We aren’t happy tree friends with the environment

acotrel says:

06:51am | 15/05/12

Travelling from Benalla to Melbourne by train is great.  And the free local travel the ticket allows is good.  But too bad if you want to travel to the Mornington Peninsula, round and about,  and back to your hotel in Melbourne on the same day as you trip down to town. Where Melbounee has gone with its public transport is irretrievable !

ronny jonny says:

08:39am | 15/05/12

Maybe you can invent a solar powered mining truck Simon? Would that work underground? I supose when the green jobs revolution comes you can expect the type of treatment the successful miners get. Oh thats right, the miners actually produce something that people need at a fair price while employing people in real jobs with real wages. They are also getting whacked by the gov with a success tax, not something green projects will ever have to worry about I expect. Unless Julia can come up with a Super Subsidy Tax, take 30% from the biggest recipients of taxpayer funds who cannot show a profit without them.

Tom says:

09:41am | 15/05/12

If less money was wasted on economists, plans, environmental impact studies, enivronmental studies of all hues, committees, white papers, green papers, more studies, feasibility studies, consultants and yes more useless economic wankathons then there would be billions of dollars freed up to actually physically build railway lines and public transport infrastructure.

However, green mobs like the ACF wrap everything so tightly in green tape that nothing other than overpriced studies and modelling ever gets done. Get rid of the green tape, and interference by green groups looking for a cause which cause the ridiculously expensive ‘planning’ stages for infrastructure and we would be able to afford to build public transport

Pauline says:

09:41am | 15/05/12

Outdoor air pollution may be on the decrease, or at least perceived to be, but indoor air pollution is actually rising.  We buy cheaper and cheaper “disposable” and toxic-soaked furnishings and gimcracks to put into our houses and offices, which off-gas toxic fumes, making us sicker, so the pharmaceutical industry can sell us more pills that will fix the symptoms.  They smell bad, so the chemical industry sells us toxic substances (used in chroming) that shut down our nasal receptors so we can’t smell them.  And because we don’t like to think of ourselves as humans, who do human things like sweat, we have even more sprays and chemicals that we put on ourselves to stop the body cooling itself… so we need airconditioning etc.

And because our bodies are now being subjected to chemicals all day, our skin is reacting, so we… put more chemicals onto it and into it to change the reaction of the chemicals.  This is the invisible section of the missing budget paper.

Justin of Earlwood says:

11:11am | 15/05/12

One of the problems with pushing environmental causes is the inevitable tangle with climate change. Like it or not, but that’s now a zone out for most people.

I agree with the shift of money towards public transport away from roads. The NBN could play a massive part here too with telecommuting & decentralisation of office work - those commuters are the ones who choke the roads & transport in peak hour just to get to an office. That would free up roads for trucks, couriers, tradies & anyone else who can’t do things down the line making their work life much better as well.

We should also focus on proper sustainability. I’m not talking about tickling cows to make happy milk, I’m talking about the disposable nature of electronics & packaging, even cars.

Believe it or not, Sydney is much better environmentally than it was 20 years ago. There are far more trees, far fewer bad smog days, the waterways are cleaner, there are more birds (including natives, not just mynahs), & even less random dog poo. All that despite massive growth in population & everything that comes along with that.

Don’t confuse lack of gaia zealotry with lack of concern about the environment.

RyaN says:

01:28pm | 15/05/12

“Screw the environment, we got ripped off because if it. Now there’s gonna be some payback!”

mike says:

02:07pm | 15/05/12

we dont have to do anything.juliar dullards carbon tax will be able to buy us clean air off china,they know how to run coal power stations without polluting otherwise juliar would refuse to send them coal to burn because she is only about the enviroment not about just bringing in a tax to increase there wastefull spending

ddd says:

05:15pm | 15/05/12

@ Simon - you stated that: “given that it appears that all powers around this act will soon be handballed to the states (who appear all-too eager to scrap any and all environmental protections)”.  Could you please back up this comment, because IMO, action like implementing a moratorium on CSG development in NSW for 12 months or having some of the strictest development and environmental legislation in Qld relating to monetising petroleum assets doesn’t really seem like the actions States “eager to scrap any and all environmental protections”.

Ozymandias says:

05:16pm | 15/05/12

One of the major things that made me laugh during my University studies was the profoundly flawed assumption at the time that an economy is independant of an environment. The brutal fact of the matter is, if our environment is stuffed, then eventually our economy will be stuffed too. The reverse does not hold true, in that our environment would trundle along just fine without our economy.

We do not own this planet. We are simply living here at the moment, much as the Dinosaurs did in their times. This is an excellent article, simply for pointing that little ‘unpleasant truth’ out.

Mark/Fox says:

05:18pm | 15/05/12

Quality lifestle and a healthy enviroment are the victims of a growing population. Sustainable management will be attempted after its to late. Why we continue on this path of populate till we perish, who knows. We realy do not seem to care.