Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Blog

Richard Ness to Sue New York Times Journalist

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“Today, May 15, at 11:00 am in the District Court of Central Jakarta, Dad’s Legal Counsels filed a civil claim against Jane Perlez and the New York Times Company. While talking to my Dad [Richard Ness] yesterday, I asked what prompted him to take this legal action. His response was simple:

“I have watched people in the Buyat community have their livelihoods destroyed. I have seen my friends and colleagues humiliated, questioned and detained by the police, while their wives and children were scared and embarrassed. I have seen my wife and family impacted by all the negative publicity. When I was summoned by the police who intended to arrest me, I had to reassure my wife and tell her, “Honey you have to trust me, I will be back home at some point and rest assured that we have done nothing wrong, we need to face the problem, be strong and we will get through this because truth is on our side”.

I have been accused of harming and causing the death of children, of polluting a bay by my inaction and of causing the devastation of an entire community. While in reality, I and my people had not done any wrong, the waters of Buyat bay were not polluted – in fact the criminal case brought out the facts that the Buyat waters are pristine, the fish in the bay are excellent and abundant, and the people of the region were not harmed by our operations. Yes, it did take 33 months to get the first court ruling in our favor but it’s not over yet. Over the past two and a half years we were reacting and responding to the unfair accusations leveled against us but it may now be our turn to take some action”

Read the rest of the blog post by Eric Ness here: http://www.richardness.org/link.php?link=2&id=69

And here’s a picture of me snorkling at the beautiful Buyat bay a month or so ago.

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I am writing a book on the saga – on the campaign to jail Richard Ness.

Government Ban on GM to ‘Expire’ in Victoria

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“Victorian farmers have welcomed reports that the Victorian Government will give farmers the choice to grow genetically modified crops, effectively breaking ranks with other Labor states that have imposed moratoria on GM production.

“According to The Age, sources close to Premier Steve Bracks say the government is satisfied there is almost zero risk associated with GM crops and the ban “will be allowed to expire next year”.

Read the complete article at Farm Online: http://www.farmonline.com.au/news_daily.asp?ag_id=42448

Zimbabwe to Head UN Sustainability Program: What Where They Thinking?

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It says much about the state of African politics, and the credibility of the United Nations (UN), that Francis Nhema, Zimbabwe’s minister for environment and tourism, was elected last Saturday to head the UN Commission on Sustainable Development.

Evidently it doesn’t matter that Nhema belongs to a government that has effectively destroyed the agricultural base of a once proud farming nation.

When I visited in 1991, Zimbabwe also had huge and healthy elephant population and well managed national parks.

I don’t know how the elephant population is holding-up, but there is apparently an acute food shortage now, rationing of electricity, and official inflation is running at about 2,200 percent annually.

If the UN Commission needed to be headed by an African – I might have nominated someone from South Africa. What were the Africans thinking when they nominated Nhema from Zimbabwe?

I’ve Been Visiting The Murray Mouth, And

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I know the dams at the top of the Murray River are very low, but there is still water in the lower reaches of the system.

Today I visited the so-called Murray Mouth which is part of the Coorong National Park.

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We then drove around the western perimeter of the huge estaurine lake system.

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While the national consensus appears to be that some sort of catastrophe is about to befall this region — interestingly there are new housing developments and new olive orchards and more…

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Crossed the ferry at Wellington – what I think is the real Murray mouth.

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And there was also water in the river a bit upstream of Wellington.

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I’ll be back in Brisbane tomorrow. And many thanks to Phil Sawyer for a great few days in South Australia.

I’ve Been Visiting Port Lincoln, And

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I’ve spent the last couple of days with Phil Sawyer visiting Port Lincoln and other interesting places at the tip of the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia.

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They have had a bit of rain.

We drove down to Sleaford Bay on Friday.

Its a rugged landscape.

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Some of the first settlers were whalers.

Here’s a 300 kg bubber pot once used by Sleaford Bay whalers to extract oil.

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More recently Port Lincoln residents have got rich fatten tuna for Japanese markets.

These pilchard will be fed to tuna that are held in cages in the sea to the south of Port Lincoln.

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Prawn trawlers, abalone and crayfish fishermen still operate out of Port Lincoln. I watched a procession of about 20 prawn trawlers leave the harbour Friday night. They will be out for 11 days.

This is a photograph of some of the rigging on the boats in the afternoon, before they departed.

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The Mayor suggested to me yesterday that Port Lincoln would be a good place for a wind-powered desalination plant.

There are already wind turbines in the area. This picture was taken yesterday from Coffin Bay National Park looking south.

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Ben-Peter Terpstra on TIME with Gore

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“TIME Magazine believes that Gore and “global warming” sermons are a great combination. That’s why their environmental doctrines are so very bizarre, I guess.

How bizarre? Try reading TIME Magazine’s “Global Warming Survival Guide” dated, April 9, 2007, and the “51 Things You Can Do to Make a Difference”.

Rule 26: “Plant a bamboo fence”, because it feels good?

Unprecedented levels of idiocy aside, there’s plenty to laugh about. Indeed, I was so moved by the weirdness of it all that I wrote to TIME:

Your comically unbalanced cover story on “global warming” reminded me of why, I, for one, am not a believer. “If droughts and wildfires, floods and crop failures … and the images of drowning polar bears didn’t quiet most of the remaining global-warming doubters,” claimed the hysterical Jeffrey Kluger, “the hurricane-drive destruction of New Orleans did”. Actually, it didn’t. Many scientists have said to blame Hurricane Katrina on global warming is absurd. In Australia’s case, we have had more devastating droughts before. As for “wildfires”, these have more to do with arson than global warming. Could TIME please consider the other side of the story?

My letter, to the editor’s credit, appeared in TIME’s Inbox section under the subheading “Global Hysterics?”

But what really made me laugh was the fact I had to remove my magazine from its plastic wrapper to read the damn thing. (States Rule 24: “Just say no to plastic bags”.)

Meanwhile even the politicised United Nations freely concedes crop harvests are booming. Just analyse the satellite images. TIME must employ lazy reporters.

Read the complete article here: http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=5825