our chance for sustainable forestry in Tasmania
Monday, 28 June 2010 06:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miriam_eThis came in from GetUp today:
While the media is focused on the political machinations in Canberra, there is a truly transformative moment opening up in the 30 year struggle to protect Australia's native forests.
Would you like to be a part of it? http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/ForestryPrinciples
In an amazing development, the Board of Gunns Ltd no longer includes Robin Gray and John Gay, two of the biggest enemies of forestry industry reform and two of the fiercest champions of the Gunns pulp mill.
The forestry industry - in Tasmania and elsewhere - are finally recognising that their destructive practices can't continue forever. They're ready to sit down with the conservation movement, including our friends at The Wilderness Society and Environment Tasmania, to talk about transitioning to a more sustainable future.
But there are still those in industry and government resisting reform, which is why we need a show of strength to support our partners in these once in a generation talks. We need to build a mass movement -- imagine 50,000 Australians behind a set of Forestry Principles to guide the industry, retailers and all levels of government to a sustainable future:
Show your support here: http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/ForestryPrinciples
The Forestry Principles call for a swift transition away from the industrial logging of our precious native forests and for the establishment of 'protected areas' for all of our high conservation value native forests.
The forestry industry will be walking into these talks with their corporate wealth and power. But imagine our negotiating partners walking in with 50,000 Australians right at their backs, along with the support of a united environment movement. After decades of conflict, you can help seal the deal on reform, just by adding your name.
http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/ForestryPrinciples
9 out of 10 Australians are in favour of protecting the high conservation value native forests of Tasmania, New South Wales and Victoria (1). And according to our regular surveys, native forest protection is one of of the most important issues to GetUp members. But nothing will change unless we stand up and be counted.
These negotiations between industry and conservation groups are an extraordinary development. We have been fighting for this chance for too long--don't let it pass us by.
While the media is focused on the political machinations in Canberra, there is a truly transformative moment opening up in the 30 year struggle to protect Australia's native forests.
Would you like to be a part of it? http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/ForestryPrinciples
In an amazing development, the Board of Gunns Ltd no longer includes Robin Gray and John Gay, two of the biggest enemies of forestry industry reform and two of the fiercest champions of the Gunns pulp mill.
The forestry industry - in Tasmania and elsewhere - are finally recognising that their destructive practices can't continue forever. They're ready to sit down with the conservation movement, including our friends at The Wilderness Society and Environment Tasmania, to talk about transitioning to a more sustainable future.
But there are still those in industry and government resisting reform, which is why we need a show of strength to support our partners in these once in a generation talks. We need to build a mass movement -- imagine 50,000 Australians behind a set of Forestry Principles to guide the industry, retailers and all levels of government to a sustainable future:
Show your support here: http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/ForestryPrinciples
The Forestry Principles call for a swift transition away from the industrial logging of our precious native forests and for the establishment of 'protected areas' for all of our high conservation value native forests.
The forestry industry will be walking into these talks with their corporate wealth and power. But imagine our negotiating partners walking in with 50,000 Australians right at their backs, along with the support of a united environment movement. After decades of conflict, you can help seal the deal on reform, just by adding your name.
http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/ForestryPrinciples
9 out of 10 Australians are in favour of protecting the high conservation value native forests of Tasmania, New South Wales and Victoria (1). And according to our regular surveys, native forest protection is one of of the most important issues to GetUp members. But nothing will change unless we stand up and be counted.
These negotiations between industry and conservation groups are an extraordinary development. We have been fighting for this chance for too long--don't let it pass us by.
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no subject
Date: 2010-06-30 08:08 pm (UTC)http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128110552
no subject
Date: 2010-07-09 11:37 pm (UTC)Thanks for the link. That is a really interesting article. Unfortunately most people reading it will think it is conclusive evidence regarding caffeine and alzheimers, but it really isn't, and the fact that it is presented so tantalisingly strikes me as suspicious. (I don't see it as conspiratorial, just that the reporters want the news to be true to justify their addiction, and the caffeine industry will be delighted to fund research that appears to vindicate them.)
You have to be very careful with drawing conclusions from any surveys. The Finnish study following those people may not have actually come up with the result that it appears to. All it may mean is that those who have active minds (often those who drink coffee because they want to fit as much as possible into their time) tend to resist alzheimers. But which comes first? The active mind protecting against alzheimers, or lack of alzheimers enabling an active mind?
The mouse experiment looks more convincing though, doesn't it? Well, no. All they found was that mice with active minds performed better. That's no surprise. They don't say that they suffered the alzheimers damage less. It has been known for a long time that if two people are experiencing equal brain damage from alzheimers, the one with the most active mind shows less symptoms, presumably because the more active mind has more internal connections that route around the damage. If the impoverished laboratory environment those poor little mice live in was made more interesting for them by fritzing their brains with chemical stimulation then it is no surprise that they would test better.
More useful than caffeine would be human contact, reading and writing, some exercise, sensory stimulation, exposure to novel and challenging situations. All those things would stimulate the brain far more, without the possible damage that might result from a chemical that plants produce as a poison to discourage animals from eating them.
:) The last several days I've had the odd experience of trying to explain to people that I don't believe anything. When they've said that I believe in science, I've had the difficult task of explaining to them that I consume a lot of science, but I don't believe it. What I do is a kind of balancing act, constantly reassessing old information in the light of new and seeing which fits, and if it doesn't then asking why, and seeing if something needs to be inquired into further because of a dislocation. But believe? No. Belief seems to me a way of short-changing one's self. We can never really know anything completely. The best we can do is ride the wave of information as it shifts and changes.
If really airtight info comes in that caffeine has positive effects on the mind I'll be very happy to find out that I'd got it wrong. (I'd much rather I found out I'd made a mistake so I can fix it rather than go on in error.) But given what I've read so far, and from my own experiences with caffeine, I think I'm on the right track. I'm less tired now I've given up caffeine and I don't get the horrid headaches that resulted from forgetting to have that regular hit of a cuppa. And let's not forget that whole plant-manufactured poison thing...
Thanks for the pointer. :)
no subject
Date: 2010-07-10 01:36 am (UTC)The experimenters did notice that the over-caffeinated mice had less amyloid protein deposits in their brains. Hmmm... that makes it more tempting to see a connection between caffeine and slowing alzheimers, but it is still not conclusive.
It is extremely difficult to extrapolate between animal experiments and humans (for instance aspirin is very toxic to cats because they lack the ability to break it down easily). I have to wonder if the mutant mouse illness they were studying is actually related to human alzheimers. (It would seem more like the dementia that Downs Syndrome people develop as they age.) It is a genetic problem with strain of mice, giving rise to brain damage that looks like alzheimers. That doesn't mean it is alzheimers or that it can be helped by the same things that help human sufferers, because most human alzheimers is not genetically programmed -- something else is at work.
Another point is that although one of the most obvious things about the brains of alzheimers patients and these mutant mice is the accumulation of tangles of amyloid protein, some studies have shown that amyloid may not even correlate directly with the loss of mental function, but simply be a byproduct of part of the process.
It is nevertheless interesting.
Incidentally I found this:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1293280/The-day-pill-finally-halt-Alzheimers.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
There is not much info, and it may turn out that the drug has tolerance and withdrawal effect which would make it useless for long-term treatment, or it might provoke brain tumors, but it is something to watch because it might produce genuinely helpful results.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-10 01:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-10 05:52 am (UTC)