Australia and overseas, pandemic, climate, and focus on nuclear news
Covid-19 cases across the globe hit 40 million Monday with the United States leading the world with the highest numbers of infections and deaths. World round-up of coronavirus. cases and restrictions.
Climate change just keeps on – cycloone, floods and landslides.– Vietnam, India. It becomes important to devlop strategies to adapt to global heating.
Nuclear news items stress the need for international agreements on arms control.
But , on the ”peaceful nukes” scene, it is quite extraordinary that propaganda has ramped up enormously, even while the pandemic has actually slowed down nuclear building and other activities, as well as the demand for electricty.
What we’re seeing is a frenzy of small nuclear reactor (SMR) propaganda handouts masquerading as real journalism. In English language news, it’s all about America selling these uneconomic and pretty useless gimmicks to their own population and to overseas countries. The most often praised model, NuScam’s reactor, is even now being touted as ”foreign development aid”. No doubt the global industry is doing the same confidence trick in Russian and Chinese. They need a global burst of tax-payer funded SMR building, to stave off the collapse of the industry.
Some bits of good news –We’ve had so many wins’: why the green movement can overcome climate crisis. International Monetary Fund recommends a carbon price, for the economy as well as for the climate. Solar energy is here with a vengeance – look at South Australia.
AUSTRALIA
CLIMATE. USA election result, and Australia’s response– the world’s climate in the balance. Greens renew call for Green New Deal, describe Morrison’s climate policies as “criminal”.
Climate and clean energy leaders win big in New Zealand, ACT elections.
NUCLEAR. South Australia Upper House [Legislative Council] votes against any radioactive waste repository, upholds S.A.’s law opposing nuclear waste dumping.
Australia a leader in the worst sense – biodiversity loss and risk of ecosystem collapse. Morrison government’s devastating cuts to Environmental research and teaching.
U.S. Deputy Sheriff Australia taken for a ride on an obsolete $90 billion submarine.
Michelle Fahy blows open the disgraceful collusion between Australian politicians and weapons industries.
RENEWABLE ENERGY. Australian Energy Market Organisation (AEMO) takes lead role in global consortium seeking rapid energy transition.
INTERNATIONAL.
The attack on journalism – launched with the persecution of Julian Assange.
On climate: instead of denial or despair, there’s determined resolve. Carbon emissions are deeply embedded in our lifestyle – the challenge post-pandemic. Climate disasters – Earth is becoming uninhabitable for millions of humans.
Elimination of nuclear weapons is vital to the “survival of life on this planet”.
Nuclear waste – a danger for countless generations to come.
Resisting nuclear colonialism on Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Offshore Wind Energy, Not Nuclear, Is the Future. Study shows that renewable energy is clearly better that nuclear at cutting greenhouse emissions.
Book review: GAMBLING WITH ARMAGEDDON.
Thorium not likely to revive the nuclear energy industry.
U.S. Deputy Sheriff Australia taken for a ride on an obsolete $90 billion submarine
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In for a penny, in for a pound: $90 billion for an obsolete submarine fleet, Michael West Media, by Brian Toohey | Oct 18, 2020 So much for sovereignty. Australia is locked out of repairing key US components of our submarines’ computer systems, and the government has committed our fleet to the extraordinarily dangerous role of helping the US conduct surveillance in the South China Sea. Brian Toohey reports.
It is hard to believe that a government genuinely committed to defending the nation would sign a contract to buy 12 ludicrously expensive submarines that would not be operational for at least 20 years, with the final submarine not ready for nearly 40 years. The fleet will be obsolete before its delivered. But this is what the Turnbull government did when it announced in September 2016 that the majority French government-owned Naval Group would build 12 large submarines in Adelaide. The first sub is unlikely to be operational until the late 2030s and the last one until well after 2050. It is even harder to understand why the government endorsed the extraordinarily dangerous role for Australian submarines of helping the US conduct surveillance and possible combat operations within the increasingly crowded waters of the South China Sea. And while the Morrison government repeatedly claims that Australia’s defence force has a “sovereign” capability, in reality we are locked in “all the way” with the USA.
Ominously, an earlier Coalition government gave Lockheed Martin the contract to integrate these systems into the Attack subs. This is the same company that wasted billions on a dud computerised system for the US made F-35 fighter planes.. Called the Attack class, the conventionally powered submarines to be built in Adelaide by Naval will rely on an unfinished design based partly on France’s Barracuda nuclear submarines. Their official cost has already blown out from an initial $50 billion to $90 billion. It was revealed earlier this week that Defence officials knew in 2015 that the cost of the fleet had already blown out by $30 billion to $80 billion, yet continued to state publicly that the price tag was $50 billion. Life-cycle costs are expected to be around $300 billion…….. Under US commandAustralian subs in the South China Sea will be integrated into US forces and will be relying on them for operational and intelligence data. In an escalating clash, accidental or otherwise, they will be expected to follow orders from US commanders. Again, so much for Australia’s sovereignty. There is no compelling strategic reason why Australian submarines should travel that onerous distance to support the US in the South China Sea. ………… Perhaps the best argument, however, for not wasting $90 billion on the Attack class is that cheap underwater drones will soon have an important military role particularly suited to use from bases in northern Australia. https://www.michaelwest.com.au/in-for-a-penny-in-for-a-pound-90-billion-for-an-obsolete-submarine-fleet/ |
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Dismal future for nuclear power: small nuclear reactors a false hope
“Overall, in terms of the cost of power, new nuclear is clearly losing to wind and photovoltaics,”
More recently, the nuclear industry has been promising a technological renaissance through small modular reactors (SMRs). But “the industry is actually selling PowerPoint reactors, not detailed engineering,”
“if you look at nuclear power, it’s not only the most expensive, but it’s by far the slowest.” With even French nuclear giant EDF bidding against its own legacy technology to supply lower-cost solar projects, “do we really have to discuss what the future is or where this goes?”
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WORLD NUCLEAR INDUSTRY LOSES GROUND TO CHEAP RENEWABLES AS CANADA CONSIDERS SMALL MODULAR REACTORS, The Energy Mix SEPTEMBER 27, 2020
MITCHELL BEER @MITCHELLBEER
The world nuclear industry “continues to be in stasis,” with power plants shutting down at a faster rate in western Europe and the United States, the number of operating reactor units at a 30-year low, and the few new construction projects running into “catastrophic cost overruns and schedule slippages,” according to the latest edition of the annual World Nuclear Industry Status Report (WNISR), released last week. Continue reading
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In America, anti-science attacks Dr Fauci, about the pandemic, and Michael Mann, on climate change
America re-discovers anti-science in its midst, Environmental Health News,16 Oct 20
Fauci, Birx, Redfield & Co. are in the middle of a political food fight. They could learn a lot from environmental scientists.
Let’s start with the story of a scientist who beat back a powerful global denial movement without any help from social media or modern, sophisticated organizing campaigns.
It took Galileo 359 years to wrangle an apology out of the Vatican for his heretical belief that the Earth revolved around the sun.
I’m glad he didn’t take it personally. Science denial is neither new nor purely American—but we sure are finding ways to make it lethal and lasting.
Climate scientists have been dealing with anti-science, largely unnoticed by the general public, for 20 years. Doctors face a growing wave of anti-vaccination zealots. Now a pandemic with a seven-figure global death toll and a stranglehold on the world’s economy has opened the doors wide for some multi-front anti-science blowback.
Americans, many refusing to wear masks and ignoring social distancing guidelines, appear to be gathering at frat parties, raves, political rallies, nightclubs and more in defiance of what credentialed experts say are the most vital ways to restrict the spread of COVID-19.
Major sporting events, notably college football, are backing down from previously self-imposed restrictions.
And, lo and behold, positive test rates are going back up in a big way.
Past is deadly prologue
Here are a couple recent, high profile examples of anti-science fervor in the U.S.:………
But nothing in science can quite match the decades-long assault on climate science and climate scientists. On the high end, there are PR campaigns backed by fossil fuel money, well-heeled litigation, and unhinged attacks from national pols and pundits. Then, there are the confounding, face-palming antics of the Coal Rollers—pickup truck owners who modify their rides with “Prius Repellent”—thick sooty black smoke intended to make a bizarre anti-science, pro-climate denial statement. Yes, people do this.
Penn State’s Michael Mann is arguably the highest-profile climate scientist in the U.S. Let’s make a minor leap of faith and say Mann’s climate stature is the closest equivalent to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s standing on coronavirus.
Right now, Dr. Fauci’s main public tormentor is President Trump. Their conflicts are tame compared to the deniers’ gang-up on Mann, which has lasted more than a decade and may offer Fauci a few tips on being a scientist in the middle of a political peeing match…….
Make no mistake, Fauci’s a heroic public servant in an awful bind who, as far as I know, may not even be interested in the killer tell-all book that now resides in his head.
But after COVID-19 is finally conquered, Mike Mann and a thousand others will still be getting bashed, and the worst impacts of climate change will still be ahead of us.
Peter Dykstra is our weekend editor and columnist and can be reached at pdykstra@ehn.org or @pdykstra.
World solar energy, not just the future: it’s the present
Forbes 17th Oct 2020, Anyone who follows developments in the energy sector will know that solar energy is no longer just the future but the present. According to thebInternational Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook 2020, photovoltaic solar energy is already the cheapest source of electricity in history.https://www.forbes.com/sites/enriquedans/2020/10/17/what-is-happening-with-solarenergy/amp
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Queensland urged to switch public schools, libraries and hospitals to solar — RenewEconomy
Public schools and hospitals could be the key to boosting Queensland’s rooftop solar industry, slashing cost and emissions and delivering hundreds of jobs. The post Queensland urged to switch public schools, libraries and hospitals to solar appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Queensland urged to switch public schools, libraries and hospitals to solar — RenewEconomy
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 