Give your opinion. Should there be more community consultation on designating the South Australian farm Napandee as nuclear dump site?
Is more nuclear consultation needed? | POLL. – vote at this link https://www.stockjournal.com.au/story/7395908/is-more-nuclear-consultation-needed-poll/?cs=4894&fbclid=IwAR1tI8ZRalqvuxDyGjUJLeoBb2uS_WRBeMVCEz5FLaHDoCJtXPEGt9Uf62E
20 Aug 2021 Federal Resources Minister Keith Pitt believes the Napandee site near Kimba on the Eyre Peninsula should host the country’s radioactive waste storage facility.
……. But before the decision can be made official, a period of further consultation needs to occur, with the Minister considering relevant comments ahead of deciding whether to proceed with declaring the Napandee site.
Earlier this year, the federal government backed down on a key detail of the National Radioactive Waste Management Amendment (Site Selection, Community Fund and Other Measures) Bill 2020. The bill had the chosen site listed as Napandee, but Labor refused support it on the premise that confirming the site in legislation would prevent the possibility of a future legal challenge.
Kimberley Land Council: New heritage bill is skewed to the mining industry
Alex Salmon. Perth. August 20, 2021 https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/kimberley-land-council-new-heritage-bill-skewed-mining-industry
A 400-strong protest organised by the Kimberley Land Council (KLC) on August 19 demanded the Western Australia government halt its Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act bill (ACH). Traditional Owners have not been consulted on the bill to replace the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 (WA).
A 400-strong protest organised by the Kimberley Land Council (KLC) on August 19 demanded the Western Australia government halt its Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act bill (ACH). Traditional Owners have not been consulted on the bill to replace the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 (WA).
The government claims the new bill will protect Aboriginal cultural heritage and “reset” the relationship between land users and Traditional Owners.
Traditional Owners disagree, saying the bill is skewed towards the mining industry and gives them no power to prevent the destruction of sacred sites such as Juukan Gorge, which Rio Tinto destroyed in May last year.
National Native Title Council spokesperson Kado Muir told the National Indigenous Times on July 30 that the draft bill “continues to give the Aboriginal Affairs Minister more power than Traditional Owners”.
“For the Minister of the Crown to be destroying an Aboriginal site without the consent of Traditional Owners is an abuse of human rights,” Muir said.
Greens WA lead Senate candidate Yamatji Noongar woman Dorinda Cox told the rally Aboriginal people must be at the centre of any new ACH law and that principle of Aboriginal self-determination needed to be respected.
The protest marched to Parliament House to hear from other speakers. Slim Parker, an Elder and chair of the Bajima Native Title Aboriginal Corporation, condemned the lack of consultation and the bill for failing to meet international standards set down by the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People.
Sara Bergmann, a young Aboriginal woman, spoke of the systemic dispossession. Wayne Bergmann from the KLC read out a statement calling upon the government to reconsider the bill, protect the Martuwarra (Fitzroy River), prevent any more Juukan Gorges and to ensure First Nations peoples are able to decide how to update the AHA.
He then presented a bark petition from Traditional Owners of the Kimberly region to Aboriginal Affairs MP Steven Dowson.
Young people rebel on climate
The Age, Nicola Philp, 20 Aug 21,
Some young Australians are now so desperately unhappy with government inaction they feel being arrested and fined is actually less of a cost than the cost to their future if nothing is done.
”…………….the Geo Coral set sail into the ocean towards the King Island region this week to conduct seismic testing, so clearly our governments cannot be serious about their climate targets.
Such news, following the latest International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, creates ever strengthening ripples of anxiety, particularly among our young people who fear for their future.
Some are now so desperately unhappy with government inaction and the cost on their future they feel being arrested and fined is actually less of a cost than the cost to their future if nothing is done. And so, some took to the water, while others chained themselves to fences and the ship itself.
These protesters want their governments to listen and look beyond the short-term dollar and career stepladder of politics. They are rightfully demanding that the current generations in charge consider what our actions will cost the futures of those still to come………
Governments showing such a broad lack of respect and care is beginning to have very significant consequences for the young and yet-to-be-born generations……….
If children are to live with the climate crisis, we must green the curriculum
If children are to live with the climate crisis, we must green the curriculum, Guardian, Meryl Batchelder,
It’s clear to me when I teach that sustainability and the environment should be a thread running through every subject
Thu 19 Aug 2021 ”……………….. With so much focus on children – the ones who will have to live with the coming ecological disaster – the role of education is key. This summer has seen unprecedented wildfires and floods. Pupils see scenes of biblical devastation on the news, but in many schools they are not being given the required information or context and this can lead to misunderstanding or anxiety.
……………. There is still no mention of the climate crisis in the national curriculum for England in primary schools, and in key stage 3 science very little of the curriculum relates to climate education. Incredibly, the last major update to the national geography curriculum for England in 2013 saw the then education secretary, Michael Gove, attempt to drop climate change.
………….. So what needs to change? We need a green curriculum that starts in early years and extends through all key stages. Properly taught, climate change education should be a thread through all subjects – not just science and geography – from the food miles of the ingredients we cook in food technology to debates on humanitarian issues such as mass migration in religious education or personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education.
Working in a state school means I am duty bound to teach lessons within the confines of the national curriculum. As far as this allows, I have sought to enrich my pupils’ learning with fieldwork, hands-on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) challenges and even gardening. But not every school has the resources or expertise to bring climate education into the classroom. Earlier this year, the climate education campaign group Teach the Future reported that seven in 10 UK teachers say they have not received adequate training to educate their students on the climate crisis……….. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/19/children-climate-crisis-green-curriculum-sustainability-environment—
“Not doing so well:” US puts pressure on Australia as Labor flags new interim target — RenewEconomy
Labor’s Chris Bowen says medium-term emissions targets need to drive “greatest economic transformation since the Industrial Revolution”. The post “Not doing so well:” US puts pressure on Australia as Labor flags new interim target appeared first on RenewEconomy.
“Not doing so well:” US puts pressure on Australia as Labor flags new interim target — RenewEconomy
Taylor’s favoured coal subsidy could reach $7 billion and hit households — RenewEconomy
New analysis suggests the costs of capacity payments to coal and gas plants could lead to electricity price increases much greater than the carbon price. The post Taylor’s favoured coal subsidy could reach $7 billion and hit households appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Taylor’s favoured coal subsidy could reach $7 billion and hit households — RenewEconomy
August 19 Energy News — geoharvey
Opinion: ¶ “Eight Zero-Emission Transport Items That *Need* To Be In The Next Reconciliation Bill” • There were several provisions in the infrastructure bill that we worked hard to make sure were included (and were as good as possible), but almost none of them go as far as we would have liked or climate needs […]
August 19 Energy News — geoharvey
Labor to lose progressive identity with small-target policies — John Quiggin
I’ve written another denunciation of Labor’s capitulation on high-income tax cuts at Independent Australia. Read there, comment here.
Labor to lose progressive identity with small-target policies — John Quiggin
Guess who joined Angus Taylor on Empire-funded fracking gas trip to Beetaloo Basin — RenewEconomy
Gas company Empire Energy funded a trip for Angus Taylor and a range of prominent Liberal party figures and donors to its Beetaloo Basin project. The post Guess who joined Angus Taylor on Empire-funded fracking gas trip to Beetaloo Basin appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Guess who joined Angus Taylor on Empire-funded fracking gas trip to Beetaloo Basin — RenewEconomy
Afghanistan: Who’s to Blame and What Next? panel by Code Pink — Rise Up Times
Includes Biden’s full speech to the U.S. nation and responses of the panelists.
Afghanistan: Who’s to Blame and What Next? panel by Code Pink — Rise Up Times
Action on climate change is stalled by unwise spending on small nuclear reactors
So Who Is Advocating For SMRs & Why?
So why are they doing this?
Because it allows them to defer governmental climate action while giving the appearance of climate action. They can pander to their least intelligent and wise supporters by asserting that renewables aren’t fit for purpose, while also not doing anything about the real problem because SMRs don’t exist in a modern, deployable, operable form yet.
the people asserting that SMRs are the primary or only answer to energy generation either don’t know what they are talking about, are actively dissembling or are intentionally delaying climate action.
Small nuclear reactor advocates refuse to learn the lessons of the past, While history doesn’t repeat, merely rhymes, SMRs are rhyming hard, Medium.com Michael Barnard, 12 Aug 21, Like hydrogen, small modular nuclear reactors have been seeing a resurgence of interest lately. Much of that is driven by governmental policies and investments focusing on the technology. Much of it comes from the nuclear industry. And inevitably, some comes from entrepreneurs attempting to build a technology that they hope will take off in a major way, making them and their investors a lot of money.
Small modular reactors won’t achieve economies of manufacturing scale, won’t be faster to construct, forego efficiency of vertical scaling, won’t be cheaper, aren’t suitable for remote or brownfield coal sites, still face very large security costs, will still be costly and slow to decommission, and still require liability insurance caps. They don’t solve any of the problems that they purport to while intentionally choosing to be less efficient than they could be. They’ve existed since the 1950s and they aren’t any better now than they were then.
Most of the attention and funding is misguided at best, and actively hostile to climate action at worst.
There are a handful of differences between them and traditional nuclear generation reactors. The biggest one is that they are smaller, hence the ‘small’ and ‘medium’ in the names. They range from 0.068 MW to 500 MW in capacity, with the International Atomic Energy Association using small for up to 300 MW and medium for up to 700 MW.
Despite the buzz, this is not new technology. The first nuclear generation plant was a Russian 5 MW device that went live in 1954. Hundreds of small reactors have been built for nuclear powered vessels and as neutron sources. This is well trodden ground. Most of the innovations being touted were considered initially decades ago.
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Antinuclear 