Regrow Qld 11 January 2023 Issue 1 Vol 4
We're back!, Bee-eater calendars sold out, Urannah Dam win, Good News, Shoe recycling, Tesla semi, and Greg predicts the year ahead.
Editorial
Anna Hitchcock
We’re back!
I managed to take a couple of weeks off over Christmas and New Year and of course managed to get both sick and injured. Maybe my body is trying to tell me to slow down?
Still, you get no points for dying with an immaculate body, so I’m keen to get started for the year.
There have been a couple of big wins over the break - one being that the proponent for Urannah Dam near Mackay withdrew, a major victory. We have also been assured by the Department of Environment and Science that windfarms are incompatible with National Parks. Steep ridgelines which are the remaining untouched vegetation are often made into reserves, but the same geology is attractive to wind farm operators and pumped hydro proponents as well. There were some recent concerns about Hinchinbrook Island and the ridgelines on the mainland nearby.
Strangely, the conservation movement may find itself opposing a renewable energy proposal - this has made many of us very uncomfortable in the past couple of years and we are happy to have an assurance at least about National Parks.
The national mood seems fairly apprehensive about 2023 and I really can’t say I blame anyone for that. Realistically, I just don’t think we can ‘go back to normal’ after the collective trauma the world is continuing to go through (it’s really really not over, folks).
But let’s look at this as an opportunity: a decluttering if you will. Perhaps it’s time to let go of all the things that have been holding us back, one at a time. Let’s hasten slowly, and with purpose rather than a blind rushing at recreating the very conditions which led us to this mess in the first place.
Plant things.
Nurture things.
And above all, give everyone you know as much love as you can. I have a feeling we’re going to need it.
Anna
Project Update
We’re pleased to say that our pilot project of 50 Bee-eater calendars was a big success and we have almost sold out.
We may do another small run of 20 or so if there is enough interest, so email us at gladconscouncil@gmail.com or message us on our Facebook page if you would like some more.
Urannah Dam cancellation is a win for nature and the economy
Media Release
16 December 2022
Mackay Conservation Group is celebrating a major victory after yesterday's announcement that Urannah Dam had been withdrawn from the environmental assessment process.
The cancelled dam would have drowned large parts of the nationally listed wetlands at Urannah and Massey Creeks as well as destroying significant habitat for the Irwin's Turtle and irreplaceable vegetation such as the threatened Black Ironbox.
The Urannah Dam was first proposed in the 1950s but it has never been shown to make economic sense despite many feasibility studies.
The recent UN World Heritage monitoring mission to the Great Barrier Reef singled out the dam for criticism. The report's authors said the dam would have significant negative effects on reef water quality and called the project "preposterous".
Mackay Conservation Group coordinator, Peter McCallum, said that the group welcomed the decision to cancel the project.
"This dam never made sense from an environmental, economic or cultural perspective," Mr McCallum said.
"The dam's negative economic return would most probably have led to its owners abandoning it in future, leaving the taxpayer to foot the bill."
"Even worse, we would have lost the best examples of pre-European river systems in Central Queensland."
"Throughout the campaign to protect Urannah, Mackay Conservation Group has been strongly encouraged by the knowledge that the traditional owners, the Widi and Birrah peoples, were steadfastly opposed to the dam. We knew we were on the right side of history."
"Our next step will be to ensure no future government ever proposes to dam Urannah and Massey Creeks ever again. That will require a lot more work but we are up for the challenge."
Good News
This week’s Good News stories are taken from here: 99 Good News Stories You Probably Didn't Hear About in 2022
But I really like this tag line:
The world didn't fall apart this year. You just got your news from the wrong places.
Preach.
2022 was a particularly good year for conservation in Ecuador. The country’s protected waters around the Galapagos were expanded by 60,000 km², a landmark agreement protected the Pastaza, the country’s largest and most biodiverse forest from mining, and a historic ruling by the Supreme Court gave indigenous groups the power to veto all mining and oil projects on their lands.
We learned in 2022 that global mangrove loss has now stopped, that more than 42% of the world’s mangroves are now protected (up from 25% in 2012) and that a global alliance of countries launched a new initiative to restore and protect another 15 million hectares by 2030.
What a year for island restoration. Decades of efforts bore fruit, with the completion of rodent eradication efforts on Tetiaroa Atoll in French Polynesia and the Millennium Forest project on St Helena in the Atlantic, the restoration of the Channel Islands in the Pacific, an extraordinary environmental recovery on Macquarie Island off the coast of Tasmania, and an ‘ecological renaissance’ on nearby Lord Howe in the Tasman Sea.
Shoe recycling now available
One of our supporters sent us this photo recently from a podiatrist in Boyne Island. Shoes, being mixed materials are very difficult to recycle, so it’s best to re-use them as much as possible before sending them off. The company being used is Upparel and you can have a look at their website here:
https://upparel.com.au/our-story/
They seem to be genuine, and an Australian company as well. I have contacted them and will let you all know what they are like to work with.
Anna
What we’re watching
Thanks to Arthur for finding this video.
This one is for the numbers nerds amongst you - I’m looking at you, Hugh and Adrian - It’s a great comparison of where the new Tesla semi trucks fit in the market and they have that all important 500 miles of range which puts them way out of the league of all the other competitors.
EV’s in general have far less maintenance costs and just the fact that they require less effort to drive and reduce driver fatigue should make every manager take a long hard look at changing over.
Charging infrastructure is still playing catch-up, but imagine these trucks being used from depot to depot within a company. For example, a large supermarket chain could install their own chargers at the warehouse, and also at each store so the truck can top up charge while they are unloading. Depending on distance, the semi might even be able to make a round trip and charge overnight at the depot.
Add solar panels and batteries at the depot and we’re starting to see some really sustainable solutions.
I won’t miss the noise of the big diesel munchers either.
Opinion
Greg Bray
2023 Brace Yourselves
Yes! It’s time for another batch of fearless (and usually very wrong) predictions from ‘Nutstradamus’ for the upcoming year…
After losing the election, leadership of the Liberal Party and reserved car parking spot at Bunnings, Scott Morrison secretly anoints himself co-Captain of the Australian Cricket Team. He is fired in the Fourth Test for scoffing down all the cream bikkies during the tea break.
Anthony Albanese is publicly outed as the Mango Wiggle. His skivvy is white-ish on the outside and pink-ish red on the inside. But the skilful way he handles, ‘Hot Potatoes, Hot Potatoes!’ wins him a few more fans.
The LNP’s top potato, Peter Dutton, finds his makeover goes horribly wrong when his face rejects smiling.
Not even footage of asylum seekers being roughed up brings him joy. Simon Birmingham’s grin widens as Spuds polling figures continue to go down the tubers.
Barnaby Joyce, in an attempt to prove fracking is good for farming, allows the highest fossil fuel bidder to turn his property into a set from Mad Max. After a gas leak kills all his cows they are instantly barbecued in a blazing inferno started by ‘someone’ lighting a pre-breakfast rum shooter.
Staggering from the ashes, like a singed and slightly hungover, phoenix, Barnaby immediately announces he has personally found the perfect solution for removing rampant cattle ticks and wheat rust from his land. This results in the sacking of even more CSIRO staff.
Pauline Hanson’s head explodes when she discovers her red hair dye is sourced from organically grown beets, farmed by Green voting hippies.
After losing another batch of high-profile lawsuits, Clive Palmer will sue himself for self-destructive behaviour. The high court eventually finds Clive has been leading Clive down a legal, and fiscal, rabbit hole and orders Clive to pay Clive $20 kajillion in damages.
While Clive is delighted with this outcome, Clive immediately appeals the decision, declares bankruptcy, then marries himself and signs his fortune over to Clive.
His lawyers have a mass breakdown and are committed.
Dumped by the Republican party for not being smarmy enough, Donald Trump shocks the planet by mistakenly converting to Jediism in order to run for President as Jewish Democrat. Fox ‘News’ presenters are so dumbfounded the station closes for two days until their power of speech returns.
In spite, Republicans turn to liberal Poster Boy, Elon Musk, to fill the gaping Trump void, but he ignores their pleas as he is locked in a titanic, year-long, online flame war with Stephen King over an $8 dollar Twitter account membership fee.
Vladimir Putin, desperate to prove he is not behind the ‘accidental’ suicides of numerous Russian oligarchs, throws everyone off his scent by tossing himself out of a hospital hi-rise window. He is surprised to discover this kills him. Ukraine citizens react by doing a day long jig of mourning.
China invades Taiwan but immediately returns it for a refund because it has stopped working.
Prince Andrew thrusts himself upon another young, beautiful woman when he writes Meghan a heartfelt letter which he signs off by asking her to ‘Keep up the good work!’
Rupert Murdoch is revealed to be a steam-driven, cyborg sent from the past to destroy the future
Fossil fuel companies, having raised electricity, coal and gas prices to Robber Baron levels declare sunlight is now a commodity they also own and immediately start campaigning to end Daylight Savings.
And here in Central Queensland, where the sunlight glints off the new solar hydrogen panels, windmills and coal stockpiles, and the seawater is warm, all the men are thoughtful and the women rugged, the Regrow Queensland Team win a Nobel Prize for outstanding services to humanity, writing and general amazingness.
Of course we do - Ed
They gallantly reject the offer of a free trip to Switzerland to receive their tin medals as flying would be too carbon costly… and not because the award will be slung at them by ‘the new, improved, ethically rebooted, sustainable and smiling’ Peta Credlin.