Monday, March 21, 2011

All parties MUST take conservation competence seriously to survive


The first 10 years of the new millennium will go down as "The decade of Who care's " in conservation. Who really cares anyway?- is it all too hard or all too simple ????
If you are just an onlooker to the practical and theoretical science questions let me make it perfectly clear .
You will have to look very carefully to make sure you find someone who speaks and acts like a scientist with competence. Media, arts grads, lawyers, economists, quickrich gurus and businesss knows best sorts let themelselves go on subjects they only half know. While their passion is welcome, their fanaticism is not. You do not solve such problems as simply as you suggest!

This was the decade when nearly all the political parties and green groups are prepared to sacrifice themselves on the altar of sacred objects and half baked reactions to tough conservation questions .. Its a series of decades when even leaders lose their heads in a race to say something or nothing about the elephants in the room Read on Macbeth . What do you think?

The Libs go to one extreme one week, while labor goes to another another week ?
Tony Burke - it seems to me, is on a winner this week ( talking about alpine grazing ) because the Libs are wishy washy on tackling the real objective stuff.I know the trial ends shortly - but the point is -- have a plan B that's bigger than Libs currently have ( hacked up version of old plans)
Mr Walsh and Mr Ramsay are living in the past - farmers need competent conservationists NOT clones defending everything they do.
It maybe that the Libs have got a decent brief for research, but what I have seen so far looks like whitewash or should we call it "blackwash" or backwash .The media have only got to take some nasty pictures of fenced in areas ( not fair but could happen) and Mr Walsh And Mr Baillieu will be "in trouble"

The Libs won't get anywhere by acting in reaction to the conservation excesses of the left. ( Our PM was right to to state greens policies as "extreme" but is Mr Walsh in Victoria acting a little on the extreme?)
The Libs can only survive by BUILDING their own unique brand of conservation competence ( full not just fire ) and avoid the impression they don't take it seriously , say with their " high country grazing trial" .( the brief i have seen on the DPI website does not seem to include a proper review of ecosystem resilience and biodiversity issues )
The thinking people of Australia rightly expect , not necessarily an EIS ( a dumb reactionary tool often ) or a fire driven response to everything ( how reactive can you get) , but a clear commitment to careful research and proper review in this sensitive landscape . I will be the first to state the acceptibility of grazing, but also the first to insist on how it must be done ( based on ALL applied research so far ) .

4 Comments:

Blogger journeymanj said...

same with native timber regeneration . Seems though that Trees and fire are all the Libs are worried about at the moment . Even many many libs need to see past the trees to the design issues in the real world. Places where innovators and land users need protection from preservation pressure too http://designwithnature.blogspot.com

March 28, 2011  
Blogger journeymanj said...

Let me make it also perfectly clear to those who really care about conservation. The publics passion and the political passion to " talk about conservation " is as ephemeral as the grass . Don't be too worried about CO2 levels in 2020 . Worry about why no one even wants to talk about conservation general in 2015 . You heard it first from the sage at Emperors Academy( 9th April 2011)

April 09, 2011  
Blogger journeymanj said...

Ian Chubb (the new CSIRO chief scientist in April 2011) did not, in his interview on the ABC last week , speak to the critical issues. Particularly the politicisation of science and the quickfiz of outcome focused research. I noted within my own area of applied scinece in State insitutions that leadership was all the right talk BUT very little on ground competence in big picture issues

April 27, 2011  
Blogger journeymanj said...

Its now 16th June > Not only Julia but greg combey, peter garrett and Bill shorten and many many others in theLabor movement need to ask themselves why they follow the greens around and why the allow best intentions to rule over those who know their stuff on the subject - too late to find them in the court !

June 16, 2011  

Post a Comment

<< Home