Quote from Wendy Creighton (candidate for Forde), Sat 1st Sept 2007:-

"I do look forward to meeting you Kim and I'd welcome the chance to
have a one-on-one discussion on these and other important issues.  At
this point though, I'll politely decline the You Tube interview
thanks.

I get the impression that anything I say to defend or explain
government policy will simply be regarded as 'spin'."

And here's Wendy's invitation to a soon-to-be widely publicised You-
Tube interview from a local resident (Mrs. Kim Bax, Beaudesert
Shire):-

http://www.kimspages.org/dailymusings.htm#emailforde

And here's a quote from Mrs. Kim Bax, Sun 2nd Sept 2007 (replying to
Wendy's snub) - followed by the link to Wendy Creighton's full email,
and Kim Bax's full response:-

"Anyway Wendy, I'll be out and about with my camera to-day and next
week asking local people all over the electorate what they think
about Climate Change, and including rural areas in that survey too.
My hubby works in the rural south-west of Beaudesert Shire (and I've
worked out there too), plus he and my son are members of our local
rural fire brigade - and from personal experience Wendy, I know
country people are just as worried about this stuff.  I'll also ask
them what they think of your refusal to participate in the project.

Lastly, I'll be catching up with you at the candidates forum on
Tamborine Mountain soon, along with my digital video camera . . . "

http://www.kimspages.org/dailymusings.htm#sept2

cc - Federal politicians (Qld)
cc - State politicians (Qld)
cc - Wendy Creighton (Liberal, Forde)
cc - Hajnal Ban (National, Forde)
cc - Brett Raguse (ALP, Forde)
cc - Andy Grodecki (Green, Forde)
cc - Local press (Forde)

Pressure on action against climate change seems to have slowed down.  We
shouldn't be discouraged.

This Bill needs to be supported by as many people as possible.  Could
you forward this on to your contacts.

Cheers,

Brooke

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Erland Howden <ehowden@...>
Sent: Friday, 31 August, 2007 5:54:04 PM
Subject: URGENT: Federal Election Climate Action

Dear Climate Action Group Organiser,

We urgently need your help to achieve political action on climate change
in Australia. We are at a critical point in the history of the climate
change issue ? we've heard the science, we've seen the films, we have
investigated the economic impacts and we have found many of the
solutions ? now is the time for action.

Your task is simple!
*All we need from you is the endorsement of the Climate Protection Bill
by your group and all your members and supporters.* We need a list of
all these people: names and towns/suburbs ASAP, _/no later than Friday 7
Sept./_ Attached is a supporters sheet to print out or just email us a
list or spreadsheet.

If we do not achieve bi-partisan support from all political parties and
candidates for strong climate change legislation in the lead-up to this
year's federal election, we risk missing the window of opportunity we
have to cut emissions and avoid the worst impacts that global warming
will have on our children, the world's most vulnerable communities and
our fragile planet.

The Climate Protection Bill was initiated and drawn up by members of
Climate Action Groups just like yours (maybe you even helped!) and
represents the widely accepted, realistic and achievable solutions to
climate change that Australia can enshrine in law immediately. For more
information, read the summary or complete text of the Bill at
www.climatemovement.org.au/climateprotectionbill
<http://www.climatemovement.org.au/climateprotectionbill>

If you are interested in further promoting the Bill and preparing for
our major launch event, or pressuring your local MP to support the Bill,
please contact us immediately.

Regards,

Erland Howden for Climate Movement
ehowden@...
02 9279 2466 / 0408 255 583  Nina Hall for Climate Action Coogee
ninalansbury@...
02 9665 5454 / 0415 750 957





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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Peter Garrett is answering your questions from 11am this morning. You
can send in your questions now.

http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/yoursay/index.php/dailytelegraph/comment\
s/peter_garrett_live_blog/


Ask Peter what the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target would be under a
Labor government - tell him that no less than 25% by 2020 will do!

Cheers,

Julien

--
Julien Gronbach
Clean Energy Campaigner
Greenpeace Australia Pacific

Level 4, 39 Liverpool St
Sydney NSW 2000

Ph: 02 9263 0348
Mob: 0419 179 529

Want some good news? Sign up for Switched On - the Greenpeace Energy
team's monthly email update on clean energy solutions:
https://www.greenpeace.org.au/secure/email/index.html?subscribe=switch

From the Guardian

My reaction is that David Nicholson-Lord seems to have ignored the other
drivers of a pro-natalist policy  - the growth of consumerism (and the need
for consumers), the Catholic Church (particularly Pope John Paul) and
active intervention by the Church/US Government against family planning
activities by the UN (and other) agencies. These have caused deep
pro-natalist current in the world that is going to be very difficult to
reverse (and remember the over-reaction of some ZPG'ers  in the 70's - I am
reminded of a book - 'Famine 75' which didn't eventuate (and this didn't do
much for the stocks of sensible population policies...)

Hugh


http://society.guardian.co.uk/societyguardian/story/0,,2122841,00.html

Citizens arrest


Tackling climate change is now a worldwide crusade - so what's stopping
campaigners driving its simplest solution?

David Nicholson-Lord
Wednesday July 11, 2007
The Guardian

The simplest truths are sometimes the hardest to recognise. This month,
according to the UN, world population will reach 6.7 billion, en route to a
newly revised global total of 9.2 billion by 2050. The latest housing
forecasts for England predict that we will need about 5m more homes in the
next two decades. The economist Jeffrey Sachs devoted this spring's Reith
lectures to a planet "bursting at the seams". And the most recent Social
Trends analysis from the Office for National Statistics painted a picture
of a Britain driven mad by overcrowding. Meanwhile, Gaia scientist James
Lovelock has been warning about ecological collapse and world resources
able to support only 500 million people, with many extra millions driven to
take refuge in the UK.

In the midst of all these alarms is a very quiet place where the green
lobby should be talking about human population growth. Today has been
designated World Population Day by the UN, but you will not see any of the
big environment and development groups mounting a campaign on population.
Indeed, you will be lucky if they even mention the P-word. Earlier this
year, Nafis Sadik, former director of the UN's population fund, berated
such non-governmental organisations for being more concerned with
fundraising than advocacy. Their silence on population, she observed, was
"deafening".

Mainstream concern

So why isn't the green movement talking about population any more? In its
early days, back in the 60s and 70s, population growth was a mainstream
concern. Groups including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth (FoE), WWF and
Oxfam took well-publicised positions on population issues - endorsing the
Stop at Two (children) slogan, supporting zero population growth and
publishing reports with titles such as Already Too Many (Oxfam). These
days, Greenpeace declares that population is "not an issue for us" and
describes it as "a factor [in] but not one of the drivers of" environmental
problems.

FOE last year tried to answer some "common questions" on the subject,
including: "Why isn't Friends of the Earth tackling population growth?"
Oxfam, which as recently as 1994 published a report entitled World
Population: The Biggest Problem of All, now does not list it among the
dozen or so "issues we work on", and nor does it figure in the "What you
can do" section of WWF's One Planet Living campaign.

The green lobby's main argument is that numbers do not matter so much - it
is how we live and consume that counts. FoE even remarks that "it is
unhelpful to enter into a debate about numbers. The key issue is the need
for the government to implement policies that respect environmental limits,
whatever the population of the UK". It is a statement that seems to treat
population and environmental limits as entirely separate subjects.

There are two powerful counter-arguments to this. One is common sense: that
consumption and numbers matter and that if a consumer is absent - that is,
unborn - then so is his or her consumption. The second is the weight of
evidence. Sir David King, the government's chief scientist, told a
parliamentary inquiry last year: "It is self-evident that the massive
growth in the human population through the 20th century has had more impact
on biodiversity than any other single factor."

The increase in global population over the next 40 years, for example, is
roughly what the entire world population was in 1950. The UK, currently
around 61 million people, is on course for 71 million by 2074, by which
time England's densities will have outstripped those of South Korea, which,
by some measures, is currently the world's second most crowded country -
second only to Bangladesh.

The Optimum Population Trust today publishes a new report, Youthquake, that
warns - echoing Lovelock - that environmental degradation caused by the
number of humans may force more governments to follow China's lead and
introduce compulsory limits on family size.

Ironically, the world now views climate change as the greatest
environmental threat but sees the solution in primarily technical terms.
Yet expert bodies routinely identify human numbers as one of the main
engines of climate change. Of the various social and technical factors
involved, for example, the UN says: "The link to population is clearest:
the more people there are, the higher emissions are likely to be."

Many suspect other motives for the green lobby's neglect of the population
issue. It is a sensitive subject, bound up with issues on which the
progressive left, which most environmental groups identify with, has
developed a defensive intellectual reflex. These include race and
immigration - the latter accounts for more than 80% of forecast UK
population growth, for example - reproductive choice, human rights and
gender equality. Calls for population restraint can easily be portrayed as
"anti-people" - surely people are part of "the solution"? It is far easier
to ignore the whole subject; let somebody else - or nobody - deal with it.

Verbal contortions

This often involves intriguing verbal contortions. The 70s organisation
Population Countdown, having morphed into Population Concern, in 2003
rechristened itself as Interact Worldwide - under its former name,
consultants told it, its funders, and future, would dry up.

Faced with escalating forecasts of housing need - one recent government
projection says we will need 11m more households in the UK by 2050, an
increase of over 40% - the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE)
proclaims itself in favour of "development that protects the countryside
and the environment" and ignores the fact that the main cause of forecast
housing growth, responsible for 59% of the total, is population increase.

So why does the CPRE not campaign on the issue that poses the greatest
threat to rural England? "If we did," says Shaun Spiers, CPRE's chief
executive, "it appears unlikely that our actions would have any effect on
population growth, and that would lay us open to the charge of misusing our
charitable funds."

How to categorise such reactions? Pragmatism? Cowardice? Sensible tactics?
Or an overdose of organisational self-preservation? Whatever the reason, it
is infectious - the media (and politicians) take many of their awareness
cues from NGOs so the silence on population becomes society-wide. As a
result, family size is seen as an exercise in individual lifestyle choice:
few people consider the consequences for the planet of their fertility
decisions. That means fertility rates in the UK rise, and the population
keeps on growing.

It was Mark Twain who observed that those who refused to share vital
information with others were guilty of a "silent lie". The green movement
needs to start telling us the truth.

· David Nicholson-Lord is an environmental writer and research associate
for the Optimum Population Trust. The Youthquake report is available at
optimumpopulation.org/youthquake.pdf


Email your comments to society@.... If you are writing a comment
for publication, please mark clearly "for publication"

. . . participate in a You-Tube interview on Climate Change (along with
the National Party candidate Hajnal Ban, who has already said yes).

From:- Mrs. Kim Bax, Cedar Vale (Beaudesert Shire)  To:- cc list below

To-day (Wed 29th Aug), I met both Brett Raguse (ALP), and Andy Grodecki
(Greens), Federal candidates for Forde, who both agreed to take part in
a You-Tube interview on Climate Change.  The details of both those
meetings are here:-

http://www.kimspages.org/dailymusings.htm#aug28

cc - Federal politicians (Qld)
cc - State policians (Qld)
cc - Local press (Forde electorate)
cc - Various environmental contacts and groups

This article by one of the new breed of ``carbon neutral'' capitalists
and scamsters applauds the UN coming clean of how the rich West will be
allowed to go on polluting ...

*UN Environment Chief commits green heresy*

*Rich nations can buy themselves out of their emission abatement
obligations*

Opinion: James Emanuel – Head of Environmental Markets – CantorCO2e

Yvo de Boer, the newly appointed Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC
(United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), suggests that
industrialised nations ought to be able to achieve their Kyoto Protocol
emission abatement obligations entirely in the developing world. Such a
suggestion to environment campaigners is tantamount to heresy: that this
suggestion has been made by the chief of the UNFCCC, the United Nations
body responsible for administering the Kyoto Protocol, is analogous to a
catholic heresy being made by the Pope.

Green groups argue that ‘rich polluting nations ought not to be allowed
to pass their burden to clean up the environment on to the developing
world”. Pat Finnegan of Greenhouse Ireland Action Network has stated
that obliging rich countries to cut their own domestic emissions is a
basic provision of the Kyoto Protocol. The fact of the matter is that he
is correct. The Protocol currently requires ‘rich countries’ to achieve
the majority of their emission abatement obligation domestically: in the
language of the treaty, imports of emission abatement must be
supplemental to domestic achievement.

Mr de Boer argues that the doctrine of supplementarity is wholly
illogical and only adds to the financial scale of the global warming
problem.

Mike Childs of Friends of the Earth has dismissed Mr de Boer’s argument,
stating that they do not make environmental, economic or political
sense. Doug Parr of Greenpeace echoed these sentiments. Generally, the
green campaigners make the argument that the global warming crisis
facing mankind is a direct consequence of the industrial revolution of
the past 150 years within industrialised nations, or in green-speak
‘rich nations’, and as such these countries were under a moral
obligation to clean up domestically.

All other things being equal, the green argument is reasonable: the
problem is that all other things are not equal. When taking off the
blinkers and looking at the broader picture it soon becomes evident that
the environmental objective of industrialised nations is not the only
obligation being undertaken by the governments of those nations. It is
also incumbent upon these countries to safeguard their economies. The
objective then becomes more than simply reducing greenhouse gas
emissions. Instead, the task becomes one of procuring emission abatement
at the lowest cost to industry thereby achieving an environmental goal
with the lowest impact on the economy.

With this in mind, the sentiments of Mr de Boer begin to make far more
sense. He argues that the underlying premise of the Kyoto Protocol is to
tackle the ‘global’ problem of climate change. The environment is
pervasive in nature and so it is entirely consistent with the objective
of the nations that drafted the Kyoto Protocol that the target emission
abatement may occur anywhere in the world so long as it does actually
occur. As a result the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was born. This
allowed for credits to be granted in respect of emission reductions
achieved in the developing world and those credits could be used for
compliance purposes under the emission trading legislation in the
developed world. It stands to reason that the low hanging fruit,
representing the lowest cost opportunities, ought to be picked first.
These low cost opportunities currently exist in the developing world and
Mr de Boer simply suggests that they ought to be taken.

Contrary to contentions of the green campaigners, this does not
represent rich nations buying themselves out of their emission abatement
obligations. Instead, the industrialised nations are simply achieving
their obligations at the lowest cost, which is something quite
different. As the low cost opportunities in the developing world become
exhausted those countries that have undertaken an emission abatement
obligation will slowly turn to the more expensive emission reduction
opportunities and in so doing will begin to mitigate domestic emissions.

It must not be forgotten that the legislation that introduces carbon
constraints on industry was always intended to utilise a capitalist
solution to solve an environmental problem. As such it ought to be
possible to balance the needs of the economy with the needs of the
environment. The benefit to industrialised nations is low cost
compliance; the benefit to the environment is global emission abatement
and the benefit to the developing world is a cash injection due to
exponential investment in this area. The CDM is a flying success: there
are currently 1,600 emission abatement projects in the pipeline which
have to date produced 55 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent
emission reductions, all of which has been officially certified by the
UNFCCC. Furthermore, as a result of this investment, the UNFCCC
currently forecast that between now and 2012 (the end of the Kyoto
commitment period) 1.9 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent
emissions will have been prevented from entering the atmosphere from
these CDM projects.

Surely it makes perfect sense to expand on this achievement by allowing
a greater level of investment in the developing world in order to
procure emission abatement? This would fully engage countries that are
not otherwise currently subject to carbon constraints in the fight
against climate change.

How then can the green lobby suggest that investing in emission
abatement in the developing world is tantamount to rich nations buying
themselves out of their environmental obligations?

It seems that at last we have a pragmatist at the helm of the carbon
constrained world. Long live Yvo de Boer!

Since posting a few days ago some questions and points
in a post called 'The INTERNET and YOU', two responses
have come in, and with a response from myself too,
that makes three responses .....

---------

Response from 'M' to questions in the post
'The INTERNET and YOU' ....

Question: Are you fed up without just about everything
and do not want to say so?
Response: DEFINITELY FED UP, ITS OUT OF CONTROL!

Question: Why not post something now and get it off your
chest?
Response: WHERE DO I START!

Practical suggestions in response to M's feelings,
and my own feelings as I have now realised, are below,
in my reply to 'B'.

I wrote back to 'M' and said:

"Thanks very much for your response. Very much appreciated.
It's appreciated, because you've reminded me of how I feel
deep down (or, maybe: middle deep down), and which is
probably so true for so many people, if not everyone.
'DEFINITELY FED UP, ITS OUT OF CONTROL!' That's me too.
And ...... 'WHERE DO I START!' I can't usually speak to
anyone unless I'm smoking a cigarette to help me manage
and subdue all the feelings I have about everything."

---------

Response from 'B':

< I agree with you, but how do you respond to the post,
when their post is so lame? We need to hear from people
who are educated & intelligent, intellectuals, philosophers,
attorneys, People who know what the heck they are talking
about!! >

It's tricky isn't it. The loud and largely empty people
seem to take up the space everywhere. Maybe they feel
so empty they feel they've got to keep talking just so
they'll know they exist. But we need new directions,
as you have mentioned.

< I agree with you, but how do you respond
to the post, when their post is so lame? >

I keep throwing a curve ball in.
I post something I have been thinking about.

Because I feel if I have been thinking of that thing,
there are probably many other people who have also
been wondering about the same thing as myself.

We are all experts in different fields. And many people
I believe, though they may not feel OK to speak up,
agree when we express things that may be 'every day'
things, but which are very important to all of us.

So ..... what things really get to you and affect you?
Are you mentioning these things to some people?

Because we are all in situations where we feel it may
be best to say nothing, we start to get a trend of
keeping quiet all the time. But we do not have to keep
quiet all the time.

Here and there, now and then, we can say something
we have been thinking about. We don't have to do it
all the time. But if we say something .... heck!
our feelings - what we think and feel - ARE important.

Don't dam up completely, oil the works of existence and
expression by now and then saying something you would
like to say. The fact we have been thinking or feeling
these things, gives our thoughts and feelings importance.
Because WE ARE thinking and feeling human beings.

We have a right to express.

Expression is living. Living is expression.
That's what we are here for, to live and express.
The world is mad right now, but if we can do a bit
of expressing what we really think about, we will
be in a better shape when the world gets it together.
And if we do a bit of expressing now and then,
we will help the world get back on track.

Keep the works oiled.

That's me totally expressed out now -
it's time for a cup of Tea, and a cigarette.

Michael

World Gathering For Tea and Truth
http://www.worldgathering.net

From:- Mrs. Kim Bax (Beaudesert Shire)  To:- cc list below

Goodafternoon, I've just sent my local Liberal Party candidate Wendy
Creighton an email with info about my phone liaison (to-day), with our
local press on climate change - and my missive also contained a
potential "Letter to the Editor" which demolishes huge chunks of
Howard's current climate spin (based on some of Guy Pearse's key
facts).  So here's that "Letter to the Ed" (and if any other pollie
is up to the challenge in the last line, I'd love to hear from you),
followed by a link to my full correspondence with Wendy:-

"Liberal hopeful Wendy Creighton says Howard's spending $2.8 billion
on global warming, but she doesn't say that's over 25 years, and he
spends $8 billion in just one year backing fossil fuels.  Neither
does she admit he's spending 11 times more on Iraq than on climate
change adaptation (remember the New Orleans levees? I guess John's
following George's example), and $6 billion on 24 new fighter bombers
(are they good at filling dams?).  And of the funds tagged for
Howard's "Greenhouse Programme," 81% has gone to fossil fuel
companies.  Further, Howard's much vaunted "Solar Cities Programme"
needs to be 30 times bigger than it is to offset the carbon from even
one of our 26 coal fired power stations.  And while Howard claims you
can't run a modern economy on renewables, the Chinese will have over
60 Gigawatts a year coming from biomass and wind by 2030. This is
more than all of our coal fired power stations put together. But
Wendy, I don't want to be unfair.  All these figures come from Guy
Pearse, who joined the Liberals in 1989 and has worked at quite senior
levels since (though I guess his career's crimped now, after putting
Planet before party).  Obviously, you can reply in the press, but I'm
also happy to publish you (in full), at www.kimspages.org/wendy.htm
I'd love to see you shoot me down in flames via peer reviewed science
(not funded by the fossil fuel industry).  I'm waiting."

My full correspondence with Wendy is here:-

http://www.kimspages.org/dailymusings.htm#tue28aug

cc - Wendy Creighton
cc - Hajnal Ban
cc - Brett Raguse
cc - Andy Grodecki
cc - Federal politicians (Qld)
cc - State politicians (Qld)
cc - Various environmental groups & contacts

From:- Mrs. Kim Bax, 77 Orion Road, Cedar Vale, Qld 4285

To:- cc list below

Re:- News update re my Invitation to my local Federal candidates
(Forde electorate), e.g. Wendy Creighton (Liberal), Hajnal Ban
(National), Brett Raguse (ALP) & Andy Grodecki (Green), to a
local "You Tube" interview on CLIMATE CHANGE

Goodmorning again,

Here's the recent invitation in question:-

http://www.kimspages.org/dailymusings.htm#emailforde

And here's my press release about it:-

http://www.kimspages.org/dailymusings.htm#pressrelease24aug

. . . and Hajnal Ban (National), has already accepted.  I look
forward to hearing from Wendy, Brett and Andy soon.  Further, I'll be
out and about this week with my camera (talking to local people), and
hope to have some interviews posted on-line by the weekend.  I'll
also be speaking (tomorrow), with all the local press in Forde (and
thus following up on my press release), re photo ops of me and others
out and about with our cameras. In the interim, I think this news
article to-day is very relevant to my invitation, and to my
circulated press comments (which is why I'm taking the time to pass
it on):-

The Age, Fairfax

Voters 'up for grabs' on climate change
August 27, 2007 - 3:19PM

Swinging voters in marginal seats saw little difference between the
federal government and Labor on climate change policy, a poll has
found.

The independent Climate Institute said the survey it commissioned
showed that Labor could not assume it had an advantage on the issue,
and gave the Coalition an opportunity to regain the initiative.

The poll of nine marginal electorates in NSW, Queensland and South
Australia also found a large majority of voters wanted targets set for
greenhouse gas cuts and strongly favoured renewable energy.

Forty-two per cent of respondents thought Labor was the better party
for climate change, compared with 20 per cent for the Coalition and
38 per cent who believed they were the equal.

But among swinging voters, 68 per cent could not distinguish between
the two sides, while those with a preference favoured Labor by 19 per
cent to the Coalition's 13 per cent.

Fifty-seven per cent of such respondents would support action on
climate change at the ballot box and 58 per cent said their vote
would be influenced by a policy to reduce greenhouse gases within
five years.

Institute chief executive John Connor said the poll was a wake-up
call for both major parties.

"It's up for grabs really in some of these marginal seats," Mr Connor
said.

"There's a hunger for decisive action on climate change."

Eighty-six per cent believed Australia should set greenhouse targets
and 64 per cent said they would be more likely to vote for a party
which had them.

Labor has committed itself to a 60 per cent target by 2050 but has
shied away from fixing shorter-term targets until at least next year.

The federal government said it would not set any targets until
economic modelling was completed in 2008.

"People want to see action and they want to see clear greenhouse
pollution reduction targets in the next five years," Mr Connor said.

He said the message for the government was that aversion to hard
targets was not going to win them many votes.

Labor, meanwhile, appeared to have lost some momentum by failing to
come out with any major climate change policies in the past few
months.

"There's no room for complacency in that regard."

Seventy-nine per cent of respondents believed all electricity should
come from clean energy and 62 per cent were likely to vote for party
which ensured that goal.

The poll also showed that climate change would be a major issue at the
federal election, with 62 per cent indicating that it would influence
their vote.

The survey was conducted on August 11-12 on 1,680 voters in the
electorates of Bennelong, Parramatta and Lindsay in NSW, Bonner,
Bowman and Petrie in QLD and Hindmarsh, Kingston and Makin in SA.

It had an indicative margin of error of 2.4 percentage points.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Voters-up-for-grabs-on-climate-
change/2007/08/27/1188067004852.html

cc - Hajnal Ban
cc - Wendy Creighton
cc - Brett Raguse
cc - Andy Grodecki
cc - Federal politicians (Qld)
cc - State politicians (Qld)
cc - Various environmental contacts & email lists

WORLD GATHERING FOR TRUTH - News
http://www.worldgathering.net/news15.html

Hopi Nation's BLUE STAR KACHINA Becomes Visible

"Nothing like this has ever been
seen before around a star"

This is the star MIRA.
Mira is Latin for 'WONDERFUL'.

"And this is the Ninth and Last Sign:
You will hear of a dwelling-place in the heavens,
above the earth ... It will appear as a blue star."
  ... "That time is not far off. It will come when
the Saquasohuh (Blue Star) Kachina dances in the
plaza and removes his mask. He represents a blue
star, far off and yet invisible, which will make
its appearance soon."
- Hopi Nation's Traditional Prophecy

Star MIRA ..... MIRACLE ..... Wonderful

"Very soon after this, the ceremonies
of my people will cease."
--- This signifies a positive development.
The Hopi were told they must carry on keeping 'the
Hopi way', including their ceremonies, until the
Creator returned. This sign of a Blue Star indicates
the return to the world and to the Hopi of the True
White Brother and his two helpers. Hopi tradition
says about the Hopi's three helpers: "The three will
lay out a new life plan which leads to everlasting
life and peace." Therefore, the Hopi's 'watch and
wait' ceremonies, which they have maintained for
so long, may no longer be needed or may change
into another form.

Information on Hopi's Blue Star:
http://www.cyberspaceorbit.com/miraxy.htm

Thanks to hard-working website owner
Kent at www.cyberspaceorbit.com

BIZARRE STAR - Galaxy Evolution Explorer
Media Telecon: Aug. 15, 2007
--- Astronomers are scheduled to announce new
findings about a star unlike any seen before at
a media teleconference Wednesday, Aug. 15.
The findings are from NASA's Galaxy Evolution
Explorer. ... "I was shocked when I first saw this
completely unexpected, humongous tail trailing
behind a well-known star," said Christopher Martin
of the California Institute of Technology
in Pasadena, California, USA.

More here:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/galex/20070815/
And:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/galex/galex-20070815.html

Impressive video compilation
on Mira / Hopi Nation's Blue Star Kachina:
http://www.nasa.gov/mov/186071main_V-MiraAnim-Web2.mov


Additional information by World Gathering ....

Dan Evehema, Hopi Nation Elder:
"We are at the final stages now. so as our prophecy
says. Then it must be up to the people with pure
hearts that will not be afraid to help us to fulfil
our destiny in peace for this world."

An inter-tribal, interactive
(you can make it happen) prediction ....
The 20 Count / Rainbow Dream Vision of Hope
"PLEASE ADVISE PEOPLE, IT IS TIME TO TAKE ACTION.
PUT A DOUBLE AMOUNT OF ENERGY WITH WHAT
YOU ARE FOR. WE CAN CHANGE IT."
--- If we carry on believing in a better world,
and INCREASE OUR EFFORTS, we can change the
direction the world is going.

HOPI PROPHECY - The Three Helpers
of the Hopi and World ....
http://www.worldgathering.net/winds/whitebrother.html

Join World Gathering GOOGLE news list:
http://groups.google.com/group/worldgathering

World Gathering For Truth 2000-2012
http://www.worldgathering.net

This World Gathering For Truth news is at:
'Hopi Nation's BLUE STAR KACHINA Becomes Visible'
http://www.worldgathering.net/news15.html

Communication on the INTERNET

Are your feelings and ideas being expressed
on the Internet?

Here are some questions and points about
communication and expression on the Internet:

1) Do you think the Internet has helped more people
express themselves?

2) Why often do less than 10% of the membership of
discussion groups ever post a comment or post how
they feel?

3) Do the less than 10% who post at groups express
everything you would like to say about life on Earth?

4) Are you reluctant to post a message in case you
are criticised?

5) Are you reluctant to post a message in case you
are ignored?

6) Are you fed up without just about everything and
do not want to say so?

Why not post something now and get it off your chest?

My experiences, both in life and on the Internet, have shown
me that in many situations the majority of people may agree
with someone but that person isn't made aware of that fact
because the people who support that person are keeping quiet.

Personally, I don't like pointless, small-minded criticism,
and I find it hard when I appear to be ignored when I feel
I have expressed something which seems useful and true,
but I would rather be hurt and frustrated than to stop
trying to say things I feel are important and significant.

You see, it's not just a worldwide information breakthrough
we need, or an end to chemtrails and the faked war on terror,

we need quality of life too. And quality of life depends on
the sensitive and caring having their voices and opinions
heard.

If you don't speak up, your spot may be taken by someone
who's more or less saying the same thing they have been
saying for a long time. Take a dare. Take a chance.

It is quite possible that many of the people who are
saying 'the same old' would like to hear from you.

To those who are tired of saying 'the same old' please
encourage others who are reluctant to post to express
what they feel about things.

---------
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent
about things that matter." - Martin Luther King, Jnr.
---------
"The most courageous act is still to think for
yourself. Aloud." - Coco Chanel
---------
"Courage is the ability to go beyond the familiar."
- Sitting Bull
---------

Michael

World Gathering For Truth
http://www.worldgathering.net

From Kim Bax, Beaudesert Shire

Please check out my links to-day (Fri 24 Aug), re local climate change
initiatives (or rather, how to inject some life, and major worry, into
your local candidates re the issue).  Feel free to plagiarise at will,
plus add your own twists and inspiration:-

http://www.kimspages.org/dailymusings.htm

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/43889/story.htm

Kyoto Gives Chemical Plants Windfall Profits - UNEP
------------------------------------------------------------------------
<http://www.planetark.com/mail_dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=43889>n
<http://www.planetark.com/avantgo/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=43889>

UK: August 23, 2007


LONDON - Chemical plants in China can earn substantial windfall profits
by destroying powerful greenhouse gases, underlining the need for
changes to the rules of a Kyoto Protocol incentives scheme, a UN report
shows.


Western investors who trade carbon credits may also make windfall
profits from the scheme in its present form, Reuters data show.

China, with its fast-growing economy, has become crucial to the global
fight against climate change.

It is set to overtake the United States this year as the biggest emitter
of the commonest greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide.

But it has also become a big beneficiary of incentives to destroy more
powerful greenhouse gases, through a scheme set up under the Kyoto
Protocol on global warming.

Those incentives now appear very generous, the report by the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) showed.

Factories in China, and others in India, Mexico, Argentina and South
Korea, will earn up to 10 times more money than they actually need to
destroy the powerful greenhouse gases, the report found.

It suggested that "national levies are applied to limit the financial
gain of individual manufacturers," after the first cycle of project
funding ends in seven years.

Kyoto is meant to fight global warming, and allows rich countries to buy
carbon offsets, or carbon credits, which help them meet limits on their
emissions by paying for emissions cuts in developing nations.

The refrigerant industry in developing countries produces greenhouse
gases so powerful that destroying them earns factories and their
investors millions of such credits.

The projects, based especially in China, have proved controversial, both
because western speculators have profited, and because they may
inadvertently drive up output of the greenhouse gas, called HFC 23.

The scheme, called the clean development mechanism (CDM), is the best
available for now, the report said.

"The CDM itself is the only reliable mechanism available to prevent HFC
23 emissions in the short term," the report said.


HOT AIR

The scheme is so generous that chemical plants will earn more money
destroying the greenhouse gas, previously an unintended waste product,
than producing the refrigerant gas, it said.

They will earn up to $880 million a year from selling carbon credits,
compared with up to $510 million from selling the refrigerant gas.

Such distortions may make the resulting carbon credits mere "hot air",
because without the scheme factories would probably be more efficient,
adopting widely available technologies that cut production of the
greenhouse gas, said Stanford University's Michael Wara.

HFC projects account for more than half of all emissions cuts achieved
under the CDM so far.

Western investors, such as London-based Climate Change Capital and New
York-based Natsource, may also earn windfall profits from the scheme.

HFC projects will generate more than 600 million tonnes of carbon
credits in their first seven years -- the usual crediting period -- the
UNEP report says.

Investors based in London and New York have bought carbon credits from
chemical plants for as little as 6 euros per tonne, and can now sell
them at 16 euros per tonne, Reuters data show.

Governments that signed the Kyoto Protocol will discuss changes to the
rules of the carbon trading scheme at a meeting in December in Bali,
Indonesia.


Story by Gerard Wynn

This is minor compared to a lot of the damage which is going on, however
every little bit hurts that little bit more.  Please ask the NSW
government to prevent this sale happening.

The actual e-letter is at
http://www.npansw.org.au/web/conservation/elobbyCROWN.htm

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:  FW: [Spatial Ecology] [The Ecology Centre] Help to stop the
sell-off of100, 000s of hectares of public lands
Date:  Wed, 22 Aug 2007 13:27:35 +1000
From:  <Anthony.Richardson@...>
To:  <Brooke@...>



Fyi

Ant





------------------------------------------------------------------------

*From:* spatial.ecology-bounces@...
[mailto:spatial.ecology-bounces@...] *On Behalf Of *Jessie Wells
*Sent:* Tuesday, 21 August 2007 11:06 AM
*To:* ecology.centre@...; enviro-people@yahoogroups.com;
uq_ec@yahoogroups.com
*Subject:* [Spatial Ecology] [The Ecology Centre] Help to stop the
sell-off of100, 000s of hectares of public lands



Your *help is urgently needed to *prevent the conversion of 6,000 high
conservation value Crown leases totalling hundreds of thousands of
hectares including endangered woodlands and wetlands and 72,000 hectares
of Identified Wilderness, into private land.  The process started on 1st
July, but it's not too late to make a difference.



Please send an email or letter from the following site:

http://www.npansw.org.au/web/conservation/crown_land_selloff.htm



It takes a minimum of 20 seconds = high impact to effort ratio.  (i.e.
please do it ! )



NSW implemented a moratorium on the conversion of leasehold lands in
1990. The Minister for Lands lifted this moratorium in 2004, and the
sell-off will begin soon unless we act urgently to prevent it.



The complete set of 11,500 leases cover  3.4 million hectares of NSW (an
area half the size of Tasmania).



These are *public* lands that have priceless *conservation* values.

The protection offered on freehold conversion is inadequate. The
continuing high rates of land clearing (more than 50,000ha/year) still
taking place throughout NSW is proof positive the moratorium must stay.
Once the Government converts the land to freehold the lease conditions
preventing the clearing of vegetation and subdivisions no longer apply.
Even the recent changes to vegetation clearing laws still contain
significant loopholes, and are weaker than the conditions governing
Crown leases.



thanks

- Jess



__________________________



Jessie Wells,  PhD student



jessie.wells@...



(07) 3365 1671  or  0430 389 397



The Ecology Centre, School of Integrative Biology

University of Queensland, QLD 4072, Australia




   ----------

_______________________________________________
Ecology.centre mailing list
Ecology.centre@...
http://bacs-s02.bacs.uq.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/ecology.centre
   ----------

_______________________________________________
Spatial.ecology mailing list
Spatial.ecology@...
http://bacs-s02.bacs.uq.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/spatial.ecology

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

A Test for Crop Pattern and 'ET' or 'Spirit'
Message Fakery and Foolery ...

< Be sensitive to your voice within that can tell you
what is truth and what is confusion, chaos and untruth.

We need to be aware of what we really feel about
ideas and information which come our way.

http://www.worldgathering.net/times/etmessage.htm

1977, UK TV: 'ET Voice-Over Message'

In 1977, in southern England, many people had settled
down to watch early evening TV. The news came on, but
with a difference. The TV screen showed the face of
the usual newsreader, but his words were not heard.
Instead - as technicians struggled at three different
transmitters to find out what was happening - for
several minutes these words were clearly heard:

"For many years you have seen us as lights in your sky.
We speak to you now in peace and wisdom as we have done
to many of your brothers and sisters all over your
planet Earth.

"We have come to warn you so that you may communicate
to your fellow beings the course you must take to avoid
disaster which threatens your world and the beings of
other worlds around you. The coming time can be a time
of great evolution for your race, but only if your
rulers are made aware of the negative forces that can
overshadow their judgement.

"Be still now and listen, for your chance may not
come again for many years.

"Your scientists, governments and generals have not
heeded our warnings. They have continued to experiment
with the negative forces of what you call nuclear energy.
Atomic bombs can destroy the Earth and the beings of
your sister worlds in a moment. The wastes from Atomic
power systems will poison your planet for many thousand
years to come.

"We have followed the path of evolution for far longer
than you and we have long since realised that atomic
energy is always directed against life. It has no peaceful
application. The use of atomic energy, and research into
its use, must be ceased at once, or you will all risk
destruction.

"All weapons of evil must be removed.

('Weapons of evil' - as this communication came
in 1977, we can only guess what benevolent ET thinks
about the global, massive 'Chemtrails' spraying;
extreme weather manipulation; '9-11'; etc.)

"Be aware also that there are many false prophets
and guides at present operating in your world.

"You must learn to be sensitive to your voice within
that can tell you what is truth and what is confusion,
chaos and untruth.

"Learn to listen to the voice of Truth which is within
you and will lead you onto the path of evolution.

"This is our message to you, our dear friends.

"We have watched you growing for many years, just
as you have watched our lights in the sky. You know
now that WE ARE HERE and that there are  more beings
on and around your Earth than your scientists care
to admit. We are deeply concerned about you and your
path towards the light and we will do all that we
can to help you."

http://www.worldgathering.net/times/etmessage.htm
http://www.worldgathering.net/words/waken3.htm

So, in all situations, see what your gut feeling is
telling you. To get by in a fairly lost world, we had
to often override our natural feelings when young,
now our survival may depend on how honest we can be.

World Gathering For Truth 2000-2012
http://www.worldgathering.net

Capitalism’s inherently anti-ecological nature results from its
subordination of the needs of society to the accumulation of profits,
regardless of the costs to society as a whole.

by Zoe Kenny

  From Green Left Weekly <http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/721/37403>,
August 22, 2007

Twenty years ago, a UN special commission produced a report, Our Common
Future, that predicted rising CO2 levels would lead to a mean
temperature increase of up to 4.5oC within 50 years, which would cause
catastrophic climate change. The report proposed that immediate action
be taken to counter global warming through massive investment in
renewable energy sources, with the onus upon wealthy industrialised
nations to take the lead.

Since that report was produced, little has been done to halt, let alone
reverse, global warming. Why? Hidden within the UN report was the
answer. It drew the conclusion that combating the predicted
climate-change catastrophe would require “profound structural changes in
socioeconomic and institutional arrangements” to enable decisions to be
made in the “common interest” of humanity rather than being subordinated
to “production for the market.”

Today, the business leaders and the politicians who serve them are
presenting market-mechanisms such as CO2 pollution trading between
corporations as the solution to the global warming problem.

Corporations are now competing to give themselves a “green” image. BP,
for example, has changed its name from British Petroleum to Beyond
Petroleum. Some airlines are offering “carbon offsetting” services, for
a fee, that promise to negate the carbon emissions of customers’
flights, regardless of the dubious environmental benefits of such
“offset” schemes.

Through such greenwashing, corporations hope to reassure customers that
they are part of the solution, while at the same time putting the onus
back onto the individual whose “consumer choices” are presented as a
major motor force for solving the global warming problem. Reinforcing
the idea that individual purchasing power can change the world fits
neatly into the framework of the capitalist political system in which
working people are politically atomised.

This drive to greenwash capitalism dovetails with the underlying
approach of most mainstream environmental groups and Green parties, and
feeds illusions that, with the right combination of carrots and sticks,
the corporate capitalism will abandon its massive investments in highly
profitable fossil fuel and rapidly switch over to renewable energy
technologies.

Capitalism’s inherently anti-ecological nature, however, is the result
of its subordination of the needs of society to the accumulation of
business profits through the production and sale of an ever-expanding
mass of goods and services, regardless of the costs to society as a whole.

Capitalist businesses try to turn every human activity into a commodity,
an article for sale for corporate profits.

Because capitalist businesses’ interaction with nature is solely seen
through the prism of individual company profits, capitalist businesses
are incapable to making decisions according to the common interests of
humanity, including our need to protect the natural environment for
future generations.

Nature is regarded as an “externality” to capitalist business
operations, as a “free gift” at the start of the production process,
while during the process the natural environment is used as a giant sewer.

The negative impacts of this ruthless disregard for nature are also
externalised by capitalists — as communities are left to deal with the
costs of polluted air, rivers, oceans and land. When attempts are made
at forcing capitalist businesses to “internalise” the environmental
costs of their activities into the production processes, for example
through the imposition of “green” taxes, these are vigorously opposed,
watered down or simply passed on to consumers. Similarly, corporations
often make the calculation that fines for polluting are cheaper than
investing in the technologies to avoid the pollution in the first place.

Karl Marx wrote that capitalism creates a “metabolic rift” between
humans and nature through concentrating the population in gigantic urban
centres, leading to the consumption of vast amounts of nutrients sourced
from the countryside. Under capitalist agriculture, food production
becomes increasingly reliant on city-made artificial fertilisers
(sourced from fossil fuels).

Exacerbating the ever-more intensive and destructive profit-making cycle
is the drive by each capitalist business to dominate the market. This
produces the absurdity of multi-billionaires perpetually in pursuit of
their next corporate takeover.

The drive to maximise business profits is achieved through cutting
business costs. Workers’ wages and conditions are constantly under
attack as a result.

Profit-oriented cost-cutting also leads to constant technological
innovation — though the big corporations seek to have the cost of
research and initial development borne by society through massive
taxpayer-funded subsidies. But the use of every new technology is
subjugated to one goal only - the maximisation of business profit,
regardless of the effects of those innovations on human health or the
environment.

For example, after World War II production methods underwent what US
environmentalist Barry Commoner called a “qualitative leap” in
pollutiveness, with the massive expansion in the production of synthetic
chemicals by the petrochemical industry.

Technologies such as solar and wind power, which would be beneficial for
all by eliminating greenhouse gas emissions, have not been rolled out in
any extensive way because they threaten the profits of the corporations
that produce and use fossil fuels.

Capitalism condemns ordinary working people into its cycle of pollution
through the imposition of irrational consumption patterns. The
outstanding example of this is the forced reliance on private motor
vehicles as the overwhelming method of commuting in the First World,
with most Third World countries aspiring to the same levels of car
ownership. This situation has been consciously manufactured by the oil
and auto corporations in collusion with governments.

In the US in the 1930s, tram lines in most of the major cities were
bought up by the big automobile companies and subsequently removed to
make way for roads.

Designed obsolescence also forces working people into wasteful
consumption patterns. Many household items that previous generations
expected to last for decades now need to be replaced every few years.
Such waste is integral to the capitalist profit-making machine.

Capitalism divides the world into rich and poor nations. The economic
underdevelopment of the majority of countries is essential for
capitalist corporations that rely upon vast reserves of cheap labour to
produce raw materials and low-tech manufactures, as well as providing
dumping grounds for toxic waste.

The impoverished people of much of the Third World are driven to destroy
their natural environment, through slash-and-burn farming techniques for
example, in the daily struggle to survive on incomes of a only few
dollars a day.

Capitalism sows the seeds of ecological destruction by ignoring
humanity’s dependence on nature. In 1876, Marx’s co-thinker Frederick
Engels pointed out that the negative impacts on human welfare of
environmental destruction reminds “us that we by no means rule over
nature like a conqueror over a foreign people, like someone standing
outside nature - but that we, with flesh, blood and brain, belong to
nature, and exist in its midst, and that all our mastery of it consists
in the fact that we have the advantage over all other creatures of being
able to learn its laws and apply them correctly.”

But, if we are to apply them correctly, this requires more than
scientific knowledge. It also requires, as Engels observed, “a complete
revolution in our hitherto existing mode of production, and
simultaneously a revolution in our whole contemporary social order”.

The historically necessary project of replacing capitalism with a
socialist system, in which the rule of the capitalist profit-makers is
replaced by the democratic self-rule of the working majority, will
enable society to subordinate economic activity to the common interest.

If decisions about economic activity could be made democratically by
society as a whole — because society as a whole owned the economic
resources (all the mines, mills and factories) — then the root causes of
global warming could be rationally and rapidly tackled.

Certainly the most obvious place to begin would be with the world’s
energy systems. Today pro-capitalist politicians like John Howard tell
us that any attempt to move rapidly to replace the use of fossil fuels
like coal with renewable energy sources will “wreck the economy”, by
which he means it’ll wreak business profits.

He’s absolutely right about this. But the consequence of not doing this
will be increasingly catastrophic climate events, which will wreck the
livelihoods of most working people.

If the big corporation won’t move rapidly to a renewables-based energy
economy, because it threatens their corporate profits, that’s not a
rational argument for continuing to rely on fossil fuels. It’s a
rational argument for replacing capitalist governments with governments
that will organise working people to bring about “profound structural
changes” in who owns industry, how it’s run and who it serves.

Society structurally organised to meet the common interest rather than
corporate profits would be free to simply weigh up the costs and
benefits involved in how it meets its energy needs, and then to allocate
through a massive and urgent program of public works to make the switch
from fossil fuels to renewables.

Similarly, why would a socialist world continue with reliance on
hundreds of millions of privately owned vehicles for daily commuting,
with all their associated problems. Far superior would be state of art,
integrated free public transport systems with frequent services. This
could dramatically reduce greenhouse pollution if rolled out in a
systematic way worldwide.

The human resources to do these things will be massively enhanced when
millions of workers can be transferred from highly profitable but
socially unproductive work, such as the advertising and public relations
industries or the military-industrial complex.

The obstacles to achieving an ecologically sustainable society do not
lie in the lack of alternatives to CO2-generating fossil fuel dependent
technologies, but in the power of the capitalist “market forces” system
to resist abandoning the latter for the former.

The mainstream political answer to getting the capitalist corporate
profit system to adopt renewable energy technologies is a reform policy
combination of carrots (huge taxpayer-funded subsidies to the
corporations) and sticks (CO2 emissions taxes, that will be passed on by
corporations to ordinary consumers) — both of which involve making
working people pay to fix a problem created by the corporate elite.

This approach is what the Swedish government’s Stockholm Environmental
Institute calls the “Policy Reform” scenario in its study on a “market
forces”-dominated transition to global sustainability — published in
2002 as Great Transition: The Promise and Lure of the Times Ahead.

The authors of the study argued that “great strides toward a
sustainability transition are possible without positing either a social
revolution or the deus ex machina of a technological miracle” through
the application of government policy reforms to “market forces” (which
they ackowledge are dominated by the “special interests” of the big
“rich country”-based transnational corporations).

However, because solving the problem of global warming “requires a pace
and scale of technological and social change [that] is daunting”, the
“reform path to sustainability is like climbing up a down escalator.”

Furthermore, for “the reform path to succeed, an unprecedented and
unyielding governmental commitment to achieving sustainability goals
must arise. That commitment must be expressed through effective and
comprehensive economic, social and institutional initiatives. But the
necessary political will for a reform route to sustainability is today
nowhere in sight.

“To gain ascendancy, the Policy Reform vision must overcome the
resistance of special interests, the myopia of narrow outlooks and the
inertia of complacency. But the logic of sustainability and the logic of
the global market are in tension. The correlation between the
accumulation of wealth [in the form of capital] and the concentration of
power erodes the political basis for a transition.”

This surely points to the necessity for a social revolution — a
fundamental change in which social class, the capitalists or working
people, owns and manages society’s economic resources — as the only way
to remove the institutional obstacles to countering the gathering global
warming catastrophe. But the authors of Great Transition — myopically
wedded to their “market forces” narrow outlook — rule this out of
consideration.

Cuba has become the world’s undisputed leader in organic agriculture,
and has taken major steps toward developing energy efficiency and
replacing the use of fossil fuels with renewables.

Cuba was also the first country in the world to implement a universal
low-energy lighting program. In 2005, the Cuban government mobilised
social workers — many university students on study leave — to distribute
and install low-energy fluorescent light bulbs. By the end of the year,
five million people had been supplied. By mid 2006, this program had cut
electricity for lighting by a third.

Cuba remains the only country in the world to implement a universal
low-energy, low-polluting lighting policy. Since mid 2006, the
low-energy, low-polluting bulbs are the only ones sold in Cuban stores.

According to the World Wildlife Fund’s The Living Planet Report 2006,
the socialist island-nation of Cuba is the only country in the world
that enjoys sustainable development, assessed on the basis of countries’
commitments to improving the quality of life of their residents while
living within the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems. This,
despite Cuba being a relatively poor country subjected by Washington to
nearly five decades of punitive economic sanctions.

If the economic and political institutions of Australia and other rich
countries — with their massive scientific and technological resources —
were organised, via a social revolution, to serve the interests of
working people rather than corporate profit-making, then we’d be able to
get on the fast track in solving the global warming crisis, instead of
trying to “climb up in a down escalator."

  From Green Left Weekly <http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/721/37403>,
August 22, 2007

Carbon Offset Companies targeted by Climate Camp Activists


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 8.30am : 20.08.07


Activists from the Camp for Climate Action have simultaneously targeted the
offices of two separate carbon offset companies. The protestors are dressed as
red herrings in order to highlight that carbon offset schemes are a dangerous
distraction from taking effective climate action.

This morning, the offices of two high profile carbon offset companies in
different cities – the Carbon Neutral Company in London and Climate Care in
Oxford - have been disrupted.

The protestors are colourfully dressed as red herrings to symbolise the fact
that carbon offset schemes are corrupting the climate change debate, taking
attention away from effective responses to the threat of climate change and
conning the general public. Their aim is to disrupt the day-to-day running of
the offices and to raise awarness about the ineffectiveness of carbon-offset
schemes – especially among well meaning office staff who may not realize the
damage their work is doing to the fight to prevent runaway global warming.

Carbon offsetting doesn’t work because:


     *   We cannot know what emissions have been avoided as a result of renewable
energy projects – any hypotheses are guesswork. Therefore we cannot possibly
calculate how much it would cost us to buy those savings – offset companies are
selling us nothing but hot air.

     * Many schemes for ‘neutralising’ our emissions – such as tree planting –
have been completely discredited, being scientifically illiterate and based on
invented savings and . Yet companies such as Climate Care and Carbon Neutral
continue to use them.
     * Real offsets would have to save the same amount of carbon within the same
time frame as it is released. Trees are assumed by the offset companies
themselves to take at least 99 years to absorb the carbon emitted in a 2 hour
flight. Even if it did work, it would be like filling a bathtub with a bucket
while trying to empty it with a thimble; the bath will soon overflow.

     *   Most techno-fix offset schemes are based in the developing world. Even
if every poor nation on the planet went carbon-free today, industrialised
nations would still have to slash our carbon emissions if we are to have any
hope of preventing catastrophic climate change. Emissions from developing
nations are not the problem.


“Carbon offset companies are selling well-intentioned consumers a dangerous
peace of mind by pretending that they can make emissions disappear” said Theo
Middleton, one of the activists in the Climate Care office. “Climate Care and BA
have teamed up to offer fliers a false opportunity to buy their way out of their
responsibility to the climate.”

“Carbon offsets are ineffective, based on dubious science and lead people to
believe they are helping when they are not – the concept and the practice are a
con,” said Sophie Nathan, who is taking part in the Carbon Neutral Company
invasion. “Real climate action involves taking direct responsibility for
personal emissions levels as well as engaging in political organisation for
wider change.”

To speak to the activists in London, call 07812 049 545

To speak to the activists in Oxford, call 07746711667

To speak with Kevin Smith, author of “The Carbon Neutral Myth – Offset
Indulgences for your Climate Sins” and climate camper, call 07799 511640

Notes for Editors

Carbon offset companies have been on the receiving end of a great deal of
negative publicity in the last year. This is the second time in 2007 that the
Carbon Neutral Company has had its offices occupied by environmental activistsi.
Both companies were also negatively portrayed in a recent Channel 4 documentary
on the offsets industryii and in a report put out earlier in the year by the
Amsterdam-based think tank, the Transnational Institute. New Internationalist
magazine focused on the debate in July last year, exposing ineffective and
damaging offset methods for fighting climate change.

This is big business - British Airways reported a £620m pre-tax profit for the
year ending March 2006, a 20 per cent increase on the previous year, despite the
increase in fuel costs during the period, and its short haul service moved into
profit for the first time in a decade.iii This was a period of expansion and
profitability as much for Climate Care as it was for British Airways. In July
2006, Climate Care’s David Wellington wrote that “in the past 10 to 12 months we
have seen a 10-fold increase in sales,” and that 85 per cent of this growth was
in “online sales for offsetting flight emissions”.iv

See also www.carbontradewatch.org


-Ends-

London Profits While Africa Awaits Kyoto Benefit

Climate Change Capital and Natsource Rake in Hundreds of Millions from
Just Two Projects
Gerard Wynn
Reuters
14 August 2007

            LONDON - Huge profits made by London-based brokers who arrange
            emissions-cutting [sic -- LL] projects in developing
countries contrast with
            little benefit for the world's poorest nations, company and
United
            Nations data shows.

            The Kyoto Protocol on global warming allows rich countries
to meet
            greenhouse gas emissions targets by paying poor nations to cut
            emissions on their behalf, using the so-called clean
development
            mechanism (CDM).

            But evidence is emerging that while brokers stand to make
enormous
            profits, least developed nations, especially in Africa, will
get
            next to nothing -- raising questions over whether Kyoto is
            fulfilling its social as well as environmental goals. "We're
either
            going to have bend the rules and be softer with CDM in
Africa or
            forget it and give them more aid," said Mike Bess, an Africa
            specialist working for London-based project developer Camco.

            The text of the Kyoto Protocol calls for its carbon trading
scheme
            to assist poor countries in achieving sustainable development.
            The text of Kyoto's umbrella treaty, the United Nations
Framework
            Convention on Climate Change, says that action to combat
climate
            change should help economic development, too.

            But action so far has seen the biggest potential profits
going to
            London-based project developers, instead of projects on the
ground,
            most of which are based in China and India.

            Africa has seen just 21 out of a total of 751 CDM projects
            officially registered with the UN climate change secretariat.

            TINY FRACTION

            A common argument is that Africa has a tiny fraction of the
world's
            carbon emissions, that these emissions are widely dispersed
and so
            difficult to bundle into profitable projects, and that the
continent
            has high investment risk.

            But projects are slowly emerging.

            The World Bank's International Finance Corporation formally
launches
            later this month an initiative called "Lighting the Bottom
of the
            Pyramid", which aims to supply low-carbon lighting to some
of the
            500 million Africans who have no electricity access. It aims to
            apply for carbon finance through the CDM, because solar
power would
            replace higher carbon kerosene lamps used now.

            "Ten years ago you'd say there was no market for mobile
phones in
            Africa, that people couldn't afford it," said Fabio Nehme,
IFC team
            leader for the project, who estimated that there were now
over 100
            million mobile phone users on the continent.

            UN Secretary General Kofi Annan launched last November in
Kenya an
            initiative called the "Nairobi Framework" to try and
increase the
            number of CDM projects in Africa.

            Since then just 10 new projects have been registered in Africa,
            versus 348 extra elsewhere, UN data show, but the UN official
            leading the project defended progress so far.

            "Let's give it some time," said Daniele Violetti.

            UN agencies, the World Bank and the African Development Bank
will
            pool resources for a joint CDM project, with details likely in
            October following a meeting in Ethiopia, he said.

            LUCRATIVE

            Western project developers are under no obligation to show that
            their projects contribute to sustainable development.

            "The investors should be proud," said Michael Wara, research
fellow
            at Stanford University.

            "You want the market to work and find the low-hanging fruit,
but you
            want to be able to modify the system when people start
extracting
            these kinds of profits."

            In one of the biggest money-spinning projects yet, 10 investors
            including London-based Climate Change Capital and New
York-based
            Natsource bought 129 million tonnes of carbon credits for
6.2 euros
            ($8.49) per tonne from two projects in China.

            The price of such carbon credits for guaranteed delivery
closed last
            week at some 16 euros per tonne, implying potential profits for
            these investors of well over 1 billion euros.

            Climate Change Capital said last week it had a carbon credit
            portfolio of over 65 million tonnes, more than double Africa's
            entire registered portfolio of 32 million tonnes, Reuters
data shows
            (http://www.reutersinteractive.com/CarbonNews/67999).

            Climate Change Capital also told Reuters that it had no
registered
            projects in Africa, but had at least one in the pipeline.

            While China levies a tax of up to 65 percent on CDM profits
made by
            local companies -- to invest in Chinese renewable energy
projects --
            no such tax is levied on these potentially much bigger
margins made
            by western brokers.

            "The (profit) margin isn't going into sustainable
development. A lot
            of the money is staying in London," Wara said.
            (Additional reporting by Michael Szabo)

Deal
-----Original Message-----
From: Chvastek, Nicole (Sen L. Allison)
Sent: Tuesday, 31 July 2007 6:08 PM
To: Chvastek, Nicole (Sen L. Allison)
Subject:
DEMOCRATS
MEDIA
           tues july 31, 2007
SENATOR LYN ALLISON
AUSTRALIAN DEMOCRATS LEADER
resources energy and infrastructure
howard govt. should come clean on toxic nuclear deal
The Australian Democrats today condemned the US-India civil nuclear
agreement labelling it a "toxic deal" which undermines international
attempts to curb a dangerous arms race.
"This was the perfect opportunity to pull India into the Non Proliferation
Treaty regime and they blew it", Senator Allison said this afternoon.  "Why
set up international treaties and then ignore them?  It is a decision which
is as puzzling as it is stupid".
Senator Allison dismissed comments by Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander
Downer who insisted in a press statement that Australia shares the goal of
engaging with India as a .. "responsible partner in preventing the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction".
"They do deals which risk an arms race spiralling out of control while
mouthing concerns about weapons of mass destruction.  What a con!" she said.
Senator Allison described the agreement as carrying all the hallmarks of a
'done deal' designed to sell Australian uranium to India.
"The Howard Government should come clean on its latest sleight of hand.
Instead America's trusty cheerleaders applaud as the superpower does its
deals with countries which won't sign the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty
and then readies itself to export shiploads of uranium to India, increasing
the global nuclear threat".
The US-India arrangement includes commitments by India to continue its
nuclear testing moratorium but any agreement outside the Comprehensive Test
Ban Treaty will have little validity and be almost impossible to enforce.
Senator Allison's comments follow Minister Downer's confirmation today that
the United States and India have successfully completed negotiations on the
text of a civil nuclear agreement.
Media contact -Nicole Chvastek 0417 613 610

................................................................................\
..........................................................

APEC climate change leak

http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/apec-soft-on-emissions/2007/08/17/1186857\
771538.html

Also links to the actual draft outline...

A SECRET document prepared for the world leaders attending John Howard's
climate summit reveals they are being asked to back a weakened plan to set
an "aspirational" goal to cut greenhouse gases, rather than firm targets.

The secret full draft of the declaration for the Asia-Pacific Economic
Co-operation forum, obtained by the Herald, is supposed to be announced by
the 21 leaders at the close of next month's summit in Sydney.

The document reveals Mr Howard, the US President, George Bush, and the other
APEC leaders will call for the aspirational global goal to be included in
the next round of UN climate negotiations. The APEC leaders will also back
agreements to promote energy efficiency and new technology, including
nuclear power, to combat global warming.

"This is a 'Made in the USA' declaration, covered in Australian coal dust,"
Ben Pearson, of Greenpeace, told the Herald. "It's Bush and Howard trying to
look good for elections but actually doing nothing."

The draft declaration follows closely the proposals Mr Bush floated earlier
this year and calls for a new world climate agreement that is "a more
flexible and diverse framework that promotes practical and co-operative
action".

It says the APEC leaders will agree that "a long-term aspirational global
emissions reduction goal will be a key component of the post-2012 framework"
for climate negotiations.

Earlier this year, the European Union, Japan and Canada proposed halving
global emissions by 2050, a target scientists believe could avoid
catastrophic global warming over the next century. Japan and Canada are key
APEC members.

The controversial aspirational goal in the APEC declaration will antagonise
climate campaigners who insist that binding targets, especially in the
developed world, must be at the heart of the next round of UN climate
negotiations, due to take place in Bali in December.

Mr Bush has strongly resisted any agreement on binding targets, a policy
backed by Mr Howard. Both leaders refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol,
which called for binding targets.

Mr Howard is hoping to use the APEC forum to boost his credentials on
climate change, an issue where he lags Labor in the polls.

The leaked draft reveals the APEC leaders will give Mr Howard a platform
from which to advocate climate change that is weighted heavily towards
carrots rather than sticks. Measures the APEC leaders will announce at the
summit include:

■ Setting up a Network for Energy Technology to promote collaboration
on research on clean coal, nuclear power and renewable energy such as solar
and wind power;

■ A non-binding, unenforceable 25 per cent reduction in energy
intensity (energy consumption per unit of GDP) by 2030;

■ Agreement on the importance of preserving and managing forests as
"carbon sinks", and

■ Agreement to encourage investment in renewable energy and develop
international standards for sustainable biofuels to spur on alternative
fuels.


The draft, while detailed, is not final until signed by APEC's 21 members.
Several APEC watchers believe China may want more pressure put on the US in
the lead-up to the Bali talks.

_________________________________________________________________
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The word has gone out and we're expecting a lot of people to be
participating in this years Walk Against Warming in Brisbane to be held
Sat 25th August 2007.  It is starting at Queens Park, assembling at
12:30, and walking to the City Botanical Gardens where there will be
speakers and entertainment.  Unfortunately the number of volunteers to
help marshal the walk and collect donations hasn't risen at the same
rate and I'm putting out the word to request more help on the day.

If you'd like to volunteer please contact myself or Dom at Queensland
Conservation Council on <admin@...> / 07 3221 0188.

It would be great if you could forward this onto your contacts.

There will also be a walk 2 weeks before the federal election (date yet
to be determined!) and we'd appreciate help on that day also.

Cheers,

Brooke


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

World Gathering For Truth 2000-2012
http://www.worldgathering.net

25/26 August 2007 World Gathering For Truth
http://www.worldgathering.net/gathering.html

---------
WORLD GATHERING FOR TRUTH News - 15 August 2007
http://www.worldgathering.net/news14.html
---------

All Crop Patterns (Since 2000) And Most 'Channeled'
Messages On The Internet Are Now Created/Authored By
NWO 'BlackOps' Operations And 'BlackOps' Operatives

http://www.worldgathering.net/news12.html
http://www.worldgathering.net/news13.html

Hey everyone. It's time to take your POWER back and
stop sitting around waiting for the latest 'channeled'
message and/or the latest crop pattern to appear.

Get out and about with thousands of leaflets telling
people to search on the internet for '9-11 truth' and
'Chemtrails', etc. Let's get down to practicalities.

These phenomena - channeled 'spiritual' or 'ET' messages,
and 'Crop Patterns' are now largely taken over by NWO
'Black' operations. My information is that Crop patterns
have been completely taken over since the end of 1999.

However, you do NOT need to feel alone or hopeless.

Benevolent ET is making increasing numbers of appearances
around the world. Have a look at the increasing number
of videos at Google Video and YouTube of close sightings
of craft of many different types all around the world.

We are most definitely NOT alone.

After sixty years cover-up of the existence of many
civilisations of benevolent ETs (and some negative Aliens)
appearing in our skies and having bases on Earth, the
people who have carried out this massive cover-up have
great means (money, technology, personnel, etc.) to try
and continue this huge global mind game into the future.

"I finally figured out that the voices I was hearing
were coming from a top secret Navy Intelligence unit."

More here:

MOST 'Channeled Messages' Are From Negative Aliens
Or From New World Order 'Black' Operations
http://www.worldgathering.net/news13.html

NO Crop Patterns By Benevolent ET Since 1999
- NWO Take-Over of Crop Pattern Phenomenon
http://www.worldgathering.net/news12.html

STOP BEING A SPECTATOR - TAKE YOUR POWER BACK
- AND LETS GET DOWN TO SOME PRACTICAL WORK.
Time and maximum effort are of the essence.
Actually, ANY effort WILL help the world.

---------
S.O.S. - The Planet And Humanity Are In Trouble
http://www.worldgathering.net/beacon.html
---------

WORLD GATHERING FOR TRUTH 2000-2012
- 25/26 August, 2007 - 15/16/17 August, 2008
- 28/29/30 August, 2009 - 20/21/22 August, 2010
- 12/13/14 August, 2011 - 24/25/26 August, 2012

WORLD GATHERING FOR TRUTH 2007
- 25 & 26 AUGUST 2007 - Global Meetings - Global
Powwows - SOS The Planet And Humanity Are In Trouble
- Exchange Information & Ideas You Have - BE THERE!
- All Night Gathering On Hilltops Worldwide -
Use Powerful Flashlights - Signal Other Hilltops
- New Dawn Coming - Truth For The World - Peace For
The World - 25 & 26 AUGUST 2007 - WORLD GATHERING
- BE THERE!

25/26 August 2007 World Gathering For Truth
http://www.worldgathering.net/gathering.html

Join World Gathering GOOGLE news list:
http://groups.google.com/group/worldgathering

World Gathering For Truth 2000-2012
http://www.worldgathering.net

INTERVIEW - Kyoto Projects Harm Ozone Layer - UN Official

UK: August 14, 2007

PLANET EARTH REUTERS

LONDON - The biggest emissions-cutting projects under the Kyoto Protocol
on global warming have directly contributed to an increase in the
production of gases that destroy the ozone layer, a senior UN official says.

In addition, evidence suggests that the same projects, in developing
countries, have deliberately raised their emissions of greenhouse gases
only to destroy these and therefore claim more carbon credits, said
Stanford University's Michael Wara.

Kyoto is meant to curb emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for
global warming, but is undermining a separate pact called the Montreal
Protocol, meant to phase out gases which harm the earth's ozone layer.

That layer in the atmosphere shields the planet from damaging
ultra-violet rays that can cause skin cancer.

At the heart of the clash is a carbon trading scheme under Kyoto, worth
$5 billion last year, whereby rich countries pay poorer ones to cut
greenhouse gas emissions on their behalf, called the clean development
mechanism (CDM).

The most popular type of project has been to destroy a potent greenhouse
gas known as HFC 23, one of a family of so-called hydrofluorocarbons, in
China and India.

The problem is that HFC 23 is a waste product in the manufacture of a
refrigerant gas which damages the ozone layer, called HCFC 22, and
chemical plants have used their CDM profits to ramp up production.

"This is certainly one of the major drivers now in the increase in
production of HCFC 22," Rajendra Shende, director of ozone issues at the
United Nations Environment Programme, which administers the Montreal
Protocol, said on Monday. HCFC 22 now risked undoing recent repair to
the ozone layer, Shende said in an interview.

Chemical plants have used CDM profits to cut the sale price of HCFC 22,
pricing out alternatives that don't deplete ozone such as carbon dioxide
and ammonia.

"(UN) bodies need to work more together, to see the actions of one don't
risk the actions of another," Shende said.

Governments signed up to the Montreal Protocol will likely vote next
month to accelerate the complete phase out of HCFC 22 in developing
countries by 2025 or 2030 from 2040 now, he said.

LUCRATIVE

CDM projects which destroy HFC 23 are especially lucrative because the
gas is 12,000 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide
(CO2), although its overall contribution to climate change is far less
because CO2 is much more common.

As a result, destroying HFC 23 spawns far more money-spinning carbon
credits than any other way of curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

Carbon trading isn't the only reason why HCFC 22 production is up, said
Shende. A fund raised under the Montreal Protocol has paid makers of air
conditioners and fridges to use HCFC 22 instead of more dangerous
ozone-depleting gases, CFCs.

In addition, increasingly affluent classes in developing countries are
now better able to afford air conditioners.

HOT AIR

The environmental credentials of HFC 23 projects are further undermined
by evidence that chemical plants in China have deliberately "tuned"
their factories to produce more of what should be a waste product, to
make more money under CDM.

Chemical plants participating in CDM make twice as much HFC 23 as a
proportion of the actual end product refrigerant than those in rich
countries which can't participate in the scheme, said Michael Wara,
research fellow at Stanford University.

"It doubles the flow of carbon credits, but there are real questions
whether it's hot air," Wara said. The carbon credits are being used as
carbon offsets to allow companies to continue to produce greenhouse
gases in Europe.

"They've tuned the plants to double the amount of HFC 23 you would
normally produce, for example in Europe or the United States. All CDM
participant plants came in at 3 percent (HFC 23 versus HCFC 22), the
Kyoto Protocol maximum, versus 1.5 percent in countries that can't
participate in the scheme."

Story by Gerard Wynn

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/43669/story.htm

Carbon Market Encourages Chopping Forests - Study
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US: August 14, 2007


WASHINGTON - The current carbon market actually encourages cutting down
some of the world's biggest forests, which would unleash tonnes of
climate-warming carbon into the atmosphere, a new study reported on Monday.


Under the Kyoto Protocol aimed at stemming climate change, there is no
profitable reason for the 10 countries and one French territory with 20
percent of Earth's intact tropical forest to maintain this resource,
according to a study in the journal Public Library of Science Biology.

The Kyoto treaty and other talks on global warming focus on so-called
carbon credits for countries and companies that plant new trees where
forests have been destroyed. Trees and other plants absorb carbon
dioxide, a greenhouse gas emitted by petroleum-fueled vehicles,
coal-fired power plants and humans.

At this point, there is no credit for countries that keep the forests
they have, the study said.

"The countries that haven't really been the target of deforestation have
nothing to sell because they haven't deforested anything," said Gustavo
Fonseca, one of the study's authors.


PERVERSE INCENTIVE

"So that creates a perverse incentive for them to actually start
deforesting, so that in the future, they might be allowed to actually
cap-and-trade, as they call it: you put a cap on your deforestation and
you trade that piece that hasn't been deforested," Fonseca said in a
telephone interview.

The countries most at risk for this kind of deforestation, because they
all have more than half their original forests intact, are Panama,
Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Peru, Belize, Gabon, Guyana,
Suriname, Bhutan and Zambia, along with the French territory of French
Guiana.

These places need a system of credits to involve them in the "global
deforestation avoidance market," said Fonseca, of the World Bank's
Global Environment Facility.

Under this kind of system, these countries could agree to keep
deforestation rates below the global average and get credit for how much
below the average they are, Fonseca said.

These market mechanisms are still being worked out and are likely to be
debated at a series of international meetings on climate change this
year at the United Nations, in Washington and in Bali, Indonesia.

Besides curbing greenhouse gas emissions, this system could offer other
benefits that intact forests provide, according to Russell Mittermeier,
a study co-author and president of the environmental group Conservation
International.

Intact forests protect watersheds, encourage pollination and preserve
biodiversity, Mittermeier said by telephone.

Mittermeier said perhaps 20 to 25 percent of world carbon emissions come
from the destruction of tropical forest, but this issue is not at the
center of the global warming discussion.

"People are talking a lot about vehicle emissions, industrial emissions,
biofuels and recycling," Mittermeier said. "Forests were barely in there
and yet forests are ... perhaps the major contributor" to global climate
change.


Story by Deborah Zabarenko

[Greens-Media]
Sunday, 12 August 2007

Indigenous communities across Australia face Australian Crime
Commission's coercive powers

Under the racist Division 1 of the Northern Territory National
Emergency Response Bill 2007, Indigenous communities in all states and
territories are singled out to be subject to the Australian Crime
Commission's coercive powers, Greens Leader Bob Brown warned today.

"White communities need not worry. The ACC will be able to access all
state and territory records and employ its own staff and extraordinary
surveillance powers to pursue individual causes of alleged violence or
sexual abuse involving Aboriginal Australians," Senator Brown said.

The Redfern, Palm Island and Launceston Aboriginal people will be
singled out for the ACC's draconian powers just as much as those at
Tennant Creek or Mutujulu. If you are white, usual laws apply, if you
are black, the draconian powers, designed to deal with highly
organised crime syndicates and the mafia will apply."

Senator Brown said that latest statistics point to 6000 reported cases
of child abuse in Indigenous communities but 35000 across Australia.

"So, on a basis of race only, less than 20 per cent of child abuse
comes under these coercive powers. Why this 20 %? Why not the other
80%?" Senator Brown asked.

--- In ClimateChangeAction@..., greg hopwood
<ghoppy9@...> wrote:
>
> Good onya Benny
>
>
>  [Greens-Media] NT land grab would fail in High Court - say Greens
   [input]   [input]   [input]   [input]

> Friday, 10 August 2007
>
> Legal opinion released
>
> Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown has released senior legal opinion
> that the Howard government's proposed takeover of Aboriginal
> communities land in the Northern Territory is not on 'just terms' as
> required by the Constitution.
>
> Mr Brian Walters SC concludes that, "all of the provisions in the
> legislation providing for acquisition of property other than on "just
> terms" would be struck down as void ab initio if they were enacted into
> law in their present form."
>
> Mr Walters is of the opinion that the constitutional guarantee of 'just
> terms' is not upheld by the legislation.
>
> The government substitutes the words 'reasonable compensation' for
> 'just terms' in some clauses and Minister Mal Brough has indicated that
> government spending, including the provision of infrastructure, will be
> considered compensation.
>
> "The legislation is a reversal to Terra Nullius - empty land -
> thinking," Senator Brown said.
>
> "It treats Indigenous communal land as if it has no more significance
> than the dollars a real estate speculator would see in remote and arid
> country. But it is the government, not the Aboriginal land, which is
> remote and arid in its thinking.
>
> "This hasty and nasty, patronising legislation may be bulldozed through
> the Senate next week but it is far from being upheld as law. Even the
> Howard government is not entitled to override the Constitution,"
> Senator Brown said.
>
> Senator Brown said that more legal questions arose. For example, the
> extension of the extensive powers of the Australian Crime Commission,
> set up to snare crime syndicates involved in money laundering,
> international drug smuggling and white slavery, which this legislation
> applies to Indigenous communities to catch sex offenders.
>
> "This is a dangerous police-state move which deserves much greater
> public debate - especially as most child sex offences in Australia do
> not occur in Aboriginal communities," Senator Brown said.
>
> Further information: Ebony Bennett 0409 164 603
>
> You can find the legal opinion at www.bobbrown.org.au
>
> Ebony Bennett
> Media Adviser
> Office of Greens Senator Bob Brown
> Mobile: 0409 164 603
> Ph: (02) 6277 3170
> Fax: (02) 6277 3185
>
> Visit Bob's new myspace site at:
> www.myspace.com/bobbrowngreens
>
>
> benny zable <bennyzable@...> wrote: Attention All
>
> Please download, sign and send off this letter to the senate.
>
> Please pass this email around.
>
> Benny Zable
>
>
> >From: "Siobhan"
> >To:
> >Subject: FW: [pw_australia] Urgent action needed
> >Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 23:54:51 +1000
> >
> >Dear friends
> >
> >Shar has generously drafted a letter to the senate in response to the
> >government's emergency legislation regarding its intervention into
> >Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.  Please if you
can make
> >time to forward it to the senate do so.  I know at this time I find
myself
> >to be overwhelmed by the enormity of what is happening to our
democracy and
> >heartbroken about what is happening to Aboriginal communities in the
> >territory and so even a small action in the good company of friends
gives
> >me
> >some hope.
> >
> >
> >
> >Best wishes and love
> >
> >Siobhan
> >
> >
> >
> >   _____
> >
> >From: pw_australia@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:pw_australia@yahoogroups.com] On
> >Behalf Of Shar Edmunds
> >Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2007 9:53 PM
> >To: PW Australia
> >Subject: [pw_australia] Urgent action needed
> >
> >
> >
> >Dear Friends
> >
> >Today is International Indigenous Peoples Day. Tomorrow (Friday 10^th
> >August) there will be a one-day Senate inquiry into the government's
> >emergency legislation regarding its intervention into Aboriginal
> >communities in the Northern Territory. The legislation is complex
> >involving amendments to 5 Acts of Parliament. Much of the detail of its
> >content has been widely criticized by Aboriginal groups throughout
> >Australia and, in addition, by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity
> >Commission. The haste with which the Senate inquiry is required to sit
> >does not allow adequate time for affected groups to properly understand
> >the implications the legislation has for them, nor time for appropriate
> >debate and representation to the inquiry which is required to present
> >its report this coming Monday, 13^th August. This haste is a
significant
> >loss of democratic process.
> >
> >Mal Brough justifies the haste by saying that what's in the Bill has
> >been known for six weeks. However genuine his intentions may be, I can
> >only conclude that his visits to Northern Territory communities
were not
> >about listening to the people and consulting with them but about
telling
> >them why they should support his radical proposals on the strength of
> >his word ie it was a sales trip.
> >
> >Not only do our Aboriginal peoples need our support at this time
but our
> >democracy needs our support.
> >
> >Attached is a model letter you are invited to use for ideas if you
would
> >like. Please do make a submission before 3pm tomorrow to the Senate
> >Committee meeting. The earlier in the day the better. Write it more in
> >your own words so that we don't replicate each other. Your letter
can be
> >as long or as short as you like and they need to be individual. You
need
> >to include your name, phone number and address for your submission
to be
> >accepted. I'll attach the document that talks about making a submission
> >for your information.
> >
> >Email your submission to
> >gov.au>
> >
> >Depending on what the inquiry recommends there may be amendments
made to
> >the Bill which would then go back to the House of Reps to be passed
> >before it can go before the Senate. Whether or not that happens the
Bill
> >needs to be passed by the Senate to come into effect. Therefore I will
> >also send an excel list of all senators' email addresses. To email all
> >of them, all you have to do is copy and paste column C of the list into
> >the "To" section of an email and write your concerns. (Just modify the
> >letter a bit so, again, it's not identical with the one you sent to the
> >committee.)
> >
> >If enough voices are raised there just might be an impact and proper
> >consultation required.
> >
> >Love to you all
> >
> >Shar
> >
> >
> >
>
> _________________________________________________________________
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>
http://a.ninemsn.com.au/b.aspx?URL=http%3A%2F%2Frover%2Eebay%2Ecom%2Frover%2F1%2\
F705%2D10129%2D5668%2D323%2F4%2F%3Fid%3D6&_t=763807330&_r=email_taglines_EBAY&_m\
=EXT
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo!7 Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Sick of deleting your inbox? Yahoo!7 Mail has free unlimited
storage. Get it now.
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

Good onya Benny


  [Greens-Media] NT land grab would fail in High Court - say Greens    [input]  
[input]   [input]   [input]
Friday, 10 August 2007

Legal opinion released

Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown has released senior legal opinion
that the Howard government's proposed takeover of Aboriginal
communities land in the Northern Territory is not on 'just terms' as
required by the Constitution.

Mr Brian Walters SC concludes that, "all of the provisions in the
legislation providing for acquisition of property other than on "just
terms" would be struck down as void ab initio if they were enacted into
law in their present form."

Mr Walters is of the opinion that the constitutional guarantee of 'just
terms' is not upheld by the legislation.

The government substitutes the words 'reasonable compensation' for
'just terms' in some clauses and Minister Mal Brough has indicated that
government spending, including the provision of infrastructure, will be
considered compensation.

"The legislation is a reversal to Terra Nullius - empty land -
thinking," Senator Brown said.

"It treats Indigenous communal land as if it has no more significance
than the dollars a real estate speculator would see in remote and arid
country. But it is the government, not the Aboriginal land, which is
remote and arid in its thinking.

"This hasty and nasty, patronising legislation may be bulldozed through
the Senate next week but it is far from being upheld as law. Even the
Howard government is not entitled to override the Constitution,"
Senator Brown said.

Senator Brown said that more legal questions arose. For example, the
extension of the extensive powers of the Australian Crime Commission,
set up to snare crime syndicates involved in money laundering,
international drug smuggling and white slavery, which this legislation
applies to Indigenous communities to catch sex offenders.

"This is a dangerous police-state move which deserves much greater
public debate - especially as most child sex offences in Australia do
not occur in Aboriginal communities," Senator Brown said.

Further information: Ebony Bennett 0409 164 603

You can find the legal opinion at www.bobbrown.org.au

Ebony Bennett
Media Adviser
Office of Greens Senator Bob Brown
Mobile: 0409 164 603
Ph: (02) 6277 3170
Fax: (02) 6277 3185

Visit Bob's new myspace site at:
www.myspace.com/bobbrowngreens


benny zable <bennyzable@...> wrote: Attention All

Please download, sign and send off this letter to the senate.

Please pass this email around.

Benny Zable


>From: "Siobhan"
>To:
>Subject: FW: [pw_australia] Urgent action needed
>Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 23:54:51 +1000
>
>Dear friends
>
>Shar has generously drafted a letter to the senate in response to the
>government’s emergency legislation regarding its intervention into
>Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.  Please if you can make
>time to forward it to the senate do so.  I know at this time I find myself
>to be overwhelmed by the enormity of what is happening to our democracy and
>heartbroken about what is happening to Aboriginal communities in the
>territory and so even a small action in the good company of friends gives
>me
>some hope.
>
>
>
>Best wishes and love
>
>Siobhan
>
>
>
>   _____
>
>From: pw_australia@yahoogroups.com [mailto:pw_australia@yahoogroups.com] On
>Behalf Of Shar Edmunds
>Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2007 9:53 PM
>To: PW Australia
>Subject: [pw_australia] Urgent action needed
>
>
>
>Dear Friends
>
>Today is International Indigenous Peoples Day. Tomorrow (Friday 10^th
>August) there will be a one-day Senate inquiry into the government’s
>emergency legislation regarding its intervention into Aboriginal
>communities in the Northern Territory. The legislation is complex
>involving amendments to 5 Acts of Parliament. Much of the detail of its
>content has been widely criticized by Aboriginal groups throughout
>Australia and, in addition, by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity
>Commission. The haste with which the Senate inquiry is required to sit
>does not allow adequate time for affected groups to properly understand
>the implications the legislation has for them, nor time for appropriate
>debate and representation to the inquiry which is required to present
>its report this coming Monday, 13^th August. This haste is a significant
>loss of democratic process.
>
>Mal Brough justifies the haste by saying that what’s in the Bill has
>been known for six weeks. However genuine his intentions may be, I can
>only conclude that his visits to Northern Territory communities were not
>about listening to the people and consulting with them but about telling
>them why they should support his radical proposals on the strength of
>his word ie it was a sales trip.
>
>Not only do our Aboriginal peoples need our support at this time but our
>democracy needs our support.
>
>Attached is a model letter you are invited to use for ideas if you would
>like. Please do make a submission before 3pm tomorrow to the Senate
>Committee meeting. The earlier in the day the better. Write it more in
>your own words so that we don’t replicate each other. Your letter can be
>as long or as short as you like and they need to be individual. You need
>to include your name, phone number and address for your submission to be
>accepted. I’ll attach the document that talks about making a submission
>for your information.
>
>Email your submission to
>gov.au>
>
>Depending on what the inquiry recommends there may be amendments made to
>the Bill which would then go back to the House of Reps to be passed
>before it can go before the Senate. Whether or not that happens the Bill
>needs to be passed by the Senate to come into effect. Therefore I will
>also send an excel list of all senators’ email addresses. To email all
>of them, all you have to do is copy and paste column C of the list into
>the “To” section of an email and write your concerns. (Just modify the
>letter a bit so, again, it’s not identical with the one you sent to the
>committee.)
>
>If enough voices are raised there just might be an impact and proper
>consultation required.
>
>Love to you all
>
>Shar
>
>
>

_________________________________________________________________
Advertisement: Make shopping exciting. Find what you want at www.eBay.com.au
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Yahoo!7 Groups Links






---------------------------------
Sick of deleting your inbox? Yahoo!7 Mail has free unlimited storage. Get it
now.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Attention All

Please download, sign and send off this letter to the senate.

Please pass this email around.

Benny Zable


>From: "Siobhan" <Siobhan@...>
>To: <siobhan@...>
>Subject: FW: [pw_australia] Urgent action needed
>Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 23:54:51 +1000
>
>Dear friends
>
>Shar has generously drafted a letter to the senate in response to the
>government’s emergency legislation regarding its intervention into
>Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.  Please if you can make
>time to forward it to the senate do so.  I know at this time I find myself
>to be overwhelmed by the enormity of what is happening to our democracy and
>heartbroken about what is happening to Aboriginal communities in the
>territory and so even a small action in the good company of friends gives
>me
>some hope.
>
>
>
>Best wishes and love
>
>Siobhan
>
>
>
>   _____
>
>From: pw_australia@yahoogroups.com [mailto:pw_australia@yahoogroups.com] On
>Behalf Of Shar Edmunds
>Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2007 9:53 PM
>To: PW Australia
>Subject: [pw_australia] Urgent action needed
>
>
>
>Dear Friends
>
>Today is International Indigenous Peoples Day. Tomorrow (Friday 10^th
>August) there will be a one-day Senate inquiry into the government’s
>emergency legislation regarding its intervention into Aboriginal
>communities in the Northern Territory. The legislation is complex
>involving amendments to 5 Acts of Parliament. Much of the detail of its
>content has been widely criticized by Aboriginal groups throughout
>Australia and, in addition, by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity
>Commission. The haste with which the Senate inquiry is required to sit
>does not allow adequate time for affected groups to properly understand
>the implications the legislation has for them, nor time for appropriate
>debate and representation to the inquiry which is required to present
>its report this coming Monday, 13^th August. This haste is a significant
>loss of democratic process.
>
>Mal Brough justifies the haste by saying that what’s in the Bill has
>been known for six weeks. However genuine his intentions may be, I can
>only conclude that his visits to Northern Territory communities were not
>about listening to the people and consulting with them but about telling
>them why they should support his radical proposals on the strength of
>his word ie it was a sales trip.
>
>Not only do our Aboriginal peoples need our support at this time but our
>democracy needs our support.
>
>Attached is a model letter you are invited to use for ideas if you would
>like. Please do make a submission before 3pm tomorrow to the Senate
>Committee meeting. The earlier in the day the better. Write it more in
>your own words so that we don’t replicate each other. Your letter can be
>as long or as short as you like and they need to be individual. You need
>to include your name, phone number and address for your submission to be
>accepted. I’ll attach the document that talks about making a submission
>for your information.
>
>Email your submission to <legcon.sen@aph. <mailto:legcon.sen%40aph.gov.au>
>gov.au>
>
>Depending on what the inquiry recommends there may be amendments made to
>the Bill which would then go back to the House of Reps to be passed
>before it can go before the Senate. Whether or not that happens the Bill
>needs to be passed by the Senate to come into effect. Therefore I will
>also send an excel list of all senators’ email addresses. To email all
>of them, all you have to do is copy and paste column C of the list into
>the “To” section of an email and write your concerns. (Just modify the
>letter a bit so, again, it’s not identical with the one you sent to the
>committee.)
>
>If enough voices are raised there just might be an impact and proper
>consultation required.
>
>Love to you all
>
>Shar
>
>
>

_________________________________________________________________
Advertisement: Make shopping exciting. Find what you want at www.eBay.com.au
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Far out Greg

You know the expression.

When it rains, it pours

Its the best timing, considering it is Hiroshima Day rallying day tomorrow.
I will be outside New York's most dangerous Nuclear Power Plant with the aim
of encouraging the locals to take up  building a protest camp outside the
gate of this monstrosity.

A friend of mine in her enthusiasm posted this press releases today on.

<http://www.nowpublic.com/node/583366>

Also we have this wonderful report come out now to circulate round the
traps.

Carbon Free-Nuclear Free report.

<http://www.ieer.org/carbonfree/pressrelease.html>

Also check out the Ecofest site while you at it.

These emails are being sent to you from the ECOFEST West Side Cultural
Center where I have a position here as scenic designer.
The Lincoln Center plaza with banners, stage, T shirt design, and conference
center backdrops is greatly contributed by my handy work. Check out You Tube
videos about this most fantastic event.

This year all the Presidential candidates have been invited to present the
green policies at this years event.

Thank you for the link to the article Greg.

Yours Benny Zable

>From: greg hopwood <ghoppy9@...>
>Reply-To: ClimateChangeAction@...
>To: ClimateChangeAction@...
>Subject: Re: [ClimateChangeAction] FW: Re: Courier Mail peace convergence
>feature
>Date: Sat, 4 Aug 2007 20:19:28 +1000 (EST)
>
>yeh it's good hey.
>i was just informed via the Qld Greens forums by someone in Brisbane.
>it's on the Courier Mail site too >
>
>When doves cry
>
>photo @
>http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,5595518,00.jpg
>
>story @
>http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22184253-5003425,00.html
>
>benny zable <bennyzable@...> wrote:
>  >From: "robin taubenfeld" <robintaubenfeld@...>
>  >To: bennyzable@...
>  >Subject: Re: Courier Mail peace convergence feature
>  >Date: Sat, 04 Aug 2007 17:54:28 +1000
>  >
>  >Hey Benny,
>  >A beautiful full cover picture of you was printed on today's Q News
>  >magazine supplement to the Courier Mail.  The article is mixed but the
>  >photos - especially the cover is GREAT!!!  I will save you a couple of
>  >copies.    Well done.  It is great media for the campaign!
>  >
>  >peace n love,
>  >robin
>
>  Dear All
>
>  I and American activists friends will be outside the Indian Point nuclear
>  power plant over Sunday and Monday to co-insides with Australian
>Hiroshima
>  Day rallies.
>
>
><http://greennuclearbutterfly.blogspot.com/2007/07/benny-zable-indian-point-ove\
rnight.html>
>
>  This action is to bring attention to the deadly time bombs that is
>ticking
>  away less than 2 hours from New York City.A call to urgently close down
>  Indian Point sooner rather than later.
>  AND...
>  Keep Lucas Heights Opal reactor closed.
>  Decommission all old nuclear reactors as soon as possible.
>  No new reactors and waste dumps on Aboriginal communities
>
>  URANIUM leave it in the ground.
>
>  Could you pass on message to the rally?
>
>  I will be in my costume with flags set up and my sign.
>
>  "NUCLEAR POWER A DEAD END"
>
>  Please let others know
>
>  Your in solidarity
>
>  Benny Zable
>
>  __________________________________________________________
>  Advertisement: Make shopping exciting. Find what you want at
>www.eBay.com.au
>
>http://a.ninemsn.com.au/b.aspx?URL=http%3A%2F%2Frover%2Eebay%2Ecom%2Frover%2F1%\
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m=EXT
>
>
>
>
>
>
>---------------------------------
>Yahoo!7 Mail has just got even bigger and better with unlimited storage on
>all webmail accounts. Find out more.
>
>[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

_________________________________________________________________
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yeh it's good hey.
i was just informed via the Qld Greens forums by someone in Brisbane.
it's on the Courier Mail site too >

When doves cry

photo @
http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,5595518,00.jpg

story @
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22184253-5003425,00.html

benny zable <bennyzable@...> wrote:                                 
>From: "robin taubenfeld" <robintaubenfeld@...>
  >To: bennyzable@...
  >Subject: Re: Courier Mail peace convergence feature
  >Date: Sat, 04 Aug 2007 17:54:28 +1000
  >
  >Hey Benny,
  >A beautiful full cover picture of you was printed on today's Q News
  >magazine supplement to the Courier Mail.  The article is mixed but the
  >photos - especially the cover is GREAT!!!  I will save you a couple of
  >copies.    Well done.  It is great media for the campaign!
  >
  >peace n love,
  >robin

  Dear All

  I and American activists friends will be outside the Indian Point nuclear
  power plant over Sunday and Monday to co-insides with Australian Hiroshima
  Day rallies.

 
<http://greennuclearbutterfly.blogspot.com/2007/07/benny-zable-indian-point-over\
night.html>

  This action is to bring attention to the deadly time bombs that is ticking
  away less than 2 hours from New York City.A call to urgently close down
  Indian Point sooner rather than later.
  AND...
  Keep Lucas Heights Opal reactor closed.
  Decommission all old nuclear reactors as soon as possible.
  No new reactors and waste dumps on Aboriginal communities

  URANIUM leave it in the ground.

  Could you pass on message to the rally?

  I will be in my costume with flags set up and my sign.

  "NUCLEAR POWER A DEAD END"

  Please let others know

  Your in solidarity

  Benny Zable

  __________________________________________________________
  Advertisement: Make shopping exciting. Find what you want at www.eBay.com.au
 
http://a.ninemsn.com.au/b.aspx?URL=http%3A%2F%2Frover%2Eebay%2Ecom%2Frover%2F1%2\
F705%2D10129%2D5668%2D323%2F4%2F%3Fid%3D6&_t=763807330&_r=email_taglines_EBAY&_m\
=EXT






---------------------------------
Yahoo!7 Mail has just got even bigger and better with unlimited storage on all
webmail accounts. Find out more.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

>From: "robin taubenfeld" <robintaubenfeld@...>
>To: bennyzable@...
>Subject: Re: Courier Mail peace convergence feature
>Date: Sat, 04 Aug 2007 17:54:28 +1000
>
>Hey Benny,
>A beautiful full cover picture of you was printed on today's Q News
>magazine supplement to the Courier Mail.  The article is mixed but the
>photos - especially the cover is GREAT!!!  I will save you a couple of
>copies.    Well done.  It is great media for the campaign!
>
>peace n love,
>robin

Dear All

I and American activists friends will be outside the Indian Point nuclear
power plant over Sunday and Monday to co-insides with Australian Hiroshima
Day rallies.

<http://greennuclearbutterfly.blogspot.com/2007/07/benny-zable-indian-point-over\
night.html>

This action is to bring attention to the deadly time bombs that is ticking
away less than 2 hours from New York City.A call to urgently close down
Indian Point sooner rather than later.
AND...
Keep Lucas Heights Opal reactor closed.
Decommission all old nuclear reactors as soon as possible.
No new reactors and waste dumps on Aboriginal communities

URANIUM leave it in the ground.

Could you pass on message to the rally?


I will be in my costume with flags set up and my sign.


"NUCLEAR POWER A DEAD END"

Please let others know

Your in solidarity

Benny Zable

_________________________________________________________________
Advertisement: Make shopping exciting. Find what you want at www.eBay.com.au
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>From: Remy Chevalier <remyc@...>
>To: ETList <ETList@yahoogroups.com>, CTSOS <ctsos@yahoogroups.com>, LuMag
>List <LuMag@yahoogroups.com>
>Subject: Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free
>Date: Thu, 02 Aug 2007 11:33:24 -0400
>
>RELEASE DATE: July 30, 2007
>http://www.ieer.org/carbonfree/pressrelease.html
>CONTACT: Julie R. Enszer, NPRI, 202/822-9800 or Arjun Makhijani,
>301/270-5500
>
>
>P R E S S    R E L E A S E
>Landmark Energy Policy Study Points the Way to U.S. Energy Future without
>Fossil Fuels or Nuclear Power
>
>Protecting Climate Will Require Essentially Complete Elimination of U.S.
>Carbon Dioxide Emissions by 2050
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------\
-
>
>Takoma Park, MD - At the G-8 summit in Germany in June 2007, President Bush
>promised to "consider seriously" the European Union goal of cutting
>greenhouse gas emissions sufficiently to limit global temperature rise to
>about 4 degrees Fahrenheit. A new study concludes that the United States
>could eliminate almost all of its carbon dioxide emissions by the year
>2050. It also concludes that it is possible to do so without the use of
>nuclear power. The landmark study, Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap
>for U.S. Energy Policy, was produced as a joint project of the Nuclear
>Policy Research Institute and the Institute for Energy and Environmental
>Research.
>"A technological revolution has been brewing in the last few years, so it
>won't cost an arm and a leg to eliminate both CO2 emissions and nuclear
>power," said Dr. Arjun Makhijani, author of the study and president of the
>Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. "We can solve the problems
>of oil imports, nuclear proliferation as it is linked to nuclear power, and
>carbon dioxide emissions simultaneously if we are bold enough."
>
>The "Roadmap" concludes that the United States can achieve a zero-CO2
>economy without increasing the fraction of Gross Domestic Product devoted
>to lighting, heating, cooling, transportation, and all the other things for
>which we use energy. The fraction was about 8 percent in 2005. Net U.S. oil
>imports can be eliminated in about twenty-five years or less, the study
>estimated.
>
>"The climate crisis has put the earth in the intensive care unit," said Dr.
>Helen Caldicott, President of NPRI and a physician who has long advocated
>elimination of nuclear weapons and nuclear power. "We must respond to this
>acute clinical crisis and act today to save the planet, without resorting
>to nuclear power, which will aggravate our problems. Dr. Makhijani's report
>is essential reading for all who care about our future."
>
>The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated that a global
>reduction of 50 to 85 percent in CO2 emissions is needed to limit the
>temperature rise to less than about 4 degrees Fahrenheit. If emissions are
>allocated equitably, in view of the greater historical and present
>emissions of the United States and other Western countries, the Roadmap
>estimates that the United States will have to eliminate 88 to 96 percent of
>its CO2 emissions. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
>Change, a treaty that the United States has ratified, places a greater
>responsibility on developed countries to reduce their emissions in view of
>historical and present inequities.
>
>According to the Roadmap, North Dakota, Texas, Kansas, South Dakota,
>Montana, and Nebraska each have wind energy potential greater than the
>electricity produced by all 103 U.S. commercial nuclear power plants. Solar
>energy is even more abundant - solar cells installed on rooftops and over
>parking lots can provide most of the U.S. electricity supply. Recent
>advances in lithium-ion batteries are likely to make plug-in hybrid cars
>economical in the next few years.
>
>"Plug-in hybrids should become the standard-issue car for governments and
>corporations in the next five years. That demand will make prices come down
>to the point that it can become the standard car design in the next
>decade," said S. David Freeman, President, Los Angeles Board of Harbor
>Commissioners and former chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority. "The
>health benefits of eliminating fossil fuels and greatly reducing urban air
>pollution will be immense. Dr. Makhijani's study also shines a light on how
>we can liberate our foreign policy from oil imports."
>
>Mr. Freeman was the Director of the Energy Policy Project of the Ford
>Foundation at the time of the Arab oil embargo in 1973. That project's
>report (A Time to Choose: America's Energy Future), which he, Dr.
>Makhijani, and others co-authored, became the foundation of U.S. energy
>policy in the mid- to late-1970s.
>
>"What is really innovative about this Roadmap is that it combines
>technologies to show how to create a reliable electricity and energy system
>entirely from renewable sources of energy," said Dr. Hisham Zerriffi, Ivan
>Head South/North Chair at the University of British Columbia and an expert
>on distributed electricity grids. "The United States must take action now
>in order to lead and this Roadmap lays out specific steps that it should
>take. The study is also remarkable in that it provides backup plans and
>recommends redundancies that are important for avoiding major missteps on
>the road to an economy without zero-CO2 emissions."
>
>The study recommends an elimination of subsidies for nuclear power and
>fossil fuels, and also for biofuels like ethanol when they are made from
>food crops.
>
>"Ethanol from corn is inefficient and, at best, has only a marginal effect
>on reducing greenhouse gas emissions" said Dr. Makhijani. "Even at current
>production levels it is causing inflation in food prices in the United
>States and hardship for the poor in Mexico and other countries. Biofuels
>can be made much more efficiently, for instance from microalgae, on land
>not useful for food."
>
>The study recommends a "hard cap" on CO2 emissions by large fossil fuel
>users (more than 100 billion Btu per year). The cap would be reduced each
>year until it reaches zero in 30 to 50 years. There would be no free
>emissions allowances, no international trade of allowances, and no offsets
>that would allow corporations to emit CO2 by investing in outside projects
>to reduce emissions. The emissions of smaller users would be reduced by
>efficiency standards for appliances, cars, homes, and commercial buildings.
>
>Copies of the 23-page executive summary of the report are available at
>www.ieer.org/carbonfree. The full study will be available for download in
>August 2007. It will be published as a book by RDR Books in the fall of
>2007.

_________________________________________________________________
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