Mood:
hug meTopic: independent media
Picture: Oxford St Paddington, heart of Wentworth electorate 7 hours yesterday, opposite the busy Saturday market set up in front of St George Bank, not trading perhaps due to the recent interest rate hike?
We were out yesterday doing what we do (Christian Kerr calls it “skulduggery”) and on return found there were no invitations in our email for “growth” of a wedding tackle kind, or “Want to u love” from cosmopolitan types. No spam, no nuthin. Not even the 15 Green Party media releases you might expect with 6 days to go until the election. Mmm.
“WTF?” we thought, not again after yesterday’s blank Blog greeted us as bare as a baby’s backside. We got the website front page back after a snotty blog post (RSS feed to malcontent?) and some judicious queries to the Lycos folks over in the USA (server upgrade glitch?).
We had over 400 page views yesterday. That’s unusually high in fact.
Funny how the clunks, glitches, airbrush gremlins all happen one weekend before the election on a community media micro news website. Mmm.
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Our last email before before we lost transmission of any electoral significance was this:
Sent: Friday, November 16, 2007 12:29 PM
Subject: Re: [chipstop] Woodchip company power plant may supply Eden area
The politics of this relate to the season - summer season. It's mid November. We all know what's coming. When the bush burns SEFE will point to that 'lost opportunity' literally 'up in smoke'.
It's mad enough to work for a stupid ALP state or federal take your pick. No one seems to get that it's this exact kind of logging that has dried out whole landscapes inviting huge bushfires through lost humid climates under the canopy (or what's left of it), let alone destroyed water supply.
More here:
It might also be a PR trap for the greens etc. As soon as you complain they will say ... you prefer to see it burn in a bushfire. Cheap but redneck effective among quite a few voters.
And who knows who will light a fire between now and 24th November voting day!
Remember on the mega fires in California the mailbag to Australian 60 Minutes follwoing week about 3 weeks ago, was all about not climate change which was the actual premise of the story ....but greenies stopping logging to stop such big fires. That is the logger industry got all over it with their letters in denial. Peter Harvey was sceptical but he read out the feedback all the same.
So my strong recommendation is to shift focus - Go for woodchipping causes mega bushfires angle. Or go for climate change causes mega fires, and saving forests is the best way for carbon storage and strong bushfire prevention resources. You could use the diagrams on the web link there about destroyed humidity. Or at the least think very carefully about the PR dynamic.
Cochrane was surely enough boosting a redneck agenda on World Today re horses in Kosciuszko NP yesterday here (for similar reasons - its the election season):
Critics fear brumby removal plan threatens Kosciuszko tradition
The brumby is part of Australia's high country history, inspiring poems and legends. But growing numbers of the wild horses have forced the National Parks and Wildlife Service to come up with a new plan to control them in the Kosciuszko National Park. Some are opposed to the plan, believing the service's aim is to eventually rid the park of the horses altogether.
Yours truly, Tom McLoughlin.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, November 16, 2007 11:15 AM
Subject: [chipstop] Woodchip company power plant may supply Eden area
Hi greenies
This is SERIOUS!!!
The chipmill has been putting out hints for some time now that they are heading this way. They see the writing on the wall for woodchips (largely due to exchange rate problems, not environmental; Aus woodchips are priced in $A) and they see their future burning forests and calling in clean, renewable, green energy.
They look like they are getting their foot in the door with pine, but that will get them their infrastructure and their markets stitched up and next step native forests. It is quite disastrous. We have seen this coming but nobody has taken it seriously. I fear it has even been encouraged by some clean energy campaigners, so that makes it harder.
regards
harriettWoodchip company power plant may supply Eden area
ABC Regional
Posted November 16, 2007 08:34:00
Updated November 16, 2007 08:33:00
The New South Wales far south coast's woodchip plant could soon become an important producer of electricity for the region.
South-East Fibre Exports has outlined plans to build a multi-million dollar generating plant at its mill near Eden, using waste products from its chipping operations.
The plant will run in conjunction with a new softwood chipping line soon to be installed.
The company's spokesman, Vince Phillips, says the electricity plant will not only power the mill, but also the surrounding districts.
"We think we can produce something like four megawatts of power here and we need about half that, so we would think the other half would go back into the grid," he said.
"From what understand about what happens in Eden, that would make a pretty significant dent in the general day-to-day power consumption of the Eden township areas.
"We'd certainly be hoping it goes back into Eden.
"We've been in Eden 40 years and it would be a great thing if Eden and us ... went into partnership on this."
Tags: electricity-energy-and-utilities, forests, bega-2550, eden-2551
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We think the gremlin issue is unconnected but who really knows. Here are the critical diagrams showing how the unrestrained woodchipping turns our wonderful natural heritage into mega fire prone land scapes, and yes including in wet old Tasmania eventually:
Which reminds us of this wet old growth forest pictured in The Australian half pager yesterday. Humbling isn't it? This is the forest the woodchippers have excelled in killing, along with the water cycle and humid canopy this last 40 years hand in glove with the major parties, ALP and Coalition. Disgusting isn't it?
It's this mentality that leads younger generations like our mate Dylan from Turrella's Mekanarchy (also seen in the SMH recently) to make apocalyptic sculptures like this at 'Sculpture by the Sea' (last day today 18th Nov 07):
And for the world's thinking people to notice how Kyoto has been junked by the institutions of power in Australia and the USA. What hope is there really? Not much is our depressing view.
