Antinuclear

Australian news, and some related international items

Nuclear staff evacuated following terrorist attacks in Belgium

safety-symbolBelgium evacuates nuclear plant staff after attacks  http://www.cbsnews.com/news/belgium-attacks-evacuation-tihange-nuclear-plant-staff-isis-dirty-bomb/ 22 Mar 16 Hours after bombs tore through Belgium’s international airport and a subway station in central Brussels, the government asked the operator of one of the country’s nuclear energy plants to evacuate most staff.

ENGIE, the French electric company that runs the Tihange nuclear plant about 50 miles southeast of Brussels, confirmed that all non-essential staff had left the facility.

There was no indication Belgian authorities had received information about any direct threat to the facility, and there was no word of evacuations at the country’s other nuclear power plant or research facilities, but earlier this year police did learn that ISIS seems interested in breaching Belgium’s nuclear security.

In February, Belgian security services discovered two men had been secretly videotaping one of the country’s senior nuclear scientists.

In the process of searching the home of Mohamed Bakkali, who was arrested and charged with terrorist activity and murder over alleged links to the Nov. 13, 2015, Paris terror attacks, police found 10 hours of secretly recorded video showing the unnamed nuclear official coming and going from his home in Belgium’s Flanders region.

Investigators said the camera used to record the official was left at a static location under a bush, and was picked up by the two unidentified assailants.

Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon said at the time that authorities had determined there was a threat “to the person in question, but not the nuclear facilities,” according to The Independent.

Sources told the British newspaper that investigators suspected the militants had hoped to kidnap the nuclear official and use him to access secure areas of a Belgian nuclear research facility in Mol, in the country’s north. The presumed goal of the suspected ISIS operatives was to obtain enough radioactive material to build a “dirty bomb.”

In light of the ISIS surveillance earlier this year, CBS News senior national security analyst Juan Zarate called the evacuation order Tuesday at Tihange a “chilling development.”

“This lends itself to concerns that ISIS is adapting very quickly, looking for key vulnerabilities, and even potentially considering how to use dirty bombs — weapons of mass destruction,” Zarate said on “CBS This Morning.”

“We’ve seen in Iraq and Syria, they’ve used chemical weapons. We know they have a chemical weapons unit. And so the concern over ISIS developing quickly a desire and appetite for the use of weapons of mass destruction has to be a chilling moment for Europe, and certainly, I think the Belgian authorities are going to take every prophylactic step possible to protect their infrastructure and research sites,” he added.

In March, the Global Risk Insights journal concluded: “ISIS nuclear espionage in Belgium demonstrates a focused intention to acquire radioactive substances,” again, likely with the intention of making a bomb to spread radioactive material.

“With nuclear substances found in radiological devices, laboratories, and nuclear power plants around the world, the risk is present both within its base of operations in the Middle East and North Africa as well as in any number of countries where ISIS members are active,” said Global Risk Insights analyst Ian Armstrong.

March 23, 2016 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Turnbull govt “clean energy” plan designed to stall renewable energy projects?

Turnbull climate 2 facedGreen power projects to falter under Turnbull government plan, critics say http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/green-power-projects-to-falter-under-turnbull-government-plan-critics-say-20160322-gnooqi.html March 22, 2016 – Environment and immigration correspondent The Turnbull government would be taking a “risky gamble” with the renewable energy sector by merging two key climate action bodies and forcing vulnerable new ventures to borrow funds rather than receive grants, green power advocates say.

Guardian Australia has reported that the government intends to combine the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency – two bodies that provide financial support to emerging renewable technologies.

The CEFC issues loans that must be paid back while ARENA provides grants, including a focus on projects in the research and development phase that would otherwise struggle to attract investment.

There is speculation that the merger model will mean grants would be scrapped and only loans would be available – raising questions over whether projects in their very early stages would be funded at all.

Solar Citizens national director Claire O’Rourke said the plan was a “risky gamble on the future of renewables in Australia” and would harm both research and development and reduce investment in demonstration projects.

“The kinds of projects that ARENA funds won’t necessarily get support from the CEFC because the investment conditions are different,” she said.

Ms O’Rourke said Australia’s clean energy future would be jeopardised by “gambling on secure, long-term funding for major proven programs that support innovation and investment in renewables”.

ARENA has committed more than $1 billion in grants to more than 230 projects, studies, scholarships and fellowships since mid-2012.

The former Abbott government sought to abolish both ARENA and the CEFC, and a merger would ensure their survival under Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who has so far refused to guarantee their future.

However Clean Energy Council Chief executive Kane Thornton said reports that the bodies could be “funded by future borrowings are of particular concern for the sector”.

“While we recognise there are opportunities for more co-ordination and a closer working relationship between ARENA and the CEFC, it is important that the government continues future support through funding for projects, innovative finance and … high-level research and capability,” he said.

The office of Environment Minister Greg Hunt did not comment.

March 23, 2016 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, energy, politics | Leave a comment

Dispute in South Australia, as Labor govt wants to scrap law against expenditure towards nuclear waste dumping

Nuclear lobby on South Aust govt copyState Parliament has backed removing a law against investigating nuclear dumping, with dispute over when it should take effect, The Advertiser, March 22, 2016  Daniel Wills State Political Editor The Royal Commission’s tentative findings were that a nuclear dump could be constructed safely in SA STATE Parliament has taken its first step toward supporting nuclear waste storage, with bipartisan support to repeal laws that ban spending money on investigating its establishment.

However, a dispute has emerged over State Government plans to make the changes effective as of several weeks ago amid Opposition questions about if the law has already been broken.

Premier Jay Weatherill a fortnight ago announced plans to change laws enacted under the former Liberal government which stop public money being spent on encouraging a dump.

He said the move did not signal support for a dump in SA, but the laws could prevent robust debate and investigations once the final Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission report is released.

The existing law states: “no public money may be appropriated, expended or advanced to any person for the purpose of encouraging or financing any activity associated with the construction or operation of a nuclear waste storage facility in this state”.

Mr Weatherill said legal advice found the Commission did not break existing law……..

Greens MP Mark Parnell has previously told Parliament he believes the law may have been broken by commissioning telephone interviews with citizens seeking their views on storage.

Conservation SA today released a report from left-leaning think-tank The Australia Institute which cast doubts on the economic benefits of nuclear storage in SA.

Conservation SA chief executive Craig Wilkins said it “confirms what many South Australians suspect”, in that “the dump proposal being pushed seems way too good to be true”.

“Because there is no international market for high level nuclear waste, any prices, or costs underpinning any possible return for our state are pure guesswork based on assumptions and modelling,” Mr Wilkins said. “The consultants have made some extraordinarily optimistic assumptions about the price other countries will be willing to pay.

“They assume South Australia will be able to do something that even experienced nuclear countries have never managed to do, at a cheaper price.

“They also ignore the very real possibility that SA could take a cut in its GST revenue if this project did manage to make money.

“A project with this level of risk to future South Australians needs to stack up on economic grounds as well as safety and ethical ones. Our concern is that this fails on all three.” http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/state-parliament-has-backed-removing-a-law-against-investigating-nuclear-dumping-with-dispute-over-when-it-should-take-effect/news-story/a9bb5ee604fc4f7e850e4a9116cbdd0d

March 23, 2016 Posted by | politics, South Australia | Leave a comment

Turnbull suggests Port Augusta solar thermal plant for federal clean energy plan

Solar-thermal-plant-CaliforPort Augusta solar thermal plant likely to be funded by $1 billion federal clean energy fund March 23, 2016  PETER JEAN POLITICAL REPORTER The Advertiser A LARGE solar thermal plant at Port Augusta is likely to be one of the first projects supported by a $1 billion Clean Energy Innovation Fund, to be announced by the Federal Government today.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Environment Minister Greg Hunt will today reveal plans for the fund, which will invest up to $100 million per year in emerging technologies.

The announcement comes after the federal and state government were urged to back the development of a solar plan at Port Augusta, where hundreds of jobs will be lost when two coal-fired power stations close in May.

It is likely to cause tension with conservative elements in the Coalition, particularly those who have aligned themselves with former prime minister Tony Abbott.

“We are promoting innovation and new economic opportunities, enhancing our productivity, protecting our environment and reducing emissions to tackle climate change,’’ Mr Turnbull said last night.

“An example of a project could be a large scale solar facility with storage in Port Augusta.

“By offering innovative equity and debt products, the Clean Energy Innovation Fund can accelerate the availability of new technologies to transform the energy market, and deliver better value for taxpayers.”

American company SolarReserve had been seeking support for the development of a large solar thermal plant at Port Augusta.

Similar projects in the United States have created about 1000 construction jobs, 50 ongoing roles and 4000 indirect jobs.

A delegation of federal MPs visited a large solar power station built by SolarReserve in the American state of Nevada last year…….http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/port-augusta-solar-thermal-plant-likely-to-be-funded-by-1-billion-federal-clean-energy-fund/news-story/7be66ebf70e864e8a1a9cb9a95bd83bc#load-story-comments

March 23, 2016 Posted by | politics, solar, South Australia | Leave a comment

The impossible dream: free electricity sounds too good to be true. It is

The impossible dream: free electricity sounds too good to be true. It is A plan to produce free electricity for South Australia by embracing nuclear waste sounds like a wonderful idea. But it won’t work.Dan Gilchrist, 11 February 2016 Source: The Australia Institute

A proposal to establish a global nuclear waste industry in South Australia would fail to secure 90% of the imported waste, leaving an expensive and risky legacy for the state, according to this report.

http://apo.org.au/resource/impossible-dream-free-electricity-sounds-too-good-be-true-it

(Link provided here for downloading the full 26-page report. It can also be downloaded at: http://www.tai.org.au/content/free-nuclear-power-fantasy-report.)

March 23, 2016 Posted by | General News | Leave a comment

Nuclear waste import idea – economic optimism is unjustified

Nuclear lobby on South Aust govt copyNuclear waste storage plan based on optimistic assumptions, Australia Institute warns ABC News, 891 ABC Adelaide 22 Mar 16  A South Australian proposal to build a storage facility for nuclear waste is being based on very optimistic assumptions, an economic think-tank has warned.

Key points:

  • Australia Institute warned any benefits to taxpayers were speculative
  • It questioned stockpiling waste for years if the business ran into future financial issues
  • Business SA said royal commission’s role was not to analyse the economics in detail

The Australia Institute, backed by funding from Conservation SA, analysed the waste storage proposal raised in the early findings of SA’s Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission.

“If you get into the waste disposal business in the way proposed at the moment, what you’re going to get is a big loss to taxpayers in the short term and the potential, but not certain, benefits in the future,” the institute’s chief economist Richard Denniss told 891 ABC Adelaide.

“They’re based on very optimistic prices that the world will be willing to pay for nuclear waste.”Dr Denniss urged South Australians to think carefully about where future taxpayer dollars were spent.

“What I’m anti is people who need to exaggerate the economic benefits of mines in order to convince taxpayers to fund them,” he said.”I’m not anti-mining, I’m anti-propaganda being pushed as economic fact.

“If you spend billions of dollars on this project then that’s billions of dollars you won’t put into schools, roads, hospitals, transport — it’s up to you as residents of SA how you want to invest your money.”

Stored waste might create future worries The economist questioned what might happen if a waste storage project ran into future economic problems. “The question is what happens to SA if, after stockpiling high-level nuclear waste above ground for 20 years, what happens if the project falls over after you’ve imported all the waste?” he said.

Dr Denniss also said the storage of nuclear waste might only create a few hundred local jobs……..http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-22/australia-institute-questions-nuclear-waste-storage-plan/7265744

March 23, 2016 Posted by | NUCLEAR ROYAL COMMISSION 2016 | Leave a comment

Lithium: design and recycling- a potential new industry for Australia

recycle-rare-earths-2Lithium: Australia needs to recycle and lease to be part of the boom, The Conversation,  Professor of Resource Futures, University of Technology Sydney Honorary Senior Research Fellow, The University of Queensland March 22, 2016 “….Australia has an opportunity to capitalise on the increasing global demand for lithium batteries by developing recycling systems and creating models for leasing the resource.

Lithium is the third element in the periodic table and the lightest classified as a metal. This makes it a good choice in battery applications needing lightweight energy storage. Lithium-ion batteries are now increasingly common in smartphones, electric vehicles and indeed Tesla powerwalls, the first of which was recently installed in Australia.

Because of this rising demand, Lithium is considered to be a “critical” mineral by many countries. Currently, global demand is over 32 thousand tonnes per year. This is predicted to rise to between 80 to 280 thousand tonnes by 2030……

In order to meet future demand, recycling of lithium will also need to rise significantly. Continue reading

March 23, 2016 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, energy | Leave a comment

BATTLE SET TO RAGE OVER PLUTONIUM SHIPMENTS

ship radiation “We strongly object to foreign-origin plutonium coming into South Carolina

over the next seven years we will continue to see dangerous shipments of nuclear waste routed through Charleston harbor

More Nuclear Dumping In South Carolina, FITSNEWS, 22 Mar 16 “……This week, nuclear shipments to the Palmetto State are back in the news – specifically the latest round of foreign plutonium slated to arrive in South Carolina from Japan.

antnuke-relevantThat’s right: South Carolina is no longer the nation’s dumping ground … we are taking toxic waste from all over the world.

Foreign waste has been shipped to SRS for years – but the latest scheduled arrival in Charleston Harbor this month has finally sparked some criticism from nuclear watchdogs. “We strongly object to foreign-origin plutonium coming into South Carolina when DOE’s program to manage surplus weapons plutonium is in shambles,” said Tom Clements, director of Savannah River Site Watch. “As DOE’s plutonium fuel project has totally failed, it’s time for DOE to live up to its commitment to remove plutonium from South Carolina and not bring in more with no viable disposition path out of the state.”…..

The Japanese shipment – an estimated 331 kilograms of highly fissionable material – is reportedly being transported by British warships to Charleston harbor later this month.  Its arrival and subsequent transfer to SRS is a matter of intense speculation and secrecy.

Why are we taking Japan’s plutonium?  So terrorists don’t steal it, according to the feds …

In fact we reached out to the S.C. State Ports Authority (SCSPA) seeking information about the shipment, but the agency’s leadership told us it had “no idea” about the details.

S.C. governor Nikki Haley has merely stated that she wants the twelve metric tons of plutonium on-site at SRS to be processed prior to new waste arriving.  She’s threatened lawsuits to that effect, too……….

over the next seven years we will continue to see dangerous shipments of nuclear waste routed through Charleston harbor en route to SRS with absolutely nothing resembling a long-term disposal agreement in place.

DOE recently indicated its intention to send six metric tons of stored plutonium from SRS to a facility in New Mexico, but this transfer is nothing but further confirmation of the abandonment of the MOX program – which was subsidizing an estimated 2,100 South Carolina jobs………..http://www.fitsnews.com/2016/03/22/more-nuclear-dumping-in-sc/

March 23, 2016 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Scepticism on Australian govt’s Clean Energy Innovation Fund

essentially it is removing funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and really I guess constraining it in terms of its ability to provide capital grants to the sector into the future.

Hear-This-wayGovernment to set up billion dollar clean energy fund ABC Radio http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-23/government-to-set-up-billion-dollar-clean-energy/7268746 The Federal Government is starting up a $1 billion Clean Energy Innovation Fund which it says will support the development of renewable energy technology. It will be run by the Government’s existing clean energy bodies, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. Environmental groups are sceptical about the proposal.

Michael Edwards

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: The Federal Government is starting up a $1 billion Clean Energy Innovation Fund which it says will support the development of renewable energy technology. AM understands it will be run by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency or ARENA. Both bodies had been slated for closure by Tony Abbott but it now appears his successor, Malcolm Turnbull, is set to keep them open.

But environmental groups are sceptical whether the fund will do what it’s supposed to do.

Michael Edwards has this report.

MICHAEL EDWARDS: The coal-fired power station in the South Australian city of Port Augusta is soon closing down. Locals are now looking to the sun to provide their future energy needs.

DANIEL SPENCER: So with the coal station in Port Augusta, they’re closing it now in less than eight weeks’ time. The community’s been campaigning for a large scale solar thermal plant with storage to be built there to create new clean jobs as well as on-demand clean energy.

MICHAEL EDWARDS: That’s Daniel Spencer from the Repower Port Augusta Campaign. He says the proposed facility would cost $100 million but its long-term benefits would make it well worth it.

DANIEL SPENCER: A project like this would create a thousand jobs during construction and 50 well paying permanent jobs that are ongoing. But it would also be the first of its kind here in Australia. So there’s all the run-off impact, the tourism benefits and also the opportunity for South Australia to create a manufacturing supply chain to help create more of these plants built in Australia.

MICHAEL EDWARDS: This ambitious project could benefit from the Government’s new Clean Energy Innovation Fund.

The Government has confirmed that it’s establishing the $1 billion fund to help renewable energy technologies.The Environment Minister Greg Hunt says an example of a project could be a large scale solar facility with storage in Port Augusta. Continue reading

March 23, 2016 Posted by | General News | Leave a comment

Mixed reaction to Turnbull’s Clean Energy Innovation Fund

Kane Thornton, chief executive of the Clean Energy Council, was this morning not totally convinced about the new fund. He told ABC radio the proposal was “really giving with one hand while taking from the other”. (The new fund will be financed by $10 million from ARENA over 10 years. )

“This proposal obviously keeps the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, and that’s a welcome development.

“But essentially it is removing funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and really I guess constraining it in terms of its ability to provide capital grants to the sector into the future.”

And see how the extreme right wing sees the news here (It calls the destruction of the Liberal Party by Turnbull)

As we draw near to a possible election on 2 July, we’ll be watching closely. The whole world will be.

Turnbull announced $1 billion Clean Energy Innovation Fund http://www.thefifthestate.com.au/politics/turnbull-announced-1-billion-clean-energy-innovation-fund/81166 Tina Perinotto | 23 March 2016

Malcolm Turnbull has finally caved to his supporters instead of the Abbott camp by announcing early today a decisive and dramatic signal move to support climate action. He’s announced not only a $1 billion Clean Energy Innovation Fund but a commitment to retain the Clean Energy Finance Corporation AND the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.

Media today was awash with news of the fund designed to create innovation and jobs with smart grids, alternative energy such as bio fuels and large-scale solar projects.

It’s the most-vote winning confidence-boosting thing he’s done since winning office and making his statement on innovation, essentially declaring Australia was back in the land of the living, instead of the walking dead. It’s a powerful wake-up call to Labor to get back on the most important and competitive bandwagon going, the fight to save our planet AND create a innovation clean, green and lean economy. Continue reading

March 23, 2016 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics | Leave a comment

Recovering from Nuclear Delusion – Faith-Based Nuclear Policy

Thorium-cultPlutonium Pie in the Sky: the Dangerous Delusion of New Nukes CounterPunch by JAMES HEDDLE MARCH 22, 2016 “….. The Atomic Church of the Last Gasp New Nuclearists avoid coming to terms with the risks and failures of the existing world fleet of aging, ill-designed reactors.   Some even advocate re-licensing  embrittled reactors from the 1960s to extend their operation decades beyond their 40-year design life.)

NeoNuclearists believe – without operational proof-of-concept – in a pie-in-the-sky, perpetually not-yet-but-soon-to-be-born generation of ‘new, small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs).’  They will consume and eliminate existing nuclear waste and be so ‘inherently safe’ you can bury them in your back yard.  Any day now……..

The blind faith with which latter-day nuclear advocates approach the issues of human, ecological and economic risk associated with nuclear technologies, reminds one of the  Melanesian millenarian movement  called ‘cargo cults,’ in which indigenous tribes, following charismatic figures, built wooden aircraft replicas on mountain tops in the vain hopes – despite repeated failures – to lure down the western cargo planes loaded with commodities they saw flying overhead as portrayed in the 1962 film Mondo Cane.

Or, if the definition of ‘insanity’ is: ‘persisting in behavior which consistently fails,’ neo-nuclearism is clearly a form of collective insanity – atomic psychosis……….

Recovering from Nuclear Delusion

The facts of the failure of the nuclear dream are there, for any who are not blinded by ideology or self-interest to see: in addition to its history of totalitarianism, incompetence and global disasters, nuclear energy deployment is plagued by public opposition, investor disinterest, consistently mounting cost and schedule over-runs and dependence on contiminating dwindling water supplies.  Energy consultant Amory Lovins sees nuclear energy “dying a slow death from an overdose of market forces.”  Futurist Jeremy Rifkin agrees, “From a business perspective, its dead.”  Expert witness and nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen puts it succinctly,  “nuclear energy is just too expensive and too slow to have an impact on climate change.”

The 20th century ‘nuclear dream’ of global full-spectrum dominance and energy too cheap to meter has become a 21st century nightmare.  It is time to wake up.  As retired top U.S. energy administrator S. David Freeman puts it, “We have to kill nuclear power before it kills us.”

NeoNuclearists are entitled to their own opinions…but not to their own facts.http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/03/22/plutonium-pie-in-the-sky-the-dangerous-delusion-of-new-nukes/

March 23, 2016 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Further revelations on the scope of cuts to CSIRO climate research

Map Turnbull climateNew CSIRO document reveals scale of planned cuts to climate programs, The Age March 23, 2016  Environment Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald One of CSIRO’s main climate science units planned to slash four out of five researchers, all but eliminating its monitoring and climate modelling research, a new document reveals.

The cuts are contained in an analysis for the Oceans & Atmosphere division, dated January 25, 2016. CSIRO handed over the document to the Senate committee investigating plans to slash 350 staff overall, and it has been made public on the Senate’s website.

Doubts over the rationale and planning of the cuts flared on Tuesday in another CSIRO section facing deep job losses, with many Land & Water staff walking out of a meeting with chief executive Larry Marshall.

“People got fed up of having their questions marginalised, trivialised, and with being lied to,” one senior researcher told Fairfax media. He added that about half those attending walked out, with division’s head, Paul Hardisty, among them…………

Scientists, though, have told the Senate committee investigating the CSIRO that adaptation work would be much harder to do unless Australia is able to predict the rate of change and where its impacts will hit the hardest.

The document shows the net reduction in full-time staff in the O&A division would save just $6.5 million a year. That calculation was based on $8.8 million in salaries and $2.7 million in lower operating costs, with the gains set against $5 million in lost revenue.

“It’s a pretty bad deal – you cut about 110 staff all together and you recover almost nothing,” one senior scientist told Fairfax Media. “You also ruin the reputation [of CSIRO] and the lives” of the staff let go.

Dr Marshall is expected to be grilled on the document when he fronts the Senate committee, now planned for April 7. http://www.theage.com.au/environment/new-csiro-document-reveals-scale-of-planned-cuts-to-climate-programs-20160322-gnodtg.html

March 23, 2016 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming | Leave a comment

Alternative media: WGAR: Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)

Aboriginal-protest-remote-WAbout WGAR News:  http://groups.google.com/group/wgar-news

Subscription to ‘WGAR News’ e-newsletters is free. 

The best way of subscribing to WGAR News e-newsletters is to 
go to the ‘WGAR News Public Google Group’ link, sign in, and click on ‘Join Group’: 
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This best way of subscribing means you will receive e-newsletters automatically and it is reliable.

Otherwise, to subscribe, email wgar.news@gmail.com and
include the words “subscribe WGAR News” in the message header.

‘WGAR News’ monitors the media, including alternative media, focusing on: 

* The Freedom Summit’s National Freedom Movement;
* the Australian Federal government intervention into Northern Territory (NT) Aboriginal communities;
* Plans to close Aboriginal homelands / remote communities in Western Australia (WA), South Australia (SA), [and Northern Territory (NT)?];
* Treaties with Aboriginal Sovereign Nations of Australia;
* the Aboriginal sovereignty movement and the Aboriginal tent embassies;
* Justice Reinvestment, Aboriginal imprisonment and Aboriginal Deaths in Custody;
* Aboriginal land rights and mining; 
* Suicide and self-harm in Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander communities;
* Removal of Aboriginal children and the continuing Stolen Generation;
* Aboriginal peoples and the impact of the Australian Federal Budget;
* Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing;
* other Aboriginal rights issues; and
* upcoming Aboriginal rights events around Australia.

‘WGAR News’ gives priority to grassroots Aboriginal voices 
and grassroots voices in solidarity with Aboriginal peoples’ rights. 

The role of ‘WGAR News’ is to facilitate the voices of others,
and as such, ‘WGAR News’ rarely writes its own articles.

March 23, 2016 Posted by | aboriginal issues, AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, media | Leave a comment

Omigawd! Australia’s peak medical body is funding research into ‘wind turbine sickness’

wind-farm-evil-1Medical body pledges $3.3m for research into ‘wind turbine sickness’ ABC News By environment reporter Sara Phillips 22 Mar 16 Australia’s leading medical funding body, the National Heath and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), has awarded $3.3 million to two researchers to look into whether proximity to wind turbines causes illness.

Key points:

  • One researcher to investigate wind turbine noise and sleep, mood and cardiovascular health
  • Another to look into impacts of wind turbine noise on sleep
  • Total of the two grants is $3.3m – much higher than average
  • Some have questioned why the turbine research received funding ahead of other projects

More research was recommended by a year-long study into wind turbine sickness by the NHMRC that found “no direct evidence that exposure to wind farm noise affects physical or mental health”.

It recommended $2.5 million over five years to fund researchers to undertake further study…….

Questions raised over research funding

Clean Energy Council policy manager Alicia Webb said multiple studies, both in Australia and overseas, had already concluded there is no evidence that wind farms cause adverse health effects in humans.

“This finding has been backed up by statements from leading national organisations such as the Australian Medical Association and the Australian Association of Acoustical Consultants, which have said there is not enough infrasound produced by wind farms to have a negative effect on humans living near wind farms,” she said.

John Iser from Doctors for the Environment questioned why the wind turbine sickness research received funding ahead of other projects.

“While we always welcome good quality research, the proposed studies are far removed from a real-life setting,” Dr Iser said.

“We live in a world with many pressing health concerns, it’s worrying that research on these issues will go begging while studies on wind farms receive millions of dollars.

“Only about 15 per cent of all grant applications receive NHMRC funding.” http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-22/3.3m-pledged-for-research-into-wind-turbine-sickness/7267946

March 23, 2016 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, wind | Leave a comment

To thwart Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull is even trying to look green

Malcolm Turnbull’s green shift another blow to Tony Abbott, The Age, March 23, 2016 – Chief political correspondent Malcolm Turnbull has added to the growing differences between his administration and the previous Abbott government by reversing Coalition hostility to forward-leaning climate change policy through the creation of a new $1 billion clean energy innovation fund.

And he has bolstered that move with a formal commitment to keep the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, both of which had been set for abolition under Mr Abbott’s leadership. Continue reading

March 23, 2016 Posted by | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics | Leave a comment