(We) can do better

The rate at which Australia's population is ageing has been accelerated by immigration. Furthermore, this effect will increase. Immigration is a major contributor to the dementing demographic.

International Biodiversity Day May 22
Humans are appropriating too much water for their own needs and not leaving enough for the survival of other species, according to Sustainable Population Australia (SPA).

Embedded broadcast was originally published as What is the future for Syria? Truthloader LIVE debate. See also: Turks slam Ankara's support for terrorist groups in Syria of 19 May 2013 on PressTV. Israeli peace activist tells the truth about Israel
Three Syrian supporters of the Syrian Government debate three Syrian supporters of the terrorist insurrection in the embedded broadcast.

Those not familiar with the Syrian conflict will have to pay close attention in order to gain much from this discussion. The debate is somewhat tiresome due to the evasions, repetition and circular logic of the supporters of the insurrection. In spite of this, I think that their opponents, particularly the Syrian Girl, won the debate quite definitively.

This is a book on the theory of Nuclear Fusion which ventures into theoretically defending cold fusion. Candobetter.net gets lots of scientific book reviews and we can only field a minority. It is good to give the more esoteric some publicity they might not otherwise get, even if we cannot actually review them. In this case candobetter.ed ran the subject and a cited paper past Dr Boris Osadin in Russia and you can read his comment at the bottom of this book.

State governments are in the business of creating the conditions that cause overpopulation, and then of limiting public transport, whilst increasing road-building, so that people become even more reliant on cars. They encourage business to invest in speculative 'solutions' for these problems and then collect so-called environmental taxes in a vicious cycle that is part of growth economics.

This article is a review of a blockbuster movie. The article makes political comments about a dominant genre in United States productions and about how little choice there is in Australian cinemas these days. Candobetter welcomes debate on the paucity of cinema available in Australia.

Media release from Sustainable Population Australia (SPA); Further information: Jenny Goldie 0401 921 453
See also: Baby bonus 'scrapped' in budget in the SMH, Government scraps baby bonus in deficit budget on the ABC.

Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) today wholeheartedly welcomed the Budget decision by the Federal Government to abolish the baby bonus from March 2014.

First published on PressTV, 12 May 2013 as Protesters tell Erdogan to resign. Other reporting (and misreporting) of Reyhanli terrorist bombing, and issues arising, includes: Information Minister: Turkey Bombings Terrorist Act Condemned by All Standards - SANA, Turkey blames Syria over Reyhanli bombings - Guardian, Turkey says Syrian forces behind border town bombings - Reuters, Dozens dead in Turkey car bombings - Brisbane Times, Turkey claims Assad loyalists bombed Reyhanli - , Blasts kill dozens in Turkish town Reyhanli on Syria border - BBC, Iran slams explosions in Turkish city of Reyhanli - PressTV.

Turkish protesters have called for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to step down following two car bombings in a town near the Syrian border.

The Association of Relinquishing Mothers (Vic) represents hundreds of women who have lost their children to adoption. Today we are protesting on the steps of Parliament House against the cruel and inhumane amendments to the Adoption Legislation that the Victorian Government is putting through the Upper House this afternoon. If these amendments go through, we can be stopped from making contact with the (now adult) sons and daughters who were taken from us as babies, and if we try to do so, there can be criminal sanctions put in place.

They have no policies on economic growth, education, economic reform, taxes, workers, health, jobs, senior Australians, immigration, asylum seekers, Aboriginal affairs, globalisation or Australian businesses. Their clients are the animals we share our society with. They are the farm animals, wildlife, pets and working animals.

Policy coming soon on the environment, and one needed on population.

Protectors of Public Lands Victoria Inc. (PPL VIC)

Media Release Wednesday 8 May 2013

Yesterday saw Premier Denis Napthine announce funding for the East West (Road) Link in the State Budget. Thus he has condemned Melbourne to future gridlock and has put on hold improved public transport in the form of urban rail to Doncaster, Tullamarine, Rowville and South Morang. PPL VIC together with many inner city community groups and Yarra Council has, over the past two years, been campaigning for “Trains Not Toll Roads “.

Aust Government making same mistake on guilt with Syria as with Iraq. The mainstream media, including the Australian Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) no longer disputes that the pretexts used to justify the United States' wars against Iraq in 1991 and 2003 were lies. Yet, in spite of the appalling consequences, including as many as 3.3 million Iraqi deaths according to one recent estimate, the SBS has shown itself willing to echo a new series of lies, which have been contrived by the same people responsible for the Iraq War. This time the target is Syria.

A rally was held today on the steps of Parliament House in Melbourne " to protest against new laws proposed by the Napthine government which are undeniably bad news for forests.

For all you depressed wildlife battlers out there, here is a truly 'good news' koala story about a wildlife warrior hero, James Fitzgerald, who has placed nearly 800ha of what looks like good sub-alpine land in trust for koalas. Even better, the koala population there turns out to have strong new genetic properties and is chlamydia free!

What would Dr Nugget Coombs think of our treatment of the environment and the economy today? Quark applies a retrospectoscope to the problem as she reports on a 1970 Boyer Lecture on environment and economy.

This current strategy will be the sixth strategic plan for Melbourne in 25 years... Increasing energy costs ... The role of the construction sector in the State's economy is directly related to repeated extensions to the urban growth boundary. Housing affordability. Food security... ensure all suburbs have access to back up food supplies that are not reliant on transport. Framework for regional linkages should be based on consideration of the protection of environmental and ecological systems. The '20 minute city' and 'Unlocking capacity in established suburbs' proposal is code for high population density and high rise development in existing suburbs and suburban streets; pressure on existing infrastructure to cope with higher population demands but without system renewal; further vegetation clearance and ecological impacts; decline in living standards ...and should be withdrawn.

Here is a report from KoalaTracker headquarters about the terrible situation for koalas in Queensland. The Queensland government is reclearing land only recently regained for the environment. Wildlife activists are having to fight for the poorest secondary growth land because nothing else is available for koalas to live on. Humane Society International is of the opinion that a new Queensland Bill exposes hundreds of thousands of hectares of currently protected regrowth and remnant vegetation to clearing. The situation is urgent and shocking ...

Bandicoot writes in Our rights to jobs negotiated awayabout how Australian government has signed away the rights of Australians to self-govern on the question of mass immigration, a problem now affecting our employment opportunities and conditions. Indeed, many problems affecting Australians arise from a trend of the late 20th century to conflate trade in goods across borders and trade in people across borders. Goods-imports depress our prices and people-imports depress our wages and conditions, but, even more importantly, they depress our democracy. In the end neither producers nor workers win, unless they are multinational corporates.

The Australian Wildlife Protection Council (AWPC) is gravely concerned by the ‘use and commercialisation of Australian native animals’, their extinction rates, cruelty inflicted on them, and recreational hunting. Even more so, given that Australia has the world’s highest extinction rate. Instead of apologising for crimes against nature, the Victorian State Government seeks to extend further exploitation.

Unbeknown to most of those commenting on the numbers of 457 visas outside the EMA (Enterprise Migration Agreement) issue, as part of Doha round of trade negotiations, the Labor Government processed and negotiated away Australia’s rights to apply labour-market testing to temporary overseas workers in the 457 visa program.
Some Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) also commit Australia to temporary entry without limits and without labour market testing, for certain categories as intra-corporate transferees (executives, managers and specialists, independent executives and “contractual service sellers”).

In response to Hans Brunner’s post, I note he does not actually quote me and if he reads my article ("Do ecosystems need top predators?" on the SPIFFA website and in the journal Indigenotes) carefully he will find there is no recommendation for more foxes, cats and dogs. The term ‘plague’ of possums is not mine and I use it in quotation marks in the article. It is a term I have heard locals use, and with some justification.

Martin Bryant has been sentenced to prison for the rest of his life because he was convicted of killing 35 people and wounding 23 others at Port Arthur in 1996. According to Vietnam Veteran, the late Brigadier Ted Serong, only the most elite of Australian troops could have performed such a feat of rapid movement and marksmanship, rarely missing, and with such a high proportion of fatal hits.

Article was originally published on 11 Feb 2013. The date has been changed to put this article back on the front page. Another draft chapter, Chapter 10, has been received. The drafts of chapters five and ten are attached to the article Was Martin Bryant the Port Arthur killer? of 3 April 2010. That article inspired expatriate Australian Keith Noble to write the book which will include these chapters. Please download and freely distribute. - Ed, 3 May 2013. Please also download DRAFT.THEMERCURY.DAWTREY.ARTICLE.pdf (301K) of 17 May 2013, which is Keith Noble's more recent response to the misreporting and censorship of readers' expressed opinions by the Hobart Mercury, owned by Rupert Murdoch. - Ed, 19 May 2013

The Greens are at the crossroads as a political party — should they focus on the wider concerns of the electorate, or should they stick to environmentalism? For instance, the humanitarian crying out for the suffering of refugees needs to be focused on what drives people to become refugees, like our engagement in unjust wars, environmental damage and over-population. Dr Peter Cock says they need to stay green. [Comment from Candobetter.net editor: Some of us here think the Greens need to rebrand if they don't become green, but we appreciate the discussion in this article, which targets our concerns.]

A permit has been issued by the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection to cull 2,000 Agile Wallabies at Mission Beach along the North Queensland Coast in an area almost pristine not so long ago. Wildlife activists say that there may only be about 500 wallabies there now but a lot more humans.

The FBI. and CIA are supposed to protect US citizens from terrorism. They have, instead, been working with the two Chechens accused of the Boston Marathon bombing of 15 April. In this embedded Youtube Broadcast from the Corbett Report, James Corbett interviews FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds on the Boston bombing. She explains how past attempts by the US to ignite a sectarian terrorist war against Russsia in Chechnya has created people who have been willing to commit acts of terror against America, evidently with the collusion of the CIA and the FBI. See also The Boston Bombing Web of Lies of 26 April 2013 by Julie Lévesque, Syria in Boston of 25 April by Thierry Meyssan.

Mornington Peninsula[1] The writer of an article about ecosystem need for top predators claims that "Observations on trees and experience with possum guards by the author indicate that possums are the major cause of tree decline on the Mornington Peninsula ..."

Today the Australian Financial Review carried a surprising and uncharacteristic number of remarks about the high cost of privatisation and the benefits of public provision of vital services.

Everyone gets a smaller slice of the national cake and pays more for it. The arrival of Australia’s 23 millionth person tomorrow is no cause for celebration, according to Sustainable Population Australia (SPA).

Today Australia reaches a population of 23 million. If we assess this against the status of our life-support systems, we should be alarmed. Neither Australia nor Earth is ecologically sustainable as shown by our national state of the environment reporting and the estimate that humans are consuming 150% of Earth’s renewable capacity. Population size is one of the underlying drivers of these trends. Should they continue, the implications for future generations are clear.