This book paints a picture of the ecological mechanics of this continent, using clear, concise prose. It is a painlessly educative book. The bold claim of its subtitle, "How Australia's landscape can be saved," stands up to scrutiny.

Take a new look at thistles, dock plants and other hardy weeds. Enjoy trialling the author's theories in your neglected front garden or replot your broadacre farm. Re-examine the cause of total re-nativisation in the light of galloping desertification. Peter maintains that his simple hydrological theory holds true for the entire continent. He re-interprets the history of this land; he may well be right.

Pinter won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2005. Here are some exerpts from his searing denunciation of United States realpolitik in his Nobel Prize speech. Really worth reading...

Investing in water for the suburban home-owner; turning overpopulation to profit; growing your water capital. Water and democracy. Water and suburban conflict. Plumbing negotiations.

Are you awake yet, Australia? We are losing all our rights to developer lobbying. Concerned residents sat in amazement last night as Penrith Council voted to condemn hundreds of hectares of Cumberland Plain Woodland which NSW Scientists claim is verging on extinction. Council voted 14/15 to enter into a Planning Agreement with developer Delfin Lend Lease to build 3500 houses and clear approx 300 ha of Cumberland Plain Woodland from the ADI Site. Spokesman for ADI Residents Action Group alleges undeclared vested interest among council members.

Australian governments constantly pretend that no-one could see what was coming, but it was all eminently predictable and they had a hand in bringing about Australia's parlous and desperate ecological situation, simply by pushing population growth.

Leading academics and community representatives will provide responses to the Victorian Transport Plan at a forum to be held by the GAMUT Centre at the University of Melbourne.

Spokespeople for Royal Park Protection Group Inc. (RPPG) have called the deletion of the East West road tunnel and freeway from the Brumby Victorian Transport Plan, a win for commonsense and the common people and said that even the Zoo animals can breathe easy now that a tunnel won’t be constructed next to their home. See also upcoming forum 10 December: What will the Brumby Transport Plan mean for Melbourne?"

Sounds good but ... The Victorian State of the Environment Report 2008 says that the future cannot be an extension of the past; Australia’s total material requirements more than twice other OECD countries'; Victoria's population growth major driver of environmental degradation. But, go to the end to see that this Report intends to reduce 'consumers' [what happened to 'citizens'?] rights, space and living standards "while also taking advantage of the huge business opportunities presented" by Victoria "Growing Together".

Brumby's parliament is a circus of Dorothy Dixers and false positives. He shows no remorse for the pain and loss his policies have inflicted on Victoria. Reading his words one is reminded of some little emperor in the last days of Rome.

"The property developers are self serving and the government is reprehensible in catering to their greed by pushing for greater and greater population growth. They thumb their noses at the rest of us and treat wildlife whose habitat gets destroyed with total disdain."

How will Government stop tech tools like proxies, Virtual Private Networks, the Tor service and encryption from circumventing this filtering regime without compromising the ability of Australian businesses and residents to do business on-line safely and securely?

Sen. Conroy, Seems it isn't true that the United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden, Norway, New Zealand and Finland were trialling or already using mandatory internet 'filters' to prevent people from freely reading on subjects deemed illegal, such as euthanasia, as well as attacking child-pornography.

In 1995, when John Brumby was in opposition, he made a very stirring speech at a forest rally in Melbourne. "... that's what we'll do when we're in government - no more export woodchipping, an industry in the future based on plantations and the proper protection of our high conservation value forests." Unfortunately, it was not true.

Hear Dr. Leigh Glover, Assistant Director of the Centre for the Governance and Management of Urban Transport (GAMUT) Melbourne University on “Sustainable Transport for Melbourne,” Wednesday 3 December

Melbourne Tunnels Protests in Melbourne are gathering, not losing, steam as suburban groups organise under bigger groups. Report:
See also article on Tunnels-shareholder liabilities: Dodgy connections in BrisConnections

Courageous Australian Green Senator, Bob Brown, defies the consensus of oppression and makes history by calling members of the growth-mad Australian parliament to vote for a population policy which would take into account world projections, current resource consumption, climate change, Australia's inability to host exponential population growth, and the well-being of future generations and life on earth.

On Wednesday 5 November 2008, I attended a community cabinet at Launceston, where I asked Kevin Rudd when he was going to get realistic about population and economic growth. Report by Catherine Case:

Victoria: Recent success challenging the Councils gag-bill must be followed up by replacing as many of the current councillors as possible who have not otherwise shown their merit. Here is Planning Backlash's list of recommended candidates and links to other lists:

This page will be updated as new election info comes in.
*Just in* Mornington Peninsula Council: Peter Holloway, Kangerong Ward

See also: "East Ward: Is Morabito The Missing Man?" of 16 Nov 08 - the Macedon Ranges Residents Association warns voters of one candidate's undeclared links with the sham residents' association, the MRRS, "Undermining local democracy: Macedon Ranges: Pork Barelling and other forms of Influence" of 17 Jul 08

What has happened to us that we have to get children to express our deepest values and concerns because we have been conditioned to repress them for political reasons?
(Pic:Gavin Jennings, Victorian Min Environment)

Brown Mountain Crisis: Rendezvous on the steps of Parliament in Spring Street in the City at 12 noon.
"The trees loggers are cutting down on Brown Mountain are immense. If one of them stood in your kitchen, it would burst out of the walls. All are agreed that trees in the “Valley of the Giants” forest in East Gippsland are irreplaceable and should never be touched." Julianne Bell

Shouldn't the Canberra Times label as advertising the regular piece by the Property Council of Australia's executive director, Catherine Carter? Isn't there some legal requirement to do so? (Article by Mark O'Connor)

(Photo of Mary Drost)
The Brumby Government tried to undermine this crucial Melbourne Rally and to avoid criticism by announcing they were modifying their offensive Bill, so the mainstream journalists stayed away. But the alternative press is growing and we will not fall for such simple ploys.

Last night's Four Corners report revealed staggering ignorance and/or greed at the heart of the Murray-Darling crisis: in politicians and water-users alike.

State government data pertaining to kangaroo densities across the Kangaroo Management Zones, shows that kangaroos are now 'quasi extinct' across most of NSW, South Australia and Queensland. video

See also: Open letter to Gavin Jennings regarding the stranded kangaroos at Mill Park and South Morang of 24 Oct 08

"VCAT unelected, unaccountable and system has lost all respect from community." VCAT is Victoria's Civil and Administrative Tribunal. (Australia)

Led by State Government Policy, VCAT has been a force for injustice on matters of democracy, population and planning for years. Join other Victorian Community Groups to talk with VCAT.

Concerned about environment, water, democracy?

Hubbert's USD peak? Can the October 08 global market crash be linked to oil prices, oil depletion or peak oil?

Humans live in and from the biosphere. But in the first decade of the 21st Century, 85 percent of the primary energy consumed by the 6.7 billion humans comes from the lithosphere.