Critical Times

Dear Kevin Rudd,

Why doesn’t Australia achieve international recognition by being the first country to successfully develop an Electric Car?

In the late 1990s, General Motors began commercial sales of the EV1, successfully demonstrating that a battery powered, zero-emission car was possible. The EV1 was quieter, cleaner and cheaper to run than cars powered by fossil fuels. However, the project was shut own because of pressure by fuel companies.

Why do the media insist on using the same jargon as the government? Historically, governments have had a tendency to obscure the truth when it was in their interest to do so, but on the other hand journalists could supposedly see through spin and report objectively.

In the 2008-09 federal budget some $40 billion in unspent surplus to be deposited in various funds is referred to as “investment” when it is clearly not. Deferred spending is saving, not investment.

Earth Hour means we switch off our power for one hour, feel good, and then drive our SUVs (sales up 4.6%, November 2007) at 110 kph instead of 90kph when doing so would reduce fuel consumption by 25% and CO2 emissions by 2.4kg/litre of fuel.

Climate changeNot only are Australia’s per capita greenhouse gas emissions the highest of any nation in the world today, as Tim Flannery (The Future Eaters) and Tom McMahon (Global Runoff: Continental Comparisons Of Annual Flows And Peak Discharges) showed around 15 years ago, Australia has a uniquely fragile environment. This can be seen in the drying up of Melbourne’s water supply, and in the severity of some recent tropical cyclones (George, Jacob, and the two last year in Queensland).

In northwestern and central-western Australia, the seven wettest years since 1885 have all occurred since 1995, while Melbourne has not had a year of above-average rainfall since 1997.

There are trillions of tons of methane locked in the Artic permafrost, a massive bog frozen for millennia. Now buildings are falling as it melts and releases this deadly greenhouse gas.

Methane is a lethal planet-warmer, far worse than carbon dioxide.

Dear Prime Minister,

Most scientists, many ordinary people including myself, are very concerned about the problems facing the world and I don’t doubt you are too. Part of the problem is that people look at only one problem at a time whereas there are many problems including climate change, price and supply of oil, water shortages, world overpopulation, pollution, an inadequate and far from stable money system, all of which interact with each other and require global solutions and a comprehensive plan if our civilization is to survive.

Climate Change: Most scientists agree that man-made CO2 is causing climate change including the drought in Australia and threatens rising sea levels.

In the country of “the fair go” addressing the status of Indigenous health is one of the greatest challenges to this nation’s sense of decency and fairness.A group of Australia’s leading health, human rights, aid and development organisations is so concerned about the deepening health crisis in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities that they took the unusual step of placing a full-page advertisement in The Australian on 11 December. Speaking for the group, Tom Calma, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Social Justice Commissioner, said: “It is a national scandal that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people live 17 years less than other Australians and that their babies die at almost three times the rate of non-Indigenous children.

An open letter to all unionists
The shadow boxing has ended. It’s time to start hitting back.

The situation in Western Australia, where at least 107 construction workers have been served writs with the possibility of $28,000 fines, represents a fundamental attack on our rights as workers and trade unionists.

Looks like new ABC Board members Keith Windschuttle (alleged to be an academic and historian but in fact associated with the Quadrant magazine that has received finance from the CIA) and Peter Hurley of the Australian Hotels Association and other right-wing members already on the Board like Michael Kroger are making their presence felt in swinging the ABC to an extreme right-wing political position.

This trend is already being reflected in news coverage in general and in some special news programs. The ABC’s reportage of East Timor events was particularly dishonest and one-sided.

A day in the life of a casual worker

Chris Peterson, Melbourne

I work at a video store in a Melbourne suburb. Everyone I’ve told reckons it’d be such a great job. But I work in a small store, in a shopping centre, and I work by myself.