Blog Action Day – let’s put the environment first for a change.

Rarely are we interested in participating in these ever more ubiquitous days of blog solidarity, however given that our upcoming election may pivot around environmental issues, here’s our contribution.

Let’s face it, follks, both major Asstralian parties are off the mark when it comes to ensuring our environment and we who have plundered it survive. Neither party is willing to address the main issue adequately – that our consumption levels are far too disgustingly gluttonous for sustainability. Both parties preach a blind necessity of population growth for productivity growth without questioning the longterm viability of this profligacy or the patent lack of common sense in promoting ever increasing gobbling of resources and abominable expansion of concrete slums along the Australian coastline. Both Libs and Labs are paid off by lobby groups, from industry, religious groups and workers, which mean these issues are submerged. Look no further than the recent Gunns debacle in Tasmania, the rape of democracy in Queensland with forced council amalgamations which will assist developers at the expense of the environment particularly in the South East quarter, the Traveston Dam horror, the ghastly influence of the loony Exclusive Brethren in our elections, not to mention the insidious and historically all pervasive intrusions of the male dominated Catholic church nuthouse with its destructive, self-interested policy of rampant human reproduction.

Sneaky, our opportunistic scrub turkey agrees with our major parties’ shortsighted economic irrationalism. Without human waste, Sneaky’s lifestyle would be greatly impoverished.

Sneaky the scrub turkey

Howard prances and preens

Finally, our wily prime miniature takes the plunge and launches into the battle of his miserable existence. The election is to be held on the 24th November, the day of publication of Darwin’s Origin of the Species. Will he pull it off or will his political career become happily extinct? and what has he up his sleeve besides his customary scuttlebutt and lies about lowest interest rates under his government?

Here’s a fitting tribute to our weasily leader – a pic of our peacock Alistair during his ritual spring morning dance today.

Alistair the peacock

The Dreaded Drop Bears of Oz

Dropbear

Be afraid, be very afraid …. this fearsome furry denizen feasts upon unwary visitors to Australia.

Q: I have a question about a famous animal in Australia, but I forget its name. It’s a kind of bear and lives in trees. (USA)
A: It’s called a Drop Bear. They are so called because they drop out of Gum trees and eat the brains of anyone walking underneath them. You can scare them off by spraying yourself with human urine before you go out walking.

(supposedly posted on an Australian Tourism website.)

Related Links

Koalas have exactly the same fingerprints as humans

Turtle Travesty in Brisbane

Take note, Brisvegans – the feeding of the habits of the profligate industrial corporations and unsustainable agricultural enterprises who use the lion’s share of the water in South East Queensland, predominantly to maximise their export profits, will have a permanent, disastrous effect on the ecosystem of the Mary River if the Traveston Crossing dam is constructed.

Anna Blight is not backing down on either Beattie’s dictatorial dam proposal or Council amalgamations, though she has whined in the understatement of the century, “To be frank, I think we could have and should have handled it better along the way”. With an environment impact report due out this month, Big Thighs also admitted “Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull could knock it back on environmental grounds.” Here’s hoping.

Travis the endangered Mary River Turtle comes to Brisbane again this weekend

After being a hit with the crowds last Sunday at Northey St Markets, this Saturday 6 October, Travis, a 40 year old Mary River Turtle will be in New Farm Park from 8:30 – 10:30am.

Bob Brown, Senator and Parliamentary leader fo the Greens will be at New Farm Park at 9:30am to meet Travis in “person” and discuss the threat to the Mary River Turtle posed by the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam on the Mary River.

The Mary River Turtle is an endangered species and occurs in only one river – the Mary River a couple of hours drive north of Brisbane!

To find Travis and Trevor (Travis’s human size counterpart) enter New Farm Park from Brunswick St and follow the internal road to the childrens playground. Travis and his support crew will be in that area.

For further information please contact Tanzi on 0405848375.

Hope to see you and your family there.

Please forward this message to anyone who you know who would like to meet Travis,

Kind Regards,

Australian Freshwater Turtle Conservation and Research Association (AFTCRA) Inc. and the Save the Mary River Co-ordinating Group.

Endangered Marry River catchment species