(We) can do better

With The Final Energy Crisis, the editor, Energy and Population Sociologist Sheila Newman, gives us the opportunity to examine the theory, measurement, history and future of fossil-fuel depletion within a social paradigm where thermodynamics is the primary social constraint. This is 'applied peak-oil' - a multi-authored, but tightly integrated, collection of social and physical science writing, where the authors test the strength of the hypothesis that industrialised society faces an imminent energy crisis which will bring civilization as we know it to an end.

Those who have accepted the necessity of the current fire sale of NSW government assets and the recent "slash and burn" budget, which is taking that state into recession, may be amazed to learn of the staggering blow-out in the costs of the World Youth Day celebrations held in Sydney in July 2008. In addition the Minister for State Development is prepared to bill NSW taxpayers up to $AU86million over three years to pay for planned V8 supercar races to be held at Olympic Park.

See also: NSW Electricity Privatisation, "Youth day ran $100m over budget" in SMH of 27 Nov 08 and more subdued reporting in "World Youth Day bill $100m over budget" in the Australian of 26 Nov 08 , NSW Auditor-General's World Youth Day Report (pdf, 45K)
"Why the V8 Supercars will be taxpayer-injected" in SMH of 29 Sep 08, "O'Farrell vows to restore free travel" on the ABC on 13 Nov 08, "Say no to v8 supercar racing at Olympic Park" on Lee Rhiannon's website, Parliamantary debate of V8 Supercar Races at Sydney Olympic Park of 24 Nov 08

Clearly we are at an early stage of globalisation. Only the seven plagues are globalised: mafias, commerce, robbery, exploitation, subordination of women, ransacking of natural resources and planetary poisoning… Here economics are based on the simplest of rules: work travels to wherever it costs less. (Lire la version française)

David Ray Griffin has been writing groundbreaking, compelling research guides rebutting the official 9/11 narrative since 2004, when he first published "The New Pearl Harbor." This review in Publishers Weekly is an exciting and welcome acknowledgment, finally, of his important work.

Original posted to www.911truth.org

Snow Manners, a leader of the successful 2006 Toowoomba community campaign to defeat a plan to force them to drink recycled sewage, warned Queenslanders not to be fooled by Queensland Premier Anna Bligh's apparent backflip on her Government's plans to impose recycled sewage aon all of south East Queensland.

See also: Bligh backflip on water recycling; Traveston dam delayed of 25 Nov 08.

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

Captain Paul Watson describes apparent deliberate hampering by the Australian Government of the efforts of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to have its ship the Steve Irwin docked and overhauled in Australia. Last whaling season the Steve Irwin succeeded in preventing the Japanese whalers from achieving half of their intended quota whilst the diplomatic efforts of the Australian Government, which places its trading relations with Japan above the enforcement of international law against the killing of endangered whales, achieved nothing.

This editorial was originally published as "The Politics of Pretending to Save the Whales" on 19 Nov 08 on www.seashepherd.org. See also: "Captain Paul Watson Responds to Greenpeace Quotes in International Herald Tribune" of 21 Nov 08, "In Battle Against Whaling, Groups Split on Strategy" in NYT of 22 Nov 08, "Daryl Hannah Joins Sea Shepherd Crew To Fight Japanese Whaling Fleet" in ecorazzi of 22 Nov 08.

Recently released Freedom of Information (FOI) files reveal that senior Queensland State Government Departments are working behind the scenes to give hundreds of hectares of prime ocean-front public lands to a Rainbow Beach developer in return for land no longer suitable for development, because of erosion and climate change.

Thousands of animals are attacked each year. Peanut was more than someone's property. Criminals of this level should lose their human rights. "Mental illness" is not an excuse. We are sliding down a vortex of evil and permissiveness. There needs to be more laws to protect the vulnerable in our society.

Merilyn Haines, spokesperson person for Queenslanders For Safe Water questioned Queensland Premier Anna Bligh's apparent stated intention to fill to capacity the Wivenhoe Dam, which was built, not as water storage dam, but as a flood minitagation dam following the catastrophic Brisbane floods of 1974.

Merilyn Haines will be standing as an independent candidate against Anna Bligh in her seat of South Brisbane at the next state elections.

In an effort to silence residents with difficult questions, Western Australia's Cockburn Council routinely limits question time and threatens residents who defy these limits with AU$1,000 fines. The Mayor, Stephen Lee, is now on extended leave after the Crime Commission had found him guilty of misconduct for having accepted an undeclared election campaign donation of AU$43,000 from the Singapore-controlled developer Australand, which wanted to build the controversial Port Coogee Marina.

See also: Postscript: Cockburn Councillors threaten to use ratepayer funds to sue residents, Appendix: Cockburn Community advertisement of 18 Nov 08

The Australian Companies Institute (Ausbuy) is a not-for-profit, non-political organisation that encourages Australians to support Australian owned and made products and services. The organisation also aims to create awareness about the sell-off of Australian icons and brands to overseas interests.

Canada's Green Party is the quintessential Green Party. Still my nominee for the world's most idiotic of parties. So what ever you do, don't accuse me of being ethnocentric. New Zealand Green Party, would you please send missionaries to the frozen north and teach our Greens some holistic thinking please? A simple incantation of IPAT, IPAT, IPAT might do the trick to deprogramme our Greenies from their Monbiotist trance.

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:

Norm Smith, who stood as an anti-growth grass-roots candidate for Mayor of Chilliwack, in elections held on 15 November, warns that Chilliwack faces a water crisis as growth and overdevelopment, encouraged by the City of Chilliwick, dangerously depletes the Sardis-Vedder Aquifer, one of the rare pristine water sources in Canada that requires no chlorination.

Internet users are face with the technological equivalent of Australia Post being required to open every one of their letters if the Federal Government's proposed mandatory Internet Filtering legisltation becomes law. It will slow down internet access speeds and is opposed by the industry and internet users alike.

See also: "Filtering out the fury: how government tried to gag web censor critics" in the SMH of 24 Oct 08, "Filtering Pilot and ACMA Blacklist - Not just 'illegal' material" on Electronic Frontiers Australia on 15 Nov 08, "Net censorship plan backlash" in the Age of 11 Nov 08, YouTube broadcast of Senator Scott Ludlum questioning Communications Minister Senator Stephen Conroy about the planned censorship, "Winning the war against Internet censorship" by David Jackmanson on Online Opinion of 17 Nov 08, Online Opinion Forum "What's happening about the internet censor?" of 13 Nov 08, "Australia Joins China In Censoring The Internet" on TechCrunch of 30 Dec 07, www.scottludlam.org.au

A new report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) demonstrates why Georgia has taken a lead in adopting state-based policies to control the costs of illegal immigration. - 24 Oct 08

See also: "Costs of Illegal Immigration to Georgians", full pdf report (460K).

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

Whilst the accelerating influx of legal of legal and illegal immigrants in recent years has corrupted America's democratic institutions and has undermined its environmental movement, there are, nevertheless, reasons to be hopeful that the cause of population stability in the United States may prevail, writes Leon Kolankiewicz in response to Tim Murray's "Is it game over for immigration reformers in America?". Leon is a fluent Spanish speaker.

Based on then ground-breaking modelling, the forecasts of global ecological and economic collapse by mid-century contained in the controversial 1972 book; The Limits to Growth, are still ‘on-track’."

It now seems these sacrifices were in vain, because in Queensland our present government is a dictatorship. One person, Anna Bligh, forcibly medicates us through our water supply with fluoride chemicals and we shall have water that has been sourced from sewerage whether we like it or not.

Queenslanders Against Water Fluoridation media release

What you can do: attend public meeting
Date: Saturday, 15th Nov, 2pm–5pm,at Ahimsa House, 26 Horan St, West End, Brisbane

While Ecological Footprint Analysis was a groundbreaking attempt to assess the impact of the combination of human populations with given consumption levels, intuitively I thought something was amiss. The Global Footprint Network assessment of Canada's carrying capacity seemed wildly overstated and not consistent with the observations of Canadians on the frontline of ecological damage. Well it appears our misgivings are right. There is a new kid on the block. "Societal Overextension Analysis" offers a more comprehensive picture of overshoot than EFA.