Australia is in blatant violation of the Nuclear non Proliferation Treaty (NPT)
A BLATANT VIOLATION OF Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty–SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 By Eurasia Review By Yusra Mushtaq Amongst the various accords of Arms Control and Disarmament, the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) has widely been adhered to by most of the countries, which gives testament to the worth of this treaty. Nevertheless, it also has been the fate of being violated again and again by its own signatory members — most recently by Australia which signed a uranium deal with India, ade-facto, but non-signatory state. Previously, the US a big proponent of NPT, paved the way for this kind of illegal nuclear cooperation with the non-NPT state of India by signing a deal back in 2005. The blatant violation of NPT left no room for India to sign this treaty because it already enjoys full benefits as if it were a NPT member state without any restricted conditions.
Largely based on the three pillars of Non-Proliferation, Disarmament and Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy, the NPT serves as a central bargain. “The NPT non-nuclear-weapon states agree never to acquire nuclear weapons and the NPT nuclear-weapon states in exchange agrees to share the benefits of peaceful nuclear technology and to pursue nuclear disarmament aimed at the ultimate elimination of their nuclear arsenals”. There are 190 states which have joined the NPT club. It is extended for indefinite period of time which reflects its obligatory status. In order to make Global Nuclear Non Proliferation and NPT particularly more fruitful, many substantive initiatives have been taken. They are dominated by export controls regime like Nuclear Suppliers Group and enhanced verification measures of IAEA Additional Protocols. The sole aim of all efforts is to end every possible mean to acquire nuclear weapons. Within this context, success becomes a far off cry as NPT is in a fix between global and national interests of respective states.
Australia signed a deal to sell uranium to India to coin the natural blessing of one third of world’s uranium reserves for the sake of national interests. It is the first non-NPT signatory nation with whom Australia has inked a nuclear deal. Australia is the tenth country in the world that has signed a nuclear deal with India. Both the states are joining hands happily while violating the norms of NPT so blatantly. There is a sheer absence of handwringing editorials at the international news desks. Between the celebrations of this so-called triumph, no one is talking of the sanctity of international arms treaties…….
an irony for the Global Non Proliferation Regime that there are high voices for NPT to be adhered to, but at the same time its own vocal members have optimized national interests over the security of the whole globe. All are quiet on the sheer violence on this international violation of a treaty because it’s a matter of great powers vested national interests with a de facto state. For this Lao Tzu, a Chinese philosopher stated; “The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.” Yusra Mushtaq is a scholar on the issues of defense and security. http://www.eurasiareview.com/26092014-blatant-violation-npt-oped/
Australia vilified at New York Climate Summit
Australia’s climate stance savagely condemned at New York summit SMH September 27, 2014 Nick O’Malley US correspondent for Fairfax Media “…….in his address to the General Assembly, Leonardo DiCaprio sought to buttress his call for drastic and immediate action to reduce carbon emissions with a voice harder to challenge than his own.
The speech was well given and well received, but it turned out that his prediction was not entirely correct. Australia did not have to wait for history, it was vilified for its stance on climate change on the spot…….”I’m disappointed but not surprised with Australia,” Pa Ousman Jarju, Gambia’s Climate Change Minister who represents the 54 least developed nations at UN climate talks, told the Responding to Climate Change analysis website later. “What the Foreign Minister [Julie Bishop] said was as good as not coming. It’s nothing… as good as not attending.”Indeed Tony Abbott did not attend Tuesday’s meeting, though many attendees detected a reference to Australia – among a handful of other notable recalcitrants – in Barack Obama’s keynote speech……..
it was Australia and to an extent Canada that were subject to most of the opprobrium, in part because they have already enjoyed the economic benefits of carbon emissions, in part because China is perceived to be on the brink of significant action.
One of the successes of Tuesday’s meeting was China’s announcement for the first time ever that it would set an emissions target, aiming to reduce its emissions of carbon per unit of GDP by 45 per cent by 2020, compared with levels in 2005.
“As a responsible major country, a major developing country, China will make even greater effort to address climate change,” Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli said.
“All countries need to follow the path of green and low carbon development that suits their national conditions, [and] set forth post-2020 actions in light of actual circumstances.”
An adviser who attended a meeting of small island states that excoriated Australia’s inaction on climate said the group now viewed China’s commitments optimistically.
The reaction to Australia’s presence could not have been more different. Tony de Brum, the Foreign Minister of the Marshall Islands, told Fairfax that small islands states were frustrated and baffled by Australia’s stance, especially as they had regarded the nation as a “big brother down south” and advocated for its seat on the United Nations Security Council.
Asked if “betrayal” was too strong a word, he paused and said, “Now it is, maybe not soon.”
On Tuesday the Pulitzer Prize-winning climate change news website Inside Climate News published a story about the “Canada-Australia axis of carbon”. It suggested that not only were the two nations not willing to pull their weight, but that they were seeking to derail the binding agreement on emissions reductions at next year’s talks in Paris that many view as the world’s last best hope to prevent catastrophic climate change.
“Neither the prime ministers of Canada nor Australia will speak at the summit, and the subordinates they have sent will not be offering the kind of “bold” new steps that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is seeking on the way to a treaty in Paris late next year,” it reported.
“Instead, these two governments, with their energy-rich domains sprawling across opposite ends of the earth, will present strikingly similar defences against what much of the rest of the world is offering. And their stance is earning them opprobrium among advocates of strong and immediate action.”
The online magazine Slate published a story headlined, “The Saudi Arabia of the Pacific, How Australia became the dirtiest polluter in the developed world.”
It charted Australian climate politics since the last election – noting for an international audience Australia’s history as a leader in solar technology, the creation and then scrapping of a carbon trading scheme, the promotion of climate change sceptics to key advisory roles, the attacks on the solar industry, the scrapping of the mining tax, the failed bid to expand logging in Tasmanian wilderness.
“Let’s hope that the rapacious policies of the current government represent only a temporary bout of insanity,” Slate concluded. “If the Australian people cannot recover some of their earlier regard for their environment they may find in time that their great land is no longer merely apathetic toward their residence there but openly hostile.” http://www.smh.com.au/world/australias-climate-stance-savagely-condemned-at-new-york-summit-20140926-10mc0x.html#ixzz3Eac7HHfN
“Crisis Without End” – report from New York Symposium on Fukushima
“Crisis Without End: The Medical and Ecological Consequences of the Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe,” edited by Helen Caldicott (The New Press, October 2014), is full of those nuclear secrets.Caldicott, founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, gathered several outstanding nuclear power experts at the New York Academy of Sciences for a discussion of the effects of the horrendous 2011 nuclear disaster in Japan. The result is “Crisis Without End,” an insightful and very timely story of the incompatibility of man with a technology that can literally wipe out or vaporize humans and poison their future for millennia.
Abolish the Nukes Before they Abolish Us, Huffington Post, 27 Sept 14“………Since 1945, the nuclear bombs are a secret-guarded calamity. They are in the hands of the military. The civilian nukes are in the hands of companies. In the 1950s, President Dwight Eisenhower sold “nuclear electricity” to the world under atoms for peace!
Some seventy years after Hiroshima, there are four-hundred-and-forty nuclear power plants in the world. One hundred of these nukes are in the United States. And just like the atomic and hydrogen bombs, no one knows how to protect us from the deleterious substances created in the process of using uranium, a bomb material, to boil water for the production of electricity.
Experts speak of radiation or radioactive elements or radionuclides to describe the poisons of both civilian and military nukes. These include tritium, cesium-137, strontium-90, and plutonium. These radioactive elements are exceptionally toxic for a very long time.
Cesium-137, for example, has a half-life of thirty years, remaining toxic for more than three hundred years. It causes cancer to the brain, ovaries and testes. It is also responsible for malignant muscle tumors and genetic disease.
Plutonium is even more dangerous. It has a half-life of 24,400 years. This makes it deleterious for about 250,000 years. About 2 pounds of plutonium dust has the potential of global holocaust, killing billions of people. Put 10 pounds of plutonium in an atomic weapon and you can vaporize a city. Despite this horrible, nay, murderous fact, private companies “operate” nuclear power plants, each of which produces 500 pounds of plutonium per year.
Governments and company “owners” of electricity nukes know that no radiation is safe: radiation causes cancer. But governments and nuclear power companies keep secrets, until accidents reap apart more than those secrets. Continue reading
Outside Tony Abbott’s office, protestors rally for renewable energy
Community and industry come together to fight to keep the Renewable Energy Target http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/northern-beaches/community-
and-industry-come-together-to-fight-to-keep-the-renewable-energy-target/story-fngr8hax-1227071849256 CAYLA DENGATE MANLY DAILY SEPTEMBER 26, 2014 11 More than 200 people gathered at Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s Manly office today as part of a national day of action to fight for the Renewable Energy Target. The protest comes less than a month after the Federal Government released a report recommending the target be watered down or closed to new investment.
The scheme is designed to reduce emissions from electricity, provide financial incentives for new renewable energy projects and ensure at least 20 per cent of Australia’s electricity come from renewable sources by 2020.
Curl Curl Solar Business Services director Nigel Morris said there was no sense to getting rid of the target, which among other things, provided a discount for solar installation in homes.
“We know 4.5 million Australians wake up every day and make a cup of coffee in a solar-powered house,” Mr Morris said. “For the government to consider axing the target … makes no sense.”
Solar Energy Industry Association national chair Brian England said Australia could be left behind. “When the rest of the world increases renewable energy, we’re winding it back.”
Clean Energy Council acting chief executive Kane Thornton said the industry was affected by uncertainty. “People don’t want to invest in solar or wind when they don’t know if it has a future in Australia,” he said.
Solar Citizens campaigns director Claire O’Rourke said removing the target could increase power bills.
Manly Councillor Cathy Griffin said the event was a success.
“This is the biggest protest I’ve seen outside Tony Abbott’s office,” Ms Griffin said. “It shows people are passionate about renewable energy and going totally off fossil fuels.”
TEPCO abandons failed plan for Fukushima ice wall
Tepco to give up the preceding frozen wall and directly fill the trenches with cement instead http://fukushima-diary.com/2014/09/tepco-give-preceding-frozen-wall-directly-fill-trenches-cement-instead/Tepco is going to give up the preceding water wall project and simply pour cement instead, they announced in the press conference of 9/22/2014. Extremely highly contaminated water is “retained” in the underground trenches, which are connected to the plant buildings.
Though Tepco is denying this, there is a possibility that these trenches are also severely damaged by the continuous explosions and earthquake, keep letting the coolant water leak underground and sea directly from plant buildings. Tepco was attempting to separate the plant buildings and trenches by frozen water wall in order to pump up the extrenely highly contaminated water retained in the trenches.
However the frozen water wall has never been completed.
Instead of the frozen water wall, Tepco announced they developed the special type of cement to fill the entire trenches.In the simple math, if they pour cement, the same volume of contaminated water would be pushed out of the trenches. However Tepco states it would not leak out because they would pump up the contaminated water as they pour cement.
Because the trenches and the plant buildings are connected, they would end up having to pump up the same volume water as the entire capacity of the trenches. Tepco hasn’t announced if they prepare the enough contaminated water storage. http://www.tepco.co.jp/tepconews/library/archive-j.html
Across Australia, citizens rally in support of Renewable Energy Target
Renewable energy target rallies held across Australia The Guardian, 27 Sept 14, Protesters gather in 30 locations at events organised by renewable energy lobby groups calling for the 20% target to be retained Rallies have been held across Australia calling on the federal government to uphold a commitment to renewable energy.
At some 30 locations around the nation on Friday, peaceful protesters waved placards and made speeches outside the offices of Coalition MPs and senators.
“Tasmania is a renewable energy paradise,” climate action spokesman Phil Harrington called from the back of a ute outside the Hobart office of Liberal senator Eric Abetz.
The leader of the government in the upper house wasn’t inside his office to hear speeches, which outlined the billions of dollars worth of investment Tasmania is set to reap from renewable energy projects including wind farms.
A similar scene backing the renewable energy target (RET) was on show in Perth outside the office of deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop, where protesters were addressed by state MP for Perth, Alannah MacTiernan.
MacTiernan said it was embarrassing countries all over the world were supporting market mechanisms to combat climate change, but Australia was backing down.
“Where is this concept that we’re out here on our own?” she asked the crowd. “We have lost our price on carbon but we will bring that back.
“But what we still have here is the renewable energy target and we must make sure that we keep this credible target.”…….http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/26/renewable-energy-target-rallies-held-across-australia
Melbourne and Moree get new solar businesses and employment openings
Spanish renewable energy firm sets up Melbourne-based subsidiary, THE FIFTH ESTATE 23 September 2014 Spain’s Elecnor Group has ignored the current political climate in Australia’s renewable energy sector and launched an infrastructure subsidiary based in Melbourne. ……..
Elecnor Australia’s first project is the $164 million solar photovoltaic farm in Moree, New South Wales for the Moree Solar Farm Company Pty Ltd, part of Fotowatio Renewables Venture. The joint venture originally included Pacific Hydro, which announced in August it was withdrawing from the project due to the policy-driven uncertainties impacting the renewable energy industry.
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency has contributed $101.7 million towards construction and operation of the project, and $47 million has been provided by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.
Covering 191 hectares, the farm will comprise 232,960 panels with a forecast annual output of 150 gigawatt-hours direct into the main energy grid, enough to power about 15,000 homes. It is expected to be complete and commissioned by the second quarter of 2015.
In a media statement, Elecnor said Australia will be a base for it to expand operations in the Asia-Pacific region, focusing on developing business infrastructure and renewable energies………
The Moree project has already created a number of positions to be based at the town, with the firm earlier this month advertising for an assistant project manager (engineer), a construction manager, six technical engineers as sub-contract supervisors, mechanical and electrical engineers, a civil engineer, two draftpersons, accounts and administration, purchasing and logistics.http://www.thefifthestate.com.au/business/investment-deals/spanish-renewable-energy-firm-sets-up-melbourne-based-subsidiary/67877
Attitudes of big business changing to support of climate change policy
Sea change: big US businesses now support climate policy theguardian.com, Saturday 27 September 2014 Jennifer Kho Climate Week might have been a washout politically, but insiders found reasons for optimism in the business discussions Plenty of attendees expressed disappointment with the United Nations climate talks this week in New York. “The bottom line is I’m not turning cartwheels after the talks yesterday,” said Greg Barker, UK prime minister David Cameron’s envoy on climate change, at a Climate Week session on clean energy investment Wednesday. “This hasn’t been the show many of us hoped it would be.”
But while the political commitments may have fallen short of the “bold new announcements and action” that UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon called for, several industry insiders found reasons for optimism in the business discussions.
Kevin Moss, head of UK-based telco BT’s Net Good program, said he’s seen a major shift in sentiment from US companies leading up to Climate Week. “In the last few weeks, I’ve been much more encouraged than I was a year ago,” he said. “I think we’re at a turning point.”
It’s an interesting viewpoint from someone who witnessed – and actively supported – climate change policy in Europe, which has outpaced that in the US. There’s still less business resistance to regulation in Europe, Moss said. “But I’m really feeling that changing here (in the US),” he said. “American companies are supporting a price on carbon.”…….
There’s also more objective proof that opinions are changing: the World Bank on Monday announced it had received pledges of support for carbon pricing from 1,000 companies and investors, as well as 73 national and 11 regional governments. And a report from nonprofit CDP earlier this month found that 150 major companies already have put an internal price on carbon.
What has spurred this change?
Compared to 2010, when a US climate bill failed and climate talks were held in Cancun, Mexico, clean energy has grown a lot cheaper and has become a far more mainstream investment, Juska said. Meanwhile, successful state and local climate policies – such as in New York, California and Hawaii – have instilled more confidence, he added…….
Meanwhile, the private sector has made “stunning advances”, such as dramatically cutting the cost of clean energy, Barker said. And the perceived risk from climate policy has also fallen as several countries – such as the UK – have demonstrated the ability to cut emissions while growing the economy.
“There are reasons to be cheerful, but I think one of the strongest reasons to be cheerful is finance,” Barker said during a session on clean energy investment at Bloomberg on Wednesday. “There is without doubt a growing appetite and interest in finding ways to harness the great growth industry of the 21st century, which is clean energy.”……http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/sep/25/business-came-out-on-top-during-climate-week?commentpage=1
Citigroup predicts a good future for the Australian solar market
Outlook for Australian Solar Market is Positive, says Citigroup http://www.energydigital.com/renewables/3600/Outlook-for-Australian-Solar-Market-is-Positive-says-Citigroup Kevin Smead 26 Sept 14
In a surprisingly optimistic forecast, Citigroup predicted that the Australian solar market would reach 14 GW by 2020. This would require a growth of 2.2 GW per year—with current capacity at 3.5 GW—to reach the predicted goal. This prediction includes both rooftop and utility-scale solar.
The biggest question mark for the prediction remains Australia’s Renewable Energy Target and how its potential scaling back could dramatically affect the solar market, though that ultimately remains to be seen.
“There is no commentary directly linked to the Australian forecasts—which are part of a global solar demand forecast—so it is unclear whether this takes into account any changes to the renewable energy targets,” CleanTechnica’s Giles Parkinson notes. “If the large scale RET stays in place, a large amount of utility-scale solar could be built in Australia—as Bloomberg New Energy Finance has predicted. Certainly, many companies such as US-based Recurrent Energy, Spain’s FRV and others have large pipelines of projects.”
The Australian market is certainly an attractive one due to its high-value natural resources. However, the scaling back of the RET could pull the rug out from under the rooftop solar industry, as subsidies and any form of aid would effectively vanish.
Still, some parts of Australia are fighting for renewable energy. South Australia has committed to a lofty goal of using 50% renewable energy by 2025. This, and other smaller state initiatives, could help drive an industry that the federal government looks to scale back—and ultimately help make Citigroup’s prediction come true.
Australian governments continue to disempower Aborigines
the combined psychological impact on the remote communities affected was devastating: they went from being small places with a high degree of control over their small, welfare-based economies to being small places wholly run by outsiders with agendas of their own.
This pattern extended across the board: services, housing, jobs as well. With the Intervention came the gradual shut-down of the locally focused, long-running and much-modified Community Development Employment Program
A decade after ATSIC was axed, Aborigines still have little say NICOLAS ROTHWELL THE AUSTRALIAN SEPTEMBER 27, 2014 A DECADE ago, after a protracted period of reviews, critical reports and controversies, then-prime minister John Howard announced, with bipartisan support, the abolition of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission. “The experiment in elected representation for indigenous people has been a failure,” he declared. It was the start of a cascading process of disempowerment that has continued unabated ever since.
Fresh slogans and watchwords were heard in Canberra back then: there was much talk of combating remote community chaos through “shared responsibility agreements”, of increasing economic opportunity and freeing indigenous people from the passive welfare trap. But at the peak of the federal bureaucracy a new phase was dawning in indigenous affairs: one of increased control and surveillance, of close statistical monitoring and constraint, the better to effect social reform at the scale of an entire population group.
This deep, persisting mismatch between announced aims and actual methods defines the landscape of indigenous politics to this day. In place of self-determination and reconciliation, the rhetoric of recognition and empowerment now fills the air — but autonomy and institutional power have been withdrawn from Aboriginal groups and communities, step by relentless step.
A clear blueprint for the next stage in this process was unveiled with the release in late July of the artfully titled report by Andrew Forrest, Creating Parity, which in pursuit of its program of full equality of opportunity recommends blanket welfare income management and intensive oversight of infants and young children in “target” indigenous communities……… Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 