Federal Court hears from determined Aboriginal elders at Muckaty, Northern Territory
Indigenous elder speaks out at NT nuclear waste dump trial, Guardian, 10 June 14 Bunny Nabarula threatens to ‘block the road and let the truck run us over’ if a waste dump is approved on her traditional land A central Australian Indigenous elder has threatened to throw herself in front of a road train if a proposed radioactive waste management facility is approved to be built on her ancestral lands.
The federal court held a special sitting at the Muckaty community on Monday, 120km north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, to hear the evidence of Milwayi traditional owner Bunny Nabarula, about 84.
Members of the Lauder family of the Ngapa clan laid false claim to the land when they along with the Northern Land Council (NLC) nominated the site for a national nuclear waste storage facility, say members of four other clans who are against it.
In 2007 the NLC nominated the site to the commonwealth and agreed on a package of $9m to be held in a charitable trust, $2m for a road on Indigenous land and $1m for scholarships over five years. A $200,000 payment was made to a narrow group of Indigenous families, which Nabarula dismissed as dirty money.
She told the court her Milwayi people had principal claim to the land, and that the Ngapa dreaming just passed through it……..http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/09/indigenous-elder-speaks-out-nuclear-waste-dump-trial
Tony Abbott in Canada – setting up an Anti Action on Climate Change Alliance!
Tony Abbott seeks alliance to thwart President Obama on climate change policy Mark Kenny, The Age June 10, 2014 Tony Abbott is seeking a conservative alliance among “like-minded” countries, aiming to dismantle global moves to introduce carbon pricing, and undermine a push by US President Barack Obama to push the case for action through forums such as the G20.
Visiting Ottawa for a full day of talks with the conservative Canadian Prime Minister and close friend Stephen Harper, Mr Abbott flagged intentions to build a new centre-right alliance led by Canada, Britain and Australia along with India and New Zealand………
The combined front would attempt to counter recent moves by the Obama administration to lift the pace of climate change abatement via policies such as a carbon tax or state-based emissions trading……..
The uncompromising attitude of both leaders suggests neither is inclined to yield to pressure from the US to revive the issue of climate change ahead of next years’ climate summit, nor back any international coordination such as additional regulations or a trading scheme…….
US officials have also been pushing Australia – so far unsuccessfully – to include climate change on the agenda for November’s G20 meeting in Brisbane.
……..Opposition Leader Bill Shorten took aim at the Prime Minister’s ”flat-Earth views”, accusing him of being out of touch with Australians and world leaders such as Mr Obama. He told Fairfax Media that climate change was ”not just an environmental issue, it is a security issue and it is absolutely an economic issue”.
But Mr Shorten said that Mr Obama, along with other world leaders, had clearly recognised that clean air, low pollution and new technologies would be good for the global economy and job creation. He said Mr Abbott ”shouldn’t shirk the issue when he meets President Obama later this week, and he shouldn’t shirk the issue at the G20 later this year”.
While mooted as a potential member of Mr Abbott’s new coalition, British Prime Minister David Cameron has been vocal about the need to tackle climate change, describing it in February as ”one of the most serious threats that the world faces”. Britain, through membership of the European Union, and New Zealand both have emissions trading schemes in place.: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-seeks-alliance-to-thwart-president-obama-on-climate-change-policy-20140609-39t93.html#ixzz34Ih3hcqc
Tony Abbott gets it wrong on international carbon policies
Tony Abbott missing signs of world’s switch to carbon trading, experts say, Tom Arup, Environment editor, The Age June 10, 2014 The world’s two largest economies – China and the US – are increasingly adopting carbon trading to cut greenhouse gas emissions, contrary to suggestions by Prime Minister Tony Abbott that other countries are not introducing schemes.
Speaking in Canada, Mr Abbott said carbon taxes and emissions trading were the wrong way to address climate change.
He said the debate was not about the existence of climate change, but the best approach to respond to it and he backed ”direct action measures” such as improving energy efficiency and planting more trees.
Asked if direct action was preferable to an international emissions trading scheme, Mr Abbott said: ”There is no sign – no sign – that trading schemes are increasingly being adopted. If anything trading schemes are being discarded, not adopted.”
Kobad Bhavnagri, Australian head at analysts Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said it was wrong to claim trading schemes were being discarded. He said China started six regional emissions trading schemes in the past year – building towards a national scheme expected to be in place this decade.
n the US, he said the recently announced emissions limits on coal-fired power plants – expressed as targets imposed on the states by the Environment Protection Agency – would likely lead to more states adopting emissions trading to deliver required cuts.
”Apart from Australia I don’t think any other country has plans to unwind an emissions trading scheme. That assertion they are being discarded is incorrect,” Mr Bhavnagri said.
”In the world’s two biggest economies – and the world’s two biggest emitters – we are seeing quite a deliberate move towards carbon pricing and emissions trading, not away.”………. http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-missing-signs-of-worlds-switch-to-carbon-trading-experts-say-20140609-39t8q.html#ixzz34IeDi0Z9
Federal Court holds nuclear waste dump dispute hearing at Muckaty – the government’s planned dump site
Muckaty Station: Federal Court hears Indigenous clan’s cultural stories at proposed nuclear waste dump site, ABC News 10 June 14 By Robert Herrick A traditional land owner has yelled and sworn during a Federal Court hearing examining plans to build a nuclear waste dump in Central Australia. Bunny Nabarula, a Milwayi woman, stood up and cursed before the court as she vented frustration over the kind of legacy a facility for storage of low and intermediate-grade nuclear waste at Muckaty Station, near Tennant Creek, would be for future generations.
She told a special sitting of the court, on country, that she was passionate about keeping her land pristine and a $12 million compensation package was “dirty money”.
The court is holding a rare hearing on country as it considers a challenge to plans to build a nuclear waste storage site on the remote station.
The Northern Land Council nominated the site on behalf of members of the Ngapa group, but four other clans have laid claim to the land and say it is adjacent to a sacred site……..
Traditional owner Kylie Sambo says a hearing on the station gives the Federal Court a real understanding of the land’s cultural significance.”I reckon its very important because they need to see how how we feel about the country and how the country is to us and actually be out here on country and getting the feeling and knowing and understanding that we have,” she said.
Another traditional owner Dick Foster pointed out the culturally significant parts of the site, important for passage to a sacred area where men’s business takes place. Paddy Gibson from the Jumbunna House of Learning says many traditional owners have been given the impression the waste is not very harmful.
“Some of the most dangerous waste in the world is a spent nuclear fuel rod and that’s what from day one has been the issue that’s in contention here, that they want to use this as a dumping ground for some of Australia’s most toxic industrial waste,” he said……http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-09/muckaty-station-federal-court-hearing/5510346
Rio Tinto cuts uranium mining jobs
Rio Tinto to cut 265 jobs at Rossing Uranium mine in Namibia, Live Mint Felix Njini, 10 June 14 Rossing Uranium says production to fall to slightly less than 2,000 tonnes in 2014 from 2,409 tonnes in 2013 Windhoek: Rio Tinto Group will cut the workforce at its Rossing uranium site in Namibia by 23% as the world’s second-largest mining company responds to weaker demand for the metal used to fuel nuclear power plants.
CSIRO’s breakthrough Solar Steam technology
Supercritical Solar Steam Could Rival Fossil Fuels http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=4338 10 June 14 A breakthrough by CSIRO scientists could see solar energy replace fossil fuels in the most advanced power stations in the world. A research program at the CSIRO Energy Centre in Newcastle focused on using solar power to create supercritical steam – super-hot, pressurised steam – to drive electric turbines in large-scale power plant.
The CSIRO team broke a world record for heating and pressurising steam using only solar thermal power in May. The work has been hailed as a coup for the renewable energy industry. Previously, only coal or gas-fired plants could achieve temperatures high enough generate supercritical steam.
Conventional solar thermal power plants currently generate subcritical steam – but CSIRO believes if these plants could be converted to supercritical steam power, the overall cost of solar electricity would be significantly lowered. “It’s like breaking the sound barrier; this step change proves solar has the potential to compete with the peak performance capabilities of fossil fuel sources,” said CSIRO Energy Director, Dr Alex Wonhas.
“Instead of relying on burning fossil fuels to produce supercritical steam, this breakthrough demonstrates that the power plants of the future could instead be using the free, zero emission energy of the sun to achieve the same result.”
Researchers used CSIRO’s test solar thermal plant in Newcastle to break the world record for solar steam, reaching temperatures of 570 degrees Celsius, at a pressure of 23.5 megapascals (a measure of force per unit area). It is this combination of enormous pressure and heat that makes the breakthrough such an important milestone for solar technology.
The CSIRO says the breakthrough was made possible through a $5.68 million research program supported by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and collaboration with researchers from solar thermal giant, Abengoa Solar.
ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht said that while work remained before supercritical solar steam technology would rival fossil fuels, “This breakthrough brings solar thermal energy a step closer to cost competitiveness with fossil fuel generated power.”
Source
Cautious hope for the future of renewable energy in Australia
Renewable energy industry cautiously optimistic for the future GREGG BORSCHMANN , ABC News 9 June 14, After months of doom and gloom, a cautious optimism is emerging that Australia’s large scale renewable energy target will not be scrapped.
FOR MOST OF THIS year, speculation and headlines have not been good for Australia’s renewable energy sector. . Much has been made of self-professed climate change ‘sceptic’ and pro-nuclear advocate, Dick Warburton, heading up a review of the renewable energy target (RET). And last week ABC’s Lateline aired claims that members of the review panel had conflicts of interest.
But Miles George, chair of the Clean Energy Council, has reasons to be mildly optimistic about the future of the RET.
“There have been four reviews in the last four years and they have all essentially come up with the same result – that if you cut the renewable energy target, electricity consumers will actually pay more for their electricity, not less,” he told RN Breakfast…….
Last month, the Australian Industry Group made what may be the pivotal submission to the Warburton Review. It argued against deep cuts, saying the RET had lowered wholesale prices and abolishing it would not lead to lower power prices. AIG chief executive Innes Willox said that unstitching the RET would not deliver ”overall benefits to energy users”………
The three major players in the Australian electricity market, Origin, AGL and Energy Australia, are all keen to scrap or dilute the RET, even though all have interests in wind projects.
The rationale is simple: the incumbents don’t want extra capacity in an already over-supplied market as it will only depress wholesale prices further……..http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2014/06/10/4020482.htm
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 