Welcome to Rooted, Crikey’s new group environment blog.
Before I explain the purpose of this leafy corner of the Crikey blog network, I would like to honour the talented individuals who will be your guides and interlocutors. It is their great knowledge and generosity that makes this possible, so without further ado, here they are.
- Tim Hollo – experienced environment campaigner with an intimate knowledge of the political side of the debate. Currently working as media spokesperson for Greens senator Christine Milne, though he’ll be posting here in his capacity as Tim Hollo.
- Anna Rose – National Co-Director of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition. Check it out here.
- Steve Truman – Farmer, blogger, and boss of www.agmates.com, a rapidly expanding online rural community. Need a cow or tractor? Steve’s your man.
- Clive Hamilton – a man who needs no introduction. You can catch up with Clive’s broad-ranging and impressive oeuvre here.
- John Hepburn – Australia Pacific’s energy campaigner with Greenpeace
- Ian McHugh – Climate scientist and occasional Crikey commentator. Currently working on his PhD at Monash University. Frequent journeyer into the great outdoors in search of knowledge.
There will be more bloggers joining the debate in the coming weeks. But in the meantime, a cyber-clap for our starting line up.
So, the question everyone wants the answer to. Why “Rooted”? A few reasons.
One, roots are a source of nourishment. They stretch out in search of sustenance and return it to where it’s needed. Two, roots keep things grounded. They hold trees firmly in the earth, providing a solid base for growth and protection against the buffeting winds. And three, unless action is taken on the many significant environmental problems facing Australia and the globe (climate change, water scarcity), we are all rooted.
And that sums up what Rooted is all about — a source of uncommon sense that nourishes the environmental debate more broadly.
Your host and moderator is me, Thomas Hunter. Feel free to drop me a line anytime with your Rooted thoughts and ideas — thunter@crikey.com.au
Enjoy.
2 Comments
Looks like this will be a very interesting blog. I hope it gets plenty of action over the coming weeks and months. I’m an active environmentalist who believes in the old think globally, act locally adage. Small scale community action can make a big difference, but we are so far behind this thinking in Australia. I’m interested to hear people’s opinions on the Liberals environmental stance. Have they got one? I’m trying to lobby the Liberal Opposition in SA to paint itself green, to start really taking it up to Labor (who so often get the green vote, but are failing to deliver) and getting some real opposition in this policy area. I’ve been watching with interest as David Cameron has greened the British Conservatives and it appears to have been largely successful. Real environmental change will only occur when both major parties are committed to environmental reform. At the moment I don’t think either of them are.
Best reason for ” Rooted” as title is that deep roots of perrenial grasses planted under grain crops in the presence of suitable bacteria produce “stable” carbon in the form of long -lived compounds as distinct from short-lived “labile” carbon as in compost etc.
Estimates of 1000 years are being put forward, and the possibility that an increase of only 2% of stable carbon in the arable soils of the world will be enough to absorb the increase in carbon dioxide emissions of the past 150 years.”Biochar” in another promising solution. Geosequestration is an expensive, unproven wank. Politicians won’t do it , but farmers can. People power is the only answer. Congratulations Crikey for helping to get the ball rolling.