Pine Gap could play role in accidental US-China nuclear fight
Pine Gap could play role in accidental US-China nuclear fight NT News, 30 Sept 20
Heightened US-China tensions have increased the risk of an accidental nuclear exchange between the two superpowers — and whether or not the Northern Territory’s Pine Gap surveillance base is playing a role in hyping this up needs to be looked at ……. (subscribers only)
Julian Assange could face life in America’s most dreaded ‘Supermax’ prison
  Julian Assange ‘faces fate worse than death’ in US: WikiLeaks founder could serve life in isolation at dreaded ‘Supermax’ prison that’s home to America’s most violent terrorists and drug lords if extradited, court hears Daily Mail, 30 Sept 20,
Julian Assange ‘faces a fate worse than death’ in a lifetime of isolation at the ‘Supermax’ prison currently home to America’s most violent terrorists and drug lords if he is extradited, a court has heard. The Wikileaks founder, 49, could live out his years alone at maximum security ADX Colorado jail where he would spend 23 hours in a cell if he is convicted of espionage offences in the US. Assange is wanted in the US for allegedly conspiring with army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to expose military secrets between January and May 2010 Prison expert Joel Sickler said the US government had ‘raised the possibility of sending Mr Assange to ADX’. ……… I believe, based on my understanding of the case, that this is a not unlikely proposition.’ He said Supermax was the only prison criticised as inhumane by its own staff, adding: ‘Robert Hood, the Warden says, “this is not built for humanity. I think that being there day by day, it’s worse than death”.’…….. The WikiLeaks founder could be placed on a prison regime called Special Administrative Measures (SAMS). This means he could be deprived of meals, phone calls, visits or interaction with other inmates. Mr Sickler, who advises federal prison defence attorneys, said: ‘Based on decades of experience, over a dozen of my clients committed suicide, it can be done. ‘I think he is only going to go there if he is a SAMS inmate. There is an outside chance he will go there on other grounds. ‘SAMS will seal his fate. If he is given a life sentence he must start at a United State Penitentiary. ‘He is someone our government alleges has knowledge of certain highly qualified information.’……… ‘Officially known as Administrative Maximum-Security United States Penitentiary (“ADX”); it is most known by its shorthand name, “Supermax”,’ Mr Sickler added. ‘This is a facility is the most feared by inmates and is where the most violent offenders in the nation are sent. ‘And this is where the Government, according to its own affidavit, sees as a potential prison placement for Mr Assange. He said it was the solitary nature of the ADX that made it so difficult for its inmates to bear. ‘Should Mr Assange be sent to ADX he will almost certainly spend all his time in ADX in solitary,’ he added……….. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8781275/Julian-Assange-faces-fate-worse-death-WikiLeaks-founder-serve-life-isolation.html?fbclid=IwAR21x4PeHIIn2pjMDgqjBSqfqA2pK5YPTZ9Q4q4SOG066tGN_aKkZj91ROE |
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Legacy of Maralinga bomb tests -a reminder of need for safety in matters nuclear
Sixty years on, the Maralinga bomb tests remind us not to put security over safety, The Conversation Liz Tynan, Senior Lecturer and Co-ordinator Research Student Academic Support, James Cook University September 26, 2016 It is September 27, 1956. At a dusty site called One Tree, in the northern reaches of the 3,200-square-kilometre Maralinga atomic weapons test range in outback South Australia, the winds have finally died down and the countdown begins……….The count reaches its finale – three… two… one… FLASH! – and all present turn their backs. When given the order to turn back again, they see an awesome, rising fireball. Then Maralinga’s first mushroom cloud begins to bloom over the plain – by October the following year, there will have been six more.
RAF and RAAF aircraft prepare to fly through the billowing cloud to gather samples. The cloud rises much higher than predicted and, despite the delay, the winds are still unsuitable for atmospheric nuclear testing. The radioactive cloud heads due east, towards populated areas on Australia’s east coast.
Power struggle
While Australia was preparing to sign the Maralinga agreement, the supply minister, Howard Beale, wrote in a top-secret 1954 cabinet document:
The British carried out two clean-up operations – Operation Hercules in 1964 and Operation Brumby in 1967 – both of which made the contamination problems worse.
Legacy of damage
The damage done to Indigenous people in the vicinity of all three test sites is immeasurable and included displacement, injury and death. Service personnel from several countries, but particularly Britain and Australia, also suffered – not least because of their continuing fight for the slightest recognition of the dangers they faced. Many of the injuries and deaths allegedly caused by the British tests have not been formally linked to the operation, a source of ongoing distress for those involved.
Decades later, we still don’t know the full extent of the effects suffered by service personnel and local communities. Despite years of legal wrangling, those communities’ suffering has never been properly recognised or compensated.
Why did Australia allow it to happen? The answer is that Britain asserted its nuclear colonialism just as an anglophile prime minister took power in Australia, and after the United States made nuclear weapons research collaboration with other nations illegal, barring further joint weapons development with the UK. …..Six decades later, those atomic weapons tests still cast their shadow across Australia’s landscape. They stand as testament to the dangers of government decisions made without close scrutiny, and as a reminder – at a time when leaders are once again preoccupied with international security – not to let it happen again. https://theconversation.com/sixty-years-on-the-maralinga-bomb-tests-remind-us-not-to-put-security-over-safety-62441?fbclid=IwAR3-AXJA_-RZTlr1AW6qxgcFRPuOX5IIi163L75vLWXFyIOcZGKxbet5DDE
The American election- what will the nuclear order look like after this?
THE U.S. ELECTION AND NUCLEAR ORDER IN THE POST-PANDEMIC 
WORLD Limitless Life, LEON V. SIGAL, SEPTEMBER 29 2020Abstract
U.S. power and prestige may have diminished in recent years, but the United States still plays a pivotal role in international institutions, alliances, and mass media, so who becomes its president and which party controls Congress matter a lot for the global nuclear order. However unlikely it is that Donald Trump’s expressed desire to contest the election’s outcome could succeed, whether the nation can avert a violent backlash among disappointed partisans is less clear.
Nuclear weapons are often thought to be the esoteric domain of experts. Yet one need only recall that although mass activism does not guarantee policy change, three of the most significant developments in recent decades – the ban on above-ground nuclear tests, the INF
Treaty, and the collapse of the Berlin Wall – would not have happened without mass protests in many countries. And citizen involvement, organized by NGOs, can even facilitate monitoring of arms agreements and nuclear developments in some countries.
positive change to the global nuclear order will continue to be marginal and fitful. This makes the international milieu critical for the nuclear future – a milieu that a president can influence but not determine.
President Trump’s reelection is likely to have a pernicious effect on that milieu, hindering international cooperation to limit nuclear weapons and accelerating a qualitative arms race that could endanger crisis stability. Yet two of Trump’s more positive impulses are likely to continue. He is unlikely to increase the risk of an intense crisis leading to nuclear war because he wants to avoid U.S. involvement in any wars, not start new ones. He will also try to sustain negotiations
with North Korea to curb nuclear developments there, though whether he is prepared to satisfy Pyongyang’s stiffer demands remains in doubt.
His opponent, Joseph Biden, will face those same demands. Personnel is policy, and the Biden administration will likely be staffed with officials who served under President Obama. That means a return to shoring up alliances and international cooperation. It also means continuity with Obama’s nuclear policies. Whether he will curtail Obama’s modernization plans is not clear, but in contrast to Trump, he will try his best to restore the JCPOA, which could head off nuclear
weapons development not only in Iran but also in Saudi Arabia. He will also strive to save START, seek technical talks with China, and not abandon the Open Skies accord……….. https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/2663585/posts/2938659215
China’s zero emissions target is contrasted with Australia’s inaction on global heating
China’s escalation is also set to have implications for Australia’s diplomatic position in the Pacific, where it has been attempting to manage China’s rising influence among some of its closest neighbours.
“From both sides of Parliament Australian politicians aren’t understanding it, they approach climate change like it’s just another issue for our Pacific counterparts. What Australian politicians 
do often miss is this issue is personal,” said Professor Bamsey.
“It concerns Pacific politicians when they get out of bed, they can see the changes to the future of their country when they look out the window.”
China’s zero emissions target puts Australia on notice, The Age, By Eryk Bagshaw and Mike Foley, September 30, 2020 — Australia’s former top climate diplomat has warned China’s net-zero emissions target will leave Australia behind, threatening future trade deals and its influence in the Pacific as the Morrison government becomes wedged between the US and China on climate action.
Howard Bamsey, who was Australia’s special envoy on climate change during the Rudd government, said the announcement from President Xi Jinping last week had turned the politics of emissions reduction into a sharp economic and diplomatic issue.
Professor Bamsey, who was also Australia’s ambassador for the environment under the Howard government, said the new policy “pulls the rug out from under the argument” that Australia’s domestic climate goals do not need to accelerate because China was yet to increase its ambitions.
“It’s clear now China is accepting a leadership role,” he said. “Xi made the announcement. That carries all the weight of the state and party.”
The coronavirus has forced this year’s United Nations Glasgow Climate Change Conference to be rescheduled to November 2021, turning Australia’s international emissions obligations into a major election flashpoint. The earliest month a federal election can be held is August 2021 and voters are expected to go to the polls by the end of next year.
China, which is simultaneously the world’s largest polluter and biggest producer of renewable energy, pledged to go carbon neutral by 2060 at the UN General Assembly last week………… Continue reading
Why green hydrogen could be cheaper than fossil fuels in just a few years — RenewEconomy
Cheap and abundant solar means Australia ‘perfectly placed’ to lead global renewable hydrogen industry, with prices below fossil fuels within reach. The post Why green hydrogen could be cheaper than fossil fuels in just a few years appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Why green hydrogen could be cheaper than fossil fuels in just a few years — RenewEconomy
Seasonal energy storage is a tricky issue for our renewable future — RenewEconomy
As battery and pumped hydro developers try to figure out the storage equation for Australia’s grid, there is still not enough focus on demand management. The post Seasonal energy storage is a tricky issue for our renewable future appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Seasonal energy storage is a tricky issue for our renewable future — RenewEconomy
Cannon-Brookes says Hornsdale battery proof that technology change will be rapid — RenewEconomy
Billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes issues fresh plea to governments to not underestimate the pace of change in clean energy technologies. The post Cannon-Brookes says Hornsdale battery proof that technology change will be rapid appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Cannon-Brookes says Hornsdale battery proof that technology change will be rapid — RenewEconomy
A rapid Chinese energy transition is far more feasible than you think — RenewEconomy
China’s goal is to hit net zero emissions by the year 2060, which means an incredible, deep shift in just a few decades. The post A rapid Chinese energy transition is far more feasible than you think appeared first on RenewEconomy.
A rapid Chinese energy transition is far more feasible than you think — RenewEconomy
September 30 Energy News — geoharvey
Science and Technology: ¶ “Two-Fifths Of Plants At Risk Of Extinction, Says Report” • Two-fifths of the world’s plants are at risk of extinction, scientists have warned. Researchers say they are racing against time to name and describe new species, before they disappear. Plants hold huge promise as medicines, fuels and foods, says a report […]
September 30 Energy News — geoharvey
Turnbull says gas is “bonkers”, Australia may have to face frontier carbon taxes — RenewEconomy
Turnbull says there is no such thing as cheap gas on the east coast of Australia, because of the cost of getting it out of the ground. The post Turnbull says gas is “bonkers”, Australia may have to face frontier carbon taxes appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Turnbull says gas is “bonkers”, Australia may have to face frontier carbon taxes — RenewEconomy
“Australia is not an exception:” Gummer slams climate go-slow in Canberra — RenewEconomy
Former UK climate minister John Gummer says Australian politicians still haven’t accepted that climate change is happening and that they have a responsibility to act. The post “Australia is not an exception:” Gummer slams climate go-slow in Canberra appeared first on RenewEconomy.
“Australia is not an exception:” Gummer slams climate go-slow in Canberra — RenewEconomy
Bringing clean energy to regional Victorian communities — RenewEconomy
The Victorian Government is helping local businesses use more renewable energy technologies that reduce electricity costs, create jobs and support clean power. The post Bringing clean energy to regional Victorian communities appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Bringing clean energy to regional Victorian communities — RenewEconomy
Plans revealed for two new big solar farms in South Australia — RenewEconomy
S.A-based Green Gold Energy reveals plans for two new solar farms totalling more than 300MW in south east region of state. The post Plans revealed for two new big solar farms in South Australia appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Plans revealed for two new big solar farms in South Australia — RenewEconomy
1.This month.
The Road to War brings a sharp focus to why it is not in Australia’s best interest to be dragged into a war with China which will almost inevitably go nuclear very quickly. The filmmaker has interviewed some of Australia’s senior foreign policy analysts who have vast experience behind them in analysing what really is going on here as the United States rattles its sabres with China. And sets us up to be its proxy, like the poor Ukranians have been fed into the Meatgrinder. So America can remain the Top Dog. The Road to War reveals how the United States through its spy base at Pine Gap and by stationing six nuclear capable B52 bombers in the Top End (without permission from the traditional owners) is making Australia a prime nuclear target if the current war of words suddenly melts down into full scale war.
The Road to War shows the implicit connection between Carbon emissions (the US military uses a whopping 70% of America’s annual petroleum to move its armies and vast War Machine around the globe to its 800+ military bases..but under a loophole wangled at Kyoto, the US military does not have to report its C02 annual emissions). The Road to War starts screening at selected cities and regional centres in March. See the trailer end for details.
Antinuclear 