Dr Helen Caldicott at USA’s National Press Club – on danger of nuclear war
Activist urges alternative strategy to U.S.-Russia relations, and nuclear disarmament October 8, 2014 | By Joshua Higgins joshualhiggins@gmail.com
With ongoing crises ranging from terrorism to Ebola, policymakers, the media and the public are overlooking a threat that could wipe out the entire human race, a 1985 Nobel Peace Prize nominee said at a National Press Club Newsmakers news conference on Wednesday.
That issue, Helen Caldicott said, is nuclear war.
Escalating tensions between the U.S. and Russia over conflict in Ukraine pose a worldwide nuclear risk, according to the Australian physician and civil activist who also is the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary. Both the U.S. and Russia have access to the button that could launch nuclear missiles at Washington, New York, Boston, and other urban centers, she said, adding that the threat goes beyond politics and foreign policy to the health of the global population.
“It’s a medical issue,” Caldicott said at the Newsmakers event. “And it will create the final epidemic of the human race.”
Caldicott, who helped establish Physicians for Social Responsibility, warned some U.S. strategies could do more harm than good, given that Russia holds a large arsenal of nuclear weapons.
“You don’t provoke paranoid countries armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons,” she said, making the case for education through the media as a critical way to expose the issue.
Public awareness can generate enough political capital for leaders in the science and health communities to inform policymakers about the risks to public health and to the global ecosystem that stem from nuclear arms.
“I honestly don’t know how we’re all still here,” Caldicott said.
Still, she said the U.S. can “lead by example” by generating a dialogue on nuclear weapons and urging international disarmament efforts.
While President Barack Obama has expressed support for nuclear disarmament, global challenges such as the Islamic State terrorist threats and Ebola outbreaks have prevented him from acting, Caldicott noted.
“We’ve got a good man,” she said. “But the forces have overwhelmed him.”
Leaders of States plot to facilitate mining on Aboriginal land?
COAG puts focus on land rights THE AUSTRALIAN 11 Oct 14 NORTHERN Territory indigenous land rights legislation will be reviewed in Tony Abbott’s northern Australia white paper after a meeting of state and national leaders was told it was holding back development.The Prime Minister announced the review at the Council of Australian Governments meeting in Canberra………Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles called for changes to indigenous land administration and land use to enable traditional owners to attract private-sector investment and finance for development.
He said all the operating mines in the Northern Territory had been approved before the current land rights laws were implemented in the 1970s. “The protracted and complicated processes for approving development projects on Aboriginal land are prohibiting indigenous Territorians from pulling themselves out of poverty through economic development,” Mr Giles said……..http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/coag-puts-focus-on-land-rights-to-get-territory-moving-on-jobs/story-e6frgczx-1227086931999
Anniversary of Britain’s Windscale nuclear disaster
57 years ago today in 1957 :The Windscale Fire, Radiation Free Lakeland, 10 oct 14 ” ……..10th Oct markse 57 years since the worst nuclear accident in the UK. The bravery of those who fought the 1957 blaze was without question and they are remembered with our gratitude for preventing the far greater catastrophe of a full on Lake Counties nuclear sacrifice zone.
Official estimates point to a possibility of 240 additional cancer cases as a result of the Windscale fire. Studies reveal that the impacts of nuclear accident and routine emissions may be far wider reaching than the public is led to believe. One such study in 1995 by Dr John Bound, a former paediatrician at the Victoria Hospital, Blackpool; Brian Francis, of the Centre for Applied Statistics, Lancaster; and Dr Peter Harvey, pathologist at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary found that the Windscale fire
was followed by a surge in cases of Down’s syndrome. Their studies were poo poohed to protect the vested interests of the nuclear establishment.
This pattern has been repeated time and time again. History is now repeating itself with the plan for untried and untested new build near Sellafield. Continue reading
Dubbo public meeting: Dr Gavin Mudd, Bev Smiles, Natalie Lowrey to speak on radioactive exploration and mining
Group gets proactive about radioactive risks of project, Daily Liberal 10 Oct 14, “…….Uranium Free NSW has invited speakers to a community discussion on the risks associated with radioactive exploration and mining. Yesterday David Mould, one of the organisers, stood in Dubbo’s main street and handed out leaflets inviting local residents to attend……..
“When I started to raise awareness of this I was pretty much expecting to get run out of town,” he said.
Mr Mould said yesterday’s goal was to “get people talking about the issue”.
“The only information we are getting is from people with a stake in the business,” he said.
“We’re inviting some people to the cultural centre who are going to give us some of the less financially-oriented facts.”.
Those listed on the forum’s line-up included environmental engineer Dr Gavin Mudd, who specialised in the mining sector, the Central West Environment Council’s Bev Smiles and Nat Lowrey, a campaigner on rare earths and the impacts of radiation on health…….Mr Mould urged members of the public to attend the forum at the Western Plains Cultural Centre at 6pm on October 23 to listen and make up their own minds. http://www.dailyliberal.com.au/story/2614988/group-gets-proactive-about-radioactive-risks-of-project/?cs=112
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will not help Abbott to gut the Renewable Energy Target
Bill Shorten vows to fight to save renewable energy target (273 comments) Labor leader says opposition is not prepared to help gut a scheme which has delivered investment and jobs Katharine Murphy, deputy political editor theguardian.com, Friday 10 October 2014 Bill Shorten says Labor will offer a helping hand to aluminium by exempting the sector from Australia’s renewable energy target – but he says the opposition is not prepared to help the Abbott government gut a scheme which has delivered significant new investment, and created jobs……….http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/oct/10/bill-shorten-vows-to-fight-to-save-renewable-energy-targetThe RET must be as core to Labor as Medicare and funding for education. This government doesn’t deserve any help or compromise…. it just deserves the sack!…. The sooner, the better. Aluminium smelters should be only given a temporary reprieve if the socioeconomic issues involved are truly relevant (a clear rationale must be made public, by the way). But they should be asked to prepare and follow a gradual program of adaptation that must be concluded by a given date.
Film on Windscale, Britain’s Biggest Nuclear Disaster
Windscale, Britains Biggest Nuclear Disaster Dharma Documentaries by Anandajoti on Friday, 7th February, 2014 “………This film traces the development of the nuclear industry in Britain, with the power stations that were so critical in providing not only energy, but plutonium, and later tritium, for the bombs.
The interweaving of politics, science and energy development put enormous strains on the whole project and risks were taken which went beyond safety levels in order to meet limits set from outside.
This led to the first real nuclear accident, though to this day it is hardly known about, as it was covered up at the time, and information regarding the important incident was only recently declassified……….for me what the film brings home is a number of things: how politics is always involved in these matters, and often in a dangerous way; how inseparable the production of nuclear energy is from nuclear bombs and the enormous risks involved if (or when) something goes wrong.
We saw in another documentary recently (Dumped Nuclear Waste in European Seas) that for the whole time of its operation Windscale (now Sellafield) and other nuclear plants in Britain and Europe have been spewing waste into the nearby oceans, a practice which continues to this day.
The problem with nuclear energy is not only its poor safety record, but the potential it has for polluting wide areas when an accident happens, and as accidents always do happen, we would be better off without it……..http://dharma-documentaries.net/windscale-britains-biggest-nuclear-disaster
Sweden looks to a nuclear-free renewable energy future
Sweden faces future without nuclear, World Nuclear news, 01 October 2014 Sweden may be facing the phase out of nuclear power following agreement by the country’s Social Democrats and their junior coalition partner, the Green Party, to set up an energy commission tasked with achieving a 100% renewable electricity system. ………Social Democrat leader Stefan Lofven said in a statement today: “Sweden has very good potential to expand renewable energy through our good access to water, wind and forests. In time, Sweden will have an energy system with 100% renewable energy.”….
The parties said in separate, but identical statements that nuclear power should be replaced with renewable energy and energy efficiency. The goal, they said, should be at least 30 TWh of electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020. A goal for 2030 has yet to be set, they added. Support for offshore wind and solar power are needed “in addition”, they said.
Nuclear power “should bear a greater share of its economic cost”, they said. “Safety requirements should be strengthened and the nuclear waste fee increased.”
France’s parliament votes for transition from nuclear power to renewable energy
French parliament backs nuclear cuts, Business Spectator AFP 10 OCT, Lawmakers in France, the world’s most nuclear-dependent country, have voted to cut reliance on the energy source from more than 75 per cent to 50 per cent within a decade.Friday’s vote is part of an ambitious makeover of France’s energy use promised by President Francois Hollande during his 2012 election campaign.
The measure calls for renewables to increase in the energy mix for electricity production, rising from 23 per cent in 2020 to 32 per cent in 2030.
Use of fossil fuels should drop to around 30 per cent.
The measure also sets a goal for a reduction of 40 per cent in greenhouse gas emissions from the 1990 levels by 2030 and a 75 per cent reduction in 2050. t also targets a 20 per cent reduction in energy consumation by 2030, in line with a draft project EU leaders are set to consider at an October 23-24 summit in Brussels…http://www.businessspectator.com.au/news/2014/10/10/resources-and-energy/french-parliament-backs-nuclear-cuts
A vision for a modern outback in Australia
Another imagined future is to treat the Outback as a land ripe for unfettered development. It would divide the landscape into exploited and conserved (or neglected) sectors, and would seek to transform the areas by creating an economy highly reliant on intensive agriculture and mining.
It would seek to overcome logistical and environmental constraints of such industrialisation through government subsidies. This may create brief economic growth in a few districts. However, in the long term this approach would cause irredeemable loss to those values that make the Outback so distinctive and important.
There is a different future that instead recognises the extraordinary existing inherent value in the Outback, and supports development that adapts to and works within the environmental and other constraints of remote and dry lands
A Modern Outback — nature, people and the future of remote Australia BARRY TRAILL THE AUSTRALIAN OCTOBER 11, 2014 “…… The Outback stands out as one of the great natural places globally, a place where nature remains in abundance; a landscape where the bush still stands, where the rivers still flow and where wildlife still moves as it always has to find food and shelter in a tough environment……..
There are especially magical, mysterious, spectacular places in the Outback — Kakadu, Uluru, the Kimberley — icons that draw visitors from the nation and beyond.
But these are parts of a whole, places embedded within a vast natural landscape, and dependent on the greater landscape for their ecological health. It’s essential that we think about the Outback as an entire and modern whole because its varied landscapes now face similar problems…….
The Outback is at a crossroads economically and environmentally. Social and economic development is highly dependent on maintaining the natural health of the Outback. The condition of many landscapes and wildlife species in the Outback is dependent on active human management.
It is possible, and Australia now faces the challenge and the opportunity, to create a modern Outback that depends on nature, which in turn supports people, jobs and regional economies…….. Continue reading
Aboriginal poverty increased through self-serving corporations and highly paid executives
according to the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations, mining is returning millions to Aboriginal owned corporations. Western Australia’s Pilbara is the engine room of the nation’s mining boom. But the two billion years old 400,000 square kilometres Pilbara is home to some pretty sad poverty, all of it First Peoples – Roebourne and Wickham for starters, and any of the cluster of communities around Marble Bar, Tom Price, Nullogine, Port Hedland.
Port Hedland is Australia’s busiest port, with ships leaving daily filled with iron ore extracted from Aboriginal land but with the profits returned to multinationals – next-to-nothing for the communities where many of the native title claimants live . Native title owners? A fool’s gold many say.
But if not billions of dollars there are millions of dollars going the way of Aboriginal corporations. Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 