Be wary of Google Search, especially on nuclear matters.
24 Apr 25 https://theaimn.net/be-wary-of-google-search-especially-on-nuclear-matters/
I’ve been meaning for a long time, to write about Google’s very pro-nuclear stance.
Then today, I found something that was both amusing and a wake-up call.
I have, for the past 16 years, run an anti-nuclear website – nuclear-news.net. Today, I typed into Google Search:
“who owns nuclear-news.net?”
And here is Google’s answer:
The online news service at nuclear-news.net, also known as World Nuclear News (WNN), is supported by the World Nuclear Association. WNN is based within the Association’s London Secretariat. The Association is an international industry organization with a global mandate to communicate about nuclear energy.
Well fancy that! I had no idea that WNN promoted the nuclear-free cause. Well of course, it doesn’t. Interestingly one does not “own” a website name, -one licenses it from a domain names company. Even if you make up the name yourself, as I did. And I still have the license. So – poo to the WNN.
And to Google. What a sad decline in morality! They started out with that noble motto: “Don’t Be Evil”
Back in 2008, if you typed “nuclear news” into Google Search – my website would come up at or very near the top. Google’s system then prioritised its list according to two considerations:
- That the website title accurately indicated its content.
- The number of viewings the website receives.
That system’s gone long ago, and Google has at least had the grace to abandon its former motto. Its now motto is “Do the right thing”.
Now isn’t that an interesting motto? Sounds similar to “Don’t Be Evil” – and yet, and yet ……. it’s not really the same. You see “the right thing” depends on who decides between right and wrong.
For a start, in today’s zeitgeist – the culture of economic growth – the right thing is what makes the most money. Therefore, Google correctly prioritises the websites that pay Google the most in sponsorship.
But that priority leads on to other considerations. For a company like Google, well, it’s essential to keep the most powerful economic interests onside. So, the weapons companies, Western militarism, the nuclear industry, and the other polluting industries get priority. And the Gazans and other impoverished communities don’t matter much.
Anyway, as I don’t pay Google any sponsorship money, my website comes up at something like page 154 on Google search , when looking for “nuclear news”.
I’m not writing this to get you to go to my website. And quite a healthy number of viewers do go there each day.
The thing is – be aware of Google’s priorities. They are not interested in the facts. We all knows that economic progress is more important than the truth, don’t we?
And at the same time, you might fairly accuse me of hypocrisy. I use Google Search all the time. It is tremendously useful . One just needs to be aware of the sources of information, and of Google keeping its nose clean by not too much offending the powerful and wealthy.
Coalition’s nuclear gambit will cost Australia trillions – and permanently gut its industry
The modelling cited extensively by the federal Coalition to defend its
nuclear power fantasies is predicated on a massive hollowing out of
Australian industry.
Climate Energy Finance (CEF) published a report on
Thursday examining the economic implications of the nuclear pathway
modelled by Frontier Economics for Australia’s energy transition.
Frontier concludes its $A331 billion costed nuclear scenario is somehow
better than the Australian Energy Market Operator’s Integrated System
Plan’s (ISP) Step Change scenario cost, which they calculate at $594
billion by bizarrely ignoring the massive cost of the resulting cumulative
$3.5 trillion reduction in Australian gross domestic product (GDP) by 2050.
Renew Economy 24th April 2025 https://reneweconomy.com.au/coalitions-nuclear-gambit-will-cost-australia-trillions-and-permanently-gut-its-industry/
New report: Coalition’s nuclear folly would cost Australian economy at least $4.3 trillion by 2050
Climate Energy Finance Media April 24, 2025, https://theaimn.net/new-report-coalitions-nuclear-folly-would-cost-australian-economy-at-least-4-3-trillion-by-2050/
New analysis by independent public interest think tank Climate Energy Finance (CEF) looks at the economic implications of the nuclear pathway modelled by Frontier Economics for Australia’s energy transition – cited extensively by the Federal Coalition to defend its nuclear plan. The analysis reveals a massive hollowing out of Australian industry, permanently higher total energy costs, uncosted and unabated carbon pollution, and trillions of dollars in lost GDP.
The CEF analysis exposes damaging flow-on costs to the economy for which the Frontier modelling fails to account.
Combined with Frontier’s extreme underestimation of the capital costs of building nuclear reactors, these costs accumulate to $4.3 – 5.2 trillion by 2050, 13-16 times the $331bn price tag for a nuclear Australia assumed by Frontier Economics.
These costs include an estimated:
- $3.5 trillion in cumulative undiscounted lost GDP through to 2050;
- An $111-332bn in nuclear capex costs, which the Frontier modelling erases all but $13.5bn of by failing to both amortise nuclear’s capital investment costs incurred after 2050 and account for inevitable expensive retrofits;
- $234bn in higher fuel costs due to slower electrification meaning consumers and businesses are forced to rely on higher cost fossil fuels for longer;
- $72-720bn in economic damage from up to 2.0bn of additional tonnes of CO2 emissions;
- $100bn in lost export revenue from the aluminium industry alone, likely to collapse under the drastically reduced industrial electricity demand in the nuclear scenario.
Report author Tim Buckley, CEF Director and a former Managing Director of global investment bank Citigroup, said:
“It strains credulity that the Frontier Economics nuclear report is riddled with shortcomings which completely undermine its credibility as a work of serious energy transition analysis, given this is the central modelling being relied upon by the Opposition for its key energy and climate policy offering of the 2025 Federal election.
“The largest share of the Frontier-modelled ‘savings’ in energy transition investment comes at the cost of delivering much weaker outcomes for Australia, including an assumption the Australian economy’s GDP is $300bn lower annually by 2051. This represents an astonishing $3.5 trillion in cumulative GDP forgone.
“This is as weak as the Opposition Leader recently declining to accept the settled climate science because he is ‘not a scientist’.
It beggars belief that this is the best the party representing itself as alternative federal government can come up with, as the nation stands on the brink of an immense generational opportunity to remake itself as a global renewables superpower and green energy trade and export leader in a rapidly decarbonising world.”
‘Spiral of silence’: climate action is very popular, so why don’t people realise it?
Researchers find 89% of people around the world want more to be done, but
mistakenly assume their peers do not.
The Guardian is joining forces with
dozens of newsrooms around the world to launch the 89% project—and
highlight the fact that the vast majority of the world’s population wants
climate action. The illusion that climate action is not popular is global.
So imagine dispelling that myth: such a shift, experts say, could be a
gamechanger, pushing the world over a social tipping point into unstoppable
climate progress. Such a communication campaign, low-cost and scalable,
could be among the most powerful tools available to fight the climate
crisis, they say. Decades of psychological research indicates that
correcting such misunderstandings can change people’s views across a
swathe of issues, from participating in protests to voting for Donald
Trump.
Guardian 22nd April 2025
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/22/spiral-of-silence-climate-action-very-popular-why-dont-people-realise
Australian civil society groups unite against nuclear as pre-polling begins.
As early voting opens in the federal election, leading Australian civil society groups have released a joint statement calling for an end to any plans for domestic nuclear power.
The call sees major trade union, faith, environment, First Nation and public health bodies unite in support of the clean energy transition and opposition to the nuclear industry playing a spoiling role in this transition.
The statement is supported by a diverse range of groups including the ACTU, Electrical Trades Union, Greenpeace, Uniting Church, Solar Citizens, Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation, Doctors for the Environment, Friends of the Earth and the Australian Conservation Foundation.
The statement says:
Nuclear power is too slow, costly and inflexible to play any meaningful role in decarbonisation efforts. Nuclear also brings unique risks and long-lived wastes.
Given the environmental, economic and human urgency of addressing climate change and advancing the energy transition we must not allow nuclear promotion to cause any further complication or delay.
Nuclear costs. In all ways, and always. Australia cannot afford this delay.
As well as the start of pre-polling, 22 April is also Earth Day. The 2025 theme of this long-standing global day of action is Our Power, Our Planet and includes an international call for the promotion of renewable energy sources with a view to tripling clean electricity production around the world.
“This statement unites diverse organisations representing millions of Australians in a common and clear call against nuclear power,” Australian Conservation Foundation nuclear analyst Dave Sweeney.
“Our energy future is renewable, not radioactive.
“Nuclear is one of the major policy differences in this election and our organisations will be working to highlight the costs, risks and unsuitability of this costly and risky energy option.”
Dr Jim Green, nuclear campaigner with Friends of the Earth Australia said:
“From Perth to Penrith, from Darwin to Devonport, Australians are cautious and concerned about nuclear power – and this election we are urging them to say no.
“Our country is blessed with renewable energy options which are demonstrably cheaper, safer, faster and are already powering around 45% of our homes and workplaces.
“As the coal era ends we don’t have time to waste and we don’t want radioactive waste.”
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 