Australia’s fossil fuel, nuclear lobbies behind anti-wind power movement
The British equivalent of landscape guardians, ”country guardians”, was funded and supported by elements of the British nuclear energy industry.
Wind farm opponents ‘aided and abetted’ by climate sceptic groups SMH, Ben Cubby, Josephine Tovey, 20 Dec 11 THE anti-wind farm movement that is gaining influence in the NSW Parliament is being ”aided and abetted” by climate sceptic groups and some mining figures.
The cabinet debated new wind farm guidelines yesterday, with division over whether NSW should follow Victoria and order wind turbines to be set further back from houses. The Shooters and Fishers Party, which shares the balance of power in
the upper house with the Christian Democrats, said yesterday it wanted a moratorium on new wind farms.
Industry sources said a US Tea Party-style ”astroturf” campaign, which mimics grassroots local opposition but is at least partly directed from elsewhere, was being waged against wind energy in NSW, which was expected to bring up to $10 billion in investment this decade as it accelerated to meet the national 20 per cent renewable energy target. Read more »
Well funded by mining companies, climate denialist adopts creationist tactics to “educate” children
Plimer does very nicely from the mining industry which has set him up for a very comfortable retirement. He is a director of mining companies Ivanhoe Australia, Silver City Minerals and the UK-listed Kefi Minerals, , and is chairman of TNT Mines. He is reputed to earn more than $350,000 in director’s fees and shares — a lot more than he receives from the University of Adelaide where his fellow academics have written him off as a joke. He is also closely in cahoots with Australia’s richest miner, and individual, Gina Rinehart.
The launch of the book is funded by the notorious “cash for comment” right-wing skeptic group, the Institute of Public Affairs. . The IPA is run by ultra-right Liberals and funded by organisations which include BHP Billiton, Western Mining, Caltex, Esso Australia (subsidiary of Exxon), Shell, Woodside Petroleum, News Ltd, Philip Morris, British American Tobacco, to name a few. Rio Tinto was a sponsor.
Plimer and Howard ape creationists, Independent Australia, 14 Dec 11, http://www.independentaustralia.net/2011/politics/plimer-and-howard-ape-creationists/ The mining lobby, with a helping hand from long-time chief climate change action roadblock, former Prime Minister John Howard, has taken a leaf out of the creationists playbook and is now trying to inculcate children with their unscientific nonsense. Environment editor
Sandi Keane reports. Oh my goodness, what next? The mining lobby, desperate to stop any regulation on Co2 and having failed to convert the grownups to climate skepticism, are now taking aim at our children!Cash for comment skeptic, Ian Plimer, has really lost it this time. His new book is called “How to Get Expelled from School”, and it targets school children and teachers. According to Plimer:
“…these children are being fed environmental propaganda and these children are too young to be fed ideology.”
Does the book’s name ring a bell? The anti-scientific film entitled “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” was trotted by those crazies, the creationists, in the U.S. to try to stop the teaching of Darwin’s theory of evolution in American schools. Read more »
BHP chief Marius Kloppers tries to make out that Olympic Dam is not a uranium mine
Further delays to force BHP’s hand, BY:MATT CHAMBERS, The Australian November 18, 2011, BHP Billiton chief executive Marius Kloppers has warned that further regulatory delays on the $20 billion-plus Olympic Dam copper, gold and uranium expansion could mean the company looks at other options for its huge cashflows.
Senator Scott Ludlam refutes the spin of Australian Uranium Association
Uranium and health: industry has to face the unpleasant facts, SENATOR SCOTT LUDLAM, AUSTRALIAN GREENS SENATOR FOR WESTERN AUSTRALIA, 22 Oct 11, Mr. Michael Angwin of the Australian Uranium Association has
objected to my statement to the ABC 1 that ‘Uranium mining has killed a lot of its workforce’, and has demanded I withdraw the comment.Michael Angwin spins about radiation for the Australian Uranium Association
Uranium miners accuse Greens of fearmongering, ABC News, Myles Morgan, October 21, 2011 ”…….Uranium association chief executive Michael Angwin says the industry is relatively safe.
“There have been two recorded fatalities in the Australian uranium industry, neither of them caused by radiation,” he said.
“There is no evidence of deaths from radiation in the Australian uranium industry.”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-21/20111021-uranium-miner-response/3592108
Misleading headlines and terms in uranium propaganda
We’ve been seeing a lot of “wobbly words” lately – from the nuclear/uranium industry. You’ll recognise them – ”the fundamentals” (always great, of course). And in today’s hype for Uranium SA’s Whyalla plan – ”robust” economics.
But the headline is the best in this one - “numbers stacking up”. – Well – the information that the share price of Uranium SA has fallen, and that it hasn’t secured financing – doesn’t bear out the enthusiastic headline. - C.M.
The numbers stack up for Uranium SA, The Age, Barry Fitzgerald, September 20, 2011 SOUTH AUSTRALIA is in line to get another uranium mine, this time from a new uranium province being opened up by ASX-listed Uranium SA to the south of the industrial city of Whyalla, on the Eyre Peninsula.
A study by USA into the likely financial returns from the development of one of the sediment-hosted uranium deposits it has outlined at its Samphire project – the Blackbush deposit – has confirmed ”robust” project economics…..
USA’s managing director, Russel Bluck, said USA’s financing options for the project development would include discussions with global integrated nuclear power groups. USA shares closed 0.5¢ lower at 15¢.
Global unpopularity of nuclear industry, but nuclear leaders do not ‘get it’
People do not like this [nuclear] industry, not because they misunderstand it but because they understand it perfectly
well. That is going to be very difficult to fix with little video clips on websites and new fact sheets….
… the magnitude of the disconnect, the dissonance, that exists in the minds of the strongest advocates of the [nuclear] industry. All they need to do is somehow just fix up the image of the industry and everything is going to be fine. I think we will be hearing a lot more of that on the part of the nuclear industry and its supporters in government.
Adjournment speech – Fukushima 6 months on – Australia’s Nuclear Free Alliance Spokesperson Scott Ludlam 14th September 2011 ”……..It will be very interesting to see how the democratic aspirations of the people of Japan now play out in the light of the permanent radioactive nightmare that has been unleashed in the Tohoku region of Japan.
If we take a very quick trip around the world, a Washington Post/ABC poll in April 2011 found that 64 per cent of Americans oppose the construction of new reactors, so there are no surprises why the industry is at an absolute standstill there. Support for nuclear power was similar or much lower in countries as varied as Chile at 12 per cent, Thailand at 16½ per cent, Australia at 34 per cent, and the United Kingdom at 35 per cent support.
That, I think, is a problem that has dogged the nuclear industry right from the beginning but to read some of the things they say you would think perhaps they have an image problem. Read more »
Australia’s ABC Radio gets “astroturfed” by the nuclear lobby
Nuclear Industry infiltrates ABC to push for an atomic Australia, Independent Australia , 10 Sept 11, The nuclear industry is using increasingly subtle methods to promote the development of a nuclear power and radioactive waste disposal industry in Australia. Noel Wauchope reports.
In the ABC radio program Ockham’s Razor, first broadcast on Sunday 4th August, Terry Krieg enthusiastically promotes the nuclear industry. This program was remarkable for two reasons:
First, Mr Krieg appeared to be not your usual expert connected with the nuclear industry. Mr Krieg, we were told, is “a retired geography and geology teacher”. Good, I thought, as it seemed that the ABC was giving an ordinary mortal a go on national radio. But was that all he was? No, alas. There was, as there always seems to be, some “astroturfing” going on.
A bit of research on the Net and we soon discover that Mr Krieg is a spokesperson for the Australian Nuclear Forum. This is an organisation dedicated, it says, to “advancing peaceful aspects of nuclear science and technology”. With that aim, the ANF provides “policy papers and information papers for schools”. Its members are “professionals with wide collective experience in nuclear science and technology”. In other words, it is a false grassroots nuclear industry lobby group.
Now, I really do think that the presenter, Robin Williams, should have told us that. But perhaps he didn’t know. It is in the interests of nuclear astroturfers to not have people know that the information they present, far from being unvarnished, comes straight from the nuclear industry itself.
Secondly, Mr Krieg came out with what the nuclear lobby has been secretly planning for Australia — that is, to establish the full nuclear cycle in this country, including storing radioactive wastes.
For these two reasons, Krieg’s promotional spruik is important.
I hope that it kicks off a clearer, more “democratic’ discussion on the nuclear industry. Australia so far has had only one real speaker who puts clearly the case against nuclear power: Dr Helen Caldicott. Yes, I know that she is an “expert”. But she has an unusual ability to speak plainly. Perhaps that is why she is ignored by Australia’s media and political big boys.
Anyway, Australia surely needs some plain speaking on this issue, so critical for our children and grandchildren’s future.
Terry Krieg should not be ignored. His vision for a totally nuclear South Australia is scary stuff.
On Climate Change and Renewable Energy Krieg, rather surprisingly, loses some scientific credibility right at the start, as he reveals himself as a climate-change denier…. On Germany… On Wind power This seems to be Terry Krieg’s main target,…. On Greenhouse gas emissions…. On Australia’s nuclear future.. On South Australia’s future…
If the Australian public is not made aware of the full meaning of the nuclear lobby’s plan, in clear “ordinary” language, Terry Krieg’s vision might well come true.http://www.independentaustralia.net/2011/media-2/nuclear-industry-infiltrates-abc-to-push-for-an-atomic-australia/
Climate Denialism is old hat – now Australia joins in Radiation Denialism
After Fukushima: the rise of nuclear radiation denialists Independent Australia 22 Aug 11, After the Fukushima disaster, the nuclear industry has urgently redoubled its efforts to convince the world that nuclear radiation is safe. Now it seems they are trying to say that radiation is actually good for us. Noel Wauchope reports.
In 2001, President Bill Clinton authorised funds to research the effects of radiation on the “downwinders” from the Nevada and Utah atomic bomb tests. The funds went to the Department of Energy, who designed the research project. They then allocated the project to Flinders University in South Australia, under the leadership of Professor Pam Sykes.
But the original intention of the research has taken a strangely perverted course. Pam Sykes has joined the proponents of “adaptive radiation” and “radiation hormesis” - the theory that “low level ionising radiation is good for you” It’s quite an old theory, but now, after Fukushima, it has suddenly become very useful to the nuclear and uranium lobbies……..
HOW PAM SYKES HAS CHANGED DIRECTION (SUITING THE NUCLEAR LOBBY) Early on in her research, Pam Sykes was following up the idea that human individuals vary in their susceptibility to low level radiation — that some are more susceptible than others.
Dr Sykes’ current view deviates markedly from the statements she made prior to the signing of the 2001 US Department of Energy research contract which funded her. US DOE still funds her. The aim of the original funding as authorised by President Clinton was in service of US Downwinder victims.
In 2001, Dr Sykes and Flinders University issued a press release which stated in part: ”….If you have a limit based on the whole population but some the population are more sensitive, then perhaps you need a lower limit.”
They [Pam Sykes, Bobby Scott etc] are the “radiation sceptics”, very much comparable to “climate change sceptics”. Their belief in “radiation hormesis” is comparable to “intelligent design” — as opposed to evolution.
Their common funding sources are nuclear energy agencies — in particular the USA Department of Energy…… (DOE)…..http://www.independentaustralia.net/2011/health/after-fukushima-the-rise-of-nuclear-radiation-denialists/
Martin Ferguson endorses new Australian pro nuclear spin centre
The aim of New England Nuclear Energy is to gain enough support to change NSW legislation created in 1986 which prohibits nuclear facilities from being constructed or operated.
Nuclear centre opens, The Glen Innes Examiner AMY SLESSOR, 09 Aug, 2011 ,NEW England Nuclear Energy opened its Research, Education and Discussion Centre on Saturday morning.
The opening was at 8.15.43 seconds to coincide with the anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing to show how far nuclear had come since that day, according to New England Nuclear Energy principal Howard Eastwood. Read more »
Uranium industry benefits billionaires, damages Aboriginals
to the direct benefit of billionaire mine-owners, including the uranium mine-owners Angwin represents. These measures include attempts to shut down smaller Indigenous communities and herd Aboriginal people into “hub towns”.
Leave uranium in the ground, Green Left, 8 Aug 11, @…….. Angwin slammed the eastern states’ uranium bans as “authoritarian”. He said: “The Northern Territory and South Australia have encouraged the uranium industry for a long time. So it is not surprising that uranium development there proceeds without much fuss, despite the occasional hiccup.”
The “occasion hiccup” includes contaminating underground aquifers with radioactive tailings and the spread of radioactive dust. Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory and South Australia suffer some of the worst effects of this radioactive contamination. Read more »
Australian Greg Sheridan – a not so moderate pro nuclear voice
Just in case you didn’t notice, I’ll mark in red some of Mr Sheridan’s best efforts at answering the anti-nuclear case – Christina Macpherson
Paralysed by our anti-nuclear hysteria, THE AUSTRALAN, Greg Sheridan, July 23, 2011“…….On one issue, a fairly toxic interaction of anachronistic elite opinion and the popular faith in fossil fuels has led to one of the most debilitating Australian syndromes: our completely kooky phobia about anything to do with nuclear power. This is hurting us in energy planning, foreign policy and, crucially, defence……. Unless you are a Greens/Taliban fundamentalist seeking to de-industrialise the West, you are not serious about climate change if you oppose nuclear energy…..”
A new variation on pro nuclear spin – from Flinders University
Check out the inflammatory heading and language in the item below. It’s no surprise that Professor Sykes’research is funded by the USA Departmnet of Energy (DOE) – a body that is wedded to nuclear power.
From Prof Sykes we learn how irrational we are, how we panicked, in our ignorance, being worried about low dose radiation. Why it prevents cancer!
She goes on to tell us that there is no leaukaemia,no solid cancers, no birth defects caused by low level Chernobyl radiation, (well they have a long lead time, new cases can be expected from 25 years on). She sheds doubt on the thyroid cancer cases. And goes on to enthuse about how low level radiation benefits diabetes and arteriosclerosis.
My oh my – no wonder the DOE wants to fund Prof Sykes’research!. – Christina Macpherson
Radiation response a meltdown in reason, Health Canal 14 July 11, The possibility that low doses of radiation may prevent or delay the progression of cancer is being explored by a Flinders University research team led by Professor Pam Sykes in a move that runs counter to the widely held perception that exposure to any radiation is harmful.
Professor Sykes, recently appointed to the University’s Strategic Professorship in Preventive Cancer Biology in the Flinders Centre for Cancer Prevention and Control says the public panic in responseto nuclear accidents such as that at Fukushima in Japan is the result of a general ignorance about radiation…..
http://www.healthcanal.com/cancers/18880-Radiation-response-meltdown-reason.html
Australia’s latest high powered pro nuclear propaganda
With all this emphasis on safety, radiation effects are never discussed.
The same argument could be used to show how safe the asbestos industry is – : just a few deaths from falls in the mine and you don’t count the mesothelioma that comes on years later. Same with tobacco and lung cancer.
The renewed push for a nuclear Australia Pro-nuclear campaigners are, beyond all reason, using the Fukushima nuclear disaster to push the case for an atomic Australia. Independent Australia , 7 July 11, Noel Wauchope reports.
Perhaps because of its geographical isolation, Australia is, in some ways, off the culture map. This might be why Dr. Ziggy Switkowski,Professor Barry Brook,Dr Adi Paterson and the rest of the nuclear propagandists seem to be able to get away with statements on the Fukushima nuclear disaster – now described as the world’s worst industrial disaster – that range from the dubiously absurd, to the downright untrue. Read more »
Dr Jim Green exposes the nuclear spin of Ziggy Switkowski and Barry Brook
Unfortunately, Prof. Barry Brook has really abdicated a neutral position on this event. His clear support of nuclear power seems to have impacted his critical thinking skills … Every time he states something in this crisis is ‘impossible’, it seems to happen the next day.”…………Switkowski ignores the widespread human exposure to radiation from Fukushima and the likely resulting long-term cancer death toll.This month
For international news, go to nuclear-news
Check on the Ugly Australian company, Lynas, in Malaysia http://baddevelopers.nfshost.com/Docs/L.htm
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/49872 Peter Watts at Global Conference for a Nuclear Power Free World
Aboriginal protest in Canberra. Scroll down page. Video news shows no violence from protestors, only from police http://www.3aw.com.au/blogs/breaking-news-blog/the-referendum-died-today/20120126-1qj4x.html
of the week. http://www.radiationreport.com/effects-of-radiation/nuclear-apologists-play-shoot-the-messenger-on-radiation/
Energy Matters Video News – Episode 56 – February 1, 2012
http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3021
Anti nuclear action below: - more info at Action Australia « Antinuclear and at Event details « Antinuclear
EVENTS
- February 13 Adelaide Fukushima and the Future of Nuclear Power
- February 23 - Adelaide Nicole Foss – a Mentor For Turbulent Times. Nicole Foss speaks on Energy and the Economy http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=FqRGVNUK5x0
LATEST AUDIO & VIDEO ITEMS. arrive – so fast and so good – go to our audiovisual page Audiovisual « Antinuclear for information on these websites
Nuclear power and WATER – theme for February 2012
For Australia especially, Global warming means WATER shortage – drought over wide areas, more evaporation.
Nuclear power and uranium mining are water-intensive
Uranium mining is water intensive. Already outback communities are being hit by water shortage, as water is being extracted from the Great Arterial Basin faster than it is being replenished.
Yet BHP Billiton has open slather, at no cost whatever, to its daily guzzle of 35 million litres, and BHPB plans to extract an additional 120 million litres of publicly-owned artesian water per day, every day, for the next 70 years.)
Out of sight, out of mind
Groundwater is a major resource, but one that has been taken for granted for decades. In the past, groundwater supplies were treated as an infinite resource, and subject to an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ attitude. But that’s changing. There’s now an enormous interest in the way our groundwater resources are measured, managed and utilised. There are also concerns over issues such as over-extraction of water, pollution, wastage, allocation and licensing issues, water pricing and groundwater salinisation.
The water source beneath one-fifth of Australia
The most well-known and important groundwater source in Australia is the Great Artesian Basin, or GAB. This is a vast groundwater source that underlies 22 per cent of Australia – extending beneath the arid and semi-arid regions of Queensland, the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales. It covers about 1.7 million square kilometres, and contains an estimated 8700 million megalitres of water. Not surprisingly, it’s one of the largest artesian water basins in the world……
The sustainable yield of a groundwater source depends on balancing the use or discharge against recharge rates. Normally discharge of groundwater occurs through vegetation, into streams and lakes, or through evaporation into the atmosphere. Sustainable yield cannot simply be determined by a measure of the recharge rate. If water is extracted for human use at the recharge rate, discharge to other areas can be affected…..
Extraction of groundwater can also lead to salinity problems and have a negative impact on native vegetation with roots that tap into groundwater, as well as wetlands, rivers and streams. The full impact of using these aquifers as planned is not known, but is likely to reduce the rate of water flowing to support rivers and wetlands and other groundwater dependent ecosystems…. http://www.science.org.au/nova/100/100key.htm
Garlick said water from the Great Artesian Basin in Central Australia is being depleted to keep residual radioactive dust from uranium mining wet in order to keep it from blowing across the continent. Seven million gallons of water is being extracted from the basin per day to keep the radioactive dust in place, she said.
Despite its profits more than tripling in the last three years, BHP has never paid a cent for the vast amounts of water used by the Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine near Roxby Downs. The mine currently uses approximately 35 million litres of water a day from the Great Artesian Basin. Under the Roxby Downs Indenture Act BHP is not required to pay for this water usage.
The Indenture Act applies specifically to the Olympic Dam mine, and provides for wide-ranging legal exemptions and overrides from environmental and Aboriginal heritage protection laws that apply elsewhere in the state, including the Environmental Protection Act and the Natural Resources Act (which incorporates water management issues).
“The Indenture Act means that the Olympic Dam mine is not subject to the same environmental regulatory framework as other industrial projects in the state,’ explained Nectaria Calan of Friends of the Earth Adelaide. “Additionally, by allowing BHP to take water from the Great Artesian Basin for free, the South Australian government is essentially providing BHP with a massive subsidy,” she continued.
The water intake from the Great Artesian Basin has already had adverse impacts on the unique Mound Springs found near Lake Eyre, which are fed by the underlying Artesian Basin, and are sacred to the Arabunna people, the traditional owners of the area.
As part of the proposed expansion of the Olympic Dam mine, BHP Billiton proposes to increase its water consumption by an additional 200 million litres per day. Water intake from the Great Artesian Basin will increase to up to 42 million litres per day, with the remainder to come from a proposed desalination plant at Point Lowly. This amounts to over 100,000 litres of water per minute.
“The vast water usage of uranium mines is often forgotten in the debate about uranium and nuclear energy. Here we are, in the driest state on the driest continent on earth, host to a mine which needs millions of litres of water each day. Due to the Indenture Act, we are essentially exporting our water overseas for free,” said Ms. Calan. (FOE)
