Letters editors will not print clear errors of fact from climate change deniers
Climate change: a note from our Letters editors http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-letters/climate-change-a-note-from-our-letters-editors-20131021-2vvjd.html October 21, 2013 Julie Lewis and Marc McEvoy Letters editors rarely make the news. This month the Los Angeles Times letters editor, Paul Thornton, did just that with a story on letters from climate-change deniers. He said he would not print letters that asserted “there is no sign humans have caused climate change” because “it was not stating an opinion, it’s asserting a factual inaccuracy”. This attracted headlines declaring “Los Angeles Times riles climate-change sceptics by banning letters”. Unsurprisingly, we’ve been asked how we treat letters from climate change deniers.
Herald editor-in-chief Darren Goodsir recently reiterated the paper’s stance on global warming. “The Herald believes unequivocally in human-induced climate change,” he told an audience at David Suzuki’s City Talk. “It is an established fact. What we are much more interested in is not the sideshow over whether this phenomenon exists or not, but on how it should be tackled.”
We do not ban writers whose views suggest they are climate change deniers or sceptics. We consider their letters and arguments. But we believe the argument over whether climate change is happening and whether it is man-made has been thrashed out extensively by leading scientists and on our pages and that the main debate now is about its effects, severity, and what society does about it.
Climate change deniers or sceptics are free to express opinions and political views on our page but not to misrepresent facts. This applies to all our contributors on any subject. On that basis, a letter that says, “there is no sign humans have caused climate change” would not make the grade for our page.
Financial realities likely to unravel Britain’s new nuclear power development
The government has also already committed itself to providing financial guarantees of £10bn to cover the building of Hinkley Point, something not available to builders of solar or wind arrays.
Even Nick Butler, a former energy adviser to No 10 and a supporter of nuclear, believes the price is far too high. In a recent blog he warned: “Lower sources of power are available and have been rejected. When deals do not match the interests of both sides – producers and consumers – at a point of mutual advantage, they tend to unravel.”
China’s need for nuclear power leads Britain to revive outdated technology , Terry Macalister, The Guardian, Sunday 20 October 2013 Critics say the new plant in Somerset will be heavily subsidised and cushioned from financial reality.
- The signing of a nuclear deal between EDF and the government is a landmark event for power generation. Today’s go-ahead for the Hinkley Point C plant shows ministers are prepared to commit Britain to provide decades of guaranteed financial returns (paid for by you and me as energy users) to companies in return for winning huge slugs of investment for new power stations…..
- Ministers insist that the commitment to provide Hinkley Point with a guaranteed price of around double the market rate is not a subsidy. The final figure of £92.50 is a considerable step up from the £80 per MWhr said to be on the table when negotiations began in earnest, and that figure is said by some calculations to be worth around £80bn in guaranteed revenues, the cost of nine Olympics.
- Critics will accuse the government of providing subsidies to an old technology that should not need handouts, while pointing out the safety dangers and the unsolved waste disposal problems raised by new nuclear. Questions will also be asked about the wisdom of providing a country alleged to be involved in cyber-spying, access to sensitive energy infrastructure via the involvement of a state-owned firm…….. Continue reading
Wednesday 23rd October Rally Against Origin Energy’s ‘Strangling Of Renewable Energy
Rally Against Origin Energy’s ‘Strangling Of Renewable Energy‘ http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3990 The release of a report claiming to demonstrate how Origin Energy is blocking renewable energy will coincide with a rally outside Origin Energy’s Annual General Meeting on Wednesday.
Rally organisers 100% Renewable say while it expects Origin will be touting its long term strategy for investing in fossil fuels at the AGM, what it won’t mention is its actions against something it perceives to be a threat to its profits – renewable energy. Continue reading
Indigenous self-determination is needed, not Abbott’s hand-picked board
The case for Indigenous self-determination ABC Indigenous, Sol Bellear October 21, 2013 If we want to shift Aboriginal disadvantage, then self-determination is the only way, writes Sol Bellear……..
The point that seems to have been lost on many readers – despite it appearing in the article several times – is that the High Court declined to make a finding on the basis of race. White people are just as entitled to have their background considered as people of colour. It was not a victory for Aboriginal people, it was a victory for ALL people … and common sense.
However, I argued that while I respected the High Court decision, the case I’ll celebrate is the one in which the High Court determines it has no jurisdiction over Aboriginal people. If we want to shift Aboriginal disadvantage, then self-determination is the only way to achieve that……. Continue reading
Problems ahead for Britain, with Chinese and French nuclear technology
China’s need for nuclear power leads Britain to revive outdated technology , Terry Macalister, The Guardian, Sunday 20 October 2013“…..while EDF has now convinced government of the need to provide these different support mechanisms, the hard work begins for the French and its Chinese partner. The nuclear industry has a terrible reputation for completing new plants years late and over budget. Areva, the French nuclear engineering company providing the EPR design for Hinkley, is involved in similar plants at Flamanville in France and Olkiluoto in Finland. Both are proving more difficult than expected: the Finnish reactors are expected to be at least seven years late and at least £1.4bn over budget; Flamanville is two years late and believed to be as much as £2bn over budget.
And there is good reason to believe that British companies are going to miss out in Somerset. Centrica has already given up its opportunity to participate as an owner, while EDF has indicated the UK may not have the high-tech engineering skills to compete for supply contracts……
Western nuclear experts claim Beijing has a lot to prove that its own regulation is up to standard, and there will be intense pressure on the UK’s Office for Nuclear Regulation not to dilute standards to help Chinese firms operate their own plants here. There is already an inquiry going on into whether too many concessions have been made by George Osborne into a separate deal under which Chinese banks can operate more freely in London.
China General Nuclear Power Group is one of the biggest companies you have never heard of. In fact, it took a new name only six months ago. The change reflected its ambitions to establish itself on a world stage, outside its home base of Guangdong province. Involvement in Hinkley Point is a key part of the globalisation strategy…….http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/21/china-nuclear-power-britain-outdated-technology
Greens warning about climate-denying Abbott government
Greens fire warning and accuse Abbott Government of ‘taking us backwards’MATT SMITH MERCURY OCTOBER 21, 2013 THE Tasmanian Greens are calling on greater climate change action in light of recent bushfires in New South Wales.
Climate Change Minister Cassy O’Connor yesterday called for greater pressure on the Federal Government about climate change.
“At a political level nationally, Australians have elected a climate-denying government that has axed the Climate Commission and that is going to wipe the carbon tax that was effective in bringing down our emissions,” Ms O’Connor said yesterday.
“They are taking us backwards on climate change at a time when the world needs leadership and committing to bringing down emissions……http://www.themercury.com.au/news/tasmania/greens-fire-warning-and-accuse-abbott-government-of-taking-us-backwards/story-fnj4f7k1-1226743482245
Central Victoria’s call for government action on climate change 23 October
Support fuelling for climate day, Bendigo Advertiser, By Josh Fagan
Oct. 19, 2013 CENTRAL Victorian environmental groups say the federal government need a wake up call on climate action.
The Mount Alexander Sustainability Group will hold a series of meetings and events over the next month calling for proactive measures to tackle climate change.
“The inaction and lack of detail in the policies is actually galvanizing the community sector,” she said.”All of a sudden individuals are starting to join in calls for action. The majority of Australians want to see decisive action on climate change. The government needs to lift its game.”
Ms Rasa said the group were supporting the Australian Conservation Foundation event this Wednesday calling for “24 hours of reality”.
She said the group were also planning to hold local events for the National Day of Climate Action on November 17.
Climate change means longer bushfire season for South East Australia
Scientists warn bushfire season getting longer The Age, October 19, 2013 Craig Butt, Lara O’Toole A bushfire season that starts in spring and stretches well into autumn will be the new norm for Australia’s south-east, according to scientists.
Melbourne University research fellow in climate science Sophie Lewis said catastrophic events such as the fires in NSW should come as no surprise, due to a dry winter and the ongoing effects of climate change.
The past 12 months have been the warmest documented, while 2013 is set to go down as the hottest calendar year in Australia.
”Now is the time we need to plan for a longer fire season,” Dr Lewis said. ”It’s something we’re going to expect, looking to the future.”
British consumers-taxpayers will be paying huge amounts for new nuclear energy
But is £93 the real cost anyway? The devil will be in the detail of this contract – specifically, in the indexation formula for the strike price. If Hinkley Point’s entire output is tied to the rate of inflation for 40 years, we could be staring at a truly astronomical cost by the end of the contract
Hinkley Point’s first impact will be to add to consumers’ bills ,The Guardian, Nils Pratley Friday 18 October 2013 The deal is still to be signed, but already some extraordinary claims are being made about Hinkley Point in Somerset, which will be the first nuclear plant to be built in the UK since 1995.
Here’s chancellor George Osborne‘s take: “If it wasn’t Chinese investment or French investment, it would have to be the British taxpayer……
Put like that, you might assume UK taxpayers have hit the jackpot, that EDF of France and China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGNPC) will bear all the financial risks and that energy bills in the UK are bound to fall sometime around 2020 as cheap nuclear energy comes on stream.
Forget it. The UK will be agreeing to buy electricity from Hinkley Point for 35-40 years at £93 per megawatt hour or thereabouts, according to the whisper from Westminster.
The UK would be agreeing to buy electricity from Hinkley Point at £93 per megawatt hour – roughly twice the current market rate. That is roughly twice the current market rate for electricity, and far in excess of the £40 per megawatt hour that was airily waved around by the Department of Energy only half a decade ago….. Continue reading
Adam Bandt on Tony Abbott as a climate change criminal
Adam responds to the release of laws to repeal the Clean Energy Act Greens Deputy says Government is failing to protect Australians from climate change Australian Broadcasting Corporation Broadcast: 18/10/2013 Reporter: Steve Cannane In controversial twitter comments, Greens Deputy Adam Bandt has accused the Government of failing to protect Australians from the effects of climate change, saying that unless dangerous global warming is controlled Australians will experience regular, terrifying bushfires.
Transcript
STEVE CANNANE, PRESENTER:: The federal government has criticised the Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt for politicising human tragedy after he linked the fires to climate change.
Adam Bandt isn’t backing down from his comments on Twitter that coalition policies will lead to more bushfires.
Mr Bandt maintains Tony Abbott is failing to protect Australians from the effects of climate change.
ADAM BANDT, GREENS MP: This is what global warming in Australia looks like. And unless we get dangerous global warming under control we may be experiencing these kind of awful terrifying fires on a much more regular basis…..
CHRISTINE MILNE, GREENS LEADER: You can never say a specific fire at a specific time is a global event.
STEVE CANNANE: The opposition leader Bill Shorten says the focus should be on the many families affected by the fires. http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2013/s3872584.htm
As New South Wales bushfires rage, govt cuts NSW climate science group
O’Farrell cut climate change watchers, SMH, Peter Hannam, 21 Oct 13 Deep cuts to staff and funding by the NSW government have largely dismantled the state’s ability to investigate and prepare for the effects of climate change such as more frequent extreme fire weather, a former senior scientist with the government said.
Peter Smith, who led the state’s climate change science group until March, said his team of 10 had been slashed to just three whose work remained climate-focused. A similar cut had been made to a separate team of 10 working on climate adaptation, he said.
Dr Smith, who now works as an adviser on United Nations projects, was a contributor to peer-reviewed research reports that found Australia was already facing an increase in bushfire dangers. The shift was particularly clear in spring, with national mean temperatures rising 0.9 degrees since 1960.
”We know the [climate] science is unequivocal,” Environment Minister Robyn Parker told a Nature Conservation Council meeting on Saturday. ”It is for governments to respond. What we are doing is investing in climate change science, and so minimising the impacts of climate change on communities. http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/ofarrell-cut-climate-change-watchers-20131020-2vuyr.html#ixzz2iNnGz1mI
Unreasonable attacks on Adam Bandt who speaks out for action on climate change
Adam Bandt has every right to get fired up SMH October 20, 2013 Peter FitzSimons Can we give the Greens a break? For yonks they’ve been saying if we don’t look after the planet there will be hell to pay, and so, when that hell on earth arrives – most lately in terms of these unseasonal devastating bushfires – it is quite legitimate for the likes of Adam Bandt to draw attention to it, and advocate a change in policy. In the words of Barack Obama, denying the reality of climate change is the equivalent of belonging to the Flat Earth Society.
The carbon tax was demonstrably successful in reducing emissions. So when the Prime Minister says the previous government should ”repent” bringing it in, even as we break yet another month’s temperature record, and the bushfires take hold, it is reasonable for Bandt to put an alternative view. He is not disrespecting those who have lost their homes, nor those heroes fighting the fires. He’s saying what needs to be said, to try to do something so fewer people lose their homes in the future. The problem is not that he’s pushing his ”political agenda”. It is that his agenda – actually doing something to preserve the planet – is not shared by us all. Fire at will.: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/adam-bandt-has-every-right-to-get-fired-up-20131019-2vt3e.html#ixzz2iNifbkjT
Japan’s solar and crop farming will revitalise agriculture
Japan Next-Generation Farmers Cultivate Crops and Solar Energy, Renewable Energy World, Junko Movellan, October 10, 2013 San Diego, Calif. — Farmers in Japan can now generate solar electricity while growing crops on the same farmland. In April, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) approved the installation of PV systems on existing crop-producing farmland. Previously solar generation on farmland, productive or idle, was prohibited under the Agricultural Land Act.
This co-existence or double-generation is known as “Solar Sharing” in Japan. The concept was originally developed by Akira Nagashima in 2004, who was a retired agricultural machinery engineer who later studied biology and learned the “light saturation point.” The rate of photosynthesis increases as the irradiance level is increased; however at one point, any further increase in the amount of light that strikes the plant does not cause any increase to the rate of photosynthesis.
By knowing that too much sun won’t help further growth of plants, Nagashima came up with the idea to combine PV systems and farming. He devised and originally patented special structure, which is much like a pergola in a garden. He created a couple of testing fields with different shading rates and different crops. The structures he created are made of pipes and rows of PV panels, which are arranged with certain intervals to allow enough sunlight to hit the ground for photosynthesis ……
“The solar sharing can re-activate the declining farming sector,” said Makoto Takazawa, the owner of the 34.4-kW Kazusatsurumai Solar Sharing Project (Figure 2) in Chiba Prefecture. This is the first project in the nation to take advantage of the FIT scheme……. the solar shared farming is a way to revitalize Japanese farmers, providing opportunities to increase income and contribute to the nation’s energy need. ….Nagashima suggests solar-shared farming for ranches in the U.S. He pointed out a few benefits of PV systems over grass on pasture: the PV system can provide shade for cattle or sheep to rest underneath and because of higher soil moisture level, the shading will reduce irrigation expenses.
For Japan, it will require about 2.5 million acres of land to supply Japan’s total electricity with PV. Under the solar shared family, it will take about 7 million acres of farmland to supply the same amount of electricity. Japan currently has over 11.3 million acres of available farmland. “Before the Industrial Revolutions, farmers provided both crops and energy (firewood and charcoal) to the society. The solar-shared farming makes again for farmers to provide two important products from nature and will revitalize the farming sector,” Nagashima stated. http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2013/10/japan-next-generation-farmers-cultivate-agriculture-and-solar-energy?cmpid=WNL-Friday-October11-2013
Tanzania likely to have bad impacts, and little benefit, from uranium mining
Uranium ore tempts Tanzania to dig dangerously, Deutsche Welle, 20 Oct 13Though many consider the risks incalculable, Tanzania is planning to mine its radioactive uranium. A history of gold mining shows that the country, its people and abundant wildlife stand to gain little from doing so….. Continue reading
Not good taste to talk about climate change during bushfire period
The Abbott government fiddles while NSW burns,Independent Australia , 19 Oct 13 FOR THE ABBOTT GOVERNMENT, it has emerged that talking about climate change during a “natural” disaster is taboo. Of course, how “natural” the NSW fires actually are is the issue here, as we witness over 100 separate fires across NSW.
These fires are the likes of which have never been seen in the month of October anywhere in Australia, let alone this close to population centres.
…….Notably, Bandt has not attributed just this one period of fires to global warming, and, as climate scientists will tell us, to ask of such a direct link is to ask the wrong question. But we can suggest that the dice is loaded toward such events occurring more frequently and in more intense forms.
Nevertheless, Bandt has been subjected to a barrage of censuring voices: on Twitter, on talkback radio, from LNP politicians and from unsigned opinion pieces on news.com.au…….http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/the-abbott-government-fiddles-while-nsw-burns/
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 