BHP will have a hard time depicting anti uranium protestors as useless bludgers
many of the group.. had taken leave without pay to travel to Roxby Downs to spread their message.
“There are other alternatives (to uranium for power) and I think an event like this can bring that more into discussion.”
We’re no bludgers, say mine protesters, Ben Hyde, The Advertiser July 20, 2012 THEY came from interstate and even overseas to protest against uranium mining, and some could be camped on the doorstep of BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam mine for another two weeks. The group of Lizard’s Revenge protesters, which peaked at about 400 activists last weekend, were an eclectic bunch, united in their anti-nuclear stance. Continue reading
Australia’s mental health problem about wind farms
There are two main anti-wind farm groups in Australia busily fomenting anxiety and opposition. One is the Waubra Foundation, a group of mainly wealthy individuals, none of whom live in or near the town of Waubra, near Ballarat. Several of them, NIMBY style, have opposed turbines near their own properties elsewhere. They are led by an unregistered doctor, Sarah Laurie, and a wealthy mining investor, Peter Mitchell who also has connections to the Landscape Guardians. Despite their name, the Guardians have never attempted to guard our landscape from over-zealous residential developers, open cut coal or coal seam gas mining. They only target wind farm developments. All three – Waubra, the Guardians and Mitchell’s mining investment company share a South Melbourne post office box.
Wind turbine syndrome: a classic ‘communicated’ disease , by Simon Chapman https://theconversation.edu.au/wind-turbine-syndrome-a-classic-communicated-disease-8318?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest+from+The+Conversation+for+20+July+2012&utm_content=Latest+from+The+Conversation+for+20+July+2012+CID_be7f8aff1000afd17cabaf558b629431&utm_source=campaign_monitor&utm_term=Simon+Chapman+investigates At the beginning of this year I started collecting examples of health problems some people were attributing to wind turbine exposure. I had noticed a growing number of such claims on the internet and was curious about how many I could find. Within an hour or two I had found nearly 50 and today the number has grown to an astonishing 155.
I have worked in public health on three continents since the mid 1970s. In all this time, I have never encountered anything in the history of disease that is said to cause even a fraction of the list of problems I have collected.
The list of 155 problems includes “deaths, many deaths”, none of which have ever been brought to the attention of a coroner. It includes several types of cancer, and both losing weight and gaining weight. You name it. Haemorrhoids have not yet been named, but nothing would surprise me. Continue reading
Cancer danger for more than one third of Fukushima’s children
doctors are outraged that the results are not being sufficiently publicized.
The World Health Organization warns that young people are particularly prone to radiation poisoning in the thyroid gland. Infants face the direst consequences, as their cells divide at a higher rate.
Children who were under 18 when the nuclear disaster struck last year will be subject to continuous thyroid examinations every two years until they reach 20 years of age, and after that, every five years for the rest of their lives.
Over a third of Fukushima children at risk of developing cancer http://www.rt.com/news/fukushima-children-radiation-exposure-abnormalities-632/ 20 July, 2012,Over a third of children in Japan’s Fukushima region could be prone to cancer if medics don’t apply more effort in treating their unusually overgrown thyroid glands and commit to international health aid and consultations, according to a new report.
The shocking new report shows that nearly 36 per cent of children in the nuclear disaster-affected Fukushima Prefecture have abnormal thyroid growths. This is an extremely large number of abnormalities – some of which, experts say, pose a risk of becoming cancerous.
After examining more than 38,000 children from the area, medics found that more than 13,000 have cysts or nodules as large as 5 millimeters on their thyroids, the Sixth Report of Fukushima Prefecture Health Management Survey states.
In comparison, a 2001 analysis by the Japan Thyroid Association found that fully zero per cent of children in the city of Nagasaki, which suffered a nuclear attack in August of 1945, had nodules, and only 0.8 per cent had cysts on their thyroids, reports the Telegraph.
Radiation enters the body and is distributed through soft tissue, especially in muscle, and then accumulates in the thyroid. It is this accumulation that can potentially lead to cancer. Continue reading
Radiation danger of forest fires near Chernobyl
Chernobyl’s radioactive trees and the forest fire risk BBC News 7 July. (this article also describes the heroism of Ukraine’s firefighters.) By Patrick Evans Chernobyl, Ukraine Much of the 30km exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear plant is pine forest, and some of it so badly contaminated that a forest fire could create a devastating radioactive smoke cloud.
Australian Youth Climate Coalition’s Anna Rose speaking on Climate Change
Author urges climate change support, Examiner. 20 Jul, 2012 AUTHOR and environmentalist Anna Rose is in Tasmania urging the community to rebuild public support for strong action on climate change.
The 29-year-old co-founder of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and author of Madlands: A Journey to Change the Mind of a Climate Sceptic will speak at a public forum on climate change and Australia’s clean energy future in Launceston on Monday night.
http://www.examiner.com.au/news/local/news/environment/author-urges-climate-change-support/2631081.aspx
At last, a comprehensive and rational assessment of Australia’s climate policy
Little by little: the benefits of Australian climate policy, The Conversation, Roger Jones, 20 July “…..For climate, any action to permanently reduce greenhouse gas emissions in one region spreads the benefits across the globe. A global effort requires many good neighbours amongst countries who may not know each other well or trust each other very much.
Australia’s efforts to do its bit as a good neighbour are being opposed by an increasingly shrill and irrational chorus that includes politicians, industry figures, academics and a sizeable proportion of Australia’s print media….. Is Australia going it alone? No. Limited trading or tax schemes exist in the US, Canada, the EU, and Japan, and are soon to start up in regions of China, India, and South Korea. The rest of the world will learn from us, as we have learned from the Europeans to keep a tight limit on emissions permits. Good carbon accounting was largely developed in Australia.
In the same way that we have exported Landcare for good environmental management and sports science for running marathons, we can export our know-how in managing the climate. Naked self-interest and ignorance are the two biggest barriers to achieving this. http://theconversation.edu.au/little-by-little-the-benefits-of-australian-climate-policy-8259
1 This month
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