Events

">Sydney, ">Brisbane

 

" id="Sydney">Sydney

 

" id="MoneyAsDebt">Film Night - Money As Debt

Paul Grignon's engaging animation answers the question that is never asked in school or the media:

Where: 79 Johnston St Annandale, Sydney 2038

When: Saturday, 7 March 2009

Time: 8:00PM

Contact: hereward: m. 0415 059675

For further information: visit

See also: , of 14 Feb 09 by Mike Stasse.

 

" id="Brisbane">Brisbane

 

-QldLaunch" id="OverloadingAustralia-QldLaunch">Mark O'Connor, to launch "Overloading Australia" in Queensland

Where:Redland Performing Arts Centre Auditorium

When:Friday 20 February 2

Time:4.30pm (refreshments served from 4pm)

Mark will also be appearing at other locations:

Caloundra
Where: Caloundra Events Centre, Minchinton Street, Caloundra
When: Saturday 21st February at 1:00 - 1:30pm (followed by a SEQ Regional Plan Workshop until 4:00pm)

University of Queensland
Where:
Goddard Building (8). Room
When: Monday 23rd February, 1:30 - 3:00pm

Brisbane City Council Library
Where: Brisbane Square, 266 George Street, Brisbane
Monday 23rd February, 4:00 - 5:30pm

For further information: see


-10feb09" id="QldParlmt-10feb09">Rally Parliament House ... tell the Govt how you feel about fluoride and recycled water

Where: Outside Queensland Parliament, Cnr of George and Alice Streets

When: Tuesday, 10 February 2009 (Opening Day of Parliament)

Time: 9am - 11 am

Bring your friends, bring your banners and let the politicians know what you
really think!

Tell the Government what you think of Drinking Sewage and Fluoridated Water!!

Contact: Jeanie : 0408006544 info [ AT ] qawf.org

For further information:

A fluoride fighter has very kindly organised fluoride t shirts for purchase

Please contact Wiesia Smolka wiesias [ AT ] aapt.net.au if you would to see what the T-shirts look like.

If you like to order and need T shirts posted, then you need to order a
MINIMUM of TWO, at $10 per tee posted.

But to pay: Wiesia has ordered 200 to start with (let’s hope it becomes 1000 or more!). Contact Wiesia for bank accout details.

Please send your postal details, and, Cheques payable to: W. Smolka PO Box 3454 Nerang DC Qld 4211
Ph : 07 5594 1482 M: 0411 203 177

Please proudly wear these from when you get them; but especially, on the day of the rally ... The print has been designed to SHOUT your message, for
the brief seconds if the camera’s are pointed at you in the crowd!

Tell Captain Anna, all pollies and the ignorant others, just what you think of S6 Fluorosilicate Poison, in your drinking water!

Let Wiesia know your (tentative) order and size numbers, and colours. And, what size ie. S, M, L, XLg, XXLg - Sizes will be a whole range, enough to choose from. Printer said he has a fair idea how many of each so…. Orders please. eg. Joe Blogg’s family, Black Sm x 1, M x 2; White Lg x 3

Comments

The following is from a (so far) brief exchange on a mailing list in response to my posting of this notice to that mailing list.

On Sun, 8 Feb 2009, Terri wrote:

> Hi there,
> forgive me if I'm being really dim... Is this rally against recycling
> water? Or is it against fluoridation and for recycling? Aren't they two
> very different issues (I may be showing my ignorance there). ...

I guess you are in a sense right. Fluoridation is enforced medication which is likely to be detrimental to at least a significant minority of our society, whilst recycling is a supposed solution to our water crisis.

Nevertheless, people who are concerned about one issue tend to be concerned about the other and vice-versa. The decisions by the Queensland government to impose these measures on Queenslanders without proper consultation and a proper debate is symptomatic of the fact that democracy in the sense of 'government of the people by the people for the people' is not practised in Queensland. (For an interesting insight on this, read Tony Ryan's article of 2007 .)

Personally, I see all these questions related to water supply as linked and I am opposed to all 'solutions' to our water crisis which have environmentally harmful consequences. This includes: water recycling, the Traveston and Wyaralong dams, mining of underground water aquifers at rates which exceed their rate of replenishment, desalination, transportation of water over long distances.

Clearly, if we find ourselves in the hole that the Queensland Government has dug us into by deliberately encouraging the population to grow well beyond the natural carrying capacity of the region in past years (see, for example of 14 May 08), then we are going to have choose the least worst from amongst a number of unpalatable options in order to get ourselves back out again.

However, above all else, we simply must stop making the problem worse and must desist with the further encouragement of population growth.

In my view, the least worst of all possible options is a combination of measures to reduce personal, as well as industrial water use and the installation of rainwater tanks.

The latter will incur environmental costs as their manufacture, particularly on the large scale which will be necessary, requires the consumption of non-renewable resources and further emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants, but it is probably a better use of our natural non-renewable resources than gadgets design to break down in years at most.

> ... I come from somewhere that recycles water and it's way better
> quality than Melbourne town water! ...

Could you tell me where?

As far as I know the only places in the world where recycling is used, in any way similar to the way it was proposed for Toowoomba was Windhoek in Namibia and the English Shire of Essex and there, only for emergencies.

Those planning to impose water recycling on Toowoomba in 2006 confided in each other that Toowoomba was to become a "living laboratory" according to a document released under FOI legislation. (See of 5 Jan 09.)

> ... To someone like me who is used to the idea it seems completely
> unsustainable not to recycle water. The planet recycles water all the time.
> Every drop you drink is likely to have passed through all sorts of humans
> and other animals already). ...

We need natural systems to do the job properly and cost-effectively. Technologically complex systems will incur significant financial and environmental costs. And if they fail, then the health of all of us is put at risk. (See above article and articles linked to from there.)

To be sure, with so much poison and so many exotic manufactured chemicals pumped into our environment all the time, even natural recycling systems may not be able to cope very well, but they remain our best chance.

> ... If we don't reduce our usage, and recycle, surely we'll need more dams?

As I said, we need to live within the natural carrying capacity of the region (and, that is, in the longer term without dependence upon fossil fuels and other non-renewable resources).

> Can't I be against fluoridation but for recycling?

Obviously, of course you can be. If you like you can also be in favour of dams, desalination plants, mining of aquifers, etc.

The following comment, not necessarily related to this article, was posted to me by a site visitor, yesterday:

I have just discovered this webpage and I want to congratulate you on it. I'm so sick of our neo-conservative media feeding us their right wing bunk which is supposed to be taken as 'normal'. At last a balanced and intelligent website where people are not gagged where we can have truly open minded discussion without fear of censorship of certain topics that may be feared by some as being too contraversial. Discussion is vital and should never be quashed.