To mutilate the Redgum song Diamantina Drover:

And the carbon saga, goes on and on and excuses roll forever and I won’t be back ‘til the voting’s done.

Readers could be forgiven this week for thinking they had woken up in a Groundhog Day of Emissions Trading Stories about who is going to do what, whether it starts in 2010 or 2012 and whether Malcolm Turnbull is a better arm wrestler than Brendan Nelson. Nelson definitely has the best furrowed brow but then again maybe he has more to worry about.

The story to watch is one that broke on Wednesday afternoon – a decision of the High Court to grant native title over the strip between the low and high water mark to traditional Aboriginal owners – according to the Sydney Morning Herald, some 7,000 kilometres of coastline. Depending who you listen to, the world as we know it is over – especially for fishermen. Then again we can almost guarantee that the sky will not fall down. Based on the past experience of the handover of Indigenous assets elsewhere, those Northern Territory communities will come up with a seamless solution that will allow business and life to continue.

The whole thing is a moot point though…after all where will that strip be after a few metres of sea level rise and everyone is camped on top of Uluru to keep dry?

Speaking of wet things the award for stating the most obvious when it comes to the environment this week goes to – ready for the shock and horror – a scientist has dared to suggest that it is silly to grow rice in the Australian inland. No, really?

According to a News Limited report:

Eric Craswell, from the Australian National University’s Fenner School of Environment and Society, said rice used 10 times as much water as some other crops. Dr Craswell says it should no longer be planted in the Murray-Darling Basin, and the water be allowed to flow through the river system to help the environment.
I say three cheers for Eric!

Another story refusing to go away is the Federal Government’s budget decision to means test the solar panel rebate. This week the Electricians union intervened and said the $100,000 threshold was killing the solar panel installation business, leading to a reduction in orders of 70 per cent. But what I really liked about this story was a quote from an electrician who testified at a Senate inquiry. Smh.com.au reported:

Wesley Shields told the committee he had invested $25,000 in educational and set-up costs to qualify as a solar panel installer.”Like any other electrician I’ve been forced to fall back on my normal work.”I couldn’t think of a better way of going to work every day than installing renewable energy.”
Environment Minister Peter Garrett has had another tough week but has delivered a powerful decision for the cassowary lobby, closing the book on a 25 hectare rainforest, housing development that could have seen the habitat of nearly 100 of the birds degraded.

The developer said he loved cassowaries too. Clearly not enough as Garrett used a Howard era amendment to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to declare the development ‘unacceptable’.
But on coal Garrett piked this week, swinging in behind clean coal as Greenpeace protestors painted ships in Queensland.

As the Age reported:

Mr Garrett said the protesters had made coal their focus but coal was an important part of the Australian economy and the government was looking at ways to make it cleaner.”We do have a coal industry which is significant – it’s a significant employer, significant in economic terms,” Mr Garrett told reporters in Brisbane on Monday.”The government has a strong commitment to make sure we have clean coal in place and carbon capture sequestration technologies brought on as quickly as possible.”
Earlier this year, under the same legislation used to protect the cassowaries the minister refused to intervene when green groups called for a halt to the expansion of the Gladstone Port in Queensland. Peter Garrett can’t really be blamed for not shutting down the Australian economy but the coal decision highlights the fact it is easier for politicians to tackle the smaller issues like a housing development than the big umbrella problems like coal fired power stations.

Solving climate change is what economists call a ‘solution multiplier’ in other words fix excessive pollution and waste and a lot of good will follow – maybe even a few more cassowaries might be saved?