Campaign for an Iraq War Inquiry – Australia must prevent prevent another undemocratic venture into war
now, 10 years later, we need to ask ourselves how the Australian government was able to ignore the public expression of outrage about its intentions. The key lesson we must learn is to ensure that Australian governments can never again commit our forces on the decision of a leader in the face of opposition from millions of Australian citizens, without even our Parliament being consulted.
For democracy’s sake, let’s talk about our war in Iraq http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/for-democracys-sake-lets-talk-about-our-war-in-iraq-20130213-2ed6y.html#ixzz2Kw2oP4iF February 14, 2013 Sue Wareham
An inquiry would help us avoid repeating mistakes made 10 years ago. The largest anti-war demonstrations in Australian history began 10 years ago today – February 14, 2003.
Millions of people protested worldwide, in about 800 cities – including in Australia, Britain, Italy, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, the United States, Canada, South Africa, Syria, India, Russia, South Korea, Japan, and even McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Continue reading
Tony Abbott regurgitates USA’s Tea Party’s words, on climate change
A bill on a carbon price is to be introduced into the US Senate as early as today (US time) by independentSenator Bernie Sanders and Democrat Barbara Boxer. Details are scant, but it seems likely to be a form of carbon tax that would impose a “fee on carbon pollution emissions” and fund “historic investments in energy efficiency and sustainable energy technologies such as wind, solar, geothermal and biomass”. It would provide rebates to consumers to offset any efforts by oil, coal or gas companies to raise prices.
Sounds a lot like Australia’s scheme.
Obama’s climate push leaves Abbott out in the cold, REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson 14 February 2013 Here’s a statistic that Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, the former trainee Catholic seminarian who insists that no other nation is pricing carbon, might find interesting. The number of people living in countries with carbon taxes or emission trading schemes will rise to about one billion by the end of the year. There are almost as many of them in the world as there are Catholics.
Abbott may wish this fact out of existence, but if US President Barack Obama has his way — as announced in his State of the Union (SOTU) address yesterday – and the world’s biggest economy introduces a market-based system to limit carbon emissions, that global carbon headcount would jump by 300 million or so by the end of 2014.
If China goes ahead with its pilot carbon schemes in a bunch of provinces and cities, and prepares for a wider scheme, that would add another 1.4 billion. Abbott may find himself taking Australian voters to a double dissolution election — where he would seek to win what would would effectively be a referendum on climate action — by pretending the world is not acting on climate change. To paraphrase and lightly censor a remark made by Climate Change Minister Greg Combet yesterday, it’s a load of bollocks.
So what did Obama say yesterday?
“I urge this Congress to get together, pursue a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change, like the one John McCain and Joe Lieberman worked on together a few years ago. But if Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will. I will direct my Cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy.”
Obama was expected to focus on climate change policies in SOTU, after making it a central point of his inauguration address, but the fact that he so specifically championed cap-and-trade has taken many by surprise…….. Continue reading
Obama’s commitment to climate change action reaffirmed
Obama reaffirms support for renewable energy, PVTECH, By Felicity Carus – 13 February 2013, The president used his state of the union speech to underline his commitment to renewable energy President Barack Obama last night restated a renewed commitment to clean energy and pledged to return manufacturing jobs to the US in his state of the union address.
America was “finally poised to control our own energy future” and had begun to turn a corner in competing for clean energy capacity with China, he said.
“Last year, wind energy added nearly half of all new power capacity in America. So let’s generate even more. Solar energy gets cheaper by the year – so let’s drive costs down even further. As long as countries like China keep going all-in on clean energy, so must we.”….. Echoing his passionate comments on climate change in his inaugural address last month, the president also said that more needed to be done to tackle global warming “for the sake of our children and our future”. He added that if Congress did not enact “a market-based solution to climate change”, he would.
“I will direct my Cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy.”
Clean energy business groups welcomed the president’s comments last night…… http://www.pv-tech.org/news/obama_reaffirms_support_for_renewable_energy
Western Australia’s elections 3 weeks away – vote nuclear-free!
3 weeks till the Western Australian elections!!! www.votenuclearfreewa.org
WA is at a crossroads. This election we are faced with an important decision, one with implications that will last much longer than any politician’s promise.
Right now WA has no uranium mines, but there are 45 uranium exploration projects, 5 mining applications and one project with some but not all of its required approvals – Toro Energy’s proposed Wiluna uranium mine.
This election you can make a difference. You can vote for a nuclear free future before we get stuck with an unwanted, uneconomic and unnecessary uranium mine.
Take action now and tell our politicians that WA’s future is renewable not radioactive.
Tiny cold climate Belgium is beating Australia to solar energy
Belgium Powers Ahead With Solar http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3590 14 Feb 13, It may not be the sunniest of nations; but Belgium is currently well ahead of Australia when it comes to PV solar power capacity per capita. According to Belgian renewable energy association APERe, the country now boasts 2600 MW capacity of installed solar panels – enough to provide 14% of the country’s household consumption or 2.8% of its total 80 TWh annual electricity consumption.
Belgium has a population of just 11 million, yet its total solar power capacity is comparable to that of Australia; which has a population of around 23 million. Continue reading
Energy 2029 – an initiative of Western Australia’s Greens, led by Sen Scott Ludlam
WA Greens Launch Energy 2029 http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3592, 14 Feb 13, Western Australia’s Greens say its Energy 2029 study offers credible scenarios for meeting the state’s south-west grid electricity demand through clean technologies and energy efficiency strategies that already exist.
The solar based scenario focuses on large-scale solar thermal facilities that provide the majority of dispatchable electricity, with balance of demand supplied by large-scale wind farms, solar PV and a smaller number of biomass, wave and geothermal generators.
In the event of a number of cloudy days and calm conditions, backup electricity would be provided by biomass ‘co-firing’ at the solar plants, pumped hydro storage and a small number of mid-tier biomass plants.
The Greens say the overall cost of a planned transition to renewable energy is similar to the cost of continuing with a ‘business as usual’ approach as while the initial costs are higher for renewables, they become more competitive over time as future fuel costs are non-existent, except for the biomass backup.
“The debacle of the refurbishment of the obsolete Muja coal-fired power station demonstrates the underlying cost of business as usual, with Western Australians asked to spend a quarter of a billion dollars to upgrade a highly polluting coal fired power station,” states the study summary.
“… the only barrier to a massive increase in clean energy here in Western Australia, is political inertia.”
The Energy 2029 initiative has been led by Senator Scott Ludlam.
“This study is a project that we should not have had to undertake,” he states in the executive summary. “Perhaps people who come across this document deeper into the age of climate change will shake their heads at the degree to which we have to contend with the monetary costs of the transition.”
With regard to nuclear options, “There is no place in this study for the obsolete failures of the nuclear industry.”
The full Energy 2029 report can be viewed here (PDF).
Fukushima: 70,000 US service personnel exposed to radiation – many are ill
70,000 US Service Personnel Exposed To Radiation: Operation Tomodachi http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=kjuWYA4nQko#t=2205s
Navy Sailors After Fukushima: They’ve got leukemia, testicular cancer, growths… They’ve had surgery to remove brain lesions and lost sight in eye (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/navy-sailors-after-311-theyve-leukemia-testicular-cancer-age-21-growths-theyve-surgery-remove-brain-legions-lost-sight-eye-video
February 11th, 2013
Title: 70,000 US Service Personnel Exposed To Radiation: Operation Tomodachi 3/11
Source: Nuked Radio with RadChick
Date Published: Feb 9, 2013
Attorney Paul C. Garner, representing U.S. service members who were in Japan after 3/11: They’ve got leukemia, they have growths, they’re undergoing surgery to remove lesions in their brains, a couple of them have had them and have lost the sight in their eye.
One guy has testicular cancer he was aboard the Reagan, he’s 21, he had one of his testicles removed already.
You know what their talking points are, the Tepco people and those in power? It’s all low-level radiation, nothing to worry about. It’s too little to worry about. […] If they get away with this then what did we fight Watergate for?
Watch the program here
AUDIO: the plight of US Navy personnel exposed to Fukushima radiation
AUDIO “I’ve got people who are bleeding from their behinds, who have sores all over their bodies” -Attorney for U.S. Navy sailors exposed to Fukushima radiation http://enenews.com/ive-people-bleeding-behinds-sores-all-bodies-attorney-navy-sailors-exposed-fukushima-radiation
February 12th, 2013 a
Title: 70,000 US Service Personnel Exposed To Radiation: Operation Tomodachi 3/11
Source: Nuked Radio with RadChick
Date Published: Feb 9, 2013
Attorney Paul C. Garner, representing U.S. service members who were in Japan after 3/11: Kim Geiseking who was on the Reagan, and she was pregnant at the time and didn’t know it.
Her fetus, her baby is now a couple of years old and doesn’t speak.
I’m not an expert, but experts say the fetus takes up most of the radiation, more than the mother does.
Then I’ve got people who are bleeding from their behinds, who have sores all over their bodies.
More from the U.S. service members:
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Navy Sailors After Fukushima: They’ve got leukemia, testicular cancer, growths… They’ve had surgery to remove brain lesions and lost sight in eye (VIDEO)
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Report: Many U.S. servicemembers’ kids in Japan developed medical issues after 3/11 — “My son went on a vomiting fit of about 3 months… 15-20 times a day” (VIDEO)
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Attorney to Tepco: Please help us, we have troops who are dying, need medical care after 3/11 — Bone marrow transplant at NIH — Another bleeding incessantly (AUDIO)
Australian Conservation Foundation condemns North Korea’s nuclear weapons test
Dave Sweeney, 14 Feb 13, ACF strongly and unequivocally condemns the recent North Korean (Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea) nuclear weapons test.
Nuclear weapons do not increase security – they are indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction that erode regional confidence and security and have no place or justification.
The DPRK should immediately desist from all such actions and renounce the development, deployment and threatened use of nuclear weapons.
The recent nuclear test shows the blurred line between the civil and military applications of nuclear technology and is a further reminder of the need for caution and restraint in all things nuclear.
The test also has clear policy implications and particular relevance for Australia as we currently supply uranium to all five declared nuclear weapon states (USA, Britain, France, China and Russia) and are actively seeking to add nuclear armed India to this list.
Directly or indirectly fuelling nuclear risk and tension is not in the interests of Australia, our region or the world.
The DPRK’s action highlights the need for all states to move away from nuclear weapons – immediately and without reservation.
ACF will be directly communicating these concerns and this message to the DPRK authorities and increasing our efforts to work for a future free of all forms of nuclear threat.
Aboriginal people need a Sovereign Treaty not an Act of Recognition
Michael Anderson, 14 Feb 13, Sovereign Union serves the Crown with formal objection to the Act of Recognition
Aboriginal Sovereign Union diplomat Graham Merritt, speaking today from Parliament House Canberra said:
“Today is an historic moment, when on behalf of the Sovereign Union I am serving the Crown via the Governor
General Quentin Bryce and the Commonwealth Government of Australia with our formal objection to the Act of
Recognition. “
“This Act of Recognition is a sleight of hand, as the Crown and Government continue to bypass proper recognition of our continuing Sovereignty. The Commonwealth Government is using the reform process to attempt to bring Sovereign Aboriginal Nations and Peoples into the Constitution of a foreign illegal occupying force.”
“Now that the Crown and Commonwealth Government have the Sovereign Union’s written objections they cannot claim ignorance of the significance of our Sovereign position, nor do they have the free, prior and informed consent of Aboriginal Nations and Peoples to usurp our sovereignty.”
“Even more insulting to me as a member of the Stolen Generations is that the Federal Government is doing this on the fifth anniversary of the Apology. Since the Apology the Commonwealth Government has further stripped back our human rights. Now they want to use the Act of Recognition to achieve the legislative equivalent of Constitutional Reform, usurping our Sovereignty in a way that attempts to undermine our inalienable connection to country and our true ownership of the Land and Waterways that are so significant to us: the rocks, the hills, the rivers that will always be a part of our culture and traditions.
Sovereignty is the most important issue today in this country they now call Australia. The Gillard Government may be educated but we as an Aboriginal Sovereign peoples are smarter and are here to stay. Our proposed solution is the negotiation of Sovereign Treaties, or other instruments under international supervision such as a Peace Accord.
Timing: Presenting to Senator Rachel Siewert at 2pm, Parliament House, Canberra. Meet in Parliament House foyer at 1.45pm followed by a presentation to the Governor-General at Government House, Yarralumla
Solar pholtovoltaic energy plant planned for Kalgoorlie, Western Australia
Investec plans 50MW solar PV plant near Kalgoorlie, REneweconomy By Giles Parkinson 13 February 2013 Global banking and asset management group Investec is working on a proposal to build a 50MW solar PV power plant near Kalgoorlie, in what is likely to be the first solar plant of its size in Australia.
Investec is hopeful of sealing land tenure at Mungari, about 26kms from Kalgoorlie, in the next month or so, and then will go to market to seek a power purchase agreement and lock in project finance. Construction on the project could begin next year.
The Mungari project is one of two currently being studied by Investec in WA – the other being the Chapman solar PV project near Geraldton, which was originally billed as a solar hybrid but may emerge as a solar PV only project.
WA is emerging as one potentially of the hottest regions for the utility scale solar industry, thanks to its excellent solar resources and relatively high electricity prices.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance last week said that solar PV plants in WA would have an estimated levellised cost of energy of around $157/MWh, compared to more than $190/MWh for new coal-fired generation in the state, where the cost of coal is expensive. BNEF expects the LCOE of solar PV to fall below $100/MWh by 2020.
Despite this, and helping fund the country’s first utility scale solar plant, a 10MW facility near Geraldton, the conservative state government is focused on new coal-fired generators, and is currently restoring its ageing Muja coal fired generator near Collie (and facing a major cost blow-out).Investec project manager Lynne Lagan said Kalgoorlie made sense because of its excellent solar resources and its location at the edge of the South-West Interconnected System – the grid that services the south west corner of the state.
Lagan said there was a single 220kW line going to Kalgoorlie, so a limited amount of generation could be brought in. “It makes sense to put some generation in this part of the network,” she told RenewEconomyby phone from Kalgoorlie on Tuesday.
“That’s why chosen this location. We been working on project for 18 months on land tenure and we are now looking to finalise those arrangements.”
Lagan said Investec’s numbers on the cost of the solar plant were about the same as Bloomberg New Energy Finance. And she noted there was a huge amount of interest from miners, many who operate on remote locations but are forced to truck in gas or diesel at horrendous costs – often at around 400/MWh or even more. Building this plant could open up further opportunities.
“This sort of project makes sense regardless of whether it considered as a “renewables” project,” she said. “There is a lot of expensive diesel generation here and we are having discussions with some of mining operations. They just want power that makes sense at a sensible price.”……
City of Kalgoorlie Boulder CEO Don Burnett told ABC radio that the region was a perfect and secure location for a large scale solar station because of the guaranteed sunshine.
“It’s a great location for a solar proposal and the benefits to the city and the region would be immense, but also it’s a great opportunity for the state and federal governments to be involved in innovation in sustainable energy.” http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/investec-plans-50mw-solar-pv-plant-near-kalgoorlie-22039
University of Newcastle linked with coal industry – but it’s time for the Hunter Valley to go renewable energy
The Greens understand the challenges ahead and have acted responsibly
in negotiating a $10billion clean energy investment fund. This is the
closest we have in Australia to a sovereign wealth fund, to use some
of the considerable wealth we have generated now and invest it in the
future of our children and our communities.
The Hunter has long been a hub of renewable energy innovation and
entrepreneurship. A transition to a clean, renewable energy economy
promises to revitalise Australian manufacturing and create thousands
of new jobs in many rural and regional communities, including the
Hunter’s coal communities.
But we need to shift subsidies away from fossil fuels and towards
renewables if we are to do this.
The writers of Monday’s opinion piece were obviously not aware the
University of Newcastle had commercial links with coalmining.
Renewable energy Hunter’s best future
http://www.theherald.com.au/story/1296245/opinion-renewable-energy-hunters-best-future/?cs=308
By CATE FAEHRMANN, 14 Feb 13, PEOPLE are rightly sick and tired of the childish
mud-slinging that now plagues Australian politics. So how about a bit
of honesty and even some vision for the future of the Hunter?
Readers would have been left scratching their heads this
week about why a pro-vice-chancellor (Professor Scott Holmes) and
researcher (Sam Bright) at the University of Newcastle would both
misrepresent the energy and mining policies of the Greens and
undermine his own institution’s research program to reduce reliance on
fossil fuels.
The Hunter’s coal communities are proud communities. Over more than a
century, the workers and their families of Cessnock, Muswellbrook,
Maitland and Singleton have created a booming economy for their
communities and for the Hunter.
Along the way, our knowledge about the impacts of coalmining has grown
and we now know that there are significant health and environmental
issues involved, not the least being the insidious clouds of coal dust
now blanketing communities and the very real, worldwide challenge to
reduce greenhouse pollution.
Tackling climate change means our dependency on coal as an export
earner and as a domestic fuel will have to be phased out over the next
few decades, rather than ramped up.
This will mean necessary changes for the whole national economy, and
for coal-affected regions such as the Hunter. The challenges
associated with this change are significant, but not insurmountable. Continue reading
Port Augusta, South Australia – ideal for solar thermal power plant, not for just a cheap solar booster for coal
What’s really needed is a solar thermal plant with molten storage, in
fact it is the only option if repowering Port Augusta is to be more
than just a green-washing option. The plant needs at least six hours
of storage in order to accommodate the evening peak
CLIMATE SPECTATOR: Don’t waste solar energy on coal, Business
Spectator, Matthew Wright, 14 Feb 2013 Port Augusta is the ideal
location in South Australia for a solar thermal power plant, due to
its very good direct annual solar radiation and its proximity to a
strong piece of grid infrastructure that services the old lignite
burning power plants that are located there, owned by Alinta.
There has been a campaign for some time to repower Port Augusta, after
the town was named as one of 12 key power generation sites in the Zero
Carbon Australia stationary energy plan.
This campaign has garnered a lot of support and gained a great deal of momentum.
But now we’re at a turning point where we may get a type solar thermal
plant that is of little use in promoting a shift away from fossil
fuels. A plant that will not create an inspiring vision, nor support
greater understanding and learning-by-doing that will shift us from a
19th century fossil fuel economy, to a 21st century renewable-powered,
cleantech economy.
The plant being proposed is a cheaper option being proposed by
electricity company Alinta. But buyer beware – you get what you pay
for.
The marketing name sounds alright – it’s a “solar booster”. The idea
is that steam is preheated in a solar thermal mirror field then fed
into the steam cycle of the existing coal fired power plant.The
problems with this are many and varied and it would be far better to
invest in a 100 per cent solar thermal plant independent of coal, with
molten salt energy storage**.
Lock-in of inferior technology Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 