Hands Across the Sand - Saturday 26 June 12am - Come join the global protest against offshore oil drilling.

Funny kate member since yesterday a feel good moment for people from Sydney to voice their opposition to oil drilling. whilst they drive to avalon using oil than go back to their abodes to suck up coal fired power, than go to work on monday to suck up more oil & coal to produce power, than more oil to provide fresh food transported by trucks
Living in sydney you cannot claim any moral high ground, if you cared enough you would leave sydney give up your job go north or west buy a farm be self sufficeint, sell your car walk or ride a bike everywhere give up overseas travel, invest your money in renewables like asx gdy the australian leader in geothermal (gees the share price is doing well), Instead of holding hands realise solar & wind cannot replace the base load or energy needs of the world, wave power such as ceto again not commercially proven, wind again is not a solution.
Whilst i love a pristine environement no amount of investment or holding hands will allow people from Sydney or other major cities to become anything but hypocrites with their reliance on oil & coal
I checked out website made me feel all warm & fuzzy shame they dont have an answer just more whining just because renewables would be good does not make them the answer which they are not
If you feel so strongly about it you can disassociate yourself from all oil derived products or services, good luck

Fair enough rule303 but if everyone had that same fatalistic view nothing would change. Sure at the moment we rely largely on oil for energy/transport etc but there are alternatives and my belief is that it is only a matter of time before research into alternative sources makes them viable.

Holding hands and similar protests help to create awareness and if awareness can be created, (even among the people who would normally be ignorant of such issues) then perhaps those people might use their big black 4wd a little bit less during the week. Then they might turn the central heating down form 30 degrees to 28.....

Perhaps in this way a difference can be made.

Seriously whet my view is not "fatalistic", what are the alternatives i thought i gave them all & the reasons why they will not work research wont make them viable money will but the costs will destroy society as we know it.

"Holding hands creates awareness" In a warm & fuzzy way but it does not provide answers or change, a belief that turing your air con down 2 degrees makes a difference is comical

& dont get me started on the car thing as an old kingswood serviced regularly now has a life of 30 years the cost to produce crappy cars that are obsolete within 5 years only to be scrapped is not sustainable, everyone would be better off driving landcruisers at least they will be on the road in 10-20 years time

People that hold hands at avalon on the morow are just deluded & potential recruits for scientology when that becomes sexy

Whetunui do you invest in renewables ????? lots of options out their i posted a few, its easier just to hold hands & sing kumbaya than put your money were your mouth is, personally i will be their with a fist full of dollars in my 6 cyl car as it will just be a great pick up for dumb hippie/greenie chicks as long as their is no arm pit hair & they have had a tub in the last day

I was talking more about a change in people's attitudes towards how much energy they use when I made the comment on the air con. Not literally - as you seem to have taken it.

However, if you were to get enough people making a small change I am sure it would have quite a large effect overall. In the industry I am in a series of small changes have actually created quite a large change in resource use.

I do have investments, although not quite as you are describing. And yes the environmental effects of our actions are a key consideration we make in our business.

You seem to have a wealth of knowledge, what do you think are the best ways to handle environmental issues and pollution ?

You seem to have a wealth of knowledge, what do you think are the best ways to handle environmental issues and pollution ?

By: "whetunui"

What about boycotting BP Service Stations or BP products till they have sorted this mess out. Get enough people doing this worldwide and it will definately affect the bottom line, they will be forced to hurry up and clean this mess up. The shareholder will demand this, these sort of companies dont care about anything else but the bottom line.

Whilst the spill is a disaster no arguement boycotting BP would do jack their hands are in so many pies worldwide you wouldnt even know you were supoorting them, your petrol at caltex could have come from a bp operation.
As for renewables well BP spends shite tins on solar wind biofuels carbon capture lng & coal seam gas
as for "You seem to have a wealth of knowledge, what do you think are the best ways to handle environmental issues and pollution ?"
Not by holding hands on the beach thats for sure, people who dont care will not change their attitudes becuase they see some misguided people protesting, as change to renewables is costly & will take 20-30 years to implement, its pointless demanding them now, the change has started if you care that much dont hold hands invest your money & have a large timeframe
I'm more pragmatic
Tighter environmental controls, bigger penalties, tax benefits & other government support for legitiment organisations like ASX GDY, asx cwe asx org, even bp etc to bring their technology to fruition. Not misguided tree plantations or carbon taxes where average jo pays the cost.
And as you say every day do the little things yourself, be it picking up rubbish on the beach or wearing a jumper instead of air con your choice but i'm cynical of these people who spruik their environmental credentials their like vego's they have to tell everyone, the more militant & public they are the more guilty they are of doing what they are preaching against, well thats been the case with friends & tossers i have met anyhow