Logan and Albert Conservation Association
Dr. Paul Epstein from the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard’s Medical School has written an article quantifying the true costs of coal in terms of economic, health and environmental impacts. Dr. Epstein’s study details how each stage of coal’s life cycle (extraction, transportation, processing, and combustion) has enormous costs, all of which are directly borne by the public. Notably, the report estimates some $74.6 billion a year in public health costs for Appalachian communities, mainly from increasing healthcare burdens, injury and death.
Beyond the direct health damage coal extraction and burning has on communities, the American public is paying $187.5 billion due to air pollutants, $29.3 billion for mercury poisoning, and anywhere between $61.7 and $205.8 billion for global warming emissions. Although this is an American study we in Australia - and South East Queensland will be bearing similar impacts. Read more about this story or an executive summary here.http://wvgazette.com/static/coal%20tattoo/HarvardCoalReportSummary.pdf
This is timely research as our Queensland Government approves more mining exploration amidst the World Heritage listed Mt Barney. All over South East Queensland mining companies are wanting to extend the exploitation of our areas most valued for the richness of biodiversity. During the 2011 INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF FORESTS for people which seeks to have members of the human species become more aware of our connections with healthy forest systems. Healthy forests equals a healthy life sustaining enviroment for healthy people.
Beyond dollar evaluations, qualitative impacts include harm to air quality,watersheds, land, plants, animals, families and communities. The proposed technology of CCS is costly and risky, and is projected to magnify the ecological and health footprint of coal. The extent of environmental harm is such that instead of more coal mines we should be phasing fossil fuel production out and bringing in renewable non degrading processes - especially where we can apply closed loop cycles - as does nature.
The Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM) has invested resources in the management and delivery of wildlife and inventory information to its internal and external clients. The Environmental Information Systems Unit is the custodian of the WildNet and Wetland Information Capture System (WIC) applications and works with DERM and external partners for the acquisition and delivery of a range of wildlife and survey information.
The reporting of wildlife - both dead and alive - to DERM IS A CRITICAL ACTION for all citizens to do.
WHY is reporting of wildlife SO IMPORTANT?
Sightings are entered into a data base and are used in DESKTOP STUDIES by consultants researchers and others to help compile environmental assessments that are part of development applications.Sometimes the citizen scientists' wildlife sightings may be the only record.
Wildlife Online allows internet users to request species lists for selected areas, specified points or defined areas. The options include species (all, plant or animal), type (all, native or introduced), status (all or rare and threatened), records (all, confirmed or specimen), date (all or since 1980) and output (pdf or text file).
Species lists for protected areas (national parks, conservation parks and resources reserves), forestry areas (State forests and timber reserves) and Local Government Areas in
Users can also request species lists generated from summarised sighting data for buffered points or defined areas using coordinates (decimal degrees). The submitted requests are processed every 15 minutes and the resultant species lists are sent to the user’s email account as an attachment. The species outputs includes kingdom, class, family, scientific name, common name, introduced flag, NCA status, EPBC Act status, number of records and number of specimens.
For more information about
LACA Logan and Albert Conservation Association strongly urges all new residents in any area to find out what wildlife has been recorded in the area and also to continue to update the online database. This list can also be useful to help you identify a spcies you see in your area. The information has been adapted from a document DERM sent to us. This is that document.
DERM_Internet_Wildlife_Information_Systems012011.doc 113.50 Kb 18/02/2011, 17:34
LACA also has an online form you can fill in which we forward to DERM. Locate this in lefthand column front page. While sightings of koalas are critical because there are some planning regulations that may help - though they are still inadequate - all species are important.
Greenbank citizens win extension - until 15 March 2011
Greenbank community residents held its second meeting Wednesday 16 February 2011. State member for Lockyer IAN RICKUSS MP attended both meetings and urges all citizens to use the power of the people to gain the attention of the state's political leaders.
Channel 7 News provides coverage Thursday 17 February 2011 news.
We were delighted to hear that his representation on community behalf has granted us a two week extension to be better abled to make more and more detailed submissions to ULDA about the Teviot Downs Estate development proposal. Submissions are now due 15 March 2011.
There have been no wildlife surveys conducted by the developer / consultant or ULDA. Development application documents suggest that
koalas in Greenbank area are locally extinct.
RESIDENTS OF GREENBANK FLAGSTONE JIMBOOMBA NORTH MACLEAN CHAMBERS FLAT CEDAR GROVE
know this is NOT TRUE.
We know because we see them, hear them, and have seen and heard them, for many years. However if we have not sent in sightings of wildlife to DERM Department of Environment and Resource Management, that data is not available when desktop studies are done.
Spotted tailed quolls have also been confirmed as being in our area - but not listed in the environmental report for the development. Dr Scott Burnett did a study for Beaudesert Shire Council pre amalgamation. LACA and its members contributed to funding this study - but it is not available to the general public.
Why not? Who owns the study? Is it with other publically funded studies we are unable to access - even with RTI Right to Information process.
If you have not already sent your wildlife sightings in to DERM - or don't know how - contact LACA president Anne Page next meeting 23 February and record your sightings - to be sent to DERM.
Shadow Minister for Planning Lawrence Springborg also attended the public meeting. His advice is for all residents to contact their political representatives and have all extended family and friends to raise this ill-planned proposal with their political representatives. The politicans have the power to change the regulations.
Our job is to make sure they hear what we are saying. Take action. Sign the petition to be tabled in parliament.
Send in a properly made submission. Attend meetings arranged by http://www.savegreenbank.com.au/
Save our local wildlife from extinction. We are all in the one boat. We all benefit from and need the natural environment.
The human species has much to learn to live a truly sustainable life within the resources that are provided on the planet. All species have to breathe drink eat and have shelter. Nature has provided us with opportunities to model our lifestyles without destroying what we enjoy.
Who is listening and watching with an open mind?
Michael Pawlyn delivers his talk : Using nature's genius in architecture here.
There is no waste within nature's ecosysyem services. All products, species have a role to play in a closed loop system. Our throw away - out of sight - out of mind lifestyle is creating many challenging for the global and local human community to research and solve in creative innovative ways. Biomimicy - when we understand the process and system - potentially has answres for us.
Business as usual is not the solution. Rushing in and rebuilding and repeating errors and poor decisions from the past is not the solution.
Michael Pawlyn describes three habits of nature that could transform architecture and society: radical resource efficiency, closed loops, and drawing energy from the sun.
COMMUNITY PLANS FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS - state government directive
Queensland Government requires all local councils to consult wih community and produce a document called a community plan. Timeframe for completion is December 2011 - unless council has been granted an extension - as is the case with LOGAN CITY COUNCIL which has until 2013.
SCENIC RIM REGIONAL COUNCIL is currently collecting your vision for the future. This is where you are invited to have your say.
Concerned Residents Meeting
regarding
Coal Exploration and Mining at Barney View
Beaudesert Times journalist Gary Corbett broke the news on Wednesday last week, that Coal Mining is headed to the Mt Barney region. Carabella Resources Limited is cashed up and they already have State Government Mining Licences to allow Coal exploration within the next few months at Barney View, Maroon, and the western Boonah-Rathdowney Road corridor. If this proves to be worthwhile, mining is the next step.
Information about Mt Barney and Maroon is provided here.
This is of great concern to the environment, farming, tourism, local businesses, reisdents who value the rural charm and values of their chosen lifestyle, and those who live near road corridors. A preliminerary community meeting will be held at Mt Barney Lodge (15 minutes from Rathdowney) which is at the southern end of the investigation area. It will be held at 2pm on Friday 18th February.
The purpose of the meeting is:
All are welcome to attend, and RSVP's or further enquiries should contact info@mtbarneylodge .com.au or 5544 3233.
World Heritage listed Mount Barney National Park values are threatened by incompatible continued mining of fossil fuel. Many local businesses supported Queensland's Carbon Diet to reduce our greenhouse gas output. Granting of such licences is beyond belief with our current knowledge and understanding of the global state ot the environment.
Residents near bushland being bulldozed to make way for a planned satellite city are mounting a fierce and growing battle against the sweeping powers of the Queensland government's Urban Land Development Authority. Greater Flagstone, west of Jimboomba, was chosen during the state government's Growth Summit last year as the site for a new satellite city to absorb 130,000 new southeast Queensland residents in 21 years.
But some of the existing 4000-strong population fear cheap houses will be built en masse without thought for necessary infrastructure or their rural lifestyle.
Resident Mike Kelly, founder of the Save Greenbank campaign, said concerns had fallen on deaf ears in the state government, while the mass clearing of land continued without their consultation.
"The ULDA is bastardising the existing culture and lifestyle here for fast-tracking purposes, which are completely inconsistent with the real needs of the community," he said. Mr Kelly said residents on acre blocks would soon have up to seven neighbours along their fence lines. "There are no guarantees for the development of infrastructure ... even the repair of existing roads," he said. "There are no guarantees that new houses will be made affordable for first-home buyers, rather than investors. We are being kept in the dark here."
Planning Minister Stirling Hinchliffe holds the future of our rural and acreage lifestyle living in his hands. Councils are required to follow a process to allow for community consultation - not so with the statuatory powers given to ULDA. See source and rest of story with comments here.
Go to campaign website to see how local residents are working to restore our democratic rights to be consulted on these issues.
SEND IN YOUR OWN SUBMISSION. Get some tips here. Contact you local state and federal members and HAVE YOUR SAY.
An African peasant farmer has managed what so many others failed to do: transform the lives of thousands of people by making the desert bloom again. Discover the untold story of Yacouba Sawadogo, an illiterate African farmer who battled for two decades with nature and man to become a pioneer in the fight against desertification. Perfectly pitched cinematography engages beautifully with a story that will leave you moved and inspired.
Yacouba resurrected an ancient planting technique known as "zai," using traditional planting pits. He hacked into the hard-baked earth and filled the pits with compost. In the region, tens of thousands of hectares of land that was completely unproductive have been made fertile again. Yacouba has reversed the process of desertification in the deforested and drought-ridden Sahel, a belt up to 1,000km wide, spanning Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.
This story is a reminder that determined individuals can at least slow down the steamroller of environmental destruction across the planet.
Using, and then enhancing, traditional "zai" techniques for restoring degraded land, which involve planting seeds directly into pits that have been enhanced with small handfuls of composted dung, Yacouba Sawadogo has spent over a quarter century experimenting with his soils, and then teaching his fellow farmers, resulting in the successful rehabilitation of farmland, the regrowth of forests, and attention from international media and non-profit organizations who wanted to learn more about Sawadogo's techniques.
Read about award winning films at the Jackson Hole Film Festival here.
DEVELOPMENT @ GREENBANK BEFORE TOWN PLAN
which provides for appropriate consultation period for current residents citizens and voters in Logan is not appreciated.
The solidarity for this opinion was expressed at a local meeting held at the grounds of the Greenbank community Centre Wednesday 9 February.
According to the ULDA, this is less than 1% so why are we concerned? When the ULDA comes to your area the opportunity for appropriate community consultation disappears. ULDA is the URBAN LAND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY which is another level of legislative authority which answers only to Minister Stirling Hinchcliffe. Most people are surprised to learn that development at Greenbank - East and West of Teviot Road, and the proposed investigation North Maclean Enterpise Precinct are all part of the Greater Flagstone Area. This area is targeted by State government to be home to over 120,000 people in our lifetime.
People living at Teviot Downs currently enjoy an open acreage living lifestyle which our native wildlife share. The wider Greenbank community has even larger acreage blocks where many wilflife carers live rehabilitate injured creatures. When you live on 320 m2 blocks there is little room for the kangaroos or wallabies.
HELPING INJURED OR DISPLACED WILDLIFE and other animals
Wildcare Australia Inc is a non-profit organization situated in South East Queensland. The organization was originally formed as the Australian Koala Hospital Association Incorporated in late 1993 by Dr Jonathon Hanger. It became an Incorporated Association and registered charity in 1994 and is listed on the Register of Environmental Organizations.
Wildcare Australia volunteers man a 24 hours 7days a week Emergency hotline for SOUTHEAST QUEENSLAND 07 5527 2444
http://wildcare.org.au is a very comprehensive website and essential reading to understand more about how you can help in any wildlife rescue situation.