Striking school students are more likely to have successful careers
School strikers are going places but the dole queue isn’t one of them, https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/environment/climate-change/school-strikers-are-going-places-but-the-dole-queue-isn-t-one-of-them-20181202-p50jog.html, By Clive Hamilton 2 December 2018 The resources minister, Matt Canavan, last week told students that the only thing they’d learn by skipping school to protest over inaction on climate change would be how to join the dole queue.
The history of protest in Australia shows the opposite. The protest leaders of the 1960s and 1970s, including many high school students, were denounced by conservatives as long-haired layabouts who would never amount to anything. In fact, they became the next generation of leaders in politics, universities, media, the public service, NGOs and even business.
Take the 1965 Freedom Ride, for instance. “Look at em,” said one RSL stalwart when students turned up to protest against the ban on black diggers. “The brains of Australia! God help you if you ever end up under em.” That’s exactly what happened. The Freedom Ride’s leaders included Jim Spigelman, who would go on to become Chief Justice of NSW and chair of the ABC, Ann Curthoys, later an eminent professor, and Charles Perkins, who became an Aboriginal leader, leading public servant and one of Australia’s Living National Treasures.
Student protesters have become newspaper editors, cabinet ministers, prize-winning poets, much-loved cartoonists, publishers, world-famous authors and Supreme Court judges.
There’s a reason they develop into leaders. It’s those young people who throw themselves into civic engagement who become the best citizens and most productive members of our society. They are the passionate ones willing to stand up. They are not content to “work, consume, die” but commit themselves to making a better Australia.
When we hear Canavan tell 2GB the protesters are “not actually taking charge of their lives” and they should get a real job, he’s telling them they should not be active, motivated citizens but docile consumers who leave politics to the politicians.
The protesting school kids, tired of watching the sacrifice of their future by a government dominated by climate science deniers, had some sharp answers to that, waving placards reading “Why should we go to school if you won’t listen to the educated?” and “I’ve seen smarter cabinets in Ikea”.
The students are carrying on a noble tradition. The great social movements that defined modern Australia—the movements for women’s liberation, gay rights, Indigenous rights, and environmental protection—all inspired school students to get out on the streets, wave banners and chant slogans.
Clive Hamilton is the author of What Do We Want? The Story of Protest in Australia and professor of public ethics at Charles Sturt University in Canberra.
Michael West shows the obstacles to Adani actually starting the Carmichael coal project
Desperate Adani’s bid to kick-start Carmichael before election, Michael West, Dec 2, 2018 The press release does not say they are starting the mine. It says they are starting the mine imminently. They have been starting the Carmichael coal mine imminently for many years. We maintain the view that this mine will not proceed, but the Adani family does have a special new inducement to proceed, besides risk-free income routed to family-controlled entities in tax havens, and that inducement comes from India. Michael West reports.The bankers have long fled the scene, mine “approvals risk” remains, the thermal coal price has tanked, the Carmichael Coal project is more on the nose than ever as Queensland burns.
Yet, last Thursday, Adani chief executive Lucas Dow told the Bowen Basin Mining Club lunch in Mackay that Carmichael would proceed imminently. Adani would now finance the mine itself.
It remains the view of this observer that it won’t happen and that Lucas Dow is jawboning, trying to get something going before the Federal Election next year. There is some urgency to this – an urgency supported by other Galilee Basin coal players Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer – because a Labor government is less likely to look favourably upon Adani’s aspirations to open up a new coal province.
Officially, Labor still supports the project proceeding, and some unions are in favour, but there is no hard-core coal lobby in the party, unlike in the Coalition Government, pushing it.
This is a project whose ambitions have fallen from $20 billion to $2 billion in project finance for its latest slimmed-down version.
These are the “nays”. The “yays” are few but one significant factor has swung in Adani Australia’s favour.
* The price of high-quality Newcastle coal has fallen to two-year lows at $US58/tonne.
* Adani has no rail access agreement with Aurizon to ship the coal to Abbot Point coal terminal.
* It does have a legitimate ILUA (Indigenous Land Use Agreement) but this has been challenged and may take months to resolve.
* There is no final approval of water rights and the heatwave and fires in Queensland have hardened local opposition to the plan.
* Adani Group in India has not come up with $2 billion yet.
* Sources say that EFIC (Export Finance & Insurance Corporation) has discarded the idea of financing or guaranteeing Adani’s loans.
* Aurizon withdrew its application to NAIF (Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility) earlier this year for finance to build a 388k rail line from the Galilee to the coast.
The Yays
As the project is “vertically integrated”, that is, the coal goes straight to feed the Adani Group’s plants in Indonesia, the price of coal is not absolutely critical to whether it proceeds.
Here is the catch. The poor people of Gujurat Province in India have bizarrely been put on the hook to subsidise coal projects in India for the next thirty years. Why this has happened, one can only guess, but the effect of the deal appears to be to guarantee coal supply to three Indian coal magnates via “cost-plus” arrangements.
This from the Press Trust of India, October 11:
The recommendations of a high-powered committee on stranded power projects set up by the Gujarat government can bring a combined relief of Rs 1.29 trillion for Tata, Adani and Essar’s power plants in the state over the next 30 years, according to a source.
If the recommendations are implemented, the consumers will have to face the brunt of high power tariffs………..
In light of the Indian subsidies, Gautam Adani can probably borrow the $2 billion in project finance. Bear in mind that, thanks to the way the port terminal, and perhaps the rail, corporate entities are structured, the Adani family takes little risk on those revenues. Shipping coal will deliver per-tonne income to Adani family companies.
If the Adani group itself finances the mine – as opposed to external banks – it will bear the mine risk. Gautam Adani is yet to publicly say the deal is financed.
Given the remaining “approvals risks” as detailed above, there are still plenty of obstacles for the project to overcome.https://www.michaelwest.com.au/desperate-adanis-bid-to-kick-start-carmichael-before-election/
Antarctica – the Thwaites glacier is losing ice
Portrait of a planet on the verge of climate catastrophe As the UN sits down for its annual climate conference this week, many experts believe we have passed the point of no return, Guardian, by Robin McKie, 2 Dec 18 “……. Antarctica
It is hard to get a grip of the sheerscale of the Thwaites glacier in west Antarctica. It’s more than 300 miles long and 200 wide – and more than a mile thick. It drains an area of ice that is larger than England and stealthily slides towards the sea by several metres every day. Only from satellite images have we understood the shape and power of this ice monster.
These now show the beast is waking up. Thwaites’s uptake of falling snow was once matched, fairly finely, by snow and ice being lost as icebergs. Now it has begun to flow faster, along with some of its neighbouring glaciers. More ice is being lost into the ocean than is being replaced, speeding up global sea-level rise.
The cause of the disruption at Thwaites is straightforward, researchers have discovered. Increasing amounts of warm ocean water coming from the north have been melting the floating parts of the glacier and this, in turn, is letting the inland glacier run more quickly into the sea. This much we know, but we have still to understand how this process is likely to accelerate. At present, Thwaites contributes around 4% of observed sea-level rise, but it is widely agreed that this could grow exponentially. Indeed, some glaciologists believe that a complete collapse of the Thwaites glacier over coming centuries is now inevitable – and that would raise global sea level by several metres, drowning coastal ecosystems around the world, damaging coastal investments and displacing millions of people………. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/02/world-verge-climate-catastophe
Saskatchewan sues federal government over cost to clean up abandoned uranium mine
Cleanup cost more than 10 times initial estimate, Adam Hunter –
CBC News, The Saskatchewan government is suing Ottawa over costs associated with the cleanup of the Gunnar mine site, an abandoned uranium mine.
The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, calls on the federal government to honour a 2006 memorandum of agreement (MOA) that saw both sides committing to sharing the cost of cleaning up the northern Saskatchewan site.
When the MOA was signed, the estimated cost was $24.6 million over 17 years. The two sides agreed to split the cost.
The cost has now ballooned to an estimated $280 million. To date, the province has paid $125 million cleaning up the mine and its associated satellite sites. The province said the federal government has contributed $1.13 million.
“The federal government agreed to cost-share this project equally, but has since refused to uphold its end of the agreement,” said Minister of Energy and Resources Bronwyn Eyre.
She said after years of back and forth the province was left with “no choice” because it has an obligation to fully remediate the site.
In an emailed statement to CBC, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Natural Resources said, “as the owner of the site, the Government of Saskatchewan is responsible for the Gunnar Mine Remediation Project.”
It goes on to say the federal government has provided funding for the first phase of the project and it will commit to funding the remaining two phases “after Saskatchewan obtains all the necessary approvals required to proceed with remediation.”
Mine’s history…...https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4923849?__twitter_impression=true
UK’s nuclear dream becoming a nightmare
News Lens 22nd Nov 2018 ,The UK’s so-called ‘nuclear renaissance’ is once again in crisis. In
November, it was announced that Toshiba were pulling out of investing in the new Moorside nuclear power station after years of expensive planning, for which British citizens will be paying for years to come.
Meanwhile in Scotland (nuclear power is not being pursued and emissions are falling faster than elsewhere in the UK), 98 percent of final electricity demand was met by wind power alone in October.
Just as the ‘atomic dream’ is rendered ever more clearly obsolete by renewables, UK Government nuclear
enthusiasm intensifies. The UK has one of the most ambitious nuclear new build agendas in the world. The program was justified on the basis that it would produce power “significantly before 2025.” It was claimed “keeping the lights on” with nuclear, would be cheaper than renewables and require no subsidy. The first new nuclear station, Hinkley C, would be operating by Christmas 2017.
https://international.thenewslens.com/article/108612
Release of Federal Inquiry Report into community contamination from toxic chemicals
| On Monday December 3rd a cross-party Parliamentary Inquiry will release its report into the Defence Department’s management into PFAS contamination in and around Defence bases. To date 90 sites and communities in every single state and territory of Australia have been contaminated by this toxic and banned chemical which was used in firefighting foams and has leaked into the environment. |
| A seven-year study of 69,000 US residents by an independent panel of scientists concluded these body of chemicals were connected to developmental issues in infants and children, increased cancer risk, high cholesterol levels, hormone disruption and lowered immunity.
For years contaminated communities were kept in the dark about their homes being contaminated. For the last four years they have fought tirelessly for their own Government to take responsibility for compensation and clean-up of their polluted properties. The Inquiry report will detail physical, emotional and financial toll living in a contaminated community has created along with listing recommendations. Contaminated communities are tired of years of inaction and false claims. “To date, the Australian Government is a world leader in managing PFAS contamination.” Letter from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to Williamtown residents. March 2018 Fact– More than 170 countries have signed a treaty which ban PFAS related chemicals – Australia refuses to. Fact– PFAS is not only still leaking off Defence bases, airports and industrial sites all around Australia in States such as Queensland it’s still in use at over 200 sites. Fact – Defence and the Government continues to refuse to provide blood testing for residents at a number of contaminated sites. It will not release collated blood testing results from other sites. Fact:– Contaminated communities are told not to drink water or eat food from their properties but the Government is dismissive of the international research detailing the health risks of PFAS. Fact – The Inquiry hearings saw both the Defence Department admit they would welcome a third party stepping in to better manage the PFAS contamination and the Federal Government unable to point to who was coordinating the national response to it handling it. |
Adani’s announcement they are ‘ready to go’ must be reality tested
Brisbane, Australia: Galilee Basin Traditional Owners say today’s announcement by Adani Mining that it has decided to fund its massively scaled down Carmichael project must be reality tested. They say the Queensland Government has not extinguished their native title, which is crucial to the mine proceeding.
W&J Traditional Owner and lead spokesperson Adrian Burragubba said, “Even if Adani’s announcement proves to be true, they do not have the final approvals or the financial close needed for the mine to proceed. They are also under investigation for environmental breaches on our country.
“It is a measure of Adani’s failure that they can’t obtain finance for the project they touted to our people.. We rejected it when they first came to us and we reject it now, because Adani offers nothing of worth to our people and will destroy our country forever.
“We demand a guarantee from the Queensland Government they won’t now extinguish our native title for Adani. Queensland Labor has said they recognise that the registration of the Adani ILUA is contested and they acknowledge and respect our right to have our complaints considered and determined by a court.
“We have an appeal before the full bench of the Federal Court. To act before this concludes would be to deny our rights and open the way for a grave injustice. Without our consent, the mine is not ready to proceed”.
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 