80% of Australian voters don't believe in climate change!

There are tomatoes ripening on the plants that went into the ground last spring and the swallows didn't leave the park this winter.

Meanwhile, more than 80% of Australians have turned their backs on the prospect of climate change in this election, anxious about a few thousand refugees arriving by boat but oblivious to the 20 million climate change refugees currently in Pakistan.

Timber principals squeezing contractors - AFCA 2007

The following paragraphs are taken directly from the Australian Forest Contracters Association February 2007 Newsletter.
Five questions from the URS Forestry, Forest Contractor Information Survey, prepared for DAFF, are answered:

• Most contracts include a “force majeure” clause and contract principals typically construe the term in its widest possible form.
• As little as 10% of all contracts are properly negotiated … and … are heavily tilted in favour of the principals.
• Of six legal proceedings issued by contractors three found in favour of contractors, two of whom were never to cut another tree for the ‘offending principal.” Of the other three, one went bankrupt and the other two are eagerly awaiting an exit opportunity.

(Request for Proposal (RFP) process)

• The RFP process matches the best ideas with the cheapest rates and the first proponent to agree the low rates ends up with the job.
• In the most recent tender/RFP conducted by a major processor the six proponents “short listed” were assembled and told to reduce their submitted rates by about 25% if they were to stay “in the mix”.
• Many of the current tenders/RFP “peg” the rates ... with the effect being that sawlog users pay a higher rate and effectively subsidise profits of both growers and pulpwood customers. This is neither (1) fair nor: (2) transparent - despite claims by the contract principals.
• Many of the incumbent contractors are forced to “bid for their survival.”
• Some forest owners have yet to learn that there is no such thing as a “sustainable over cut”.
• The “new” buzzword – OPTIMISATION – has seen the practice emerge whereby forest owners want to optimise the bush
• Pulpwood, instead of being viewed as a “by-product”, now has to justify itself as a profitable product in its own right.
• Some contract principals are reluctant to pass on the full extent of fuel surcharges that they themselves can charge their customers.
• With mechanism, 80% of contractor numbers do 20% of the volume.
• Most contractors survive on “over quota” and when that is lost – or reversed – they don’t last long.
• The practice of “decimation” … is rife in the industry with no less than five contractors being specifically targeted in the last three major RFP processes undertaken in the past twelve months.
• One contract principal/manager has gone on public record to say that unless he has at least one contractor falling over every five years then his rates are not keen enough.
• New players enter the industry using either second hand gear or with payment terms that far exceed the useful economic life of the gear. When financial problems are encountered the contractor is then “propped” by the principal.
• We have here in Australia, the lowest stumpage, harvest and haul rates in the western world but the dearest milling costs and – despite that - some of the highest processing returns in the world.

Well! Principals without principles and the environment is the scapegoat.

Letter to The Age - Friday 13th August 2010

Those asserting that thousands of jobs will be lost and rural Victorian towns decimated should ask the forestry industry and state governments why they did not heed the recommendations of the Land Conservation Council review into East Gippsland in 1986.

This review stated that the industry was operating at twice the level required to ensure sustainability of the industry, that the biggest threats to employment within the forestry industry were unsustainable practices and the development and implementation of methods aimed at greater efficiency.

The LCC report also said that the best ongoing and increasing employment opportunities were in the environmental education and tourism industries provided they were properly supported. These opportunities are being threatened and undermined by logging activities as noted in RAVC's Royal Auto in 2009.

My father says 'When one door closes, another one opens.' Maybe this decision will open the door to an alternative future for Gippsland.

Victoria's State of the Forests Report 2008 - Production

The table on page 16 shows the annual area harvested is 9,470 ha, or 1% of the "total area available & suitable for timber production."
25.94 ha per day, 365 days of the year.
In Melbourne terms, this is 13 times the area of the MCG arena.

In 2001/2 this included 730 ha of old growth forest.
In 2005/6 this was just 50 ha - have there been any significant ill effects on the timber industry, or the population of rural town? Would the removal of the last 50 ha quota be so bad?

It seems that 9470 ha produced just under 2 million cubic metres of wood product in 2006 with sawlogs including salvage making up 0.5 million cubic metres.
Pulpwood comprised almost 70% of Victoria's forest harvest.

Old growth forest attracts even higher percentages of pulpwood - why bother goinig to all the effort of plundering a few ha of old growth forest fo pulpwood???

Next - Employment...

New threads

It's late but I've set up the blog again - this time it will be a bit of a journal, but mostly a way to keep myself in order and share some info.
It'll also be a list of things to do.
And a place to collect photos.
But now it's late...

All Finished

I think I'm done.
I checked out Skype - my partner uses it to communicate with his kids O/S and interstate but I have no need for it.
I approached Second Life expecting it to be a frustrating waste of time and so was not disappointed :(
Flickr was good, especially with CoolIris loaded, and I will probably get a bit of use from iGoogle.
Also, Library Thing and the audio downloads from YPRL will be amongst my favorites from this course, as will the ning I joined.
I subscribed to a few podcasts, but have yet to get back to them (or anything previously mentioned until I finish the course), and I wanted to investigate ways to have my flickr files come up on a google search.
All in all, when I have a look at the work I've done on this over the past 5 weeks, I'm amazed at what I've learnt, tried and achieved.
Thanks YPRL
Wallabyj

Not a SL Newbie anymore :)

Yep - I've visited a few SL islands, mostly uninhabited, discovered how to see myself, picked up a few freebies (clothes, sounds, 500 autumn leaves I think) and I reckon I've worked out what KK is.
So here are my tips for getting around second life:

• Look up before you start flying - I've crashed into overhanging branches!
• Get to know the menus - especially inventory, gestures, appearance.
• Learn to use the map.
• Don't expect to move immediately.
• Bookmark favorite sites!
• Watch the videos from Murdoch University!
  
• Find a glossary - especially if you're a generation or two removed from the dominant demographic!
• Think about what you hope to achieve.
  

But...
Next year it will be 20 years since I first ventured onto the internet. Before windows, before hypertext, before the mouse and before color.
When I began, the internet was a way to find and connect with people on obscure topics, a way to spread a new or important idea or message, a way to experience virtual worlds and adventure into new experiences.
My first really illuminating experience online was lurking in a newsgroup where people were sharing first hand accounts of the war in Bosnia - it became apparent that no-one wins in a war and no side has a monopoly on truth.
Nothing has changed on the internet - it is still the ultimate avenue for all of these experiences, but the underlying objective is to meet people, and it seems ultimately it is merely a vehicle by which first life connections are made.
I can see some advantages in SL, in creating communities, for all those things that communities are good for - study, discussion forums, research groups, music sharing and so on. But all these things exist, SL enhances the environment to be sure, but I cannot imagine anyone substituting SL for the real thing in first life if one had a choice.
I would much prefer Second Life if I could have virtual time as well as a virtual life :)