Watched '4 Corners' last week. Even though its been over 10 days since it screened, I still feel strongly enough to comment about it.
Basically it shows Senator Penny Wong (the Minister for Climate Change & Water?) in both an uncaring and incompetent light at the same time. That's a combination you don't often see together!
One of her statement basically summed up the feel of the story. In plan English, she effectively said, 'My job isn't to fix the Murray/Darling, it to buy water'. A telling comment. A typical pollies comment and it show a major and chronic source of political problems. The partial quiet fixed. Fix a problem to get by for now, but level a system with at least one fundamental flaw that will be lead to crisis somewhere in the future (hopefully more the 3 or 4 years in the future).
Gnoll110
Showing posts with label canberra. Show all posts
Showing posts with label canberra. Show all posts
Friday, October 31, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Tale of Three Cities
Last week a bit of publicly funded propaganda arrived in my mail box.
The one thing struck me in the ‘Budget Highlights 2008-2009’ was that the ACT Labor government is fond of trees. Indeed is seems to be the only tool in their climate change toolbox.
Here are the climate change dot points by town area.
Belconnen:
Additional tree plantings – Lake Ginninderra.
Canberra Central:
$0.267 million for Tree Replacement Program – Inner South and Inner North.
$0.250 million for Additional Tree Plantings at Lake Burley Griffin.
Gungahlin:
Additional tree plantings at Gungahlin.
Tuggeranong:
Additional tree plantings at Lake Tuggeranong.
Woden, Weston Creek and Molonglo:
$10.6 million for One Million Trees Initiative – Canberra International Arboretum and Gardens.
I’ve always said that renewable energy programs are a far better investment, than the knee jerk ‘plant trees’ response, for building a sustainable climate future.
Given the twists and turns in the Tuggeranong Power Station project, maybe it’s time for another approach.
Canberra hosts the Australian Federal Parliament. Lets look at the city that hosts the mother parliament; London.
The last Lord Mayor of London, Ken Livingston, set in motion a plan to make the city far most sustainable. The new Lord Mayor has undertaken to continue this drive.
What was the first thing that London did, it poached the guy that had the most foresight and experience with this kind of infrastructure redevelopment. They made Allan Jones, the energy services manager for Woking, an offer he couldn’t refuse. Over the last 20 years, he has nudged and lead the development and integration of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems and other efficient decentralized developments into the infrastructure of the English city.
Stuff about Woking and London.
Woking is a city of 60,000, a good match for the basic units of Canberra’s development, the towns.
This work doesn’t come cheap. Anyone who says fixing climate change will cost a household $200 a years in extra costs is dreaming, deluded or a con man.
Gnoll110
The one thing struck me in the ‘Budget Highlights 2008-2009’ was that the ACT Labor government is fond of trees. Indeed is seems to be the only tool in their climate change toolbox.
Here are the climate change dot points by town area.
Belconnen:
Additional tree plantings – Lake Ginninderra.
Canberra Central:
$0.267 million for Tree Replacement Program – Inner South and Inner North.
$0.250 million for Additional Tree Plantings at Lake Burley Griffin.
Gungahlin:
Additional tree plantings at Gungahlin.
Tuggeranong:
Additional tree plantings at Lake Tuggeranong.
Woden, Weston Creek and Molonglo:
$10.6 million for One Million Trees Initiative – Canberra International Arboretum and Gardens.
I’ve always said that renewable energy programs are a far better investment, than the knee jerk ‘plant trees’ response, for building a sustainable climate future.
Given the twists and turns in the Tuggeranong Power Station project, maybe it’s time for another approach.
Canberra hosts the Australian Federal Parliament. Lets look at the city that hosts the mother parliament; London.
The last Lord Mayor of London, Ken Livingston, set in motion a plan to make the city far most sustainable. The new Lord Mayor has undertaken to continue this drive.
What was the first thing that London did, it poached the guy that had the most foresight and experience with this kind of infrastructure redevelopment. They made Allan Jones, the energy services manager for Woking, an offer he couldn’t refuse. Over the last 20 years, he has nudged and lead the development and integration of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems and other efficient decentralized developments into the infrastructure of the English city.
Stuff about Woking and London.
Woking is a city of 60,000, a good match for the basic units of Canberra’s development, the towns.
This work doesn’t come cheap. Anyone who says fixing climate change will cost a household $200 a years in extra costs is dreaming, deluded or a con man.
Gnoll110
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