Australia can’t afford to ignore the various impacts of climate change
heatwaves dubbed the “silent killer” because they led to more deaths than do other natural events
Rising temperatures and possible lower rainfall have the potential to cut future farming output sharply.
Scorchers: the reality of a sunburnt country January 18, 2014 Peter Hannam Environment Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald “………Wang Xiaoming, a senior principal scientist at CSIRO, said lip-service is often paid to the [planning for climate change] issue but little more.
“If you’re looking at the current building codes, if you’re looking at engineering design standards, actually there’s nothing considering future climate change at the moment,” Wang said.
Building standards and design can make a big difference. According to CSR, a building materials producer, lax standards in the past mean the power system is strained each time an extreme event – hot or cold – arrives.
A prototype home design by CSR in western Sydney shows what can be achieved with products already on the market. When the city was breaking its maximum heat record on January 18 last year the house remained about 15-16 degrees cooler than outside temperatures without the need for any airconditioning, the company says……..
‘Silent killer’ Continue reading
South Australian government gives grant to uranium leach mining company
UraniumSA receives grant for Samphire Uranium project in South Australia Friday, January 17, 2014 by Proactive Investors UraniumSA (ASX:USA) has received a $50,000 grant from the South Australian Government to advance metallurgical test work for its Samphire uranium deposits in South Australia
UraniumSA will work in collaboration with the University of South Australia’s Ian Walk Research Institute to focus on finding a more efficient process for the removal and recovery of uranium from saline leach solutions, and to advance UraniumSA’s existing data and process understanding.
This grant will facilitate the continuation of recent research and test work by UraniumSA which aims to optimise pathways for uranium recovery from hyper-saline solution……http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/51977/uraniumsa-receives-grant-for-samphire-uranium-project-in-south-australia-51977.html
Japan’s secrecy, and moves towards nuclear weapons
There is little comfort in knowing that the walls of secrecy Japan has been putting up around Fukushima and other nuclear power activities will surely make it harder to know what if any weapons programs the country undertakes
Nuclear Japan? Op Ed News, 17 Jan 14 By William Boardman (about the author) American nuclear officials are wary of Japan’s new nuclear push Official Japanese policy on nuclear power has swung full circle since the Fukushima disaster of 2011 — from avidly pro-nuclear power then, to rejecting nuclear power as too dangerous, and now back to avidly pushing on to re-start old reactors and build new ones. Adding the chronic secrecy and denial of the nuclear industry to such politically-driven indecision making, Japan has created a funhouse of distorting mirrors from which emerging information about the on-going Fukushima disaster cannot be considered credible without reliable, independent verification. Reliable and credible information about Fukushima is just what authorities in Japan and around the world apparently do not want. …… Continue reading
Wikileaks reveals weak wobbly wording of Trans Pacific Partnership’s secret environment plans
Secret draft of TPP talks on environment show few enforcement measures SMH, January 17, 2014 Peter Martin Economics correspondent A secret draft of what would be Australia’s biggest trade agreement shows it will be toothless in enforcing environmental agreements.
The draft environment chapter of the twelve-nation Trans Pacific Partnership agreement published by WikiLeaks proposes next to no enforcement 
mechanisms with those that are suggested opposed by each of the 12 nations other than the United Stastes.
A summary on the WikiLeaks website says the draft makes use of the ‘get out clause’ approximately 43 times, using language such as: “Where possible and appropriate, the Parties shall seek to complement and utilise their existing cooperation mechanisms and take into account relevant work of regional and international organisations.”
The word “may” is also found 43 times in the 23-page draft.
Governments are urged to “…make every effort to arrive at a mutually satisfactory resolution…”, “…take measures to prevent…”, “…make best efforts…”, “…exercise restraint in taking recourse…”, and retain “the right to make decisions…”.
WikiLeaks says other favourite words are “enhance” (12), “consider” (12), “encourage” (11), “address” (10), “endeavour” (9) and “seek” (9).
A report from the chairpersons of the environment section of the agreement despairs at ever getting meaningful agreement saying the so-called “red line” or non-negotiable positions appear irreconcilable.”Many of the red lines for some parties were in direct opposition to the red lines expressed by other parties,” it says.
“It bears emphasising that it is these differences that have prevented the environment working group from reaching agreement on all aspects of the chapter.”
Australia is siding with Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam in opposing US moves to give the resolutions of biodiversity, climate change, fisheries and conservation more force.
The environment chapter is the second published by WikiLeaks. The first, on intellectual property showed the US with Australian support attempting to impose on other countries tougher rules that would have strengthened the hand of copyright owners in disputes with consumers.
Each of the negotiating parties has resolved to keep the draft chapters secret until the negotiations are completed, meaning the chapters published by WikiLeaks are the only parts of the agreement in the public domain. http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/secret-draft-of-tpp-talks-on-environment-show-little-enforcement-measures-20140117-30y8f.html#ixzz2qmVF0V00
Abbott’s “Direct Action” climate plan – a gift to big polluters?
Three major loopholes in the Direct Action climate plan The Conversation, Jemma Green Senior Research Fellow at Curtin University 17 January 2014, Under the draft plan, companies will be invited to bid for funding regardless of whether their project is commercially viable without it. Projects that are already viable without government help are naturally in a better position to make a competitive bid in the scheme’s “reverse auction” – by which the government will award funds to projects that promise the biggest emissions cuts for the least money.
Baseline call
The second problem hinges on the fact that emissions reductions cannot be calculated without reference to a previous “baseline” level. But the government has delayed its decision on how emissions baselines will be determined until mid-2015. How these are decided will be of greatest interest to the biggest emitters………
Long deadlines, minor penaltiesYet under the government’s current plan, even a company that is given a favourable historic baseline, and then exceeds it anyway, could be given plenty of leeway…….
What’s more, in cases where a company routinely fails to meet emissions targets, the government says it does not want the policy to be punitive. Therefore companies could well not comply, without suffering significant financial consequences.
The proposal is open for comment until February 21, and the plan faces plenty more scrutiny, particularly when new Senators take their seats in July. Those Senators also control the fate of the previous government’s carbon price, which has already been repealed in the lower house…..http://theconversation.com/three-major-loopholes-in-the-direct-action-climate-plan-21838
Radiation exposure to US sailors – cancers – ship contaminated
Radio: US Navy sailors had radioactive snow ball fights off Fukushima — Crew “pretty well toast” after weeks on Pacific… significant cancers, incessant bleeding from anus or vagina, blindness — Debris from USS Reagan sent to Hanford nuclear waste site (AUDIO) http://enenews.com/radio-u-s-navy-sailors-were-havinng-snow-ball-fights-on-deck-using-radioactive-snow-off-fukushima-crew-was-pretty-well-toast-by-time-they-came-into-port-contaminated-debris-off-uss-reagan
Voice of Russia – US Edition, Jan. 15, 2014:
7:30 in — Paul C. Garner, attorney for Navy sailors exposed to Fukushima radioactive contamination: They’re out there in the elements breathing it in, soaking it in. According to Lindsay Cooper who was on the deck, it started to snow and then she tasted this metallic taste in her mouth, and so did the others. And they were having snow ball fights and joking around about it, until they were warned that it was radioactive and they should not be doing that.
9:45 in — Garner: They were considered to be too highly radioactive […] The Reagan sailed around for weeks before they could find a friendly port to land in. By that time the people on board were pretty well toast. And the Reagan itself became contaminated. After that the Reagan spent a year and half in Bremerton, Washington for what they considered to be routine maintenance, but it was anything but routine. They decontaminated the vessel as best they could, and they shipped the contaminated debris over to Hanford.
Protests Grow in Japan: “We Want to Bring Our Message to the World to Stop Nuclear Power Plants” http://www.democracynow.org/2014/1/17/protests_grow_in_japan_we_want Recent moves by the Japanese government to restart the country’s nuclear power plant facilities have been met by growing protests. “I think this is a problem of the world, not just of Japan,” Kato Keiko told Democracy Now! at a protest outside the prime minister’s private residence in Tokyo. She describes how there is increasing expectation that voters will decide which candidate to choose in the upcoming election based on their position on nuclear power.
TRANSCRIPT Continue reading
The reality of a heating Australia
New research by the Alternative Technology Association suggests that even with modest assumptions for technology improvements in solar power many communities and households will find it attractive to drop off the grid within a few years in “a quick and dramatic” change.
“A shift to cost-effective standalone power solutions appears highly plausible by 2020, in a wide range of market segments,” the report said, citing a study of Bendigo, Werribee and parts of inner Melbourne.
Scorchers: the reality of a sunburnt country, January 18, 2014 Peter Hannam, Environment Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald As searing temperatures swept across the country this week, Australians got a strong indication of summers to come. Peter Hannam asks if we are prepared for hotter days.
Sarah Perkins, a heatwave expert at the University of NSW, says heatwaves in Australia are arriving earlier in the season, are more frequent, more intense, and more prolonged. Previous major heatwaves, such as in 1939, are also linked to major bushfires. Along with the projections for more intense heat, research also shows fire-danger ratings are on the increase across south-eastern Australia. Australians will need to adapt to major changes in their lives – along with much of the world.
“For the first half of this century, we expect these [heatwave] trends to continue,” said Lesley Hughes, a professor studying climate change and ecosystems at Macquarie University. “Whether they continue beyond 2050, will be really up to how well we’ve reduced [greenhouse gas] emissions,”she said.
While sea-breezes spared much of Sydney and the coastal strip north from this week’s heat, few other affected regions were so lucky. Adelaide, Melbourne and Canberra each reached 40 degrees on Thursday for a second day in a row, and had only done that before on single days over the past 70 years of records. Canberra’s Friday maximum just missed making it three days in a row.
No El Nino this time Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 