Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

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Coal Ash Disaster in Tennessee

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A dam wall burst releasing more than a billion gallons of coal ash in East Tennessee just before Christmas on December 22.    The gray sludge apparently now covers over 300 acres and has destroyed three homes.   Interestingly the spill has been blamed on cold weather and above-normal rains (see MSNBC news report).    

In the US and Australia coal ash, also known as fly ash, is captured at power stations and generally stored as a sludge while in many parts of the developing world it escapes through the chimney and contributes significantly to air pollution.   [Read more…] about Coal Ash Disaster in Tennessee

Happy in the New Year

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It’s that time of year when there is much wishing one another a “Happy New Year”. 

But how does one become “happy”?

According to the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus the path to happiness requires just three things: friends, freedom and thought (an analysed life).*  

Epicurus is also associated with the early development of the scientific method insisting that nothing should be believed except that which is tested through direct observation and logical deduction.

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*from the DVD ‘Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness’ by Alain de Bottom http://www.alaindebotton.com/philosophy.asp

Photograph of rocks at Alexandra Bay, Noosa National Park, Australia, taken in November 2008 by Jennifer Marohasy.

Finalists for The 2008 Weblog Awards have been announced

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 There were over 5,000 nomination for us to sort through and visit, and it was a very difficult task. When the process pushed the potential voting dates too close to Christmas we made the decision to hold off voting until after the New Year.

 

From all of the nominations we have selected nearly 500 finalists in

48 categories. The full list of finalists is here:

 

http://2008.weblogawards.org/site-news/2008-weblog-awards-finalists/

 

[JenniferMarohasy.com/blog has made it into the finals in the online community category!!]

 

Finalist badges will be available Wednesday. Voting is scheduled to begin January 5.

 

Thank you for participating and spreading the word!

 

_______________________________

Kevin Aylward

The Weblog Awards <http://weblogawards.org/> 

No ‘Happy New Year’ for Koalas in the Central Murray Valley

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THE Victorian Premier, John Brumby, has waited until New Year’s Eve to announce the end of timber harvesting and grazing in 83,000 hectares of red gum forest in the Central Murray Valley in north western Victoria, Australia.

The creation of new national parks was a 2006 election promise to secure inner-city votes but is based on a lie – on the false belief that by declaring an area a national park you can somehow “save it”. 

In reality the red gums of the mid-Murray need water and thinning and a national park declaration will achieve neither.    The national park declaration will simply increase the risk of wild fires and the death of koalas.

The Rivers and Red Gum Alliance, representing local forest users, provided the government with a well research plan whereby 104,000 hectares could be managed under the principles of the internationally recognised Ramsar convention.  

As Peter Newman, chairman of the Alliance, explained yesterday, “The forests exist in a highly modified landscape surrounded by farmland and need active management to maintain forest health.  This includes fuel reduction through controlled grazing and thinning of the red gum trees to keep the forest open and in a healthy state.” 

[Read more…] about No ‘Happy New Year’ for Koalas in the Central Murray Valley

Dishonest Advertising on the ETS: AEF Media Release

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GetUp’s global warming television ads (to air today) are dishonest and inaccurate, according to Dr Jennifer Marohasy, Chair of the Australian Environment Foundation.

“For all sorts of reasons a number of groups, of which Internet campaigners GetUp.org.au are one, are pretending that the Rudd Government’s proposed Emissions Trading Scheme is a minor 5 to15 percent adjustment to our way of life”.

“In fact, the government’s ETS will reduce the amount of energy available to every man; woman and child currently living in the country by an extraordinary 35 percent, absent the discovery and implementation of an unknown source of carbon free energy in the next ten years”.

Dr Marohasy said that this would be the equivalent of closing down all of Australia’s manufacturing and half its rural industries.

[Read more…] about Dishonest Advertising on the ETS: AEF Media Release

‘Steve Irwin’ Attacks Japanese Whalers

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LAST night in The Southern Ocean, anti-whaling campaigners aboard The Steve Irwin rammed the Kaiko Maru from the starboard rear side.

According to the Japanese whalers:

The incident occurred when the Kaiko Maru was undertaking a detour in the ice pack area after completing the day’s research activities. The weather had deteriorated and fog had reduced visibility conditions to about 500m.

The Steve Irwin approached the Kaiko Maru from the starboard rear side and within two minutes the protesters aboard started throwing bottles, approximately 15 bottles of butyric acid.

After the ramming, the Dutch vessel pursued, repeatedly overtook and menacingly turned around the Kaiko Maru for approximately three hours, and thereafter changed course to the east where it disappeared from the Kaiko Maru radar.

I recently critiqued some of the campaigns against whaling, in particular the campaign in Albany, Western Australia, in the late 1970s, in an article* entitled ‘Imposing our preferences on whaling cultures’.  In the same article I ask whether the last whaling cultures will survive.

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Photos via the Institute of Cetacean Research, Tokyo

* ‘Imposing our preferences on whaling cultures’ by Jennifer Marohasy, IPA Review, Vol 60/5, November 2008, pgs 39-41. http://www.ipa.org.au/library/publication/1229552555_document_60_5-distro.pdf (after clicking on the link, scroll down to page 39).