Australians have moved beyond a people's consensus

Arch Bevis
Member for Brisbane

Dear Arch,

I would like you to remind Senator Wong and Prime Minister Gillard
of the Green Cross Australia's people's assembly, addressing the
humanitarian consequences of climate-induced sea level rise in Asia
Pacific and Australia’s response. A report has already been
presented to Senator Wong on 30 August 2008.

http://www.greencrossaustralia.org/our-work/the-national-peoples-assembly.aspx

I would also like you to remind our illustrious Prime Minister
Gillard, that the Laws of Thermodynamics do not negotiate. According
to the Garnaut Review, one cannot choose a CO2 equivalent target of
450 ppm, without compromising the Murray Darling Basin and the Great
Barrier Reef. Our Prime Minister is seeking a people's consensus
without anybody to represent future generations or the other species
which share our biome.

Is the Gillard Government moving forward or just idling in neutral?

Rowan Barber
30 Normanby Terrace NORMANBY Q 4059

My request to my Federal MP to ask cabinet to undertake every action possible to halt & reverse climate change

Arch Bevis
Federal Member for Brisbane

Dear Mr Bevis,

In 2007, I celebrated like it was new year's eve, when the Labor Party won enough seats to form Government. The previous Government, led by the former Prime Minister: John Howard, failed to respond to the challenge of reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. For >10 years the former Australian Government was in denial of the need for action to address climate change.

I concede that Kevin Rudd and Penny Wong attended UN Climate Change Conference in 2009, with the best of intentions. However, in reality, there has been very little effective action internationally or domestically to address the causes and the impacts of climate change. The proposed (and since postponed) emissions trading scheme (ETS), was so compromised that it became a Carbon Pollution Rewards Scheme (CPRS).

I read in Andrew Morton's Article in the Age that cabinet will meet on Tuesday 13 July will be discussing the Federal Labor Party's policy on climate change.

As my elected representative, would you please ask Prime Minister Gillard and her cabinet, to undertake every possible action at a National and International level, to halt and reverse climate change? I still believe that Australia has a moral obligation to protect the world’s most vulnerable people from the effects of climate change.

In my humble view, action on climate change at a National level has to include a price on carbon and/or greater incentives for generators, distributors and consumers to switch from fossil fuels (including coal, crude oil and natural gas) to lower emission sources of energy. I am looking forward to the release of Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan on Wednesday the 14 July 2010.

This cutting-edge plan, the culmination of over 12 months and thousands of hours of pro bono work by engineers, scientists and postgraduate students, is a collaboration between the climate solutions think tank Beyond Zero Emissions, and the University of Melbourne Energy Institute.

This plan is unique in Australia. It is a detailed and costed blueprint for transitioning our stationary energy sector to 100% renewable energy in ten years. The technologies utilised in this plan are commercially available now. It has been put together in a collaborative way involving over 50 technical experts. The full report will be made available for the first time on 14 July 2010, free to download from the Beyond Zero Emissions website or hard copy for purchase.

http://beyondzeroemissions.org


Sincerely,

Rowan Barber
30 Normanby Terrace NORMANBY Q 4059

Rowan's questions to Lord Mayor Campbell Newman concerning the budget

Campbell Newman,
Lord Mayor
Brisbane City Council


Dear Lord Mayor,

I have been trying to make sense of your recent budget speech - http://www.thewebconsole.com/process/link.php?lId=845398&cId=1037596

I would like to commend you on initiatives like:
$895k in 2010-11 to help fund a home energy reduction program through the CitySmart, EasyGreen program in partnership with the State Government and private enterprise to assist Brisbane residents slash their power bills, reducing home energy consumption and carbon emissions.

I am particularly pleased about the allocation of $11.25 million to fund a Brisbane-wide litter prevention program including another two general maintenance "flying gangs" to boost the work being done to keep our city clean and green.

You have been particularly generous with half a million allocated for a 15 year plan to restore and rejuvenate the environment of Norman Creek.

I applaude the portion of the $1.23 billion which will go to improve public transport and make it easier for people to walk and ride around our city.

It is the estimated $1.8 billion Northern Link tunnel that has me concerned.



In light of the spectacular failure of the CLEM7 tunnel to attract the projected traffic flows (and projected revenues), would you please advise me how this would impact on the Northern Link Road tunnel project?

I understand that the CLEM7 is a public/private partnership. The risk for financial losses of the CLEM7 lies with the Rivercity Motorway Group. However, I am led to beleive that the financial risk for the Northern Link Road Tunnel rests with Brisbane City Council. Please correct me if I am wrong.

If the Northern Link tunnel fails to attract the projected traffic flows (and projected revenues) by the same margins as the CLEM7, what would be the impact on the ratepayers of Brisbane? How much would our rates increase or what community services would be cut back?

regards,

Rowan Barber

World Mayor project: The Code of ethics and the Northern Link Tunnel

Dear Lord Mayor,


As a nominee for the 2010 World Mayor Prize, are you going to sign up to the City Mayors and the World Mayor Project Code of Ethics, which were established to promote, encourage and facilitate good local government?


Article 1 states that:
Mayors shall execute the office of mayor for the common good of their communities while refraining from actions that may harm other communities or the wider world. They shall take full responsibility for any acts performed by themselves or by members of their administrations.

If you proceed with the Northern Link road tunnel it will:
harm the community of Normanby;
emit an estimated greenhouse gas emissions at 32 000 tonnes of CO2e for construction of the project;
emit an estimated annual GHG emissions for the operation of the project of18 120 tonnes CO2-e (averaged over a 12 year period from time of opening).
This will contribute to the harm of other communities and/or the wider world.

What is the legacy you wish to leave for Brisbane and the wider world?

How do you wish history to treat you and how will you be remembered?

regards,

Rowan Barber

sorry does not cut it when nothing changes

Jenny Macklin MP
Indigenous Affairs Minister

cc: Arch Bevis, Andrew Bartlett, Gregory Andrews

Dear Ms Macklin,

Today I am angry at the Australian Government.

I reflect on its broken promises to the stolen generation on closing the gap and to future generations with respect to climate inaction.

Post apology, the wrongs are still wrong.

The pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, continues.

The Australian Government has done next to nothing to heal the nation.

I express my concern at the decrease in funding for Indigenous Community Volunteers (ICV) and the impact this will have on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

I call on the Australian Government to take swift action to increase funding to support the valuable service provided by ICV.

I note that ICV is leveraging the services of Australians (such as Engineers Without Borders) who volunteer their time. I would like to emphasise that ICV is one of the few organisations working in this field that measures and reports on the impacts of its program. This means I have confidence that ICV are having a real effect.

regards,
Rowan Barber
engineer without a border and climate advocate


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On Sat, May 29, 2010 at 12:38 PM, Macklin, Jennifer (MP) wrote:

Thank you for your email, your concerns are important to me.

As I receive a large amount of emails, it can take some time to read and respond to each email.

If the matter is urgent, please contact my office 02 6277 7560.

Thank you.

Jenny Macklin.

Star Fish Tossing: the Bob Brown Greens party

PETER HARTCHER wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald on 22 May, 2010

Kevin Rudd is likely to be given a second term in power and if he is, he
will face a new phenomenon. He will be the first prime minister to confront
a Senate where the balance of power is controlled by the Greens, according
to the consensus of expert analysis.

The Rudd led, Federal Labor Government have stolen many of the policies from the former Howard Government (including climate inaction). The Abbott led coalition have moved beyond climate inaction to denial of the imperative to respond at all. The Australian Democrats appear to be extinct. Many people are turning to the Greens as an alternative choice for political representation.

Depending on who you talk to, and the circles of friends and colleagues you mix with, it seems that times couldn’t be better for the organic-sprout eating, hybrid-car driving, Fair-Trade wearing, Green politicians.

I am not currently a member of any political party. I am an ecologist. I am an environmental campaigner. I am an engineer without a border. The trouble with the Greens, moving to the mainstream and seeking popular support, they are destined to fail to achieve any real change.



As a political party, the Greens evoke the analogy of a small child, tossing star fish back into the sea. For every star fish thrown back, another 100 wash up.

When questioned about the futility of the excercise, the child gleaming, picks up a star fish, tosses it into the sea and says: "I made a difference for that one".

As a populations ecologist, observing a plague of star fish, I have to ask question at a systems level. What is the species? Are they native or translocated? What is the reason for the population explosion. What is the social, ecological and economic impacts of action (tossing) versus inaction?

My concern is that the policies that are necessary for inter and/or intra-generational equity will not be mainstream and they will not be popular.

A party who suggests a great big tax on gasoline, distilate and liquid petroleum gas is not likely to be elected. A party who suggests a phase out of the individual ownership of motor vehicles is not going to be popular. Prohibition of cows, cotton, cars and coal are not vote winners.

Is this Bohemia?
Is this the Bob Brown Greens?
Moving to the mainstream?
Has left me in redundancy
for better or worse,
Now the Human Resource is me

I'm Echinoderm
Asteriidae – my family
I’m happy here on the sand
Desiccating on dry land
How was I to know, oh?
Now I’ve been tossed back into the sea, the sea

Bummer, easy being green,
I was a stranger in strange lands
When I washed up on the sand,
Bummer, I'm too extreme,
and now I have been tossed back in the sea

Bummer, ooh
I was quite happy being dry,
Facilitating meaningful and lasting change,
Striving on, striving on: nurture culture and values..

Oh great, I’m out at sea,
Neural pulses down my plexus
Endoskeleton just flexes,
Main stream for Bob Brown's Greens,
Now I’ve been tossed
I have to learn to fly or sink or swim
Bummer, oooooooh (How was I to know?)
I don't want to fly,
Sometimes wish I'd never been spawn at all

Ocelli sense a change in touch, light and temperature
Pedicellariae, pedicellariae do you feel the current flow,
Floating in the ocean, vascular locomotion, me!
(Asterias) Asterias (Asterias) Asterias, Asterias amurensis
Eee eye, eee eye-o-o-o-o
I'm just the tossee being thrown out to sea
he's just the tossee from Asteriidae family
Spare his career from this redundancy

Easy toss, easy vote, easy being green?
Tosser! No, you are too damn extreme
being green
Tosser! No, you are too damn extreme
being green
Tosser! No, you are too damn extreme
Being green (are too extreme)
Being green (are too extreme) (ever, ever, ever, ever)
Being green, ee,ee,ee,een...
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
(Oh diarrhoea, diarrhoea) diarrhoea, being green
the QEC has a candidate for me, for me, for me!

So you think you can toss me back into the sea
So you think you can leave me in redundancy
Oh, Bob Brown Greens, can't do this to me, Bob Brown Greens
So much for policy? So much for ecology?

(Oooh yeah, Oooh yeah)

Populist policy
Not ecology,
Populist policy
Tossed away by for being extreme

How was I to know oh?....

Selling Queensland (apologies to the Boom Town Rats)

The power switch inside her head
Gets tripped on overload
And nobody’s gonna hear the truth today
She’s been convinced about clean coal
The unions don’t understand it
They always said she was from the fold
And they can see no logic
'Cos there is no logic
There is no such thing as clean coal-o-o-o-oal?

Tell me why?
I’m Selling Queensland
Tell me why?
I’m selling Queensland
Tell me why?
I’m selling Queensland
I wanna sell-ell-ell-ell-ell-ell the whole State off

The Twitter machine it starts to stream
And it tweets out to cyber space
And Beattie is so shocked
Goss’s world is rocked
And their thoughts turn to their own little State
Sweet 49, botox smoothes the lines
Now that’s a bit too old, to believe in clean coal
They can see no logic
'Cos there is no logic
What reasons do you need?
Oh Oh Oh Oh

Tell me why?
I’m Selling Queensland
Tell me why?
I’m Selling Queensland
Tell me why?
I’m Selling Queensland
I wanna sell-ell-ell-ell-ell-ell
The whole State off, off, off, sell it all off

And the mass debating's stopped in the parliament now
When there is no opposing side!
And caucus is out early and soon they'll be learning
And the lesson today is how to sell
And then the botox injections
suggest there’ll be an election
(So the Premier can keep a straight face)
And she can see no reasons
'Cos there are no reasons
What reason do you need to sell, sell?
bloody hell

Tell me why
I’m Selling Queensland
Tell me why
I’m Selling Queensland
Tell me why
I’m Selling
I’m Selling (Tell me why)
I’m Selling Queensland
Tell me why
I’m Selling
I’m Selling (Tell me why)
I’m Selling Queensland
Tell me why
I’m Selling Queensland
I wanna sell-ell-ell-ell-ell-ell the whole State off