Grey voters see red over 3 years of federal radioactive waste plan
Maria Bonacci, 29 April 2019, Today marks three years since the federal government named Wallerberdina Station in the Flinders Ranges as its preferred site for a national radioactive waste facility.
Since then, Kimba on the Eyre Peninsula has also been targeted. Members of both communities have since worked consistently to prevent becoming home to Australia’s radioactive waste.
Adnyamathanha woman from the Flinders Ranges Vivianne McKenzie said “there are many people in the community who have opposed this nuclear waste dump since it was first announced. We need Canberra to listen to us, because we will never give up.”
As part of these efforts a community postcard initiative opposing the planned waste site is being delivered tomorrow to the Whyalla office of current federal member for Grey, Mr Rowan Ramsey. He is being requested to take it to Federal Resources Minister Matt Canavan on behalf of the community. Copies will also be given to Shadow Minister Kim Carr, the Kimba District and Flinders Ranges Councils and the SA state government.
One of the messages collected on the postcards was “please investigate all safe options before proceeding with this current plan”. The Government is rushing and wrong and we want a different approach.
There are three sites currently under federal consideration: two near Kimba on the Eyre Peninsula and one near Hawker in the Flinders Ranges. All three sites are actively contested and all are in Grey, the largest electorate in South Australia.
Dr Susi Andersson from Hawker said “three years of uncertainty is too long. The process of finding a site for a NRWMF is dividing and harming our community. Most people, for or against the facility, feel three years is too long. This is affecting the well-being of individuals and the community.
“The Cadence Economic Report commissioned and published by DIIS predicts an 8% increase in GRP (gross regional product) when the facility is expected to be operational in 2030. SA tourism predict a State-wide rise in tourism activity by 2030 of 32%. Tourism and primary production are the basis of our economy and our future, not a radioactive waste facility. DIIS produces lots of slick propaganda promoting their proposal but when we ask questions or for clarification, it usually takes months to get an answer” Dr Andersson concluded.
Peter Woolford, a farmer from Kimba said “Our homes – our communities – our jobs are at risk from this unpopular and unnecessary plan. We will not sit quietly and allow a flawed plan to have a lasting negative impact on our way of life.”
The No Dump Alliance – a broad grouping of SA community, Aboriginal and agricultural representatives – is calling on the current and any future federal government to scrap the current site selection process, take the three sites in SA off the table and hold an independent inquiry into the full range of ways to manage Australia’s radioactive waste.
For media comment or to arrange interviews please call Mara Bonacci: 0422 229 970
Lynas’ rare earths miner: its troubles are a reminder that even renewables technologies involve radioactive trash
 Toxic waste: Lynas Corporation and the downside of renewable energy, Independent Australia, 28 April 2019 In some cases, renewable energy can have profoundly harmful environmental effects if not managed correctly, writes Noel Wauchope.AUSTRALIA’S LYNAS CORPORATION is currently under the business and political spotlight. The current controversy over Lynas rare earth elements company is a wake-up call to an area of vulnerability in renewable technologies – the radioactive pollution produced by developing the rare earth elements essential for today’s hi-tech devices. Electric cars, batteries, energy efficient lighting, smartphones, solar panels, wind turbines and so on all need some of the 17 mineral elements classed as rare earth. The mining and processing of this produces radioactive trash.
Environmentalists, in their enthusiasm for renewable energy, seem unaware of this fact, while they rightly condemn coal and nuclear power, for their toxic by-products. Australia’s Lynas Corporation has two major rare earth facilities — mining at Mount Weld, Western Australia, and processing at Kuantan, Malaysia. For years, there’s been a smouldering controversy going on in Malaysia, over the radioactive wastes produced by the refining facility at Kuantan. Now, this has come to a head. On 17th April, the Malaysian Government insisted that Lynas Corp must remove more than 450,000 tonnes of radioactive waste from the country, for its licence to be renewed in September. Australian Government legislation and policy prohibits the import of radioactive waste. However, some categories of radioactive waste are exempt from this law, if they contain very low levels of radioactivity. Here’s where it all gets terribly complicated. Wesfarmers wants to take over Lynas. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is examining this, and especially Wesfarmers’ involvement with the Malaysian government. The Age on 16 April, reported that Prime Minister Mahathir, following discussions with Wesfarmers, announced that a company interested in acquiring Lynas had promised to extract the radioactive waste before exporting the ore to Malaysia. All this raises the question of exactly what would an Australian company, such as Wesfarmers, do with that radioactive waste? This is a thorny problem. And what would Lynas do about their current problem?…… It is complicated to grasp the methods used and just what is required for the proper cleanup of the Lynas rare earth elements refining. Lynas CEO Amanda Lacaze maintains that the wastes left behind are only marginally radioactive. …… culture and history really have their impact, precisely in Malaysia’s experience of rare earth processing. Even if the Lynas waste really is only slightly radioactive, Malaysians remember the environmental and health disaster of Bukit Merah; where, early this century, rare earth processing left a toxic wasteland. China’s rare earth element processing disaster in Inner Mongolia is better known, an environmental catastrophe from the 1960s which lingers today. Modern processing has improved safety in waste management. In relation to nuclear power, there is an abundance of information on radioactive waste management, for China and for other countries. However, there’s little or no information that’s easily available to specifically discuss radioactive waste from rare earth processing. Australia does have another, smaller, rare earth elements mining and processing operation, Arafura Resources, in Central Australia. The Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority (EPA) found this acceptable….. What is clear, is that the production of the world’s hi-tech devices is not a simple matter as far as the environment goes. Climate change activists, anti-nuclear activists and environmentalists in general can keep on promoting renewable energy and electric cars. But they seem to be blind to the total picture, which includes the downside. Obviously, it is necessary to ensure safer disposal of the trash from rare earth mining and processing. A better idea is to develop the design of devices so that the minerals can be retrieved from them and recycled, thus greatly eliminating the need for mining rare earth. And this is beginning to happen. ….. Energy conservation is the biggest factor in the change that is needed. Social change, however difficult that will be, is going to be the most important answer — the transition from a consumer society to a conserver society. The Lynas radioactive trash controversy is not going to go away quickly, however much governments and corporations want to keep it under wraps. And it also could be a catalyst for discussion on that downside of renewable and hi-tech devices. This is something to think about as we throw away last year’s iPhone in favour of the latest model. https://independentaustralia.net/environment/environment-display/toxic-waste-lynas-corporation-and-the-downside-of-renewable-energy,12619#disqus_thread |
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Liberal Coalition gets a poor rating on climate policy
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Coalition scores ‘F’ on climate policy-ACF, https://www.sbs.com.au/news/coalition-scores-f-on-climate-policy-acf 28 Apr 19,The federal coalition government has scored a ‘fail” on its climate change policy but Labor has scraped through with a “pass”, a conservation group says.
A climate change advocate has scored the climate policies of the major policies, marking down the coalition as a fail but with Labor scraping through with a pass mark. The Greens, however, scored a high distinction. “Of the two major parties, Labor is miles ahead of the coalition on climate commitments, but neither party is doing enough to make Australians safe from climate damage,” Australian Conservation Foundation chief executive Kelly O’Shanassy warned. Given the importance of the response to climate change in the 2019 election campaign, the ACF assessed the policies on 50 key tests across four broad areas before giving each a score out of 100. These areas included ramping up renewables, phasing out coal, stopping Adani’s coalmine and protecting nature. The scorecard gives the Greens’ policies 99/100 and Labor 56/100, but the coalition just 4/100. “The coalition’s signature climate policy – the emissions reduction fund – has not curbed Australia’s climate pollution,” Ms O’Shanassy said handing down the scorecard on Monday. “For the coalition to again offer this ineffective policy as its main plan to tackle climate change shows a disregard for farmers, survivors of natural disasters fuelled by global warming and the next generation of Australians.” Meanwhile, the ACF believes while Labor has put forward a credible framework for cutting climate pollution and growing the renewable energy sector, it is only halfway to full marks because of its blind spot on coal and gas. In particular, Labor hasn’t (established) plans to phase out coal-fired power and hasn’t ruled out the Adani mine,” Ms O’Shanassy. However, the policies the Greens are taking to the election reflect the urgency of action that scientific bodies like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change say is needed to keep global warming at relatively safe levels, she added. |
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2019: the climate election
Friends of the Earth, APR 24, 2019,
Uranium miner coaxed government to water down extinction safeguards
Guardian, Adam Morton@adamlmorton, 27 Apr 2019 Cameco did not have to show if WA mine would lead to extinction of tiny fauna before its approval on 10 April, A multinational uranium miner persuaded the federal government to drop a requirement forcing it to show that a mine in outback Western Australia would not make any species extinct before it could go ahead.
Canadian-based Cameco argued in November 2017 the condition proposed by the government for the Yeelirrie uranium mine, in goldfields north of Kalgoorlie, would be too difficult to meet.
The mine was approved on 10 April, the day before the federal election was called, with a different set of conditions relating to protecting species.
Environmental groups say the approval was politically timed and at odds with a 2016 recommendation by the WA Environmental Protection Authoritythat the mine be blocked due to the risk to about 140 subterranean stygofauna and troglofauna species – tiny animals that live in groundwater and air pockets above the water table.
A Cameco presentation to the department, released to the Greens through Senate estimates, shows the government proposed approving the mine with a condition the company must first demonstrate that no species would be made extinct during the works.
Cameco Australia said this did not recognise “inherent difficulties associated with sampling for and describing species”, including the inadequacy of techniques to sample microscopic species that live underground and challenges in determining whether animals were of the same species. It said the condition was “not realistic and unlikely to be achieved – ever”
The condition did not appear in the final approval signed by the environment minister, Melissa Price, which was made public after being posted on the environment department’s website on 24 April.
Instead, the government said the company should develop a groundwater management program, limit groundwater extraction in some places to 50cm and have evidence from a qualified ecologist that work in part of the area affected by the mine would not lead to extinction. All would need to be submitted to the environment minister for approval.
Mia Pepper, from the Conservation Council of WA, said the change to the conditions showed mining companies had a disproportionate influence in what was a flawed environmental approvals process.
She said a clear condition to stop extinction had been replaced with convoluted requirements that shifted the onus for stopping species loss from the company to the government.
“I think the public and government department should expect [that] companies can provide evidence that species won’t be made extinct,” she said. “The attitude in the mining industry around subterranean fauna has been pretty poor. Whether they are tiny species or cute and cuddly species, they should all be protected. Who are we to decide?”
Pepper said Yeelirrie had been subject to probably the most extensive subterranean fauna survey at an Australian mine site when it was owned by BHP Billiton. “The chances that these species exist elsewhere is almost zero to none. That is backed up by the BHP survey and the EPA,” she said……
Labor has called on Price to explain why the mine was approved in the shadow of an election campaign.
Cameco Australia general manager, Simon Williamson, welcomed the approval but said a decision to advance the Yeelirrie mine would depend on market conditions, which were currently challenging. The mine is also the subject of a legal challenge in the WA court of appeal by the conservation council and three Tjiwarl traditional owners. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/27/uranium-miner-coaxed-government-to-water-down-extinction-safeguards
Climate change protests across the globe: activists stage “die-ins”
Extinction Rebellion activists stage die-in protests across globe https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/27/extinction-rebellion-activists-stage-die-in-protests-across-globe Mattha Busby @matthabusby, 28 Apr 2019Environmental protesters lay on the ground at transport hubs, venues and shopping centres
At the Kelvingrove art gallery and museum in Glasgow, about 300 activists lay down beneath Dippy, the famous copy of a diplodocus skeleton which is currently touring the UK, for 20 minutes on the sound of a violin.
Many held handwritten signs with the question “Are we next?”, while children held pictures they had drawn of their favourite at-risk animals as part of the event organised by Wee Rebellion, a climate-change protest group for young people in Glasgow associated with Extinction Rebellion.
Twelve-year-old Lida said: “We want to raise awareness about climate change. If we keep carrying on the way we are humans may become extinct, like Dippy.” Aoibhìn, 7, said: “Lots of animals are dying out because of climate change.”
The group said industrial agriculture, overfishing and deforestation could lead to food shortages in the UK and serious flooding in parts of Glasgow.
In Lund, a number of people took to the cobbled streets of the southern Swedish city in the rain, urging people to take greater notice of what they called a looming climate catastrophe.
Meanwhile, in Oslo, about 30 people occupied the floor of a shopping centre. Extinction Rebellion Norway tweeted: “Full stoppage at Oslo City while we campaigned against the clothing industry’s wild environmental degradation. It is the world’s second largest polluter after the oil industry.”
The actions were part of worldwide celebration at 12.05pm called by Extinction Rebellion Berlin following the protests that began in London in November 2018, which have since spawned a mass movement.
A spokesperson for the group said in a statement: “Our ecosystem is threatened by collapse, which will not only lead to mass extinction of countless species, the loss of soil fertility and more extreme weather but will also bring with it the social crises of famine, war and migration.
Australian children want Australia to take action on climate change: it’s about their future!
We underestimate young people because it’s convenient, SMH, By Caitlin Fitzsimmons, April 28, 2019 —
Of course, they are – climate change is an existential threat for Generation Z. Did you think they wouldn’t notice?
In a recent incident that made the news, the NSW Department of Education ordered Ramsgate Public School to remove two letters from students published in an online newsletter.
The children had written letters about climate change, notionally to Prime Minister Scott Morrison though the letters weren’t sent, as part of an exercise in persuasive writing.
A department spokesman told The Sun-Herald the letters were written after a geography lesson about the Great Barrier Reef. The spokesman said there was no problem with the lesson or the letters themselves but because they were addressed to the Prime Minister and were critical of government policy, the publication of the letters breached the Controversial Issues in Schools policy.
The incident was reported in The Daily Telegraph, which quoted two right-wing think tanks and a conservative academic in a story about how teachers are ostensibly subjecting children to a political agenda in the classroom and “brainwashing young, immature and vulnerable children with their politically correct ideology”.
Last week, Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg, the girl who started the worldwide school strike movement, addressed the British Parliament. Predictably, people who don’t want to hear her message choose to attack her instead – they mock her appearance and stern manner, her Asperger’s, claim she is paid to protest, and dismiss her on the basis that she has only just turned 16.
If you would prefer to listen to an adult who has studied the issue then by all means do so – they will tell you the same as Thunberg. The difference is that Thunberg’s youth gives her message about the future a certain moral clout.
Climate change is a tough issue for teachers and not just because they are hamstrung by policy………
Among the surveyed teenagers, the vast majority (86 per cent) view climate change as a threat to their safety, with 73 per cent saying it affects the world “a lot” now and 84 per cent saying it will affect the world “a lot” in the future.
Three out of four want Australia to be taking action on climate change, to lead by example and play our part in stopping its worsening effects. Only 8 per cent believe we shouldn’t take action because of negative effects on the economy and only 5 per cent that we are too small a nation to make a difference. Only 4 per cent do not believe climate change is both real and caused by human activity………
Young people and all future generations are the ones who will inherit a vastly depleted natural world. The only way to counter that moral authority is to call them “pawns” in a debate they couldn’t possibly understand.
Or we could hear the message and act. As Thunberg says, we need to act like the house is on fire – because it is.
More evidence that US may seek to prosecute Julian Asssange under the Espionage Act
, 28th April 2019 More evidence has emerged that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange could be prosecuted for offences under the US Espionage Act. Although testimony provided by a digital forensics expert raises questions about the prosecution.
Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency righteous about possibly radioactive jewellery, silent on nuclear threats
Michelle Drummond – I feel the important thing about this article is the fact that the AUSTRALIAN RADIATION PROTECTION AND NUCLEAR SAFETY AGENCY raised a warning about the dangers associated with radiation and getting too close to uranium and thorium in jewellery, however, they argue there are no dangers associated with mining, processing, using uranium and thorium in the production nuclear power, let alone storing the waste for thousands of years.
I also find it concerning that individuals are unable to connect the dots.
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Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency warns over wearing ’scalar energy’ jewellery, Adelaide Now , Tory Shepherd, State Editor, Sunday Mail (SA), April 28, 2019 Radioactive jewellery being sold in Australia can expose wearers to uranium and thorium, the radiation watchdog has warned. |
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How Big Oil Tried to Capture the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The lobby group focused its efforts on trying to constrain the strength of the IPCC’s statements about human causes of climate change in the run up to the UN’s annual climate meeting in Kyoto in 1997, where world leaders agreed to the world’s first global climate change treaty. Officials from President George W. Bush’s administration would later credit the GCC for influencing his decision to abandon the landmark Kyoto treaty.
Despite sophisticated coordination, connections to the highest political echelons, and huge resources, the GCC had limited success at influencing the UN’s main scientific body. The group was disbanded in 2002 after many members left, citing reputational risks around the groups’ peddling of climate science denial as the reason for their departure.
The documents show the GCC:
- Spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on an ‘IPCC Tracker Fund’ to monitor and lobby the UN’s climate science advisory body in the three years leading up to world leaders signing the Kyoto Protocol;
- Attacked the IPCC’s peer-review process, while also using the body’s status as a well-respected scientific institution to bolster its climate science denial claims;
- Targeted specific scientists responsible for establishing human activities caused climate change, using adverts and op-eds in the mainstream media to attack the scientists’ credibility……..
Industry efforts to quash inconvenient scientific conclusions continue, according to Robert Brulle, a Professor of Sociology at Drexel University. He told DeSmog the “efforts of the GCC continue to live on in the ongoing efforts of many conservative think tanks to dispute the findings of climate science, and to attack climate scientists.”
“One key component of this effort was to manipulate climate science as summarized in the IPCC reports. Not unlike other industries, such as asbestos, tobacco, or lead, scientific findings pose a major threat to fossil fuel corporations’ bottom line. Hence one key part of their strategy has been, and continues to be to minimize the anthropogenic factor driving climate change.”
“This is still a common talking point among politicians.” ndustry efforts to quash inconvenient scientific conclusions continue, according to Robert Brulle, a Professor of Sociology at Drexel University. He told DeSmog the “efforts of the GCC continue to live on in the ongoing efforts of many conservative think tanks to dispute the findings of climate science, and to attack climate scientists.”
“One key component of this effort was to manipulate climate science as summarized in the IPCC reports. Not unlike other industries, such as asbestos, tobacco, or lead, scientific findings pose a major threat to fossil fuel corporations’ bottom line. Hence one key part of their strategy has been, and continues to be to minimize the anthropogenic factor driving climate change.”
“This is still a common talking point among politicians.” https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/04/24/how-big-oil-tried-failed-capture-un-intergovernmental-panel-climate-change?utm_source=dsb%20subscriber%20newsletter
April 28 Energy News — geoharvey
Science and Technology: ¶ “Major Report To Highlight ‘Natural And Human Emergency’” • Scientists and government officials are in Paris to finalize a report examining humanity’s relationship with nature. One author says the report from the Intergovernmental Panel for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services highlights a “social and ecological emergency” the world faces. [BBC News] ¶ […]
The Truth-Teller: From the Pentagon Papers to the Doomsday Machine — IPPNW peace and health blog
We, as a society, are conscious of the risk of the devastating impacts that could come from climate disruption. In contrast to the absence of public discourse around nuclear conflict since the end of the Cold War, climate has been a subject of intense public debate. Although the danger of the nuclear threat remains undiminished, the proposed $1.7 trillion nuclear modernization program in the US is not a matter of serious debate.It is difficult to compare climate and nuclear threats. The climate catastrophe toward which we are moving, while uncertain in terms of timing and outcomes, is indisputable. We have survived the nuclear danger for seventy years, although we have come close to conflict more frequently than the public realizes.
via The Truth-Teller: From the Pentagon Papers to the Doomsday Machine — IPPNW peace and health blog
John Connor re-enters policy wars as head of Carbon Markets Institute — RenewEconomy
John Connor to head Carbon Markets Institute, says business now realising there is no such thing as a “low carbon” future, it has to be zero carbon. The post John Connor re-enters policy wars as head of Carbon Markets Institute appeared first on RenewEconomy.
via John Connor re-enters policy wars as head of Carbon Markets Institute — RenewEconomy
Facebook’s newest ‘fact checkers’ are Koch-funded climate deniers — RenewEconomy
The fatal flaw in Zuckerberg’s effort to deal with fake news. The post Facebook’s newest ‘fact checkers’ are Koch-funded climate deniers appeared first on RenewEconomy.
via Facebook’s newest ‘fact checkers’ are Koch-funded climate deniers — RenewEconomy
How Climate Change is Making Storms Stronger — Evaporation, Precipitation, Instability — robertscribbler
With Cyclones Idai and Kenneth generating record breaking, back-to-back landfalls in Mozambique, with new studies indicating an increase in U.S. tornado activity and a general movement of tornadoes eastward, and with many air travelers recently grounded, it’s a good time to revisit climate change’s overall effects on extreme weather. (Kenneth was the strongest storm to […]
Antinuclear 