Tuesday 26 March 2013

Resource consultants 'like supermodels who won't get up for less than $5000 a day'



(From last Saturday's Queensland Telegraph) By John Mikkelsen

AN ENVIRONMENTAL medicine specialist has compared consultants working on major resource developments with “supermodels who won’t get out of bed for less than $5000 a day”.
The claim was made by Save the Reef spokesman Dr Andrew Jeremijenko, an occupational physician who once worked as chief medical officer for Woodside Petroleum in WA. He has also provided “Telemedicine advice” to major coal seam gas and Curtis Island LNG proponents, QGC and Origin over the past three years.
His scathing assessment of the resources consultancy industry followed the release of a report last week by the Federal Government’s Independent Scientific Expert Committee. This raised a number of issues over Arrow Energy’s Surat Gas Project Environmental Impact Statement, including underground water and threatened species.
Dr Jeremijenko told the Telegraph, “This demonstrates how broken the EIS process has become.
“In my view environmental consultants are becoming more like supermodels than protectors of the environment.
“They won't get out of bed for less than $5000 a day. They go and take a few pictures and sell the product (namely the resource company CSG project).
“If you have the patience to read their ‘glossy’, it is shallow. It doesn’t address issues like cumulative impacts. They are paid by the resource companies and they do their bidding.
“Very few projects get knocked back and they don’t get sued by the Queensland Government if they say, ‘ It will all be ok’ but are proved wrong … All you have to do is look at the Dee River or at Ensham to realize these consultants get it wrong” .
Dr Jeremijenko said the expert committee was set up at the instigation of Federal Independent MP Tony Windsor, who had been dissatisfied with government scrutiny of new coal and coal seam gas projects.
“The committee has found that the Environmental Impact Statement for Arrow Energy does not adequately address potential impacts to matters of national environmental significance.
“It considered the EIS modelling inadequate as it does not assess cumulative impacts and they found the project has the potential to significantly impact on aquifer integrity in the region,” Dr Jeremijenko said.
“Mr Windsor and fellow independent Rob Oakeshott have successfully lobbied for a "Water Trigger’ to be included in the EPBC act. The resource companies continue to lobby against it. They know they are having cumulative impacts on the water…. You can't drink coal or gas," Dr Jeremijenko said.
Save the Reef believed the expert committee had highlighted problems with the whole EIS process. Environmental consultants had lost their independence and had become “the voice boxes for industry”.
“The current system rewards environmental consultants with repeat work if they write what the resource companies want….
“The government then approves projects without adequate review of these ‘independent’ EIS. If later there is an environmental disaster the environmental consultants know there is little chance they will be held responsible….
Dr Jeremijenko said the EIS for Arrow’s gasfield project was unfortunately one of many found to be flawed.
“In my view, Environmental Impact Statements are no longer worth the paper they are written on,” he said.
“The Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area may be put on UNESCO’s ‘In Danger List’ on June 1 partly because environmental consultants for the LNG plants and Western Basin Dredging and Disposal project said that environmental impacts could be managed and would be small to negligible.
“The consultants had stated in one EIS for a Curtis Island LNG plant, that Gladstone Harbour was an area of low sensitivity despite a table stating that World Heritage Areas should be classified as high sensitivity. Gladstone Harbour is a turtle haven and dugong sanctuary.,” Dr Jeremijenko said.
His claims follow a CMC probe into recent allegations that the former Bligh government had pressured senior public servants into rushed approval of earlier EIS reports by other major coal seam gas companies constructing pipelines and LNG export terminals on Curtis Island

27 comments:

  1. Hey the supermodel has gone missing (along with the scan) Maybe no one forked out $5000 this morning, or she was blamed for computer glitches for non Mac users! Weird stuff happening.
    Meanwhile the Qld Government has given the nod of approval to the Bowen Basin 580km pipeline for Arrow, but it still needs federal approval.

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    1. Mikko, look in Help for an explanation. You should now be able to view the text. I hope to get your scan back up later when my internet speed picks up. We can't have this discussion not illustrated by such a good photo of a supermodel.

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  2. Yeah I saw the Help talk, Dale. Just stirring :0) But as Peter and I said there, we never had a problem seeing everything as usual with our Macs. Funny that. Meanwhile, news out today about some huge international cyber attack slowing internet speeds recently. Haven't seen the details but I wonder if that was involved in any way.

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    1. The intenational cyberwar is real John, with free and easy Dutch web hosting service, "Cyberbunker", said to be launching multiple so-called Denial of Service attacks on self-righteous, volunteer - driven spam fighter (and hence potentially harbouring a few with 'axes to grind') "Spamhaus".
      Here is part of a report from the SMH:
      "...... Spamhaus, one of the most prominent groups tracking spammers on the internet, uses volunteers to identify spammers and has been described as an online vigilante group. In the past, blacklisted sites have retaliated against Spamhaus with denial-of-service attacks, in which they flood Spamhaus with traffic requests from personal computers until it falls offline.

      But in recent weeks, the attackers hit back with a far more powerful strike that exploited the internet's core infrastructure, called the Domain Name System, or DNS. That system functions like a telephone switchboard for the internet. It translates the names of websites like Facebook.com or Google.com into a string of numbers that the internet's underlying technology can understand
      ........


      Read more: href="http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/security-it/spam-dispute-becomes-largest-cyber-attack-in-history-of-the-internet-20130327-2gtw1.html#ixzz2OoOZuQFJ"

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    2. Curses! Why didn't that live link work? I'll give it one more go! So, try clicking here
      Cheers al

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  3. John, Peter and any other insufferable Mac Warriors out there (including two of my sons in law and a number of friends), you lot are still way in the minority, mates. Apple did a great job of stirring Microsoft and its fellow travellers into lifting their games, which was way needed but which they have done, but now Apple itself has to learn a little about price for performance. And software compatibility issues. Just my humble opinion, of course!! :-)

    Whatever, well sorted, Dale.
    Cheers al

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  4. Ha well a good Mac motto is if it ain't broke, don't fix it. PS I quite like being a minority :0)

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    1. Yes, in a house with 3 i-macs and 2 i-pads and 2 i-pods (and they all talk to each other and update data and details) I still believe in the Apple brand even though Al gore is on the board.

      I couldn't see the problems others had either, Mikko.

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    2. Well, you superior Apple Smarty Pantsers, I just managed my first live link, posted successfully above. And it works, Whoopee!!
      Cheers al
      PS Does your household cybermenagerie all speak the same language Geoff? I imagine there might be a range of ages behind the fingers doing the typing! :-) al

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    3. There's onky two of us, bro al, as well as English, he speak 日本語版 and she speaks Francais!

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    4. Al, I don't see any live link working there as you say it is.
      Are you using some sort of tonic again?

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  5. Hey Al, you did it the link is active.

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    1. Yes Dale, it is! As I said, Whoopee!!
      But now John CF, you really do have me worried! Just go up 7 posts, and click on try clicking here. Maybe I should give you the name of my tonic?? :-)
      Cheers al

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    2. OK. Am I on a roll? Why not try a YouTube clip!. Click here for a really uplifting, Feel Good story If this works, you will be glad you did1 ;-)
      Cheers al

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    3. Well now, I'm off before unexpected and unusual success goes totally to my head. So Bro' John, perhaps you will be able to bring your discussion back On Topic? :-)
      Cheers al
      J'aime le francais, Geoff mon ami. But 日本語版? Huh?? al.

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    4. Found it Al. What a great link, big picture right there too. And a really nice and worthwhile true story.

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  6. Hey Al, congratulations on mastering those impressive new skills! I wouldn't have a clue myself.

    However I'm another of these (insufferable?) Apple Mac people who couldn't seem to see the problem you were describing earlier. Anyway glad it's all sorted.

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    3. No, I give up. This b****y system is determined NOT to let anyone help :-(
      But, Happy Easter Bunnies anyway
      al

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    4. Al,
      Have a look at this wikipedia site that tells you all about the windows 8.

      One of my daughters got the Windows 8 and found that it worked well on her mobile devices but not so well on the desktop one. If you are having trouble maybe it will give you a clue.

      Just a suggestion,

      Peter

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_8

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    5. Thanks Peter, but I wouldn't touch Windows 8 with a barge pole, for computing, at this stage. It was "invented" for smartphones and their cousins, tablets (trying to mimic the toouch screen wizardry of Apple) and it seems OK there.

      But for laptop or desktop real use, it doesn't cut the mustard at this stage. IMHO that is, but it's a view shared by a lot of pros. The most recent stage of my long carrer has been directly involved with computing (not hardware or software development, but certainly application of both), so I am reasonably into these things. As I approach 75 though in only a couple of months, I am re-focusing my activities.

      Last night here, I was attempting to add a simple illustration of Dale's earlier and much appreciated (by me) instructions relating to HTML, but each time at the critical point, 'the system' insisted on pasting, not what I had selected, but the following string which was useless. So after 2 attempts I spat the dummy, and slouched off.
      I am grateful though for knowing how to post live links here, and I will be doing more of that. Not now though, my wife and I are off for a long walk, practicing for the Dolomites in June ;-)

      The 'problem' by the way resulted from John's new post, and the way the system reacted to his cut/paste. One of the continuing issues with Mac software is that it occasionally throws up incompatibilities - most software applications by far in the commercial world are still developed for Windows.
      Cheers al

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    6. I overcame the incompatibility problems by going with iCloud which can be used on both systems.
      With I cloud the word processing is no longer done with the mac system but is now all done on on word, Excel, PP and Entourage.

      The only problem is that when you switch over there are many things that are not compatible but this is overcome with a programme called Pages which converts all of those things for you,


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    7. Peter, you are obviously a smart cookie. (Computing nerd pun intended! :-)
      What I was attempting to do last night was to show just how (relatively) easy it is to paste a live link. So I am now encouraged to try again, using your 'dead' link above, , as a reference point,

      1) Copy the target link, ie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_8 in this instance.
      2) Type in (or copy/paste, if you save the string in a Word file or whatever)
      Click Here
      3) Paste your actual link stream between the double quotation marks,
      ie "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_8"
      Click Here
      And Bob's your Aunty!

      Now if that didn't work, "Yahhhhhhhhh!" (That's me, jumping off the roof ;-(

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    8. Step 2) above is as 'interpreted' by 'the system', and is what stuffed me up last night. It is crap!!.
      It should read Type in (or copy / paste) at the end of the string.

      The 'Click Here' in step 3 is the actual live link, which works, to Peter's Wiki treatise. (My summary of that remains, forget Win 8 at this stage for computing, Win 7 in its latest configuration is great).
      Cheers al

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  7. The first live link my Bro refers to is the one about the DNS cyber attack and it does work and it is scary. To me computers are a bit like the fairer sex. Can't live with em, can't live without em. Oops my better half is just home so better click off :0)
    Meanwhile if you don't hear from me for a week it's not because I've been caught but we will be away at the beautiful unpolluted blue waters of the Sunshine Coast in a day or so.

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  8. This is truly amazing, 'The System' keeps changing the actual words which I copy / paste, so I am giving up. Again!! :-(
    Suffice to say that:
    a) Dale's instructions under Help on how to post live links obviously works. Heavens! I can do it!!
    b) So, so can you. But do go back and follow Dale's advice!
    Cheers al

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