Holden On For Dear Life: News that the federal Liberal government refuses to provide funding for USofA based General Motors Holden, could see their Elizabeth facility closed in 2016, with the loss of thousands of direct jobs, and 10s of thousands of supply and other peripheral jobs...it is a bitter, bitter irony that this impending disaster was announced the day that the Porcelain Bus Stadium was officially opened for the First Ashes Test...games in the Colosseum whilst the city burns...sound familiar?
(Porcelain Bus Stadium?...please explain-Ed)...sure...from above the 'New Adelaide Oval' looks like a toilet seat from a men's urinal...and 'driving the Porcelain Bus' is an eloquent euphemism for vomiting into the toilet...(ah, with hands on either side like you're driving a bus...charming and hilarious...been there baby-ed)...haven't we all...and speaking of the Universe...
I recently posted about the aforementioned big U giving me a 'pat on the head' re running into Greens MLC Mark Parnell and getting to chat to him about Wind Turbines whilst he was in Mt Gambier to attend/address a forum re Coal Seam Gas Extraction otherwise known as 'Fracking'. ...(super-Ed)...well just last weekend the Bid U did a big u-turn and delivered unto me a casual but very thorough knee to the groin and I've gone crashing to the floor...and it was fantastic...more of that some other time.
Back to the 'Fracking': and please find attached below the letter by Heather Gibbons of Robe (from The Border Watch Friday 6th December 2013)...where-in Ms Gibbons makes some very correct and fundamental points, and I have no qualms in co-opting her piece into my post...most critical is her opening point...South Australian politicians in either major party, Liberal or Labor, support Fracking and other mining over the production of food.
South Australia has been so badly managed by the Rann/Weatherill Labor government, wholly obsessed with building monuments to their own glories, eg, the Desalination Plant, the Adelaide Oval, moving the Royal Adelaide Hospital, etc, that the closure of Holden will potentially break the state...and as a stop gap justification, SA will be handed hollus-bollus to mining interests in much the same way Wind Turbine companies have been provided Fascist legislation that completely denies any opposition.
I refer to Labor MP Tom Koutsontonis's comments re 'getting rid of Green Tape restrictions' which is a thinly veiled way of saying 'it's an unrestricted green light for mining, etc, and environmental impacts are irrelevant'...and the Liberal Party clearly have no other plans for retrieving the economic situation...their support for 'Fracking' is the sort of betrayal of South East SA that one expects from the Labor Party.
In case nobody had noticed, Australia is being carved up and grossly polluted for mining, etc, by external vested interests ably supported by the corrupted, dysfunctionally incompetent elected officials that make these decisions locally...and we must ultimately take the blame because we as locals let it happen...if we stop it, it stops...simple really...and we must stop 'Fracking'.
And I've heard Premier Weatherill repeatedly bleating about his support for 'Fracking' and 'addressing threats to gas supply' and 'this will stimulate manufacturing' and 'I need this money for my Future Fund'...the only threat to gas supply is the rabidly irresponsible way we are flogging it all off to overseas concerns as fast as we can, and for next to bugger-all.
And I completely reject this farcical carry-on pouring out of Beach Energy re their impending Fracking exploration in Penola, namely their claims that the process is 100% safe and there will be no pollution and/or contamination of aquifers, etc...on the ABC's Lateline there was a story about a collapsing well head already in Penola from previous 'gas mining', and Beach provided a lovely photo of a green field stating that it proves they completely rehabilitate their sites...absolutely farcical.
(But isn't the main pollution concern Methane and/or other gases leaking from well heads and/or contaminating aquifers, along with the contamination from the uncontained cocktail of unmonitored, largely not understood chemicals forced into the Coal seams to cause the fracturing and 'release' the gas, that then leads to incidences of people being able to light the water coming out of their kitchen taps, bores, etc?-Ed)...absolutely right, and that's what's so offensive about the lies Beach are telling about how 'antiseptic' their process is.
'Fracking' initially releases the 'gas' which can be retrieved under the force of it's own pressure, but as the particular deposit lessens so does the pressure, and therefore more and more chemicals have to be forced into the seam to 'force out' the remaining gas...and then there is absolutely no way of controlling where those chemicals and/or fumes leech out of the strata, not least of all around the weakest point in the whole system...(around the outside of the actual well shaft?-Ed)...exactly, around the outside of the drill shaft...
You can line that frickin' Frackin' shaft 'til you're blue in the face, but there's absolutely nothing you can do to control the chemicals once they leave that pipe to do the actual 'Fracking'...for gord's sake, that's what 'Fracking' is...and once that toxic 'chemical cocktail' sludge is forced into the coal seam, those chemicals/fumes will find their way out somewhere, somehow...and the fractured Limestone sub-structure of the South East will greatly expedite the passage of any contamination, both horizontally and vertically.
I don't care how many kilometres down the shaft goes, it is in itself a weak point that will provide an escape route for any by-product gases, gases that will be constantly forging upward from the fractured seams...straight into the aquifers.
This is only one of the multiple threats to the South East Aquifers. What happens when Adelaide is trying to rely on a dried-up Murray River and a Desalination Plant that doesn't work properly?...I guarantee you that they'll dam up the river just downstream from Murray Bridge or more likely Tailem Bend, and when that dries up they'll be eyeing off the only fresh water source left in the state...the 'Mt Gambier Aquifer'.
And then there's the new drain/s planned for the SE to take surface water away from thirsty aquifers and to the Coorong for 'the health of this iconic natural asset' (paraphrase Premier Jay Weatherill)...these extra drains will have a huge impact on the areas they 'drain' and for little tangible result, particularly if the Lower Lakes/Coorong are cut off from the Murray by a weir near Wellington...I fully support retaining this fresh water for localised aquifer recharge, but diverting it to try and address a problem created well upstream on the Murray is a massive waste of time, money, and a precious resource.
It is an undeniable reality that what happens with our local aquifers will rely entirely on what Adelaide wants for it's own best interest...unless we do something about it...SE Self Preservation is an Election issue for March 2014...I'll finish here but do more watery posts soon...
Tomorrow: State Election Stuff
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...laters...
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