Kitchen Garden Guides

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Imagine a Tasmania….

Imagine living in a place where 100% of the power generated was from renewable energy and owned by the state plus having spare to sell and send across an existing undersea cable to the mainland; where medicinal crops (including poppies and hemp) were billion dollar industries and outstripped the old income from forestry a thousand times over; where wind farm construction was on the cusp of employing the entire workforce (and more) from collapsed mining; where bio mass energy heated schools and pools and buildings all over the state; where dairy farms and vegetable farms were feeding the people near and far…..

Hydro Tasmania

Imagine eco-tourism, organic farms, in fact every industry, business and household being able to claim that 100% of their electricity came from sustainable sources…. imagine the tourist potential….. imagine the income from selling such technology and insight all over the world….. imagine the future….

Imagine governments being so ignorant that the mere mention of hemp had them closing doors to businesses ready to start planting; imagine governments taking away renewable energy targets and making the construction of all future wind farms, ready to start building in the next few weeks, impossible to finance…. imagine them not standing tall and claiming credit for tossing aside the woes of a crumbling Tasmania and grasping these chances that have fallen like mana from the heavens….

Imagine how sick we feel and how angry we are to see unsustainable fish farming practices and other ridiculous developments taking precedent. Imagine if they privatise Hydro Tasmania and, like the gas fields of South Australia, investors suck the state dry.

It is hard to write these words. It is incomprehensible that such opportunities are not being grasped. Tasmania has a chance to leapfrog much of the rest of the world but those in the hot seats of power seem incapable of understanding. Imagine how they will be remembered in history. Imagine how it could be…..

3 comments:

Tanya Murray said...

I try to be well informed but I guess we can't know everything all of the time so I am a bit puzzled by a couple of things in your post and hope you will be able to enlighten me. Firstly, hydro power is generated from water flow from the highlands and creates energy from a renewable natural source doesn't it? In times of low water it will be great to have the extra of wind farms. I'm certainly in favour of them but I thought Tasmania pretty much already produced our own power and sold extra to the Victorian grid?
I'm also confused about the unsustainable fish farming. I was led to believe that they are getting it right and it is in fact ocean fish harvesting that is currently an unsustainable practice? I don't know about the southern farms but I thought the ones in Macquarie Harbour were very "clean green" and sustainable. I know these are probably big topics but a brief answer and maybe a link to help me find further information would be helpful. I was optimistic that a growing fish farming industry might supply more jobs for the West Coast with the losses in forestry and mining.

Kate said...

Hi Tanya,
Lovely to have your comments. Yes Hydro Tasmania has been doing a fabulous job creating 100% sustainable power from hydro and wind etc but the ridiculous removal by current governments of the financial benefits (carbon tax + emissions targets) to Hydro Tas for all this research and infrastructure means they are now struggling to exist and projects ready to start are now on hold, just at the time when workers from the west coast need jobs after mining collapses etc.
Re fish farming: it can be wonderfully sustainable but the laws and rules in Tasmania are lax meaning pollution from the dense fish numbers in the pens is causing havoc to sea beds and inland waterways where I am in the Huon area. I want them to be leaders not lagging decades behind world best practice.

Tanya Murray said...

Thanks Kate. I have since found this site called Good Fish Bad Fish and I'm currently reading through some of the debate there but it is very hard sorting out media bias, marketing spin and fact. I also acknowledge that in these situations like the fish farming, there is certainly no black and white and we have to strike the right shades of grey. This link may also be of interest to others too (though it's just an interest topic for me as I don't eat fish LOL) http://goodfishbadfish.com.au/?page_id=1092