Antinuclear

Nuclear and Climate News in Australia this week

AUSTRALIA

Radioactive wastes.  The Australian government is still licking its wounds from the debacle of their attempt to impose a waste dump on Aboriginal land at Muckaty  – (the shame, with all their resources,  of being beaten by a few elderly and poor black women).  However, that hasn’t stopped them from calling for volunteers in Aboriginal communities to accept a (presumably bigger) bribe to host the dump.

Meanwhile, saner voices in Australia are calling for an independent National Commission to assess radioactive waste management based on good science, good process and acceptance that social and human concerns are valid and need to be addressed alongside technical criteria.

Uranium. Queensland government mouths stuff about protecting the Great barrier Reef, but in fact, is quite prepared to export uranium through Townsville, if need be.

Climate Change.  Even a top  former coal executive is getting worried about us having a government driven by anti science and climate denialism

Renewable Energy. The battle rages as renewables become ever more effective and cheaper. Big coal power – AGL, Energy Australia and Origin Energy lobby their tiny minds off trying to get rid of the Renewable Energy Target.  In the  ACT there’s a movement against the  proposed 7MW solar farm to be built at Uriarra – to my mind, it’s suspiciously like the supposed “community anti-wind” movement . Just wondering how much backing there from the fossil fuel industries.   Not surprising- as this new solar farm will be, in the fashionable jargon – a national game-changer in electricity technology

Solar power. I just can’t resist publicising the nifty solar thing that has been going on in Port Augusta, S. Australia for 3 years. Now Council has approved an expansion of Sundrop Farms, which uses cutting-edge solar thermal technology to desalinate seawater for irrigation and to heat and cool greenhouses. The Sundrop Farms System allows land normally not deemed suitable for agriculture or horticulture to produce large quantities of food.

POLITICS.  Nuclear and Climate issues are so serious that they are above politics. I try to keep this in mind. However, it would be hypocrisy to pretend that these issues are not political in Australia. Our children and grand-children’s future depends on the management of these issues.  We are in desperate need of getting good government – we don’t have that now.

August 17, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina reviews