Brisbane

I've had a pretty amazing couple of days. I hope to upload a bunch of pictures later. I arrived in Brisbane on Friday and found almost immediately a great energy here as well. It is different from Melbourne. A little less sophisticated, a little smaller but great nonetheless. I have explored the City as well as Southbank and found some pretty good restaurants and cafes.

Saturday was a great day. I met Professor Melissa Little, an Eisenhower fellow from 2006 and she took me to the Lone Pine Sanctuary. Here I got to see and pet a Koala as well as pet a Kangaroo. You can enter a pen where the kangaroos are lying around allowing people to pet them. I have some good pictures that I will post when I can. Melissa then hosted me for dinner with her American-born husband Mahlon and her son Nathanial. Nathanial reminded me of what my son Connor will be like at age 11. Mahlon cooked dinner and we had great conversation. The next morning they picked me up and we went to the O'Reilly plateau. The O'Reilly plateau is an entrance to the temperate rain forest. The views were absolutely spectacular. We walked to Python Rock and Mason Falls. Again, the views were nothing I had ever seen before. The O'Reilly plateau is about 2 hours south, so it took much of the day.

Today, I was hosted by Ben Hankamer. Ben is a 2009 Australian Fellow and is a biofuel researcher doing a lot of work with algae and carbon capture and sequestration. We had great conversation about energy, but today was more about sightseeing. We saw the Glass House Mountains, some small towns and went to Noosa Beach, a spectacular beach about an hour and a half north of Brisbane. I can't do it justice, but when I post the pictures, hopefully, you will get a feel for it.

Other big news of the day, the Australian Government has modified the Carbon trading scheme, delaying implementation until 2011, allowing for a carbon reduction target of up to 25% with a global agreement and increased compensation to the industries that are the most severely affected by the CPRS scheme (carbon pollution reduction scheme). This is going to be hotly debated over the next few months and I happy to watch the debate.