Truckin’ nonsense against Australia’s carbon tax
You do wonder who is behind all this nonsense, as convoys of trucks descend on Canberra, and brawny guys speak out “representing the people” against the Gillard government’s plan for Australia joining the rest of the world in addressing global warming.
As far as I can read it, the Gillard government’s compensation plan means that lower and middle income earners will actually come out financially ahead with the carbon tax. Also, strategies for job protection are included.
Meanwhile attempts to derail the carbon tax by a double dissolution of Parliament will result in years of uncertainty and economic loss for Australia.
When I see these truckies performing on television, I can’t help wondering if they are more brawn than brain – and what kind of well financed manipulations have gone on behind the scenes – to get them there. – Christina Macpherson
Nuclear weapons obsolete, Australia too subservient to USA – says former Prime Minister
Malcolm Fraser to share wisdom at Toorak dinner, STONNINGTON LEADER 21 AUG 11 BY LAURA ARMITAGE MALCOLM Fraser’s carefully written memoir promises to be among the best insights to Australian political history…..In retirement, he has remained at the forefront of political and social debate.
Mr Fraser, since estranged from the Liberal Party, said his memoirs covered “everything”, including topics such as the carbon tax, nuclear weapons and asylum seekers…….. “Nuclear weapons are no longer necessary for the defence of countries,” he said.“Australia has to learn to be much more independent and less subservient to the US….”…. http://stonnington-leader.whereilive.com.au/lifestyle/story/malcolm-fraser-to-share-wisdom-at-toorak-dinner/
Silex – an Australian invention that could accelerate nuclear arms race
The technology, they warned, posed a danger of quickening the spread of nuclear weapons because of the likely difficulty of detecting clandestine plants.
Laser Advances in Nuclear Fuel Stir Terror Fear, NYT, By WILLIAM J. BROAD, August 20, 2011 Twenty miles southwest of Sydney, in a wooded region, Horst Struve and Michael Goldsworthy kept tinkering with the idea at a government institute. Finally, around 1994, the two men judged that they had a major advance.
The inventors called their idea Silex, for separation of isotopes by laser excitation. “Our approach is completely different,” Dr. Goldsworthy, a physicist, told a Parliamentary hearing… Continue reading
Laser uranium enrichment the pathway to more nuclear bombs
Laser advance may increase spread of nuclear bomb, SMH, William Broad, August 22, 2011 In a little-known effort, General Electric has successfully tested laser enrichment for two years and is seeking permission from the US government to build a $US1 billion ($960 million) plant that would make reactor fuel by the tonne.
That might be good news for the nuclear industry, but critics fear that if the work succeeds and the secret gets out, rogue states and terrorists could make bomb fuel in much smaller plants that are difficult to detect……. critics want a detailed risk assessment. Recently, they petitioned Washington for a formal evaluation of whether the laser initiative could backfire and speed the global spread of nuclear arms.
”We’re on the verge of a new route to the bomb,” said Frank von Hippel, a nuclear physicist who teaches at Princeton University. ”We should have learnt enough by now to do an assessment before we let this kind of thing out.” New varieties of enrichment are considered dangerous because they simplify obtaining the fuel……http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/laser-advance-may-increase-spread-of-nuclear-bomb-20110821-1j4mm.html
Silex, a supposedly solar company deeply involved in the nuclear industry
progress hinges on a world-leading uranium processing method called laser enrichment.
The technology has been acquired by a heavy-hitting US consortium of nuclear companies, Global Laser Enrichment, which has completed a testing program.
(repeating this item, lest we forget Australia’s involvement – C.M.)
Heavy weather for nation’s solitary solar-panel maker, The Australian, TIM BOREHAM , July 18, 2011 AS the head of Australia’s only solar-panel maker, Silex Systems’ Michael Goldsworthy sticks to script and welcomes the pending carbon tax and accompanying billion-dollar renewable subsidy programs that will benefit companies such as Silex….. Continue reading
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/
Independent media reporting on Fukushima radiation fallout in USA
St. Louis raining Fukushima hot particles: Radiation 178 times normal (video)Examiner,21 Aug 11 Deborah DupreHeeding nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen’s call to monitor and share radiation data, a St. Louis citizen reporter has demonstrated with a Geiger counter on Saturday that background radiation in St. Louis Missouri was 178 times normal after the rainout according to ENEWS. Gundersen predicted that as Japan burns contaminated materials, radiation levels in the United States and Canada would escalate in rainouts for another year.
“St. Louis rain sample shows radiation dose on August 20 almost triple previous high reading,” ENEWS reported Sunday. Continue reading
Does your superannuation fund invest in uranium mining?
Disclosure would also allow fund members who oppose uranium mining, for example, to discover whether their retirement savings are invested in a miner with substantial uranium mining interests.
Portfolio details must be disclosed, SMH, John Collett, August 20, 2011 — Super funds will soon list their investments for all to see The Australian Securities and Investments Commission wants superannuation funds and fund managers to disclose the investments they hold. Disclosure among super funds and fund managers is patchy. Some will list the biggest 10 holdings in their disclosure documents and perhaps on their websites.
But investors are mostly left guessing on how their super is invested – the biggest investment most people will have alongside the family home. Continue reading
Australia to pay high price if it dumps the carbon tax
The Australia Institute also argues that it could take until 2018 for the Coalition’s direct-action policy to fully come into effect and begin to reduce emissions, if dumping the carbon tax is held back until 2016.
‘As the length of time around the uncertainty [on carbon pricing] grows, so does the cost,” the report says.
Dumping carbon tax ‘could take five years’, The Age, Tom Arup, August 22, 2011, IT COULD take a Tony Abbott-led Coalition government until 2016 to axe Labor’s carbon tax if it is forced to go to a double dissolution election, left-leaning think tank the Australia Institute claims.
In a discussion paper to be released today, the institute argues the Coalition would have to work through several years of parliamentary process to build a double-dissolution election trigger to dump the carbon tax via a joint sitting of Parliament and replace it with its direct-action climate change policy.
The institute also says the lengthy political fight would result in significant uncertainty for industry in making investment decisions, pushing up costs especially in the electricity sector. Continue reading
1250 km walk as Western Australians protest against uranium mining
WA uranium protest to cover 1250km, Narelle Towie , PerthNow , August 21, 2011 ANTI-URANIUM protesters will begin their 1250km march from Wiluna to Perth today in their fight to have mining of the ore banned.Walk Away From Uranium Mining protesters will travel through two proposed uranium mining sites – in Wiluna and Yeelirrie – before arriving in Perth nearly a month later on October 27
Since the Barnett Government formally overturned a ban on uranium mining in November 2008, there have been dozens of exploration applications submitted in WA….
Three proposals, including BHP’s Yeelirrie, Mega Uranium’s Lake Maitland and Toro Energy’s Wiluna Lake way project, are advanced enough to begin production within the next few years.
WA Senator Scott Ludlam, who will take part in the march, said WA should joining a growing list of countries around the world, including Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Portugal, Greece and Ireland, who were walking away from nuclear power.
“This is an extraordinary moment for our state and for the future. The nuclear industry is in decline around the world and public awareness of the dangers of uranium mining and nuclear power is growing,: Mr Ludlam said.
“This march is a powerful statement from Western Australians who do not want uranium mining in WA and who do not want their state to support the nuclear industry in any way.” http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/special-features/wa-uranium-protest-to-cover-1250km/story-e6frg19l-1226118950758
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 