See blog entries at ClimateActionBrisbane

Gidday all loyal reader(s),

Due to my involvement with Walk Against Warming and Climate Action Brisbane, I'm writing most blog entries at http://climateactionbrisbane.blogspot.com/.

Please go check out NationalEnqirer and other posters there.

Cheers,

Brooke

Greenpeace - defending the whales

Greenpeace site for their Whale protection activities including a YouTube video of their activist operations in the Southern Oceans.

http://whales.greenpeace.org/.

Check it out to help become fully aware of what they are trying to protect, why, where and what with.

The Truth About Kimberly-Clark's Forestry Practices .

From the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) - The Truth About Kimberly-Clark's Forestry Practices .

Reproduced here as I would like to highlight another evil company. The list of such companies is in exhaustable unfortunately. We will work through them one at a time and hope we can help to force them to change their evil ways. The planet (Gaia) cannot take the assault for much longer and this fowl attitude and terrible actions has to stop now.

I link to it to force it further up the Google search list.

The tissue paper giant's policies may be good on paper, but its practices are bad on trees.

Many NRDC activists have sent messages to Kimberly-Clark, one of the world's largest producers of tissue paper products, urging the company to help protect North America's last natural forests. In a reply that Kimberly-Clark has been sending to activists, the company claims that it is committed to sustainable forestry and to preserving ecologically significant old-growth forests. But in practice, the company continues to purchase fiber from clearcut ecologically important boreal forests in Ontario and Alberta. Even more important, Kimberly-Clark has made no commitment to increase significantly the amount of post-consumer recycled materials used to make its products.

Below is a list of Kimberly-Clark's assertions, with NRDC's responses to each one.

What Kimberly-Clark Says

Kimberly-Clark says that less than 15 percent of the fiber it uses globally comes from the Canadian boreal forest.

The Facts

Kimberly-Clark sold its North American logging operations in 2004, but based on the company's own numbers, NRDC estimates that it purchases between 20 percent and 30 percent of its fiber from logging companies operating in the boreal forest in Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan. The company purchases roughly 20 percent of its fiber from its former mill in Terrace Bay, Ontario. We believe that in addition to that, Kimberly-Clark buys a total of 10 percent or more of its pulp from West Fraser's mill in Hinton, Alberta, and from Millar Western logging operations in Saskatchewan. Some of these boreal forest ecosystems have been evolving since the end of the last ice age -- some 10,000 years ago -- and have never been logged. As the largest tissue paper product manufacturer in the world, Kimberly-Clark has the opportunity to be a leader in its industry and influence the way other companies treat the boreal forest.

What Kimberly-Clark Says

Kimberly-Clark claims that its use of virgin and recycled fiber is in line with industry practices.

The Facts

Kimberly-Clark relies on recycled sources for just 19 percent of the pulp it uses to make toilet paper, facial tissue, napkins and paper towels in North America. Yet the tissue paper product industry uses an average of 60 percent recycled material in manufacturing. Most of Kimberly-Clark's at-home tissue brands, such as Kleenex, contain no recycled fiber at all.

In stark contrast to Kimberly-Clark's practices, Montreal-based Cascades meets 96 percent of its pulp requirements with recycled fiber and has pledged to meet the majority of the remaining 4 percent with Forest Stewardship Council-certified pulp by 2007. Vermont-based Seventh Generation sells its 100 percent recycled consumer tissue products throughout North America, as does Toronto-based Atlantic Packaging. Marcal Paper Mills' 100 percent recycled facial tissue, made from 30 percent post-consumer waste, is sold in supermarkets throughout the northeastern United States and in office supply stores nationwide.

What Kimberly-Clark Says

Kimberly-Clark claims to support third-party forest certification and to hold suppliers to high standards of sustainability.

The Facts

Currently, Kimberly-Clark buys most of its pulp from logging operations that have not been certified under the Forest Stewardship Council's management and certification system -- the only credible measure of sustainability. The Forest Stewardship Council incorporates rigorous environmental, social and economic requirements for sustainable forest management and is truly independent from the logging industry.

A sustainable forest is one that is managed according to high environmental and social standards, which protect both the ecology of the forest and the cultural and social values they provide to the local communities that depend upon them. Yet instead of supporting these principles, Kimberly-Clark continues to purchase pulp from West Fraser's Alberta operations, which log in the habitat of the threatened woodland caribou, a species at risk of extinction.

Kimberly-Clark says that it will purchase FSC-certified fiber where it is available and meets its product performance and fiber cost requirements. If Kimberly-Clark is truly committed to high standards of sustainability, though, it should commit to purchasing all of the virgin fiber it uses from FSC-certified logging operations.

Consumers have the power in their pocketbooks to demand greener products

by Kim Barto
published January 18, 2007 12:15 am
in the Citizen Times (Canada).

For those in North America / Canada, the NRDC site has a Shoppers Guide to Home Tissue Products" (see site for much more). They also name the business not named in the Citizen Times article - Kimberly-Clark if you couldn't guess.

NRDC has a page to Tell Kimberly-Clark to stop destroying forests for toilet paper.


Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) say yes. They’ve launched a massive campaign to protest against a major tissue and toilet paper corporation for using virgin wood fiber to make a throwaway product.

These environmental groups argue that the company buys pulp from logging operations that destroy forests and wildlife habitats through clear-cutting, and that very little recycled paper is included in its consumer goods. For the skeptical, the Greenpeace and NRDC Web sites offer graphic photos of the environmental devastation caused by paper manufacturing.

Trees from Canada’s ancient boreal forest, for example, are being chopped down only to end up in bathrooms across the continent. This is among the largest intact forest ecosystems left on earth, according to the NRDC, and is home to more than 500 communities of indigenous people who rely on the land for food and income.

The boreal forest also houses hundreds of animal species, including 30 percent of North America’s songbirds, according to Greenpeace. And while some people may find it hard to sympathize with caribou living thousands of miles away, these ancient forests are a crucial part of human survival, as well. According to The Washington Post, the forest absorbs millions of tons of carbon dioxide, helping to stabilize the climate.

So far, 700 businesses (mostly small) have signed on to a boycott, pledging to use only paper that has been recycled or made from sustainably-harvested wood.

...

Read the article.

Uses for old recycled batteries

I use recycled batteries in my digital camera as I'm not willing to do the environmental damage caused by continuously purchasing disposables (initial production cost and then disposing of them after they die). The problem with rechargables is that they tend to lose their ability to hold charge after a period of time / number of recharges. I buy a new set of 4 about every 12 months or so. The girl at Ted's Camera Shop said that she uses her old ones in her remote controls.


When I got home I put the old ones in a new wall clock I got for Christama and it is still going! They degraded to the point of showing zero charge when put in the camera, after only maybe 2 days. It is obvious that digital cameras require so much charge well beyond what these had it recycled batteries would hold.

So there you go folks - use your old recycleable batteries in lower power consuming devices including your remotes and wall clocks. After a while of buying rechargable batteries for your digital camera you should have enough for every other device in the house. I'm sure they will last for a decade or more (recharging will likely be required every now and then). Bye bye disposable batteries!

Web references on recycling

• http://www.obviously.com/recycle/guides/hard.html
  
• http://www.rbrc.org/call2recycle/
  
• http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/Residents/WasteAndRecycling/ReuseAndRecyclingOpportunities.asp
  
• http://www.batteryuniversity.com/partone-20.htm
  
• ...
  
• Google search "Recyclable batteries"
  

Japanese researchers suggest Greenpeace are wrong re: whaling not supported

This article "YAHOO POLL SHOWS MORE SUPPORT FOR WHALING IN JAPAN" says that the ICT (Institute of Cetacean Research) shows that the Japanese do support whaling, contrary to Greenpeace's claims.

Quote:

CR Director General Hiroshi Hatanaka said that using Greenpeace's own data, the opposite was true. TOKYO, JAPAN, Jan. 10 -/E-Wire/-- Greenpeace is misleading the public with claims that 70 percent of Japanese don't support whaling, the Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) said today.

ICR Director General Hiroshi Hatanaka said that using Greenpeace's own data, the opposite was true.

In November 2006, Internet giant Yahoo Japan held an online poll that showed 90 percent public support for a return to commercial whaling. In the recent poll, 21,221 people cast a vote, with 19,001 agreeing with sustainable commercial whaling and 2220 opposed. In Japanese only: http://polls.dailynews.yahoo.co.jp/quiz/quizresults.php?poll_id=120&wv=1&typeFlag=1


That may be so but I suggest two things:

1. That the Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) are the group collaborating on the "Scientific Whaling" which the world believes is just a front and excuse for commercial whaling.
   
2. That the data actually supports the claims of Environmentalists. That the Japanese want to perform commercial whaling to feed the hunger of those Japanese who can no longer get off on just tuna (which incidently is itself facing extinction in many tuna species in many parts of the world).
   
   If this is all true then it is another of the human race's behaviours which needs to change if we are to survive. People might contest that it doesn't matter if a species is wiped out, aslong as we had fun doing it. These people do not understand the web of life and the earth as a living organism (Gaia Hypothesis).
   

I'll suggest something else: that Whales are beaching themselves, in order to die to show protest at what the human race is doing, much the same way as some of the refugees in australia have killed themselves as a protest against the Australian Government's locking up of those who are fleeing their lives of uncertainty in their native countries (refugees), and arriving in Australia since it is a "free" country. This beaching is a longish bow to draw, but if tru then supports the Gaia Hypothesis)

I'm sure Greenpeace have something to say on this study. I can't find anything directly though I'm sure the responses will be coming out soon. In the meantime I did find this which does show that if the Japanese DO support whaling, then they aren't being told all the information about why and what it all means:

Letter to ICR (From December 2005).

Whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary is conducted using our (Japanese) tax money. However, Japanese citizens have not been informed by you about what is really happening in the waters around Antarctica. For instance, the fact that whaling is conducted in the Antarctic whale sanctuary, designated by the International Wahling Commision, and that your organization with a Japanese company, Kyodo Senpaku, are the only ones conducting whaling in the Sanctuary has not been well communicated. Also the hunting of 10 fin whale this season, an endangered species, and the more than doubling of the quota for minke whale to 935, have also not been well communicated to Japanese citizens and media.

I'm sure this will go back and forth for a while as the various parties fight it out. I think that the views, opinions and understandings of the Greenies should be given more acknowledgment. These people have been touting for decades (atleast since 1970 and no doubt earlier) that the world is in crisis and we need to stop over-fishing, over-exploiting our forests and natural landscapes, we need to stop releasing toxic substances into the environment and so on. They have been laughed at, insulted, killed or maimed in many cases, but it seems that they (and me too now!) are correct. The world is looking in a terrible way with climate change, species extinction, polution and the social chaos which is seeming to go hand-in-hand. I'd suggest that we need to "stop the world" (let those get off who want to) and look at ourselves from a distance and change the way we do things. Tell idiots like Bush to go hide in some under-gound hidey hole somewhere and not come out. These people are criminals in moral terms, and if they do surface, they should be dealt with as the criminals they are.

NASA Finally Goes Metric

Thankgod! Now the whole USA might come to its senses and join the rest of the world!

---

When NASA returns astronauts to the Moon, the mission will be measured kilometers, not miles.

The agency has decided to use metric units for all operations on the lunar surface, according to a statement released today.

The change will standardize parts and tools. It means Russian wrenches could be used to fix an air leak in a U.S.-built habitat. It will also make communications easier, such as when determining how far to send a rover for a science project.

NASA has ostensibly used the metric system since about 1990, the statement said, but English units are still employed on some missions, and a few projects use both. NASA uses both English and metric aboard the International Space Station.

The dual strategy led to the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter robotic probe in 1999; a contractor provided thruster firing data in English units while NASA was calculating in metric.

The decision comes after a series of meetings between NASA and 13 other space agencies around the world, where metric measurements rule.

Read the Article.

Gene Foods, Struggling in EU, Don't Live Up to Hype, FOE Says

National Enquirer's preamble:

GI crops primarily benefit the Bio-Engineering companies who develop the seed, because:

• The farmers either aren't allowed by contract to use the seeds grown in the next crop, or more likely is that the seeds are genetically created to not be able to be grown.
  
• Part of the purpose of GI crops is to be resistant to bugs. But the bugs will grow resistance against the resistance. So which company will need to continue to produce seeds that are resistant to those bugs?
  

For our world, which is in severe trouble with climate change and everything that is resulting from that, we can no longer afford to prop up these giant multinational companies whose only purpose is to get richer.

----
By Adam Mitchell

Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Gene-altered crops haven't lived up to ``hype'' and or succeeded in winning widespread acceptance, especially in Europe, according to a report published by environmentalist group Friends of the Earth International.

Genetically modified crops have ``failed to boost yields, reduce pesticide use or address challenges faced by farmers,'' today's report says. According to the study, 70 percent of the world's ``large-scale'' plantations are found in just two countries -- Argentina and the U.S.

``Although there have been marginal increases in the areas of transgenic crops grown in Europe, the long-term prospects for GM seeds look bleak,'' the FOE report says. ``Lack of markets, national bans and evidence of environmental damage ensure that one of the world's biggest markets will remain a disaster zone for the biotech industry.''

European Union regulators have approved a number of new bioengineered crops since the end of a 1999-2004 freeze on new approvals, imposed by a ``blocking minority'' of countries in the bloc. Still, popular opposition to the foods remains high and several countries, including Austria, refuse to allow approved crops to be planted, flouting a World Trade Organization ruling last year.

Companies including Monsanto Co., the world's biggest developer of gene-engineered foods, haven't delivered a promised ``second generation'' of products with more useful features, according to the report.

Rich Nations Benefit

``No GM crop on the market today offers benefits to the consumer in terms of quality or price, and to date these crops have done nothing to alleviate hunger or poverty in Africa or elsewhere'' Nnimmo Bassey, a Friends of the Earth analyst in Nigeria, said in an e-mailed statement. ``The great majority of GM crops cultivated today are used as high-priced animal feed to supply rich nations with meat.''


Read the Article.

Also see 10 Years of Continuing Rejection - 18th January 2007

Lean Process Memory Jogger

I want to apply the Lean process to cleaning up my unit and moving June in. I have the Lean Memory Jogger written down at work but failed to find a simple reference on the web. I will write the information here for everyone and especially myself.

Lean + Memory Jogger - 5 S'

Optimum (workplace) organisation.

Sort	Remove the Unnecessary.
Simplify	Arrange and Identify.
Sweep	A visual check.
Standardise	Develop standard process.
Sustain	Continious follow through.

Lean + Memory Jogger - 8 Wastes

Optimum (workplace) organisation.

Defects	Errors leading to rework.
Overproduction	More than is needed.
Waiting	For information, people or material.
Not utilising employee	Knowledge, skills or attributes.
Transportation	Movement of material and information.
Inventory	Excess material and information.
Motion	Unnecessary movement.
Excess Process	Doing more than is required.