. on July 16.
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Costlier grain means global food prices will jump 25 per cent this year, Danske Bank A/S said July 16. The UN estimates imports of everything from fruit and vegetables to dairy products and cereal will top $US1 trillion for a third consecutive year, with a 13 per cent gain for meat as higher feed costs spur farmers to reduce herds.
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The impact won't be shared equally, with US households spending 6 per cent of their total expenditures on food, compared with 35 per cent in India and 45 per cent in Kenya, data from the Gates Foundation show. The US, WITH LESS THAN 5 per cent of the world population, CONSUMES 31 per cent of global corn production, 18 per cent of soybeans, 32 per cent of cheese and 20 per cent of beef and veal, according to USDA data.
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Wheat production in Russia, the fourth-largest exporter, will decline 20 per cent this year, and in Australia, output will fall 19 per cent, the council said.
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ON AND ON IT GOES.
But greed still reigns supreme.
Reminds me of what Jim Morrison said,"...but I'm gonna get my kicks man,before the whole damn shithouse goes up in flames."
One thing that caught my eye was,"India's monsoon rainfall already is 20 per cent below normal."
ReplyDeleteThe very same monsoon that will be over northern Australia in a few months.
It may well be we are in for drought conditions,and very hot - perhaps record breaking - temperatures,across areas of the north this "wet."
The plan for the "northern foodbowl",with high evaporation rates,soils that take a lot of water and don't hold it well,could be in for a shot of reallity that will wake up a lot of people who in the past have liked to think it's an easy thing to do.
Not to mention Colin Barnetts simplistic plans for a canal to transport water all the way to Perth,one of the very top water wasteing cities on earth.
Years ago when George Bush senior was in the White House and the very first climate change talks were held,he did not attend,proclaiming,"the American way of life is not up for negotiation."In other words if we want to drive around in big V8 humvees we will.
Perth is a bit like that.They want an "European style" city with sprinklers going flat out on vast expanses of lawn,and that lifestyle is not up for negotiation.Even if it means building huge dams on pristine northern rivers and zillion dollar canals to get it south,they want that lifestyle.
And run the agricultural land down to waste,hey we'll just move our bad practices north.
Another doomed plan.
URGENT MESSAGE TO SEA SHEPHERD.
ReplyDeleteREPEAT.
URGENT MESSAGE TO SEA SHEPHERD.
WILL SOMEONE CONTACT BARRY HASSE IMMEDIATLY.
MESSAGE FROM BARRY READS:
YOU IGNORANT BUNCH OF IDIOTS WHAT DO YOU TAKE US FOR?
WE ARE NOT IGNORANT AND STUPID LIKE YOU.
THE WHALES ARE NOT AT JAMES PRICE POINT.
REPEAT.
THE WHALES ARE NOT AT JAMES PRICE POINT.
OVER AND OUT.
MESSAGE ENDS.
OH AND WHILE YOU ARE AT IT
ReplyDeleteANOTHER MESSAGE FOR CHRIS MAHER
TELL CHRIS TO TRADE IN HIS CADILAC FOR A BICYCLE....URGENT
REPEAT....URGENT
HEAVY FLAK REPORTED IN TOWN.
OVER.