Michele Madigan remembers Bob Ellis and that other nuclear royal commission
In July 2004, a six-year anti-nuclear campaign spearheaded by Aboriginal women, who themselves had suffered in the British nuclear tests, was successfully concluded with the federal government’s announcement: ‘No national radioactive dump for SA.’
who could have imagined that just 11 years later, a new and far more dangerous plan would be launched by another royal commission, perhaps the first royal commission to plan a future scheme rather than examine one past?
Since this royal commission’s ‘tentative findings’ in February for South Australia to import international high-level nuclear waste, which it actually names as radioactive for ‘many hundreds of thousands of years’, the scepticism among South Australians is growing.
Bob Ellis and the other nuclear royal commission http://wwweurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?
aeid=47194#.VwrLvtR97Gg Michele Madigan | 07 April 2016
The passing of Bob Ellis recalls his faithful accompanying of the 1984–1985 royal commission into the British nuclear tests conducted in South Australia in the 1950s and 1960s. He went ‘to England and back’ and, as he described it, ‘to each black polis’ of the royal commission hearings.
Ellis’ article on the Wallatina hearings (The National Times, 3–9 May 1985), described what he named as the commission’s ‘worst story of all’ — Edie Milpudie’s telling of herself and her family camping, in May 1957, on the Marcoo bomb crater.
She told of being ‘captured by men in white uniforms … forcibly and obscenely washed down, miscarrying twice and losing her husband who to prove to the soldiers he knew English, sang, “Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so.”
‘And how the soldiers shot their beloved irradiated dogs.’
‘The bad parts of the story,’ Ellis went on, ‘the miscarriage and afterward, were communicated to Jim (Commissioner McClelland) in secret session, in the distance in the bush, with Edie’s women friends giving her comfort, and prompting with giggles and nudges her reminiscence of a story they knew by heart, already an old legend.
‘Jim called these women the best in the world, unstinting comforters, inextinguishable friends”
Five years later I had the privilege myself of meeting Edie Milpudie at her Oak Valley camp in the SA Maralinga lands. Many of the Yalata elders had prepared me in a way with the constant mantra: ‘Milpudie — she went through the bomb.’ Continue reading
Australia cuts aid to Africa, encourages Ugly Australian Mining Companies
Last year, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released a report called Fatal Extraction: Australian Mining Companies Digging a Deadly Footprint in Africa. It reported that Australian mining companies were the most rapidly expanding of all mining investors in Africa. From 2000 to 2009, prospecting licences held by Australian companies in Botswana alone increased from 14 to 260.
According to the report, Australian mining companies were responsible for multiple cases of negligence, unfair dismissal, violence and environmental law-breaking across Africa. It claims that since 2004 more than 380 people have died in mining accidents or in offsite skirmishes connected to Australian mining companies in 13 countries in Africa.
In comparison with Australia, African tax regulations are relatively flexible, while wages and working conditions, environmental protection, and occupational health and safety laws are weak.
Last year Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announced that the Australian government would actively promote the interests of the mining sector ahead of economic aid to Africa.
Australian miners in South Africa In the wake of a local activist’s murder, Australian mining interests in Africa are being called into question. https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/resources/2016/04/09/australian-miners-south-africa/14601240003106 PHILLIP WALKER 9 Apr 16 Thee assassination of South African community activist Sikhosiphi “Bazooka” Radebe was shocking but sadly not surprising.
On the night of his death – March 22 – Radebe had warned his colleagues in the Amadiba Crisis Committee of a hit list. An hour later, two men masquerading as police arrived at Radebe’s house and shot him eight times in the head.
Radebe had been opposing titanium mining at Xolobeni, on the ancestral land of the Pondo people on South Africa’s east coast. The mining company involved is Australian-based Mineral Commodities Limited.
At Radebe’s funeral last weekend, Chief Cinani, representing the Queen and the Royal House of the amaMpondo, criticised the government’s acceptance of Australian investment and investment from the Indian business family the Guptas. “I am blaming the government because the government gave permits for those Australians, while people were saying ‘no’ to the government . It is clear that the business community is ruling the government. It is not only about the Guptas. Now we have seen the Australians. People are coming here with huge sums of money to divide the people.”
Through its director, Mark Caruso, Mineral Commodities Limited (MRC) and its South African subsidiary, Transworld Energy & Minerals Resources (TEM), have long been in dispute with the Amadiba community. The latest tragedy marks an escalation of hostility in a conflict now entering its 10th year. Continue reading
Perth-based Mineral Commodities Limited (MRC) denies role in murder of South African activist
Australian mining company denies role in murder of South African activist
Campaigners claim death of Sikhosiphi Rhadebe is an escalation of violence against opponents of a mine owned by Perth’s Mineral Commodities Limited, Guardian, Joshua Robertson, 25 Mar 16 An Australian-owned mining company has denied any link to the murder of an activist leading a campaign against its plans to mine titanium in South Africa.
Sikhosiphi “Bazooka” Rhadebe was gunned down at his home in Xolobeni on South Africa’s Wild Coast on Tuesday, in what fellow activists claimed was an escalation of violence and intimidation against local opponents of a mine owned by Perth-based Mineral Commodities Limited (MRC).
MRC, which has repeatedly denied inciting violence involving its supporters, said it was “in no way implicated in any form whatsoever in this incident”.
Mzamo Dlamini is a fellow activist who believes he is among the “prime targets” on the anti-mining Amadiba crisis committee following Rhadebe’s death.
Despite fearing for his life, Dlamini vowed to continue organising resistance to a project that campaigners said would force the relocation of an estimated 100 households and up to 1,000 people.
“The assassination affects us all,” he said. “There will be more Bazookas long after we have died.”
Six people associated with the mining venture were subject to court orders last May after a clash over land access, during which a TEM director fired a “warning shot” in the air.
Four people, including an alleged employee of another MRC mine at Tormin, are due to face court next month over alleged assault and intimidation, including with firearms, of mining opponents in Xolobeni in December. These allegations are yet to come before a court and there is no suggestion these or any other employees were involved in Rhadebe’s murder……..
Lawyer Henk Smith of the Legal Resources Centre, which has acted for landholders opposing MRC’s Tormin mine, said the killing of Rhadebe, a “principled democrat”, had likely ended the prospect of conciliation meetings between the miner and its opponents.
“I think the company has made a few statements condemning the violence but it comes after the event and the company has never taken any steps to encourage conciliation or mediation or consultation even a meeting,” Smith said.
“In fact the company shies away from meeting the community which as a result, there’ll be little chance of simply starting a process of meetings now.
“For the rest, they’ve got [to] swallow what the company offers.” http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/25/australian-mining-company-denies-role-in-of-south-african-activist
The continuing nightmare of illness and death in Iraq, from depleted uranium weapons
Fallujah (pop. 300,000) is Iraq’s most contaminated city.
Cancers in Fallujah catapulted from 40 cases among 100,000 people in 1991 to at least 1,600 by 2005. In a 2010International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health article, Busby and two colleagues, Malak Hamden and Entesar Ariabi, reported a 38-fold increase in leukemia, a 10-fold increase in breast cancer, and infant mortality rates eight times higher than in neighboring Kuwait.
Busby sampled the hair of Fallujah women with deformed babies and found slightly enriched uranium. He found the same thing in the soil. “The only possible source was the weapons,” he states.
These numbers are probably low. “Iraqi women whose children have birth defects feel stigmatized and often don’t report them,” says Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, a Michigan-based environmental toxicologist who won the 2015 Rachel Carson Award.
IRRADIATED IRAQ The Nuclear Nightmare We Left Behind, The Washington Spectator, By Barbara Koeppel 30 Mar 16 When the United States revealed in January that it is testing a more nimble, more precise version of its B61 atom bomb, some were immediately alarmed. General James Cartwright, a former strategist for President Obama, warned that “going smaller” could make nuclear weapons “more thinkable” and “more usable.”
However, what is little known is that for the past 25 years, the United States and its allies have routinely used radioactive weapons in battle, in the form of warheads and explosives made with depleted, undepleted, or slightly enriched uranium. While the Department of Defense (DOD) calls these weapons “conventional” (non-nuclear), they are radioactive and chemically toxic. In Iraq, where the United States and its partners waged two wars, toxic waste covers the country and poisons the people. U.S. veterans are also sick and dying.
Scott Ritter, a former Marine Corps officer in Iraq and United Nations weapons inspector, told me, “The irony is we invaded Iraq in 2003 to destroy its non-existent WMD [weapons of mass destruction]. To do it, we fired these new weapons, causing radioactive casualties.”
The weapons were first used in 1991 during Desert Storm, when the U.S. military fired guided bombs and missiles containing depleted uranium (DU), a waste product from nuclear reactors. The Department of Defense (DOD) particularly prized them because, with dramatic density, speed, and heat, they blasted through tanks and bunkers.
Within one or two years, grotesque birth defects spiraled—such as babies with two heads. Or missing eyes, hands, and legs. Or stomachs and brains inside out.
Keith Baverstock, who headed the radiological section of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Center of Environment and Health in the 1990s, explained why: Continue reading
Carbon Disclosure Project lists Canberra as a global climate change leader
Canberra ranked as a global climate change leader, http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/canberra-ranked-as-a-global-climate-change-leader-20160408-go1utu.html, James Hall Canberra’s ranking as a global climate change leader by the Carbon Disclosure Project is an “important acknowledgement”, Climate Council chief executive Amanda McKenzie says.
The CDP placed the capital among the top 10 cities in the world for its “quality and completeness” of environmental risk reporting.
“It’s not just that one area of the policy is doing well [to be ranked so highly],” Ms McKenzie said. “Reducing emissions, adequately reporting and disclosing internationally, a renewable energy policy, a risk assessment of what the climate change impact will be and have a plan to adapt to those consequences.”
Despite the ACT being significantly smaller than other states and territories and not having coastal environmental concerns, she said the city had substantial environmental elements affecting its climate.
She said Canberra’s recognition by the CDP is significant because its size is more common globally and it provides a more realistic comparison on how to implement sustainable technologies and processes. “Our view is that it is a very good example of how you transition a community that has previously been reliant on fossil fuels and moving towards more renewable energy,” Ms McKenzie said.
ACT Environment and Climate Change Minister Simon Corbell said the government had shown Canberrans and the world it was committed to tackling climate change. “In doing so we are also showing the world that moving to a low-carbon economy is not only achievable and affordable, but also can be a benefit to both the community and our economy,” he said. “By attracting renewable energy companies to Canberra and fostering a positive environment for renewable energy operation, research and development through our progressive policies we have positioned the territory to take advantage of growth in the renewable energy industry”.
Much of the sustainable energy being harnessed by the nation’s capital is being supplied by interstate facilities, but Ms McKenzie said it was the implementation of the energy being produced which is both environmentally responsible and economically innovative.
“It depends on why those projects have been built and if Canberra has played a significant role in making those projects get off the ground,” she said. “And then if the electricity is then being used by Canberra, the ACT has then brought in the investment for plants.”
“That is also reflected in some of the local businesses that now exist in Canberra, like Reposit Power for instance, businesses are being attracted to Canberra because it is a better investment environment for renewable energy than other parts of the country.”
Since Liberal Coalition govt dumped carbon price, greenhouse emissions have soared
Electricity emissions soar since Coalition dumps carbon price, Independent Australia Giles Parkinson 9 April 2016 RenewEconomy‘s Giles Parkinson discusses Australia’s rapidly rising electricity emissions following the Coalition’s axing of the carbon price and in direct contradiction to the Paris climate agreement.
AUSTRALIA’S ELECTRICITY emissions continue to rise and are now 5.5 per cent higher than they were before the carbon price was dumped, putting Australia against the global trend which is seeing energy emissions flat-lining even as the global economy expands.
Pitt & Sherry analyst Hugh Saddler says in his latest monthly survey that total emissions from electricity generation in the National Electricity Market (NEM) – all but Western Australia and the Northern Territory – increased again in the year to March 2016.
Annual emissions were 5.5 per cent higher than in the year to June 2014, when the Coalition killed the carbon price introduced by the Labor Government, to much acclaim from the government.
This startling jump in emissions comes despite the fact that Australia has signed up to the Paris climate agreement, which seeks to limit global warming to 2°C, and if possible 1.5°C. Energy emissions, according to the International Energy Agency, have flatlined for the past two years.
The rise in emissions also comes amid rising global CO2 levels, soaring temperatures, and the most serious coral bleaching event ever witnessed in the Great Barrier Reef.
Saddler blames the rise in emissions on a number of factors. One is the removal of the carbon price, which paved the way for more burning of coal, black coal in particular.
Another is the rise in coal generation in Queensland to support the exports of liquefied natural gas — which will contribute an extra 8 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year. Continue reading
A Russian hero who saved the world?
You (and Almost Everyone You Know) Owe Your Life to This Man. CURIOUSLY KRULWICHA Blog by Robert Krulwich NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, FRI, 03/25/2016 “……The world owes an enormous debt to a quiet, steady Russian naval officer who probably saved my life. And yours. And everyone you know. Even those of you who weren’t yet born. I want to tell his story.The sub is hiding in the ocean, and the Americans are dropping depth charges left and right of the hull. Inside, the sub is rocking, shaking with each new explosion. What the Americans don’t know is that this sub has a tactical nuclear torpedo on board, available to launch, and that the Russian captain is asking himself, Shall I fire?
This actually happened.
The Russian in question, an exhausted, nervous submarine commander named Valentin Savitsky, decided to do it. He ordered the nuclear-tipped missile readied. His second in command approved the order. Moscow hadn’t communicated with its sub for days. Eleven U.S. Navy ships were nearby, all possible targets. The nuke on this missile had roughly the power of the bomb at Hiroshima.
“We’re gonna blast them now!”…….
Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov steps into the story…. He was Savitsky’s equal, the flotilla commander responsible for three Russian subs on this secret mission to Cuba—and he is maybe one of the quietest, most unsung heroes of modern times.
What he said to Savitsky we will never know, not exactly. But, says Thomas Blanton, the former director of the nongovernmental National Security Archive, simply put, this “guy called Vasili Arkhipov saved the world.”
Arkhipov, described by his wife as a modest, soft-spoken man, simply talked Savitsky down.
The exact details are controversial. The way it’s usually told is that each of the three Soviet submarine captains in the ocean around Cuba had the power to launch a nuclear torpedo if—and only if—he had the consent of all three senior officers on board. On his sub, Savitsky gave the order and got one supporting vote, but Arkhipov balked. He wouldn’t go along.
He argued that this was not an attack……
The debate between the captain and Arkhipov took place in an old, diesel-powered submarine designed for Arctic travel but stuck in a climate that was close to unendurable. And yet, Arkhipov kept his cool. After their confrontation, the missile was not readied for firing. Instead, the Russian sub rose to the surface, where it was met by a U.S. destroyer. The Americans didn’t board. There were no inspections, so the U.S. Navy had no idea that there were nuclear torpedos on those subs—and wouldn’t know for around 50 years, when the former belligerents met at a 50th reunion. Instead, the Russians turned away from Cuba and headed north, back to Russia……..
the world is very, very lucky that at one critical moment, someone calm enough, careful enough, and cool enough was there to say no. http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2016/03/25/you-and-almost-everyone-you-know-owe-your-life-to-this-man/
Climate denialist Maurice Newman might split the Liberal Party?
Maurice Newman claims to be head of business council disbanded by Turnbull
Former adviser to Tony Abbott says Malcolm Turnbull’s ‘left leaning positions’ could lead to formation of breakaway conservative party, Guardian, Lenore Taylor, 8 Apr 16 Businessman Maurice Newman has insisted he remains the head of the prime minister’s business advisory council, despite being informed by Malcolm Turnbull last year that the council was being disbanded.
Last September Guardian Australia revealed that Newman’s term as chairman of the prime minister’s business advisory council had expired and that a spokesman for Turnbull had confirmed he would not be reappointed………
Newman, a strong supporter of former prime minister Tony Abbott, told Lateline Turnbull’s “left leaning positions” could potentially lead to the formation of a breakaway conservative party…….
Asked whether he was saying Turnbull’s leadership could lead to the emergence of a new conservative party Newman replied “Well, I think it’s most likely that if the people who support the Liberal party and the Liberal party values find that essentially it’s a Labor-like party, then they’ll clearly be attracted to whatever alternatives might be presented to them.”
He nominated “giving more money” to renewable energy and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation as Labor-like policies being undertaken by the Coalition.
Newman has used a weekly column in the Australian to expound his views on climate change, including that the world was ill-prepared for a period of global cooling and that the United Nations was using debunked climate science to impose a new world order under its own control.
He also called for a government-funded review of the Bureau of Meteorology to “dispel suspicions of a warming bias” in its temperature record-keeping, something freedom of information documents last year revealed was under consideration by the former prime minister’s department…….http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/apr/08/maurice-newman-claims-to-be-head-of-business-council-disbanded-by-turnbull
How much is Big Oil spending, to obstruct action on climate change?
The new report excludes so-called dark money, or money spent on think tanks and institutes,
Trying to Put a Price on Big Oil’s ‘Climate Obstruction’ Efforts, Bloomberg, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-07/trying-to-put-a-price-on-big-oil-s-climate-obstruction-effort
Eric Roston eroston ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch/Shell, and three oil-industry groups together spend $115 million a year on advocacy designed to “obstruct” climate change policy, according to new estimates released by Influence Map, a British nonprofit research organization.
The sheer fuzziness of corporate influence prompted the project. Nations hold companies to different standards—or none at all—for disclosures of how they are trying to influence public policy and what it costs.
To come up with its numbers, Influence Map first had to define what “influence” actually means. The researchers adopted a framework spelled out in a 2013 UN report written to help companies align their climate change policies with their lobbying and communications strategies. It’s a broad approach to understanding influence that includes not only direct lobbying, but also advertising, marketing, public relations, political contributions, regulatory contacts, and trade associations.
The five subjects of Influence Map’s research use those organs to the opposite ends. ExxonMobil’s “direct spending on climate obstruction,” according to the report, may be $27 million a year. Shell’s estimated spending is $22 million. The American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s U.S. trade group, may spend up to $65 million a year, and two smaller groups—the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) and the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association—are estimated to spend about $9 million together.
Investor groups that push for strong climate policies spend less than $5 million a year on advocacy, according to the researchers.
The report, “How Much Big Oil Spends on Obstructive Climate Lobbying,” is directed at investors who are starting to make more noise about the topic. Nineteen climate-minded investment groups have filed 45 resolutions with oil-and-gas companies related to climate change and greenhouse gases in 2016 alone, although nine of these resolutions were withdrawn after companies promised action or further discussion. The investors include the New York State Comptroller, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, the Presbyterian Church in the U.S., and sustainability pioneer Trillium Asset Management. Continue reading
Unaoil scandal and the Panama Papers
It was only a matter of time before the Panama Papers controversy and the Unaoil bribery scandal overlapped.
Leaked emails obtained by Fairfax Media show the owners of oil industry bribe master Unaoil, the Ahsani family, used the Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca – just like thousands of other super-rich around the world – to establish companies in tax haven locations.
http://www.theage.com.au/business/unaoil-scandal-and-the-panama-papers-20160409-go2jr7.html
Sudden resignation of Ukraine Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk
Ukraine Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk resigns over ‘artificially created political crisis’ ABC News 11 Apr 16 Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has announced his resignation in the wake of a months-long political crisis that paralysed the government and stopped the release of vital Western aid.
Key points:
- PM Yatsenyuk will ask parliament to approve his resignation Tuesday
- His resignation comes weeks after surviving a non-confidence vote
- It is believed parliament speaker Volodymyr Groysman will be the new PM
“Having done everything to ensure stability and make a smooth transition of power possible, I decided to step down from the post of Prime Minister of Ukraine,” the pro-Western leader said in a television address.
“The political crisis in the country was created artificially. The desire to change one person blinded politicians and paralysed their political will for real change,” he said………
Mr Yatsenyuk’s announcement means that Ukraine will in the coming days be headed by a new government that has also vowed to pursue a pro-Western course. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-11/ukraine-prime-minister-yatsenyuk-resigns/7314798
Minister Greg Hunt did not impress David Attenborough, with his uninformed comments about the Great Barrier Reef
Greg Hunt rebuked by Attenborough film-maker after upbeat verdict on Great Barrier Reef http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/08/greg-hunt-rebuked-by-film-maker-after-great-barrier-reef-verdict
Environment minister told to ‘watch the series’ after saying David Attenborough documentary is evidence reef is safe, Guardian, Melissa Davey and Steph Harmon, 8 Apr 16 Enamoured by stunning footage in David Attenborough’s latest documentary series, the Australian environment minister, Greg Hunt, took it as proof that theGreat Barrier Reef remained an untouched beauty.
But he might have been better off waiting to see the whole series before commenting.
“The key point that I had from seeing the first of the three parts is that, clearly, the world’s Great Barrier Reef is still the world’s Great Barrier Reef,” Hunt told theCourier Mail.
The documentary was one of “profound importance” that “Australia would rightly be proud of”, he continued, and was evidence that the reef was not facing the death that climate change scientists and environmentalists feared.
Hunt made the comments after seeing part one, which airs on the ABC on Sunday night. Had he watched the full series, however, he would have seen footage of coral bleaching and heard Attenborough describe, in the final part of the documentary, how “the Great Barrier Reef is in grave danger”.
“The twin perils brought by climate change – an increase in the temperature of the ocean and in its acidity – threaten its very existence,” Attenborough says.
“If they continue to rise at the present rate, the reefs will be gone within decades. And that would be a global catastrophe. About a quarter of the species of fish in the world spend some part of their lives in the reefs. If the reefs go, the fish will also disappear. And that could affect the livelihood and diet of human communities worldwide.”
The producer of the Great Barrier Reef series, Anthony Geffen, responded to Hunt’s comments, encouraging him to “watch the series, you know”.
“It’s like watching one of those Hollywood movies when everybody’s happy at the front and everybody’s dead at the end, and saying, ‘Well I think the family was really happy and everybody’s really good’, but you haven’t got to the end of the movie, where his whole family is lying on the floor dead,” Geffen told Guardian Australia.
Geffen said the series captured “horrific” levels of coral bleaching, which occurs when rising sea temperatures destroy the tiny marine algae that live inside corals’ tissue and provide up to 90% of the energy corals require to grow and reproduce.
“It was horrific and, obviously, we’ve been very much still in touch with the scientists and some of the areas we’ve just filmed in have been devastated by bleaching,” he said.
“And, in fact, scientists were asking for our footage so they could compare what had disappeared, which is quite extraordinary. I mean [the documentary] is only just coming out in Australia and already the footage is being used as archives to [document] the destruction of the reef.”
However, Geffen described the series, which has already aired in the UK, as “bigger than” and “above” politics.
“This series has gone out to, I think by the end of the year, a billion people or something – that’s what people should be reflecting on,” he said. “And I hope it doesn’t get hacked over by political means and ends, because it shouldn’t.”
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 