arbilp3

Does this sound like he didn't want to be bought?

Some of you may be interested in this petition to Jim Chalmers:

We call on the Treasurer and the Australian Government to put a 25% tax on all Australian gas exports.

This would end the gas shortages being engineered by the gas industry, cut gas prices, and could raise $17 billion every year to fund services for Australian households.

https://nb.australiainstitute.org.au/gas_export_tax_a

Every shopping item is likely to go up in price as petrol has already done. Rents and mortgage interest rates ditto. People and nature are going to really feel the fallout from the situation in the Middle East. Now is really the time to live life in ways that are more frugal, less wasteful and look after our patch in whatever ways we can. This guide shows some ways: https://www.natureaustralia.org.au/content/dam/tnc/nature/en/documents/australia/Sustainable-Living-Guide-AU.pdf

There is so much we can do including passing on tips or 'hacks' to others, even those who loathe 'environmenty', 'greeny' stuff. By showing them they can save money, we may be able to do more that's positive for the earth.

If you want to share some of your tips in the comments, we can all learn some more.

I'll start with one area, ** dental care**. For at least a dozen years I've been making my own tooth-cleaning powder (various recipes online) as well as mouth wash (which is as simple as (not-too-salty) salty water with a couple of drops of essential oil (various you can choose from - also see online). I use bamboo toothbrushes. The brush heads are still plastic but the handles can be snapped off and composted. I use an electric water flosser but I do have solar panels on my roof.

What an interesting project with hopefully very happy outcome 💚 🐦

Further details about the up to 350 jobs losses expected at the CSIRO are likely to be announced this week.

A CSIRO scientist fears the cuts will harm Australia's ability to adapt and respond to climate change, but the science agency says that's not the case.

A union branch representing CSIRO scientists is calling for urgent funding to stop the job losses.

I hope some of you here have some ideas why our government would be doing this? Is it to follow the example of the US with its axing of many climate change related programs and institutions? Is it because these scientists are going to be supplanted by AI programs? I find this situation bewildering.

The environment minister, Murray Watt, has given the green light for the bulldozing of nearly 3,000 hectares of tropical savanna in the Northern Territory without an assessment under Australia’s nature laws.

Top End Pastoral Company’s development would clear 2,723 hectares of woodland – an area 10 times the size of Sydney’s CBD – on Claravale farm and station in the Daly River region for crops, including sorghum and cotton.

The region is home to threatened species such as the vulnerable ghost bat, Gouldian finch, pig-nosed turtle and red goshawk.

Environment groups and a scientific expert on tropical savanna have expressed dismay at the minister’s decision to declare the development is not a controlled action – meaning it can proceed without an assessment under Australia’s laws for its potential impact on threatened species and ecosystems. It follows longstanding concerns that pastoral land-clearing has rarely been assessed under the national laws.

Our governments, at all levels, are selling out our natural heritage, which together with climate heating and the effects of world war is going to go into more rapid decline than it already is. We mustn't let that happen. There's no more time for apathy.

Scientists are deliberately breeding the invasive cane toad in Western Australia's far north as part of a strategy to protect native wildlife.

Exposing predators like goannas to small, non-lethal toads helps them develop a lasting aversion.

Given the program's success in other parts of the Kimberley it is expanding into the Roebuck Plains outside Broome.

There is currently no consistent national definition of a culturally significant entity, meaning they are not treated by policy-makers and conservation practitioners in the same way as other entities, like threatened species. Under Western conservation frameworks, action to monitor and protect a species is typically only triggered once a species is listed as threatened - a threshold that falls short of Traditional Custodians’ obligation to care for culturally significant entities.

In order to develop a meaningful and collaborative approach to managing culturally significant entities, Indigenous researchers, as part of a project with The Resilient Landscapes Hub, set out to establish a consistent definition of culturally significant entities and propose an approach to recognise them in national legislation, policy and strategic-planning mechanisms.

Article also contains a video.

If you or someone you know has fruit trees, make sure they are using wildlife-friendly netting.

The study used a best-practice OECD-developed method to identify subsidies, including cash payments and tax concessions, and evaluate the potential harm to nature from the activities that they support.

“We identified 36 separate subsidies for activities that are driving environmental decline, such as native forest logging, fossil fuel mining and projects that clear native vegetation,” said Mr Elton.

“They include $22.5 billion per year in direct payments from the government and an additional $3.8 billion per year in tax concessions, totalling $26.3 billion per year, based on 2022-23 data.

“This represents about 4% of the total federal budget. That is twice as much as the federal government invests in supporting government schools nationally, and 25 times more than they spend on looking after nature.

More madness 😭

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/30448811

Some of you may be interested. Sponsored by World Beyond War. Click on the link to register. Online webinar is free.

Speakers include:

Australia: Greens Senator David Shoebridge Philippines: Cora Fabros, International Peace Bureau New Zealand: Political analyst Eugene Doyle South Korea: Sung-Hee Choi USA: Ret United States Army Colonel Ann Wright Others to be confirmed