Once again, the Federal Government of Australia has proved to be at least 100 years out of touch with the need to be environmentally sustainable and responsible in this modern age of mass consumption and destruction. I sometimes think that Beige Howard and his cronies are trying their darnedest to win the how-to-screw-the-planet-up-most award.
It's wonderful to see that the government will spend $23 million of our taxpayer dollars on an advertising blitz to show how in touch with environmental concerns they are, and then cave in to big business in one of the few unspoiled corners of the planet (Tasmania), agreeing to build a delightfully destructive pollution-machine in the shape of a pulp mill.
"Oh, but we have put safeguards in place, ensuring that it is world's best practice." Yeah, I guess that's right when you compare it to the strip-logging of Amazonian forests or the clubbing of seals, but in the broad scheme of things, it's about as anti-environmentally aware as you could possibly get. This government is one of the most out-of-touch, anachronistic dinosaurs that has ever had the incredible good fortune, due to voter ignorance and/or apathy, of leading a supposedly progressive nation in the modern age.
The decision by the environment minister Malcolm Turncoat to back the Gunns pulp mill in northern Tasmania is nothing short of environmental terrorism. I am sure that he will defend his decision by quoting "Australia's chief scientist" Dr. Jim Peacock, whose terms of reference were limited to a mere pinprick of ecological ramifications.
And to all of those proponents of the Timber Industry (Forest Rapers Inc) who claim that the pulp mill is an essential injection of jobs for hard-pressed timber workers, I have only one word for you - reskilling. Use your not-insubstantial lobbying power to suggest to the government that a modest investment in the renewable energy industry and reskilling of timber workers to be part of it will reap incredible rewards, as well as the respect of this and future generations.
Once again, thank you Beige Howard for shortsightedly considering business and the economy above everything else. In the dim, dark, smog-filled future, I must remember to track down your grandchildren and remind them that you were the asshole that fucked up our last great wilderness.
Until the next time that I breathe the acrid, pollution-filled smog that passes for air, I remain your ever-faithful ranter, oh Rambling Masses.
Don't forget to vote when the cowardly miscreant finally decides to pull an election date out of his Beige you-know-what.
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