About the only decent timeline in the Rudd Government's white paper Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme: Australia's Low Pollution Future is the one indicating that the main mechanism to reduce national carbon emissions will start in about July 2010.
The white paper's foreword disappointingly states:
The Australian Government has a substantial commitment to reduce our carbon pollution by 60 per cent of 2000 levels by 2050.
By 2020, we have committed to reduce Australia's carbon pollution by up to 15 per cent below 2000 levels in the context of a global agreement where major economies agree to substantially restrain carbon pollution and advanced economies take on reductions comparable to Australia.
We have also committed to an unconditional 5 per cent reduction in carbon pollution below 2000 levels by 2020, which represents a significant cut of around 27 per cent on a per capita basis.
By harnessing the innovation and efficiency of the market, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme will allow Australia to meet these serious targets at the lowest overall cost to our economy.
With a 5% reduction on Australia's total greenhouse gas levels in 2000 as the bench mark, the Prime Minister, Treasurer and Climate Change Minister are literally planning to do so little, and to move so slowly, in mitigating climate change impacts that the very worst of predicted negative effects will inevitably slam into New South Wales coastal communities.
With such low national carbon emissions targets it won't matter how many billions in seed money or compensation Rudd and his ministers throw at industry or business; our Northern Rivers homes will still be swept out to sea in massive storm surges or turned into rubble by increasingly violent East Coast Lows.
At this point in time even the climate change denialist Howard Government (if it had remained in office) would have been setting that 5% target, so it is hypocritical of Rudd, Swann and Wong to present today's white paper as a breakthrough when it is really a capitulation to the interests of big business at the expense of the ordinary citizen.
Summary of 15 December 2008 white paper here.
Volumes 1 & 2 of full white paper downloadable here.
Monday 15 December 2008
Thinking of making paperless Christmas cards this year?
If you want to send a simple Christmas greeting by e-mail and so avoid the guilt of using paper this year, here is the simplest method:Go to Google Images and search for appropriate pictures such as Christmas tree, Christmas scene, Christmas bells, Santa Claus.
- Download your favourite images to Desktop.
- Create an e-mail and give it a coloured or patterned background.
- Insert a picture and centre it.
- Pick the font type and colour you fancy and write your message.
Nothing simpler.
* If you want to caption the picture with a personal message, pimp the card or create a Christmas collage, then go to BIG HUGE Labs and take advantage of the free, easy to use tools there.
If you are into prepared e-cards there are downloadable examples at Yahoo! Kids or personalise those found at ecards4ever.
Earthrace docks in Ballina on 30 December 2008
The Far North Coaster reports:You'll be able to see the boat, which holds the record for circling the globe and is for sale for $US1.5 million, when she docks in Ballina on December 30 and 31.
Earthrace is billed as the fastest and greenest powerboat in the world, and will arrive in Ballina as part of a worldwide tour to communicate the importance of biofuels in the fight against global warming.
In June this year, Earthrace set a world record for a powerboat to circle the globe – smashing the old record by more than two weeks.........
Earthrace will be powered by 100 per cent biodiesel from Queensland-company Neumann Petroleum.
Biodiesel is the name for a variety of ester-based oxygenated fuels made from vegetable oils or animal fats, most commonly derived from tallow, canola, cotton seed and soy.
"It is the only alternative fuel that can be used directly in any existing, unmodified diesel engine and offers numerous benefits including 80 per cent lower carbon dioxide emissions; almost 100 per cent lower sulphur dioxide; safer handling, transportation and storage; and new markets and opportunities for Australia's agricultural industry," Mr Bethune said.
"While 100 per cent biodiesel is not commercially available to motorists in Australia, Neumann Petroleum offers a 20 per cent blend through selected Matilda service stations in Queensland."
If you are up Ballina way - go see this boat and show your support for green technology!
Sunday 14 December 2008
John Howard and his great and powerful friend
Come 20 January next year George Dubbya ceases to be US President and John Howard quite literally loses his 'great and powerful' friend.
Tectonic plates are already shifting across the political arena and last week the US Senate released a summary of the Senate Armed Services Committee Inquiry Into The Treatment of Detainees In US Custody, which pointed a finger squarely at the Bush Administration and Donald Rumsfeld for encouraging and approving mistreatment and abuse of Guantanamo Bay prisoners and others through the redefinition of torture, suspension of the Geneva Convention and specific interrogation instructions.
How long before John Howard's role in refusing to support international law and failing to support Australian citizens caught as 'enemy combatants' comes to light in yet more detail?
With most of his allies gone from office or otherwise neutered, will the truth about Howard's time as an Australian prime minister finally come to light?
Can the world dig faster than Little Johnnie can backfill?
Summary of Senate Armed Services Committee Inquiry Into The Treatment of Detainees In US Custody here.
Tectonic plates are already shifting across the political arena and last week the US Senate released a summary of the Senate Armed Services Committee Inquiry Into The Treatment of Detainees In US Custody, which pointed a finger squarely at the Bush Administration and Donald Rumsfeld for encouraging and approving mistreatment and abuse of Guantanamo Bay prisoners and others through the redefinition of torture, suspension of the Geneva Convention and specific interrogation instructions.
How long before John Howard's role in refusing to support international law and failing to support Australian citizens caught as 'enemy combatants' comes to light in yet more detail?
With most of his allies gone from office or otherwise neutered, will the truth about Howard's time as an Australian prime minister finally come to light?
Can the world dig faster than Little Johnnie can backfill?
Summary of Senate Armed Services Committee Inquiry Into The Treatment of Detainees In US Custody here.
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Somewhere in the digital Dardenelles:
I previously had the misfortune (on this occasion anyway) to manage a group of Fisheries scientists. Our Department had a great internet filter which let them monitor staff internet useage. I kept getting calls from our HR people about all the deviants in my section who continually searched sex sites. Of course, closer examination invariably showed that scientists intent on breeding fish needed to search for 'sex' when looking up scientific papers on fish breeding. Kevin I wish you well with your filter. I'm sure it will slow down the internet, frustrate legitimate users, cost a fortune and be as effective as Grocery watch and Fuel watch.
Posted by Dan of Brisbane / 09 Dec 2008 9:16pm / Permalink
We must have internet filtering. The Australian adult population do not have the capacity to protect their own children from accessing the internet in an appropriate manner. Therefore, the obviously ignorant people must call upon the immortal power of glorious education revolutionary Chairman Rudd to save the Australian masses from corruption by the tyranny and evils of the internet, and do a better job of raising YOUR kids by controlling, censoring and determining what is and what isn't appropriate for YOU and YOUR family. LONG LIVE Rudd!
Posted by David / 09 Dec 2008 9:34pm / Permalink
I am an adult who lives in a democratic society and as such I have a right to decide what I see, do, hear and how I act. I do not need an elected official making these decisions for me or telling me what is best for me or my family. This type of filter is the sort of thing one expects of China and the like, not Australia. Parents are responsible for what their children view on the internet and there is already available plenty of existing software to block offensive material. Most kids at some stage will expose themselves to pornography whether in sharing magazines, books, comics, or the net. Lets face it it has been around a long, long time. Mine went looking on the net before the "nanny type" software was available, but we were checking what and where they were going and we confronted them then dealt with it as responsible parents. They knew the rules, they knew we could check on them and they knew the penalties if they continued. And they stopped. Apparently loss of mobiles, going out, pocket money etc was more important. As some other people have stated this will not stop the pedophiles, they will just find other ways around the blocks, they always have regardless of the medium. All it will do is hinder Australia's ability to have a useful fast internet system. It needs to be an OPT IN system for those not prepared or capable of overseeing their own children. And let the rest of use benefit from all the advantages the web can give us. And for the record I am not interested in pornography but to each his own. I am a lot more concerned about the violence that is allowed on our TV's, films and computer games and think it does more damage to kids who are constantly exposed and desensitized by it.
Posted by Marg / 09 Dec 2008 9:28pm / Permalink
I live in a swing seat that labour won by 900 votes. If this filter proposal goes through, I will change my vote and lobby everyone I know to do the same. If I convince ten people, who convince 10 people each, who convince another 10 people each then the ALP is one seat closer to losing the treasury benches. I hope you think the risk of losing government is worth trying to introduce an unworkable solution to a problem that does not exist and exists as a tool to allow the back room boys to censor at will the information we can see. A solution that can only be used by future governments even more fascist than this one to strip us of our rights to get information they do not like. Remember the Nazis were voted in legally - this is how it starts.
Posted by Dean Nicholls / 09 Dec 2008 9:24pm / Permalink
I must post here as I very strongly object to ANY form of filtering of Internet content. If I want content to be filtered I will do so at a personal/home level to protect my children from unwanted content.
Posted by Web Wizard / 12 Dec 2008 3:35pm / Permalink
First we need an internet filter. Then we need a newsagent filter to make sure no publications slip through that parents may object to. Then we need a library and book shop filter to make sure the same protection is there. Then government should be able to filter what the teachers at schools and universities can say (to protect the children). Same for movie theatres, TV, Radio, Australia post and so on. Stop this mad idea now.
Posted by Tim / 12 Dec 2008 3:20pm / Permalink
I find the methods used by Conroy to convince us we need mandatory ISP censorship to be disgusting. Exploiting victims of child abuse and peoples fears of it is a very underhanded way to foist totalitarian like control of information on society. Sure the less tech savvy might lap it up. But the rest of us see straight through it. We know the filtering will not stop child abuse, we know that a secret blacklist will be an open invitation for censorship. At least we can take comfort in the fact that if the train wreck is implemented that the blacklist will leak. Then everyone will see the real motivation for censorship. Weather that be political, religious or commercial. ie governments silencing critics, Family First forcing Christianity on us, Media conglomerates trying in vain to stop piracy or a combination.
Posted by Cleanfeed will not be forgotten come next election! / 12 Dec 2008 3:04pm / Permalink
You guys are turning out to be worse than your predecessors. Censoring the Internet will be your downfall. You have no idea what you've just started. You've woken a sleeping giant.
Posted by cameronreilly / 12 Dec 2008 2:02pm / Permalink
(Some of the comments turning up on the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy consultation blog begun on 8 December 2008)
By yesterday morning Conroy's blog had received over 700 comments with the vast majority against his filtering plan. Won't be long before the comment function is closed or this large block of negative opinion suffers an 'accident'.