Our resident skeptic, Richard Castles writes: " I'm curious by what means you write given your aversion to resources."

Richard, I don't have an aversion to the resource sector but I do have an aversion to the resource industries' lack of regulation and the uncontrolled, unmitigated release of industrial pollution spurred on by Mr Howard and his cronies.

Such skeptics, including yourself, lack any altruistic purpose in the quest for profits and our honourable leaders are now being viewed as culpable in the destruction of our eco systems and the resultant effect on climates.

You may be interested to learn that the arctic regions are polluted with organochlorines where Arctic natives, particularly the Inuits of Greenland contain the highest level of organochlorines in their systems, a result of diets of marine mammals which have also been force-fed these persistent organic pollutants.

Some researchers claim the Inuits now have 30% more cancers than any other group.

Oceans, rivers and sea ice are additional transporters of contaminants to the Arctic regions though the following chemicals are transboundary in nature and their atmospheric depositions can occur thousands of miles from the source.

Pollutants ingested by these people include PCB's. toxaphene, hexachlorobenzene and DDT's - all man-made chemicals which also show up in snow samples.

Even you wouldn't be sufficiently imprudent to deny these eco destroying chemicals are anthropogenic - would you?

sorry, dickie, your false assumptions make it impossible for me to reply in any meaningful way. All the best.

Well, well dickie and Richard you are wasting your time trading insults. The Resources Boom has created many jobs around the the world today. So where does the problem lie. Who else but the Governments who have fail to regulate the industry and the companies who fail to adopt world best practices. Tell me who is responsible for the MUD which is been wash ashore and swallowing up all the houses on one of Indonsia's islands. Nature, sorry the Mining Company has admitted guilt and is already paying millions in compensation. Game, set and match.

An Australian miner (Canadian owned) which operates 9 mines in Australia and only 2 in Canada, is notorious for making a mess and leaving the bill.

This company's projects includes the Renabie which straddled the Arctic. Though closed in 1991, the surface water flowing from that property continues to show elevated levels of zinc, cobalt, iron and copper.

Despite the "reclamation" programme, excluding re-vegetation of the tailings areas, sink holes began to appear on the site and in 1999 part of the underground mine collapsed, creating a gaping hole through to the U/G workings.

Communities from Argentina to Papua New Guinea have organised to demand their basic human rights and resist the exploitation of their natural resources by this company.

Argentina 2004: "No to Mining" rock festival

Chile 2005: An estimated 2,500 people protest agains the Pascua Lama Project in Vallenar.

Peru 2007: Ancash region - 48 hour "unemployment" strike to demand the cancellation of contracts with the mining company. Nineteen year old boy killed. Third year in a row where police have violently clashed with thousands of protesters.

Australia Lake Cowal 2006 and 2007: Protestors shut down the mine, resulting in arrests.

PNG 2007: Local landowners blocked the access route to the mine and forced operations to cease at gold mine.

On November 25, 2006, a panel of judges from civil society groups ranging from Amnesty Int. Chile to religious and indigenous rights groups, heard testimonies from civil society and traditional communities.

The panel judged "that the mining firm is responsible for serious environmental, economic, social and cultural affronts as a product of its policies, progammes and actions against the territories and peoples of Argentina, Chile and Peru."

In 2005, Canada's Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs lamented that:

"Canada does not yet have laws to ensure that the activities of Canadian mining companies in developing countries conform to human rights standards, including the rights of workers and indigenous peoples."

Well perhaps a "Clean Air Act," legislated specifically for your international mining activities, would do for starters, Mr Harper!

southerner, could you elaborate on how birds leaving and ants climbing before the '74 Brisbane flood proves Global Warming. Really quite interested.

Richard,
Both sides use scientific facts to make their case for or against Gobal Warming. Leaving people without a scientific background totally confused. The reason I quoted the 1974 Brisbane floods was to point out that often Nature tells us what is happening. Over the last ten years the process has accelerated. For example our winters are getting warmer and our summer was unsually cool this year in Bribane. Look at the weather patterns around the world. In parts of America they had summer weather at one ski resort when it should have been snowing. Than there was the case of an Iceberg drifting towards New Zealand, whats unsual about that the bloody size. Which animal is telling us that Gobal Warming is occuring and not some fictional story, the Polar Bear. Combime the warnings that nature is giving with the scientific facts and you will better understand what is happening to Planet Earth, our only home right now.