Obama to Darwin – to do military and nuclear waste deals?
Darwin readies for Obama visit, 9 News, Xavier La Canna, 29 Oct 11 The Northern Territory is getting ready to throw down the welcome mat, after confirmation US President Barak Obama will visit Darwin next month…. Although details of Mr Obama’s itinerary are scarce, it appears unlikely he will have time to visit world famous heritage areas like Kakadu National Park or Uluru while in the territory.
Mr Obama will be in Darwin on November 17, the only Australian city he will visit apart from Canberra during his stop in Australia while en route to the East Asia Summit in Bali. In Darwin Mr Obama will meet Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Mr Henderson.
There has been speculation Mr Obama will use the visit to make an announcement relating to increasing the US military
presence in the Northern Territory. Australian Defence Minister Stephen Smith recently foreshadowed increasing the number of joint training exercises with America in Darwin……
Already the US and Australia jointly run the Pine Gap spy base near Alice Springs in the Northern Territory….
Donna Jackson, a senior member of the Larrakia people who are the traditional owners of the land Darwin is on, said the visit would probably be good for the city.
But Ms Jackson said she had concerns Mr Obama might use his visit as a chance to look over the city on behalf of big businesses in America who could ultimately spoil the local environment….. Following the Darwin visit the Prime Minister and President Obama will attend the East Asia Summit in Bali http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8366836/darwin-readies-for-obama-visit
Renewable energy future for Australia coming sooner than you think
Power providers energised for coming of a green age, The Age, October 29, 2011 Electricity companies are preparing to shift to a green future by investing in the industry of energy solutions, writes Paddy Manning. A SMARTER, greener future for energy use may be coming too slow for some, but it is coming nonetheless. Eventually our dirty old electricity grid may provide little more than back-up power, giving us plenty of scope to retire ageing coal-fired power stations.
Phil Craig, general manager of retail at Origin Energy, tells a pretty compelling story. ”We have a vision of the household of the future which has got our energy management in there, so [customers have] got complete visibility, it’s got solar panels on the roof, it’s got solar hot water, it’s got a fuel cell in the backyard – not that they’re viable yet, but in 10 years’ time they will be – and we’ve got an electric vehicle in the garage. You might become 80 per cent independent of the grid.
Fighter jets fly over, riot police, horses – over 3,000 police block Perth’s peaceful CHOGM protestors
Queen opens CHOGM as protesters go peacefully, PerthNow , October 28, 2011
- THE Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting has kicked off with a lavish opening ceremony in Perth, amid unprecedented security across the CBD…….
- Large police presence halts protest marchPerth’s CBD went into security lockdown for what is the largest meeting of world leaders Australia has ever hosted. Nonetheless, hundreds of protesters gathered in central Perth with plans to stage a sit-in near the summit venue.
CHOGM Action Network spokesman Alex Bainbridge said he understood that police would tolerate the sit-in and not try to remove protesters. But planned protests were carried out peacefully without incident. Several hundred protesters marching towards the venue of the Commonwealth leaders meeting in Perth were halted by police at a road block and told they could not go further.
Just after midday the protesters approached an intersection in the city centre where they planned to stage a sit-in but they were blocked beforehand with a fence and lines of riot police were waiting with hands crossed in front of them. A senior police officer told the halted marchers through a loud hailer that the road was closed and they could not advance further…..
Police officers on horseback and foot had preceded the march on Friday as a police helicopter hovered overhead. After a rally in Forrest Place protesters made their way along to central city shopping malls towards the Perth Exhibition and Convention Centre where the summit is taking place.
Protest groups included anti-nuclear, refugee rights, environmental and anti-corporate greed movements….. Police were swarming over central Perth with the main business district in lockdown for the official opening.
Reports estimate around half of the state’s 6000 officers are involved and about 800 extra police have been flown in from around Australia and New Zealand to assist in the security operation. F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets have also been flying over the city…. http://www.perthnow.com.au/perth-prepares-royal-welcome-for-the-queen/story-fn6mh6b5-1226179051663
How nuclear energy cannot reduce carbon in the atmosphere
Is Nuclear Energy a Fuel with a Future?, Huffington Post, Andy Mannle, : 10/28/11 “………the nuclear industry needs to do more than build a few plants a year to be a true low-carbon alternative to fossil fuels. A hard look at the science of reducing atmospheric carbon to 350ppm shows why.
To get the world off coal, which produces roughly half of the world’s power, would require 7-8 terawatts of energy. One nuclear power plant yields a gigawatt of power, meaning 8000 nuclear power plants would be needed to produce 8 terawatts. To do this by 2050, 200 plants would need to be built a year, which is roughly one every 1.5 days. Since nuclear plants only have a lifespan of 50 years, by the time the required amount is built, early plants would have to start being decommissioned. After that, new plants would need to keep being built at the same pace just to replace retiring ones.
So if the world goes nuclear, supplying half the power we need would require building a new plant every other day forever.
Even if this rate of growth were feasible, it is clearly unsustainable. Of course, no single strategy is going to wean us off coal in several decades. We will need a combination of carbon reduction strategies — what Princeton researchers Robert Socolow and Stephen Pacala call “stabilization wedges” that each reduce a billion tons a year for the next 50 years. The “wedges” include efficiency, renewables, carbon sequestration, reforestation, and replacing coal plants with natural gas. But even for nuclear to generate a single wedge would require tripling our current nuclear capacity.
The reality is global CO2 emissions are rising, not falling. And we can’t build enough nuclear alone to stop them. As such, nuclear’s benefits as a low-carbon alternative would only materialize in the context of a global war on carbon. Absent that, nuclear becomes just another low-carbon energy source competing on the open market with cleaner renewables and cheaper natural gas. Ironically, the current slow growth of nuclear and the possibility of an actual nuclear retreat after Fukushimacould mean an acceleration in our rising CO2 emissions, cautions the International Energy Agency…..
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-mannle/nuclear-energy-a-fuel-with_b_1032727.html
Britain’s Conservative Prime Minister praises Australia’s carbon tax
Carbon pricing is best way to go: David Cameron, THE AUSTRALIAN, BY:MATTHEW FRANKLIN, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT , October 29, 2011 BRITISH Prime Minister David Cameron has backed pricing carbon as an effective way of dealing with climate change, marginalising Tony Abbott’s ongoing rejection of Julia Gillard’s carbon tax.
Mr Cameron, who had previously written a letter of support to Ms Gillard over her policy, said in Perth last night that while it was up to individual nations to determine their own action on climate change, he believed in a market-linked mechanism.
“We have put a carbon floor price in through our budget and I think other countries are looking at this,” Mr Cameron said.
“If you want to get control of global emissions, if you want to deal with this issue, then the market is an effective way of doing that. It’s often not enough on its own. There are changes in rules and regulations you also need to make.”
Mr Cameron believed there were opportunities in the creation of green jobs stemming from pricing carbon…. Labor’s $23-a-tonne carbon tax will take effect from July 1 next year. The opposition has continued to run a strong campaign against the change and the Opposition Leader has promised an incoming Coalition government would scrap the levy. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/carbon-pricing-is-best-way-to-go-david-cameron/story-fnapmixa-1226180040326
Brisbane to get electric buses
Electric buses bound for Brisbane streets, Brisbane Times, Tony Moore, October 28, 2011, Brisbane is set to have its first fully electric bus, which can be fully charged in 10 minutes, within two years. brisbanetimes.com.au understands an official announcement will be made late next month and a prototype being built for Brisbane City Council is expected to be on the road within two years.
Brisbane-based firm Varley Electric Vehicles, based at Virginia, is in the design phase for the Brisbane electric bus project. Varley’s divisional manager for electric vehicles, John Bettini, and said both the council and the state government were involved in the project…. Mr Bettini said Varley was working with several multinational and Australian firms and believed a prototype would be ready early in 2012.
“We are developing a fast-charge electric bus which is capable of being charged within 10 minutes,” he said.
“We are in the design stage and the prototype will be built early next year.” Varley Electric Vehicles won a $250,000 state government grant in June to convert carbon-fuelled buses to electric…
Developments in electric cars
The Green Look for Electric Vehicle Charging Stations
ScienceDaily (Oct. 28, 2011) — The network of electric-vehicle (EV) charging stations in Germany is still relatively sparse, but their number is growing rapidly. The majority of roadside charging points take the form of steel-clad pillars. A group of researchers has set out to develop an alternative design based on environmentally compatible materials…..A spiritual approach to the problems of the planet
Perhaps some of these powerful big-wigs might begin to see that their constant regime of boardrooms, financial ledgers, competition and warring do not feed soul and spirit or nurture the Earth and all its inhabitants.
World leaders need to think like a planet, NationAl Catholic Reporter by Sharon Abercrombie on Oct. 28, 2011 Envision for a moment the healing that could wash over our suffering planet if the entrenched ruling establishment were to come together for a very special one-day gathering at a retreat center deep within the California redwoods….. This is what the Council of All Beings is about. Macy and John Seed created what they call a communal ritual in early 1985, during a weekend workshop for social and environmental activists in Australia. Continue reading
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