At 18:40 2/12/98 +1100, you wrote:
>
>>Niels,
>>You obviously have some valid arguments but I do note that you seem to
>>travel overseas extensively. While I personally have no argument with you,
>>many people would also point out that planes also blow a lot of smoke!
>>cheers,
>>Susan
>Dear Folks & Susan
>
>I enjoy this dabate, thank you for bringing this travel thing up. I think
>the solution is that every individual buy carboxdixoide credits to do an
>activity which harm the environment. It would be easy to calculate CO2 from
>a Jet travelling with 400 passangers. And also for manufacturing,
>transporting, maintaining and using a four wheel drive and so on. Every
>person is allocated a certain amount of credits which are far lower than the
>emission per person today and all luxery activity generating CO2 must be
>bought. The money collected from this tax is directed to third world
>countries and to the environment. I am willing to pay and cut my travel a
>lot. Unlike Tony, I am prepared if we can agree to a system to change life
>style.
>
>Most of the birds seen in Australia has been seen through work, almost all
>NT birds seen from Gouldian Finch Project. I do not own a car,but I think my
>air travel is a problem. However a lot of wilderness in Africa, South Africa
>have been saved because of ecotourism. Manu National Park would not have
>been there if ecotourist had not visited Peru over the years, I would think???
>
I think that both sides have valid points here and its good to debate them in
a "cool" manner.
I, too, wonder how much damage the big jets do. They do carry
a lot of people but they travel fast and high, both potentially more damaging.
It would be good to get some facts on this. I have this naughty suspicion that
at green conferences it is easy to bag the industries, mines, etc but fail to
mention the jets, knowing full-well that most of the conference delegates
went to
Rio, Paris, etc by jet. [Bring back the sailing ships and more TIME]
On the other hand I fully agree with Niels that many reserves throughout the
world
are only maintained by OS travellers, and they must fly in.
If birding 4WD'ers submit lists from remote areas to the atlas and promote
the wonders
of the bush, are they not doing more good than harm?
It is a difficult one and probably hardly anyone in the first world can have a
"holier-than-thou" attitude.
I think that a major push is needed to get more people interested in our
birds and
bush. The RSPB in Britain has a membership over 1 million. If we had a similar
membership here we would have much more money and much more "clout" to get
things done
for the environment.
Cheers
Peter
Dr Peter Woodall email =
Division of Vet Pathology & Anatomy
School of Veterinary Science & An. Prod. Phone = +61 7 3365 2300
The University of Queensland Fax = +61 7 3365 1355
Brisbane, Qld, Australia 4072 WWW = http://www.uq.edu.au/~anpwooda
"hamba phezulu" (= "go higher" in isiZulu)
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