enviromental managment??

[spike]

ok guys and girls im looking for a helping hand i KNOW everyone on here has a strong opinion.

im doing my tafe course in diploma of enviromental management and im looking for some of your opinions and thoughts, i have to write a survey up and i will be later and posting the link here.

so what are peoples ideas about motorsport and the enviroment??
no one will be shot down in flames and maybe we can make a difference

[Nigel]

Don't do anything until you get a community consensus...

[Mike Cherry]

Yep, you only need 150 Australians to get that.

[spike]

well theres a large population of rally supporters on here

[thedevilshands]

Not quite sure what you're asking mate.

Motorsport and its environmental impact nationally / generally?

The effect on the local environment (aka air / noise pollution or dead animals / plants)

Environmental Management of a motorsports facility?

People involved in motorsport and their perceptions of the impact on the environment

People not involved in motorsport - Their perceptions of motorsports impact on the environment.

Not having a go at ya, just wondering what you're driving at.

Cheers, Jon (BSc Natural Resource Management)

[Nigel]

Sorry Spike, I couldn't help taking the piss.

This will probably turn into a rant, so, for context, I am an economist working in environmental policy and have also had some experience in environmental activism (on the periphery).

Compared to the impact of urban development, land management practices, invasive species and legacy issues (i.e. dumb decisions 100 years ago), rallying’s environmental impact is so low that it’s not worth talking about. Your average under 10’s soccer team has a larger environmental impact than a club rally – think of all those kids getting ferried around the countryside every weekend in mum’s Prado!

That is not to say that event organisers shouldn’t take steps to limit environmental damage, far from it. But, the impact of our sport is very short-term, felt in small geographic areas of little environmental value (i.e. dirt roads) and is easily managed. If anyone tries to tell you about the horrendous environmental damage caused by rallying they are either:

1. A moron, or
2. Are hiding behind token environmentalism to further other interests.

The latter is understandable, but the former sh#t me to tears. My main problem with the environmental movement is that it seems to attract a higher proportion of moron’s who get distracted by high-profile side issues to the detriment of the environment. As a result, the real issues don’t get addressed and governments get pressured into throwing away our very limited resources on piss-weak interventions/photo opportunities e.g. spending $20m to save an unsustainable population of in-bred cuddly critters that will be F@#$%d in a decade anyway.

But I digress; there was a lot of discussion on this in regards to Repco Rally Australia. These threads should get you started. I would suggest that you also have a look at the environmental management plan developed for RRA. It is quite amazing the extreme lengths the organisers had to go to to get that event up e.g. dedicated koala wranglers…

No koalas or threatened species killed or injured during rally australia

Leaked council assessment of Repco Rally Australia

RRA's green impact not as bad as predicted: expert

[DaveTrees]

Originally Posted by Nigel

the impact of our sport is very short-term, felt in small geographic areas of little environmental value (i.e. dirt roads) and is easily managed

Short term localised impacts can, however be important ... especially when it comes to issues of soil movement & it's potential impact on water quality.

I posted something on here a couple of years ago on this issue .... you may be able to find it with some diligent searching, FWIW.

Dave
(B.For.Sc. - seeing people have started quoting their qualifications ! )

[MSP]

Short term localised impacts can, however be important ... especially when it comes to issues of soil movement & it's potential impact on water quality.

Sure, but soil movement and the resulting reduction in water quality is insignificant when compared to other activities that contribute to these issues. The movement of soil into waterways is very short lived, and of minor concern relative to land clearing and some farming practices that have a long lasting effect.

If we are going to start to look at water quality, then a lot of other areas need addressing before questioning the small short term impacts of rallying.

I'm with Jon on this one, maybe you need to provide some clarification on what your asking?

Nigel nailed it on the head with his two points, but maybe replace moron with misguided?

I worked in environmental science for 8 years, which opened my eyes to reality verse what the media tells you. I was required to perform sample collection, air/water/soil analysis and assisting in report preparation for developers and council.

I have seen plenty of activities that cause far greater impacts, and don't consider rallying to be on the radar. The impacts are just far too small and short lived to bother concentrating on. That is when you look at the whole picture, and discover some of the environmental concerns that we face on a large scale.

(never added any letters after my name, just worked in the real world instead of on paper).

[smee]

Originally Posted by Nigel

Sorry Spike, I couldn't help taking the piss.
the impact of our sport is very short-term, felt in small geographic areas of little environmental value (i.e. dirt roads) and is easily managed. If anyone tries to tell you about the horrendous environmental damage caused by rallying they are either:

1. A moron, or
2. Are hiding behind token environmentalism to further other interests.

You have nailed the ACT government in 2 lines on their thoughts towards running rallies in areas that are supposed water catchment areas.

[spike]

well it was somthing that i heard on a 4WD (or $WD) about tasmania wanting to close down all of the track in the forests. seriously to protect the enviroment you have to let people take an intrest in it, the hundred people who walk in the forest take care of it, but the 2000 or so people (likely more) who were at rally SA are considered annoying and destroying it?? ok admitedly we had the idiots/spectators there who decided to put tyres on their fire in the native gumtree area ()

we take care of where we play, same as a lot of other motorsport officionados, offroad for instance you take again thousands of people to places that would see about a hundred in a month and yes we do drive fast and hevily, and yes some times animals get hurt (excluding rabbits they're a pest) but in reality some middle age woman who plays with mosquito coils did a lot more damage then we ever will


on a side note, no one at tafe including me expected there to be this many people who have worked in the industry to be on here talking about rally cars

[DaveTrees]

Originally Posted by MSP

Sure, but soil movement and the resulting reduction in water quality is insignificant when compared to other activities that contribute to these issues.

I was talking about the issue of soil movement from roads in general - not specifically from motorsport use (in fact it's an issue even with zero traffic of any kind ...).

Anyway - I have no intention of debating the issue .... was just trying to point him in the direction of some information he might (or might not) find useful, written from the perspective of 30 years experience in forest management.

Dave

[MSP]

I think I read into your post a little too much, comments online are often misinterpreted.

Most of our communication is non verbal, so forums often result in posts being taken the wrong way. Not wanting to start any kind of debate, just read a little too much into what you said. Did you find the information you posted earlier? Search isn't so useful on forums...

[slowlearner]

I agree with what's been said so far.

Most of what we see going on in Australia is enviro-MENTAL tokenism not enviromental preservation.

How can you say NO to 50 small cars driving along a section of forrest road once a year at high speed when you have said YES to coal/logging trucks/B-doubles driving along it multiple times each week?

How can you say NO to 50 of the best maintained cars in the country driving through a national park once a year when all sorts of badly tuned hacks CAN drive up and down it every day?

And they tell us that rally cars kill trees? Have they seen what a tree does to a rally car? The trees ALWAYS win.

Plain stupidity.

The labor govt just handed the country back to the big miners on a silver platter to destroy whatever environments they want. Our state minister just told us the high lead levels in Mt Isa are ok. However it's not ok to shoot 100 totally inbred roos in the reserve next to my place. So inbred they can't be moved near other roos. You tell me what is 'environmental' about all of that?

I'm totally committed to seeing our planet looked after properly but that is not what is happening by and large. Most of it is just upper middle class bigotry by a different name.

[spike]

if youe want take my survey V V V

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/K8YXJ8W

hope it works.
thanks guys

[slowlearner]

...... done