Population growth
I鈥檓 tired of hearing how population growth and leaky boats cause the destruction of our environment 鈥 as if two-child families, frugality and no migration would make us sustainable.
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Take any industry you like, sustainability is blatant nonsense. A log truck speeding down our country roads, even if it鈥檚 full of plantation trees is incredibly destructive. These trees are ripped out like carrots every few years. How many wooden rocking chairs do you need? This timber is largely intended for woodchips and those are probably earmarked for export.
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Organisers of an anti-coal protest at the Boggabri open-cut coalmine in northern New South Wales released the statement below on March 19.
Speakers at the event included Maules Creek Community Council spokesperson Phil Laird, author and journalist Paul Cleary, Liverpool Plains farmer Tim Duddy and Greens MLC and mining spokesperson Jeremy Buckingham.
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The (AFCA) released the statement below on March 19.
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Australia鈥檚 forests and wildlife had a desperately narrow escape from an increase in destruction today when Parliament voted not to subsidise the burning of native forest wood for electricity. The vote was 72-72, with Speaker Peter Slipper casting the final 鈥榥o鈥 vote to Rob Oakeshott鈥檚 motion.
Farmers and supporters marched on the Labor Party and Liberal National Party offices in Brisbane on March 12 to protest coal and coal seam gas mining in Queensland, before attending a 1000-person strong food security forum at the Brisbane Convention Centre.
released the statement below on March 20.
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One of Victoria鈥檚 worst kept secrets over the past year has been the intention of the state government to expand the state鈥檚 involvement in the coal industry. A draft cabinet submission shows that the Baillieu government is preparing a campaign to promote further development of Victoria鈥檚 brown coal reserves.
The oil-rich South American nation of Venezuela is in the midst of a complicated and contradictory process of social transformation. The revolutionary movement, headed by President Hugo Chavez, is redistributing wealth, bringing key industries under state ownership and promoting experiments in direct, participatory democracy. The aim of the Bolivarian revolution is to build a 鈥渟ocialism for the 21st century鈥.
The released the statement below on March 20.
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Two Afghan refugees were taken in handcuffs from Darwin to Christmas Island on the afternoon of March 18.
Refugee advocates have called for the immediate end of the use of Christmas Island as a punishment centre and have called for a full inquiry into Serco and its system of harsh, unaccountable, and arbitrary punishments.
Serco has become the judge, jury and jailer of asylum seekers within Australia鈥檚 detention regime.
The Yiddish language, developed out of German by Ashkenazi Jews, was the major language of European Jews before the Holocaust. With the development of modern Hebrew in Israel it started to fade.
Resources minister Martin Ferguson introduced the National Radioactive Waste Management Bill into the House of Representatives in February 2010, saying it represented 鈥渁 responsible and long overdue approach for an issue that impacts on all Australian communities鈥.
The bill names Muckaty, 120 kilometres north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, as the only site to remain under active consideration for a national nuclear waste dump.
Farmers, environmentalists, irrigators, winemakers, horse breeders, the NSW opposition, and coal seam gas (CSG) campaigners have all been angered by the NSW Coalition government's new land use plans, which give the go-ahead to CSG and coalmining across the state.
Despite Premier Barry O鈥橣arrell鈥檚 pre-election promise that key agricultural land would be protected from mining and CSG activity, the government's draft Aquifer Interference Policy and draft Strategic Regional Land Use Plans "have left the gate open", said the NSW Farmers Association.
Scott Power is the Senior Principal Research Scientist at Australian Bureau of Meteorology. This article is .
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