Alan Jones was banging on today about a 4 Corners CSG programme that predictably paints CSG in a bad light. It is obvious from the following unedited interview with the ABC that the reporter does not understand the issue. Thousands of observations exist for natural methane gas releases in QLD prior to CSG operations. Yet anti-CSG proponents want to blame all current methane gas releases in QLD on CSG.
Category: Natural Environment
On balance, I support Sea Shepherd (SS)
Posted by – 25 February, 2013
From our southern waters:
A JAPANESE military ship has joined its whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean, increasing tension between whalers and activists after collisions last week.
The 140m-long Shirase icebreaker, operated by the navy and described by activists as “intimidating”, arrived near the Nisshin Maru whaling ship and Korean-flagged fuel tanker Sun Laurel in Australia’s Antarctic territory early yesterday morning, Sea Shepherd Captain Paul Watson said.
Let me preface what I am about to write by stating:
- I don’t believe anything the people associated with the Sea Shepherd (SS) say;
- I don’t necessarily have a problem with whaling as long as it can be conducted in a sustainable manner; and
- Nations that engage in whaling must respect the territorial claims made by other nations when conducting harvest operations.
Having said all that the SS are serving a public good. Like a militia unit, the SS are harassing a foreign power (Japan), which has complete disregard to our territorial claims to Antarctica. It is an insult enough that Japan is even conducting economic activities in our Antarctic waters (they claim it is for scientific purposes) without our permission and without paying the requisite license fees to the Commonwealth (if whaling was legal), even worse is that whaling is an activity that Australians generally find offensive. It is like Japan is rubbing our noses in it. So as far as I am concerned, the SS can employ the full spectrum of non-lethal militia tactics against the Japanese to discourage them from whaling in our waters.
Japan may not recognise Australia’s claims over Antarctica, but our territorial claims are more credible than Japan’s claims that their whaling operations are for scientific purposes.
UPDATE
Yes, they are pirate-like:
A court in the US has labelled conservationist group Sea Shepherd “pirates”.
Judge Alex Kozinski said the group’s “aggressive and high-profile attacks” on Japan’s whaling fleet endangered lives, ordering them to stop.
Furthermore,
He added that the illegality of whaling in Australian waters did not excuse Sea Shepherd’s activities.
“It is for Australia, not Sea Shepherd, to police Australia’s court orders.”
Sea Shepherd argues that the US court has no jurisdiction over foreign-flagged vessels sailing in Australian waters with an international crew.
Don’t you think it is time the Australian government maned-up and did something about Japan willfully ignoring Australia’s territorial waters? For me the issue is not about whaling, but the integrity of Australia’s territorial interests. If Japan can get away with conducting whaling, or whatever other activity it might be, in Australia’s waters why wouldn’t some other nation at some point in the future also take advantage of our slack attitude to our own claims to certain territories? Yes, the SS are a bunch of you know what (Sir Francis Drake come to mind?), but the issue is not about the SS. Japan is conducting scientific economic activities in our waters without our say and the Commonwealth is not doing anything about it.
Delingpole
Posted by – 23 February, 2013
Interesting history of global warming and environmentalism – interview here.
Rupert speaks
Posted by – 7 January, 2013
Hopefully his employees will listen. WSJ:
Did you know that the Earth is getting greener, quite literally? Satellites are now confirming that the amount of green vegetation on the planet has been increasing for three decades. This will be news to those accustomed to alarming tales about deforestation, overdevelopment and ecosystem destruction.
Increasing levels of Co2 account for around 50 per cent of the extra greening.
We are under fished
Posted by – 13 September, 2012
Australia is a nation that encapsulates some of the largest bodies of water in the world, with a relatively small population and yet we import 75 per cent of our seafood, mostly from south east asia. Some key facts from IPA representative Walter Starck:
No marine species in Australia are threatened with extinction by fishing.
No severe population collapse due to overfishing has been documented in Australia.
No reduction in marine biodiversity from fishing has been documented in Australia.
The overall harvest rate for Australian fisheries is the lowest of any nation.
The productivity of Australian waters is not unusually low.
The catch rate of Australian fisheries is indicative of healthy stocks, not of overfishing.
Can’t say I am surprised that this government has given into an astro turf GetUp campaign by baning the super trawler in question. In doing so environment minister Tony Burke is ignoring advice from his won fisheries and scientific experts, and contradicting his own words in the space of two weeks. As the editorial of The Australian says:
…yet again, politics trumps good policy and responsible government yields to mob rule.
Imagine, an investor spends years and millions negotiating for the trawler to be brought to Australia, you get approval by comlying with a raft of complication and intrusive conditions and just when you are about to fish Tony Burke has a panic attack and closes your operation down.
Furthermore, the legislation Burke Brought before the Parliament had to be withdrawn and amended because it was so poorly drafted. The ALP can’t even get their back flip right.
I don’t have a problem with whaling
Posted by – 5 July, 2012
South Korea has announced plans to commence whaling. My reaction? I don’t have a problem with it as long as the species population can support it.
Julia Gillard said there was “no excuse” for whaling in any country and expressed regret over South Korea’s announcement it planned to follow Japan by hunting the mammals in what it says is the name of scientific research.
With the way Gillard has failed to handle our relationship with Asia, I anticipate that South Korea will be put offside by Gillard’s clumsy approaches.
Whales are to many atheists what Holy Cows are to Hindus.
Is this paradise?
Posted by – 30 May, 2012
Hunting in National Parks and an electricity sell off.
National parks in NSW will be opened up to recreational hunters as part of a deal between the Shooters and Fishers Party and the government to ensure passage of its electricity privatisation bill.
Hopefully surrounded by coal seam gas.
UPDATE
Additional environmental management, sport and health measures have been introduced:
NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell has done a “dirty deal” with the Shooters Party to overturn a ban on duck hunting, the NSW opposition says.
Done dirt cheap – well the cost of a few shells. Also timely given the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
'Red head at 12 o'clock. 500 metres. Fire!'
UPDATE II
More good news, the Feds can’t touch the changes. Environmental issues should primarily be the responsibility of the states anyway – damn external relations powers which allows the Feds to meddle.
Fracking not to blame
Posted by – 27 March, 2012
For some reality, via WSJ:
Some energy companies, state regulators, academics and environmentalists are reaching consensus that natural-gas drilling has led to several incidents of water pollution—but not because of fracking.
The energy officials and some environmentalists agree that poorly built wells are to blame for some cases of water contamination. In those cases, they say, wells weren’t properly sealed with subterranean cement, which allowed contaminants to travel up the well bore from deep underground into shallow aquifers that provide drinking water.
In the rare cases where contamination may have occurred, the well simply needed another casing of cement. Problem solved.
As not covered by ‘your’ ABC
Posted by – 27 March, 2012
Uh oh:
A team of scientists led by geochemist Zunli Lu from Syracuse University in New York state, has found that contrary to the ‘consensus’, the ‘Medieval Warm Period’ approximately 500 to 1,000 years ago wasn’t just confined to Europe.
In fact, it extended all the way down to Antarctica – which means that the Earth has already experience global warming without the aid of human CO2 emissions.