Environment Minister - Australia To "Stand By" For Climate Refugees - Age

[hatrack]

Australia will not turn its back on its neighbours should environmental disasters strike the Pacific islands, federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell says. A CSIRO report has raised concerns that millions of Asia-Pacific people will be left homeless in the next 40 years because of climate change. The findings have prompted peak aid agencies to call on Australia to reassess its immigration program so that more environmental refugees are allowed into the country.

Senator Campbell said the focus in helping Pacific nations cope with climate change should be economic, and that the government's primary responsibility is to work with its Pacific neighbours to ensure they can stay in their homes. But he said Australia would not shut the door on environmental refugees if a major disaster struck. "The Australian government's focus is ensuring these countries have got strong economies and they are resilient in themselves," Senator Campbell told AAP. "Australia, however, has always stood by our Pacific neighbours in times of need and that will never change."

The Australian Greens said today that because Australia was culpable for global warming, accepting environmental refugees should be a priority. "There is no more delinquent and culpable government in the western world than the Howard government," Greens senator Bob Brown told reporters.

"This is another major issue coming like a tsunami to the whole world - the disastrous economic, environmental and social consequences of global change."

EDIT

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/australia-to-stand-by-climate-refugees/2006/10/09/1160246047256.html

[phantom power]

1. I wonder who is planning to stand by for Australian drought refugees?

[nam78_two]

2. "There is no more delinquent and culpable government in the western world

than the Howard government,"

Bushco are gonna be so sad....they tried so hard to win that accolade :(...No one can accuse them of having shred of concern for the environment...

[hatrack]

3. Tough, losing acclaim like that, I have to imagine . . .

:evilgrin:

[nam78_two]

4. I know I am all choked up-But meanwhile they are doing stuff like this

to make up to their oil war pig corporate criminal buddies:

http://www.bushgreenwatch.org/mt_archives/000319.php

Bush Free Trade Plan Puts Amazon up for Grabs

The Bush administration is quietly pressing for a free trade agreement with Peru that will put the Amazon rainforest – often described as one of the earth’s lungs – on the chopping block.

Because the Amazon rainforest - one of the most biologically diverse regions on earth - filters out massive amounts of the carbon dioxide that generates global warming, experts say the Bush plan will literally endanger the health of the planet.

Among other things, the rainforest provides one-quarter of the world's oxygen. And although it comprises less than one percent of the world's land area, the upper Amazon basin in the tropical Andes region is home to one-sixth of all the earth's plant life.

But because the basin is also rich in timber, oil and other valuable resources, powerful multinational corporations are extracting these commodities at an increasingly destructive pace. A key example is mahogany, an endangered species central to the rainforest ecosystem. Rainforest mahogany is currently being imported into the U.S. in clear violation of international agreements.

The administration's proposed Peru Free Trade Agreement fails to halt this illegal trade. Further, as with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Peru deal gives industries such as logging, oil and gas the right to challenge environmental and public health laws by alleging that such protections undermine their ability to make a profit.

Such investment rules accord rights to foreign companies that are considerably broader than what the Supreme Court has mandated in the U.S. And, corporations have wasted no time in capitalizing on this opening: more than 40 lawsuits have already been brought to NAFTA's tribunals, which have repeatedly ruled in favor of the companies.

The Peru deal is now before Congress, but environmentalists understand that the current plan of the GOP leadership is to bring it up during the lame duck session after the November election, when there is likely to be less public attention. Conservation advocates remind us that every vote will count – just as it did two years ago when the Central American free trade bill passed by exactly two votes.


They keep soldiering on....They may not be getting the respect they deserve for their stellar performance with their earth destroying duties, but they are trying...
:grr: :grr: