Aboriginal traditional owners call for scrapping of 2 year old plan for nuclear waste dump
WGAR News: Muckaty legislation hits two year mark: renewed call for nuclear dump plan to be scrapped: BNI http://indymedia.org.au/2014/03/21/wgar-news-muckaty-legislation-hits-two-year-mark-renewed-call-for-nuclear-dump-plan-to-be
Renewable energy and carbon price are financial winners for Tasmania
Tasmania wins from pollution price http://christine-milne.greensmps.org.au/campaigns/tasmania-wins-pollution-price 21 March 14, Since the government made big businesses pay for their greenhouse pollution, Tasmanians have come out ahead because the money raised is used to help low-income earners, and invest in clean energy.
Tasmanians who earned $80,000 or less got a permanent tax cut, and the amount you earn before you pay tax was increased from $6,900 to $18,200.
More than 295,000 Tasmanians had permanent rises in their Age Pension, Disability Pension, Carer Allowance, Newstart Allowance, Youth Allowance, Austudy and Abstudy payments, special benefits and Family Tax Benefit A and B.
Tasmanian businesses received $13 million in grants to help their energy efficiency, and $14.9 million went to farmers and landcare groups to protect our soil, wildlife and bush from the effects of climate change.
Part of the funding raised by the price on pollution is also being used to fund investment in more clean renewable energy and energy efficiency, including projects in Tasmania. Tasmania produces more renewable energy than any other Australian state. Selling our renewable energy to other states earns about $70 million for Tasmania every year.
This money is used to pay for our hospitals, schools and other important services. Producing renewable energy fits with Tasmania’s clean, green and creative brand which so many businesses rely on.
Ukraine situation provides US Pentagon with an argument for new nuclear weapons
Ukraine Fallout: Putin Hands The Pentagon A Rationale For New Nuclear Weapons Loren Thompson, Forbes 20 Mar 14 There’s a plausible case to be made that Russia’s reabsorption of Crimea after 60 years of being attached to the Ukraine isn’t all that important, and the West is over-reacting. Well don’t expect to find anybody in Washington pushing that view. Today’s Washington Post features a lead editorial entitled, “A Dangerous Russian Doctrine,” and all four essays on the op-ed page explore the ominous implications of what Vladimir Putin has done. The persistent drumbeat of disquieting coverage and commentary about Ukraine reminds me of a term I used often when I taught nuclear strategy at Georgetown — overkill.
As chance would have it, this strategic shift occurs at precisely the moment when modernization of the U.S. nuclear arsenal has become a major issue among military planners. …….. The Pentagon has plans for developing new subs and bombers before the current arsenal has to be retired, but funding is problematic — particularly with spending caps imposed by the 2011 Budget Control Act.
Although President Obama has not interfered with these plans, he has been more focused on arms control as a solution to the nation’s nuclear security. …….
it is inevitable that Pentagon officials will use the Ukraine crisis to build political support for their nuclear plans. ……….
Many people in Washington might have been prepared to forego spending money on a new generation of nuclear weapons before Putin made his move, but he has now changed the strategic calculation. http://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthompson/2014/03/20/ukraine-fallout-putin-hands-the-pentagon-a-rationale-for-new-nuclear-weapons/
USA’s nuclear overseers Funded and Controlled by the Nuclear Power Industry
Nuclear Overseers Are “Fake” Agencies Funded and Controlled by the Nuclear Power Industry http://www.globalresearch.ca/nuclear-overseers-are-fake-agencies-funded-and-controlled-by-the-nuclear-power-industry/24387
By Washington’s Blog
Global Research, The Christian Science Monitor noted recently:
Just as the BP oil spill one year ago heaped scrutiny on the United State’s Minerals Management Service, harshly criticized for lax drilling oversight and cozy ties with the oil industry, the nuclear crisis in Japan is shining a light on that nation’s safety practices.[Russian nuclear accident specialist Iouli Andreev, who as director of the Soviet Spetsatom clean-up agency helped in the efforts 25 years ago to clean up Chernobyl ] has also accused the IAEA of being too close with corporations. “This is only a fake organization because every organization which depends on the nuclear industry – and the IAEA depends on the nuclear industry – cannot perform properly.”
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is no better. As nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen, Duane Peterson (president of VPIRG & coordinator for the campaign to retire Vermont Yankee nuclear plant), investigative reporter Harvey Wasserman and Paul Gallay (executive director of Riverkeeper) point out in a roundtable discussion:
- The NRC won’t even begin conducting its earthquake study for Indian Point nuclear power plant in New York until after relicensing is complete in 2013, because the NRC doesn’t consider a big earthquake “a serious risk” Continue reading
The appalling hidden history of what British settlement did to Tasmania’s Aborigines
Invasion, Theft, Rape, Murder: The Aboriginal Holocaust in Tasmania Atlanta Black Star, March 19, 2014 by Runoko Rashid DEDICATED TO TRUGANINI “……..The first people of Tasmania, known as Palawa, were marked by tightly curled hair, with skin complexions ranging from black to reddish-brown. They had broad noses, wide mouths, and deep-set brown eyes. They were relatively short in stature with little body fat. They were the indigenous people of Tasmania and their arrival there began at least 35,000 years ago. With the passage of time, the gradual rising of the sea level submerged the Australian-Tasmanian land bridge and the Black aborigines of Tasmania experienced more than 10,000 years of solitude and physical isolation from the rest of the world……..
As early as 1804 the British began to slaughter, kidnap and enslave the Black people of Tasmania. Continue reading
China’s solar energy industry rebounds with a vengeance
Solar PV rebounds as demand comes back with ‘a vengeance’ SMH, March 20, 2014 Solar manufacturers are returning to profit as demand in China soaks up a supply glut that gutted margins for more than two years.
The largest solar-panel maker Yingli Green Energy said it expects to be profitable in the third quarter. It joins peers including JinkoSolar, Trina Solar and JA Solar in guiding investors to expect both income and higher shipments in 2014.
Climbing demand for solar panels is countering a global oversupply of production capacity that erased profits across the industry and bankrupted more than a dozen companies. Developers installed 37.5 gigawatts of panels worldwide last year, up 22 per cent from 2012, and that figure may increase as much as 39 per cent this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
That growth is starting to “sponge up” much of the glut, especially among Chinese manufacturers, that resulted from a buildup in the late 2000s, Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at Raymond James & Associates in Houston, said in an interview. “That has made a real dent in the overcapacity.”
The largest solar manufacturers have cut expenses and are poised to take advantage of growth this year, said Nimal Vallipuram, an analyst at Gilford Securities Inc. in New York.
“They continue to do very well at reducing the costs and their volume is going up very strongly,” he said. “Demand has come back with a vengeance.” http://www.smh.com.au/business/carbon-economy/solar-pv-rebounds-as-demand-comes-back–with-a-vengeance-20140320-353ir.html
Research finds that wind farms provide a surplus of reliable clean energy
Wind farms can provide society a surplus of reliable clean energy, Science Daily, March 20, 2014 Source: Stanford University
Summary:
Researchers have found that the wind industry can easily afford the energetic cost of building batteries and other grid-scale storage technologies. However, for the solar industry, scientists found that more work is needed to make grid-scale storage energetically sustainable. e worldwide demand for solar and wind power continues to skyrocket. Since 2009, global solar photovoltaic installations have increased about 40 percent a year on average, and the installed capacity of wind turbines has doubled.
The dramatic growth of the wind and solar industries has led utilities to begin testing large-scale technologies capable of storing surplus clean electricity and delivering it on demand when sunlight and wind are in short supply.
Now a team of Stanford researchers has looked at the “energetic cost” of manufacturing batteries and other storage technologies for the electrical grid. At issue is whether renewable energy supplies, such as wind power and solar photovoltaics, produce enough energy to fuel both their own growth and the growth of the necessary energy storage industry………. Continue reading
Bad news for Britain’s nuclear plants – floods likely to get worse
Britain had to close down its Dungeness nuclear power plant for 5 months, for dfear of flooding.
Floods in Britain: a sign of things to come? http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/47190 21 Mar 14, A new investigation of long-term weather records suggests that the recent flooding in the south of England could signal the onset of climate change. The research, from UWE Bristol, Loughborough University and the University of East Anglia has produced a new index of flooding trends called the Fluvial Flood Indices. This enables widespread flooding and weather patterns to be viewed in the context of the last 150 years, revealing that four of the six most severe flood episodes since 1871 have occurred in the last 30 years. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 