DUMPING ON DEMOCRACY – THE NATIONAL RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT BILL,
The Government plans to ignore and override legislation passed in the NT Parliament which seeks to ban the imposition of nuclear dumps – the Northern Territory Nuclear Waste Transport, Storage and Disposal (Prohibition) Act 2004. The NT Government remains steadfastly opposed to the dump plan…..The Bill also provides wide-ranging powers to override Commonwealth legislation.
PROPOSED RADIOACTIVE WASTE DUMP AT MUCKATY, NT by Jim Green, February 2011, “……….Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson is driving the plan for a radioactive waste dump at Muckaty. The legislation he has put forward – the National Radioactive Waste Management Bill – is heavy-handed and undemocratic. Continue reading
Environmental campaigners get pre-emptive arrest
(UK) Undercover police scandal: why we urgently need a judge-led inquiry, The Ecologist, Dan Glass 21st January, 2011 With daily revelations about police spying on activists, we need an independent judicial investigation into the scale and nature of infiltration and use of agents provocateurs, says Ratcliffe defendant Dan Glass
It started with the 26 individuals who had been charged with planning to shut down Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station for one week. The individuals were part of the 114 arrested at the Iona School in Nottingham on Easter Monday, 2009. The incident was the largest pre-emptive arrest of environmental campaigners in recent history and prompted widespread concerns for civil liberties. Now these concerns have deepened to unimagined depths………
They had a trial late last November, and were found guilty after being accused by the prosecution of merely seeking publicity. Undercover police scandal: why we urgently need a judge-led inquiry – Comment – The Ecologist
South Australian govt allows uranium company to despoil unique wilderness
Senator Minchin described it as one of the most reckless decisions of the state Labor government…Wilderness Society environmental scientist Matt Turner said most South Australians were opposed to mining in Arkaroola.
Minchin blasts Flinders Ranges mining permit, Sydney Morning Herald, February 7, 2011 Uranium explorer Marathon Resources has had its licence renewed to operate in the sensitive Arkaroola region of South Australia’s Flinders Ranges. Continue reading
Native American speaks out against uranium mining
recounting the effects uranium mining and milling had on the American Indian population, including Navajos, over the last 60 years……….There may be short-term jobs, but the mining industry is susceptible to the market,” Tohe said…
“The communities are held hostage by the boom and bust cycle,”
Anti-uranium mining activist speaks out on project | GoDanRiver.com, 7 Feb 2011, If uranium is mined and milled at Coles Hill in Pittsylvania County, what happened in the U.S. West could happen in Chatham, Continue reading
Australia: wind and solar to provide revenue and jobs in 2011
Reaching the target is expected to generate investments of approximately 16.8 billion dollars and create over 25,000 jobs in the renewable energy sector….2011 appears to be shaping up as the year of wind energy, with five large-scale wind power projects likely to generate market revenues of well over 2 billion dollars, a marked increase from the 380 million dollars in 2010.
Strong 2011 Forecast For Australia’s Wind And Solar Energy Sector by Energy Matters, 8 Feb 2011, Despite instability in regard to various solar incentives in Australia, including a reduction in solar panel rebates in the months ahead, market research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan predicts continued high growth in wind and solar energy projects across the nation. Continue reading
Wind and solar getting cheaper, and impressive in Spain and Portugal
Spain has grown from using just two percent wind and solar power to almost 20 percent in a decade…..Portugal has demonstrated an even more remarkable transformation in the last five or so years….Wind and solar are, when compared accurately to the appropriate baseload, load-following or peak power resources, cost-effective today.
Spain and Portugal Lead the Way on Renewable Energy Transformation, Renewable Energy World, By Tam Hunt, February 7, 2011 Rapid energy transformation at the national level is possible. Transformation is also necessary if we are to mitigate the impacts of climate change and peak oil. Continue reading
Nuclear submarines: bad policy for Australia
.. bad policy and bad strategy. It turns entirely reasonable concerns about China’s military expansion into responses that verge on hysteria. The proposals are ill-defined and not costed. They would almost certainly prove counter-productive, if not downright dangerous, in terms of Australian policy towards China.
Panicky response would harm our interests Paul Dibb and Geoffrey Barker: The Australian * February 08, 2011 NATIONAL security policy is too important for federal ministers to stay mute when thoroughly bad ideas are put forward by influential government military advisers. That is why Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd and Defence Minister Stephen Smith should immediately reject proposals on how to counter China’s military expansion from Ross Babbage, as reported by Greg Sheridan in The Weekend Australian.
Babbage says Australia should acquire 12 nuclear attack submarines, host more US military bases, arm “arsenal ships” with cruise missiles and expand cyber warfare capabilities. Continue reading
UK nuclear submarine’s problems just get worse!
The submarine, which was completed four years late and massively over budget, has been hit by problems since it was commissioned into the Navy last August.
Jinxed nuclear submarine HMS Astute ordered to return to port after latest mishap.. the toilets won’t work, Daily Record UK Feb 7 2011 By Craig Mcdonald Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 