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The risk of road closures, nuclear waste transport accidents

Rebecca Higgins No Nuclear Waste Dump Anywhere in South Australia, 10 Jan 2020
So we have just seen the only east-west road in Australia (Eyre Hwy) closed for 2 weeks due to bush fires. This closure has seen many people stuck in the small towns before either side of the boarder. As a resident of one of these towns I can tell you it has impacted our local supplies as there were many more people relying on them than usual.
I am wondering if the SA government has considered what will happen WHEN this road is closed indefinitely due to an accident transporting nuclear waste from where ever they plan on shipping it in to Kimba. No matter where it comes in it will have to travel on this road effectively cutting the entire western part of the country off. Did they even think this stupid idea through AT ALL??? Boycott Kimba and DUMP THE DUMP! https://www.facebook.com/groups/1314655315214929/

January 11, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Massive fires merge across the New South Wales – Victoria border

Southern Highlands blaze flares as two massive fires merge in Snowy Valley  SMH, By Megan Gorrey, Matt Bungard and Megan Levy

 January 11, 2020 —  Two fires straddling the NSW and Victorian border have merged, creating a 600,000-hectare “mega-fire” south of the Snowy Mountains, as a separate blaze in the Southern Highlands flared to emergency warning level amid dangerous and erratic conditions early on Saturday.

Dry heat, shifting winds and powerful gusts fanned more than 100 blazes devouring drought-parched bushland throughout southern NSW overnight, as the East Ournie Creek and the Dunns Road fire zones came together north of Mount Kosciuszko on Friday evening, near the village of Tooma.

Meantime, the Morton fire in the Southern Highlands near Bundanoon was upgraded to emergency warning level about 1am on Saturday as north and north-westerly winds gave way to a strong southerly change. ……

North and north-westerly winds gave way to a southerly change overnight, which combined with merging fires, provided additional challenges from multiple entry points. Mr Clark said they were “expecting fires to potentially spread in two directions overnight”.

“What we’re really seeing with a number of these fires merging is a number of small fires started by lightning strikes, across the landscape. And as they grow, we see fires merging,”  RFS spokesman Anthony   Clark said.

“It provides a challenge for firefighters as when they merge, it increases the size and opens up more uncontained perimeter.”

Early on Saturday, more than 2500 firefighters were battling 147 blazes in NSW, as the bushfires crisis escalated across four states. More than 60 of those NSW fires were uncontained.

Residents were also fleeing fire fronts tearing through parts of eastern Victoria and Kangaroo Island off South Australia, where crews faced rising winds, bone-dry bushland and blistering temperatures. Also homes in Perth were under threat…….

Winds gusting up to 90km/h swept through the state later in the evening. Temperatures soared past 40 degrees in inland areas, while the RFS warned large blazes in the south-east could spread under worsening conditions, or shoot off embers that might create spot fires.

The blustery conditions were expected to bring mixed fortunes for firefighters overnight – dropping temperatures on the ground while making blazes more unpredictable after dark……   https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/fires-on-the-nsw-and-victorian-border-likely-to-merge-as-winds-worsen-20200110-p53qby.html

January 11, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change - global warming, New South Wales, Victoria | Leave a comment

The impact of bushfires on drinking water, rivers and fish

Our drinking water, rivers and fish will all feel the impact of bushfires, experts warn, ABC Science, By Jo Khan, 9 Jan 2020, 

When it rains after bushfires, the consequences stretch way beyond temporary relief for those on the front line — and scientists are warning of potentially dire impacts on our waterways.

They say the aftermath of the current fires could bring devastation to freshwater animals and plants, as well as drinking water catchments.

This is because, while it may or may not help firefighters themselves, rain inevitably washes the ash and eroded soil from burnt forests into rivers and streams, shifting the bushfire impact to our crucial freshwater ecosystems.

Waterways can also suffer immediately in a fire just from the temperature increase, according to Ross Thompson from the University of Canberra.

“In one of the streams we worked on in Victoria, the Black Saturday fire got so hot that the stream boiled,” Professor Thompson said.

Even if water doesn’t boil (which effectively sterilises it), many animals can’t withstand the sudden increase in temperature, and die.

But it’s the longer term effects that have scientists really worried.

Rain washes ash into waterways

Rain events after bushfires can transfer huge amounts of ash, burnt material, soil and dead animals into our rivers and lakes.

There will be an increase in nutrients because there’s lots of phosphorous and nitrogen in ash,” said Professor Thompson, a freshwater ecologist who has studied water catchments after the 2003 fires in the ACT and the 2009 Black Saturday fires in Victoria.

“You also see more sediment because trees are falling down and the river banks are getting knocked around.”

As the water fills up with fine sediment and foreign, nutrient-rich material, the water quality can drop very quickly — and stay that way for a long time.

“We’re still seeing higher sediment loads coming out of the Cotter River catchment and those fires were more than a decade ago,” Professor Thompson said.

Freshwater animals lose oxygen

As soon as a fire has passed and the ash settles on rivers and lakes, bacteria in the water will start consuming the carbon in that ash.

In the process of breaking down the carbon, the bacteria will also consume the dissolved oxygen in the water. The more carbon, the more oxygen will be taken out of the system.

And most animals and plants can’t survive in such a low-oxygen environment, as was seen in the Murray Darling Basin last summer.

“The the risk is we will see big fish kill events even in some of the larger rivers,” Professor Thompson said.

“Even if the fires didn’t burn immediately adjacent to the river.”

Changes in the turbidity, or amount of sediment in the water, is another factor that can threaten aquatic species.

“We see a loss of a lot of invertebrates that rely on really stony streams, because the sediment and ash smothers the rocks and it changes the habitat.”

Rescuing fish from ‘water like licorice’………..

Drinking water quality affected

Changes to the insects and other invertebrates in an ecosystem, along with the influx of nutrients from the ash, can result in the growth of cyanobacteria — commonly known as blue-green algae (but it’s not actually algae).

Cyanobacteria produce chemicals which may cause a range of water quality problems, starting with poor taste and odour, according to Stuart Khan, an urban water management expert at the University of New South Wales……….

“Of more concern is that cyanobacteria can produce chemicals that are really quite toxic,” Professor Khan said.  https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2020-01-09/freshwater-ecosystems-water-catchment-bushfire-impact/11850826?pfmredir=ms

January 11, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming, environment | Leave a comment

The vastly different way that bushfires are experienced by Aboriginal people

Strength from perpetual grief: how Aboriginal people experience the bushfire crisis, The Conversation, January 10, 2020 , Bhiamie Williamson, Research Associate & PhD Candidate, Australian National University, Jessica Weir, Senior Research Fellow, Western Sydney University, Vanessa Cavanagh, Associate Lecturer, School of Geography and Sustainable Communities, University of WollongongHow do you support people forever attached to a landscape after an inferno tears through their homelands: decimating native food sources, burning through ancient scarred trees and destroying ancestral and totemic plants and animals?

The fact is, the experience of Aboriginal peoples in the fire crisis engulfing much of Australia is vastly different to non-Indigenous peoples.

Colonial legacies of eradication, dispossession, assimilation and racism continue to impact the lived realities of Aboriginal peoples. Added to this is the widespread exclusion of our peoples from accessing and managing traditional homelands. These factors compound the trauma of these unprecedented fires.

As Australia picks up the pieces from these fires, it’s more important than ever to understand the unique grief Aboriginal peoples experience. Only through this understanding can effective strategies be put in place to support our communities to recover.

Perpetual grief

Aboriginal peoples live with a sense of perpetual grief. It stems from the as-yet-unresolved matter of the invasion and subsequent colonisation of our homelands…….

Aboriginal people have watched on and been ignored as homelands have been mismanaged and neglected.

Oliver Costello is chief executive of Firesticks Alliance, an Indigenous-led network that aims to re-invigorate cultural burning. As he puts it:

Since colonisation, many Indigenous people have been removed from their land, and their cultural fire management practices have been constrained by authorities, informed by Western views of fire and land management……

Aboriginal peoples’ cultural identity comes from the land.

As such, Aboriginal cultural lives and livelihoods continue to be tied to the land, including landscape features such as waterholes, valleys and mountains, as well as native animals and plants.

The decimation caused by the fires deeply impacts the existence of Aboriginal peoples and in the most severe hit areas, threatens Aboriginal groups as distinct cultural beings attached to the land. As The Guardian’s Indigenous affairs editor Lorena Allam recently wrote:

Like you, I’ve watched in anguish and horror as fire lays waste to precious Yuin land, taking everything with it – lives, homes, animals, trees – but for First Nations people it is also burning up our memories, our sacred places, all the things which make us who we are………

Resilience in the face of ongoing trauma

The long-term effects of colonisation has meant Aboriginal communities are (for better or worse) accustomed to living with catastrophic changes to their societies and lands, adjusting and adapting to keep functioning.

Experts consider these resilience traits as integral for communities to survive and recover from natural disasters……..

If agencies and non-government organisations responsible for leading the recovery from these fires aren’t well-prepared, they risk inflicting new trauma on Aboriginal communities.

The National Disability Insurance Agency offers an example of how to engage with Aboriginal people in culturally sensitive ways. This includes thinking about Country, culture and community, and working with each community’s values and customs to establish respectful, trusting relationships.

The new bushfire recovery agency must use a similar strategy. This would acknowledge both the historical experiences of Aboriginal peoples and our inherent strengths as communities that have not only survived, but remain connected to our homelands.

In this way, perhaps the bushfire crisis might have some positive longer-term outcomes, opening new doors to collaboration with Aboriginal people, drawing on our strengths and values and prioritising our unique interests. https://theconversation.com/strength-from-perpetual-grief-how-aboriginal-people-experience-the-bushfire-crisis-129448?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Weekend%20Conversation%20-%201504914324&utm_content=The%20Weekend%20Conversation%20-%201504914324+CID_6dc5e263c454601de4049d9ca867c3a7&utm_source=campaign_monitor&utm_term=Strength%20from%20perpetual%20grief%20how%20Aboriginal%20people%20experience%20the%20bushfire%20crisis

January 11, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | aboriginal issues, AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming | Leave a comment

Thousands protest in Sydney and other cities, against govt inaction on climate change

Sydney CBD climate protest attracts over 30,000 people, SMH, By Janek Drevikovsky and Matt Bungard, January 10, 2020 — More than 30,000 protesters brushed off hot and humid conditions to voice their displeasure at the federal government’s handling of the bushfire crisis and its attitude towards climate change.The event in Sydney’s CBD was set up a few weeks ago by Uni Students for Climate Justice, in conjunction with Extinction Rebellion…….

Protesters chanted, “Hey hey, ho ho ScoMo has got to go” as speakers climbed Town Hall’s side steps, and later moved on to “The liar from the shire, the country is on fire”.

Izzy Raj-Seppings, 13, waited to address the crowd.

She was given a move-on order by police while protesting outside Kirribilli House last September. Her hope is that Friday’s protest will create change……….

Protests also took place in other Australian capital cities. https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/sydney-cbd-climate-protest-attracts-thousands-20200110-p53qhq.html?promote_channel=edmail&mbnr=MTM2NDAwMjM&eid=email:nnn-13omn655-ret_newsl-membereng:nnn-04%2F11%2F2013-news_pm-dom-news-nnn-smh-u&campaign_code=13INO009&et_bid=292

January 11, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming, politics | Leave a comment

World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2019 dispels the illusion of nuclear power as a fix for climate change

World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2019.  (Picture at left is of cover of 2017 report) Tom Burke 8th Jan 2020,
At a time when truth is under systematic political attack and digital technologies are collapsing the public attention span, the publication of long data series such as the Nuclear Industry Status Report becomes
increasingly important.
The real world is not a headline; it does not have a half-life of 24 hours; in it there are real consequences for real people.
Nowhere is this more true than when it comes to dealing with nuclear issues where a loss of perspective, a failure of memory, a persistent illusion, can have catastrophic consequences. This remains true whether you arethinking about nuclear energy or nuclear weapons.
The illusion that nuclear energy offers the world a cornucopia of affordable and reliable electricity has been a persistent illusion for more than half a century. It has always been an expensive illusion. It is now becoming dangerous.
For the past two decades this Report has subject the nuclear industry’s fantasises and politicians illusions to the searchlight of hard data. They have not stood up well to the illumination. The failure of policy makers to make use of the evidence of nuclear futility provided by the Status Report has led to
high electricity costs for businesses and consumers; a massive waste of
public money; the unproductive diversion of scare engineering talent and
material resources and to an as yet uncounted cost for managing the
back-end of the nuclear fuel cycle.
Wasteful as the nuclear illusion has been, and locally dangerous as we have seen at Chernobyl or Fukushima, these were risks we have been able to live with. However, the latest illusion to emanate from the nuclear industry is far more globally dangerous. This is the illusion the nuclear energy is necessary to prevent climate change. This is a truly dangerous illusion. Climate change poses a number of unique challenges to humanity.
One of the most difficult is that the world not only needs to get to a specific place – a carbon neutral global energy system – but it must also get there be a specific time – the middle of the century – otherwise the policy has failed.
The Nuclear Industry Status Report documents exactly why nuclear energy has no further part to play in dealing with climate change. You simply could not build enough nuclear reactors fast enough even to replace the existing reactors that will reach the end of their life by 2050 let alone to replace fossil
fuels in the existing electricity system and even more so for the more
electricity intensive global economy we are currently building.
Let me put that in context. Simply to replace the existing nuclear reactors we will use by 2050, the rate of reactor construction, which is falling, would need
to triple. To build enough to replace fossil fuels would be a global
project far bigger than the Manhattan Project or the us Moonshot.
This would be true even if you were willing and able to overcome all the other
unsolved problems that nuclear reactors face: affordability, accidents,
waste management, proliferation, special materials and talent scarcity and
system inflexibility. In the real world however, there will not be
unlimited capital and other resources available to deal with climate
change. And there is no time.
So, for climate policy to succeed, public
policy must adopt energy policies which can deliver the largest reduction
in carbon per year per pound invested. In the UK there is no conceivable
way in which any further investment in nuclear can meet this criterion.
Indeed, since, in the real world, there will not be unlimited capital for
energy investment, every further pound invested in nuclear power will delay
the achievement of the government’s net zero by 2050 goal. The Prime
Minister has begun a review of departmental spending. He is looking to
identify unnecessary or inappropriate projects. Cancelling the remainder of
the current nuclear programme would meet this goal admirably. It would also
free up resources for the manifesto commitment to energy efficiency that
would get both carbon emissions and energy bills down.

http://tomburke.co.uk/2020/01/08/remarks-by-tom-burke-at-the-launch-of-the-world-nuclear-industry-report-2019-chatham-house/

January 11, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | General News | Leave a comment

   

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