Malaysian MP disputes radiation opinion of Lynas’ Australian employee on rare earths
Fuziah belittles radiation expert’s analysis, Free Malaysia Today, K Pragalath, September 14, 2011 The Kuantan MP replies to criticisms by Lynas-hired Nick Tsurikov. PETALING JAYA: Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh today shot back at radiation expert Nick Tsurikov, who has disputed statements she made recently regarding the dangers posed by the rare earth project in Gebeng, near Kuantan.
She criticised his analysis as “shallow” and questioned his standing as an independent expert, noting that he was hired by Lynas Corp, the Australian mining company that is setting up the Gebeng operations……
She also said Tsurikov, who is based in Australia, was unable to understand the seriousness of the situation….
Fuziah quoted reports alleging that Lynas was using China Standards GB9133-88 as a benchmark.“I mentioned that there are no rare earth refineries in operation outside China at the moment. Thus we do not have a benchmark. Neither do we have a best practice in rare earth refining.”
Global wierding, green jobs, and the need for a carbon tax
….There is only one effective, sustainable way to produce ”green jobs”, and that is with a fixed, durable, long-term price signal that raises the price of dirty fuels and thereby creates sustained consumer demand for, and sustained private sector investment in, renewables.
Without a carbon tax or fuel tax or cap-and-trade system that makes renewable energies competitive with dirty fuels, while they achieve scale and move down the cost curve, green jobs will remain a hobby.
It’s time to get real about green policy, Thomas Friedman, The Age, September 15, 2011, EVERY time I listen to Texas Governor Rick Perry and Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann describe climate change as some fraud perpetrated by scientists trying to gin up money for research, I’m reminded of the line that actor Jack Nicholson delivers to the needy neighbour who knocks on his door in the film As Good As It Gets. ”Where do they teach you to talk like this?” asks Nicholson. ”Sell crazy someplace else. We’re all stocked up here.”
Thanks, Perry and Bachmann, but we really are all stocked up on crazy right now. I mean, the Texas Governor rejects the science of climate change while his own state burns after the worst droughts on record propelled wildfires to devour an area the size of Connecticut. As a statement by the Texas Forest Service said last week: ”No one on the face of this earth has ever fought fires in these extreme conditions.”
Remember the first rule of global warming. The way it unfolds is really ”global weirding”. The hots get hotter; the wets wetter; and the dries get drier. This is not a hoax. This is high school physics, Continue reading
Junk science on climate change, by USA politician
scientific leaders have a responsibility to expose the bunkum.
Stamp out anti-science in US politics New Scientist, 14 September 2011 by Paul Nurse It is time to reject political movements that turn their backs on science, says Nobel prizewinner and Royal Society president Paul NurseIF YOU respect science you will probably be disturbed by the following opinions……”On climate change: variations are “natural, cyclical environmental trends”. That “we can’t say with assurance that human activities cause weather changes” and that climate problems in Texas are best solved through “days of prayer for rain”
You would probably be even more disturbed to be told that these are the opinions expressed by potential Republican candidates for the US presidential nomination (see “Science rears its head in Republican debates“). It’s alarming that a country which leads the world in science – the home of Benjamin Franklin, Richard Feynman and Jim Watson – might be turning its back on science. How can this be happening? What can be done? Continue reading
South Australia: Labor and Liberal keep uranium mine information from the public
Last night, Labor and Liberal combined to defeat a Greens motion calling on the release of more information from the world’s richest resource company to justify BHPB’s preferred option to send Roxby ore to China for processing.
Labor & Liberal roll over on Roxby ‘China Option’, 15 Sept 11, South Australian Greens Parliamentary Leader Mark Parnell has accused the SA Labor Government and Liberal Opposition of abandoning domestic processing for the Olympic Dam expansion. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 