Defining the Greens (Part 11)
Posted by jennifer, May 19th, 2009 - under Opinion.
Tags: Forestry, Philosophy
ASK a forest worker from Tasmania, a commercial fisherman from South Australia, a sugarcane grower from Queensland or a cattle producer from New South Wales what they think of Greens and a common complaint will be that “Greens tell lies”.
Each of these groups have been the target of clever campaigns by Green groups including The Wilderness Society and WWF Australia.
Tasmanian forest workers have put up committed and organised resistance and many of their truck and utilities sport bumper stickers with the comment “Greens tell lies”.
While these forest workers continue to resist campaigns to close down their industry, the capacity for the industry to move forward, for example through the construction of a state of the art pulp mill, is always a battle against Green propaganda.
A Presentation by Dr Ian Woodward which can be viewed at www.tasmaniapulpmill.info details the often repeated fallacies about the proposed pulp mill and explains that in reality the factory will have no significant adverse impact on public health, the marine environment or air quality, that no old growth forest will be used, and that dioxins associated will older chlorine mills have been virtually eliminated so that they are no longer of scientific significance.
Dr Woodward concludes that these facts are unlikely to sway die-hard mill opponents who “will prefer to remain locked inside the familiarity of their self-confirming fallacies rather than accept the contrary realities.”
Adherence to strongly held beliefs which affirm their values, rather than accord with reality, seems to be a characteristic of Greens who run environmental campaigns in Australia. As a consequence they are typically labelled liars by the minorities they target.
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Notes
Pulp Mill Fallacies and Realities
Separating the fantasy mill from the real mill
Dr Ian Woodward, Principal Environmental Scientist, Pitt&Sherry
http://tasmaniapulpmill.info/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/Pulp_Mill_Fallacies_and_Realities_Ian_Woodward_April_2009.135223348.pdf
I see Luke has missed a few bowel movements, again.
Yes, Jon, the least populous electorate in Queensland is the ALP seat of Mt Isa, with only half as many voters as is the norm in SEQ. Move the boundary in any direction and it changes hands.
Moreover, the centralists have done such a thorough job of stuffing up regional health services that almost half of all new settlers in SEQ come from regional Qld. They are afraid of what Labor’s health system will do to their family. This increases the pace of SEQ population growth, exacerbates the pressure on existing infrastructure and compounds the cost of providing additional infrastructure.
They don’t even build public housing or classrooms in country towns any more, they are all made in a factory in a safe labor seat in SEQ and are shipped off on a truck. Not a single job is created in the town where the house goes to but rest assured, the value of the house shows up in the government accounts as money spent in the region.
And then the dumb turds wonder why things are so difficult and then use the scale of the problems in SEQ as an excuse to strip away property rights all over the state. These incompetent slime balls are downright toxic for regional Qld.
But folks the Grande hypocrisy is that he’s in SEQ being part of it all !! LOL !
Now where were we – OK Lantana and Rubber Vine ornamental. But Prickly Acacia planted for sheep? Mesquite for homestead trees. Parthenium from Texas tractors.
I guess we blame Calatropis on Taliban camel drivers?
BTW I voted for Lawrence
What next – Motty does demography with his usual grace and style. “These incompetent slime balls are downright toxic for regional Qld.” I thought he was developing as our very own Ayn Rand until he calls for more government intervention to fix previous intervention. But he really needs to read Diamond again to discover it is part of the human condition to leave the farm and head for the big smoke ( well you know what I mean ) . Besides it reduces inbreeding. Anyway South East Qld is one of the worlds hot spots in terms of AGW cause and impact (settle, Motty, it is per capita ) so extreme drought that gave us the water grid plus some of the current problems that are helping shape our evolving climatology might frighten off a few potential migrants, or make a few more decide to head for the hills.
No, Bazza, it is part of the human condition for the young to explore places other than home. But if their home is in an economically colonised region, where a large portion of the tax money does not return as services (ie is spent on metropolitan overheads or is incorporated into urban congestion costs), then there are fewer opportunities to attract and retain the young when they are ready to settle down.
In Australia we have State revenue and expenditure at 15% of GDP/GNE. So when metropolitan overheads and additional congestion costs amount to just 20% of that State expenditure it means that 3% of regional GDP (ie 1/5th of 15%) leaks from the regional economy each year. That means that the regional economies must grow by 3% each year merely to avoid economic contraction.
If the region was self governing, and most of the population was within 3 hours of the new capital, then this 3% leakage would stop. Actual economic growth would return to the region, quality jobs and opportunities would return and the kids, (those most likely to recognise those opportunities) would soon follow.
The metrocentric community choose to regard urban drift as a natural phenomena because they don’t even have a word that describes the urban equivalent of parochialism. They are so self centred that they are incapable of recognising situations where they place their own urban interests above those of the wider community they claim to govern for.
They justify this selfishness on grounds of greater efficiency of centralised systems and the prevention of duplication. But they conveniently ignore the far greater diseconomies of scale that are also produced by centralised governance. Metropolitan infrastructure costs no longer just increase by addition in line with population increase. Once the capital city region gets over two million we find that infrastructure problems and their costs increase exponentially. They multiply rather than simply increase by addition.
And when Sydney hits 6 million, Melbourne hits 5 million and Bris-vegas hits 4 million it might eventually sink in that the degraded quality of life the residents endure has had nothing to do with the natural order and everything to do with malgovernance, collective narcissism and myopic vision.
And are you leading by example. No. You’re full of it. Please please go back to the prickle farm !
Good luck with rounding up a few rednecks to vote with you. Meanwhile we’re tired of your whinging and subsiding the bush, spending OUR tax money fixing up your environmental mismanagement, and paying for indulgent hobby farms, so get back in line.
Strategically the Greens mistruths and religious zeal win them some battles but ultimately marginalise them into a narrow slice of the population and political vote. Those with a balanced viewpoint are soon pushed away – intellectually and morally.
Yeah, right, Luke. You’re doing the bush a favour by spending their GST money on tunnels and stadiums. It may surprise you to learn that people in Cairns or Townsville don’t get much benefit from the $800 million spent on the Tugun by-pass or the airport tunnel. And as the population of regional Qld is 1/3rd of the State total then we have every right to ask why, if 2/3rds of the population got an $800 million bit of road, then where is regional Queensland’s $400 fair share, on top of their existing road budget?
And they have every right to ask, if 2.5 million people in SEQ can have a stadium worth $250 million ($100/person) then where is the proportionate additional investment in sports facilities in Roma, Proserpine or Cooktown? That is over and above their existing fields etc.
Proportion of the Arts budget spent in SEQ = 98%.
Lets face it, you represent a parasite that doesn’t even recognise the host/victim’s right to exist at all.
C. Woodward,
I agree with you that people with intellect and morals would become disillusioned with the way the greens operate…if they actually knew how they operated..
I have seen first hand how they play the propanganda game in forestry.. and its not an even playing field.. rational, scientific explanations for native forest silviculture and harvesting never make it to the general population through the media compared to tree platforms, bongos and chaining.
As foresters, we have never had, or maybe weren’t as effective at developing a forum to be able to explain, for example, that:
1, for biological reasons some species of tree need clearfall harvesting if regeneration is to produce a similar forest in 100years
2, That clearfell harvesting is always followed by regeneration..yes it looks ugly for a year or two but it is never left as a cleared “bombsite” as depicted in the green photos, and in 80 years these harvested areas have fooled greenies who have incorrectly identified it as ‘old growth’.
3, That chipping native timber is always the low end recovery product from a harvesting operation and that higher value structural or feature grade timber is always the priority. If it wasn’t chipped it would be burnt.
I have highly intelligent friends and acquaintances who fully believe the green messages the media have progated..its not their fault..they just weren’t given the opportunity to make an informed choice. The greens use propaganda techniques that would make the nazi’s proud and that are employed constantly and to great effect..
Its dangerous to say that greens only win small battles but are then marginalised politically. WA has now just about lost a native forest industry that supports regional communities and is based on solar power (the only truly green industry). Thats a pretty big ecoomic and social loss to the community and has done nothing except support coal fired industry creating steel and concrete products with the resultant larger energy inputs and pollution production. In the future I believe and sincerely hope that this will be seen for the stupid decision that it is…
As foresters, we werent prepared to play the spin game, prefering the science to speak on our behalf..unfortunately this didnt capture the media or public’s imagination like a PR consultant.. we weren’t prepared to donate to green support funds…..how many protests have we heard against mining in WA where whole forest ecosystems are removed?
Don’t be fooled into thinking that they aren’t dangerous liars!!