Fred Leftwich on what Tony Abbott REALLY means on “Aboriginal economics”
Mr Abbott’s meaning of the words ‘land rights’ http://fredleftwich.com/2013/08/11/mr-abbotts-meaning-of-the-words-land-rights/
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-10/abbott-indigenous-council/4878022/?site=indigenous&topic=latest Fred Leftwich
Australian governments are trying to re-define the words “land rights” to send different messages to different people. Opposition leaders, Tony Abbott, said he supported land rights but aboriginal land must be used as an economic resource and not just for cultural purposes.
Aboriginal people have always used their land for cultural and economic purposes. It’s just that their economic activities are environmentally sustainable and seek to feed their people.
When Mr Abbott uses the words “economic” he means bringing in mining companies to steal the mineral resources with profits going overseas, Australian governments getting a cut, while aboriginal communities get a very small token royalty payment whilst continuing to remain living in poverty. Aboriginal people need to argue for a treaty because it’s harder for Australian governments to misrepresent the word treaty.
Uranium moratorium needed as Fukushima falls apart
Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam, spokesperson on nuclear issues, 23 August 2013 More than two years after the Fukushima disaster began, highly radioactive water from one of the 1060 tanks used to store it has begun to fall apart.
“The Australian-fuelled Fukushima catastrophe continues with TEPCO operators calling for international assistance to cope with the most recent leak, which they describe as a ‘serious incident’,” said Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam.
“Cesium 137, Strontium 90 and other radioactive poison is spewing into the Pacific Ocean every day.
“When I visited the Fukushima last year I met some of the 160,000 people who continue to be stranded because their homes and their farms are now contamination zones.
“As an exporter of uranium, the government should declare a moratorium until it has reassessed Australian standards and responsibilities in supplying uranium to Japan and the Tokyo Electric Power Company [TEPCO] where demonstrably inadequate regulation was evident.
“The Government has done precisely nothing to address recommendations and issues raised in the September 2011 United Nations (UN) system-wide study on the implications of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
“Australia’s mining and export of uranium is irresponsible and unnecessary, providing only 0.29 per cent of national export revenue and less than 0.015 per cent of Australian jobs in the decade to 2011.
“The fossil and nuclear industries are being rapidly out-competed by renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies,” Senator Ludlam concluded.
Japan’s new anxiety. as Fukushima nuclear crisis is out of control
Japan’s leaky nuclear plant, No end in sight The Fukushima nightmare lingers http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21584054-fukushima-nightmare-lingers-no-end-sight Aug 24th 2013 | TOKYO THE agonising efforts to clean up the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant hit new obstacles this week. On August 21st the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) said that leaks of radioactive water were a level three, or “serious”, incident on a scale that goes up to seven. Some help from American experts aside, Japan has been dealing with the disaster itself. Now, even Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the plant’s owner, would welcome foreign help.
TEPCO is under intense fire at home. It “has no sense of crisis at all”, grumbled Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the NRA, as the leaks worsened. Another NRA commissioner questioned whether TEPCO’s data could even be trusted. After months of denial, the firm has only just admitted that contaminated water is leaking into the Pacific. China and South Korea have both expressed concern.
The plant’s melted reactor cores are tainting both the hundreds of tonnes of water pumped into them each day and the groundwater, producing vast quantities of radioactive liquid. After underground pools leaked, TEPCO has hastily built around 1,000 surface storage tanks. Several are leaking from joints sealed with plastic. The most recent leak, of 300 tonnes, prompted the NRA alert. Experts say many more tanks are at risk.
A shortage of cash may have heightened the crisis. TEPCO faces massive bills for replacement fuels and compensating evacuees. It failed to install even the most basic system to monitor water leaks. Its workers stand on tanks and memorise water levels. The NRA this week ordered TEPCO to install water gauges at once. “What’s needed is tanks with stainless-steel seals, but that would take time and money,” says Neil Hyatt, professor of radioactive-waste management at the University of Sheffield.
Influential leaders in Victoria urge Climate Change as election issue
Former governor David de Kretser joins climate change campaign JOHN MASANAUSKAS, HERALD SUN, AUGUST 22, 2013 A FORMER Victorian governor has taken the unusual step of campaigning on a federal election issue.Professor David de Kretser, who was governor from 2006 to 2011, has signed his name to an eastern suburbs-based campaign urging MPs to take immediate strong action on climate change because the “planet is warming at an alarming rate”.
Prof de Kretser, a respected medical researcher specialising in infertility, signed a statement sponsored by an organisation called Lighter Footprints, which describes itself as a nonpartisan, volunteer climate action group based in the City of Boroondara.
It’s statement published in local newspapers asked politicians to “press for immediate support for increased renewable energy and reduction in the burning of fossil fuels”.
“Your choices now will affect life as we know it,” it said…..
- Other signatories to the climate change statement include respected scientist Sir Gustav Nossal, cooking personality Stephanie Alexander, Trinity Grammar principal Rick Tudor and Fintona Girls School principal Suzy Chandler.
Greens leader Christine Milne speaks at National Press Club
The ALP government and the Liberal and National Opposition lining up to protect the interests of the mining corporations against the interests of the Australian community. It is the Australian Greens who are standing with the people, for the environment and for a safe climate.
As IMF boss Christine Lagarde said recently, “Unless we take action on climate change future generations will be roasted, toasted fried and grilled.”
We need Scott Ludlam standing up for digital freedom and big solar and against nuclear
Christine Milne addresses the National Press Club 19 Feb 2013 | Christine Milne Australian democracy is at the crossroads. Our future as a nation, our sense of who we are and what we want for our society and local community is now being determined by mining billionaires in boardrooms for themselves and their overseas shareholders, and what they want, is being delivered through our state and federal parliaments. The mining industry has become so powerful that the lines between business and politics have become blurred to the detriment of people and the well being of our society.
No group of people is suffering more than our Indigenous people, the traditional owners of the land who are seeing their land, their country decimated and cultural sites like the archaeological treasury on the Burrup Peninsula and at James Price Point being sacrificed to Woodside’s bottom line. In acknowledging the Ngunnawal people, the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, and in paying my respects to their elders past and present, I am proud to say that the Greens have driven for them the parliamentary process of constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as a result of our agreement with the Prime Minister.
But it is not enough…….
With it must come respect for culture and country, by standing up to the mining boardroom greed that sees both as expendable. For Premier Colin Barnett to threaten indigenous communities with the compulsory acquisition of their land in the interests of Woodside is wrong and shameful…….
Trust has gone. Continue reading
Japan’s radioactive water tanks cover area equal to 37 football fields
Radioactive Leaks in Japan Prompt Call for Overseas Help, Bloomberg, By Yuji Okada, Jacob Adelman & Peter Langan – Aug 21, 2013
“……..Toxic Sludge. Tepco was storing 330,000 tons of radioactive water as of Aug. 13 in tanks covering an area equal to 37 football fields, according to the company. The utility is clearing forest to make room for more tanks as it adds to the stored water at a rate of 400 tons a day after pumping it out from under the plant’s reactors, which melted down as a result of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
The water is treated to remove some of the cesium particles before it is stored, which has left 480 filters clogged with the radioactive material at the site. Each weigh 15 tons and are warehoused in what the utility calls temporary storage, though it will take hundreds of years for the radiation to decay. Other radioactive contaminants remain in the water even after treatment. That includes strontium, which has been linked to bone cancers.
Besides radiated water, the site north of Tokyo has more than 73,000 cubic meters of contaminated concrete, 58,000 cubic meters of irradiated trees and undergrowth, and 157,710 gallons of toxic sludge, according to the utility.
’Biggest Concern’
Japan’s nuclear watchdog has ratcheted up alarm over the potential for more leaks of highly radioactive water from the hundreds of storage tanks at the Fukushima atomic plant.
The possibility of leaks from other tanks “is the biggest concern,” said Nuclear Regulation Authority Chairman Shunichi Tanaka at a press conference yesterday. “This will need to be handled carefully on the assumption that one incident could bring another.”
Late last night, Tepco said water leaking from the storage tank probably ran into the ocean, citing high radiation readings in a drainage ditch.
As much as 20 trillion becquerels of cesium and 10 trillion becquerels of strontium leaked into the ocean since May 2011, Tepco spokeswoman Mayumi Yoshida said today. The total amount of cesium and strontium is equivalent to about 100 times the annual limit on radiation from the plant to the ocean under normal conditions, according to calculations based on Tepco data……….
Leaking Tanks
Japan’s government has ordered an investigation into the safety of hundreds of other tanks storing contaminated water in Fukushima, the site of the world’s worst civilian nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl reactor exploded in 1986.
There are 226 tanks of similar bolted design to the leaking unit with the same 1,000-ton capacity at the site, said Tatsuya Shinkawa, director of the nuclear accident response office in the government’s Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, which called for the probe…… http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-21/tepco-shares-plunge-on-report-of-serious-radiated-water-leak.html
Australian Community Renewable Energy Plan, a Greens initiative
Greens Launch Australian Community Renewable Energy Plan http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3903 23 Aug 13 Power to, for and by the people is the essence of the Greens’ Community Renewable Energy Plan.
As we mentioned in June, dozens of communities throughout the nation have expressed a desire to develop community owned wind and solar farms; but few have received funding to assist in the early stages. At that point in time, a call went out for $50 million in funding to help kick-start these projects.
On Wednesday, the Australian Greens have launched a fully costed $100 million initiative over 5 years to provide funding for feasibility grants, project management and specialist expertise for community owned renewable energy projects. Continue reading
BHP’s Olympic Dam uranium mine expansion again rears its ugly head
BHP ‘determined’ to push ahead with Olympic Dam but only after new mining techniques are thought through, CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL THE ADVERTISER AUGUST 22, 2013 BHP Billiton is “absolutely determined” to find a way to go ahead with expanding Olympic Dam, the company’s top executive in South Australia says.
There were two key objectives for BHP in South Australia, asset president of Olympic Dam Darryl Cuzzubbo told a mining conference in Port Pirie.In his first public speech since taking command in SA, Mr Cuzzubbo said the priority was to make sure the existing Olympic Dam copper/uranium/gold operation was running at world-leading efficiency standards.
If not, he would have no credibility when asking the BHP Billiton board to fund the expansion. Secondly, the key was to make the economics of the expansion work. “We are absolutely determined to find the best way to expand Olympic Dam that competes against other investment opportunities,” he said…….
Since being granted a four-year extension by the State Government on the indenture covering the mine expansion, BHP has been working hard at rescoping the project……. There were three areas to be resolved he said – to work out a more effective mining method to get down 350m to reach the ore, to process the minerals at less cost and to split the project into “bite-size” pieces so it could generate revenue along the way.
The original expansion method envisaged spending about $30 billion but not reaching the top of the ore body for four or five years.
Ar last, Japan calls for international help, on Fukushima radioactive leaks
Radioactive Leaks in Japan Prompt Call for Overseas Help, Bloomberg, By Yuji Okada, Jacob Adelman & Peter Langan – Aug 21, 2013 The crippled nuclear plant at Fukushima is losing its two-year battle to contain radioactive water leaks and its owner emphasized for the first time it needs overseas expertise to help contain the disaster.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) is grappling with the worst spill of contaminated water since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami caused a meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant. The call for help from Zengo Aizawa, a vice president at the utility, follows a leak of 300 metric tons of irradiated water. Japan’s nuclear regulator labeled the incident “serious” and questioned Tepco’s ability to deal with the crisis. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made similar comments earlier this month.
“We will revamp contaminated-water management to tackle the issue at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant and seek expertise from within and outside of the country,” Aizawa said at a press conference last night in Tokyo. “There is much experience in decommissioning reactors outside of Japan. We need that knowledge and support.”
The International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said they are prepared to help.http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-21/tepco-shares-plunge-on-report-of-serious-radiated-water-leak.html
As nuclear prospects fade, Japan ramps up solar photovoltaic energy
Japan Adds 2+ Gigawatts Of Solar PV by Energy Matters, 22 Aug 13, Japan’s love affair with solar blossoms while a massive radioactive contamination threat still looms large.
Renewable energy facilities that commenced operations during Japan’s 2012 fiscal year (1 April 2012 to March 31 2013) totaled 2.08 gigawatts capacity, equivalent to two nuclear reactors, said the nation’s Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry.
Of the 2.08 gigawatts, 1.98 gigawatts was contributed by residential, commercial and utility scale solar PV.
The Ministry describes Japan’s shift towards a renewable future as “smooth”, with an additional 1.28 gigawatts of renewables added to the nation’s energy infrastructure in April and May this year.
All told, the amount of renewable capacity approved between July 2012 and March this year was 21.09 gigawatts, meaning far more is yet to be built.
While solar is enjoying smooth sailing, the country’s nuclear industry is experiencing anything but; with crisis after crisis occurring at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power station…… http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3905
USA in the race to be global renewable energy leader
A Bright Future for Renewable Energy HUFFINGTON POST,Phyllis Cuttino Director, Clean Energy, The Pew Charitable Trusts 23 Aug 13 After several decades in laboratories and niche applications, clean energy technologies are primed for accelerated and widespread expansion in the global power sector. In the United States and around the world, solar, wind, and other renewable energy sources will represent a significant share of the new generating capacity deployed in the coming years and decades. These technologies will also be in demand as the world addresses persistent and emerging local and global environmental challenges and because clean energy will be sought after in the push to achieve greater energy security.
For all these reasons, the future of clean energy is bright. Less certain is the forecast for the United States’ competitive position in this fast-growing sector. On a variety of key measures–from innovation and manufacturing to deployment and exports–the United States is struggling to maintain its lead in the global economic and technological race……..http://www.huffingtonpost.com/phyllis-cuttino/a-bright-future-for-renew_b_3795222.html
Misplaced complacency about nuclear deterrence
Nuclear deterrence is overrated, THE HINDU RAMESH THAKUR , 23 Aug 13 The real risks and costs of having these weapons, both monetary and human, far outweigh their security benefits The Indian Navy has figured in three recent, global news items. The launch of the indigenously developed aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, expected to be operational by 2018, makes India only the fifth country after the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom and France to have such capability. …. The strategic rationale is to acquire and consolidate the three legs of land, air and sea-based nuclear weapons to underpin the policy of nuclear deterrence. Unfortunately, however, the whole concept of nuclear deterrence is deeply flawed.
Desensitised
Nuclear weapons are uniquely destructive and hence uniquely threatening to our common security. There is a compelling need to challenge and overcome the reigning complacency on the nuclear risks and dangers, to sensitise policy communities to the urgency and gravity of nuclear threats and the availability of non-nuclear alternatives as anchors of national and international security.
A nuclear catastrophe could destroy us any time. Because we have learnt to live with nuclear weapons for 68 years, we have become desensitised to the gravity and immediacy of the threat. The tyranny of complacency could yet exact a fearful price if we sleepwalk our way into a nuclear Armageddon. It really is long past time to lift the shroud of the mushroom cloud from the international body politic. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 