Today, the UN climate negotiations in Bonn, Germany, are wrapping up. The world’s diplomats discussed and developed national pledges, with USA’s Michael Bloomberg pledging American action by cities and States, in defiance of President Trump. Scientists reported that the plans are not enough to meet the Paris climate goal of holding the global temperature increase to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels. It is still worth acting to prevent extreme changes, but climate change impacts are already locked in.
To give an example of the kind of climate feedback mechanisms that might be happening, China has this year increased its carbon emissions, largely because of less availability of hydropower. Hydropower was in short supply because of drought, which, in itself, was probably exacerbated by climate change.
You would think it hardly possible that tensions could ratchet up any further around North Korea, but they have. China has sent a diplomat to North Korea, and has asked USA to stop the naval military drills around the Korean peninsula.
AUSTRALIA
Australian government helps business lobbies, while punishing charities.
Australia sells weapons to countries like Saudi Arabia, that perpetrate human rights abuses.
CLIMATE. Among 56 countries studied – Australia is close to worst on climate change action. Pacific Islanders call on Australia and other nations, as climate change submerges islands. Australian World Heritage sites at special climate change risk .
NUCLEAR. Lucas Heights is the obvious place for a National Radioactive Waste Management Facility. High level nuclear wastes, planned for South Australia dumping, but not mentioned by Australian Government. Federal radioactive waste in South Australia : three sites, two years, one message. South Australian government: local Aboriginal community has final veto on nuclear waste suppository Australian Aboriginal concerns will now be addressed in Scotland discussions on destination of reprocessed nuclear wastes.
Senator Cory Bernardi’s Nuclear Fuel Cycle (Facilitation) Bill – joins Tony Abbott in pro-nuke fervour.
Western Australia: Supreme Court begins Judicial Review of Environmental Approval for Yeelirrie Uranium Mine.
ENERGY. The Adani Carmichael Coal Mine: Introduction To A Special Five-Part Series. Financial peril for Adani’s Carmichael mine company. Australia’s dirtiest industry dealt another blow as Commonwealth Bank rule out new coal projects.
Australian Solar Council launches campaign againstQueensland’s Liberal National Party. Canberra homes battle to be energy champions. More at REneweconomy.com.au
November 18, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
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Briefer (Nov 2017) by David Noonan, Independent Environment Campaigner
Uranium mining has unique, inherent risks and long term impacts. The West Australian Parliament has passed a Motion (Legislative Council 23 May 2012) recommending:
The government adopt equivalent or better environmental management regulatory requirements for any future uranium mine in Western Australia as exists under Commonwealth and Northern Territory legislation for the operation of the Ranger uranium mine in the Northern Territory with regard to the disposal of radioactive tailings, including the requirements that –
(a) The tailings are physically isolated from the environment for at least 10,000 years: and
(b) Any contaminants arising from the tailings do not result in any detrimental environmental impacts for at least 10,000 years.”
The Barnett era WA gov Approval for the Mulga Rock Uranium Project (Dec 2016) fails to comply with required Commonwealth & NT legislative standards or with the WA Parliament recommendation.
There are two types of intended Tailings Storage Facilities (TSF): an Above Ground TSF and multiple Mine Pit TSF’s in 4 areas across 30 km. An “authorised extent of physical and operational elements” (Approval Schedule 1 Table 2) place some limits on Above Ground TSF but no limits on Mine Pit TSF’s:
“Initial disposal for no longer than 2 years after commencement of mining operations, in the above ground TSF labelled on Figure 2. After this time, all disposal must be in the mine pits”;
“Disposal of no more than 3 Mtpa of beneficiation rejects and no more than 2 Mtpa of post-leaching tailings material”, within an Above Ground TSF cleared area of up to 106 ha.
Mine Pit TSF’s are not required to use “best available landform modelling over 10 000 years post mine closure” or to try to meet a safety outcome that is applied to the Above Ground TSF disposal:
“Condition 16 (1) ensure that the above ground TSF is safe to members of the public and non-human biota, geo-technically and geo-morphologically, and geo-chemically non-polluting.”
Condition 15-1 allows for a plume of tailings seepage and contaminants to move in groundwater:
“The proponent shall manage the design and maintenance of all TSF’s to … ensure that the tailings plume is within background groundwater concentrations at the M39/1080 lease boundary”.
The TSF Monitoring and Management Plan (C 15-3) provides for the proponent: “to manage impacts on groundwater quality including from seepage of contaminants into the groundwater and/or soil”.
Conditions 12 & 14 only seek to “minimise impacts” on Inland Waters, on groundwater, and impacts on water quality, including: “Acid and Metalliferous Drainage from seepage into groundwater”.
A number of Management Plans relevant to TSF’s, Groundwater & Environment issues are required: “prior to substantial commencement of the proposal or as otherwise agreed in writing by the CEO” (Conditions 6-1 & 7-1). These Plans require the approval of the CEO Depart of Environment. 2
Barnett era WA gov Uranium Approvals fail to protect Aboriginal Heritage sites:
Redress is required to WA Uranium Approvals authorisation of impacts to Aboriginal Heritage in favour of mining vested interests and irrespective of cultural & heritage values. Aboriginal people should have rights to Free, Prior and Informed Consent over any WA uranium mine proposal.
The WA Approval to the Mulga Rock Uranium Project (Condition 11-1 Aboriginal Heritage) authorises impacts to registered Aboriginal Heritage sites and to “unregistered sites”, with a weak objective to only minimise impacts on heritage sites rather than to properly protect sites and avoid impacts:
- minimise impacts as far as practical to registered sites DAA 1985 and DAA 1986 and unregistered sites.”
An Aboriginal Heritage Management Plan is required to be approved “prior to ground disturbing activities being undertaken” with decision powers held by the CEO of the Depart of Environment.
Flawed Federal Uranium Approval fails to mention Aboriginal Heritage or Tailings issues:
The Federal Approval to the Mulga Rock Uranium Project (02 March 2017, Minister Josh Frydenberg MP) inexplicably fails to mention Aboriginal Heritage or regulation of uranium mine radioactive tailings. These are unacceptable omissions of key Federal EPBC Act responsibilities to protect the environment from nuclear actions. The Federal ALP should commit to address this Liberal failure.
WA Approval Conditions require a “Compliance Assessment Plan” by May 2018:
WA Approval Condition 4 “Compliance Reporting” requires the proponent submit a “Compliance Assessment Plan” by May 2018, to the satisfaction of CEO Depart of Environment. This will test the new ALP State gov: acquiesce to uranium mining or require robust Plans to protect the environment.
Further, the CEO has a power under Condition 5 to require release of all validated environmental data relevant to assessment of the Mulga Rock Project “within a reasonable time period approved by the CEO”. These data sets should be made public ASAP and well prior to any Project commencement.
A marginal Uranium Project risks a pristine Priority Ecological Community:
The Mulga Rock Uranium Project site is entirely inside the Yellow Sandplain Priority Ecological Community and upstream from the Queens Victoria Springs ‘A Class Nature Reserve’. The project poses a serious long term risk to a listed ‘pristine’ area through production of approx. 32 million tonnes of radioactive tailings and seepage of wastes that require isolation for over 10 000 years.
The Bulletin Magazine (Oct 2016) reports capital costs for Mulga Rock processing and mining infrastructure and indirect costs at over A$360 million, with a planned annual production of uranium oxide concentrate at (only) 1,350 tonnes over a mine life of 16 years. A ‘break even’ Uranium Price for Mulga Rock has been estimated at US$50 per pound. Steve Kidd a former senior official of the World Nuclear Association writes in NEI Magazine (Sept 2017) that: “…uranium prices are set to remain in the US$20’s per pound for a long time, maybe throughout the whole of the 2020’s.”
For further info see: www.ccwa.org.au/nuclearfreewa and www.ccwa.org.au/mulga_rocks
November 18, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
environment, legal, reference, uranium, Western Australia |
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Climate News Network 16th Nov 2017 Climate change and nuclear threats are closely linked and must be tackled together, US experts say. The warning comes from a working group chaired by
the Center for Climate and Security (CCS), a non-partisan policy institute
of security and military experts (many of them high-ranking former members
of the armed forces), in a report which offers a framework for
understanding and addressing the distinct problems together.
The report is published as this year’s UN climate summit draws to a close in Bonn in
the aftermath of President Trump’s tour of Asia, during which nuclear
weapons issues featured prominently.
Professor Christine Parthemore, a former adviser to the US defence department, co-chairs the working group.She told the Climate News Network: “Simultaneous effects of climate
change, tough social or economic pressures, and security challenges could
increase the risk of conflict among nuclear weapon-possessing states, even
if that conflict stems from miscalculation or misperception.
India and Pakistan are major concerns. “They are grappling with water stress,
deadly natural disasters, terrorism, and numerous other pressures. At the
same time, the types of nuclear weapons they are developing and policies on
command of those weapons are raising tensions between them.
http://climatenewsnetwork.net/climate-nuclear-threats-twins/
November 18, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
General News |
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Above: Ben Heard at Bonn, 16 November
Ben Heard and the pro nuclear lobby group “Generation Atomic” were not very successful at the Bonn climate talks. A member of the group ‘marraskuu’ explains:
“we ran around Bonn, trying to secure a permission for a side event that our group would like to organize on Monday, when the UNEP [ United Nations Environment Programme ] Sustainable innovations forum, from which the nuclear industry was kicked out from, starts. They eventually ended up denying us the permission.
The evening was spent in one of the weirdest way I have ever spent an evening: By sticking up stickers on Bananas”
So – the nuclear lobby at the climate talks was reduced to pushing one of their most dishonest and silliest propaganda spins – the “banana argument”. Because our bodies contain a small amount of (mildly) radioactive Potassium 40 – and because there’s potassium 40 in bananas – then we are told not to worry about the nuclear fission produced highly radioactive ions like Cesium , Strontium, Iodine,
BUT – IN REALITY : When you eat a banana, your body’s level of Potassium-40 doesn’t increase. You just get rid of some excess Potassium-40. The net dose of a banana is zero.
November 18, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, spinbuster |
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Ultimately, the larger problem is that President Trump’s policy objectives are unattainable.
Denuclearization is a non-starter from North Korea’s perspective because Kim believes – not without reason – that nuclear weapons are a matter of regime survival, having seen what happens to leaders in countries like Libya when they give up their nuclear programs.
As long as President Trump insists on “complete, verifiable and total denuclearization,” Washington is walking America down a path that leads to (likely nuclear) military conflict
A ‘preventive’ war with North Korea would be total hell. Here’s why http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/11/17/preventive-war-with-north-korea-would-be-total-hell-heres-why.html By Harry J. Kazianis | As the Trump administration continues to rattle sabers at North Korea with rhetoric eerily similar to the run-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, the possibility of a preventive U.S. war with North Korea may be more real than foreign and defense policy experts recognize.
It would be both foolish and naïve to think that all the tough talk coming out of the Trump administration is simply meant to intimidate North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un into giving up his nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.
The three so-called “adults in the room” who are apparently the strongest voices influencing President Trump’s foreign policy are National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.
Mattis is an active duty lieutenant general in the Army. Mattis and Kelly are retired Marine Corps generals. Their common experience is commanding ground forces in the Iraq War. If they are shaping the Trump administration’s North Korea policy, it stands to reason that their views would have a decidedly military tilt.
If President Trump decides to take military action, what might it look like? Continue reading →
November 18, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
General News |
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Carmichael coal mine magnate Gautam Adani: from school dropout to $12bn empire, The Age 18 Nov 17
Adani’s push to build a mega coal mine in Queensland has polarised opinions nationwide. It should come as no surprise: the billionaire behind the project has long been a focus of controversy in his native India.Tim Elliott
“………According to the
Bloomberg Billionaire Index, the 55-year-old has a net worth of $US9.9 billion ($12.9 billion), placing him among the 10 richest people in India. As chairman of Adani Group, which he founded three decades ago, he presides over an empire with interests in mining, ports, power plants, real estate, renewable energy, food, and even defence……
To Australians, however, he is best known for his proposed $16.5 billion Carmichael coal mine, to be built in central Queensland’s Galilee Basin. Construction was scheduled to start in October, but has been delayed due to political and financing issues. Should the mine proceed, it will be one of the largest in the world – roughly five times the size of Sydney Harbour – and produce up to 60 million tonnes of coal per year for anywhere between 50 and 60 years, all of which will be exported, the bulk of it to India…….
Adani has also been willing to operate at the very limits of India’s notoriously murky business world. His companies have been implicated in multiple instances of alleged corruption, including tax evasion, bribery, money laundering and large-scale illegal exports. In 2007, India’s Directorate of Revenue Intelligence began investigating companies in the Adani Group for evading taxes and laundering money while trading in diamonds and gold jewellery. (In 2015, following a complex and protracted case, the Supreme Court found partly in Adani’s favour, whilst conceding that the company had engaged in a “notorious misuse” of the government’s diamond export scheme.)
Companies in the Adani Group are being prosecuted in Delhi’s High Court for allegedly inflating the price of capital equipment imports, allowing the company to charge electricity consumers higher prices while diverting profits into tax havens in the Cayman Islands and Mauritius. (Adani denies any wrongdoing.)
“Adani should have been prosecuted for so many offences,” says Prashant Bhushan, a Delhi-based public interest lawyer who co-filed the High Court case. “There’s cheating the public and electricity consumers and shareholders; there are violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act. There are probably corruption cases involving the banks.”
And yet investigations into Adani’s companies have a habit of being shelved indefinitely, being resolved in his favour or simply disappearing. “Mr Adani has a lot of influence in high places,” Bhushan tells me. “It is obvious, for instance, that he is very good friends with [the Indian Prime Minister] Narendra Modi.” …….
Saysthe energy consultant Tim Buckley, “Adani is getting exactly the same sort of treatment from Australian politicians to that which he is used to back in India. He has been offered a $1 billion subsidised loan from the Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility [NAIF], and a $600 million royalty holiday and free water from Queensland taxpayers. And as if that wasn’t enough, we’ve now learnt that the Queensland Government has compulsorily acquired prime agricultural land to make way for the Adani railway. It’s farcical.”…….. http://www.theage.com.au/good-weekend/carmichael-coal-mine-magnate-gautam-adani-from-school-dropout-to-12bn-empire-20171106-gzfobl.html
November 18, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming, politics |
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Elon Musk finally unveils the Tesla Semi electric truck
Elon Musk is unveiling his company’s electric truck, the Tesla Semi, promising long range and big savings. Here’s what we know…
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‘Modern air is a little too clean’: the rise of air pollution denial
Despite report after report linking air pollution to deterioration of the lungs, heart and brain, Professor Robert Phalen believes the air is “too clean” for children.
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What Frydenberg was told about why NEG was bad policy
There is a better alternative to the NEG, taking the lead of the UK, Germany, Portugal, even China, who have all set policy to move aggressively towards clean energy.
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Kidston solar + pumped hydro project wins another $5m from ARENA
Stage 2 of Genex Power’s solar and pumped hydro project set to reach financial close in 2018, with help of new federal government grant.
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Queensland’s new coal generator would burn more money than coal
A new coal generator in north Queensland would likely burn up to 79 per cent of its asset base – at the cost to Queensland taxpayers.
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Solar industry launches big campaign in Queensland poll against LNP
Australian Solar Council launches massive campaign against LNP in Queensland poll, saying there is too much at stake to ignore.
November 18, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, energy |
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China’s nuclear spaceships will be ‘mining asteroids and flying astronauts to the moon’ as it aims to overtake US in space race State media publishes Chinese scientists’ ambitious plans to revolutionise space travel and exploration in coming decades, South China Morning Post, Stephen Chen: Friday, 17 November, 2017 China is on course to develop nuclear-powered space shuttles by 2040, and will have the ability to mine resources from asteroids and build solar power plants in space soon after, according to state media. The ambitious claims, made by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology – the country’s leading rocket developer and manufacturer – were published on the front page of People’s Daily on Friday.
According to the report, a new “nuclear fleet” of carrier rockets and reusable hybrid-power carriers will be ready for “regular, large scale” interplanetary flights, and carrying out commercial exploration and exploitation of natural resources by the mid-2040s.
China will catch up with the United States on conventional rocket technology by 2020, it said. In 2025, it is expected to launch a reusable suborbital carrier and start suborbital space tourism.
By 2030, it aims to put astronauts on the moon and have the capabilities to bring samples back from Mars. In the 2040s, a nuclear-powered fleet will be ready to carry out mining operations on asteroids and planets, the report said…..
“The nuclear vessels are built to colonise the solar system and beyond,” Wang Changhui, associate professor of aerospace propulsion at the School of Astronautics at Beihang University in Beijing, said…..
A nuclear spaceship would have a reactor loaded with radioactive fuel for fission – the splitting of atoms that produces large amounts of energy.
That energy could be used to generate a driving force as well as electricity for the craft’s on-board equipment….
During the cold war, dozens of satellites equipped with various types of nuclear reactors were launched by the former Soviet Union and the United States..
But the nuclear space race was eventually postponed, partly due to its threat to humanity. In 1978, Russian spy satellite Kosmos 954 crashed and sprayed radioactive waste over an area of 124,000 square kilometres in Canada.
More than 30 dead nuclear satellites are still drifting in space and could fall to earth at any time over the next few thousand years.
“Safety issues will be the top challenge for the Chinese nuclear fleet,” Wang said. “If they come down, it will cause a global nuclear disaster.”
According to China’s space authorities, the nuclear shuttles would be docked at a transport hub that would orbit the earth. Reusable spacecraft would be used to transport people and cargo to and from the shuttles.
But even if they were permanently in space, the nuclear-powered vessels were still at risk of being hit by meteorites or even colliding with one another, Wang said.
Regardless of those concerns, a mainland space expert said the targets given in the People’s Daily report would be almost impossible to achieve…….http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2120425/chinas-nuclear-spaceships-will-be-mining-asteroids
November 18, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
General News |
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PopePope Francis rebukes ‘perverse’ climate change deniers over rejection of science behind global warming Pontiff encourages policymakers to accelerate their efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions at Bonn summit Independent, Nicole Winfield, 17 Nov 17 Pope Francis has rebuked those who deny the science behind global warming and urged negotiators at climate talks in Germany to avoid falling prey to such “perverse attitudes” and instead accelerate efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
Francis issued a message to the Bonn meeting, which is working to implement the 2015 Paris accord aimed at capping global emissions.
In it, Francis called climate change “one of the most worrisome phenomena that humanity is facing.” He urged negotiators to take action free of special interests and political or economic pressures, and to instead engage in an honest dialogue about the future of the planet. ……. In his message, the Argentine pope denounced that efforts to combat climate change are often frustrated by those who deny the science behind it or are indifferent to it, those who are resigned to it or think it can be solved by technical solutions, which he termed “inadequate.” “We must avoid falling into these four perverse attitudes, which certainly don’t help honest research and sincere, productive dialogue,” he said. http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/pope-france-climate-change-deniers-perverse-global-warming-greenhouse-gas-emissions-bonn-germany-a8060746.html
November 18, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
General News |
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Student nuclear disarmament speech canceled due to Chinese pressure: gov’t sources KYODO NEWS – Nov 16, 2017 – A speech by a Japanese student peace ambassador at an international disarmament conference in Geneva in August was canceled due to pressure from the Chinese government, Japanese government sources said on Thursday.
The speech by a representative of high school student ambassadors calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons had been delivered at every annual Conference on Disarmament since 2014.
But at the 2017 gathering, China objected, citing rules that allow only government officials to speak, according to the sources.
With Beijing having voiced concerns in the past that Tokyo highlighted the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to present itself as a victim of World War II, it is believed that China pressured for the speech to be quashed for the same reason.
At the past three editions of the conference, a student ambassador representative dispatched by a Japanese civic group gave a speech by registering as a member of the Japanese government delegation for one day.
Between February and May this year, China, a nuclear power and a member of the conference, urged Japan to cancel the planned speech. Its disarmament ambassador said the delegation could request that the high school student is removed and that Beijing will pursue the issue if Tokyo continues with the practice, according to the sources…… https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2017/11/9d14a00bdaf9-student-nuclear-disarmament-speech-canceled-due-to-chinese-pressure-govt-sources.html
November 18, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
General News |
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Networks push to take regional consumers, communities off grid
Networks and consumer groups say taking rural customers off grid – and providing them with solar and storage – can save billions, and make electricity cleaner, safer and more reliable. It’s a no brainer, but the regulator stands in the way.
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GE Renewable Energy appoints Steve Oswald to lead its Wind business in Australia & New Zealand
GE Renewable Energy has announced the appointment of Steven Oswald as the new Country Executive for the Wind business in Australia & New Zealand. Further, David Lian has been promoted to Head of Sales for Wind in Australia and New Zealand.
November 18, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, energy |
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Fukushima 311 Watchdogs
By Kimura Aya Hirata (August 2016)
Following the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster in 2011 many concerned citizens—particularly mothers—were unconvinced by the Japanese government’s assurances that the country’s food supply was safe. They took matters into their own hands, collecting their own scientific data that revealed radiation-contaminated food. In Radiation Brain Moms and Citizen Scientists Aya Hirata Kimura shows how, instead of being praised for their concern about their communities’ health and safety, they faced stiff social sanctions, which dismissed their results by attributing them to the work of irrational and rumor-spreading women who lacked scientific knowledge. These citizen scientists were unsuccessful at gaining political traction, as they were constrained by neoliberal and traditional gender ideologies that dictated how private citizens—especially women—should act. By highlighting the challenges these citizen scientists faced, Kimura provides insights into the complicated relationship between science, foodways, gender, and politics in post-Fukushima Japan and…
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November 18, 2017
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Antinuclear 