REDEX Peugeot Rerun. - Days 6 & 7

by Ian Hampton

Day 6 Sunday 19 May - Longreach to Winton

Snagged interview with Macca this morning, his sort of stuff I think, and anyhow Paul Watson had been “on” the show last Sunday, so Ian McNamara was already interested and knew we were around… Anyhow - all good PR for the event - hope this is maintained and actually builds up before we get back to Sydney in 3 weeks….
QANTAS Museum is next best aviation museum/cathedral to aviation after the Boeing Future of Flight Museum out of Chicago…. Outstanding and with no Government grants and only a little help from QANTAS who donated it to the Museum rather than on-selling to another airline like Aeroflot or something like that…. Some fantastic old machines, engines, turbo jets and turbo fans and a Boeing 707 and a Catalina and a beautiful old Avro and and…. I could spend al day there and then some… But this (in part) travelling road show has to move on, we have to report in and we need to stay in front of the “sweeper” Josh in the parts truck.
Brothers Boyd had solidarity and bonding session replacing busted diff in Keith’s 203 Van (real task for real men - II reckon), Lucy Robson-Boyd really proud of the 2 brothers….
Quick cruisey drive to Winton - only 180 km and now we are north of the Tropic of Capricorn… I.E. I reckon we are getting into the REAL Rerun rally…. Cruisey but lots of rad kill and bloody squabbling wheeling kites wheeling and “shouldering each other out” on the ground, and although they have outstanding aerobatic skills… Seems like they are desperate to get themselves smashed all over the front of charging Pugs and everywhere other vehicle… We crossed the real road train threshold sign this (western) side of Longreach… Now we are in the land of road trains… Truly impressive gargantuans of the road….

Day 7 Monday 20 May, Winton to Mount Isa

Not a difficult day 470 km from Winton to Mount Isa with stops at Kynuna, McKinlay, Cloncurry, a diversion to look at the remnants of Mary Kathleen township and on to the Isa….

Went for an early walk around Winton with Peter - good in the early morning freshness and the town coming to life… The galahs that we saw wheeling the night before with the last light lighting their underwings which evoked the John Williamson line “Galleries of pink galahs” are up and beginning to swirl into a day squadron, and these were somehow reprised by faded pink awnings on an old house.

Then all the Pugs lined up for a promotional photo shoot - primarily for the Matilda Country Tourist Park… This is a great place - practical, not expensive and charming… Then waved off by the fantastic Bush Poets from the night before… Out onto the road and stops at the above places…. think I liked the pub at Kynuna best - which effortlessly combines bar, accommodation, dining and coffee/tea. It seems that every town and establishment tries to claim a piece of the Waltzing Matilda story, I should do my own research….

The roads are mostly and fundamentally straight - so no challenge in the boy racing of last week, not drivers settled car into steady 100 km/hour gait which is effortless for the old thing.

Most interesting was diversion to the north to the abandoned and historic township - Mary Kathleen…. Can sense the town and the busy busy life that once went on from the streets, and concrete pads where the houses and the larger buildings once were and in the partial clearing of the trees, but there are plenty of them… I expect this was a pleasant town with shade in amongst the trees.

Navigator and driver both stuffed up leaving town and drove off down and old road heading west - sort of in parallel to the current highway…. Partly broken up bitumen and rock bits show that Maggie Bleu suspension definitely NOT up to the gravel sections planned for later in this run…. Priority work (after some home projects) will be (I think), rear suspension upgrade based on P403 coils and telescopic shock absorbers, then the front suspension - need to stiffen up the front shockers (which are shockers….)

Then approaching Mount Isa - how to describe thee bones rugged hills and such a range of colours - chocolate, blue (in the distance), faded purple… I thought of ancient dinosaur skeletons (which are also a local feature)

 

You can read all of Ian's posts in The Peugeot #53 Diaries

 

Previous related post

60th Anniversary REDEX Peugeot Rerun. - Day 1

 

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In Defence of Carbon Dioxide.

How often do you hear about "carbon footprint" and "carbon pollution."

For example:

Use the most popular online carbon footprint calculator and it's free to use. Calculate CO2 emissions from Cars, Flights, Home and Public Transport.

Google "Carbon Pollution images"  and you will see deliberately deceptive images like:

From Think Progressive

Why do they lie? The carbon footprint purveyors know that they really mean carbon dioxide emissions and, surely, people using images like the one above MUST know that carbon dioxide is a clolourless gas. Carbon Dioxide is a vital to life plant food.

Remember the Australian Government's use of  similar  deceptive images in their  advertisement parodied by "Say Yes to an Election."

Harrison Schmitt, an adjunct professor of engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was an Apollo 17 astronaut and a former U.S. senator from New Mexico has co-written an article with William Happer, a professor of physics at Princeton University and a former director of the office of energy research at the U.S. Department of Energy titled:

In Defense of Carbon Dioxide

They start:

Of all of the world's chemical compounds, none has a worse reputation than carbon dioxide. Thanks to the single-minded demonization of this natural and essential atmospheric gas by advocates of government control of energy production, the conventional wisdom about carbon dioxide is that it is a dangerous pollutant. That's simply not the case. Contrary to what some would have us believe, increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will benefit the increasing population on the planet by increasing agricultural productivity.

Image: Happer WSJ

 They discuss the stalling of global warming and the fact that atmospheric CO2 has previously been at much higher levels. Then continue:

Using energy from sunlight—together with the catalytic action of an ancient enzyme called rubisco, the most abundant protein on earth—plants convert carbon dioxide from the air into carbohydrates and other useful molecules. Rubisco catalyzes the attachment of a carbon-dioxide molecule to another five-carbon molecule to make two three-carbon molecules, which are subsequently converted into carbohydrates. (Since the useful product from the carbon dioxide capture consists of three-carbon molecules, plants that use this simple process are called C3 plants.) C3 plants, such as wheat, rice, soybeans, cotton and many forage crops, evolved when there was much more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than today. So these agricultural staples are actually undernourished in carbon dioxide relative to their original design.  

At the current low levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, rubisco in C3 plants can be fooled into substituting oxygen molecules for carbon-dioxide molecules. But this substitution reduces the efficiency of photosynthesis, especially at high temperatures. To get around the problem, a small number of plants have evolved a way to enrich the carbon-dioxide concentration around the rubisco enzyme, and to suppress the oxygen concentration. Called C4 plants because they utilize a molecule with four carbons, plants that use this evolutionary trick include sugar cane, corn and other tropical plants.

Read more from the Wall Street Journal HERE.

60th Anniversary REDEX Peugeot Rerun. - Day 1

Yesterday Ian Hampton (a contributor on this site) completed Day 7 for an overnight stop in Mt Isa in the 60th Anniversary REDEX Peugeot Rerun. Celebrating the 1953 Redex Trial around Australia
Ian has been quiet on this site for some time because of the preparation of his 1950 Peugeot known as Maggie Bleu for this adventure.
With Ian's permission below is a cross post from Ian's The Peugeot #53 Diaries of Day 1.





Rally proper Day 1 - Maitland Airport to Inverell

Is it true that Wayne Swan brought down “his” (actually our) budget tonight. CORRECT answer - who gives a rat’s a****!!! His goose is well cooked anyhow, and up here in the real world of rallying in the north of NSW, we were doing much better things and enjoying it all immensely…

Simple framework - Rutherford Airport (just out of Maitland) to Tamworth to Inverell… Real story - great great countryside and some great enthusiastic driving.


Scenery keeps changing and that is a delight. - beautiful, lush and heavily vegetated Hunter Valley to the more open plains out here but lots of grass playing in the breeze and lit in all sorts of ways by the sun at different angles as it cycles around the sky, and by the effects of the clouds. Light intermittent rain early - Peugeot manual wipers - the only way to go.. When the wiper motor is stuffed anyhow. Also - wonderful old buildings in every town… All of that past skill, enterprise and hard work left as brick and stone “monuments”…

 But still in use and “alive”..But the real story is today’s driving and what you can really do in a Pug 203… These are great old cars… Those little engines are in no way powerful but they just “ask” you to drive them hard - we are not belting the crap out of them… But it is enthusiasm from the engines and the cars that just sit down and hold the road solidly and beautifully and us… Learnt a lot from watching Peter drive this afternoon… how to read what is over the crest of the hill by how the lines are as you approach the crest and when and how to keep the momentum going… Basically we are driving these things at around 100 - 105 km/hour (and even 110 - downhill), but we (anyhow - me) feels like a boy racer….

Really good dinner in town in Inverell and then a drink and talk talk with the Boyd clan… who are camping opposite… Geoff Boyd can be excruciatingly funny…

Tomorrow is Inverell to Dalby with some great events… Visit the Inverell transport museum and first competitive event - motorkhana… all new for me… And finish in Dalby (isn’t that Barnaby Joyce country?). Time to practice our “Ay’s” and other Queensland stuff…

Fix the Budget by Cutting Climate Waste

by Viv Forbes

The Carbon Sense Coalition today called on the federal government to reduce the burden of the Climate Industry on all taxpayers and consumers. 

The Chairman of Carbon Sense, Mr Viv Forbes, said that the biggest national scandal today was how the whole government apparatus, including the nationalised research and media industries and parts of the opposition, was totally captive to a religious belief that a destructive war on carbon energy will somehow provide benefits to some future generation of Australians by cooling the climate and preventing extreme weather events.  

“This is a delusion.” 

Quote: 

It was the great Milton Friedman who said “There is only one tax on the people and that is government spending”.

 

Cutting expenditure, not re-arranging expenditure, must be the total focus of this budget. 

Cartoon by Paul Zanetti

 

 

 

And the first candidate for spending cuts must be the totally useless Climate Change Industry. 

Every department, program, research grant, travel grant or salary with climate, warming, carbon, sustainability, renewable, sequestration, clean coal, ethanol or IPCC in its title or mission statement should be abolished forthwith together with its staffing. This list must include but not be restricted to: 

• The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) and its dependants, saving about $3.2 billion.
•  
• The Clean Energy Finance Corporation, saving about $10 billion. 
•  
• The Emerging Renewables Program, saving about $126 million. 
•  
• The Clean Technology Innovation Program, saving about $200 million. 
•  
• Subsidies to Coal-fired electricity generators, saving about $5.5 billion. (This has to be the ultimate madness - the government levies a crippling carbon tax on coal-fired electricity generation to force them to close and then pays huge subsidies to the same generators to delay their closure). 
•  
• All Climate Change “Research” focussed on carbon dioxide, saving about $300 million. 
•  
• “Contracts for Closure” - payments to ensure closure of some electricity generators (unbelievable - surely the carbon tax will do this). 
•  
• The Coal Sector Jobs Package - payments to coal mines to offset the cost of the carbon tax- just abolish the tax.
•  
• Coal Sector Assistance Package - Subsidies to some Coal Mines (another stupidity - repaying some of the carbon tax they took in the first place). 
•  
• Everything funded under the Clean Energy Future Plan 
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• All renewable energy subsidies. 
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• The Low Emissions Technology Demonstration Fund. 
•  
• The Ethanol Production Grants Program – a subsidy per litre of ethanol produced. 
•  
• All climate change officials, lawyers, inspectors and auditors everywhere, maybe 13,000 of them saving, say, $2 billion per year. 
•  
• The offices of the Climate Commissioner and the Clean Energy Regulator – whatever they cost is wasted money. 
•  
• The whole Carbon Capture and Storage empire – The National Low Emissions Coal Initiative, the CCS Flagships Program, the National Carbon Dioxide Infrastructure Plan, and the Carbon Capture and Storage Institute. 
•  
• Support for all the International Climate Forums and Conferences via APEC, CEM, G20, IEA, IEF, IPEEC, IRENA, IPCC and all the travel costs associated with attendance. 
•  
• All handouts under the Green Precincts Fund - $15M spent to date. 
•  
• All government advertising, market research, media monitoring, media advisers and logo designers promoting the carbon tax, the Department of Climate Change, smart meters or other climate and green energy initiatives. 
•  
• Donations to Green Friends such as the Climate Institute, the Australian Conservation Council, Climate Works Australia, Green Cross Australia, and the ACTU - $3 million spent already. 
•  
• To “balance” all of these reduced expenditures the government must also abolish the carbon tax and all fuel taxes not related directly to public road usage and applied to road construction and maintenance. 

Note: The above list probably includes errors, double counting and omissions, but such is the confusion and proliferation of the alphabet soup of what poses as “Climate Policy” that it is doubtful if anyone could prepare an accurate and comprehensive list. The only feasible solution is to start cutting, biggest first. None of them will be missed, except with relief by taxpayers and consumers.

 

 

Viv Forbes,

Chairman, The Carbon Sense Coalition

www.carbon-sense.com



UNESCO's latest warning on threats to Great Barrier Reef

I think it's good to have articles posted recently suggesting threats to our world icon  the Great Barrier Reef are grossly exaggerated, but here is the other side of the coin. Parts of the Reef no doubt are still healthy, other parts are obviously under threat, including the southern section off Gladstone and the World Heritage Area which includes all of Gladstone Harbour.
My article below as published on the Queensland Telegraph at  . http://www.queenslandtelegraph.com/lack-of-report-cards-on-barrier-reef-health-a-concern/

and  the Great Barrier Reef Blog at
 http://www.greatbarrierreef.org.au/great-barrier-reef-fed-and-state-govt-crap-response-to-unesco/

The three massive LNG plants under construction on Curtis Island in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (construction much more advanced now).  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the effects on water quality in a once pristine waterway, and what was once hundreds of hectares of mangroves.

Heron Island, a popular international tourist destination off Gladstone.

Lack of report cards on Barrier Reef health a concern

ENVIRONMENTALISTS remain pessimistic that the Great Barrier Reef will be placed on the World Heritage Committee’s in danger list,  despite a new ultimatum to the State and Federal Governments to take prompt action to protect it.

In an interim report recently released, UNESCO gave both governments until next February to convince it that effective measures were being taken to halt new port developments and improve water quality.

Following major concerns raised in a delegates’ mission report last March, the international body said some progress had been made, but not enough to demonstrate that the Reef’s outstanding universal value  (OUV) was protected.

Coastal development and water quality issues in Gladstone were again highlighted, together with proposed development at Port Alma and Balaclava Island.

When the World Heritage Committee meets in Cambodia next month, it is expected to adopt the new recommendation. This states that the Great Barrier Reef be included in the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2014,  ‘‘in the absence of a firm and demonstrable commitment’’ from the state and federal governments to take action.

UNESCO referred to a draft Great Barrier Reef Ports Strategy released by the Queensland Government last October which proposed to prevent “significant” development outside existing port areas until 2022, but said this did not restrict development to existing footprints of individual ports.

“According to the strategy, development can occur in all areas identified in the land use plans for each port,” UNESCO said.

“The World Heritage Centre and IUCN received reports indicating that in recent years a number of port boundaries were extended significantly to include areas of significant habitat that contribute to OUV.

“They note that the Queensland Deputy Premier’s media release announcing the draft Port Strategy stated that future development would be possible ‘at several locations such as Balaclava Island and Port Alma in the Port of Gladstone’.

“They also note that both these locations are outside existing major port areas (40 to 50 km away from the port of Gladstone), in the relatively undeveloped Fitzroy River delta, and that there is currently no development on Balaclava Island that could justify its classification as an existing port area.”

It was also critical of the lack of promised annual “report cards” on the Reef, pointing out that so far only one had been published for 2009 as the baseline.

“…another key concern is the lack of clarity about whether the negative trend in water quality continues to be reduced and the positive signs of restoration are maintained, as annual water quality report cards have not been published as predicted. They recommend that the  (World Heritage) Committee urge the State Party to confirm a clear financial commitment by the Australian Government to maintain the Reef Rescue program as a matter of urgency…”

In response, Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke claimed the government had already taken steps and would work with the WHC to protect the value of the reef.

‘‘It’s one of the most precious places on earth,’’ he said.

‘‘Some of the recent announcements have not yet been incorporated into today’s  (UNESCO) report, such as a $200 million commitment to the next stage of Reef Rescue.’’

But according to Save the Reef spokesman Dr Andrew Jerimijenko, that was not nearly enough.  He told the Telegraph:

“It is like getting a butterfly net to stop a plague of locusts.  It is not going to bring back the 50 percent of coral already lost, it is not going to even stop us losing the next 50 percent in 10 years.

“ We need something like the $12 billion given to save the Murray River.

“The Crown of Thorns is being driven by sediment (dredge spoil feeds them).  He has to stop industry using the Great Barrier Reef as a dump.  He has to stop approving the industrialisation of the Reef, and he has to do this in less than four months, because I can’t see (Opposition Environment spokesman) Greg Hunt being any better.

“If I were a betting man I would put money on a 2014 In Danger listing”.

Australians for Animals coordinator Sue Arnold  said the UNESCO warning indicated “the same old story”.

“Both the state and federal governments will allow the GBR World Heritage Area to be destroyed in the name of economic development.

“Gillard’s government is the most anti-environmental government in the history of this country, only equalled by the crap coming out of the Newman ministers,” she claimed.

However, Queensland Environment Minister Andrew Powell is confident the reports required of the State Government would be presented to UNESCO in time to avoid the threatened in danger listing.

He said the LNP government was already reviewing Gladstone Harbour and compiling a ports strategy. It was already assessing the health of the Reef through the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority in cooperation with the Federal  Government.

By John Mikkelsen

Slippery

The slippery downward political slide of Peter Slipper through the eyes of the Editorial Cartoonist


The political journey of Peter Slipper certainly has had its moments and the latest was the momentary time that Peter Slipper was a member of Clive Palmers recently resurrected United Australia party.

Cartoonist Warren Brown



Over on his web site Jim Fryar has written about this latest farcical episode in the Slipper saga in his post, Slipper’s on again off again UAP membership. I would encourage you to go over their to read about it. I'm not going to say much more, just tell the story through the talents of editorial cartoonist.

If memory serves me correctly Peter Slipper started off as a National, defected to the Liberal party until he became to big of an embarrassment. Then was picked up by the current PM Julia Gillard as an independent speaker of the house until his indiscretions caused a retreat to the cross benches.

 
Image sourced from the Courier Mail                                                  Cartoonist Nicholson 

 Cartoonists David Rowe & on right Bill Leak                           



Cartoonist Mark Knight

 

 
Cartoonist Bill Leak using an old movie poster style



                        

Cartoonist Roy 

 

 

 

                                                                

 Photo images sourced ABC                                                        Cartoonist Ian Pickering

50 to 1 project: The true cost of 'action' on climate change.

50-to-1 has the potential to shift the climate debate for good!

Watch the video below to see how, or read on!

What if we could show you that trying to 'stop' climate change is 50 times more expensive than adapting to it?  And what if we could prove it using numbers and formulas accepted by the IPCC, CRU and other 'consensus' bodies?  Well that's exactly what 50-to-1 does.

The original calculations were done by Lord Christopher Monckton who has since presented his conclusions to audiences of scientists, economists and mathematicians all over the world.  You can see the calculations and a FULL LIST OF SOURCES here: 50 to 1 calculations and sources


To read more or donate, go to http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/50-to-1-project-the-true-cost-of-action-on-climate-change



From Gordon Alderson - Member of the NO CARBON TAX Climate Sceptics Management Committee:

My name is Gordon Alderson. As a Member of the Management Committee I am sending you this email on behalf of the No Carbon Tax Climate Sceptics party.

I am assisting Topher Field, an Australian film maker and activist, and Lord Christopher Monckton on a project called '50 to 1'.

It's all about the TRUE cost of trying to 'stop' climate change vs the cost of adapting to climate change as and if it happens.

I think it may be of interest to you.  

We are running a crowdfunding campaign to try and raise the required budget to make the project a reality.  We would be extremely grateful for your financial support and for any publicity, blogging, emailing of contacts etc which you could do so that the word gets out about the 50-to-1 Project.

Account details for donors willing for their support to be immediately available for the Project are:

ACCOUNT NAME: Lord Monckton Foundation

BSB: 083004

ACCOUNT: 125962000

REFERENCE:  50to1[Donor Name]

Please have a look at the link and do with it as you see fit.

Best Regards

Gordon Alderson