Coal – a dirty business

Did you see last night’s Four Corners episode, A Dirty Business, about coal mining in the Hunter Valley? If you missed it, it’s well worth chasing it up on their website or watching it on ABC’s iView.

It was about the terrible health problems faced by people in the Hunter Valley who have gradually had coal mines surround their towns. Doctors have noticed that respiratory disease in the area is well above average, as are cancer rates (this has been in the news too). People have taken to using their own air quality monitors because they don’t trust the mining companies to stay within legal limits of pollution.

They can’t move away – their homes are often their only asset, and who would want to buy it from them with a giant dusty mine over the back fence? They’re dairy farmers and rural workers, they can’t just drop everything and run off to the city.

The video of how huge the mine sites are is really amazing. It’s an enormous area, completely dug up and scarred. When they showed an aerial map, you could clearly see where the mining permits end because that’s where the trees and green land start.

And nearby Newcastle is the world’s biggest coal port. Hundreds of ships (the same type as are crashing on the Great Barrier Reef) are lined up along the coast waiting for their turn to ship the coal off around Australia or overseas.

It all makes me so angry. This is the real reason the Rudd government hasn’t done anything about climate change: the coal industry has it wrapped around their little finger. And as long as there’s a buck to be made, the NSW government will allow miners and farmers and kids to die from the pollution.

Plantation toxins in Tasmania

A scene from Something In The Water

Did anyone else watch Australian Story on Monday night? It was about an alliance between a GP, a group of oyster farmers and a Sydney scientist, investigating water quality issues in Tasmania’s George River.

The oyster farmers found that their business was suffering because of toxins in the water. A local GP believes there is a cancer cluster in the region her patients are from. And they got together with a scientist from Sydney to try to find out if there was any evidence for what they suspected.

The toxin problem in the water has been traced back to eucalypt plantations along the George River. Now the group of locals want further testing to confirm what’s going on.

You can see the episode online for a while at the Australian Story website: Something in the Water Part 1, and Part 2. I’m sure it will also be shown on ABC’s iView website as well, but the Australian Story site has extra information and interviews that weren’t able to be included in the show.

Because of the tv show, the issue has now been picked up by newspapers like The Mercury and The Australian.

Naturally, the Tasmanian government is denying that there’s any problem. This is the same government that let Gunns rewrite state national parks legislation to allow logging, so I can’t say I’m shocked that they’d instantly move to protect any part of the forestry industry.

As Dr Bleaney says,

Dr Bleaney says she wants further testing of the water supply to be able to make firm conclusions. “We’re not saying we actually have absolute proof of what’s going on,” she said. “We’re actually saying that this needs to be investigated and it needs to be looked at very carefully.”

Toxic drinking water is worth investigating. It remains to be seen if Tasmania’s government is impartial enough to actually conduct a scientific review of the situation, or take any action on it if a problem is found.

Review: Two Men in a Tinnie

While I’ve been on holidays, I finally caught up with all the episodes of the ABC TV series Two Men in a Tinnie. It’s the one where John Doyle (more famous from Triple J’s Roy and HG shows) and Professor Tim Flannery take a dinghy down the Murray and Darling Rivers, meeting the people who live and work and play there. I saw a bit of it on tv a few years ago, but have only just now rented the whole thing through Quickflix.

I really enjoyed the series, and recommend it to anyone interested in the fate of one of Australia’s most complex and important waterways. John and Tim are lovely presenters, chatty and informative, and you can tell they’re friends in real life. They’re able to draw out the people they interview by being polite and respectful of their views, even if they disagree. They also make sure to get scientific opinions on the various problems facing the Murray-Darling basin.

As we join them in their little quest, we get to see some truly beautiful parts of Australia, and find out bits of history and the characters who made it what it is today. Their enthusiasm is contagious, and makes me want to get my own tinnie, although the Swan is a much shorter river and I don’t think it’d be nearly as interesting a journey!

While John and Tim don’t present a definitive solution to our water problems, their preference for a national system becomes clear throughout the series. Each person they speak to is able to figure out their own issues very well, but the enormous size of the Murray-Darling means that no-one is taking responsibility for it’s health as a whole. It’s become a tragedy of the commons, and only a collective response will be able to fix it.

I hope that all the people interviewed got to see this engaging series, to see how their own lives fit into the vast patchwork of the rivers that supply the majority of Australia’s food. The series reminded me that in a place like Australia, with so little rain and such a harsh environment, we absolutely rely on the generosity of our fellow countrymen to pull us through the tough times.

Did you see the series when it was on tv, or afterwards? What did you think of it?

Oz in 30 Seconds – the winner!

The winning ad in the Oz in 30 Seconds competition has been announced: This is what we Australi-ARE. It’s about what Australians are and hope to be, and it includes “clean and green” as one of our aspirations, with an image of wind-farms in the background.

When I saw the finalists, I thought this one was a strong contender for first place. I like it – it’s simple, but clear in it’s statement of what we should be thinking of when we vote later this year. Take a look at it on the site, so that when you see it on TV later this year you can tell everyone you saw it online first

The Great Global Warming Swindle

Last night the ABC aired The Great Global Warming Swindle, a documentary that claims nature, not humans, is causing climate change. ABC Science Online has a debunking at The-Great-Global-Warming-Swindle Swindle which explains the science in layman’s terms. If you really want to nerd it up, you can see more details at RealClimate.org and the Australian Science Media Centre.

I’m not sure why the ABC aired such an out-of-date documentary: Tim Flannery suggested it’s for ratings, while Crikey.com.au believes it’s due to political pressure.

Studio Debate
I was more interested in the studio debate after the documentary was aired. Tony Jones hosted a panel of scientists, industry leaders and media people. They covered the science, the UK response to the doco, and the business response to global warming.

Prof. David Karoly (climate scientist) and Prof. Bob Carter (geologist, denialist) had most of the discussion, arguing over statistics and data. Karoly had a lot of energy and evidence, while Carter repeated points from the film which were easily rebutted. Ray Evans (Lavoisier Group, denialist) ranted about how pathetic the coal industry is to cave in to the environmentalists – Dr Nikki Williams, representing coal interests, gave him a killer look at that point! She’s in favour of preventing global warming, but her main aim was good PR for the coal industry.

Then it was time for questions from the audience. Unfortunately, many of the people in the studio weren’t there to debate or ask questions, they just wanted to air their own kooky theories (Larvatus Prodeo has the YouTube video of it). There were rambling statements about carbon-14 isotopes from a creationist; and a few people saying that all environmentalists are into eugenics – I’m told they’re followers of a guy called Larouche. My favourite was the student (of astrophysics, music and “physical economics”, another Larouche-ian) who rambled incoherently about Johannes Kepler and Plato. The more sensible audience members asked panelists to clarify things they’d said earlier, or made statements about how they’re not scientists but they believe the planet is getting warmer and they’d like someone to fix it, please.

After the debate, Lateline interviewed Dr Carl Wunsch, a scientist who says the documentary misrepresented him. He had his comments cut from the film, and has threatened legal action against Durkin. I think he was naive to not check what he was contributing to before being interviewed, because Durkin already has a reputation for dodgy “science” and misrepresenting people on film. Wunsch is certainly wiser now.

It was an interesting night of tv, but I don’t know that it’s had any benefit for the Australian public. The denialists are still convinced there’s a left-wing conspiracy, and those of us who are more sensible will still be switching our light-bulbs and recycling our rubbish.