Coal Seam Gas
I’ve been told that some people don’t associate the Greens with money, people or facts. So I’m starting this piece on the Great Barrier Reef with some facts about money and people:
5.1 billion dollars. This is how much Great Barrier Reef tourism contributes to the Australian economy every year.
54,000. That’s how many people are employed full-time in Great Barrier Reef industries, mostly tourism.
3 million. That’s the number of visitors who come to see this World Heritage icon every year, about 2.1 million domestic and nearly 900,000 international visitors to gateway towns.
5 billion dollars. This is the Government’s estimated value of the “ecosystem services” the Reef provides every year – cleaner air, cleaner water. And we get it for free.
Extraordinary, isn’t it? And this awesome economic powerhouse is just sitting on the doorstep of Queensland. Here are some more Great Barrier Reef numbers, which you might find extraordinary for different reasons:
Continue reading "Finding Nemo will be much harder if we mine the reef" »
At the moment, we’re all spending a lot of time debating gay marriage and climate change. Meanwhile, other issues aren’t being debated as vigorously as they might be.
Today The Punch team has each selected two issues which get us hot under the collar, and which we feel deserve more airplay.
What are your thoughts on the issues we’ve chosen? And what other issues do you think we should all be talking about?
Continue reading "12 bigger issues than gay change and climate marriage" »
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Taylor Jay says:
If Magic Johnson has had AIDS for over 20 years, he must have spent most of it in hospital. AIDS itself is more an umbrella term for several different criteria that a patient may meet in regards to the progression of their HIV infection; usually signifying a highly advanced stage,… Read more »
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LC says:
As for the possible solution proposed by ThePunch’s team “Insurance companies are severe on drivers under 25. Their premiums are often double that of older drivers. Maybe the penalties should be twice as hard for under-25s too.” This does more harm than good. The through-the-roof premiums for newer, SAFER cars… Read more »
This week’s mess in the Pilliga Forest of New South Wales, is the latest evidence of an extremely messy industry.
Communities remain divided over coal seam gas. Especially in Queensland, where it’s splitting votes in the lead up to the state election.
A Newspoll published in The Australian last week found that two-thirds of voters were completely opposed to coal seam gas, with 35 per cent of people claiming that how the state chose to handle the issue would have direct impact on the way they vote in on March 24.
Continue reading "We need some cold hard facts about coal seam gas" »
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Caroline Marriott says:
The fact is there is alot of uncertainty about the industry. The greenhouse advantages are far from clear - largely due to leakage of methane - and this continues to be hotly debated in academic and industry circles. Fracking has not been proven safe as many communities in the US… Read more »
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Kipling says:
Wow, awesome skills to turn this into a trade union bashing exercise and, by virtue of that, become an advocate for substantially lowering the standard of living in this country whilst simulteneously advocating for selling off the county to the highest bidder and thus further diminishing our native environment. Awesome… Read more »
Watching a Test match is a great teacher of the virtues that make for success in life: determination, strategy and simply keeping your eye on the ball.
Anyone watching India knows that they are beating Australia hands down at all three. India is set to win while the complacent, lucky country seems sure to waste its natural advantages.
Obviously, after the events at the MCG yesterday, I am talking not of cricket, but of energy security.
Continue reading "Clean bowled in cricket, but they’ll clean us up in energy" »
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Brian says:
Read the article…the key word in the whole thing, the one you seem to forget is in there Dan…..here it is Dan, COULD, I note the article never uses the word Would or WILL, but the instead use the word COULD, so is it true that India’s solar dream (your… Read more »
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Brian says:
Since you seem to believe any report you read (so long as it your side of the argument), what about all of Tim Flannery’s reports that have turned into bullshit….my advice to someone who is so taken in by unproven science (why has the earth not warmed as your models… Read more »
Roma, some 600km west of Brisbane, used to be a country town where you could drive your car onto the airport tarmac to pick up friends arriving on the few flights servicing the place.
It had a small motel many years ago when I lived there but most travellers stayed at pubs with names such as The School of Arts.
The population back all those decades ago when sheep and cattle ruled was nudging 5000. Compared to some of the neighbouring towns such as Injune and Wallumbilla, it was a big place.
Continue reading "Coal seam gas a blast of hope for rural communities" »
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Roo says:
No, He didn’t. He sold to a coal company because there wasn’t much choice - if he stayed he’d have been surrounded by a coal mine. No-one in their right mind would buy in a csg field - no meaningful compensation, ruined equity and 24/7 noise & disruption when they… Read more »
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Annie says:
@bananabender Have you been bending a few too many bananas? How does that even make any sense? Do you have any links or information to support this statement? Perhaps you need to do some investigation.They are mostly the same companies, they have conventional and ‘unconventional’ gas. Santos, Shell, Billiton, British… Read more »
You get the feeling not much happens on a Saturday morning in Merriwa. The sleepy country town in the Upper Hunter region of New South Wales just hums along quietly. Except for its proud and tidy RSL, where the front bar opens at 10am, horse races flash across the television screens and tickets pump out of the Club Keno machine.
In a stuffy back hall, on neat rows of red vinyl chairs sit the Merriwa Healthy Environment Group; a group of local farmers and landowners who came together in February to unite against the coal seam gas companies as they rode into town. Seven months later, they feel under attack.
Their enemy? PEL 456, PEL 468, PEL 4 and PEL 433; coal seam gas exploration licences for Merriwa and its surrounding areas of cattle, sheep and cereal farming land, up for sale to the highest bidder.
Continue reading "Community is the real cost of coal seam gas" »
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Brian says:
Methane is not highly poisonous. There is no exposure limit, and other than the risk of catching fire it is considered no more dangerous than nitrogen - the only way it can harm you through inhalation is by displacing oxygen, and with the exception of a cylinder being opened in… Read more »
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Kheiron says:
Romans and Normans and to an extent Vikings can make the claim of British conquest and occupation. French, British and Spanish can do the same for America. All this in, or before, the Age of Sail when the sea was a much more daunting barrier then it is today. Britain… Read more »
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