Environmental issues are set to get far greater political and media attention than usual this coming week in Federal Parliament. Unfortunately, the politics surrounding climate change and the emissions trading will get more attention than the substance of the issue itself, writes Andrew Bartlett.
Australian Greens
A Liberal fable: once upon a time on a small, blue planet …
A small, relatively insignificant country in the planet’s southern hemisphere, which produces about 2% of the carbon causing the problems, is furiously debating how to move away from a dependence on carbon. Not that it will make a difference.
On Line Opinion opens editorial complaint to public
An exchange between the chief editor of Australian e-journal On Line Opinion, Graham Young, and NSW Greens MP Lee Rhiannon, whose story he didn’t publish, reveals the inner thoughts of an online media outlet. Refreshing.
Leave Peter Garrett alone
It would have been easy for Garrett to remain a musician and head of the Australian Conservation Foundation, or join the Greens. Instead, he went for the tough option. Cut him some slack.
Byron Bay to be abandoned to the waves
We should all be thankful that the Greens council which makes the decisions at Byron Shire isn’t in charge of Venice, writes Ian Evans.
graph pr0n 
Is the Greens’ popularity here to stay?
The Greens’ voter support is its highest level ever – but is that a blip or something that could be more stable? Possum crunches the numbers.
Stay at home, Senator, and raise your children
I don’t think that the primary care-givers of children should be parliamentarians, writes Helen Razer.
Milne: The climate nightmare is upon us
Would you put your son or daughter on an aeroplane if you knew that it had a 50-90% chance of crashing? If not, why would you take that risk with the whole planet? Asks Greens Senator Christine Milne.
Guy Rundle: Forget the ALP, time for a Greens/unions unholy alliance
The Greens are the new Labour party. And it’s time the unions in question recognised it.
Political snippets: Crikey Election Indicator meets Dancing With the Stars
Worlds collide as Richard Farmer applies the Crikey Election Indicator to Dancing With the Stars. Not that he watches it, of course.
Whatever happens to the ETS, it represents colossal failure
There are three possible outcomes for the Government’s emissions trading bill and all of them indicate failure.
The ETS: our very own pig with lipstick
If the Government’s ETS will not provide the right signals and incentives for a shift to a low-carbon economy, then doing nothing or doing something else is the better option.
Akerman: Green win signals mayhem for Labor
Labor has only itself to blame for the Greens’ success in Fremantle.
Jump to the Left, step to the Right
Conservative columnists try to get their heads around the Greens’ win in the Fremantle by-election.
Freo by-election: the start of big things for the Greens
The Fremantle by-election was only the second time the Greens had won a state or federal lower house seat outside of Tasmania.
Greens score first state lower house seat
Crack open the organic, carbon-offset champagne: The Greens have clocked up their first lower house seat in any state parliament, in Western Australia.
Powering Australia into the 19th century
The Continue Polluting Regardless Scheme, of course, is carefully designed to ensure that big industry does not have to do anything, writes Christine Milne.
Brown: ETS changes are no greener
The ETS has not been greened-up, writes Australian Greens leader Bob Brown — it has been browned-down.
Rudd’s reality check
Kevin Rudd has finally capitulated to the reality that the ETS was not supported by either the environmental movement nor business, writes Phillip Coorey.
NSW: campaigning for a new Labor
The chief topic of discourse in Macquarie Street is whether Premier Nathan Rees can repeat what Premier Anna Bligh did in Queensland in March.
Greens the only honest brokers in climate change debate
Far from being irrelevant to the ETS debate, the Greens are the only ones being honest, writes Bernard Keane.
Labor vs Greens: Fremantle casts another vote
The lid was officially lifted overnight on the worst-kept secret in Western Australian politics, writes PollBludger William Bowe.
Mungo: have a nice trip Kevin, see you next fall
The Prime Minister might feel that even if the economic cycle is still clearly running against him, the political climate at least has changed for the better, writes Mungo MacCallum.
The Australian’s fuel reduction obsession
With the embers still burning, The Australian’s obsessive, one-sided attempt to paint the fires as basically down to evil greenies continues apace, writes Guy Rundle.
Fielding the last man standing in stimulus fest
It’s hard to get excited about the unfolding drama of the Senate’s consideration of the stimulus package, writes Bernard Keane.
