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Naomi Klein: 'Big green groups are more damaging than climate deniers'
Canadian author Naomi Klein is so well known for her blade-sharp commentary that it's easy to forget that she is, above all, a first-rate reporter. I got a glimpse into her priorities as I was working on this interview. Klein told me she was worried that some of the things she had said would make it hard for her to land an interview with a president of the one of the Big Green groups (read below and you'll see why). She was more interested in nabbing the story than being the story; her reporting trumped any opinion-making.
Such focus is a hallmark of Klein's career. She doesn't do much of the chattering class's news cycle blathering. She works steadily, carefully, quietly. It can be surprising to remember that Klein's immense global influence rests on a relatively small body of work; she has published three books, one of which is an anthology of magazine pieces.
Continue reading...Landmark Federal Court Decision
Record penalty for illegal clearing of wetland
Enforceable undertaking in Victoria
V/Line pays out $188,000 after protected species destroyed - Victoria
Company fined for clearing habitat
Bridge and Marine Australia Pty Ltd pays out $200,000 after protected ecological community and associated species destroyed — Victoria
Holcim Australia pays out more than $280,000 after damaging rock art on Burrup Peninsula
Company pays out for grass clearing
Geelong Council pledges improvements, repairs in response to grassland clearing
Singleton Council to repair environmental damage
Landowner to repair environmental damage
Centennial Coal to fund a $1.45 million research program
Hancock Victorian Plantations Pty Ltd pledges $305,000 after grasslands cleared
Coppercats Pty Ltd and Gallivantour Super Pty Ltd pledge $80,400 after vegetation cleared
Goodman Property Services commits to pay after vegetation cleared
Marloelle Pty Ltd commits to pay after vegetation cleared
Oakford Land Company to pay $100,000 in compensation
'Walking shark' discovered in Indonesia
A species of shark that uses its fins to "walk" along the bottom of the ocean floor has been discovered off the coast of Indonesia. The shark, Hemiscyllium halmahera, uses its fins to wiggle along the seabed and forage for small fish and crustaceans, scientists from Conservation International said on Friday.
The shark, which has wide horizontal stripes, grows to a maximum length of just 30in and is harmless to humans.
Continue reading...Syria intervention plans fuelled by oil interests, not chemical weapon concerns | Nafeez Ahmed
On 21 August, hundreds - perhaps over a thousand - people were killed in a chemical weapon attack in Ghouta, Damascus, prompting the US, UK, Israel and France to raise the spectre of military strikes against Bashir al Assad's forces.
The latest episode is merely one more horrific event in a conflict that has increasingly taken on genocidal characteristics. The case for action at first glance is indisputable. The UN now confirms a death toll over 100,000 people, the vast majority of whom have been killed by Assad's troops. An estimated 4.5 million people have been displaced from their homes. International observers have overwhelmingly confirmed Assad's complicity in the preponderance of war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Syrian people. The illegitimacy of his regime, and the legitimacy of the uprising, is clear.
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