Call to fight Queensland’s pro uranium government
No to Newman. http://workersbushtelegraph.com.au/2013/11/09/public-meting-no-to-newman-no-to-uranium-mining/ 11 Nov 13 No to uranium mining. In 1977 Bjelke-Petersen tried to stop the anti-uranium movement by banning street marches. Unionists and students launched a defiant campaign which gained community support. By August 1979 Petersen was forced to back-down.
Lost Film of the street marches in Queensland
Public Meeting: How unionists, students and environmentalists beat Bjelke-Petersen.
When: 6pm Tuesday 14 May
Where: Trades and Labour Council Building
L2, 16 Peel St, South Brisbane
Current and former activists speaking include:
Robin Taubenfeld, Friends of the Earth
Trevor Berrill, Sustainable Energy Consultant
Ian Curr, Leftpress
Dr Sigrid McCausland, lecturer
Meeting facilitator:
Jan Ryall, SEARCH Foundation
Climate change will bring increased extreme events, like typhoons
IPCC chairman: we may “pass on a lousy, spoilt and defiled planet” As Typhoon Haiyan hits the Philippines, Rajendra Pachauri calls for a grassroots movement to put pressure on politicians to act on climate change theguardian.com, Sunday 10 November 2013 The chairman of the United Nations’ climate panel has warned the world to act on global warming to avoid passing “on a lousy, spoilt and defiled planet” to future generations.
Rajendra K Pachauri, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), spoke out as typhoon Haiyan slammed into the Philippines causing hundreds of deaths and widespread destruction.
While Pachauri said it was not possible to blame any single disaster on the steep rise in carbon emissions, the increased frequency of extreme weather events was consistent with scientific predictions.
Speaking in Copenhagen, Pachauri criticised those who claim higher global temperatures would be beneficial to human society. While he said some countries may benefit in the short term, the impacts would be disastrous over time and hit the most marginalised communities.
Pachauri called for a grassroots movement to put pressure on politicians to act and warns that they risk the voters’ wrath if they fail to respond.
To the fossil fuel lobby that is seeking to maintain the status quo, Pachauri gives this message: “It’s the will of the people that will be supreme.”…… http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/ippc-pachauri-climate-change-spoilt-defiled-planet
Australia’s Public Health Association launches new website “Wind and Health”
Wind and health www.windandhealth.org 11 Nov 13 Wind farms are an expanding source of renewable energy, with about 90 countries granting commercial licenses in the past 30 years.
In Australia, there are 51 wind farms – 14 in South Australia, 13 in Western Australia, 12 in Victoria, 7 in New South Wales, 3 in Tasmania and 2 in Queensland.
They produce a significant amount of renewable energy in an environmentally friendly manner. In some communities they have been controversial, with some questioning whether or not they can have effects on human health. This has been investigated by numerous government inquiries.
Wind and health, published by the Public Health Association of Australia, gathers the best available evidence and presents it dispassionately with the aim of informing rational public debate.
Investment advisor says that “new nuclear power is dead”
New-Build Nuclear Is Dead: Morningstar, Forbes, 11/10/2013 Jeff McMahon Nuclear reactors are not a viable source of new power in the West, Morningstar analysts conclude in a report this month to institutional investors.
Nuclear’s “enormous costs, political and popular opposition, and regulatory uncertainty” render new reactors infeasible even in regions where they make economic sense, according to Morningstar’sUtilities Observer report for November.
“Aside from the two new nuclear projects in the U.S., one in France, and a possible one in the U.K., we think new-build nuclear in the West is dead,” Morningstar analysts Mark Barnett and Travis Miller say in the report.
This view puts Morningstar on the same page as former Exelon CEO John Rowe, who said in early 2012 that new nuclear plants “don’t make any sense right now” and won’t become economically viable for the forseeable future.
Some nuclear cheerleaders continue to champion reactors as a source of new power, like members of an industry panel I covered last year who declared a renaissance of the nuclear renaissance and predicted nuclear plants would replace aging fossil fuel plants. They include the executive director of Exelon Nuclear Partners, who said, “The future of nuclear is looking pretty good.”
The Morningstar analysts call the nuclear renaissance a “fiction” and a “fantasy,” at least in the West.
“The economies of scale experienced in France during its initial build-out and the related strength of supply chain and labor pool were imagined by the dreamers who have coined the term ‘nuclear renaissance’ for the rest of the world. But outside of China and possibly South Korea this concept seems a fantasy, as should become clearer examining even theoretical projections for new nuclear build today.”……. While nuclear development in Asia is good news for nuclear equipment suppliers, the analysts say, it could ultimately lead to bad news.
“China in particular is building reactors at a pace that should raise concerns about safety and construction quality regardless of the sophistication of developers.”…..
Pandora’s Propaganda – laughable if it were not so serious
Academy Award for presenting: FALSEHOOD AND FABRICATION http://www.rense.com/general96/outrag.htmlCNN Airs Outrageous Lies About Nuclear Energy Pandora’s Propaganda By Dick Allgire Honolulu 11-8-13
I happened to catch the CNN special program “Pandora’s Promise” last night. CNN has reached a new zenith of falsehood and fabrication……. Interesting title, alluding to Pandora’s Box, the artifact of Greek mythology that when opened released all the evil that spread throughout the world. We may have indeed opened Pandora’s Box with the full China Syndrome meltdown of three reactors and the upcoming ignition of the thousands of tons of highly radioactive spent fuel rods at Fukushima. But this is not a problem, according to the producers of “Pandora’s Promise.”
The show was produced by the nuclear industry, and dutifully broadcast by CNN without any attempt at balance, fairness or accuracy…… Now, with deadly radiation pouring constantly and continuously out of Fukushima, and no conceivable way to stop it, with the Pacific Ocean being destroyed, CNN gives us these absurd declarations:
“No birth defects resulted from the Chernobyl disaster.”
“No American has ever been killed as a result of nuclear energy.”
“Solar power is many time more dangerous than nuclear power.”
“No one living in the exclusion zone near Chernobyl has ever died of cancer or any other diseases because of the radiation.”
“Nuclear energy is the safe solution to global warming.”
Really, it was better than Baghdad Bob, delivered with great videography, beautiful graphics. The outrageous lies in Pandora’s Promise were so absurd as to be humorous. But this is no laughing matter. Fukushima is the worst catastrophe in human history.
Millions of years from now, when the earth’s crust reforms and obliterates the scars and ditritus of our failed time on the planet, a new civilization may detect a layer of abnormally high radioactivity and wonder how the entire planet was so contaminated all at once. Pandora’s Promise.
Japan adds offshore wind energy to its existing wind energy project
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 