River deltas sinking across the globe except in Australia and Antarctica?

A study was published in Nature Geoscience this month on the vulnerability of river deltas and finally there was some guarded good news for Australia in relation to flooding and rising sea levels.

Many of the world's largest deltas are densely populated and heavily farmed. Yet many of their inhabitants are becoming increasingly vulnerable to flooding and conversions of their land to open ocean. The vulnerability is a result of sediment compaction from the removal of oil, gas and water from the delta's underlying sediments, the trapping of sediment in reservoirs upstream and floodplain engineering in combination with rising global sea level. Here we present an assessment of 33 deltas chosen to represent the world's deltas. We find that in the past decade, 85% of the deltas experienced severe flooding, resulting in the temporary submergence of 260,000 km². We conservatively estimate that the delta surface area vulnerable to flooding could increase by 50% under the current projected values for sea-level rise in the twenty-first century. This figure could increase if the capture of sediment upstream persists and continues to prevent the growth and buffering of the deltas.

Worst hit will be Asia, but heavily populated and farmed deltas on every continent except Australia and Antarctica are in peril, it says according to SBS World News.

Revenge of the wrinklies!

Sometimes cyberspace produces an antidote to life's little irritations.

This time it threw up a bit of sweet payback for all those bluidy undisciplined televised Federal Parliament Question Times since November 2007.

These pics are from a campaign by industry body Aged & Community Services Australia which can be found at Kevin 87. There are lines and wrinkles here enough for all those insults offered to voter intelligence and failure to grasp the national health care nettle. Pity there's no pics of Pyne and Abbott.

Growing old is manda-
tory; growing up is optional. ~Chili Davis

Are national economic concerns winning out over global environmental crises?

World leaders are gathering in Pittsburgh USA for a G20 summit, which officially commences on 24 September 2009 with an aim to review the progress made since the Washington and London Summits and discuss further actions to assure a sound and sustainable recovery from the global financial and economic crisis.

Two days have been set aside to cover this topic and calls to commit to further government intervention in international banking and commerce.
If recent media coverage cited on www.g20pittsburghsummit.org is any indication, then the minds of world leaders are firmly fixed on their national economic woes.

It is easy to suspect that global warming will continue take a backseat to the global financial crisis, despite the fact that a UN meeting on climate change is taking place tomorrow ahead of the G20 summit.

It is a real possibility that very little progress will be made this week towards the Copenhagen agenda on climate change, despite the Rudd Government's reported behind-the-scenes work on the legal framework for a new climate change treaty, and ways to finance poorer countries' efforts to adapt to a low-carbon world, could become a crucial contribution in breaking the impasse on a greenhouse treaty.

Immediate national economic imperatives appear to be winning the hearts and mind battle at the expense of addressing very real environmental crises.
Yesterday The Guardian reported:
UN chief Ban Ki-Moon and negotiators say that unless they can convert world leaders into committed advocates of radical action, it will be very hard to reach a credible and enforceable agreement to avoid the most devastating consequences of climate change.

The Australian has an online poll underway which asks the question:
Do you expect any concrete progress to be made at the November climate change summit in Copenhagen?

Most of those who have taken part in this poll so far (pictured) are not optimistic about the possibility of concrete progress.

Indeed many people are becoming very cynical about global and government response to climate change. On the NSW North Coast this has manifested itself in a number of ways, including this black humour view of Yamba's problems at the mouth of the Clarence River:
* When asked what strategies were in place to provide support in the event of a major flood of West Yamba, one SES worker is reported as to have said "We'll stand on the edge of Yamba Hill and toss life jackets to people as they float by". [Climate Change Australia,Clarence Division, Submission on Draft Sea Level Rise Policy Statement by the NSW Government,March 2009]

Clarence Valley rabbit romance

In The Sydney Morning Herald's Column 8 last week:

''In this week's edition of the Clarence Valley Review,'' writes Col Shephard, of Yamba, there appears the following classified ad: 'WANTED. One dwarf floppy-eared MALE rabbit for about seven seconds, my female needs babies. This is a serious ad, please call 6646 … .' I wonder why it was thought necessary to include the 'this is a serious ad' bit.'' We know not, but are glad we're not a female dwarf floppy-eared rabbit in search of tenderness and romance.

Photograph of Mini Floppy-eared Rabbit from Google Images

We're not in Queensland yet! and other stories

As the page turns.....

An eagle-eyed visitor to The Daily Examiner website spotted this logo attached to a story about the federal electorate of Page on the NSW North Coast; Libs turn to Page in comeback bid.
That's right - the logo is for the recently amalgamated Queensland state coalition party, the Liberal National Party which can't field a candidate in New South Wales without marching the border southwards.

Eat less meat campaigns

Now that everyone from Ask More Now through to the United Nations has joined in the call to eat less meat and hopefully reduce methane associated with man-made climate change, I thought I'd give the cows a chance to have their say......

















Shut Up!! I'm shopping.......

Someone had a bright idea at Bi-Lo in Yamba recently. A male staff member was sent up and down the few aisles in this small store with a microphone in hand to spruik the goods. Not sure how long that megaphone selling will last though, as before he made his way into the staff only area he was seen being roundly abused by an older female customer who just wanted to shop in peezes and quietz.

Radio daze

WTF? Went to Radio 2GF Grafton website yesterday and Google gave this warning:

When did local radio go bad?

Australian Federal Parliament: question time ennui

It seems that the arrogance, high farce and temper tantrums displayed in both houses of the Federal Parliament recently during Question Time still leaves some space for a little boredom and twitchy fingers, as Senator Scott Ludlum amusingly demonstrated last week.

Senator Ludlum RT @parissite: Twitter iz in ur question time, makin it moar funz. #qtabout 1 hour ago from twhirl

Climate change storm clouds are gathering...........

One hears talk about prolonged climate change impacts leading to future mass migration of displaced persons and national security threats, but few actually talk about the degree of political and social conflict that Australia may experience due to the fact that it is already a relatively dry continent over much of its land mass with the majority of food cultivation and domestic stock grazing occurring on what can only be termed marginal land.
Or the fact that existing means of primary production meant to feed over 21 million citizens is estimated to be in the hands of less than 125,000 families/corporations.
Little mention is also made of the fact that the definition of terrorism and draconian federal/state anti-terrorism laws are now capable of including legitimate and peaceful public dissent against government policy or corporate business practice.

It seems that few are contemplating what climate change-focused civil unrest will be like.

However last Monday Ian McHugh from Crikey gave us a thumbnail of the possible beginning of things to come when he wrote about the Hazelwood power station protest:

The Australian mainstream is not used to fighting against government policies on the ground – the average suburbanite, which, myself included, is what most of us are, has transient experience of it at best because we've grown up in a country that has been free, stable, prosperous and reasonably equitable for a few generations, and those kinds of muscles have inevitably atrophied.
But this is what lends significance to yesterday's action, even if the numbers are not yet on the ground – that despite a probable discomfort with the idea of civil disobedience, people who would really rather be doing something else turned up anyway, because they feel that this is what things have come to.
And it's something that modern day governments, particularly those that obsess over media appearances, ought to be thinking about – if the climate change issue is met with platitudes in public and police on the ground, then the pictures that flow from that will become increasingly ugly.
Strongarming a dreadlocked protester dressed like a wombat might not be a particularly good look, but handing out the same treatment to the more conservative looking; the very old, the very young, doctors, plumbers, lawyers, teachers, nurses, WORKING FAMILIES – the 'ordinary' folk -- is infinitely worse.

Go the mighty Magpies! Come on United! NRRRL Grand Final today

Footy fever hits the Northern Rivers as its rugby league grand final gets underway and kicks off with welcome to country by Yaegl elder Mrs. Lillian Williams at 10.45am in the Maclean Showground.
Then on to the Under 18s Ballina v Kyogle followed by Reserve Grade Mullumbimby v Evans Head and finally to the match everyone has been waiting for Lower Clarence Magpies v Northern United.

Lower Clarence Magpies

Northern United

Click on photos to enlarge
Pics from The Daily Examiner on 19th September 2009

UPDATE: The Mighty Magpies are now the 2009 Northern Rivers Regional Rugby League Grand Final Champions with a 21-20 win over Northern United.
Well done to all players on both sides! It was a close game well played to a tight finish.
Evans Head (24-22) and Ballina (36-12) were the winners in their divisions.

Hungry green tree frog snacks on baby black snake

Snap taken at Yamba on Friday night (18 September).
The frog was approximately 10cm in length;
the black snake was approximately 40cm long.

What a difference a change of editor makes

Under former editor Peter Chapman The Daily Examiner at times indulged in barely concealed Koori bashing, so this opinion piece by new editor David Bancroft was a welcome read last Wednesday:

Click image to enlarge

Original The Daily Examiner article about young Kaleesha Morris (pictured) Grafton teen a future PM? by journalist Marsha Neville on 16 September 2009.

Australia - what's wrong with this picture?

Map fromwww.geographicguide.net

Australia has an estimated land area of 7,686,650 square kilometres.
It has a growing population which currently stands at about 21.9 million people.
The majority of Australians live within 100 kilometres of the coastline and, in that narrow strip more people live in major cities and surrounding suburbs than live in smaller towns and villages.
Only around ten per cent of Australia's land mass is arable land suitable for crops or grazing and most of that is in the same coastal fringe. The majority of this arable land is in private hands.

By 2049 it has been estimated that Australia's population will reach 35 million people.
This means that in fifty years time there will be one person for every 0.21 square kilometres of the Australian continent, but most of these people will probably want to live within a total area of less than 1 million square kilometres.

Coincidentally by 2050 the predicted negative impacts of climate change (including prolonged water scarcity and coastal sea water inundation) should be pronounced in this country.

The maths are not looking good and all levels of government are only paying lip service to sustainable planning.

What are you doing to stop your local council and state government from allowing the coast to be developed to death?

That Shape Shifting Australian Internet Mandatory Filtering Scheme or Ministerial Untruths Unchecked

Hardly a month goes past without some mention of government-sanctioned censorship occurring somewhere around the world.

On Wednesday 16 September 2009 Politikin in Denmark published an entire book in that day's edition of the newspaper. It did so to make sure that the government of the day (through its defence and treasury departments) did not manage to censor a new book by a former Danish commando.

The same day Senator Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy in the Australian Federal Government, was caught out telling fibs about his 'past' intentions for the proposed mandatory national ISP-level Internet filtering scheme when he denied that he had ever considered censoring peer to peer traffic.

This is what the Minister personally said on a DBCDE official blog in December 2008 ( a similar statement was also attributed to him in a News Ltd report on 22 December):

The Government understands that ISP-level filtering is not a 'silver bullet'. We have always viewed ISP-level filtering as one part of a broader government initiative for protecting our children online.
Technology is improving all the time. Technology that filters peer-to-peer and BitTorrent traffic does exist and it is anticipated that the effectiveness of this will be tested in the live pilot trial.
Stephen Conroy

and

This is what the Minster said last Wednesday:

As Senator Ludlam well knows, there has never been a suggestion by this government that peer-to-peer traffic would or could be blocked by our filter. It has never been suggested. So for you to continue to make the suggestion that we are attempting to do that just misleads the chamber and the Australian public, Senator Ludlam, and you know better than that. We are not attempting to suggest that the filter can capture peer-to-peer traffic. So for you to continue to make the suggestion that we are attempting to do that just misleads the chamber and the Australian public, Senator Ludlam, and you know better than that. We are not attempting to suggest that the filter can capture peer-to-peer traffic.

Perhaps Senator Conroy's fearless leader might quietly ask him why he chose to tell untruths to Parliament when he rose to his feet in Senate Question Time on 16 September 2009.

Is it any wonder that the Rudd Government is considered by many to have suspect motives when it comes to its Internet filtering plans?

Australian pensions increase effective 20 September 2009 and other changes

On 20 September 2009 a number of changes will occur to Australian government pensions, benefits and allowances.
These changes are likely to apply to most people on Age Pension, Disability Support Pension, Wife Pension, Widow B Pension, Carer Payment, Service Pension or Income Support Supplement and, should be reflected in the first payments received after 20 September.

The Adult Pension Basic Rate for single individuals will rise to $615.80 per fortnight and for couples to $464.20 for each partner.

The new Pension Supplement (which combines the old GST supplement, pharmaceutical allowance, utilities allowance, and telephone/internet connection allowance into one parcel) will also come into effect and will increase by a small amount overall.

On 1 July 2010 the rules about Advance Payments will also change so that an unspecified higher amount can be requested and payments can be accessed more than once each year.

Work Bonus and Seniors Supplement are also new features which commence this month, as well as changes to the income test (this will not affect existing pension recipients).

The Pension Bonus Scheme will also be closed to all new pension recipients after 19 September 2009.

The new annual lump-sum Carer Supplement actually began in June 2009. The next payment is due in July 2010.

These increases will offset the June quarter 2008 to June Quarter 2009 rise in most indicators used in the Pensioner and Beneficiary Living Cost Index.

Details from the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.
Dollar values of these changes in index table.
Centrelink pension reform information with audio and video links

Will Malcolm Turnbull ever find the missing pieces of leadership?

Malcolm Turnbull has been Leader of the Opposition for a year since last Wednesday and he is yet to bring the ratbag element in the Coalition parties into line.
The latest unedifying display from his troops was a motion on Tuesday to no longer hear a minister's reply during Question Time, with no hope of winning the vote yet still insisting on a time wasting division. Followed by spurious point-of-order after spurious point-of-order.
This surely can't have been Truffles idea - it's such a bad PR look when shown live on the teev.
But wait, the camera spied Truffles smirking away at the front of the pack. Guess he confuses being head hoon for real leadership - big mistake.

Column 8 is back online - finally, Fairfax sees sense

Fairfax has restored online access to The Sydney Morning Herald's Column 8.

Read it online at the Herald's site here.

Fairfax's archived copies of the column are here. However, the Wednesday 18 September 2009 column is not there. North Coast Voice's presentation of it is here.

Column 8's email address is column8@smh.com.au