Pulp this novel
I believe the government sponsored pulp mill website should be removed from the internet. The misleading and evasive answers to the FAQ on the site are heavily slanted.
Their FAQ makes for amusing reading if the subject was not so serious.
Today, 20th July 2005, it still advertises the pulp mill as being either TCF or ECF, when Gunns have stated in their revised scope document dated May 9th 2005 that the mill will be ECF.
It also states that there will be no waste water going into the Tamar River.
How can this be? Will it be taken care of by “Mother nature”? Is there a “magical barrier” that will stop the effluent when it arrives at the mouth of the Tamar?
FAQ: What will the mill look like?
It says nothing except it will be nice colours etc, to blend with the current landscape. Why has no one from the Government or the proponent come up with some picture or even an impression of what this proposal will look like?
Are they scared that if people see what a mill of this magnitude looks like the project will be dead in the water?
FAQ: Will the mill smell?
Nowhere in this section can I find the word “No”.
FAQ: Will there be more trucks on the road?
This section does not contain the word “No” either.
Actually chipping around 3 million tonnes now and will need to chip around 5 million tonnes if this proposal gets off the ground.
FAQ: Will waste water from the mill change the colour of the sea?
Stated, “Waste water from any pulp mill built in Tasmania will not affect the visual amenity of local beaches”.
Is this a “cast iron” guarantee?
Will they just use another “magical barrier” to stop effluent before it arrives on our beaches?
FAQ: Will the mill affect property prices?
Are you kidding?
Who would want to live in the shadow of a 100m+ chimney belching out particulate matter, smelling “rotten egg gas”, while the place is lit up like a Christmas tree all year round and listen to logs trucks thundering down the highway non stop?
Cheers,
Dave Groves
Kayena
“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. ”
– Aldo Leopold
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Backflip on pulp mill poll
Tasmania Examiner, Australia
West Tamar ratepayers will have the chance to vote on the proposed Gunns’ pulp mill after a backflip by the council yesterday. Councillors …
http://www.examiner.com.au/story.asp?id=298425
Frank Strie
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The odour of hydrogen sulphide
For the information of those living nearby or thinking of working with hydrogen sulphide.
The odour or hydrogen sulphide gas can be perceived at levels as low as 10 ppb (parts per billion). At levels of 50-100 ppm (parts per million), it can cause the human sense of smell to fail. Low levels can cause eye irritation, dizziness, coughing, and headache.
On the other hand high level exposures (usually greater than 300 ppm), H2S has the amazing effect of causing the nose to stop perceiving its smell after a few inhalations, which may lead to the inhalation of a toxic or fatal dose (which can occur at 600 ppm). At high levels, hydrogen sulphide gas may paralyse the lungs, meaning that the victim may then be unable to escape from the toxic gas without assistance.
John Ward
Gordon
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A VISIT TODAY (14/07/05) to the State government’s pulp mill website finds that the pulp mill may be Totally Chlorine Free (TCF). http://www.pulpmill.tas.gov.au/factsheets/Gunnsproposal.pdf
This document comes under the glossy heading of “The Facts”
This is despite the fact that Gunns released to the RPDC on (09/05/05) a document unearthed by TRAC (a non political resident driven group) stating that their process would use chlorine.
http://www.tamar-trac.com/research/gunns_revised.pdf
(see section 5.2)
Is the State Government funding incompetence?
Are our hard earned taxes going to fund (as quoted in The Australian 09/07/05) a “taxpayer funded cheer squad for the (pulp mill) project”?
It is disappointing when we are paying the government to do a job and we have to do it for them.
Forget the Government websites, log on to TRAC (this site costs the taxpayer nothing) at www.tamar-trac.com for information updated daily.
You will find a wealth of un-biased information and scientific reports from around the world including photos of similar sized pulp mills.
Dave Groves
Kyena
“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. ” – Aldo Leopold
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My cry from the heart
EVERYDAY WE read of the ever increasing collapse of our way of life and environment. We read constantly about the frustrations of ordinary people in trying to deal with the bureaucracy and the ever increasing whittling away our rights and services.
But has anyone actually stopped and looked at the true situation that faces us and the reasons why we find ourselves where we are and where we are going.
If you listen to those in power, from politicians through to business people, you will note a similar tone in what they say. The vast majority express the view that all is well in our little world and that things are on the improve and prosperity is upon us. Yet all those that don’t live in the world of government and big business look out their window and see that their lives and environment are slowly disappearing, along with their jobs and future.
Yes we all know that they say unemployment is at its lowest, we also know that the figures they use are purely designed to provide the results politicised bureaucracy wants. Sure there are more people in work, but that work relates to only a very few hours a week if you are lucky.
So If you have a job and work only a few hours in the week you are classed as employed. To the bureaucracy, how much you earn is irrelevant, they go by the average wage and we all know what that represents, high income earners.
If you are doing a government program on the dole, you are classed as working and if you are a parent looking after your children and receiving sole parent allowance, you don’t even get into the statistical stack in this regard. The major companies and their political bureaucratic slaves always tell us that their next development will bring with it “x” amount of jobs, huge benefits, prosperity and good times for all. But what they don’t tell you is that those jobs will be short term or 90% part time casual and you will get paid less than others in Australia for the same work and that the only ones to benefit are the business leaders. Now what that results in, is statistics that say one thing and reality that says another.
But don’t worry the spin doctors will produce heaps of mumbo jumbo until reality is lost in politically correct semantic stupidity. You only have to look at the press releases of politicians and departments to see how far from reality these people are when it comes to dealing in actual fact and not construed illusion.
Energy crisis
Has no-one noticed that nothing is being done about the fuel energy crisis that has now reared its head for us all to see and feel. You will note, that most senior bureaucrats and all politicians, rarely if ever buy food or fuel, they live, eat and drive on our backs giving us a negative return from their indulgence. And nothing is being done about the collapse of our education system and fast deterioration of simple work skills, that have been lost in the name of educational stupidity.
Frankly the senior bureaucrats of this state are just the useless mouthpieces of big business and their incompetent political puppets. Have you noted as to what these people represent, not us the people, they state that categorically. They will tell you, in everything they say publicly, they represent their political party, its masters and no-one else. No freedom of choice if you are a member of a political party, just yes master, no master, give me more money master.
In this state (we have to contend with) the axis of the forestry industry, Coles/Woolworths and Federal Hotels, in bed with the politicians.
I have to laugh
So I have to laugh at all the whingeing going on by farmers and small business people about what is happening to them. These same people voted for the Labor/Liberal coalition when they destroyed the orchard industry. They voted for the same coalition when they sold our bank and other assets to big business for nothing. They voted for the Lab/Libs when they gave away our railways and privatised everything they could, because they were too incompetent to run them; they voted for the Lab/Libs when they destroyed the dairy industry and didn’t all you people vote for the Lab/libs when they gave between $20-$40 million to the ABT railway and then Federal Hotels got it for virtually nothing.
Then they voted Lab/Lib when they monopolised the food, fuel, liquor, forestry and gaming industries and made sure that there are now only 3 controlling players in the state for all industry, Coles/Woolworths, Federal and Gunns.
And you all voted Lab/Lib as they destroyed the health system. Then you voted for them when they bought the 3 cattle ships, raised prices, lowered services and wasted millions (more than $2 million each week they are losing). Didn’t you vote Lab/Lib when they wasted more millions on a fibre optic cable that will never happen, then you voted for them when they threw money at a gas pipeline that very few can be connected to and costs a fortune, as well as ripping up our
streets. You voted Lab/Lib when they decided to have Basslink, which will
cost us more millions and never ever provide us with a return for their investment. And you voted Lab/Lib and now they are destroying the vegetable industry.
Then there is the pulp mill, you voted for them to build that without regard for anyone but their political masters.
You still vote for them as they destroy the wildlife of this state, lay poison, use chemicals designed to kill anything that moves and pollute our waterways. You voted for them and they stopped our local elections because we wouldn’t do what they want.
And you still vote for them as they destroy the leatherwood honey industry. And what about Tasmania Together, you voted for them when they told us that what we wanted for Tassie wouldn’t happen. Then there is the new community forest agreement … what community do they refer to, not the Tasmanian people’s community, but the political, bureaucratic, business community, as they never consulted us in any way.
Why whinge?
So why whinge, you, the people of this state have brought it on yourselves. So maybe it is time to actually put up or shut up and vote for people and not parties. When it comes to choice, you have but little — vote for the Lab/Lib coalition, which by their record will only bring further disaster upon us. Vote Green and end up with a group of people that really only have a half reasonable environmental policy and nothing else but stupidity. Vote for a minor self serving party that may be eligiously orientated and we end up like the USA.
Or you can actually vote for an individual that wants to do something for Tassie and not just serve their rich masters.
Before you all get on your high horse and run me down with meaningless semantics, see if you have the fortitude and mental capacity to comment in a meaningful, simple, in easy to read words, something that is constructive and shows that you actually can think outside the norm and see what reality really is.
After all, I am not educated, I left school at 14 quite illiterate, served my country, been to jail, been unemployed, worked in most jobs available, travelled the country and parts of the world. Been married a couple of times, have kids and grandkids and am widely read on most subjects. No letters before or after my name, no hyphenated name, no PhD, dip, or wank, just me. I admit to being born in Victoria, Australia, from Tassie born parents and am now retired here.
Now we will hear the cries of ridiculous, too simplistic, and probably heaps of scorn and derision for what I have written. Well I say all you have to do is either listen to what I and other real people say … or put up alternatives that have substance and reality as their central components.
Maybe our society has reached the cliff edge and is about to fall over, or more realistically, we have already fallen over the cliff and won’t notice it until we hit the
bottom and our society splatters. After all, you can have an environment without an economy, but you can’t have an economy without an environment and that goes for, natural, economic, social, in fact all the environments you can think of.
So economics is also an unsustainable illusion just like politicians, beaurucrats and the well off. In the end there is but one winner, nature in whatever form she decides is sustainable, with or without us.
Raglar Hanavak
