Can't Eat Coal, Can't Drink Gas

It's estimated that 1100 or 1200 people attended the Food Security Forum yesterday in Brisbane. It was a strange mix of people to say the least. There were Greenies and ultra-conservatives, farmers and conservationists, country folk and city folk.... all on the same side. (As one politician put it, if Bob Katter, Bob Brown and Bob Irwin are all singing from the same prayer book there must be something wrong!) There was a big meeting at the Convention Centre and then we marched to the city for a rally.

Unfortunately, Coal Seam Gas isn't an issue in the upcoming Queensland State election because neither of the two main parties in the race can see anything wrong with it.

A Rush and A Push and The Land is Ours

This is a picture of one of my favourite parts of Australia, in the Scenic Rim on the border of Queensland and New South Wales. This area of stunning natural beauty and prime farming land is under threat, along with vast areas of both Queesland and New South Wales..

It's all because of Coal Seam Gas. It is one of the most frightening things that is happening in Australia today. This is because the extraction of coal seam gas involves injecting chemicals into the ground that can possibly contaminate our water supply forever -  not only for farmland but our drinking water as well. The Scenic Rim isn't the only area affected. There are plans for up to 40 000 wells in Queensland across the state.

"Lock The Gate" is an alliance which allows farmers to band together and say "no" to mining companies who offer giant amounts of money to individual farmers for their land. As a consequence of the mess and noise that they make, the surrounding farmland becomes virtually worthless. Most landowners in the area where I took this photo have one on their gate.

Today I'm heading down to the Food Security Forum to learn more and show my concern. Tomorrow I'll post a picture from the event.

If you want to know more, the ABC have a good website here.

March Theme day: Electricity

Today is the first of the month which means it's theme day for those of us in the City Daily Photo gang. This month's theme is Electricity. So being storm season in Brisbane, my intention was to get out there and get the classic shot of lightning over the city but I always seemed to be working or in bed, or very comfortable with a glass of vino when the electrical storms passed through this past month. So I have gone for a shot of the generator at work which is at one of the TV stations up in Mt. Coot-tha. At this time of year with the weather being so charged with electric storms, and with a giant transmitter tower sitting on top of the building, you have to factor in the possibility of being struck by lightning. In the 5 years that I have worked in the building, we have been hit several times and each time this enormous generator keeps us on the air. We run it every time a storm passes near Mt. Coot-tha. It's about 2 metres high and 5 metres long, burns 9 litres of diesel an hour and is very, very noisy.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

The Jac Stack's Back!

Here we are with the third of three Jacaranda-themed posts.

You are looking at "The Jacaranda Gas Chamber" by Joshua Levi currently exhibiting in his own fabulous Joshua Levi Galleries on Ipswich Road. That guy in the coffin is Brisbane's Lord Mayor Campbell Newman, who is the man ultimately responsible to the tunnel and its chimneys.

Purple Haze

If you squint really really hard (maybe so hard that your eyes close) you can just make out that this giant ventilation stack in Woolloongabba is supposed to be a jacaranda tree (see yesterday's post for comparison). It's one of two enormous monoliths (the other one a red "poinciana-inspired" number in Bowen Hills) that dominate their respective skylines. Each is the height of about a 15 storey building. The tunnel between the two stacks is 4.8 kms with 2 lanes each way and is set to carry 100,000 cars a day. As the stacks don't have any filters, (?? I know) the council have set up 4 air-quality testing stations so they can monitor just how much filth and pollution they will pump into the air next year when the tunnel opens.
Both chimneys are close to large hospitals. (Can you tell I'm not a big fan?).
More info including an aerial photo of the poinciana stack here.

The irony of a giant man-made tree pumping exhaust fumes over our city is not lost on an artist called Joshua Levi. Visit again tomorrow for his take on it.

Earth, Wind and Fire Skywatch

Wednesday's giant dust storm turned the midday sun into a pale yellow circle directly overhead... it was really odd!

Visit other skies from around the world posted today at Skywatch Friday.

Dust Everywhere!

This was the scene driving back to Brisbane yesterday from Lamington as the dust storm from New South Wales headed north. Thousands of tons of soil have been displaced to form a cloud 400 kms wide by 2000 kms long stretching across eastern Australia. I was told by a couple of locals that in the west of the state, people will find that as a result they now have to step down an extra foot when they walk out the back door...
I think they may have been taking advantage of my gullible nature.

At least I have a good excuse for having a dirty car now.