Australian scientists find that human activity has caused melanoma in fish
A whopping 15% of the fish surveyed had melanoma. … While 15% sounds high, Sweet and his colleagues believe it’s only a minimum estimate. “Once the cancer spreads further you would expect the fish to become quite sick, becoming less active and possibly feeding less, hence less likely to be caught. This suggests the actual percentage affected by the cancer is likely to be higher than observed in this study.”….
Fish with Melanoma – Our Enduring Environmental Legacy Scientific American. By Christie Wilcox | August 1, 2012 | We’ve all heard the horror stories. Melanoma is one of the most dangerous kinds of skin cancer, killing around 50,000 people worldwide every year. If caught early enough, it can be cured, but once it invades past the skin, it’s deadly. On the advice of doctors, we try to protect ourselves, donning floppy hats and coat upon coat of SPF 50 sunblock. We pick over our bodies in the mirror regularly, looking for dark, irregularly-shaped spots. . The recent rise in the incidence of skin cancer, though, is our own fault.
It is the result of our environmental hubris, a combination of a chemically-depleted ozone layer and our pathological obsession with a tanned physical appearance. Now, we’re becoming increasingly aware that our choices don’t just impact our own species. The rest of life has to deal with our poor decisions, and studies are just now determining the wide-ranging consequences of our actions.
Unable to slather on sunscreen, the creatures on our planet are much more limited in their ability to deal with the sun’s radiation…… Continue reading
Australia’s energy assessment includes nuclear power, IGNORES DECOMMISSIONING COSTS
BREE says the cost of building a new nuclear facility 2012 in Australia would be less than A$100/MWh, rising to $126/MWh in 2050. But BREE says it did not factor in decommissioning costs.
Australia sees PV and wind as cheapest sources by 2030 
http://www.rechargenews.com/business_area/finance/article319046.ece1 August 12, By 2030, solar PV and onshore wind farms are expected to provide some of the lowest-cost alternatives to coal and gas-fired power stations, with PV likely to be considerably cheaper than all 
other energy forms by 2050, Australia’s chief energy forecasting body says.
In The Australian Energy Technology Assessment (AETA), the Australia’s energy assessment compares the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) – that is the price at which electricity must be produced from a specific source to break even – of 40 different generation technologies.
It finds the costs of PV have dropped sharply in the past two to three years as a result of a rapid increase in global production of solar modules. Continue reading
Australia’s Labor government failed to make the case for climate action
The reducing of the climate policy debate to a battle over a tax helped sceptics build doubt about the science and the case for carbon pricing. This week’s news might have had a bigger impact had Labor not squandered the advantage it once had on climate policy
Losing sight of climate shift in battle over tax, The Age, August 1, 2012 Labor’s narrow focus lost support for carbon pricing. AUSTRALIA and the US are isolated strongholds of scepticism about global warming. It shows in debates about whether recorded temperature rises are real, never mind the extent to which human activities drive such change.
Now a leading US researcher funded by sceptics to challenge climate science has been ”converted”. Yet so poorly has
the Gillard government prosecuted the case for its carbon tax that it may not benefit from the news.
US physicist Richard Muller commanded respect among sceptics three years ago for identifying issues with climate research that ”threw doubt on the very existence of global warming”. Backers of his research at the University of California included oil and gas billionaires Charles and David Koch, who believe warming is a hoax and provided a quarter of the Berkeley project’s funding. Last November, however, Professor Muller announced that rigorous analysis of worldwide data by his dozen researchers had forced him to conclude: ”Global warming is real.”
Now he has shed other doubts. The evidence convinced him ”prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct”: average land temperature rose 1.4 degrees over the past 250 years and 60 per cent of the rise was in the past 50. Critically, ”humans are almost entirely the cause”…… Continue reading
Australia’s uranium to Arab world- (take back radioactive wastes later?)
Such a stable part of the world – the Middle East ? Australia to take back the radioactive wastes – LATER? – C.M
When Abu Dhabi outlined its plans to build the Arab world’s first nuclear power plant in 2008, it had hoped that some supplier nations would be willing to take back the waste.
Australia to supply UAE nuclear fuel but won’t take radioactive waste, The National April Yee Aug 1, 2012 ABU DHABI // Australia has opened the door to supplying the UAE with nuclear fuel but has ruled out taking back the radioactive waste it generates.
“The UAE meets all the tests, and the tests are rigorous and extensive and we’re happy to make a big commitment to providing them with energy security,” the Australian foreign minister Bob Carr said yesterday.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Abdullah, signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with Mr Carr last night allowing for such nuclear trade as Abu Dhabi prepares to award a major contract for 15 years’ worth of uranium. But fuel leasing, in which the supplier takes back the spent fuel, is off the cards for now in Australia, which also bans nuclear plants at home. Continue reading
Northern Territory’s Daly River community helped to develop leadership in solar energy
Solar research will help wean remote NT communities off diesel power http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201207/s3557194.htm By Caddie Brain , 31/07/2012 The Australian Solar Institute is investing $500,000 to reduce the reliance of remote communities in the Northern Territory on diesel fuel.
In partnership with Power and Water Corporation and Charles Darwin University, the funding will used to write a guidebook on the best ways to increase solar uptake, and will use the Daly River community near Darwin as a case study.
Executive director of the Australian Solar Institute, Mark Twidell, says it’s all about reducing the costs of generating power.
“It’s getting to the point, or some might argue that it’s already past the point, where solar electricity is lower cost than diesel
electricity over the lifetime of the site,” he said.
“But you can only truly capture that value of lower cost solar when you know how to operate it effectively. “So this research will really help the Territory to lead both Australia and the region.”
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 