Anglican Church urges Abbott to change his climate policies
Respect climate science: Anglicans urge Tony Abbott to change tack on climate change policies, The Age, 4 July 14, Tom Arup Environment editor, The Anglican Church has told the Abbott government to change its approach to climate change, urging it to respect and base its policy on scientific evidence.
At a meeting in Adelaide, the church’s Australian general synod passed a unanimous motion calling on the government to “respect and act upon relevant independent evidence-based scientific advice’’ on climate change.
The 23 dioceses of the church said they were gravely concerned that Australia’s target to cut carbon dioxide emissions – five per cent below 2000 levels by 2020 – was well short of what was needed.
They said they deeply regretted that it was “future generations and other forms of life” that would “bear the real cost of our heavy dependence on carbon-based energy”.
Perth Bishop Tom Wilmot, a church leader on environmental issues, told Fairfax Media that the environment was such an important issue it should not be left just to politicians and economists to discuss it.
‘‘My concern is the Abbott government seems to be deconstructing almost everything that was put in place over the last decade or so to protect the environment,’’ he said.
‘‘It seems to be neutering any scientific voice and, in fact, any voice that seeks to speak on environmental matters.’
He said the appointment of businessman and self-described climate sceptic Dick Warburton to head a review of the renewable energy target was a cynical way of pre-determining its outcome.
And he accused Environment Minister Greg Hunt of being dishonest about the effectiveness of the carbon price, which is expected to be repealed next week with support of new crossbench senators.
Bishop Wilmot said he was concerned about the government’s attitude to environmental policy generally, including handing approval powers for big developments to state governments.
Time to say NO to uranium mining in Queensland
Uranium Mines in Qld? http://workersbushtelegraph.com.au/2014/07/03/uranium-mines-in-qld/ QLD: Open for business? As of July 1, the Newman government is accepting applications for uranium mines in Queensland.Canadian company Mega Uranium can now apply to start mining at Ben Lomond, 50ks from Townsville. Laramide Resources, also Canadian, will now be able to develop its site Westmoreland near the NT border. Summit Resources an “Australian-based” – (multinationally owned) company will be looking to open up sites near Mt Isa…
at Speakers Corner -outside Queensland Parliament House (George Street Entrance)………
July 1 2014, the Newman government opens the door to uranium mine approvals.
Hiroshima. Chernobyl. Fukushima. Mary Kathleen. Kakadu. Maralinga…
We have not forgotten.
Uranium is not a smart business option or job creator. Uranium = Death.
It is time to say no. Queensland Parliament will be sitting on August 6. Join us outside to say NO! to uranium mines and radioactive lies!
India now criminalising opposition to nuclear power
India – now nuclear and environmental dissent is a crime Ecologist, Kumar Sundaram 4th July 2014 In modern India any form of dissent from the neoliberal corporate model of development is being criminalised, writes Kumar Sundaram. Opponents of nuclear power, coal mines, GMOs, giant dams, are all under attack as enemies of the state and a threat to economic growth.
In the same week that France decided to lower its appetite for nuclear energy and increase its reliance on renewable sources, the Indian home ministry started hounding Greenpeace for its role in “stalling India’s development”by opposing nuclear power and genetically modified organisms.
A crackdown on other anti-nuclear networks like the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP) and the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) is being widely anticipated.
The crackdown followed a confidential report by India’s premier internal intelligence agency, the Intelligence Bureau, titled ‘Concerning efforts by select foreign funded NGOs to ‘take down’ Indian development projects
Stirring up a media frenzy
The 21-page report named a number of prominent anti-nuclear activists like Praful Bidwai, Achin Vanaik, Admiral Ramdas, and Surendra Gadekar as well as a number of organisations. Activists have raised questions about how the report made its way to the media before reaching the ministries and the Prime Minister’s office.
S. P. Udayakumar, a leading activist against the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, has taken the Indian government to court, highlighting the serious threat to his life posed by the media frenzy over the report. He fears for his life, stating in a recent interview:
“I am a threat to nuclear energy. I am a threat to the global nuclear industry. The governments of India, Russia, France and America are all together now.
“We are a threat to all of them. Their business interests are hurt. They are going to dump their outdated technology on the hapless people of India. We point out their faults and so we are being targeted……….
Criminalising dissent
The Intelligence Bureau report reduces the diverse political landscape of India – comprising Gandhians, leftists, tribal movements, funded NGOs and activists who despise them, spontaneous protests and organised groups, academics and independent researchers – to a homogenous block bent on putting roadblocks to the Indian growth dream.
Linking all aspirations for a safer and cleaner future for India to foreign instigation, the report seeks to criminalise dissent.
Raising the ‘foreign hand’ bogey against anti-nuclear activists is not new in India. In the course of the massive people’s resistance to the Kudankulam reactor, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh blamed US-based NGOs for instigating protests against the Russian-imported reactors.
Soon, this malignment from the top political level translated into brutal police violence against the villagers:
- Fisherfolk’s houses and boats were ransacked, two agitators were killed, hundreds were arrested (including women and teens),
- passports were confiscated from the youth in the area who used to work in the Arabian gulf countries, and
- outrageous British-era charges of sedition and ‘war against the Indian state’ were levelled against thousands of protesters.http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2460076/india_now_nuclear_and_environmental_dissent_is_a_crime.html
No existing technology to solve problem of Fukushima’s melted nuclear fuel
Top U.S. Official: “The reality is, no technology exists anywhere to solve problem” of Fukushima’s melted fuel — TV: Molten mass “will scorch into the earth” if not cooled, a ‘China Syndrome’; Geysers of radioactive steam shooting up for miles around (VIDEOS) http://enenews.com/top-official-reality-technology-exists-anywhere-solve-problem-fukushimas-melted-fuel-tv-molten-mass-will-scorch-earth-cooled-china-syndrome-geysers-radioactive-steam-shooting-miles-around-videos?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29
NHK Nuclear Watch: US View on Fukushima Daiichi, July 2, 2014 (at 2:00 in):- NHK: Experts say that one of the most difficult challenges of decommissioning the plant is removing fuel debris… And Magwood says that there is no magic wand to wipeout this problem.
- William Magwood, US Nuclear Regulatory Commission: I think people have to be realistic how difficult this is, how long it’s going to take. During my visit to Japan this week, people have asked me from time to time, “Are there technologies in the US that can help solve this problem?” The reality is there is no technology that exists anywhere to solve this problem.
- Watch the NHK broadcast here
‘Modern Marvels‘, History Channel (at 11:30 in):
- Narrator: With the [water] pumps off, the core is being uncovered and its temperature is over 2,000 degrees and rising. When the core reaches 5,000 degrees it will melt, becoming a molten mass — metallic lava that will burn through the 8 inch steel containment vessel. Once out of the plant it will scorch into the earth itself. What happens next could become an unrivaled technological disaster.
- Wilborn Hampton, New York Times reporter: They reach the water table, it will immediately turn to steam, boiling steam. There will be geysers of radioactivity steam shooting up in parking lots and driveways and streets and houses for miles around.
- Narrator: The nightmare scenario is known as the ‘China Syndrome’. Land surrounding the plant will become uninhabitable. A study some years earlier has suggested upwards of 40,000 people could die if the ‘China Syndrome’ becomes reality.
- Watch the History Channel broadcast here
It’s getting harder for the Murdoch Limited News to convince Australians on Climate Denial
When will Australia have its Kodak moment on renewable energy? The Conversation, David Holmes, Senior Lecturer, Communications and Media Studies at Monash University 4 July 14, Ever since Clive Palmer announced that the Palmer United Party (PUP) would support the retention of the Renewable Energy Target (RET), The Australian and News Corp’s tabloids have really ramped up their attack on both renewables and Palmer.
Immediately following the press conference that Palmer shared with Al Gore, News Corp papers presented it as a great victory for the Abbott government and completely downplayed the fact that Palmer had actually committed to retaining the RET, the Climate Change Authority and the Renewable Energy Finance corporation. Continue reading
Australian Capital Territory’s move towards being the nation’s green energy beacon
ACT will pay less to become green energy beacon, Canberra Times July 3, 2014 John Thistleton Funding the ACT’s ambitious 90 per cent renewable energy target by 2020 could be marginally lower from the repeal of the carbon tax and likely watering down of the national RET.
ANU energy and climate economist Dr Frank Jotzo expects renewable energy developers to sharpen competitive bids to supply the ACT with renewable energy because of wider impacts across Australia of climate change policies.
Dr Jotzo says complex interactions will determine how much the ACT needs to do and spend to achieve its 90 per cent renewable target.
The ACT government estimate of each household’s additional energy cost peaking at $250 a year in 2020 was significant, and any change to that was likely to be marginal, Dr Jotzo said.
“In a bigger sense, the more important effect really is the ACT, by continuing with their renewables policy, will stand out more in the national context [and] it will be for the time being, the only remaining beacon of an ambitious renewable energy policy.”………
Dr Jotzo will be speaking at a seminar on Monday night at the University of Canberra on new energy futures, along with South East Region of Renewable Energy Excellence chair Liz Veitch.
SERREE is establishing an industry cluster in the ACT region of renewable energy generators, businesses, researchers and policymakers, who will collaborate and build a wealth of knowledge, such as best practice on engaging with the community.
“Community engagement is so important to the sustainability of the industry, it’s an area that needs work,” Ms Veitch said. http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/act-will-pay-less-to-become-green-energy-beacon-20140704-zsupt.html#ixzz36dTzRbEr
Warren Mundine ‘raises his eyebrows’, but Nova Peris speaks out, on Tony Abbott racist gaffe
Nova Peris attacks Tony Abbott over ‘unsettled’ land THE AUSTRALIAN JULY 05, 2014 Patricia Karvelas LABOR senator Nova Peris has condemned Tony Abbott for suggesting Australia was unsettled before British occupation.
And Mr Abbott’s chief indigenous adviser [Warren Mundine] admits he “raised his eyebrows” 
when the Prime Minister said we had all benefited from Britain’s original foreign investment because Australia was “unsettled” before the British arrived.
After delivering the keynote address at the Economic and Social Outlook conference on Thursday night, Mr Abbott was asked about foreign investment, but his answer suggesting people were not in Australia in 1788 sparked a backlash.
Senator Peris said the comments were highly offensive, dismissive of indigenous peoples and simply incorrect.
“British settlement was not foreign investment. It was occupation,’’ she said. “The comments from the Prime Minister have not just offended Aboriginal Australians but many people around the country.” Senator Peris said Mr Abbott’s comments had setback bipartisan efforts to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Constitution……http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/nova-peris-attacks-tony-abbott-over-unsettled-land/story-fn9hm1pm-1226978303770
Tony Abbott’s gaffe about Aboriginal Australia
Tony Abbott says Australia was ‘unsettled’ before British arrived ‘Our country is unimaginable without foreign investment,’ prime minister says in Q&A after speech urging infrastructure spending Guardian, Helen Davidson. 4 July 14 Australia was “unsettled” before the British arrived and owes its existence to Britain’s “form of foreign investment” in the land, Tony Abbott has said…….
“It’s a typical European colonial thing to say and it probably has its origins in the way in which history, for too long, has been taught in this country,” Dodson told Guardian Australia.
“The British view that the place was terra nullius and unsettled still lingers in the minds of people like our prime minister, I’m afraid. It’s very disappointing. I mean he corrected himself, but even ‘scarcely settled’ isn’t quite accurate either because some areas were heavily settled,” he said.
Dodson, who was also Australia’s first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner at the Human Rights Commission, said the lie of terra nullius as the foundation for colonisation is still being perpetuated, despite the high court overturning it in the historic Mabo ruling in 1992.
Dodson said he did find the other portion of Abbott’s comments – that the British arrival was a “form of foreign investment” – highly offensive.
“Foreign investment of troops who slaughter the bloody populace,” he said.
“The first encounter James Cook had with Aboriginal people was to shoot this ancestor of the Sydney people in the back. This hankering for a mythical past is disturbing.” http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/04/tony-abbott-says-australia-was-unsettled-before-british-arrived
India’s very bad nuclear bargain with USA, Russia and France
India – now nuclear and environmental dissent is a crime Ecologist, Kumar Sundaram 4th July 2014 “…….Nuclear power is the new must-have India made advance promises for reactor purchases from France’s Areva, Russia’s Atomsroy export and US giants like Westinghouse and GE in exchange for these countries’ support for an exemption for India at the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG) in 2008.
India was thus permitted to engage in international nuclear commerce despite its status as a nuclear weapons state outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
It is under the pressure of the commitment to the international nuclear lobby that the Indian government has been bulldozing everything that stands in their way:
- undermining and diluting safety norms,
- pushing through environmental clearances at gun-point,,
- neglecting the adverse economics of these projects,
- crushing grassroots democratic dissent, and
- trying to exempt the nuclear suppliers from liability in the event of any accident….http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2460076/india_now_nuclear_and_environmental_dissent_is_a_crime.html
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 