In the first program, it was clear that the information was straight from the source ie those using transgenetic and cross breeding to produce creatures whose very existance was for our benefit. Well the images I saw were totally horrid. I did take the initial stance of lets see what they have to say, whats this about and keeping an open mind, lets see what the buzz is about both for and against.

Well I was taken aback from the images shown and the scienctists attitude to the experiments forced onto these animals for example:

Cross Breeding cattle to give what they termed ‘double muscle’ beef. Sounds odd yes, but picture a cow/bull with Mr Universe style muscle..

The sight of this monsterous creature and the way its legs appeared to be meer stumps under its bulk, left me with a feeling of extreme pity.

Should we doing this?

Do we have the right to treat animals like this?

These creatures are being exploited.

It is true! Yes they are for the most part being treated well, ie good food, shelter, etc but they are being exploited in ways far to extreme for many of us to comprehend.

From their very conception. Their existance is being manipulated, their genetics, their DNA, the very things which make them them and none of these creatures actually have a say in the matter.

Why make Rabbits which Glow in the dark:

This is for medical research.

Once again animals are being used by humans, exploited for our own needs with no consideration of should we.

How about growing replacement body parts on animals. This you may well think is the stuff of science fiction, but you would be wrong.

Designer parts, grown to order for your vanity needs. I wonder what this mouse would say if only it could.

There comes a time when people and Scientists need to step back and ask themselves

SHOULD WE!

Is this ETHICAL?

With all the Scientific and Technological advancements in modern times you would think we would have developed a more ethical approach to experiments after all that is what we are doing.

Taking a creature who has no real way of deciding, argreeing, consenting or understanding what is happening to it, and changing its DNA, its very cells, giving them diseases, making strange things grow off them, removing and adding body parts and using these creatures in everyway shape and form imaginable and I think in several ways we simply could not.

Here are a few questions for you, after all the experiments are said and done, what are the risks to us Humans?

If we eat Genetically modified meat will in a few generations this in someway affect our children, grand children etc?

If these genetically altered creatures get out into environment and somehow breed will we have mice with ears growing on their backs running around in sheds or glowing rabbits in our fields?

These Questions I have yet to read, hear and see an answer too which convinces me it is safe.

Your thoughts….

A HUGE THANKYOU TO THE ANZ BANKING CORPORATION. Thats right I am thanking a corporation, never thought I would live to see the day when a company (especially a bank) would put the environment and its customers before the almighty dollar. It appears however this is the case.

Customers of the ANZ who opposed the Tamar Valley Pulp Mill began a campaign to remove funds, close accounts and even transfer loans away from the ANZ, as they were the main financier for the mill. ANZ came out yesterday and announce they will not be funding the Pulp Mill.

Three cheers hip hip horray!

Next THANKYOU TO ALL THOSE PEOPLE WHO WITHDREW THEIR FUNDS FROM THE BANK you did it well done.

It does appear that people can make a difference, and even if you are a pensioner and feel you can t do much it does on the face of it appear you can make a difference to the world….. I humbely thankyou!

And finally

A note of appreciation to the New Tasmanian Premiere David Bartlett, who became Premiere on Monday following the resignation of Paul Lennon.

Following is a newspaper report from The Australian, which outlines the reason we are feeling slightly more confident of this project failing:

This is a small victory for those of us opposed to the development, but we still need to remain on guard.

Funding for this Mill is rumoured to be available from sources outside Australia, however with the present pressures on companies to be environmentally responsible, plant trees not remove them, the threat to the old growth forests in Tasmania, the global financial pressures, rising oil prices and other corporate pressures this may not be as easy as Mr Gay is attempting to make it sound.

As with any investment, corporation must way up the benefits of any financial funding and this one is no different. However with the events of the past few days any interest in funding this project must be beginning to waver.

When you look at it in this context: ANZ Gunns financial backer for 15 years says NO!, The State Government says NO!, the population say NO!, the laws which were put in place in order to facilitate the growth of more plantation on private property are removed, the possibility of further restriction of logging with in old growth forests my be changed, the available of the timber in general may be limited, along with the Global pressures you would think any investor considering in funding this project would and should be getting nervous.

This shows what we are fighting to stop, what we are trying to save and why!

For those who wish to find more information on the subject of the Pulp MIll please check out these links:

Gunns Tamar Pulp Mill

The Wilderness Society Gunns Pulp Mill Proposal

Tamar Valley Pulp Mill Key Issues

Leave your messages at these sites, show your concern….

Help us Save the Future!

Couple this with the growing shortages in water and now rising oil prices I ask the question How?

We have been warned for a few years that the growing threat of Global Warming and changing weather patterns would lead to shortages in basic food items such as rice and grains. Recently we have seen this come to pass with just such shortfalls in many countries including America. The United Nations is calling for action to be taken.

Here is a statement from United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon:

The UN wants extra money to buy food for the needy and it is setting up a special food crisis task force to tackle the problem.
With the head of the World Bank and the World Food Program by his side in Geneva in Switzerland, Mr Ban said his new task force has a simple task – to feed the hungry.
And he warned that if nations don’t give the money they have already committed, the world will face a crisis unlike anything it has previously seen.
“We risk the spectre of wider-spread hunger, malnutrition and social unrest on an unprecedented scale,” he said.
Mr Ban says 100 million people are estimated to have been pushed into poverty over the last two years.
“We see farmers in developing countries planting less, producing less, due to the escalating cost of fertiliser and energy,” he said.
Estimates are that world prices for foods like cereals, dairy, meat, sugar and oils are more than 50 per cent higher than they were at the same time last year.
Prices have soared for a number of reasons – high fuel costs, bad weather in key food producing countries like Australia, the increase in land allocated to bio-fuels, and a surge in demand, much of it from the rising middle classes of China and India.

It appears we are being conditioned to expect this to come to pass. As Global warming and the iminent threat of Climate Change, Changing weather Patterns, increase in Oil Prices, water shortages and this goes on we were told this was going to happen and now we are being shown it is.

But are these things actually possing as great a threat as we are being lead to believe.

Yes Global Warming is a threat increased by Human Activity, the burning of fossil fuels etc, but are countries which are the main contributors actual making moves into stoping this practise? No they are increase supply to rising nations and profiting from its increased value.

The weather is changing this is a fact, however it has changed before and although this is new to our lifetimes it has in reaonably recent times, the Vikings witnessed their changing climate. It is fair to say that the Planet Earth has for millenia been in a constant state of change. From the lush tropical plants of the Dinosaurs to the frozen waste land of mammoth, to todays climate of reasonable steady temperatures, But history has shown us that this is not the norm and just because we inhabit the planet does not mean it will stop evolving. it is upto us the human race to evolve with it.

The effect this is appearing to have on food production is I fear a bit of miss conception. As food prices increase and supply is shortening we have seen a rise in the call from GM food companies to use their pest resistant and water saving crops.

Farmers must sign over all rights to this campany and only use the seeds purchased from the seed manufacturers, any farmer found to be saving seed is charged as the seed is the property of the manufacturer. Our food supply becoming the property of big business.

Water in Australia is a huge commodity. We are the driest continent on Earth, but we grow some of the thristiest crops ie rice and cotton. This is crazy, these crops are grown in Queensland, where water from the rainy season is gathered and stockpiled to feed these ever thirstier crops. The effect of this stock piling is evident in the Murray Darling basin further down stream which rely heavily on these rains to flow downstream. Thus causing a shortfall of water for our grain growing farmers, our fruit and vegetable producers and the towns which they support.

As you can see the problem is not as general as the growing problems associated with global Warming or the increase in the human population, it is effected by Natural disasters yes but not on the scale being presented to us.

It is up to us the clever Human Race to evolve with it. Adapt or go the way of the Dodo, we have the ability to use renewable energy sources, but this is being stagnated by those wishing to profit from it. If Governments were serious in combating the inminate threat of climate change they would assist every household to place solar panels on their roof tops and feed this energy into the grid thus becoming a self generating society, They would help fund the production of electric cars which can be plugged into this system each night and recharged but which while being driven recharged its own battery cells to make longer distances possible, they would encourage the building of wind and tidal power generators and other sources of energy. The collection of storm water run off, the recycling of waste water from household through their own biocleaning facility, toilet systems which turn sewage into fertilzer.

All of this technology is available right now. You can purchase it for your household and become totally self sifficent, however it is extremely expensive and in many cases beyond the reach of most households budgets. As Governments and corporations find ways to profit from these then we see them being implimeted on a large scale.

It is, I fear, in our ability to lead like sheep into belief which is being presented as a truth for the benefit of a few and which by our apathy and inability to question the governing forces will become a self forfilling Prophecy. Which will ultimately lead to our Down Fall.

Your thoughts most welcome….

Heres the Story cortesy of Yahoo news:

A University of Melbourne team has extracted genes from a tasmanian tiger and put them into a mouse embryo, reviving hopes that the extinct thylacine may one day be successfully cloned.

The DNA from the thylacine reproduced in the mouse’s body, showing biological function.

Dr Andrew Pask of the University of Melbourne’s Zoology Department says it is the first time DNA from an extinct species has been used “to induce a functional response in another living organism.”

The findings will be published in an international scientific journal tomorrow.

They show that one of the thylacine genes is similar to the mouse gene that develops cartilage and bone.

Professor Marilyn Renfree, who was also involved in the research, said the discovery was critical.

“For those species that have already become extinct, our method shows that access to their genetic biodiversity may not be completely lost,” she said.

However she said cloning a tasmanian tiger was still a long way off.

Dean of Science at the University of New South Wales, Mike Archer, led a project to revive the extinct animals through recovered DNA.

Professor Archer has told ABC Local Radio he believes that aim may now be within reach.

“The next question then is, well what if you did that with the whole of the DNA of the thylacine?” he said.

“Could you in fact bring back a thylacine? Technically I think this is pretty difficult at the moment but on the other hand this is one very significant step in that direction and I’m delighted.”

Professor Archer is hopeful the thylacine can be brought back in his lifetime.

“I’m personally convinced this is going to happen. We are working on a number of projects like this. I’ve got another group working on another extinct Australian animal and we think this is highly probable,” he said.

The last tasmanian tiger died in the Hobart Zoo in 1936.

This ignites the arguement of should we or shouldnt we….

If we have the chance to bring back extinct species should we?

Or is this setting a dangerous presedent and belittling the simportance of bio-diverse animals after if we can bring them back what does it matter…?

Your thoughts please….

Recently like in other years Hydro Tasmania has needed to import power via Basslink from Victoria. This is safety net for Hydro. If the electricity in storage becomes low they simply import it across Bass Strait for a price of course.

A few months ago Hydro cried poor, stating the rising costs of importing power and generating their power was leaving the company in a position of near loss. The Government powers agreed and our energy cost was increased. Fair enough people thought, what many people don’t know is they already pay far more than their Mainland counterparts, they are told it is cheap and therefore believe it, sheep I think.

After this revelation from Hydro Tas, you would have thought they would be putting their energy into increase production through their own system, updating equipment, ensuring everything was in excellent running order and reopening the hydro plants they have closed, to boost their energy output to the storage units.

Well any reasonable person would think so. An increase in costs means an increase in profit and this money should go back into the company to lift productivity to insure a service to customers. In Tasmania you can only use Hydro Tas as there is no other supplier.

But this is not the case at all.

Even as the company once again cries poor stating they are spending $11 million per month due to lower than required rain fall, They are talking of investing in renewable energy’s with the money they say they dont have.

Here is the news report from the ABC

Hydro looking at $400m worth of projects to increase power generation by 10pc

Posted Thu May 1, 2008 4:02pm AEST

Hydro Tasmania hopes to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to increase its power output by 10 per cent.

By increasing generation, the state-owned company can provide enough electricity for an extra 100,000 homes.

The company is investigating 400 million dollars’ worth of projects, including mini hydro generators and refurbishing existing infrastructure, to improve efficiency.

Hydro has also set itself the target of becoming carbon neutral by the year 2012.

The chief executive Vince Hawksworth says the continuing drought means it is already a difficult time for Hydro.

“We’re also thinking carefully about how we make more use of what rain does occur, and that’s what the 1,000 gigawatt hours project is about,” he said.

“It’s about taking the rain that does come and making better use of it than we do today.”

Mr Hawksworth says a range of technology will be used to increase output, including on wind-powered turbines.

“We’re putting some new technology in that allows us to get more wind into the system that we would have otherwise.”

The Premier, Paul Lennon, says the project has one goal.

“To get better efficiencies out of the existing Hydro System.”

“What that means in practical terms is enough electricity to power about 100,000 homes in Tasmania.”

The Government is also considering another equity transfer from Transend to Hydro Tasmania.

Very commendable this project is. Good on them for going green or at least thinking about it, however and whenit comes to Tasmania there is always a However, A few months ago a windfarm proposed as to be built by a private company was knocked on the head. The two wind farms currently in Tasmania are:

Huxley HIll sponsored by Hydro Tasmania and Woolnorth sponsored by Roaring 40′s and you guessed it Hydro Tas.

The fact that many Windfarms have been stopped, stating environmental concerns such as endangering birds and wildlife this argument is not holding water when the State Government and their power station which wishes to build their own windfarm.

It is quite amazing how many problems seem to disappear, endangered animals and birds, human health issues, air and water quality issues, dont seem to be a problem when it comes to Hydro Tas, or Gunns Logging or many others.

Perhaps one day the People of Tasmania will see exactly what is happening to their/our beautiful state before it is ruined beyond repair. But I seriously doubt that will happen in the near future.

But there has been a recent breakthrough, some good news which I am happy to report to all…

A Tasmanian Devil from the West Coast of Tasmania appears to have a Natural Immunity to the disease.

This population is from a different Genetic group, and has so far been spared the massive losses over the mountains (more than half of the East Coast species has died).

Cedric as he is known is the only Devil to be found to be resistant to the disease and along with his half brother Clinky are being tested. The unfortunate part of this process is that in order to find a cure the poor creatures must be injected with the disease. Both were injected with dead tumours by scientists. Clinky produced no antibodies, but Cedric did and appears to have built-in defences against the mystery illness.

So what next…. and this is a little more disturbing

Researcher Alex Kriess says the pair have had live cancer cells inserted into their faces.

“They haven’t developed a tumour so far,” he said. “We injected very few cells so it might take a while until they develop anything that we can see.”

Although I totally disagree with animal research of any kind, this may be the only way to save the species from extinct within the next 20 years…

Research is currently focusing on producing a vaccine for Devils with this genetic pattern, however hopefully a cure for the Devil populations will be around the corner

Does the result justify the means, to save a this one uniques species from extinction?

What is a cull? it is the destruction of a group of animals either partly or in full..

A cull is usually carried out when the numbers of a species reach a point where they are suffering from lack of feed or disease…. However this was a matter of convenience rather than egology….

I wish to thank all those who signed the petition, and have been proactive about stopping this… the Kangaroos will be relocated to NSW.  One small problem In NSW you can go shoot a roo…. thats right … so rather than relocate them to an area outside the city of Canberra, they will be moved to NSW…

At least I guess they will have a chance… no fences…

While all the worlds attention was focused so deligently on Canberra’s wishes to kill our National Icon in our Nations Capital, up in the Northern Territory… at Tindall Air force Base.. approximately 700 wallabies where shot dead….

So we saved the Roos and lost the Wallabies…this is what they shot

In the township of Katherine reports of an explosion in Wallaby numbers has lead to as many as 50 a day being hit on the road…

On the ABC questions where asked on “What was reason behind the Cull?”, “why these animals where not relocated?”

Efforts where made to herd the wallabies out of the Fence, all but 50, didnt want to leave…. so instead they shot the reamining 690…. sighting safety concerned for aircraft landing and taking off… the Air Force had cancelled night Flight for several months as it had become dangerous with the numbers of animals…

Australia’s has to date lost over1/3 of all its mammels since we came here 200 years ago… the Aboriginals where here for 50,000 years before that and not much damage was done….

So why are  loosing our unique creatures, it is in part due to the natural cycle, but a growing number of scientist believe we are entering the 6th mass extinction event… the only difference between this time and the 5 previous is this is cause by just one species….US!

There are several reasons for humans being blamed,

land clearing,

urbanisation,

pollution,

yes our old friend global warming,

the introduction of species,

farming,

cars,

cargo ships,

ballast water,

the list goes on….

Now we think we can kill a hundreds of animals of the same species and have little or no effect on their population….

Are we really so stupid to think we know better than Nature…

she has been a dam fine job without our help until now…. after all when times are hard the numbers fall when times are good they increase… this increases the gene pool and allows the stronger animals to breed and gives the next generation a healthy start…

Perhaps it is time we let nature take care of it self… and start taking responsibility for the Great blood y mess we have created and help her along a bit..

What do you think?

The following is an inclomplete list of all Australian Animals listed as extinct since Europeans first came to Australia, pretty shameful isnt it, but whats worse is all the creatures we dont where here and have also gone…. This list is taken from Wiki   please visit the site to read more

Birds

Amphibians

The reason for the decline and extinction of these frog species is unclear, decline in frog populations is an international phenomenon.

Mammals and Marsupials

Invertebrates

Several Australian Invertebrates have been listed by the World Conservation Union as having become extinct. However they are not listed as extinct under Australian legislation.

The New energy saver Light globes you know the ones with the funny globe….

well they are as you would know are flourescent,

flourescent bulbs have been linked to increasing siezures in epileptics and

other health issues, however this is not my issue with these bulbs…

it is the content of mercury contained within them which is of concern.

I had no idea that this was the case and although they are of saving the planet credentials, at what cost I ask?

Here is a story I have found at Reuters Mercury in energy-saving bulbs worries scientists 

The Story is as follows:

By Lisa Von Ahn
NEW YORK (Reuters) – There’s an old joke about the number of people it takes to change a light bulb. But because the newer energy-efficient kinds contain tiny amounts of mercury, the hard part is getting rid of them when they burn out.
Mercury is poisonous, but it’s also a necessary part of most compact fluorescent bulbs, the kind that environmentalists and some governments are pushing as a way to cut energy use.
With an estimated 150 million CFLs sold in the United States in 2006 and with Wal-Mart alone hoping to sell 100 million this year, some scientists and environmentalists are worried that most are ending up in garbage dumps.
Mercury is probably best-known for its effects on the nervous system. The Mad Hatter in the classic children’s book “Alice in Wonderland” was based on 19th-century hat makers who were continually exposed to the toxin.
Mercury can also damage the kidneys and liver, and in sufficient quantities can cause death.
U.S. regulators, manufacturers and environmentalists note that, because CFLs require less electricity than traditional incandescent bulbs, they reduce overall mercury in the atmosphere by cutting emissions from coal-fired power plants.
But some of the mercury emitted from landfills is in the form of vaporous methyl-mercury, which can get into the food chain more readily than inorganic elemental mercury released directly from a broken bulb or even coal-fired power plants, according to government scientist Steve Lindberg.

“Disposal of any mercury-contaminated material in landfills is absolutely alarming to me,” said Lindberg, emeritus fellow of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Continued…

The story continues so please visit the link and read on.. it is enlightening… do you think we might be cutting of our noses despit our face… could this cause more problem than they solve?

Your thoughts welcome

This is one of those times…..

Contractors are being brought to Belconnen a former navel base in Canberra, to kill around 400 kangaroos and stop them over grazing. news report is as follows:

SYDNEY (AFP) — Australian animal rights activists vowed Wednesday to prevent the planned killing of more than 400 kangaroos on defence department land after the government refused to intervene.

“We are going to blockade the gates 24 hours a day from Saturday so they can’t get in and kill them,” Pat O’Brien, president of the Wildlife Protection Association of Australia, told AFP.

Contractors are preparing to cull the animals on a former naval site at Belconnen in the national capital Canberra to protect native grasslands from overgrazing.

The authorities have turned down an alternative plan to relocate the kangaroos, citing expert advice that this would be inhumane.

Environment Minister Peter Garrett rejected accusations by some activists that the government was being hypocritical by failing to protect kangaroos while taking a strong stand against Japan’s whaling programme.

“Our views on whaling are clear and we will continue to resolutely oppose the killing of whales in the Southern Ocean,” he told reporters.

“A balanced and properly scientifically delivered programme to ensure that we preserve and enhance our environment and our ecology and our wildlife is pretty good policy as far as I am concerned.”

The plan is to shoot the kangaroos with tranquiliser darts and then administer lethal injections.

There was an international outcry in 2004 when about 900 kangaroos were destroyed at the site of a dam supplying water to Canberra, and the latest cull has also drawn fire from abroad.

British-based animal welfare group Viva, which has the support of former Beatle Paul McCartney, has launched a petition against the cull and says on its website that it has received support from people in 25 countries.

Millions of kangaroos are killed in Australia every year, but O’Brien said the Canberra kangaroos were a special case because they were trapped by the defence department fences and could not move to the wild even if they chose to.

“There is a commercial kangaroo kill which we are also working very hard to stop,” he said. “They are killing about three-and-a-half million kangaroos this year.

“The meat is sold for dog’s food or exported to France, Germany and Russia mostly. It’s just a terrible, terrible industry.”

The rationale behind the killing was that there were too many kangaroos, he said.

“But four years ago they were saying there were 65 million kangaroos in Australia, now they’re saying there are only 20 million. We’ve had 10 years of heavy drought and incessant heavy commercial shooting.”

As stated even Paul McCartney is getting in on this… if they removed the fences the kangaroos would move on, they could relocate them, but to say this would inhuman is ridiculous what letting them live is more inhuman than killing them… well thats just stupid dont you think….

Click to find out how to help stop this murdering of a National Icon and save innocent creatures trapped by fences

Click here to sign the Petition today

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