Scotty123

This debates very long and a bit long winded...

it_hooker

Ah yes Devon. If our little adventure down under doesn't work out for us, then that's where we're gonna run to.

Vash the Stampede

Petrol prices are not determined by the garage owner, but by the head office of the relevant company. The garage owners have no control over it whatsoever. I am surprised that you were not aware of this; it is common knowledge.

...and on the other hand, we have Brits claiming that Aussies are too casual and never wear smart clothes.

Just goes to show that you can't please everyone.

Examples, please?

After a mere 4 months in my country, I hardly think you're in any position to make such a judgement.

More than 20 years ago, the Tasmanian government attempted to dam the Franklin River in order to extend the statewide hydro-electric scheme. That decision was hotly contested by tens of thousands of people all over the state

You can read about here, on the Website of The Wilderness Society - one of Australia's oldest and largest environmental advocacy groups. Since its birth in 1976, The Wilderness society has secured the protection of more than 8 million hectares of wilderness and high conservation areas in Australia.

Another group (Keep Australia Beautiful) sponsors a national Tidy Towns competition every year, and the annual Keep Australia Beautiful Week (also national.)

The Aussie government received a massive public backlash from the Australian public when it took sides with the Yanks over Kyoto. Hardly a case of "complete ignorance about the impact of everything people do on the environment."

Local councils have a variety of recycling schemes, and some states have created their own legislation; South Australia, for example, offers a deposit refund system by which anyone who returns a glass bottle for recyclying, receives a 5 cent refund.

Unsurprisingly, the big corporations responsible for producing glass containers (such as ACI Glass) have done their best to destroy this legislation, using every dirty trick in the book. (See here.) And this is hardly a problem unique to Australia; every Western nation struggles with it.

The sad fact of life is that most international corporations are now just as powerful as some governments. And with so many politicians colluding with these corporations for personal gain, it is almost impossible to maintain green legislation for any length of time. Sooner or later the corporations will get their way, because their well-paid puppets will roll over and play dead.

The will of the people is definitely there; Australians are environmentally conscious, and would love to do more for the planet if they could. But they are stifled by weak governments, powerful lobby groups and bent politicians with conflicts of interest.

The bottom line is that what you see from a country's government is not necessarily representative of the will of the people. For example, Britain went to war on Iraq - was that because Britons wanted a war? No, it was a decision taken in the face of tremendous public resistance. This scenario was repeated in Australia (where the capital cities witnessed some of the largest demonstrations in our country's history) and all over Europe.

Moral of the story: as a general rule of thumb, it is wise to refrain from judging a country (or a country's people) by its government.

If it's any consolation, Australians are just as frustrated by this as you are.

Well then.

Vash the Stampede

Great choice!

My only gripe is the lack of local services (a solitary Spar shop for an entire town just doesn't cut the mustard in my book), the lack of jobs, and the overpriced real estate.

But it's an absolutely gorgeous place (reminds me of Tasmania!) and I feel very much at home there.

fraser

I bet you do

Toryglen-Boy

Devon is beautiful, i live about 50 mins from Devon! i frequently go to Woolacombe, Bude and the stepford influenced bizzarre town of "illfracombe"

Vash, if you love Devon, then when you go to Scotland take the drive from Loch Lomond up to Fort William, but stop of at Glencoe

it will take your breath away

and my friends from Canberra cite Edinburgh as the most beuatiful city in the world, and i would have to agree, and thats alot comign from a Glaswegian !!

i leave for Oz in 3 months, i keep an open mind to such a fantastic, untouched country, and i am sure it will be everything i want it to be

Vash the Stampede

Beauty, thanks for the tip!

Vash the Stampede

Well, I'm a West Australian myself, so the "feeling at home thing" is simply because it reminds me of a part of Australia - ie. clean, quiet, pleasant, lovely to visit and a great place to live.

ABCDiamond

Arkon.............

I'm going to agree with you on this.........

ABCDiamond

I never buy it in the Supermarkets. No one should buy in the supermarkets, it's all much fresher and cheaper at Fruit & Veg shops

It is cheapest here on Wednesday Mornings, that's when the Oil Companies give the discounts in my area. The discount they get is based on total sales during a certain time period., and not on what THEY purchase at that time.

ABCDiamond

And the UK is fully behind it ?

The UK Position:
Once a staunch supporter of the Kyoto Protocol, Blair now says action on climate change needs to come from a co-operative effort to develop science and technology. Blair indicated he did not see another global-warming deal like Kyoto being negotiated after Kyoto expires in 2012.

Blair highlighted the importance that there is "no way we are going to tackle this problem unless we develop the science and technology capable of doing it", reflecting the position of some who have consistently argued against Kyoto-style agreements.

The international media seemed to miss the importance of Blair's apparent change of position. Up until this point, Blair has been one of Kyoto's biggest supporters, even as Kyoto-style strategies were rejected by countries such as the US, China and India. With this single speech, Blair has effectively signalled the end of Kyoto and an about-face in his attitude to combating climate change.

It appears the UK is coming round to the thinking that the US and Australia have for tackling the problem. The "Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate" or the APPCDC.
The APPCDC agreement essentially argues that the development of technology-based solutions - not legally binding targets for emission reductions as with the Kyoto agreement - is the way forward.

Under the Kyoto Protocol signed in December 1997, Australia promised to hold our greenhouse gas emissions to no more than an 8 per cent increase on 1990 levels by 2008-12

The Kyoto protocol has not been ratified by Australia, largely because the United States also refuses to ratify, citing the inadequacies of the science, the non-participation by developing countries, and the enormous economic cost of putting healthy developed economies into 'crash stop' mode in order to achieve the emission cuts.

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MartinLuther

There are some advantages to merging the slow lane into the fast lane.

With slow lane merging the fast car need only keep an eye on the road ahead if the slow car is merging. The other way around, the slow car has to look out for fast cars coming from behind.

If there is no divider and the car merging screws up then with slow lane merging the merging car gets forced onto the side of the road whereas with fast lane merging the car if forced into oncoming traffic. (Even with dividers this could be a problem.)

At the end of the day neither method can really be declared as being better than the other (except that the British method is obviously superior by default )

ABCDiamond

And the main problem seems to be that many drivers are not aware of the TWO different rules for merging.

They are doing roadwork in my main driving area which will get rid of 90% of these merging spots. That'll make me happy

possoms

Oi

Wol

>>The will of the people is definitely there; Australians are environmentally conscious, and would love to do more for the planet if they could. But they are stifled by weak governments, powerful lobby groups and bent politicians with conflicts of interest.<<

Oh, purleeese!

Are we talking about the country which has more rubbish lying around than anywhere else I've seen? Where having six children seems to be something to be celebrated? Where the average house wastes more energy through medieval insulation and air gaps than a small country in the Balkans uses in a year? Where new homes have to have energy-intensively-produced rainwater tanks, pumps and plumbing to save water for the washing machine? And skylights to save a few watts on lighting at the expense of hundreds of watts of heat loss?

There are too many people sitting around banging on about the environment while at the same time chucking their McDonald's wrappers to the ground!

I'm afraid that tree-hugging is full of good intentions but in the end the second law will beat us all if we continue to overpopulate.

And isn't it priceless that they've just discovered that trees produce hundreds of millions of tonnes of methane - a far more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2 - making tree-planting a bit suspect!