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Category: opinions and journalism

Word Power: planting trees, claiming credits…credible?

In Australia, the unpleasant truth – rarely admitted – is that in many instances, the answer to the headline’s question is “no”.

Carbon credits counted in government projections can, quite literally, go up in smoke and blow out the emissions side of the CO2 ledger.

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Word power: vital question for Bill Shorten

Our politicians and our mainstream media are equally to blame for Australia’s 2019 Federal Election campaign having become a seemingly-endless avalanche of inanity, predictability, pork-barreling, propaganda, evasion and irrelevance.

However, letter-writer Ian Bevan of Landsdale, WA, has at last voiced the burning question…

(as published in The West Australian on Friday May 3, and quoted in full, below)

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Word power: Moby Trump

“My” local daily paper – The West Australian – has recently become relentlessly parochial and adopted inane journalese as its house style.

Its headlines especially grate: almost all are prime examples of what smug dullards consider “clever”, of what twits mistake for wit.

The West‘s editor may or may not be a bona fide idiot; perhaps he is just a bright young lickspittle, fulfilling a brief to “dumb everything down, cut every cost and cross-promote the linked TV station, endlessly”.

So, it was a particular joy/relief to encounter some actual journalistic flair…

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Word power: on “invasive species”

According to an alarming recent article in the Australian edition of The Guardian, Australia is “losing the fight” against invasive species.

It quotes scientists who claim that the “invaders”  pose a greater threat to Australia’s native species than does climate change.

(so, you may ask, “why on earth does the image atop this Pelican Yoga post depict an Australian native species which is clearly flourishing?”)

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