Oz = Australia, for those of you who don't have Australian friends who use the slang term. I first encountered "Oz" in an email from SourceWatch editor Bob Burton (bio) who hails from Hobart, the capital of Tasmania and home of the prize-winning poet Kathryn Lomer (pictured above) . To see how the internet distracts for one's intended post, go to bottom of this entry to read more about her. And I've also got a brief mention of some news on ethnic journalism from Dan Kennedy.
But back to what I want to write about: carbon in Oz. While Al Gore got most of the attention in this country regarding his July 17 proposal that the U.S. commit to producing 100 percent of its electricity from renewable energy and other clean sources within 10 years, Oz had its own debate last week, as I learned while compiling the Saturday feed for NewsTrust.
Australia just presented its attempt at a nationwide scheme to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 60% by 2050: Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Greenpaper by the Australian Department of Climate Change. The Sydney Morning Herald's Stephanie Peatling, in "The Missing Numbers in the Emissions Equation," does a pretty good job of pointing out the weaknesses of the working paper on cutting carbon emission. I recommend her piece as part of a series of articles the paper has published from all points of view this week--the government, scientists, business. You might also want to check out the opinion piece from The Australian by its national affairs correspondent Jennifer Hewett, "Carbon Play an Act of
Belief."
The Canberra Times chief political correspondent, Phillip Coorey has a piece dated 7/23/07 (due to international time zone differences, perhaps) "Union wants money, jobs for carbon reduction," which raises a point I believe I saw mentiioned by Gore at Netsroots Nation, as covered on C-SPAN. When asked about mountaintop removal, he said he was agin it and that a portion of the revenue from any carbon tax should go to displaced coal miners. I'll try to find it.
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By the way, for those of you interested in ethnic reporting, Dan Kennedy sent me the article he wrote for Commonwealth Magazine about the New England Ethnic Newswire. For another source, see New America Media. My favorite writer found though Dan's articles is Aswini Anburajan who blogs at Feet in Two Worlds. Here's the July 21 piece in the aftermath of Postville.
http://thepoliticalcarnival.blogspot.com/
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How I distracted myself from carbon footprints by researching Kathryn Lomer:
- [1] the prize she won for her second book recored @ 4:39 p.m.
- [2] a review of the second book (not third as he states,at least according to the intro...) @ 4:50
- [3] a good review of the first poetry collection. The more I read, the more I think she deserves a first-rate article on Wikipedia, rather than a stub. @ 5:11
- [4] an interview w. a good quotation about what she likes best about writing here, although the quilt image is overused, however true. @ 6:17
You become interested in everything, or everything becomes interesting – I’m not sure which. And you can create something from all those otherwise useless odds and ends you accumulate in life - memories, experiences, overheard conversations, dreams, anecdotes; it’s a bit like making a quilt from leftover scraps of material.
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