Have climate denialism and the anti renewable energy campaign taken fatal blows in Australian politics?
It will never be clear how much the issue of renewable energy and household solar played in the Queensland election. But with some 400,000 households with rooftop solar, and one-third of these without state-based subsidies, even a moderate impact would have been enough to tip the balance.
But it should not be forgotten that Abbott was installed as leader of the Liberal Party for the sole purpose of rejecting the carbon price, and rolling back environmental and renewable energy policies.
Policy was reduced to those three word slogans and these continued even in government. Australia has embarrassed itself on the national stage, from Abbott’s performance at CHOGM, and then at the G20, to Australia’s no show at Warsaw, its sending of a climate denier chaperone to Lima, and the thumbing of its nose to the global renewable energy industry
Is this the last hurrah for the Far Right in Australia? REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson on 2 February 2015 The stranglehold of the Far Right over conservative politics in Australia is being broken. The comprehensive repudiation of Campbell Newman tells us that rejecting climate science, trashing renewable energy, and treating the electorate like mugs has no future. Abbott, though, is not listening. Cue Malcolm Turnbull, entering centre stage.
If the Queensland election tells us anything about politics in Australia it is that the stranglehold of the Far Right over the conservative arena in Australia is being broken. Emphatically so.
What we will see at the federal level in coming days, weeks or months – or however long Prime Minister Tony Abbott holds on to his job – may well signal the last hurrah of the Far Right in Australia. Continue reading
By the end of 2015, Broken Hill’s huge solar energy plant will be completed
Broken Hill solar plant on track to complete at end of 2015, change of community engagement approach ABC News By Gavin Coote The company developing the $200 million Broken Hill solar plant says the project is on track to be complete at the end of this year.
The 140 hectare development will be the second largest in Australia, trailing the sister project in Nyngan, and began construction last October.
AGL project manager Adam Mackett said it was set to employ 150 people in the peak phase of construction, and currently 60 per cent of the employees were local……http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-03/broken-hill-solar-plant-on-track-for-completion-by-end-of-2015/6064714
Red Cross reports back on the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons
Filling the Gap: A report-back on the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons
Thursday 12th Feb 2015, 6pm Australian Red Cross 155 Pelham St, Carlton
In December 2014, 158 nations gathered for the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons and made an important step towards a nuclear weapons ban. The “Austrian Pledge”, introduced by the host country, invites nations to commit to ‘fill the legal gap for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons’.
Please join a conversation with Australian Red Cross CEO Robert Tickner, Director of International Humanitarian Law and Movement Relations at the Australian Red Cross Dr Phoebe Wynn-Pope, Associate Professor Tilman Ruff, documentarian Vanessa Macedo and Emeritus Professor Michael Hamel-Green at Victoria University on the significance of the Vienna Conference and the road ahead for a nuclear weapons ban. ICAN Asia-Pacific Director Tim Wright will facilitate the conversation.
Refreshments provided, please RSVP to gem@icanw.org.
Australian Parliament should scrutinise the unsatisfactory deal on selling uranium to India
India nuclear deal needs serious parliamentary scrutiny, The Interpreter, John Tileman,
Ostensibly about selling uranium to India, the key intent of the treaty is to remove Australia’s implied slight of not according India the same status as a nuclear cooperation partner that we have already accorded the five nuclear weapon states recognised under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
………JSCOT’s scheduling: it has put aside two hours to hear from four non-government witnesses on 9 February, and 45 minutes to hear government witnesses on 11 February.
……………………. we need a policy discussion that builds on the excellent analyses of the safeguards and legal issues raised in the submissions to JSCOT, especially those of the former head of the Australian Safeguards and Non-proliferation Office, John Carlson, and the ANU arms control expert Kalman Robertson.
A starting point would be for JSCOT to understand how Australian agencies came to the conclusion that there is no risk that providing uranium to India will enhance India’s nuclear weapons arsenal. The National Interest Statement does not make that case.
JSCOT could also seek clarification that the public and confidential provisions of the treaty are or will be consistent with those negotiated by our major partners in the uranium trade. The Government presumably has legal advice that the treaty is compatible with existing obligations. But can it assure industry that challenges will not arise?……….
the questions for JSCOT are numerous: just what priority will be given to this dialogue? What resources will be devoted to it? At what level will it be conducted? When is the next round scheduled? How will outcomes be reported? http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2015/02/03/India-nuclear-deal-needs-serious-parliamentary-scrutiny.aspx?COLLCC=3260990079&
A pro nuclear expert finds that the “climate change argument” for nuclear does not work!
Is climate change the worst argument for nuclear? Nuclear Engineering International 21 January 2015 Jumping on the environmental bandwagon may not be the best choice for the nuclear industry….. By Steve KiddMy articles over the past three months have covered the failure of nuclear advocates to make much progress with gaining public acceptance over the past few years, with the prime need now to undertake a serious effort to gain better public understanding…
…….There remains one piece in the jigsaw and that is to abandon climate change as a prime argument for supporting a much higher use of nuclear power to satisfy rapidly-rising world power needs…….
We have seen no nuclear renaissance Continue reading
South Australia and ACT are ahead in renewable energy
Hitting the Renewable Energy Target, Robin Mellon Chief Operating Officer, Green Building Council of Australia Souceable, 3 Feb 15 “……..The Climate Council’s recent report, The Australian Renewable Energy Race, finds that those states with a favourable policy environment and with established renewable energy targets winning the renewables race. South Australia, having already met its 2020 renewable energy target of 33 per cent, now sources more than a third of electricity from renewable sources and a quarter of homes have solar PV panels. South Australia has installed more large-scale renewable capacity since 2001 than any other state, and has now set a 50 per cent target.
The report finds the ACT is also “punching above its weight” with a target of 90 per cent renewable energy by 2020, and a feed-in tariff scheme attracting investment in large-scale project Continue reading
How the Navajo Nation has been affected by uranium mining
The studies have found considerably increased rates of death by lung cancer and other lung or related diseases
“Navajo is a non-smoking population. That’s why the Navajo underground miners were such an important sub-unit of the cohort,” Shuey said. “The Navajo cohort debunks the whole notion that the uranium miners’ lung cancer relates to smoking.”
Radon’s Deadly Connection With Uranium Mining As Seen From Navajo Nation, Indian Country, Konnie LeMay 2/2/15 Where you live may increasingly become as important as how you live in determining your health as we continue to recognize how environmental factors affect our lives and may hasten our deaths.
“No longer can we just kind of sit back and say those are all just lifestyle (influences) … just stop eating frybread and throw some vegetables in there,” said Chris Shuey, director of the Uranium Impact Assessment Program for theSouthwest Research and Information Center.
For more than three decades, Shuey has tracked the environmental influences on long-term health for the Navajo people linked to the region’s past uranium mining. He foresees growing acknowledgment of how human-caused environmental changes and naturally occurring threats may affect our health. Continue reading
President Obama should stop pushing nuclear energy to India
The president should not be prescribing medicine that he would not take himself. The United States has not installed any new nuclear plants for more than 30 years. There would be massive public protests if any were even proposed — anywhere in the country.
Instead of trying to chain India to the past with technologies such as nuclear, he should help the country leapfrog into the future with clean energy. This will benefit not only India, but also the world.
Why Obama should stop pushing nuclear energy on India, WP, By Vivek Wadhwa February 2 The White House is claiming victory for a breakthrough in the impasse with India over nuclear energy. Indian laws have held suppliers, designers and builders of nuclear plants liable in case of an accident and this made U.S. companies fearful of doing business there. During his recent trip, President Obama persuaded India’s government to create an insurance pool to compensate victims of a potential disaster and to cap the liabilities of companies supplying the technology.
This is hardly a victory for the United States or for India. It no longer makes sense for any country to install a technology that can create a catastrophe such as Chernobyl or Fukushima — especially when far better alternatives are available. Technologies such as solar and wind are advancing so rapidly that by the time the first new nuclear reactors are installed in India, they will be less costly than nuclear energy. Most importantly, the alternative technologies are cleaner and safer.
Take solar energy Continue reading
New Zealand’s proud anti-nuclear history maintained to this day
Successive opinion polls in Australia have shown that Australians overwhelmingly reject nuclear weapons. “Yet our government, in deference to the US, remains opposed to the idea of a treaty banning these ultimate weapons of mass destruction. We are calling on the government to rule out any role for nuclear weapons in our nation’s military doctrines, just as New Zealand did in the 1980s, and to join efforts to achieve a global ban”, Australia Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), Tim Wright, told IDN.
Australia is part of the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty and like NZ, Australia also has nuclear-free legislation, the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty Act 1986. “However, this legislation (and the treaty itself) doesn’t prevent US nuclear-armed vessels from entering Australian ports, nor does it prevent Australia from maintaining its policy of extended nuclear deterrence”, says Wright.
NEW ZEALAND ROBUSTLY DEFENDS NUCLEAR BAN Eurasia Review FEBRUARY 1, 2015 BY NEENA BHANDARI The small Pacific island country of New Zealand has punched above its weight in the international disarmament debate. For nearly three decades it has pursued an active nuclear free policy, banning entry of US warships carrying nuclear weapons or propelled by nuclear power into its ports despite being part of the ANZUS Treaty. Continue reading
Western Australia’s remote Aboriginal communities will not be getting state royalties – Premier Barnett
Recalling the Liberal Party’s push for importing foreign nuclear wastes
the previously secret deal followed the Liberal Party’s federal council meeting in June at which it unanimously supported an international waste dump being built in Australia.
Australia next ‘nuclear dump’ http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2007/07/20/australia-next-nuclear-dump The Wilderness Society has warned a deal between Prime Minister John Howard and US President George W Bush to join an exclusive global nuclear club would ensure Australia became the dumping ground for the world’s nuclear waste. Source: 20 JUL 2007 UPDATED 22 AUG 2013
The ministers for foreign affairs and resources had urged Mr Howard to announce the joint nuclear energy plan during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation visit in Sydney in September, Fairfax newspapers reported.
The statement
“The proposed action plan would help to open the way for valuable nuclear energy co-operation with the United States,” the briefing note says.
“It would also be consistent with the government’s strategy for the nuclear industry in Australia. Continue reading
Remembering John Howard rejecting importing foreign nuclear wastes
PM: Australia no nuclear dump Prime Minister John Howard has again endorsed Australia embracing nuclear power but says taking other countries’ waste is an absolute no-no.20 JUL 2007 – UPDATED 22 AUG 2013………..HTTP://WWW.SBS.COM.AU/NEWS/ARTICLE/2007/07/20/PM-AUSTRALIA-NO-NUCLEAR-DUMP
Remembering the Howard government and businessmen’s push for nuclear power
Call to’unveil nuclear plans’ http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2007/02/27/call-tounveil-nuclear-plans Labor is demanding the federal government reveal what it knows about plans by three leading businessmen for Australia’s first nuclear reactor. Source: AAP 27 FEB 2007 – UPDATED 22 AUG 2013
Former federal Liberal Party treasurer Ron Walker, Hugh Morgan and Robert Champion de Crespigny are the key shareholders in Australian Nuclear Energy Pty Ltd, a private company reportedly behind the plan. Continue reading
Britain reluctant to help Fiji’s nuclear veterans – waiting for them to die
Nuclear test veterans: Britain urged to compensate Fijians over 1950s Christmas Island tests http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2015-02-03/nuclear-test-veterans-britain-urged-to-compensate-fijians-over-1950s-christmas-island-tests/1411869 Fijian veterans of British nuclear tests in the Pacific are hoping the British government will finally offer them help after the Fijian government offered compensation payments. Fiji’s prime minister, Frank Bainimarama, announced his government would provide about $A6,000 payments to 24 surviving Fijian soldiers who were on Christmas Island (now Kiribati), during British nuclear tests in the late 1950s.
“Fiji is not prepared to wait for Britain to do the right thing,” he said.
“We owe it to these men to help them now, not wait for the British politicians and bureaucrats.
“I have this great honour to award these survivors a modest token of what we can afford in Fiji to finally acknowledge the great injustice that was done to them almost six decades ago.”
The prime minister said his government had to step in because too many men had gone to their grave without justice. Continue reading
Murray-Riverina Business Chamber supports Renewable Energy
Support for renewable energy from Murray-Riverina Business Chamber, ABC News 3 Feb 15 There is support for renewable energy from the region’s business chamber, as long it doesn’t compromise local agricultural land…….Murray-Riverina Chamber Manager, Ben Foley believes local businesses would support the development of a renewable energy industry.
“A key theme and a key word that kept on coming out within the survey results was lowering costs by increasing efficiency and lowering costs by addressing utilities increasing,” he said.
“Whatever we can do to support renewable energy efficient programs in the region, which could bring jobs, we will look to do that……http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-03/regional-business/6065030
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 