Categories: Environment

9 Jun 2010, Comments (9)

Gets me where I Live

Author: Helen

The boy and I are at home with colds and I’m enjoying the quiet. Outside our northern windows, on the other side of the board fence, is a strip of spotted gum, buloke, melaleuca and ironbark. Beyond that is a stretch of grass dotted with eucalypts which slopes down to a creek, which is hidden from here, and the far slope which is also half covered with eucalypts.

You may be confused if you’ve had the impression that I live in the inner city. Have I moved? Do I live on a property somewhere in the country? There are no sheep, cows or horses on the grassy paddock; a man comes every month with a ride on mower to keep the grass down. Am I some millionaire landowner?

No – I’m about 8 ks from the city centre, as the crow flies. I’m lucky enough to live in the last house on the end of a street which abuts on one of Melbourne’s linear parks, resurrected and revegetated from an old bluestone quarry in the 1970s and 80s. If I’m standing at the kitchen sink, I can just barely make out a house or two and the corner of a car park on the opposite side. If I’m sitting down, I might as well be somewhere in Gippsland.
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21 Sep 2009, Comments (20)

Black Harvest

Author: Helen

When was it that the word “harvesting” began to creep into the debate over the logging of old growth forest in our State? I can’t quite put my finger on it. It was some time last year that I became aware that the usual suspects – the timber lobby groups and their supporters – were using the word freely to describe what’s happening away from the concealing strips of forest left on either side of the tourist roads.

The words Harvest and Harvesting are freighted with positive associations. Although on an intellectual level we know that it’s mostly about combine harvesters and pea pickers these days, they’re still words which evoke the warm glow of late summer and autumn. Haystacks with horny lads and lassies in them drinking cider at the end of a long day. Heaped cornucopias of pumpkins, squash and sheaves of corn at the altar at Harvest Festival. Pagan and Christian rituals of joy and thanks. Baskets of apples as red as the cheeks of the pickers carrying them… Baisakhi, Gawai Dayak, the Moon Festival…

As opposed to this.

Clearfelling at Brown Mountain

A Supreme Court judge has compared images of a felled forest with a World War I battlefield before ordering a temporary ban on logging in a hotly contested part of East Gippsland.
Environmentalists claimed a historic victory after winning an injunction over logging of two zones of old-growth forest at Brown Mountain, seen as a symbolic battleground by greens and the timber industry.
The injunction will stand until a trial to test whether the logging would pose a threat to endangered species, particularly the long-footed potoroo.
Justice Jack Forrest said the case had been strengthened by photographs showing the ”apparent total obliteration” of a nearby site during logging and subsequent burning off.
”To put it bluntly, once the logging is carried out and the native habitat destroyed, then it cannot be reinstated or repaired in anything but the very, very long term,” he said.
Earlier, Justice Forrest told the court: ”I know what it was like before and I know what it was like after, and I’ve also seen pictures of the battlefields of the Somme.”

More pictures here.

In bygone days, the defenders of logging were at least honest enough to call it by that name. In South-Eastern Australia, “logging” of old growth forest means “clear felling and woodchipping”. “Clear Felling”, as practiced here, means the removal of all trees from designated areas, in mountainous regions where the soil is highly suceptible to erosion and runoff without those trees. The residue is then burned (firebombed) using a substance similar to napalm. Bulldozers, logging trucks and other machinery criss-cross the area, leaving deep ruts and compacted soil. The forest is then expected to regenerate “naturally”. The firebombing is compared to indigenous mosaic burning of the forest before European settlement.

Attempts to locate evidence of indigenous bulldozers have so far been fruitless.

No wonder the Judge saw a comparison to a war zone rather than a “harvest”. Next time you see that particular weasel word in the newspaper, in relation to Brown Mountain or any other remnants of our ancient old growth, remember that picture up there.

More background and action alert here.

16 Jun 2009, Comments (10)

Brown SLAPPed down, bobs up again

Author: Helen

A while ago I wrote a post on LP about SLAPP suits, the weapon of large corporations against ordinary people and non-government organisations who threaten their hegemony. Then, just after the long weekend, I had one of those “I heard the news today, oh boy” moments: Bob Brown had been SLAPPed down.

Score one for the woodchip industry, and against parliamentary democracy.

Sometimes I wonder why Bob Brown is the target of so much hate from Mr and Mrs Typical Australia, more so than other left-ish politicians. Has the steady drip of disinformation from the media and politicians, Labor and Liberal both, convinced so many “working families” that they’d be living the high life if only the logging companies could just remove the last vestiges of old-growth in South-Eastern Australia? It’s not just the environmental activism; the animus against Brown is so personal. He isn’t annoying, or trollish, in the way that other parliamentary “personalities” like Wilson Tuckey or Steve Fielding are trollish. He’s not from a rich or elite background. His NSW country drawl is real and unforced, and he looks as if he’s stepped out of a Russell Drysdale painting. Perhaps it’s because he’s a gay man in a homophobic culture that he incurs an extra dose of bile from the News commenters and talkback.

I was trudging through the rest of the week, filled with gloom, thinking that the Forces of Darkness had won again. Then, this.

Australian businessman Dick Smith has pledged to help Australian Greens leader Bob Brown pay a $240,000 legal bill which is threatening to force him into bankruptcy.
…Speaking from his helicopter over Lake Eyre today, Mr Smith said it was inappropriate for the industry to threaten someone’s political future.
“I’m very disturbed when I understand the legal letter which came in to Bob Brown threatened to make him a bankrupt, and of course, Forestry Tasmania would know that means he’d have to vacate his seat from Federal Parliament,” Mr Smith said.
“And I don’t really like that at all. I think that type of threat is quite uncalled for in Australia.”

…”I believe it’s just not acceptable and Forestry Tasmania will do themselves great damage if they think they can remove Bob Brown from Parliament because he doesn’t have much money,” he said.
“I know if need be, I’ll come in with some money and I’m sure others will too.”

Before the anti-Brown forces could work up a full head of steam about how terrible it was that Brown would take money from a businessman and how morally bankrupt that made him – never mind the steady stream of corporate money to the Liberal and Labor parties, not all of it above board – the story took another twist: Brown wouldn’t need Dick Smith’s offer after all, because the public had donated the money. All of it.

It was really wonderful to see the level of support for Brown, even in unlikely places and the condemnation of such antidemocratic SLAPP litigation tactics. Flicking around a few comment forums, I noticed many comments from people who said they disagreed with Brown and would never vote for him, but would still donate because Forestry Tasmania’s action was simply wrong. The animus against BB had abated somewhat (although I’m sure it’ll be back.) I think that middle Australia had been shocked out of its complacency, and Dick Smith had reminded them what human decency could do.

Score one for Bob Brown, and none for “Gunns, Forestry Tasmania and the [Forestry wing of the] CFMEU, which, at this stage of the game, are basically different arms of the same misshapen beast“.

5 May 2009, Comments (8)

The Clade

Author: Helen

Clade:

Pronunciation: \ˈklād\ : Function: noun : Etymology: Greek klados

: a group of biological taxa (as species) that includes all descendants of one common ancestor.

Many of you are familiar with Chris Clarke, US environmental writer and all-round awesum blogger.

If you like his stuff, you might be interested to know he’s started an environmental blog, The Clade.

It appears it’s not parochial to the US or California. When I went there just now, the top story was from South Australia!

When you’ve finished looking around that site, read this – it’s beautiful.
 
 
 
Crossposted at Larvatus Prodeo

24 Nov 2008, Comments (10)

I write letters: Tim Holding replies

Author: Helen

Dear Ms Balcony

Timber harvesting in Brown Mountain

Timber harvesting. Do you like the cuteness of it?

The specific responsibility for the matter raised in your correspondence rests with the Minister for Environment & Climate Change, Mr Gavin Jennings MLC.

Yes, but your name does appear right next to his on this page of the inappropriately named Department of Sustainability and Environment site. I just thought as minister for water, it might be good to jog your memory about how the Victorian government is logging its own water catchment areas and how with the environment things do tend to have an impact on other things.

Accordingly, I have forwarded a copy of your correspondence to Minister Jennings’ office for consideration.

Don’t worry about it, I’ve already sent him one. If you could just remind him that “Minister for Environment and Climate change” doesn’t mean actually fostering climate change, that’d be ace.

Thank you for taking the time to write to me.

Thank you for taking the time for your flak catchers to handball it to Gavin Jennings’ flak catchers. We await his reply with keen anticipation.

12 Nov 2008, Comments (6)

I write Letters

Author: Helen

Image from http://www.greenlivingpedia.org/Brown_Mountain_old_growth_forest

I’ve written to three State government ministers begging them, begging them, to reconsider the logging of the Brown Mountain / Valley of the Giants area next to the Errinundra Plateau in Victoria.

There are more details here (H/T to Joe2 at LP). But all you really need to know is that the Brumby government made a promise in the 2006 election campaign to protect all significant stands of old-growth forest in Victoria, of which Brown Mountain is one. Now they’re letting VicForests clearfell it.

It’s really unutterably depressing. I’ve used up my letter writing capacity for the year now, any more and I’ll be written off as That Crank on the Cast Iron Balcony. Please write or email, if you have the time.

John Brumby – Premier of Victoria
Department of Premier & Cabinet
1 Treasury Place
Melbourne Victoria 3002
john.brumby@parliament.vic.gov.au
Ministerial Phone (03) 9651 5000; Electorate Office Phone (03) 9300 3851

Gavin Jennings – Minister for Environment and Climate Change
gavin.jennings@parliament.vic.gov.au
Ministerial Phone (03) 9096 8830; Electorate Office Phone (03) 9888 1910

12 Oct 2008, Comments (3)

Man-Bites-Dog story

Author: Helen

Treebeard the Ent

This is delicious: FORESTS might help to destroy Gunns Ltd’s latest old growth-chomping project.

Frankable Optionally Redeemable Equity Settleable Transferable Securities, that is.

No, this is not a joke. Surely a box of Monte Christo cigars will have been bestowed upon the banker who dreamt up this acronym.
Anyway, Gunns is looking to wrap up its $430 million capital raising by early October, before the interest rate on its Forests resets on October 14 to an expensive 12.5%…

October 14, eh? Tick, tick tick…

Of course, it’s more fun to imagine Treebeard storming into the Gunns Ltd boardroom, bearing two tonnes of old growth woodchips, all of which he forces John Gay to eat. With milk but no sugar.

15 Sep 2008, Comments (5)

Bullshit generates Methane

Author: Helen

You’re all familiar with the populist narrative that greenies and lefties are all out-of-touch elites who like to “sneer at” ordinary (suburban, small-town) people. (Current example: the Sarah Palin campaign vs. the elitist, arugula latte-drinking Obama). It’s so popular in Australia at the moment, you can hardly open a newspaper without being scolded for daring to suggest that the way we build our cities, and travel around them, could possibly be improved. Public transport is a concern for upper middle-class wankers; Real people love their cars so much, they don’t care that they’re trapped into using them. As for the price of fuel, well, er… something will come along, don’t worry.

As for not building great swathes of housing development, inappropriately sited, overlarge, artificially cooled and out of reach of train or tram lines, that’s just those greeny lefty elites forcing their elitist concerns on the Real People again. Real People want big houses and they want them to look Tuscan and have no eaves and anyone who wants to take that dream away from them is just an over-educated latte-sipping poopyhead. Development good, conservation – and re-thinking our ways of building and getting around – bad.

This view is as popular in Labor and certain self-identified “left” groups as it is in Liberal and right-leaning groups.

I do wonder whether the deep and abiding love for Tuscan-style villas built to the fenceline isn’t the product of lavish and expertly targeted marketing rather than something deep in the Australian soul, and such marketing couldn’t have created an equally enthusiastic market for more appropriate housing, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Last week, an entire suburb was evacuated because the developer had built on land next to a landfill containing methane gas. The developer chose to build on the land to make money, and probably got the land at a bargain price because of the proximity to landfill. The council which owned and operated the landfill first opposed building so close to the area, as did the toothless Environment Protection Authority, but the developer went to VCAT. The bureaucrats at VCAT overturned the opposition and now we have a complete dog’s breakfast out at Cranbourne. None of these entities are from the greenie left. They represent the “hooray, development!” mentality.

This is a disaster. Without warning, these people have had to pack up their houses and find accommodation for themselves and their young children for an indeterminate period. If and when they’re allowed to return, their houses may be worthless. Many of them are walking a financial tightrope already and this will send them to the wall.

Cranbourne and Casey have been a byword for urban sprawl for years. We’ve had item after news item about the lack of infrastructure, social isolation and car dependence, debt, poverty and disadvantage. It’s time the boosters of road-based suburban sprawl admitted the problems with this social model. The methane problem is acute, but the problems of this area are chronic.

I wonder how deeply these non-elitist, non-green, pro-development business suits and bureaucrats care about the people in that suburb. Let’s call this Roveian anti-elitism for what it is: an excuse for governments to neglect infrastructure and due process and private companies to extract maximum profits from the “ordinary Australians” they’re supposed to represent, and then move on. They are the out of touch elites.
 
 
 
Crossposted at Road to Surfdom

29 Mar 2008, Comments (9)

Ten minutes to Earth hour

Author: Helen

I’m not turning the fridge off. Not. SO reckon’s I’m cheating. I reckon throwing away a heap of food would be an act of unthinking bourgeois symbolism which creates more environmental damage than it would save.

Anyway that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

6 Mar 2008, Comments (21)

Yes Dear, I’ll help you overthrow the military-industrial complex just as soon as I get this passionfruit sponge out of the oven

Author: Helen

MTAG protest on Francis st, 20 Feb 2008

These women and kids are all here under duress, and I’m not even sure about the dog.

If you’re a member of an industry group and you’re being interviewed by the local rag (the Maribyrnong Mail) about protests by local residents involving your industry, you’d want to have the best possible shot at winning people over to your cause, wouldn’t you? Local truck driver and fossil Paul Robinson did a marvellous job in the latest edition, managing to insult more than half of the local population. Genius!

(My bold):

A showdown is looming between the Maribyrnong Truck Action Group and truck drivers challenging the group’s decision to use women and children in its protest a fortnight ago.

Because of course all those women were protesting because the men had told them to… excuse me?
Does anyone think it’s a little strange that the journo reports that as straight-out fact, without any “he claimed” or “alleged” or other qualification?

About 150 protesters, including men, women and children, brought morning peak-hour traffic to a standstill for about half an hour from 8 am on Wednesday…They were demonstrating against increased truck traffic expected on Yarraville’s already congested roads when bay dredging works are complete.

…”The majority of the industry is very hostile towards [MTAG president] Peter Knight because he used women and children. That’s unprofessional…”

Got that? Men are the rational actors in the protest; women are mindless automatons who are used by, that is, brought along as props by, the real (male) protesters.

In the case of children, it’s possible that some people bring children who don’t understand the issues. It appears, though, that some children understand perfectly well. But Robinson lumps the “women and children” together as subjects to be “used” by the real protesters, that is, the men.

Could it be that the women present had read and heard some of the readily available information and had independently come to the conclusion that going to the protest was a good idea? Could it even be that some women had persuaded their menfolk to come along? Stand back as Paul Robinson’s brain explodes.

If nothing else, I suppose it shows consistency. A group that’s calling for the right of truck drivers to use residential streets forever, because that’s how they did it back before WWII, could only be expected to have strange ideas about the autonomy of sheilas women.
 
 
 
Crossposted at Road to Surfdom

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