According to the last accounts, Australia's greenhouse gases are increasing, and we are more than 10 years off 2020! According to Rudd, climate change was the great moral issue and challenge of our time. His strong stance on this issue was a stark contrast to Howards, but there has been little done except talk and postering. It is not surprising Penny Wong has had to de-link population growth from emission levels! There is no chance of having reduced emissions by 2020 if we are increasing! Our leaders have already surveyed the public, and their interest in this topic has subsided! How very convenient polls can be!
Comments
Ringwood facing same problems as Camberwell
Ringwood is facing the same problem...
leader-news.whereilive.com.au/news/story/tower-takes-root
The government is totally ignoring our council's concerns, Outrageous!.
How are we to fix this problem?
Limits to growth do exist.
Spot on (!) - the state of rapid population growth leaves me very depressed. The business/political lobby that insists we need population growth to cope with the aging population proves that the same lobby is littered with self-serving idiots. Blind Freddie can see that all that does (along with destroying the country) is put off that "problem" for another 25 years when suddenly it will be many times worse. Are they going to insist then on increased immigration and baby bonuses to solve that problem? Limits to growth do exist.
There must be some absolutes somewhere
It is not about "discrimination" but about values. We can't have a value-free society as no one would be free to have ethical and moral opinions. A saw-mill owner would not be welcomed as a member of a conservation group, and a butcher a member of animal liberation! Organisations who do not support gay unions or abortions should not be forced to employ them if they do not support their ethos. It's not about hatred or vilification, but about supporting values. If fact, as Christians, hatred is wrong, but we can disapprove of someone's lifestyle but still respect the person. All parts of a body have different functions but work together for the common aim. The core and non-core roles are all part of the same body and should all support the same aims and ideals.
Why would Christian schools be forced to employ atheist teachers, or doctors to perform abortions when they are contrary to their beliefs? Not everything can be standardised and monopolised to be completely neutral. There must be some absolutes somewhere, and Christianity is about a faith in God and about His Justice and compassion.
As for resumes, it really is a different type of 'discrimination'. However, it is about the practicalities of filtering out prospective employees before honing in on a select few. It is not about country of origin, but about our increasing numbers. Multiculturalism has added to our economic growth and added an interesting mixture to Anglo origins. However, the tide has turned, and we are becoming over-populated, and the inherent problems are seeping through the cracks. We are short of jobs, housing, transport, infrastructures, and our suburbs are suffering from obesity. Without a monoculture as in other high-dense living nations, we are seeing greater violence, rising costs and stress. Our immigration is not beneficial any more, but clearly adding to our woes because our numbers are too high. Our "lucky country" is becoming a distant memory! There are just too many people being added due to our leaders' addiction to growth at all costs! Something must be done to stop the deterioration of Australia. Original Australians are being discriminated against because they are competing with a globalised population for limited jobs.
Fails to point out how easily child's spinal chord could break
Subject was: Strongly Disagree. - JS
As a mother with three young children, I applaud the changes to the law. Every one of them. Many people aren't aware of the issues regarding safe restraint of children. You fail to mention in your article the flexibility of children's spines vs how easily their spinal cords can snap. Under current laws a one year old can sit in just a seatbelt - seatbelts aren't designed for such a lightweight person and odds are that the child would slip out over or under the seatbelt and be thrown from the car.
Regarding the $300 fine for passengers not wearing a seatbelt, this gives young drivers ammunition against their friends - "put your seatbelt on, I can't afford $300."
In favour of universal secularism
Hello Vivienne.. coming in late here, but a couple of comments.
1. Referring to the Australian National University study you ask: "Rather than “racism” it could be that foreigners may have less English skills, overseas experience and qualifications, and cultural differences?" Please compare this with the study in question. Nothing else was changed in the résumés in question except the names of the applicants. To achieve the same number of interviews as someone with an Anglo-Saxon name, an application with a Chinese name had to submit 68% more applications, Middle Easterners 64% more etc.
2. The distinction between core and non-core roles is, in my opinion, appropriate. Freedom of religious practise is not an absolute right (we do not allow sati for example), constrained by universal rights. Under contemporary equal opportunity legislation, there is just prohibition on businesses and non-profit associations discriminating against on sexuality, gender, gender-identity, marital or parental status - so why should religions be according some special extralegal protection particularly if employment or commerce is entirely for secular tasks, rather than religious ceremonies?
On a more tangential issue the incorporation of universal legal protections as constitutional protections is the most effective way to protect individuals from a 'tyranny of the majority'. The entire point of putting items such as freedom of speech as a constitutional protection is to ensure that politicians can't stomp on individual rights.
Dog-free Communities
That's a good idea - provided of course that it's enforced.
It is inevitable that more and more stressed citizens will demand peaceful living circumstances, particularly at night. Adequate sleep is absolutely essential to human health.
One of the most efficient ways to secure peaceful circumstances in our manic dog-obsessed society (part of which now wants dogs in shops and waiters to wait on dogs in restaurants) is through, like you say, dog-free suburbs.
Of the three international petitions I have online and ready for your signatures is the one titled "Dog-free Communities." These online petitions may be accessed via http://www.pebri.net/index_13.htm where you may click the Signature tab at the bottom of each petition to read the comments of others before signing the petitions and leaving your own comments. Comments may be viewed by hovering your mouse over the "View" tab.
These petitions provide a simple, unofficial method wherein you may demonstrate your support for a particular idea.
Peter Bright
Hobart
Tasmania
http://www.pebri.net
California's fire crisis happening here:
Not only are the fires in LA becoming more frequent, but these days they are also less predictable and a lot bigger.
The nearly 251-square-mile blaze in the Angeles National Forest remains at 98 percent containment. Officials said they will hold off until the next rain before declaring it fully contained.
The fire has scorched 160,557 acres, making it the largest fire in modern Los Angeles County history and the 10th largest in California since 1933.
"A changing climate, population growth and a decade-long housing boom has proved to be a combustible mix for the city of Los Angeles" - doesn't this sound awfully familiar? Exactly what is happening in Victoria and across Australia.
Victoria is already the most damaged and cleared of all states. Our Brumby Government is intent on satisfying the demands of land developers by blowing-out further Melbourne's already obese boundaries. This means more concrete, less green wedges, a biting in to National parks and forests and the heating and drying process continues.
We can learn by what is happening overseas, and act now to protect our wonderful country - what was once the 'lucky country'!
However, we have leaders at federal and state levels obsessed by growth at all costs, and this means our ailing ecosystems will be further stressed this coming summer.
A person with a fever is more likely to succumb to an extra blow, just like a stressed environment!
These old trees do not have a monetary value!
These trees are up to 600 years old. Their value is ecological and intrinsic. No value in $$ can justify their destruction. Income and jobs are temporal and temporary. We don't chop up our houses when we need firewood. Destroying these heritage level trees, and protection from climate change, cannot be justified for whatever value! They are PRICELESS so disputing over dollars is irrelevant.
Chainsaw operator should get a proper job that creates wealth
I reckon that gutless whinging chainsaw operator or truck driver or whatever he is should stop taking subsidies and handouts from the government (Vicforests - never made a profit - any real company and you would have been out of a job years ago), get an education and get a proper job. Or at least stand up for something he believes. Other than the front bar of the pub.
Our greenhouse gas emissions are increasing!
In Australia, Emissions increased 3.7 per cent this year compared to the previous year, which put them at 7 per cent above 1990 levels. (Parliamentary Library) This is interesting, considering that Kevin Rudd committed himself to cut emission down by 5% on 1990 levels. The “white paper” on climate change sets a target for emissions cuts of just 5% by 2020.
Most of the increase in carbon dioxide comes from burning of fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas for energy, and from deforestation.
Cows, sheep and other ruminant animals ‘burp’ methane into the air. Rice paddies also generate methane. Other sources of methane are landfills, burning vegetation, coal mines and natural gas fields.
Nitrous oxide concentrations are increasing because of changes to the way in which we use land, from fertiliser use, from some industrial processes, and from burning vegetation.
According to a 2006 UN report, cattle-rearing generates more global warming greenhouse gases, as measured in CO2 equivalent, than transportation.
“The environmental costs per unit of livestock production must be cut by one half, just to avoid the level of damage worsening beyond its present level,” it warns.
Australia has the highest proportion of livestock to people in the world, and globally we are the highest exporters of coal. By 2008-09, we had 232,090 plus immigrants and 629,000 temporary residents come here on work and study visas, with many hoping to transfer to permanent residency. Australia's population is growing at record levels.
The stalemate of the ETS is part of a political game. Corporate greed has won out over ensuring a liveable planet. Kevin Rudd and our State governments are quite willing to obey their masters, the powers of the mass markets, instead of ensuring a safe nation for future generations. Would Turnbull, or the Liberals, be willing to face the real source of emissions and not just burden the public with taxes to appear that the challenge of climate change is being met?
More population growth propaganda from The Age
Another Age article about the false dichotomy of ever expanding suburbia or densifcation of existing suburbs, no mention of the elephant in the room, population growth.
Also need to note that another argument regarding the need for high population density is that public transport is nonviable. This argument is becoming quite common as part of the justification for higher density.
It should be noted that before WW2 Melbourne had the same basic rail-line infrastructure it has today, the population was a lot smaller, but public transport use was a lot higher, especially in off-peak times (The last major rail line built was Glen Waverly line completed in 1930)
Other government policies which have encouraged car use over the last 60+ years have been far greater factors in reducing public transport use. Population density is not even a secondary issue in this set of factors, but I think the argument is used to bolster the "green" credentials of the person who uses this excuse.
"Sprawl of the wild"
Mr Holding! Stop growth if you want to save water
Holding, we'll cut back when you do
A STUDY has revealed that an extra million people living in Melbourne will ''end in chaos'' (The Age, 10/10). It appears that Melbourne's roads will not cope with the increase in population.
Then there was the article about water needs (''Spring rain a fillip for dam levels'') and Tim Holding's intention to extract 10 billion litres from the Thomson River. He went on to implore that households cut back on water consumption.
I find this rather disingenuous, given that Mr Holding is a member of John Brumby's pro-population growth Government. Water savings by Melburnians are being squandered by the State Government's profligate approach to population growth. Any surplus saved water should be used to conserve Melbourne's parks and gardens.
Instead, the amenity of our urban and suburban environment is diminished by the growth-at-any-cost attitude of the Brumby and Rudd governments.
Victorians do their best by saving water, reducing carbon dioxide emissions and recycling. These efforts will prove futile when measured against an increased total use of resources due to population increase.
Tim Holding's exhortation that households cut back should be matched with an appropriate policy on population.
Nicholas Howe, Malvern
Fletcher Memorial for Anna Bligh?
There is said to be a lot of botox in the Bligh flesh. Could be dangerous for the Russians to ingest.
She's carrying a lot of parasites as well - from the construction and infrastructure sectors.
It's sad really. She's gone completely feral and is causing uncontrollable growth.
Is there a humane solution, I wonder?
Pink Floyd once suggested the creation of the Fletcher Memorial Home for Incurable Wasters.
Just a suggestion.
Words below:
The Fletcher Memorial Home (Waters)
Take all your overgrown infants away somewhere
And build them a home, a little place of their own.
The Fletcher Memorial
Home for Incurable Tyrants and Kings.
And they can appear to themselves every day
On closed circuit T.V.
To make sure they're still real.
It's the only connection they feel.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, Reagan and Haig,
Mr. Begin and friend, Mrs. Thatcher, and Paisly,
"Hello Maggie!"
Mr. Brezhnev and party.
"Scusi dov'è il bar?"
The ghost of McCarthy,
The memories of Nixon.
"Who's the bald chap?"
"Good-bye!"
And now, adding colour, a group of anonymous latin-
American meat packing glitterati.
Did they expect us to treat them with any respect?
They can polish their medals and sharpen their
Smiles, and amuse themselves playing games for awhile.
Boom boom, bang bang, lie down you're dead.
Safe in the permanent gaze of a cold glass eye
With their favorite toys
They'll be good girls and boys
In the Fletcher Memorial Home for colonial
Wasters of life and limb.
Is everyone in?
Are you having a nice time?
Now the final solution can be applied.
Bathurst rally excuse to kill kangaroos
This episode of killing has been going on for months and is now finished.
The whole excuse of safety is absolutely ridiculous as it cannot ensure any safety whatsoever -
unless they kill each and every kangaroo, so how in anyway does this help with their perceived safety problem?
140 kangaroos have been killed just to show that something has been done and the box can be
ticked completed - that is all.
Fiona Corke
Disgust at Anna Bligh's apparent hatred of our wildlife
Activists have worked hard voluntarily to give advice to the Russians about the atrocities of the commercial kangaroo killing industry. They have proved it is not "humane" or hygienic, or even sustainable. However, Bligh is quite prepared to spend taxpayers' funds to simply NEGATE their efforts for a few million dollars. She clearly is a wildlife hater, and hopefully she will seek political asylum - if the Russians would want her!
Cruel, corrupt Victorian Government
Yes, the Victorian government is cruel and serves the interests of the rich and materialistic, turning its back on democracy and decency.
Sheila Newman, population sociologist
home page
We can't rely on Nature to provide all the water!
Nature's bounty has been generous with heavy rains this September. Even so, Victorian Water Minister Tim Holding is preaching to the people of Victoria to be "realistic" about our water supplies! Our water storages were 95 per cent-plus full in the mid-1990s. However, Melbourne's population in 1995 was estimated as 3,243,000. It has recently surpassed 4 million. Melbourne is expanding by an unprecedented 90,000 people a year, or more than 1700 a week. Melbourne’s population is growing and will be home to five million people faster than previously anticipated.
Melbourne is projected to grow by an average 1.2% per year to 6.8 million in 2056. At this rate of expansion, it would be “realistic” to increase our water supplies by at least the same rate as population growth! Relying on Nature to provide increasing water supplies at a time of prolonged drought will is not realistic!
Our coastlines will need to be littered with desalination plants, and our water costs will continue to escalate. The population growth phenomenon is cruel, corrupt and unrealistic and it will lock the public into debt, even for water, an essential for life.
Natural Sequence Farming
Natural Sequence Farming is predicated on a closed, localised economy; farming without exporting. Whilst it would stop further degradation of the land and would repair land, you would have to stop raising crops for export.
That's a good thing.
The reason we are in trouble is that we have flogged the land to death.
The elites are so stupid that they cannot understand reality and they are so utterly without sense or humour or intelligence that they cannot understand why people might enjoy living rather than work for them and their mini-minded values.
Elite's interests shown to be antithetical to this country's
After reading Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine" of 2007 I began to realise that we are entitled to assume the very worst of the elites now in control of humankind's destiny -- that they are willing to deliberately inflict death, destruction and abject poverty upon millions of fellow human beings, the environment and future generations to satiate their own rapacious greed.
The wilful decision of Australia's elites to increase our population further confirms that view (even though Naomi Klein, herself, unfortunately, largely avoids confronting that 'politically incorrect' question).
All the arguments for population growth have long ago, been shown up, exactly as our common sense and intution would have told us, to be fraudulent hogwash.
There is absolutely no possible way that adding millions more to this dry continent could possibly do anything for this country as a whole except to make its circumstances worse[1].
In the distant past, it was possible that addition of people would have made our industrial economy more effecient, if not more ecologically sustainable, but that point has long since past.
Instead (as I have written a number of times elsewhere) the majority of this country loses out in at least four ways.
1. there is less wealth to go around, so each of us on average must become poorer;
2. the additional damge to the environment and excessive consumption of non-renewable natural resources will cause there to be even less wealth to go around for greater numbers of people, that is assuming that it does not lead to outright ecological collapse;
3. ineffeciencies of scale that cause the cost of provision of goods and services to increase on a per-capita basis once the optimum population has been achieved
4. the transfer of more wealth from the majority to the minority most most dramatically through escalating rents and housing prices, that are driving many formeraly prosperous Australians into poverty.
On top of all that the free market economic dogma that prevents Governments for intervening effectively in the economy causes us to miss out on what economies of scale would be possible through increased population.
That those in control are seeking to bring this about is absolute confirmation that their interests are antithetical to the interests of this country as a whole and that their corrupt grip on this country's levers of power needs to be removed.
Footnotes
1. Just possibly, arguably, more people could be fitted in if we adopted radical measures to fix the environment such as Natural Sequence Farming and consumed natural resources less profligately, but the country is headed in the opposite direction in that regard, too.
Complaint of bias on this site
Editorial comment: Three more comments were since published, apparently by the same person, in response to my #comment-3469">response to the above #comment-3457">comment. I won't be publishing them, except to say that they complain of my editorial approach to the personal attacks in the original comment, repeat the insinuation that we use illegal drugs and accuse us of growing illegal drugs. None of this has any bearing on the topic at hand so I won't be publishing them. (If anyone is curious enough to want to see for themselves how facile were the comments that were posted, I will forward them.) As I wrote, comments which address the topic at hand, whether for or against the stance taken by candobetter are still welcome. - JS
Nuclear Power
This is an excellent article, Sheila. Congratulations.
Anthropocentric arrogance and greed!
Some demographic "experts" think that Australia is a blank canvas and that people pay taxes and consume, so the route to prosperity and more taxes is to just keep adding more people! What about the ecosystems that are collapsing, the Great Barrier Reef suffering from pollution, our abysmal Ramsar wetland desecration, our lack of water, our diminishing wildlife and the struggling of our agriculture? Apart from environmental demands, there are the social, financial and climate change implications of us toppling over sustainable human numbers.
One great failure of the human race is our failure to understand exponential growth. At about 2% per annum increase in population growth, we will double our population about every 35 years! At our growth rate, we will have blown over the 35 million level before 2050.
What are the advantages of cramming more people into Australia? Mass markets, the housing industry, governments all benefit as demands for goods and services are maintained and taxes are collected, but for the average person, it means that finite resources must be distributed between more people, living standards erode and costs escalate.
It is a fallacy, a myth, that we can have continual population growth without eroding and destroying the nation that provides our source of living. It is all about anthropocentric arrogance and greed! Kelvin Thompson's voice is tiny but it needs to start an avalanche of protests.
Shooters as wildlife officers?
I don't know that their hearts would be in it.
Mining Bald Hills Flats
I have children who go to Bald Hills school it doesn't sound like you do. I also have to put up with the dust and eyesore that comes from both Nielsons and the illegal operation at the Bowman's property which is directly next to current proposal. Buffer zones and flood control. What a joke! What a disgrace this has been by the state and local governments to continue to let these operations continue.
It's the scale of things
The industrial scale of agriculture to feed a massive number of people is problematic to say the least. It would be OK to take some of the milk from a lactating cow to give to a couple of people but to make that cow sacrifice ALL its milk to supply maybe hundreds or thousands of people is out of proportion and cruel. The sacrifice of its young and the need to keep the cow in calf annually is obviously detrimental and a in itself a symptom of the unsustainable scale and nature of our agriculture and way of life.
Dog-free suburbs
Have dog-free suburbs. If you want to move in there you must sign an agreement that you will not have dogs.
By Subsisting on Air, We can DOUBLE our population
Proponents of 'green living" lifestyles tell me that by adopting spartan habits and living like Ghandi, we could make room for many more billions of human beings. Makes a lot of sense. Squeeze together more tightly so that more people can fill in the gap. Then repeat the process ad infinitum. But how could we feed such a population? Vegan proselytizers argue that we could do that by abstaining from meat consumption, thereby freeing up more resources to feed more people, who of course, will breed more people who will in turn inflict even greater ecological damage than ever before. Gotta love those efficiency paradoxes! But why stop at veganism? Why not a permanent fast modeled on the lifestyle of cultists who claim to be drawing nourishment exclusively from oxygen?
Perhaps we could become a race of 15 billion “breatharians” who simply subsist on air in a world where thirst is decoupled from water use and hunger is decoupled from food use. As our population grows, so grows the pool of our ideas. As Julian Simon hypothesized, the law of averages would dictate that twice the number of people would double our chance of finding a genius who could invented a technology that would resurrect extinct species and replenish the soil without fossil fuel fertilizers. Failing that, we could experience a decoupling of our temporal existence entirely from a life as disembodied spirts. Freed from our earthly moorings, we would then be free from all ecological constaints, a state of being which growthists have already attained---in their imagination. The sky is the limit!
TM
Pain of ETS for stated goal of only 5% reduction in CO2 insane
The pain we will undergo if the Emissions Trading Scheme were to become law could conceivably make some sense if we had set ourselves a traget for the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions that would make some difference.
I would, nevertheless, still remain opposed to the ETS, but to put ourselves through all this for a goal of a 5% reduction (which in all likelihood won't be achieved anyway because of the Government's record high immigration program) is insane beyond belief.
Knowing that no political leaders can possibly be that stupid, it is obvious that their actual goals cannot be the same as their stated goals.
White Paper on climate change
Kevin Rudd's white paper on climate change meant that our reduction on greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 was only to be 5% on 1990 outputs, maybe more depending on what other countries decide to do. This was because of our high population growth - 45% extra by 2020 compared to 1990. Now our climate change minister has negated this by "de - linking" population growth from emissions! Surely a contradiction? What are they smoking in Canberra? The ETS will be another tax on our already over-taxed natural resources. Why are people so sleepy?
Is privatisation in the interests of our nation?
If population growth is the route to a more "vibrant" economy, how is that Queensland is cash-strapped and must privatise their public assets?
Queensland's population growth has averaged 2.4 per cent during the past five years, far ahead of the nation's population growth. During the past five years net interstate migration alone has seen 130,000 people move to Queensland. Now they must build the infrastructure to cater for them.
During the past 10 years, Queensland has invested almost double in infrastructure than Victoria and NSW. Queensland spends almost double the amount per capita on roads than NSW. On average, Queensland and WA combined will annually spend more per capita on infrastructure than the rest of the country for the next four years.
Bernie Frazer gets $2500 a day to sell his privatisation policy. Queensland Rail and the Port of Brisbane are destined to be sold off to raise money for a cash-starved government. Queensland Rail's freight business, the Port of Brisbane and Queensland Motorways are destined for the auction block as part of Premier Anna Bligh's plan to privatise about $15 billion of state assets. His appointment comes after the Government has already spent $1 million on an advertising blitz to promote its building program and plans for an even bigger campaign to explain the asset sales, including letters to every Queensland household.
Is this acting in the interest of the nation, and "working families" and for our youth who will have to compete with international interests to find employment and training?
Not only financially, but environmentally, they are being forced to create the Traveston Crossing Dam and endanger biodiversity and natural ecological features. Koalas could be extinct in 7 years!
Lungfish are found at both Paradise and Traveston Crossing dam sites, and are one of three nationally-threatened species whose survival has become an issue in the development of Traveston. The public do not want the Traveston Crossing Dam. Peter Garrett's response should have been a clear "no", not a "yes" with 1200 conditions!
Unsustainable population means that our quality of life, and the quality of what makes Australia unique, are being eroded.
Caring for the planet or being 'green' nothing to be ashamed of
Perhaps you do not understand 'solistalgia' which describes the sadness felt by people who love nature when they see the natural world around them being destroyed. Or perhaps you do not fully comprehend the magnitude of planetary destruction perpetrated by humans? Or then again perhaps you only care about humans and not other species?
Why do you assume that I only care for animals and the environment but not humans? Is caring about others species-specific? It would be wonderful if everyone developed compassion for all species not just humans. Animals after all do have feelings too. Your assumption that I am a depressive individual who does nothing to help humans is baffling. How could you possibly know?
Please try to understand why others feel the way they do before you judge them so harshly. I am not alone in feeling grief at watching this beautiful earth die due to man's greed - in fact there is a growing number of people who are responding to the call of Mother Earth. There is nothing to be ashamed of in caring for the planet or being 'green.'
Without biodiversity humans will perish. Einstein said that if bees all die then in 4 years no life will remain on this planet.
This is not 'our' planet. We share it with other beings. Please try to develop tolerance and lovingkindness for all. That is the only thing that will save us now.
Insulting insinuations and useless gratuitous advice unwelcome
The above comment was posted on 2 October. I make no apology for having waited 5 days until I found the time to think of a response before publishing it.
We welcome comments expressing disagreement with views put on this site, but not personal attacks, particularly unhelpful gratuitous advice and insulting insinuations such as was included above.
Clearly the person who wrote the comment has not made the effort to understand the harm caused to the environment and the local community by the Rally.
To accuse people, who have freely given their time, money and energy to protect their community and environment from corporate greed, of selfishness demonstrates what seems to me to be wanton ignorance.
Murdoch Press rails against population decline, even in Japan
Incredibly, the Murdoch Newsmedia considers population decline in clearly over-populated Japan as a threat, rather than a potential salvation. Here's Greg Sheridan writing in "Survival rests on social revolution" in the Australian of 3 Sep 09:
The central crisis of Japan today is not economic, much less military. It is demographic. Put simply, the Japanese are disappearing. The demographic projections are naturally a little imprecise, but the consensus figure is that Japan's population will decline by one-quarter by 2050, to just 95 million people. And something not far short of 50 per cent of those people will be aged 60 or older.
...
... At this stage the numerical population decline is small. But this is like a toboggan going down a ski slope. It starts off slow but gathers pace at an ever accelerating rate.
...
To reverse this decline, Japan needs to do three things, each of which would constitute a social revolution.
First, it needs to embrace immigration; second, adopt all policies possible to encourage the birth of children; third, redefine the place of women in Japanese society.
...
Second, Japan must start having children again. The birth dearth in Japan has many deep cultural causes, but it also has many superficial financial causes. Notwithstanding Japan's fiscal dire straits, Hatoyama is surely right to offer a generous baby bonus cum child allowance.
The third policy that Sheridan prescribes is "a fundamental change in the role and status of women in Japan" that would effectively allow them to participate in the workforce in greater numbers.
For years, Australians, who considered themselves politically progressive looked forward to the breaking down of barriers preventing the participation of women in the workforce.
But it has become a double edged sword.
Today, at least two incomes, rather than one, have become necessary for meet the basic living expenses, particularly housing.
On the one hand, many women have gained, through participation in the workforce the equality of status that seemed unachievable, when they were confined to the role of mother and housekeeper, but on the other they find themselves without as much time and energy to care for their children.
So, it is not altogether clear who actually gained from the same feminist revolution that Greg Sheridan is now prescribing for Japan.
Bathurst
This is so utterly distressing and there were other alternatives. I reallythink this is about MONEY, once again greed.........Kangaroo's avoid people as much as possible.We encroach on the natural habitat all the time maybe some humans should be culled.
Imagine the outcry if a Kangaroo, walked around with a gun killing humans for taking the only places they can live and that is on the land
Importing overseas workers not kindly for the aged
Original subject was: "The aged are not disastrous." - JS
The tax base is not contributed to by more children. Nor is it contributed to by the non-aged who are a burden on welfare and justice.
Many of the aged contribute to the tax base.
Most of the aged contribute to society as volunteers and child-carers.
Solutions to the aged who need more medications and care include:
1. The increasingly healthy aged who still contribute, socially and intellectually, not just in material production. Modern methods of production mean that very few workers are really needed to keep the rest of us alive. Old people with super and investments are not even a tax burden.
(And look at the average age of our farmers today, and how may are over 70!) People at 70 are today mostly healthier than most people were at 60 even a few decades ago.
2. Humane solutions to the big problem that we all dread – living death as vegetables, undignified and cared for by uncaring strangers. Heroic and costly medical efforts to keep them alive (e.g. when pneumonia used to be called the old man’s friend, for a quick and relatively easy death) contrast with the lack of medical care across the world for people generally. There are surely ways to prevent voluntary euthanasia not being abused, and criteria for when as in King Lear
‘he hates him who would on the rack of this rough world stretch him out longer.’
At almost 79, I can write more on that angle.
3. The economics of who depends upon who. Childcare is more costly than aged care apart from that ‘Struldbrug’ cohort
4. Importing overseas workers to care for the aged is not kindly for the aged, who need their own culture. The reasons why overseas workers are needed when Australians will not take the jobs need addressing. My daughter and grandson have both worked ‘holiday jobs’ in aged care and their comments on conditions for the workers are relevant. It is hard work and should be paid accordingly and conditions and status need much improvement, for the sake of workers and patients both.
Our Economy should be our Slave, not our Master.
Japanese workers, however, are still the world's best when it comes to skill and dedication to excellence. In automobiles, electronic cameras, camcorders and several other export industries, Toyota , Honda, Sony, Mitsubishi, Hitachi , Mitsui, Canon and Nikon are highly regarded, highly competitive, brand names. Australia's production has diminished, and we depend more on exports and overseas skills. By 2055 in Japan, only 1.2 workers will support each senior. Yet the Japanese continue to reject immigration. Maybe the future will show that Japan's refusal to invite immigrants will be beneficial with regards to conservation and climate change costs. Once the baby-boomers pass away, there will be an opportunity for birth and deaths to be more in balance. At the same time, older people deserve better than to be regarded as liabilities and burdens! Our Economy should be our Slave, not our Master.
Japan not quite that utopian
Hi Vivienne,
I thoroughly agree with the main drift of your article. What you say about Japan is also largely true, though you paint a slightly more utopian picture from the one I see here at ground zero. One thing is that we are looking forward to seeing what the new government's position on population is going to be. The LDP for a long time has pushed the policy that population decline is a BAD THING and forced the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare to implement population growth policies such as subsidies for larger families (though much of the population sees this as a rather feeble King Canute trying to reverse the 'tide' of lower birthrates). Given the prognosis on global food and energy problems it is absolutely crucial that the Japanese grasp firmly the notion that population decline is a GOOD THING. As it is practically everywhere now.
Petrolheads vs kangaroos.
I am completely over this type of mindset ie; killing wildlife for 'human safety'. It is such major spin. How about we 'sustainably cull' petrolheads for the safety of the community, the environment, the flora and fauna, our reputation in the world and the future of our country? These people are takers, not givers.
Marine Park proposed to protect Camden Sound
The West Australian government is moving to protect the largest whale nursery in the southern hemisphere.
The Environment Minister Donna Faragher says the government is creating a marine park at Camden Sound, off the Kimberley coast. “The Government recognises the Kimberley as one of Australia’s special places. That is why we are protecting Camden Sound, making it a marine park, and developing and implementing our Kimberley Science and Conservation Strategy,” the Premier Colin Barnett said. This is truly encouraging good news!
They don't expect much opposition! Is this enough? Maybe the whole EEZ around Australia should be a marine park!
The most inconvenient truth of all ...
If people were truly concerned about the drought they would stop eating meat and dairy. The government would shut down this unsustainable industry and train the farmers to grow vegetables instead.
Here are the reasons:-
For a start, the livestock industry has deforested the land to create grazing land for cows and sheep. Trees create shade for the land and the root structures help keep moisture in the soil. Hoofed animals compact the soil causing soil erosion and destruction of soil ecosystems. Biodiversity is also diminished along with the habitat. Because cows drink a lot and require so much water for their production including watering the grains fed to them, they are depleting the rivers and aquifers. Not to mention water pollution and greenhouse gases which surpass GHG created by the entire transport industry.
* You save more water by not eating a pound of beef than you do by not showering for an entire year.
* Amount of water used in production of the average cow: sufficient to float a destroyer
* Gallons of water needed to produce a pound of wheat: 25
* Gallons of water needed to produce a pound of beef: 5,000
* Each vegetarian saves 3,700 gallons daily
* It takes 4,000 glasses of water to create 1 glass of milk
* 550 litres of water to produce enough flour for a loaf of bread and 7,000 litres of water to produce 100 grams of beef.
Crops grown for farm animals in the US require almost half the water supply and 80% of the corn crop and 70% of its grain.
Sheep and cattle in Australia are producing around 14% of Australia’s total greenhouse emissions, which is more than transport.
In 2006 the dairy industry in Australia spent more than $500 million on grains and concentrates and became the single biggest user of feed grain of all the animal industries.
That grain could have been fed directly to humans.
Yet instead what are we doing? Thinking of importing grain to feed the cows. Are we stupid or just incapable of change?
How many more reasons do we need before the whole thing comes crashing down? More pertinently, what are YOU, the reader going to do about it? Indeed it all depends on you and me as we can never rely on governments to fix this as they will always want the rural vote.
Sir Paul McCartney said 'The single most important thing you can do to save the planet is to become a vegetarian.' Start with one day a week (Meat-Free Monday etc) and increase until you reach your goal. It's not difficult and it's fun. Besides you will have more energy and feel healthier! You have nothing to lose.
Menkit
"It’s embarrassing for Australia that we eat our own wildlife ....I’m here to tell you it’s just not right. Simply do not buy, use or eat kangaroo products”
~ Steve Irwin
Sign the most important petition ever created to help kangar
Where are the non-lethal long-term solutions from Bathurst?
My email to the Mayor and Councillors of Bathurst:
I am distressed and disturbed by the "cull" of 140 or more kangaroos for the sake of "safety" during the Bathurst 1000 car race. Surely with all your collective intellect there could be some actual solution rather than just using bullets! These animals are indigenous to Australia and are part of our landscape. Instead of blasting these gentle animals away even though they belong here, surely there could be some more permanent and long term solutions to wildlife on roads? Europe, Canada and USA have done some wonderful work with wildlife crossings - either overpasses or underpasses, and wildlife adapt so readily. We in Australia still have a Colonial attitude that humans are the kings of the land and everything else must get out of the way!
Where is the compassion, and patriotism?
There has been work done by Dr Donald Ramp with artificial dog urine to keep animals off the roads, but a more long term solution is wildlife corridors and wildlife crossings.
NSW had the world rally in a National Park! Now this massacre!
What about some long term non-lethal solutions to road kill, wildlife and human safety?
Rally supporter offers gratuitous and useless advice
Title was mine. See also response below. - JS
If your life can be ruined in a relatively short episode, I suggest you go & do something for people other than yourself.
I am sick of reading the comments of people who over react.
Maybe you could document your use of drugs, legal and otherwise, your diagnosed mental states and how you try to overcome the challenges of life.
I've had the great fortune to see the highs and lows of life, suffered from the effects, NOT given up, despite the temptation... but best of all, learnt from them and KNOWN that life can be hard. But That Rally wasn't !!
Get off your selfish seat and do something positive.
wombats and quarks
And they say the same thing about sub-atomic particles!
Sheila Newman, population sociologist
home page
Bathurst kangaroos
No real pretence even that this is in the animals' best interests (to die) as authorities sometimes make our when they are going in for the kill.
In this case it is clearly so the kangaroos don't get in the way of a car race.
This is Australia's utter disgrace and should be broadcast all over the world- Make it global -send this article around!
NSW river red gums
I would prefer to pay people to either do nothing, stand on their heads or do whatever they do well than to destroy the environment in the name of "jobs".
Kevin Rudd excited
Please...we all know its all about money...More people ... more workers ... more taxes ......Taxes everywhere we turn in fact..
Killing of kangaroos
It is staggering that a bunch of dickheads with a combined IQ lower than the number of cards in a deck, can waste a limited recource for NO good reason, and whilst further polluting the atmosphere, have several hundred of one of our only two national animals blown to bits. Equal parts pathos and bathos at Bathurst.
The goal-posts are being continually moved
Michael Ryan, forest scientist, of VicForests, Melbourne (The Age letters 1/10) says that "management" of our forests, including its fauna and flora, requires a "holistic approach" to consider social and economic impacts, as well as environmental ones! However, with Victoria having only 8% of old-growth forests remaining, it means that the goal-posts are being continually moved towards favouring the social and economic impacts of forest management (read "logging"), and environmental-wildlife conservation arguments increasingly being pushed to the edge of the "big picture"!
We are continually being challenged by the argument of "jobs" and "economic benefits" of environmental destruction, but as human populations and their needs explode, our natural environment and the grand old stalwarts of Time are being consumed, all with the tick of "sustainable" of course!
Repco: flimsy barricades?
Hi Dharnishta
Thanks for your comment. Since writing the article I had the pleasure of meeting you briefly at the local Byrrill Creek community hall. If you happened to take photos of their flimsy barriers I'd be happy to merge into the article. It speaks volumes about Repco's lack of sincerity when they say they are responsible and environmentally friendly. I heard also they put no barriers at Platypus lagoon. Lucky that the race was cancelled. A crash over this narrow bridge could have been devastating. Were you at the stage on the day of the race by the way?
menkit
"It’s embarrassing for Australia that we eat our own wildlife ....I’m here to tell you it’s just not right. Simply do not buy, use or eat kangaroo products”
~ Steve Irwin
Sign the most important petition ever created to help kangar
Immigration Australian Government & The Majority of Australians
Editorial comment: We have removed a comment entitled "Immigration Australian Government & The Majority of Australian" because it contained assertions that Muslims and some Chinese were not sincere in their commitment to the Australian way of life. Whilst the author probably sincerely believes this and candobetter supports free speech, we cannot really publish something like this without strong evidence. It would contravene the racial vilification laws and would be unfair to Chinese and Muslim Australians who are good citizens. In fact, if you look at the behaviour of many of Australia's home-grown politicians, you might consider them a greater threat than any new immigrant. The writer of the comment might seek some specific evidence for more specific allegations in books like Sheehan's Among the Barbarians or his other book, Girls like you. At candobetter our preoccupation is more with population numbers than with immigration origins, but, since we are also for a free press and realise that many Australians have social reasons to resent high immigration or specific immigration streams, we prefer not to screen comments if we can. In this case we felt that we had to. We would also welcome comments from immigrants on this subject and would like them to know that we do not discriminate.
nuclear power and population growth
I pricked up- my ears a couple of years ago when then Prime Minister (in case anyone's forgotten him ) John Howard started making nuclear noises under a smokescreen of concern about climate change and greenhouse gas emissions.
Instead of the obvious measure to take with regard to this- i.e reduce consumption and human population growth to reduce impact- the "solution" is yet another industry -nuclear. Howard was the vanguard.
Agrees with Ted: Transition Towns not radical enough
Ted, you are right. TT is not radical enough. They carry the genteel appeal. No point banging your head against that wall.
We are forced out of the housing market
Our massive immigration program is threatening our housing affordability. This population growth is making the banking industry rich, as well as those in the building and land development industries. However, even middle earners are being squeezed out of the market, or into apartments, or further out from Melbourne to outer reaches! A few get richer from the misfortunes of a majority. How can children be expected to live in high density dwellings? This is Australia, that was the "lucky country"! We are suffering from the same woes as UK.
Why isn't Gavin Jennings doing his job?
As Victoria's environment minister, and head of the DSE that is supposed to be managing our wildlife, he should have been with the protesters! However, was quite willing to believe there were "no long-footed potaroos" in the area and sign away the homes of these endangered animals! Pity our wildlife, sold out for a few tonnes of woodchips from massive trees up to 600 years old.
Agree with Vivienne
Great article, Vivienne. Just wondering if you would like to be a part of an article for a local paper for World Vegan Day? You can contact me at rbm12[AT]live.com.au.
Humans must decide to act morally to save the planet
Normally species reproduce until they run out of natural resources and with competition with other species, they stop growing. Humans don't have natural predators, and we are on top of the food chain. We, supposedly, are the most intelligent of all other species, and naturally superior. These rights though bring enormous responsibilities. WE must decide act morally and ethically to not over-ride the planet and steal from future generations and other species.
The battle of indigenous Peruvian communities continues!
The conflict between Peru's national government and Amazon indigenous leaders continues in Lima in the wake of a rainforest uprising that left several dead in June. (17th Sept) Antonio Iviche, president of the Native Federation of the Río Madre de Dios (FENAMAD), warned that if Hunt Oil doesn't quit the territory within a week, indigenous communities will physically expel them. "The project will destroy the forest and affect animals we use for food," Iviche says.
Several indigenous people in Peru are suing Repsol-YPF and US company Hunt Oil over their plans to explore for oil on their land. They say that oil exploration would violate local peoples’ fundamental human rights to ‘enjoy a balanced environment’. They have not been consulted over oil exploration in the area as they are legally entitled to be.
The Reserve is the source of fresh water that the people depend on.
Local indigenous organisation FENAMAD has filed a lawsuit asking for an injunction to be placed on both the companies’ activities.
Peru is putting the finishing touches on a highway that will connect the heart of the Amazon to Pacific ports. The project will create an export pipeline for timber, minerals, and agricultural products to the world's fasting-growing consumer. Oil, gas, and mining companies are already setting up shop in the area, sometimes in conflict with indigenous groups and protected areas. Roads cause the fragmenting habitats, altering microclimates, creating highways for invasive species, blocking movement of wildlife, and claiming animals as roadkill.
The laws of use of chemicals for agriculture in Peru are relaxed, which corporations exploit. The Amazon indigenous people, who have lived in harmony with their environment for many years, are being forced off their land. This is the reason for the urgency in the struggle for defence of the Amazon — the lungs of the earth.
Record high immigration
Kelvin Thompson just needs to convince a hundred plus other MPs to reflect the will of their constituents on this issue. Attacks on Indian student immigrants are a sign of damage to social cohesion caused by the high immigration foisted on Australia by succesive federal governments.
A good clue to Govt's regard for the wellbeing of the rest of us
Thank you. Glad to know that it is appreciated.
Of course, much more of the credit belongs to Roy and other supporters of Schappelle Corby and the web sites freeschapelle.com.au and freeschapelle.net.
As I had already said, I had wrongfully and unfairly thought that Schappelle Corby was someone who had largely gotten herself into the terrible predicament that she is now in. Even if it seemed that her treatment was harsh, I largely accepted the rationale that there was little that the Government could do without being too diplomitically ham-fisted.
However it has recently become clear that if either the Howard Government had the will, Schapelle would be a free woman today.
The Indonesian Government would not have dared allow this outrageous miscarriage of justice to stand if either Government has simply made known to the Australian public, the Indonesian public and the international community the plain simple facts that prove her innocent.
That they did not gives us a good indication of these governments' and our mainstream newsmedia's true regard for the wellbeing of ordinary Australian citizens.
Others can be found in this site's coverage of just some of the policies so enormously detrimental to the wellbeing of the people of this country: The fire sales in Queensland and NSW of publicly owned assets, very likely to be snapped up by foreign corporations, the removal of restrictions on foreigh citizens including Chinese citizens acquiring houses sought by Australian homebuyers, allowing University places to be auctioned on the internatioanl market to the highest bidder and be used as means to buy citizneship, record high immigration, etc,, etc.
Penny Wong doesn't believe her own lies!
Australia’s per capita emissions are nearly twice the OECD average and more than four times the world average.
Australia’s per capita greenhouse gas emissions due to energy are the third highest of any OECD country.
Australia’s per capita electricity consumption is about 22 per cent above the OECD average.
Transport emissions represent about 14 per cent of Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Australia’s per capita greenhouse gas emissions due to transport are the fourth highest of any OECD country and the seventh highest in the world.
Livestock emissions from enteric fermentation play a large role in the emissions profile of the agriculture sector. 66 per cent of Australia's agricultural emissions are from livestock, due to our large numbers of cattle and sheep.
Land use, changes to land use and forestry are all major sources of greenhouse gas emissions.
Who uses energy, transport, clears forests, "manages" landscapes, eats and trades in livestock products? Not native animals! Humans, of course! How can a burgeoning population, logically, be "de-linked" from the major source of greenhouse gas emissions?
Penny Wong has got stuck in her own goobledegook, her own lies! She herself is intelligent enough to know what she is saying is NOT true. There are too many phonies in our government.
Question for Climate Minister Penny Wong
QUESTION FOR CLIMATE CHANGE MINISTER PENNY WONG
I understand that Australia, if it keeps to its present course, is projected to grow its population by some 14 million people, or 65%, in just 25 years. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong of the growthist Labor administration of Kevin Rudd, was asked this question on September 21/09:
Interviewer:
"Minister, Australia's population is projected to increase by 65% to the level of 30m people by 2050. During that same period, the government is committed to cutting our carbon emissions by 60%. Aren't those goals or those facts mutually exclusive? How are we going to massively cut carbon as our population continues to massively grow?"
Penny Wong:
"Well, absolutely not, because the key issue with reducing emissions is that we have to de-link our levels of carbon pollution from economic growth and population growth. We have to ... Whereas the last few hundred years emissions growth - that is, growth in our carbon pollution - has essentially tracked our population and economic growth, we have to break that link and that the whole world has to break that link and so does Australia. So the key issue here is breaking that link, not, not trying to reduce population." http://candobetter.org/SheilaNewman
Letter to the Minister:
Penny, I have a weight problem. My doctor tells me that if I persist in eating a litre of ice-cream every day, I will increase my weight by 65% in just 25 months. But since it is chocolate ice-cream, I feel it is racist to pin the blame for my growing girth on it. I also feel that it is possible to “de-couple” my weight gain from my caloric intake.
In fact, while I now wolf down 4,000 calories a day, I believe that I should look forward to doubling that intake by 2035. I need a caloric stimulus package that will kick-start my body and brain from its current slow-down. I can compensate for any negative consequences by metabolizing the ice cream more efficiently. I call it “smart gluttony”, and already the environmental movement is wanting to adopt the phrase as a slogan for their “green living” tips.
If I buy green-coloured ice cream, lime-flavoured, it would be a symbolic statement of my fresh approach to a sustainable future for my body. As we know, cosmetic labeling in and of itself usually suffices for a substantive policy shift.
Ms. Wong, I must congratulate you for your faith in human ingenuity. Julian Simon was right. Malthusians chronically underestimate our intelligence. With enough brainpower, we can have our cake (or ice cream) and eat it too. Ice cream that doesn’t consist of calories. Growth that doesn’t result in carbon emissions. The Peter Pan School of Greenwash. Make a wish that growth will have no ecological cost, and that wish will make it true. Pure magic. Hey, I have seen that trick unfold in Canada too. We signed on to the Kyoto accords in 1990 with the promise that we would reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 6% by 2012 and now we are 30% beyond our emissions level in 1990. Of course, that had nothing to do with the fact that immigrant-driven growth has increased our population level by 19%. Like the environmental establishment, we simply ‘de-coupled’ our imagination from reality. Population growth, where? Who cares?
Oh to be young again. Hopeful, credulous and cornucopian.
Tim Murray
September 25/09
Well done candobetter
Well done to broaden coverage on this justice gone awry issue. I would never have read about Schapelle anywhere else, since I just thought it was a sideshow. So you have done good here for someone who is suffering terribly. I hope Schapelle gets to hear about her new support network and takes strength from it. Remember that the darkest hour comes before the dawn!
Our Parliament is making theatre on climate change
Our Parliament is making theatre out of addressing climate change. This is supposed to the moral challenge of our generation. However, we have a "climate change" Minister who can't make the correlation (link) between rising populations and rising greenhouse gas emissions? The biggest polluters are being given millions of dollars exemptions, and we are still exporting coal! The funds for solar energy rebates, however, dried up when too many people showed interest.
The charade will continue to Copenhagen and we will be told that it failed to come to any global agreements! This is inevitable, without any real commitment. The time-bombs of over-population and polluting industries have the support of the Economy, so with many contradictory challenges, our Labor government can only obey their masters - the big corporations and the big polluters!
Just Petrol Heads with a skin full - Orks!
From the base level of debate offered by the supporters of the rally and critical of any criticism only on the basis of 'how dare anyone criticise us wanting a bit of fun' I relegate them to the generalisation of being petrol heads with a skin full of Jack Daniels or Jim Beam and the intelligence of Tolkien or Warhammer 40,000 Orks.
In doubt? I quote the asinine rodomontade from above:
"Yes human babies are important. We would not even dare let them be anywhere near the dust, So why let lesser creatures suffer for our profit? and ignorance? Fun and attitude that says "bugger the planet I want racing cars!''
Q.E.D.
The real driver of mass-immigration...
...is the warm body needs of the construction, banking and real estate lobbies. The construction of housing (and associated infrastructure, like roads and schools) can only be justified with constant population growth. Bulk imports of home/rental unit-dwellers (and motorists, schoolchildren) supplies this need. This is what lead to the creation of those sprawling European suburbs. These are not 'guest workers': they've essentially moved in permanently and are largely on welfare.
The David Suzuki Foundation avoids the population and immigration issue. This may be because their donors, HBC and BMO-Financial, have lobbied for increasing immigration to 400k/year. (More people means more mortgages and other financial products.) Philanthropic payolla also made overpopulation-driven immigration a taboo topic at the Sierra Club, thanks to David Gelbaum's nearly $100M in donations. Will Ruby Dhalla's actuarial time bomb, Bill C428, the façade has finally fallen off of the 'we need immigrants to shore up the pension system' argument.
Jeffersonian democracy
Meaning, 'of the people, by the people, for the people'?
Sheila Newman, population sociologist
home page
Supports Kelvin Thomson
This was sent to me through the feedback form. - JS
Just wanted to lend my support to the many who are getting behind this issue. Either we actively work towards stabilising then reducing population or the resulting forces (famine, extreme weather patterns) will do it for us.
Congratulations Kelvin - you've said what needs to be said!!
What do we have to lose?
Well said, Kevin. There really is no attractive alternative.
Rudd against 'Jeffersonian democracy' in Australia, too
In his defence of the Afghan war Prime Minister Kevin Rudd stated:
"My definition of success in Afghanistan is not the creation of a Jeffersonian democracy, let us be clear about that,
"I think there has been a degree of misty eyedness about that from time to time.
"Remember this country has essentially come from a feudal past and having been there a number of times myself, I understand something at least of the conditions on the ground."
I think it would also be safe to assume that Kevin Rudd has no intention of bringing Jeffersonian democracy to Australia, either.
Given the way that the wishes of the Australian public have been ignored on virtually every critical issue in recent years --- higher immigration, privatisation, public private partnerships, forced local government amalgamantions, overdevelopment, reductions in workers wages and conditions, failure to protect the environment, etc --- in favour of the corporations that his Government serves, it would seem that, instead, Rudd is taking Australia precisely back to the same feudal past that he claims he wishes to lift Afghanistan out of.
Vote on population growth in The Age today!
Can Australia sustain a population growth of 500,000 per year? The Age
Vote today Sept 23.
Editorial comment: Thanks for this Vivienne. The final results out of 1687 votes cast are:
Yes - 22%
No - 78%
Whilst the polls can be said to be unscientific, if a large number of polls give similar results, then we can gain increasingly confident in their results. All polls that I am aware of have returned similar results. A Sydney Morning Herald poll about immigration, held on 17 Sep 09, mentioned in another comment asked the question "Is immigration too high?". Of 1326 votes casts, the results were:
Yes - 73%
No - 27%
Another Age poll on a related topic that can still be found on the same page was:
Migration revamp : Do you support the Federal Government radically overhauling its immigration policy?
Yes - 84%
No - 16%
Total Votes: 44 Poll date: 31/08/09
Possibly the ambiguity of the question might have beenone factor which would have dissuaded more from participating in that poll. Of those who did participate, I think it seems more likely to me that they would have wanted the immigration policy to be overhauled in the direction of reducing the rate of immigration
The stark contradiction between what the public clearly wants, according to every poll of which I have been made aware, and what the politicians, supposedly acting on their behalf with their best interests at heart, is once again, stark,
Is this the sort of 'democracy' that Australian soldiers are now fighting to bring to Afghanistan? Is this the sort of 'democracy' that Australian soldiers fought to bring to Iraq?
Saving the planet one step at a time
Have you heard of climate change?
Temperatures are getting higher. Storms are getting worse. Ice is melting and sea levels are rising. Portions of the coast of Bangladesh are likely to go underwater, lost forever. Millions will become homeless. The ability of the earth to sustain people is threatened.
Why is climate change happening?
Because people are burning up fossil fuels (diesel, petrol, natural gas, coal) at such rapid rates that future generations are now threatened.
Is it possible to slow climate change?
Yes, but we cannot continue to waste time. Carbon dioxide levels are rising rapidly. That is where the number 350 comes in. If we can limit CO2 in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million then we can avoid the worst of the harm to come.
Is there anything we can do?
No one person can stop climate change but everyone contributes something significant. We can slow out own use of fossil fuels by walking and cycling and taking cycle rickshaws rather than using motorized transport. We can reduce our use of electricity. We can avoid, as a nation, burning coal (pure carbon) or selling it to others to burn. We can encourage the government to act to encourage reductions in fuel use and to encourage walking, cycling, and rickshaws.
This will mean making some changes. Fortunately, most of those changes are likely to increase rather than reduce our quality of life. Imagine being able to cycle safely in Dhaka. Imagine the air being fresh and clean. Imagine children and youth being able to play in side streets. If we move our focus from cars to people, from travelling long distances to accessing basic needs close to home, we can reduce congestion and all the misery it causes, We can have more time with family and for the other important parts of life.
Remember 350 is not just a number. It is not just an ideal. It is something we can all work to make a reality
Originally published on dhaka-rickshaw.blogspot.com.
A Rally supporter wastes more space
I'd like to say, I feel like my IQ has dropped from reading 2 paragraphs of that rubbish.
Get a life, you waste of space.
Editorial comment: The title was mine. The contributor did not supply one. This is not the kind of post we would normally encourage as it is a personal attack and sheds no light on the issue at hand. However, I guess it is still of some value to allow our readers to see, for themselves, the quality of Rally supporters' thinking. My inclination is not to publish similar comments in future. - JS, 22 Sep 09
Bring Schapelle home
Well the police has now busted a group importing drugs through Sydney airport. How much more does Schapelle have to say she is innocent.
These guys could also have been exporting drugs out of Australia.
There is no evidence that the drugs were Schapelle's. We have a young innocent lady slowly going insane because of the ignorance of the Australian Government and police. Come on Australia make this night mare end and help bring Schapelle home.
good journalism
You might start with candobetter.org journalists. At least they try to write real news and political concerns and relate them to what is happening. Who else does? Some of the writers here are good and they are fearless. It's not like they get paid; they are committed. And they don't just write about one thing.
When is the bucket full?
Pouring water into a bucket has an inevitable result. It fills up. When does it fill up? Well when the available capacity of the bucket is reached. Then the water spills over. Continuing to pour water into the bucket only, once full, sees the same amount being poured, spillover. How do we measure the capacity of a bucket to know how much water it can hold without spilling over?
Perhaps a balloon is a more apt metaphor. Filling a balloon with water allows the balloon to expand to take in more water. It is more accommodating than a fixed size bucket, but creates a more explosive risk than a bucket. Once capacity is reached, the balloon can fail and cause the entire contents to be lost and the balloon to be destroyed.
Perhaps a city is a more apt metaphor. Pouring more people from elsewhere into a city has an inevitable result. It fills up. But it fills up in different way that are not obvious and are somewhat more complex and insidious. Available capacity is first filled up, then when demand exceeds supply, prices rise favouring the rich and excluding the poor. No discrimination is made between those here before and those just arrived. It is called discrimination. A city can then get denser to allow more people to occupy a given land area. A ciy just becomes more crowded but it can 'absorb'. Some argue that this makes a city vibrant and bustling which are signs of being a busy economy and productivity. Others argue that denser cities dilutes lifestyle values of open space are replaced by congestion and higher prices driven by higher demand.
When does a city fill up? Well when the available capacity is reached, but unlike the bucket, the people are allowed to spill over into the surrounding countryside. Profiteers encourage this because vacant land is considered less valuable than occupied land. It is a bit like the balloon that swells to allow more water to fill it into a bigger size, but unlike a balloon that has a breaking strain, the city according to Rudd's federal government, has no braking strain. This government promise to catch up with population strains with infrastructure spending. Australia has a new federal department called Infrastructure Australia. Infrastructure Australia is about accommodating more people into cities. Governments seem to think that the growth of a city's limits is unlimited. The population spillover into the countryside grows the metropolis. Growth is perceived as good and countryside as an available resource to accommodate that growth. What is wrong wth a city like Melbourne growing denser? How do we measure the capacity of a bucket and larger than Los Angeles. If growth is good then a Los Angeles, which is really big, must be a utopic goal to Rudd's government.
Ask them if they aspire to see Melbourne exceed Los Angeles and if they don't ask them why. If they say that Los Angeles is too big, then ask them to quantify 'full'. Then ask them to qualify 'full'.
In a sea of biased journalism, name some worthy islands
So if we can't trust The Age or The Sydney Morning Herald, or the Courier Mail in this sea of bias journalism and propaganda, where can we find worthy journalism in Australia to set as aspiring benchmarks?
smiling rapists
Unfortunately, I think you give too much credit to the Age editors, publishers, board and the government. Sadly this was not tongue in cheek. People are gradually waking up to the extent of propaganda we are subjected to. This kind of article reminds me of the sort of thing that local medieval populations, captive to the pulpit as a source of news and information were subject to. In Melbourne (and the rest of Australia) people believe that their governments and media are basically okay, like mum and dad, with a few faults but nothing serious. Unfortunately some children do have monsters for parents and Australia does not have kindly responsible and representative governments or media anymore, if it ever did. Judge not by the smiley face on your leader; judge by their actions and the laws they make.
Sheila Newman, population sociologist
home page
This is like blaming victims of rape for the crime!
Just maybe this Age writer was being "tongue in cheek"? Let's hope so, because the suggestion that gardens are responsible for rising greenhouse gas emissions by causing people to drive further to work is absolutely warped thinking and a discredit to the intelligence of readers! It is forcing population growth that is not Green, not gardens! On the contrary, we should be encouraging people to harvest their own water and grow their own vegetables. Urban sprawl into arable land and market gardens is causing the rise in "food miles". Blaming gardens for greenhouse emissions is like blaming trees for bushfires! It is like blaming victims of rape for the crime because of their being in the "wrong place" at the "wrong time"! With an economy dependant on a rising population, any effort to address climate change and reduce our carbon footprint is negated by more people in the equation!
Kevin Rudd "excited" by our population growth?
Do we really want a world in with habitat destruction, loss of biodiversity, the adoption of unsustainable and intensive animal production systems, the displacement of wildlife populations and the transmigration of exotic species accelerating? We used to be a nation with a small population and a large amount of pristine land with wildlife. Now we have a rising population with habitat being destroyed by human expansion! The assessment that there will be over 35 million people in Australia by 2050 is understated! At our growth rate, we will have doubled our population to over 42 million BEFORE 2050, and double every 36 years!
There is not ONE long term problem that can be solved by adding more people! What problems can be solved by crowding our cities with more people? We can’t have wall-to-wall people! We hear a lot about sustainability, and it is about not destroying but conserving the environment, our life-support system, for future generations of all species. We hear so much, but nothing is being done! A rising population AND a rising consumption of diminishing natural resources is NOT sustainable .
We are facing global threats of shortages in land, energy, potable water, and food. Our oceans are under threat from acidification and loss of biodiversity. Many parts are already dead and polluted. Unless we start addressing our own growth in numbers, we will face Nature’s solution to overpopulation! (disease, starvation, wars, natural disasters, famines etc). According to Kevin Rudd, an increasing population to add to our tax collection base! This is thinly based policy-making at its worst! People are more than just economic units! He is showing a lack of intelligence, integrity, ignorance of the need for an ecological balance, and an evolutionary inability to understand exponential arithmetic! These are not qualities that should be lacking in leaders at a time of impending global threats! How can he honestly attend Copenhagen's climate change conference in December?
Re marksman
(Tigerquoll) Recreational hunting must be excluded from what is a professional task of disciplined experienced marksman operating under direct DECC supervision with quality controls and animal welfare rules.
What like the ones that handled the Guy Fawkes brumby cull or the NPWS friend of mine who used to do the chopper culls on deer at the rate of 3 deer every 4 hours at a cost of $1600 per hour.
These marksman can be provided under the same supervision at no expense to the taxpayer, that is one of the issues the bill addresses.
Theres nothing unprofessional, undisciplined or inexperienced about myself or other people I hunt with who would give of their time for the chance to take home meat that would otherwise be left to rot in the bush.
The culls are done regardless, why be wastefull too?
Dust harms Humans too!
Never had sand in your eye?
Nor asthma? Dust in the lungs?
What? Should james Hardie be absolved of guilt as it is" only dust"?
Animals have much keener smell than humans,that would be blocked the young would be caked in dust and risk rejection by the parents.
It is not like household dust, it is much denser, usually confined not much further than the roads.
But Rally driving at high speeds, spins wheels to throw it up much higher into the atmosphere to settle further,did you not see the dust trailing clouds?
There has been no evidence that protestors threw or placed rocks on the road, but keep swallowing what they want you to believe, Hey, they want to have the rally go through for the next 10 -20 years,So it helps to make those against look as bad as possible.
You also don't mind that D.A and environmental laws have been overridden so that ordinary people that live here have no say, Become criminals for protesting or have to break laws if they leave their properties when and if they need!
Hello?
When the time comes that your rights to drive on your local roads is overidden or wildlife and pollution is considered to matter nothing you may then not say you having rights is bullshit!
Yep it generated interest in the rally
Not the area,this is an ancient Caldera
and pocket of threatened species of wildlife surrounded by national parks and forests the last remnant in NSW!
Creeks you can actually drink from,inhabited by platypus rare as!
Maybe the bakery sold heaps of pies or the takeaway extra hamburgers.
While oil and fumes and even seemingly harmless dust choked animals in their nests, penetrated their eyes or prevented them following the scent to home.
Yes human babies are important. We would not even dare let them be anywhere near the dust, So why let lesser creatures suffer for our profit? and ignorance? Fun and attitude that says "bugger the planet I want racing cars!''
'Labor' voter would seriously consider voting for David Morris
Fantastic speech!
Notwithstanding my comment in the first of this current series of articles, as one who normally preferences Labor over Liberal, if I were in David Morris's electorate of Mornington, I would seriously consider giving my two-party preferred (2PP) vote to him. However, I would still need to check his past record and seek a firm commitment from him that he would abide by the spirit of this excellent speech.
Can Victorian Liberals be relied upon to repeal DAC legislation?
Of course, Joanne Duncan's point that Liberal Party members acted contrary to the way they are talking as the Opposition to when they were part of the Jeff Kennett's Liberal Government raises a difficult question for opponents of the Development Assessment Committees (DAC) legislation.
Can they rely on an incoming Liberal Government to repeal that legislation and to behave generally better than the Kennett Liberal Govenment?
If not, then they must seriously attempt to build a political alternative to both Labor and Liberal.
Furthermore that political alternative needs to consider how to encourage the maximum possible vote for all candidates who are better than the Liberals and Labor to ensure the election of, at the very least, a aubstantial cross-bench at least holding the balance of power in the upper house if not the lower house also.
This would mean encouraging voters to allocate preferences to other candidates depending on how well those other candidates' policies conform to its policies. It should expect those other candidates to reciprocate, although it would be a mistake to make its preference recommendations conditional on that.
Any candidate which acts in a principled fashion should hope to be rewarded for that by informed electors.
Ultimately that poltical alternative needs to decide whether to recommend the two-party preferred preference vote go to the Liberals or to Labor or to make no recommendation.
As one who, in every election up until now, has put Labor ahead of the Liberals, I would not preclude recommending the other way around this time depending on what commitments the Liberals make.
Rally supporter can't understand how dust harms wildlife
what is dust going to do to animals?
This is a load of bullshit-you protestors should be sued for attempted manslaughter...whats more important, animals or the life of a human?
The Repco rally has an international following and you should be happy that it has generated interest in this area
immigration
A net zero policy will soon find a Population with nowhere to go.
Transition Towns
I appreciate and agree with large elements of the critique of TT.
However I feel it does not go far enough, certainly the denziens of TT Ireland would run a mile from many of the libertarian political points made here.
What scares me is that the TT response, whilst appearing to be radical in fact a deceptive cover for a highly conservative and reactionary response to resource depletion. In large measure it strikes me as having many of the characteristics of Cargo Cults.
Why I find it far from inconceivable
If you acknowledge that the CIA was corrupt, underhanded and engaged in conspiracies, then why are you so quick to pronounce it inconceivable to you that it could have had a hand in 9/11 or Kennedy's murder?
In any case, I never claimed that the CIA was the sole or even the principle agency involved in either, but it does seem likely that it had a hand in both.
If you check the sources and the mountains of other evidence, you will learn of abundant evidence pointing to the complicity of senior figures within the US state in the murder of JFK.
Had you heard of Operation Northwoods? The essential details of it are to be found in declassified documents on the public record. It was a plan cooked up by the US Armed Forces Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1962 to stage terrorist acts, including plane hijackings against US citizens and even the military and make them appear to have been caused by Cuba in order to provide them with a pretext to invade that country.
If they were prepared to murder US citizens back then in order to justify launching wars of aggression, then what makes you think that they wouldn't have done it in 2001?
When President John F Kennedy learnt of Operation Northwoods, he stopped it. No doubt this is one of the factors that led to his murder in November 1963.
JFK was one of the very few Presidents of the United States to have had the backbone to stand up to powerful vested interests in the interests of ordinary US people. Others were Presidents Lincoln and Garfield who were also murdered. In the same decade that JFK was murdered, three other charismatic and effective political leaders -- Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Bobbie Kennedy -- who had also resolved to stand up against powerful vested interests in control of the US, were also murdered in very suspicious circumstances, with evidence implicating those other than those who were found guilty of those murders not being acted upon by the police.
Do you think that that was an accident?
In regard to 9/11 the Official explanation is riddled with absurdities and gaping inconsisitencies. Amongst the most glaring are the explanation of three unprecedented engineering disasters which occurred on that day, namely the 'collapses' of the Twin Towers as well as the 'collapse' of World Trade Center Building 7 which was not even struck by an aircraft.
Even news commentators on the day commented on how all these 'collapses' reminded them of controlled demolitions. A vast amount of recorded information including film footage and eyewitness testimony also supported that hypothesis, yet the controlled demolition hypothesis was never even considered by either the 9/11 Commission or NIST which was charged with explaining how these disasters could have happened.
The fact that the controlled demolition hypothesis was not explored and that the alternative explanations offered make no sense indicate that these 'investigations' were intended to cover up a crime rather than uncover the truth.
Because these investigations were so inadequate many US citizens including those who lost loved ones on September 11, as well as Charlie Sheen, of whom this article is about, are demanding a new investigation.
For further information, please visit Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth. Please consider coming to the conference to be held in Sydney on 14 and 15 November in which evidence that proves that the WTC 'collapses' were controlled demolitions will be presented.
If we accept that they were controlled demolitions, then how could Al Qaeda have possibly gained the necessary access to those buildings in order to have planted those charges?
Also, check out the web site "Patriots Question 9/11".
I find it inconceivable that the CIA did 9/11 or killed Kennedy
I shall check your sources, but despite the corruption, underhand and conspiracies that the CIA has exercised, I find it inconceivable that the CIA did 9/11 or killed Kennedy.
No DUST on Rees
Cars travleiing at faster speeds kick up more dust, much more dust than a car travelling at say 40 KPH-60 KPH NSW has speed limits
which have to be adhered to, unlike rally cars which become exempt while racing.
(New NSW Govt law)
The faster the car travels the more and higher the dust is kicked up, also the further it travels, much more than normal it then spreads further and settles on animals and their nests and young.
The above comment suggests the inherent ignorance of someone who does not live on a dirt road.
We, also as locals drive lower than the aloud speed limits to suit the shoddy condition of the council unmaintained roads. Otherwise we affect neighbours homes and risk being deflected and crash off the road by potholes.
The dust thrown up is easy to dismiss from a once every 2 years spectator and from a suburban tarmac driver who has no idea.
Remove responsible politicians to prevent Rally recurrence
Maybe they can afford the cost.
In any case, it seems to me that cost is no object in comparison to the necessity of stopping effective community protests and ensuring that profits line the pockets of corporations like Repco.
The residents of Tweed Shire and Kyogle Shires need to find ways to hold to account those political leaders who made possible this outrage and see that they are thrown out of office.
That is the only way that a recurrence can be prevented.
'Al Qaeda' not the principle perpetrator of 9/11
I am glad to see you share my assessment of Charlie Sheen's courageous stance. Too many ostensibly progressive anti-war types are inexplicably silent on this critical issue. Charlie Sheen puts them to shame.
One concern I have with this post is that you accept that 'Al Qaeda' committed the crime of September 11.
In a sense 'Al Qaeda' may have played some role in September 11, but you need to bear in mind that Al Qaeda was set up by the CIA to fight the leftist Afghan Government of Noor Mohammed Taraki in 1978.
It clearly has remained a CIA asset to this day, notwithstanding the claim that Al Qaeda had 'turned' against US. There is a good deal of evidence of this including testimony from FBI whilstle blower Sibel Edmonds. Please see "Bombshell: Bin Laden Worked for US Till 9/11" of 31 Jul 09.
Even the FBI does not think it has enough evidence against Osama bin Laden to charge him with the 9/11 attack.
So, in fact "Al Qaeda" is largely a bogus anti-Western terrorist organisation conjured up to justify the launching of wars against middle eastern and Central Asian nations and to justify ever greater curtailments of our democratic freedoms. Just possibly 'Al Qaeda' may have planed a role in recruiting Muslim patsies who may have genuinely believed that by participating in the September 11 attacks they would be striking a mortal blow against the Infidel West, but the only people who could have made it possible for September 11 to have succeeded as it did were in the White House.
I strongly urge you to spend a little time researching this in order to arrive at your own conclusions on 9/11. One good place to start would be online forum discussions. It is fairly easy to judge the relative quality of arguments even without initially completely understanding what they are about. In the case of 9/11 my own experience has almost invariably been that one side attempts to completely avoid discussing the substantive issue.
Please check for yourself, for example, in the #comment-825758">forum on Larvatus Prodeo's Saturday Salon.
Poll today on immigration in SMH
Poll on immigration
There is a poll today about immigration by the Sydney Morning Herald. The question: is our immigration too high? So far, the results are well ahead in the "yes" box!
I think readers may be interested in this topic as it is rarely discussed in mainstream newspapers.
Editorial comment: The results of this poll and a similar Age poll are to be found here. - JS, 24 Sep 09.
reply to Sambar hunter
Hi Sambar hunter,
Re kangaroo culls - have a look at Red plague, Grey plague about numbers and this critique of the Madura culls, which is completely different from most articles on the subject and also goes into the literature on roos' grazing impact etc. See also my films here here and here
I used to be of your opinion on this, but my own research changed my mind. (I was never in favour of hunting lions or other exotic game, but I truly believed that kangaroos were common everywhere - but you have to revise your opinion of this when you realise how humans are encroaching on their habitat and if you have some understanding of population dynamics.)
I agree with you that a proportion of the people on this forum would not accept hunting or eating meat under any circumstances. It is possible to argue the hunting case with or without reference to whether or not one is a meat eater.
I think that people who are at the coal-face of indigenous animal care or who rescue animals from industrial farming etc. have a major problem putting up with the idea of hunting on top of the atrocious treatment meted out to other species in the guise of food production, pet keeping, housing development etc. Perhaps if the hunting lobby went after the developer lobby - politically speaking - they would get a measure of respect and less flack from the non-vegetarian sector. At the moment the hunting lobby is largely perceived as insult and injury added to a concentration camp of insult and injury. Some of the insults are the government propaganda.
We live in difficult times where even the use of the local beach is now fraught due to overpopulation with people competing to swim, play there with dogs, and use surf-skis, for instance. Each resents the other. Wildlife, in the mean-time, mostly don't even get to see the sea anymore; the coast is ring-barked by deadly highways.
It is eminently possible to avoid overpopulation without disease or starvation too. Unfortunately overpopulation benefits the people in charge of mass production and who benefit financially from resource scarcity; they also own the commercial press and influence the public press.
over to you.
Sheila Newman, population sociologist
home page
It made a loss - it will make a greater loss next time
Can the Rally organisers afford to patrol the entire length of the course in the weeks ahead of the event to ensure the track is stable?
Reply to Frank
In short Frank the people you have just described are criminals not hunters . These are the kind of people hunters hate more than you do.
Law abiding hunters find this is the kind of behaviour that tarnishes the reputation of all and thus despise them. It may interest you to know that hunters have the same encounters with this kind and police are informed accordingly.
These people are subject to prosecution the same as any other lawbreaker in any facet of society.
Firearm owners,sporting shooters, and hunters are ordinary people you may run into everyday without knowing,police, nurses, schoolteachers, tradesman, doctors, and of both sexes. These are just some of the people I hunt with.
No they aren't bogeymen. The idiots you came across are.
Sure, come down hard on the lawbreakers but keep it in perspective for the rest.
Time to go legal ..or otherwise
Frank,
What you describe seems almost akin to home invasion. You should phone the police [on '000'] as soon as you see them again. Since there are many and they seem intoxicated and armed, it would be dangerous to approach them.
It would be wise to report this incident formally to the local police by making a statement. It would be wise to let neighbouring property owners know about this as well and advise them to be on the look out. I am sure locals and the local police would be keen to remove such menaces.
Since you mention Mt Cole, this is in Victoria and the main laws that regulate hunting in Victoria are:
•Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994;
•Conservation, Forests and Lands Act 1987;
•Domestic (Feral and Nuisance) Animals Act 1994;
•Firearms Act 1996;
•Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1986;
•Wildlife Act 1975; and
•Wildlife (Game) Regulations 2001.
It may pay to become familiar with these and to contact a good legal firm to obtain preliminary legal advice. The first task is to obtain legally admissible evidence that would stand up to a prosecution. Are they trespassing? This would add a civil remedy dimension. If the incident is repeated then it would be useful to have more than yourself there as a witness at the time - ideally a police officer if you can. A flash camera would be useful to identify the persons concerned.
Try placing your same letter in your local paper. Is there a local gun club in or around Ballarat which you could contact to notify your concern on a noticeboard about these drunken cowboys shooters? Perhaps they are club members in the area - they have to buy their ammunition somewhere and usually it is locally. The word will soon get around.
Though it is not legal in this country, having a decent .303 semi-automatic handy fitted something useful like a ATN Aries 410 Night Vision rifle scope would allow you to effectively place a few rounds (starting with each spot light) to quickly remove their bravado. They wouldn't know which way it was coming. The loud crack of a .303 coming in accurately out of the distant blackness would be enough to scare anyone off.
Possibly the most important taboo of our time to be challenged
I applaud Sheen sticking his head out. He has chosen an issue far more serious and risky than what many Hollywood famous people who have felt perhaps more a fashionable justification to dabble in noble causes.
But for Sheen to step out of a comfortable lucrative acting role and to publicly question the morals of the US administration's official account of 9/11 is surely brave. Al Quaeda's 9/11 mass murder instigated a fresh and spirited George Bush to react. But Bush lacked judgment and failed. Bush poured US billions and thousands of American lives to achieve effectively a Vietnam II. Bush put the US brand generations backward to such an extent as to prevent in one generation Obama's efforts to reconcile the US reputation globally anywhere.
Test: eight years later Al Quaeda is still effective.
Sheen is damn heroic. The test lies with Obama - for him to call in the facts independently, to park pride, to undertake a root cause analysis, open the issue to the US people and achieve closure. Such is leadership. The world is watching.
I was impressed with Charlie's dad Martin in Apocalypse Now. If Charlie executes this campaign well, he will have equalled his father, to which any son and daughter aspires.
Religious freedoms are constrained by universal rights