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 Community tensions simmer over waste dump closed meeting plans. Transcontinental AUGUST 19 2019 Plans for a closed meeting with select stakeholders in the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility (NRWMF) debate have raised eyebrows amongst anti-nuclear campaigners.
The issue was resolved and protocol was amended to allow note-taking, provided privacy of the speaker was respected.
However a closed meeting scheduled between the Minister for Resources Matt Canavan, the Economic Working Group and the BCC has reignited accusations of secrecy.
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August 20, 2019
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, Federal nuclear waste dump |
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Raised eyebrows amongst anti-nuclear campaigners ….only? How about maybe the rest of the communities as well??
Also, last time I looked Kimba and Hawker were not islands!! Nope – they are DEFINITELY part of South Australia too!!! And ALL of South Australia will be affected by this National Nuclear Dump!
This is MEANT TO BE “AN OPEN AND TRANSPARENT PROCESS” so we have been told….When will we HAVE THAT???
Shan’t hold my breath!!…….DISGRACEFUL!!
Noel Wauchope Jeff Baldock’s Kimba property is allegedly the frontrunner for a future nuclear waste dump. No wonder this man is prominent at this meeting, happy with the progress and his financial prospects. Better than farming, hey?
Doug Potts The man who offered land owns both sites. I’m not sure if it’s free hold or lease. But why are they pushing, showing, brainwashing for these site especially when one is in a known sciesmic active area with floods as well. Also a West Australian site has said yes we would like this no interest is shown. Sadly the whole thing stinks like yesterday’s nappies!
August 20, 2019
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, Federal nuclear waste dump |
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Katrina Bohr, no nuclear waste dump anywhere in south australia, 20 Aug 19,
Have heard it through the Grapevine, we are expecting theMinister’s presence. Hawker and Kimba, the apple of his eye. Quorn has a voting population far greater than Hawker, yet we are overlooked. A 30 min. meeting on Wednesday at 12:30 with the Flinders Ranges Council in Quorn, is the limit of the Minister’s ‘time’ here. https://www.facebook.com/groups/941313402573199/
August 20, 2019
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, Federal nuclear waste dump |
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Australia’s climate change stance damaging relationship with Pacific islands, former Kiribati president warns, ABC News, By political reporter Matthew Doran , 19 Aug 19. Pacific nations may view Australia as the “worst of two evils” when compared to China, after it undermined a deal on climate change, according to the former president of one of the region’s smallest nations.
Key points:
- Australia has been criticised for forcing leaders at last week’s Pacific Islands Forum to water down language on cutting carbon emissions
- Kiribati’s former president said Pacific nations may turn away from Australia due to its lack of leadership on climate change
- The former president said Pacific islands could foster greater relationships with China
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the Coalition have been broadly criticised for forcing leaders at last week’s Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in Tuvalu to water down language on cutting carbon emissions and phasing out the use of coal.
China’s rising influence in the Pacific is of concern to Australia, which has “stepped up” its presence in the region through aid and development funding.
But Anote Tong, who from 2003 to 2016 served as president of Kiribati — a series of islands atolls in the Pacific which is home to more than 100,000 people — said the renewed interest from Canberra could be dismissed, as island nations expressed their disgust at the nation’s lack of leadership on climate change.
“It’s really about the lesser of the two evils, I guess,” he told RN Breakfast…. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-19/australia-climate-change-inaction-damaging-pacific-relationship/11426390
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August 20, 2019
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming, politics international |
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The astronomer royal and risk specialist on cyber-attacks, pandemics, Brexit and life on Mars, Martin Rees is a cosmologist and astrophysicist who has been the astronomer royal since 1995. He is also a co-founder of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, Cambridge. His most recent book, On the Future: Prospects for Humanity, is published by Princeton.
Martin Rees……. science is not just a venture for academics – most of our life depends on how it’s applied.
…….. One consequence of modern technology is that the world is more interconnected. It’s possible for small groups or even individuals to produce an effect that cascades very widely, even globally.
Ian Tucker..…
The climate crisis is another area where international agreements have had limited impact. There is a strong grassroots movement led by Greta Thunberg and others, yet we have populist presidents in the US and Brazil who are climate-change deniers and reneging on agreements…
Martin Rees Politicians don’t prioritise things when the benefits are diffuse and in the far future. They will only take action if the voters are behind them. That’s why it’s very important to sustain these campaigns.
We want to make sure that these issues of climate stay on the agenda. For instance, the 2015 papal encyclical on climate change. The pope has a billion followers from Latin America, Africa, East Asia and this helped towards consensus at the Paris conference……
The need for sending people into space has evaporated. If you were building the Hubble telescope now, you wouldn’t send people to refurbish it, you would send robots. I hope human space flight will continue, but as a high-risk adventure bankrolled by private companies. If I were American, I wouldn’t support taxpayers’ money going on Nasa’s manned programme. …..
it is a delusion to think we can solve Earth’s problems by relocating to Mars. I completely disagree with Musk and with my late colleague Stephen Hawking on that, because dealing with climate change on Earth is a doddle compared with terraforming Mars. ….https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/aug/18/martin-rees-astronomer-royal-interview-brexit
August 20, 2019
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
General News |
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Iceland holds funeral for first glacier lost to climate change
Nation commemorates the once huge Okjokull glacier with plaque that warns action is needed to prevent climate change Guardian Agence France-Presse 19 Aug 2019 ,
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Iceland has marked its first-ever loss of a glacier to climate change as scientists warn that hundreds of other ice sheets on the subarctic island risk the same fate.
As the world recently marked the warmest July ever on record, a bronze plaque was mounted on a bare rock in a ceremony on the barren terrain once covered by the Okjökull glacier in western Iceland.
Around 100 people walked up the mountain for the ceremony, including Iceland’s prime minister, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, the former UN human rights commissioner Mary Robinson, and local researchers and colleagues from the United States who pioneered the commemoration project.
“I hope this ceremony will be an inspiration not only to us here in Iceland but also for the rest of the world, because what we are seeing here is just one face of the climate crisis,” Katrín said.
The plaque bears the inscription “A letter to the future”, and is intended to raise awareness about the decline of glaciers and the effects of climate change.
“In the next 200 years all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it,” the plaque reads…… https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/19/iceland-holds-funeral-for-first-glacier-lost-to-climate-change
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August 20, 2019
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
General News |
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Climate change may change the way ocean waves impact 50% of the world’s coastlines The Conversation, Mark Hemer, Principal Research Scientist, Oceans and Atmosphere, CSIRO, Ian Young. Kernot Professor of Engineering, University of Melbourne, Joao Morim Nascimento, PhD Candidate, Griffith University, Nobuhito Mori, Professor, Kyoto University, August 20, 2019 The rise in sea levels is not the only way climate change will affect the coasts. Our research, published today in Nature Climate Change, found a warming planet will also alter ocean waves along more than 50% of the world’s coastlines.
If the climate warms by more than 2℃ beyond pre-industrial levels, southern Australia is likely to see longer, more southerly waves that could alter the stability of the coastline.
Scientists look at the way waves have shaped our coasts – forming beaches, spits, lagoons and sea caves – to work out how the coast looked in the past. This is our guide to understanding past sea levels.
But often this research assumes that while sea levels might change, wave conditions have stayed the same. This same assumption is used when considering how climate change will influence future coastlines – future sea-level rise is considered, but the effect of future change on waves, which shape the coastline, is overlooked.
Changing waves
Waves are generated by surface winds. Our changing climate will drive changes in wind patterns around the globe (and in turn alter rain patterns, for example by changing El Niño and La Niña patterns). Similarly, these changes in winds will alter global ocean wave conditions.
Further to these “weather-driven” changes in waves, sea level rise can change how waves travel from deep to shallow water, as can other changes in coastal depths, such as affected reef systems.
Recent research analysed 33 years of wind and wave records from satellite measurements, and found average wind speeds have risen by 1.5 metres per second, and wave heights are up by 30cm – an 8% and 5% increase, respectively, over this relatively short historical record.
These changes were most pronounced in the Southern Ocean, which is important as waves generated in the Southern Ocean travel into all ocean basins as long swells, as far north as the latitude of San Francisco.
Sea level rise is only half the story.…. https://theconversation.com/climate-change-may-change-the-way-ocean-waves-impact-50-of-the-worlds-coastlines-121239
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August 20, 2019
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming |
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If Trump ends another nuclear treaty, it will be the height of folly, by Michèle Flournoy and Kingston Reif, August 19, 2019 Michèle Flournoy is co-founder and managing partner of WestExec Advisors. She served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from February 2009 to February 2012. Kingston Reif is the director for Disarmament and Threat Reduction Policy at the Arms Control Association.
(CNN)During his first two and a half years in office, President Donald Trump and his administration have laid waste to numerous international agreements originally designed to strengthen US security, bolster US alliances, and constrain US adversaries. The toll has been particularly high with respect to deals concerning nuclear arms control and nonproliferation.
Over the past 14 months, the administration has withdrawn from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and abandoned the 1987 Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Both of these valuable agreements have been discarded without a viable plan to replace them.
Now the administration is signaling that it might jettison yet another nuclear pact, the2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with Russia. Doing so would be the height of folly and would deal a significant blow to US national security. With the US withdrawal from the INF Treaty having just taken effect on Aug. 2, New START will be the only remaining agreement constraining the size of the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals. Were New START to disappear, for the first time in nearly half a century there would be no legally binding limits on American or Russian nuclear stockpiles. The risk of unconstrained US-Russian nuclear competition, and of even more tense bilateral relations, would grow.
New START is one of the few remaining bright spots in the US-Russian relationship. The treaty requires each side to reduce long-range nuclear forces to no more than 1,550 deployed warheads, 700 deployed long-range missiles and bombers, and 800 deployed and non-deployed missile launchers and bombers by Feb. 5, 2018—a deadline that both countries
met.
New START also includes a comprehensive monitoring and verification regime to ensure compliance. But the agreement is set to expire on Feb. 5, 2021. Under its terms, it can be extended by up to five years if both presidents agree.
In an appearance before an activist group this summer, however, US National Security Advisor John Bolton, who before joining the administration calledNew START an “execrable deal,” said that while no decision has been made, he thinks an extension is “unlikely.”
The decision to extend New START should be a no-brainer from both a security and budget perspective.
The treaty caps the size of Russia’s deployed nuclear arsenal and provides the US with information about Russia’s forces that cannot be gained in any other way. This reduces the Russian threat to the US and greatly aids American military and intelligence planning…….
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/19/opinions/flournoy-reif-if-trump-ends-another-nuclear-treaty-it-will-be-the-height-of-folly/index.html
August 20, 2019
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
General News |
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Welder Shortage Threatens Boris Johnson’s U.K. Nuclear Revival,Bloomberg, By
Britain’s plan to revitalize its aging nuclear energy infrastructure is likely to take a hit if Brexit jeopardizes a crucial supply of welders.
The skilled workers have been in short supply for years, a strain that will likely worsen as new nuclear projects are built. About 13% of Britain’s welders come from other countries in the European Economic Area, according to the Migration Advisory Committee, which keeps a list of occupations with a shortage of workers…. (subscribers only) https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-19/welder-shortage-threatens-boris-johnson-s-u-k-nuclear-revival
August 20, 2019
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
General News |
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Coles becomes first major Australian retailer to strike a renewbles PPA, in a deal that will supply 10% of its power needs and set three proposed solar farms under construction in regional NSW by next month. The post Landmark deal to power Coles underpins three NSW solar farms appeared first on RenewEconomy.
via Landmark deal to power Coles underpins three NSW solar farms — RenewEconomy
August 20, 2019
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Molycop Australia inks solar and wind PPA with Flow Power, to cover more than half its NSW electricity needs and tap into the demand response market. The post NSW manufacturer shifts to 50% renewables with wind and solar PPA appeared first on RenewEconomy.
via NSW manufacturer shifts to 50% renewables with wind and solar PPA — RenewEconomy
August 20, 2019
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NASA data reveals global toxic air pollution hotspots over Victoria’s Latrobe Valley and Lake Macquarie and the Hunter Valley in NSW – homes to Australia’s old coal plants. The post Ageing coal plants put Australia on map of global air pollution hotspots appeared first on RenewEconomy.
via Ageing coal plants put Australia on map of global air pollution hotspots — RenewEconomy
August 20, 2019
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Antinuclear 