Secrecy on reports about the nomination of Muckaty Station as nuclear waste dump
The committee recommended in May 2010 that the bill be passed, acknowledging at the time that it did not have access to key documents and information
I find it a shock, as do many supporters of the Australian Labor Party, that coercive attempts to dump radioactive waste out in terra nullius did not end with the election of the Rudd government but have in fact been picked up and cut and pasted exactly where the former government left off. Our leaders may have changed, but our resources minister effectively has not. I continue to recall and remark that the government opened its first term with an apology and that, if this legislation is allowed to proceed, it will close this term owing another apology to Aboriginal Australians. I think the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee missed an important opportunity to right what will be seen, if we entrench it and lock it in, as a historical injustice that should not be allowed to stand.
Report and speech on the evidence provided by the NLC to the legal and constitutional affairs committee inquiry into Muckaty Bill Senator LUDLAM (Western Australia) 8 Feb 2012 ……..This matter is extremely important. A particular community in the Northern Territory has been targeted for a national radioactive waste dump in Australia. We have never had such a facility before. It has been very, very contentious for governments of all kinds, and it is something that has been extremely vexed—an issue that neither Labor nor the conservatives have ever been able to get a grip on.
In this instance, the site has been targeted for a particular cattle station about 120 kilometres north of Tennant Creek, and there is a serious dispute over whether the land should have been nominated from the Northern Land Council to the federal government. It is a site that is explicitly named and targeted in the legislation that is before this chamber. It is not an abstract matter. This is a site that has actually been identified—we had this confirmed again yesterday—as the only site that was in consideration by the federal government. It was named and locked in in the legislation before the parliament, yet the people of that region have taken a very serious dispute to the Federal Court over whether that land should have been forwarded in the first place.
It was up to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee in examining the bill—which it did with extremely truncated and narrow terms of reference the year before last—to decide whether or not this bill should proceed. It did decide, in the absence of quite a number of very important documents that the Northern Land Council refused to disclose to the committee when they gave evidence, to recommend that the bill be proceeded with. At the time my office forwarded quite a detailed dissenting report saying that, in fact, the committee had not done its job; even within its narrow terms of reference, it simply had not done its job.
It had not sought the requisite information to allow it to properly fulfil its function, and it has done so again. Continue reading
Melting of sea ice causing extremely cold winds to Europe
In particular, the loss of Arctic sea ice could be influencing the development of high-pressure weather systems over northern Russia, which bring very cold winds from the Arctic and Siberia to Western Europe and the British Isles, the scientists believe.
Is Climate Change Bringing the Arctic to Europe? The Energy Collective, Joseph Romm, February 7, 2012 Less Summer Arctic Sea Ice Cover May Mean Some Colder, Snowier Winters in Central Europe [For Now]
[T]he probability of cold winters with much snow in Central Europe rises when the Arctic is covered by less sea ice in summer. Scientists of the Research Unit Potsdam of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association have decrypted a mechanism in which a shrinking summertime sea ice cover changes the air pressure zones in the Arctic atmosphere and impacts our European winter weather. These results of a global climate analysis were recently published in a study in the scientific journal Tellus A.
That’s the news release for yet another new study examining what will inevitably be the huge implications for extreme weather from the massive amount of heat released by the declining Arctic sea ice cover. Arctic sea ice in September 2007 reached its lowest extent on record, approximately 40% lower than when satellite records began in 1979. Sea ice loss in 2011 was virtually tied with the ice loss in 2007, despite weather conditions that were not as unusual in the Arctic. ”Such a large area of open water is bound to cause significant impacts on weather patterns, due to the huge amount of heat and moisture that escapes from the exposed ocean into the atmosphere over a multi-month period following the summer melt.” Continue reading
Australian government opens series of energy efficiency programs
New Australian government energy efficiency programs opened Eco Business, February 9th, 2012 By : Energy Matters The Gillard Government has just announced the opening of series of energy efficiency initiatives and assistance targeted towards business, local government, households and communities.
A joint statement from Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Greg Combet, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government Simon Crean; and Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Mark Dreyfus states these programs will make it easier for regional communities and smaller councils to access assistance and support in the transition to a low carbon future.
The programs include:
Community Energy Efficiency Program – $200 million
To assist local government, not-for-profit and community organisations to undertake energy efficiency upgrades to community infrastructure, including council buildings, stadiums, education facilities, town halls and nursing homes.
While funding for wind and solar power systems are not considered eligible for this program, solar hot water systems are eligible as they are not classified as renewable energy generation systems.
Low Income Energy Efficiency Program – $100 million
To support groups of service providers to demonstrate smarter energy use in low income households across Australia.
Purchase and installation of renewable energy generation systems, such as solar photovoltaic, micro-hydro, wind turbine and biomass generation systems are not eligible, but solar hot water is as it is not classed as a generation system.
Energy Efficiency Information Grants program – $40 million
To support small and medium sized businesses and community groups by providing information and advice to make smarter energy choices.
“The programs will enable all Australians regardless of where they live or how much they earn to harness the opportunities of a low carbon future. They will be delivered in partnership with business, councils and community groups,” reads part of the statement.
Applications open on February 13 and the guidelines for each of these programs are now available via the links above. http://www.eco-business.com/news/new-australian-government-energy-efficiency-programs-opened/
China’s Anhui province demands stoppage of nuclear plant in earthquake zone
Chinese County Protests Nuclear Plant Construction, VOA, February 9th, 2012 Chinese state media say authorities in eastern China are demanding construction of a local nuclear-power plant be stopped permanently because residents in the earthquake-prone region are at risk.
The state-run Global Times newspaper says a campaign against the plant was launched in the Anhui provincial county of Wangjiang. The paper says the controversy had drawn nationwide attention after a report in November questioning the plant’s safety was posted last week on the Internet.
The newspaper quotes critic and activist Sun Bin as saying “we all believe the plant is a time bomb.” The paper said the November critique pointed out that the facility – located in an adjacent county – sits on a seismic fault zone “with frequent occurrences of earthquakes.” The November report also said fault-zone data was not mentioned in earlier environmental impact reports. Plant construction was suspended for further impact studies last year, after Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster…….. http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2012/02/09/chinese-county-protests-nuclear-plant-construction/
Referenda for Japanese cities, with 5 million signatures on anti nuclear petition?
Japanese Anti-Nuclear Campaign Says It Has 5 Million Petition Signatures, VOA, 08 February 2012 Steve Herman | Tokyo A citizen’s group in Japan says it has collectedfive million signatures – halfway to its goal – on a petition calling on the government to permanently shut down all nuclear power plants in the country.
But amid traditional apathy among Japanese toward political movements and longstanding strong ties between power companies and lawmakers in a resource-poor country, anti-nuclear
campaigners are acknowledging an uphill struggle….
Petitioners in Tokyo and Osaka separately say they have collected enough signatures
for referenda in Japan’s two largest cities. But it is unclear if those campaigns will clear all the legal hurdles to get on the ballot. Continue reading
Waubra and Landscape Guardians cosy with mining investment company
Wind farms, the Waubra Foundation and a post-office box Crikey, by Simon Chapman, 10 Feb 2012 On January 24 I was interviewed in prime time by ABC 702’s breakfast radio host Adam Spencer about wind farms and health. During the interview, I noted that two prominent anti-wind farm groups, the Waubra Foundation and the Australian Landscape Guardians, shared a post-office box with a mining investment company.
The president of the Australian Landscape Guardians Inc, Randall Bell, subsequently […] http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/02/09/wind-farms-and-mining-investment-companies-australia/
UV radiation – a cancer causer just like ionising radiation
Ultraviolet radiation: the entire spectrum of ultraviolet radiation has some of the biological features of ionizing radiation, in doing far more damage to many molecules in biological systems than is accounted for by simple heating effects (an example is sunburn).
Don’t let Clare’s death be in vain, by:Jerril Rechter , Herald Sun, February 10, 2012 HARMFUL UV rays are a fact of life in a sun-drenched country, but solariums are a choice. They are dangerous, unnecessary, outdated and irrefutably linked to cancer. They must be banned in Victoria and nationally, not just in NSW.
Before her death in 2007, Clare Oliver, 26, became a household name. She told her tragic story of skin cancer, and of a life lost far too early, to warn young women about the consequences of solariums.
She made it clear that the pursuit of attractiveness was never worth losing your life over. It has been estimated that each year in Victoria, 51 new melanomas, seven deaths and 294 new cases of deadly squamous cell carcinoma are attributed to solarium use.
Five years after Clare’s death, 475 tanning beds still operate in Victoria, almost twice as many as the 254 in NSW. Clare’s family, elated at the news that NSW will ban them for good in 2014, are eager to see the day this announcement is made in Victoria…. In 2008, a chain of popular Melbourne tanning salons was found guilty by the Federal Court of Australia for posting not one, but eight misleading claims on its website that tanning was a safe activity.
There is no safe level of solarium use. Solariums emit levels of UV radiation up to three times as strong as the midday summer sun. A recent study found that 15 per cent of tanning beds even exceeded this level, and some emitted up to six times more UVA than midday summer sun.
Using a sun bed before you are 35 boosts your risk of melanoma by 75 per cent. And the more you use them the greater your risk increases, at any age.An estimated one in six melanomas in young Australians aged 18-29 could be prevented if solariums were shut down….. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/dont-let-clares-death-be-in-vain/story-e6frfhqf-1226267190176
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 