Health of Australians already threatened by global warming
As shepherds watched, it got hotter and hotter December 24, 2014 Peter Hannam Environment Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald Human health – and that of other animals and even plants – is likely to become an ever more pressing public issue as temperatures rise with global warming, cities grow and populations age………
Until recently, public health authorities would issue a warning whenever the temperature was likely to exceed a certain level.
However, heatwaves are also related to the conditions people are accustomed to. To reflect that, the Bureau of Meteorology last year pioneered a heatwave service that predicts the severity of coming heatwaves based on both how far temperatures are likely to deviate from historical averages but also taking into account the previous month’s weather.
In a further tweak, the bureau has added charts to assess the impact of each heatwave after it’s hit. That’s needed because people often don’t realise the damage to health can come from exposure to prolonged warmth rather than a particular temperature spike. Continue reading
Once again, Aboriginal Land Rights are Under Attack
WGAR News: Land Rights Act is under attack… yet again: Land Rights News – Central Australia 3 January 2015
Contents:
* Analysis / Opinion: Ian Viner AO QC, Land Rights News – Northern Edition: The plan to undermine the Land Rights Act
* Analysis / Opinion: Dr Murray Garde, Land Rights News – Northern Edition: Lost without translation: what the Bininj missed
* News: Land Rights News – Northern Edition: Land Rights under attack
* News: Land Rights News – Central Australia: Land Rights Act is under attack… yet again
* Analysis / Opinion: Northern Land Council: Land Rights News – Northern Edition: In response to the Forrest Review
* Timeline: Respect and Listen: Land Rights: Timeline
* Northern Land Council Background: Land Rights News-Northern Edition
* Central Land Council Background: Land Rights News-Central Australia
* Respect and Listen Background: Land Rights under attack
* Respect and Listen Background: Dismantling the Land Rights Act – 99 year leases
* WGAR Background: Undermining the Aboriginal Land Rights Act (NT) through 99 year leases and privatisation
* Analysis / Opinion: Central Land Council: Land Rights News – Central Australia: Nuke dump dilemma
* WGAR Background: Proposals to dump nuclear waste on Aboriginal lands
WGAR News Public Google Group: https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en-GB#!forum/wgar-news
WGAR News – Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)………… https://indymedia.org.au/2015/01/02/wgar-news-land-rights-act-is-under-attack-yet-again-land-rights-news-central-australia
Two more drone flights over French nuclear power site
Catch me if you can: More drones break into France’s nuclear air space Rt January 04, 2015 Two aircraft – presumably drones – were spotted flying over a French nuclear power plant on Saturday. The incident happened amid the country’s efforts aimed at detecting and intercepting such flying objects above nuclear facilities.
Refuting the spurious claims about thorium nuclear power’s safety, cost, no wastes etc
if Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors (LFTRs) s are used to ‘burn up’ waste from conventional reactors, their fuel now comprises 238U, 235U, 239Pu, 240Pu and other actinides.
Operated in this way, what is now a mixed-fuel molten salt reactor will breed plutonium (from 238U) and other long lived actinides, perpetuating the plutonium cycle.
How Much Safer Would Thorium Based Nuclear Power Be? http://www.newsaddicted.com/2015/01/04/how-much-safer-would-thorium-based-nuclear-power-be/?tb January 4, 2015 | By News Junkie Uploaded by Alchemist-hp via Free Art License 1.3 (FAL 1.3)
According to Oliver Tickell, not much:
Numerous advantages for thorium as a nuclear fuel and for the LFTR design over conventional solid fuel reactors have been claimed. In this section we consider each of these claims in turn. Continue reading
Big fight coming in 2015 against the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)
It Was a Pivotal Year in TPP Activism but the Biggest Fight Is Still to Come: 2014 in Review https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/12/it-was-pivotal-year-tpp-activism-biggest-fight-still-come JANUARY 4, 2015 | BY MAIRA SUTTONA draft of the Trans-Pacific Partnership’s (TPP) Intellectual Property chapter from May 2014leaked this past fall, confirming what previous leaks had suggested: this so-called trade agreement would bring copyright enforcement provisions that threaten users’ right to free expression, privacy, and unfettered access to knowledge online.
This leaked text also revealed new terms on the misuse of trade secrets. These are dangerously vague and could be used to enact harsh criminal punishments against anyone who reveals or even accesses information through an allegedly confidential “computer system.” This language could have alarming consequences if it obligates nations to enact new laws that could be used to crack down on journalists and whistleblowers. I
t’s no wonder TPP negotiations continued to be as secretive as ever this year—policymakers are taking advantage of back-room policymaking to criminalize the very people who help public interest groups like EFF understand what’s contained in these agreements. Continue reading
Nobody wants to buy New South Wales govt’s last coal-fired power station
No buyer for coal power station
THE NSW government has been unable to find a buyer for its last coal-fired power station. (subscribers only) http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nsw-government-unable-to-find-buyer-for-coal-power-station/story-e6frg6n6-1227169644966
Canberra’s Majura Valley solar farm will use advanced sun-tracking technology
Majura Valley solar farm system tracks sun January 4, 2015 John Thistleton Reporter for The Canberra Times. Sun-tracking technology for solar panels will be deployed for the first time in Australia at a new solar farm in the Majura Valley on Canberra’s eastern fringe.
Solar Choice is developing and will operate the $6.5 million solar farm, which will feature a QBotix robotic tracking system, developed in California in 2012. The system is used in the United States, Japan and Europe.
Self-charging, track-mounted robots adjust the tilt and orientation of individual solar arrays throughout the day to gain maximum exposure to the sun.
Solar Choice, a brokerage firm which develops and manages solar projects throughout Australia and Britain, is finalising details for the 2MW first stage of its Canberra venture, which will generate about 3 million kWh of clean energy………http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/majura-valley-solar-farm-system-tracks-sun-20150104-12hitb.html
Pacific Island Nations getting more solar and wind projects
More Solar For Pacific Island Nations http://www.energymatters.com.au/renewable-news/pacific-solar-masdar-em4624/ December 31, 2014Energy Matters
The solar power projects will collectively have 1.8 megawatts capacity and their output will translate to fuel savings worth US$2 million per year. Many island nations in the Pacific rely primarily on diesel imports for electricity generation. It’s expensive, carbon intensive and creates dependence on external suppliers for what is a critical service.
Pacific Island nations can spend 10 percent of GDP or more on petroleum imports, so renewables can also free up government budgets for infrastructure investments
Completion of the solar farms is expected by the second half of 2015. Continue reading
Nuclear tensions rising between USA and Russia
US and Russia in danger of returning to era of nuclear rivalry Julian Borger, Guardian, 5 Jan 15 American threats to retaliate for Russian development of new cruise missile take tensions to new level. A widening rift between Moscow and Washington over cruise missiles and increasingly daring patrols by nuclear-capable Russian submarines threatens to end an era of arms control and bring back a dangerous rivalry between the world’s two dominant nuclear arsenals.Tensions have been taken to a new level by US threats of retaliatory action for Russian development of a new cruise missile. Washington alleges it violates one of the key arms control treaties of the cold war, and has raised the prospect of redeploying its own cruise missiles in Europe after a 23-year absence. Continue reading
China developing a distributed power grid for 1000s of small solar installations
China as a model renewable energy economy Ft.com By Li Hejun, China New Energy Chamber of Commerce and Hanergy Holding Group 31 Dec 14 “……..Even more exciting than falling costs are the new ways in which China will use and transmit power. China is now intent on developing a distributed power grid that will rely on the interconnection of thousands of rooftop and building-integrated solar installations generating power close to the point of consumption. This is a drastic departure from the current centralised power system that relies on goliath, coal-burning power plants and costly, inefficient power transmission over hundreds, or even thousands of kilometres. This new, smart grid will help eliminate pollution, slash costs, and increase reliability.
In addition to making the distributed grid possible, new forms of solar technology are ushering in an era of mobile energy in which customers can take power with them wherever they go. Continue reading
France’s nuclear giant AREVA – in reality, is bankrupt
AREVA goes from bad to worse, nuclear giant headed for bankruptcy http://sansdrapeauxnibanderoles.wordpress.com/ Sortir du Nulcleaire , France January 4 15 , Translation by Noel Wauchope The French group AREVA, world No. 1 nuclear power is bankrupt. Its shares collapsed: they have lost 55% since the beginning of the year. Already over-indebted, AREVA’s losses for 2014 would exceed € 1 billion- Nuclear power has become too risky and too expensive, civil nuclear is no longer sold on the world market: AREVA has not delivered a reactor for 7 years.
- The sites of two EPR reactors in Finland and France drag on, their cost has tripled, now reaching 9 billion euro.But the Finns will not pay the additional costs and now require penalties. It’s a total financial fiasco.
- The delivery of nuclear fuel in Japan remains suspended because the reactors have remained closed there since the accident in Fukushima. This fuel export shortfall adds to the worsening finances of AREVA.
- After Fukushima, Siemens left AREVA to convert to renewable energy. They held a 20% stake in the group.
- The Uramin case in 2007: the acquisition of uranium mining in Niger, Central African Republic and Namibia, which soon proved unworkable. Between the purchase, retro-commissions and the unsuccessful operation, AREVA has accumulated € 3bn loss. The proposed remedies: the taxpayer on the front line
Mossad’s assassination campaign in Iran
Iran: We foiled Mossad attempt to assassinate nuclear scientist http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.635269 Revolutionary Guards official says operation took place in last two years. By Haaretz | Jan. 4, 2015 An Iranian Revolutionary Guards official says the elite force foiled a Mossad attempt to assassinate one of the country’s nuclear scientists in the last two years, Iran’s Fars news agency reports.
“In the last two years, the Zionist enemy (Israel) was trying hard to assassinate an Iranian nuclear scientist, but the timely presence of the [Revolutionary Guards] security forces thwarted the terrorist operation,” Col. Ya’qoub Baqeri, deputy chief liaison officer of Flight Guards Corps, told Fars on Saturday.
The story noted that in June 2012, Iran announced it had arrested “all the elements” involved in the assasinations of five Iranian nuclear scientists that had taken place in the previous two years. Fars added that prior to those purported arrests, Iranian intelligence detected Mossad bases “within the territories of one of Iran’s Western neighbors” that trained and assisted the assassins.
Israel has never commented officially on these killings, but major Western media, quoting off-the-record Israeli intelligence sources, have attributed them to the Mossad. Last March, CBS News reported that the Obama administration was pressuring Jerusalem to halt such killings.
CBS national correspondent Dan Raviv, an expert on Israeli intelligence, reported that the Mossad “ran an assassination campaign for several years aimed at Iran’s top nuclear scientists. The purpose was to slow the progress made by Iran, which Israel feels certain is aimed at developing nuclear weapons; and to deter trained and educated Iranians from joining their country’s nuclear program.”
Raviv reported that at least five nuclear scientists had been killed, mostly by car bombs. “Remarkably, the Israeli assassins were never caught, obviously having long-established safe houses inside Iran – although several Iranians who may have helped the Mossad were arrested and executed,” the CBS report stated.
The CBS story added that even ahead of the pressure from the Obama administration, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had himself ordered the Mossad to stop the assassinations because he no longer wanted to run the risk of agents getting “captured and hanged.”
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 