Anti-CSG protesters travel to help mates | Northern Star

Anti-CSG protesters travel to help mates | Northern Star:
THE GLENUGIE blockade has brought protesters streaming southwards from the Lismore and Richmond Valley region to support their anti-CSG Clarence Valley friends.

Up to half the estimated 300 protesters came from outside the Clarence Valley, transforming a local protest into a significant "battle" against the industry which culminated in yesterday's massive police action.

Eltham grandmother Anne Thompson (pictured) had never slept in a tent before she came to Glenugie.

Now she has four nights under her belt, plus hundreds of kilometres in her car driving back and forth for day trips during the 48-day blockade.

Mrs Thompson, 74, was up at dawn yesterday but only ate her first meal at 2pm after being forced away from the site by tactical response officers.

"I have never seen anything like this in my whole life... I've never seen so many police," she said.

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/01/08/3665559.htm?site=northcoast"

What we're seeing today is this kind of symbolic show of force by the state, to come in, allocate a whole lot of tax payers' money, bring a whole lot of police for one day, bust out a blockade, and the truth is there's another 364 days in every year in which the communities will be resisting coal seam gas and we know that the full riot squad aren't going to be there every day," he says.

"We were marched for about one and a half kilometres and were pushed if we lingered."

CSG Protestors spend night in police custody after epic defence of Glenugie « CSG Free Northern Rivers

CSG Protestors spend night in police custody after epic defence of Glenugie « CSG Free Northern Rivers: “This blockade has proven that communities are prepared to band together and peacefully protest against an industry that is unsafe and unwanted and we are likely to see these sort
of actions in other parts of our region under threat from Coal seam gas operations,” she said.

“Today’s action was a massive show of force from the NSW police that will do nothing to dent the resolve of Northern Rivers residents to stay CSG free,” said law lecturer Aidan Ricketts.

“If it takes such massive police resources to facilitate a single day of CSG operations what will happen on the other 364 days of resistance to Metgasco’s activities?”

http://au.prime7.yahoo.com/n1/video/watch/67eb9a88_3a64_3235_9f98_4b64650d9f5f/protestors-arrested/

Twelve arrested as CSG protest escalates - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Twelve arrested as CSG protest escalates - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation):
Twelve protesters have been now been arrested at an anti-coal seam gas (CSG) blockade south of Grafton, on the New South Wales north coast.

About 150 people are trying to stop a Metgasco drill-rig getting onto a property at Glenugie.

Police earlier brought in a crane to clear a path to the access gate where the demonstrators have erected tripods.

One of the arrest came when a protester tried to give water to another activist, locked on to a truck in the convoy.

Police had to grind off lock-on devices to release two protesters, but one is still locked on to the truck.

The drill rig and a number of other large trucks carrying equipment and Metgasco work vehicles are still waiting to enter the site.

For great images:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=313019372132297&set=a.217151818385720.34585.203950169705885&type=1&theater

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andryahart/

SBS On Demand | TV and Online Video - Dirty Business: How Mining Made Australia S1 Ep1

SBS On Demand | TV and Online Video - Dirty Business: How Mining Made Australia S1 Ep1

A provocative and groundbreaking series, this is the story of mining in this country. It explores how this industry has shaped Australia in unexpected and extraordinary ways. From the Gold Rush of the 1850s to the present day, the opening episode charts the key battles and dramatic turning points in the epic struggle to share in the vast mineral wealth of Australia. As mining made Australia rich, the money changed virtually every aspect of society. (Commissioned by SBS) (Documentary Series) (Part 1 of 3) PG CC 

Echidna find rewrites natural history books - The West Australian

Echidna find rewrites natural history books - The West Australian:
"When I looked closer, what I could see is the descriptive writing 'Mount Anderson, West Kimberley'," he said.

"I realised, my goodness, is this actually saying that it's actually a long beaked echidna that was collected in Australia? That was phenomenally exciting if that was true."

Researcher have recently rediscovered several Australian animals, including the scaly-tailed possum, last seen in 1917.

Dr Helgen says finding the sample in the museum does raise the prospect that the long-beaked echidnas may still be roaming in remote regions of the Kimberley.

How the poor are shunted into deeper poverty just for political capital

How the poor are shunted into deeper poverty just for political capital:
Taxing the rich and distributing some of the wealth we create for them to the 2.2 million below the poverty line or creating hundreds of thousands of well-paid including renewable energy jobs, or both, would address poverty.

The shift of wealth to the rich in the past few decades and increasing poverty has been in part because we workers haven't fought back. The time has come to tell the very, very well-paid Jenny Macklin and the ruling class she represents that the poverty she and the rest of the Gillard Labor government create through their deliberate policies has to end now. That can only come about through a massive societal and industrial campaign to put the poor and working class before the rich and business.

In Brazil, a river dam collides with the past - latimes.com

Brazillian Kayapo tribes take to Western courts to protest the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam that will wipe out their land and homes.

In Brazil, a river dam collides with the past - latimes.com:
His small home sits at the foot of the Belo Monte dam site, where a consortium is building the third-largest dam in the world, almost four miles across the Xingu River, a $16-billion construction project in the heart of the Amazon basin.

Indigenous peoples and environmental groups have cried out against the dam for reasons local and global; the people here depend on the mighty Xingu River — one of the Amazon's largest tributaries — for transportation, and their livelihoods. Environmental groups say the dam will destroy rain forest that the world needs to breathe. The builders counter that millions of Brazilians need the electricity, and construction continues.

There had always been talk of a gigantic dam. During the dictatorships of the 1970s, important men made speeches about the riches of the Amazon, waiting to be discovered.

Centre set to swelter as biggest heatwave in decades settles in

Centre set to swelter as biggest heatwave in decades settles in:
A swath of central Australia stretching from Oodnadatta to Coober Pedy and Birdsville can expect maximum temperatures of 45 degrees or hotter for at least a week. Towns to the south and east, such as Mildura and Hay, can expect to broil with 40-degree maximum temperatures for just as long.

''We have a major heat event under way,'' Karl Braganza, a manager of climate monitoring at the Bureau of Meteorology, said. ''There are not many instances in the historical record where you get a heat event covering such a large area of the continent.''

Published Comment: 
 

AnonymousJanuary 3, 2013 10:21 AM

The post from The Mercury,well named,nails down exactly where we are at this critical time.

"Warming of 4-6C is truly unknown territory. We know, however, that crops needing cool conditions to grow, including the global staples of wheat, rye and barley, are especially vulnerable. Such warming would see Australia lose whole food-producing regions well before 2100.

By 2100, we'd have had to adjust to increasingly intense droughts and flooding, and life in most of inland Australia would have become intolerable. Tasmanian temperatures would be similar to those in northern NSW, and mosquito-borne subtropical diseases would have spread south, at least as far as Victoria."


And this post,"Centre set to swelter as biggest heatwave in decades settles in",makes it look all too real.

Then there's this : "Broome sets record for high temperatures"

"Broome has recorded its hottest ever December since records began.

The Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed the daily maximum temperatures averaged 36.3 degrees, breaking the previous record set in 1951.

Forecaster Patrick Ward says it was an uncomfortably warm period throughout the West Kimberley.

"Broome airport scored it's hottest ever December, about two-and-a-half degrees above average, and hottest day for the month for 43 degrees on the ninth," he said.

"In terms of rainfall, about half the normal amount for a December."

I remember people making comments several years ago about,"these climate change predictions are very depressing,especially when we think of the world we will hand to our kids - it's terrible.And here in Broome and the peninsular we have the double nightmare of the worlds most polluting gas plant to deal with on top of that."

And it seems the JPP gas plant plan has become a giant symbol of all that is wrong with totalitarian encroachment,something people all over the world can point to and say,"That is wrong,that is why life on this planet is dieing,why life will not be worth living for future generations."

And it does seem strange that our little camping and fishing spot has found such fame.

Of course to the true keepers of the law and culture for that place it is a tragedy beyond words.

I think it would be true to say that in the minds of a lot of people it seems that if JPP,Walmadany,is saved there is some hope of turning this awful situation around.
But if Woodside,Barnett and others get their way then all is lost for all life as we know it on our Mother Earth.

And not just for the kids that will have to live in the shadow of this abomination.

Coal Seam Gas - Say It As It Is - YouTube

Coal Seam Gas - Say It As It Is - YouTube: Published on Jan 2, 2013

A longer video that we hope shows you that it's up to all of us to stop this industry, the Government won't help you. Uploaded in full HD so please play at the highest resolution possible to get the quality of video with the water.

World heats up as debate dies Opinion - The Mercury - The Voice of Tasmania

World heats up as debate dies Opinion - The Mercury - The Voice of Tasmania:
Pitt & Sherry economist Phil Harrington, a Hobart-based specialist in climate mitigation and adaptation, discovered how serious when he looked into emissions from the proposed new "clean, green" liquefied natural gas hub at James Price Point, Western Australia.

The WA Government says the gigantic plant will release somewhere between 12 and 39 million tonnes of greenhouse gas a year. Calculations of negative impacts by proponents and their supporters usually prove conservative in practice. The upper limit is probably close to the mark.

Based on this supposition, Harrington did his own sums and came up with the number of rooftop solar systems needed to offset emissions from this single industrial undertaking.

The answer is wait for it 20 million. As Harrington says, it's a pity there are only around eight million households in Australia.

China’s Corals Fall Victim to 'Wicked Environmental Problems' | Environment News Service

China’s Corals Fall Victim to 'Wicked Environmental Problems' | Environment News Service:
China’s coral reefs have declined by 80 percent in the past three decades, destroyed by the consequences of economic development, finds a new international scientific study.

The first comprehensive survey of the state of corals along mainland China and in the South China Sea gives a grim picture of decline, degradation and destruction resulting from coastal development, pollution and overfishing.

The study by Professor Terry Hughes and Matthew Young of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University in Townsville, and Dr. Hui Huang of the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, is published in the current online issue of the journal “Conservation Biology.”

LNG WATCH: Australia adamant in supporting PNG LNG project

LNG WATCH: Australia adamant in supporting PNG LNG project:

 “It’s right that Australia should be there helping PNG in relation to what has the potential to be a transformational project for that country. So, it is easy to criticise these projects, at the end of the day, it’s happening, it matters greatly that it works well, and we need to be there, being the best friend that we can be and supporting that project.”

Stop the dredge spoil dump off Holbourne Island National Park - GBR Marine Park.

Stop the dredge spoil dump off Holbourne Island National Park - GBR Marine Park.:
Why this is important
Port expansions at Abbot Point coal port will require upwards of some 3 million cubic metres of dredging which will then be dumped 10km south of Holbourne Island National Park. Holbourne Island is mapped as a Conservation Park Marine Zone and is designated as a future climate change refuge area for wildlife within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Some 4 km to the south of Holbourne Island is Nares Rock, which is a popular recreational fishing spot thanks to its abundant marine ecosystem. Its surrounding waters are mapped as a Habitat Protection Marine Zone in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park conservation area.
We call for a range of scientific studies to be done to ascertain the effects of this dump on such a sensitive conservation area of the Great Barrier Reef. Presently we do not know what the potential impacts of the dumping of this dredge material will be on:

Broome homelessness 'at crisis point' | The Australian

Broome homelessness 'at crisis point' | The Australian: Eight of the nine people murdered in Broome over the past 3 1/2 years were indigenous people who had drifted to town from outlying areas. "That is a very high number of murders when you consider the size of the town," he said. "Alcohol was a primary factor in those eight deaths. It is a tragedy."

Lurujarri heritage walking trail Kimberley - Australian Geographic

The Australian Geographic magazine is featuring an article on the Lurujarri Heritage Trail... fantastic images with this article. Watch for release of full length article sometime early next year!

Lurujarri heritage walking trail Kimberley - Australian Geographic:
Volunteers, Goolarabooloo people and walkers travel the route annually. It takes nine days and covers 82km, mostly following the coastline north of Broome, WA. Walkers move leisurely through dunes, bush, mangroves and salt plains, as stories are told by the local Goolarabooloo community who run the walk.

Barnett Browse shift angers EPA - The West Australian

Barnett Browse shift angers EPA - The West Australian:
He said some of the axed conditions were important to ensure companies were held to high levels of accountability.

There was also less pressure on the proponents to cut emissions without the conditions.

It was particularly important with Browse, he said, because the project would lift WA's total greenhouse gas emissions up to 52 per cent above 2007 levels if it reached capacity. "There's still a role for the State Government in maintaining public confidence in the environmental performance of proponents, particularly when they have large greenhouse gas emissions," he said.

Learning from the London Olympics - The Science Show - ABC Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Worth a listen.

Learning from the London Olympics - The Science Show - ABC Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation):

The environmental movement has much to learn from the success of the London Olympics in 2012 says Brendan May.

Gas field demonstrator's conviction is quashed

Gas field demonstrator's conviction is quashed:
Last December Mr Hutton was convicted in the Dalby Magistrates Court under section 805 of Queensland's Petroleum and Gas Act, which provides for fines of up to $50,000 against anyone who obstructs an oil and gas company from entering, crossing or carrying out any other authorised activity on land covered by an exploration or production licence - on condition that they have been properly warned by the company.

But District Court Judge Fleur Kingham acquitted Mr Hutton - the only person to have been convicted under the law - on the basis that he was not properly warned by QGC. Her judgment criticised the ''awkward and ambiguous drafting of section 805''.

Greens MP Chapple calls on EPA Chief to resign | Robin Chapple MLC

Greens MP Chapple calls on EPA Chief to resign 

 “Mr Vogel, Chairman of the EPA, needs to be reminded that his primary task is to protect the environment, not promote mining and other destructive industries, particularly when it comes to something as toxic and untested in WA as uranium mining,” Mr Chapple said.

“If Mr Vogel is so keen on promoting industry maybe he is in the wrong job.”

Mr Chapple is also calling on the Environment Minister Bill Marmion to act and stand Mr Vogel aside, pending a full review of his publically expressed views and actions since his appointment, to see whether he is fit for the job of Chairman of the EPA.