Nations capital celebrates strong year for households embracing solar power — RenewEconomy
ACT government celebrates strong uptake of rooftop solar, with more than 4,200 systems added in 2020. The post Nations capital celebrates strong year for households embracing solar power appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Nations capital celebrates strong year for households embracing solar power — RenewEconomy
Media coverage of climate was hit by COVID19 but it’s time for a comeback — RenewEconomy
Did the pandemic hurt climate coverage? Yes – but not for long, and not as much as you might think. And it’s set to come back in a big way The post Media coverage of climate was hit by COVID19 but it’s time for a comeback appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Media coverage of climate was hit by COVID19 but it’s time for a comeback — RenewEconomy
January 13 Energy News — geoharvey
Opinion: ¶ “US Carbon Emissions Fell 10% In 2020, Because Of Covid-19. It’s Up To Biden To Stop Them From Bouncing Back” • US greenhouse gas emissions dropped a lot in 2020, helping the country meet one long-standing climate targets. But experts warn that unless climate action becomes a priority, emissions will bounce back quickly. […]
January 13 Energy News — geoharvey
Increased CO2 levels could be risk to young lungs, Australian scientists find — RenewEconomy
Australian researchers, in a world first study, find predicted future levels of CO2 concentrations could harm the development of young lungs. The post Increased CO2 levels could be risk to young lungs, Australian scientists find appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Increased CO2 levels could be risk to young lungs, Australian scientists find — RenewEconomy
Sand clogs up Australia’s only operating carbon capture project — RenewEconomy
Carbon storage at Chevron’s massive Gorgon LNG plant hampered by sand contamination which may result in increased greenhouse gas emissions. The post Sand clogs up Australia’s only operating carbon capture project appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Sand clogs up Australia’s only operating carbon capture project — RenewEconomy
Energy Security Board outlines plan for fast renewable transition in two major new reports — RenewEconomy
New reports from the Energy Security Board highlight priority focus areas for a grid destined for a high renewable future. The post Energy Security Board outlines plan for fast renewable transition in two major new reports appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Energy Security Board outlines plan for fast renewable transition in two major new reports — RenewEconomy
New government subsidies deepen Australia’s reliance on fossil fuels for transport — RenewEconomy
Morrison government policies are working to grow Australia’s dependence on transport fuels, rather than improving energy security. The post New government subsidies deepen Australia’s reliance on fossil fuels for transport appeared first on RenewEconomy.
New government subsidies deepen Australia’s reliance on fossil fuels for transport — RenewEconomy
The week in nuclear news – Australia
Midst all of the Trumpian circus, and the dire problems of the pandemic, it’s hard to find news about the underlying grave problems of the climate. I did vow to stay off that subject. But that’s hard to do, when global heating has accelerated over 2020, when it should have been a cooler year, with La Nina prevailing. Not only accelerating – climate change is here with us. The Earthbound Report lists 10 big impacts in 2020.
But – to return to the nuclear, it hasn’t been just a background problem lately, as the Washington mayhem raises anxieties about Donald Trump’s finger on the trigger of nuclear war.
A bit of good news – The good news hidden within one of America’s darkest weeks
AUSTRALIA.
Australian govt has quiet nuclear deal with China, but condemns Victoria-China medical research.
The Australian government’s shameful record in the Kimba nuclear dump fiasco. Government’s Kimba nuclear waste dump slush fund – benefit goes straight to Kimba’s mayor.
Treaty – a step on the long path towards nuclear disarmament..
End of an ERA: four decades of radioactive risk come to an end at Kakadu. Clean-up plan for Ranger uranium mine is ”woefully inadequate”.
Scott Morrison should change his mind and call Trump to end bizarre Assange saga.
INTERNATIONAL
Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons: The Road There and the Road Ahead. Beatrice Fihn: How to implement the nuclear weapons ban treaty.
Multinational effort could help solve U.S.-Russia nuclear issue.
Geopolitics Of Nuclear Generation Delayed Renewables By Decades To Fossil Fuel Industry Benefit, Our Detriment.
Ten compelling reasons to stay away from nuclear power .
Judge’s refusal to extradite Julian Assange is still part of cowardly process to deny freedom of information.
Clean-up plan for Ranger uranium mine is ”woefully inadequate”
Gundjeihmi and ERA enter negotiations to extend Ranger Uranium Mine rehabilitation
By https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-09/gundjeihmi-era-negotiate-ranger-uranium-mine-rehabilitation/13043076 Matt Garrick
An Aboriginal group in Kakadu National Park says the rehabilitation plan for a decommissioned uranium mine is “woefully inadequate”, and is calling for a 26-year extension to the process.
Key points:
- Mining at the Ranger Uranium Mine wound up yesterday after more than 40 years
- Traditional owners in Kakadu are now calling for an extension of the project’s rehabilitation phase
- The company that runs the mine has signalled its support for the move
Production at the Ranger Uranium Mine, on the outskirts of the national park, drew to a close yesterday after more than 40 years of operation.
Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation, which represents Mirarr traditional owners, has used the closure to demand owner Energy Resources Australia (ERA) rehabilitate the site beyond its current lease expiry in 2026.
Within that timeframe, the company is required to restore the site to its previous pristine state.
“That’s not long enough,” the corporation’s CEO, Justin O’Brien, said.
“We are now awaiting a drafting from the Commonwealth Government for amendments to the Atomic Energy Act such that you can actually put in place an extension to the rehabilitation period.”
Mr O’Brien said traditional owners were pushing for the rehabilitation period to be extended by an additional 26 years, which would carry the process through until 2052.
He said ERA and its parent company, Rio Tinto, had signalled their support for an extended term of rehabilitation — but the timeframe and details of that extension are still being negotiated.
In a statement, the company said it was committed to “achieving all documented rehabilitation outcomes in its Mine Closure Plan (MCP) by January 2026”.
It confirmed negotiations were underway with traditional owners to “determine an appropriate mechanism” to extend the company’s tenure at the Ranger site, which would allow it to continue rehabilitation beyond 2026.
Environmental group the Australian Conservation Foundation yesterday welcomed the end of production at the site, the last active uranium mine in the Northern Territory.
The foundation’s Dave Sweeney, who is an anti-nuclear campaigner, said he was supportive of the push to extend the rehabilitation period.
“The company should not be approaching clean-up asking itself what it can do in five years,” he said.
“It should be approaching clean-up asking ‘What is the best possible way to reduce and address the damage that has happened?’
“What’s the best outcome — not the best outcome we can do in five years.”
The wind-down of production at the mine is expected to prompt an exodus from the nearby town of Jabiru, where ERA holds the lease for about 300 houses.
One hundred and twenty-five ERA staff were made redundant this week.
Could Trump start a nuclear war?- a satchel, a biscuit and a football
A satchel, a biscuit and a football, https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/72759838/posts/3119714732 , Could Trump start a nuclear war? By Linda Pentz Gunter, 10 Jan 21,
All that’s involved is a satchel, a biscuit, and a football.
It sounds so benign, doesn’t it? Like schoolboy games. It’s anything but. If the President of the United States opens that satchel with his biscuit to access the football, that simple action could propel us into Armageddon.
The satchel, which goes everywhere the president does, contains the nuclear “football.” Only the president can open the satchel, using an ID card known as the “biscuit”.
As Time magazine explained it — the first time alarm bells rang around the possibility that an unhinged Donald Trump might “press the nuclear button” — the “biscuit enables him to identify himself to officials at the Pentagon with unique codes letting them know he is authorizing a nuclear strike. He would also need to specify the type of attack he wanted to carry out; the different options are delineated in the nuclear football.
“Once Trump has successfully conveyed his orders, Strategic Command, which has operational control over U.S. nuclear forces, would implement them.”
So while there is no actual nuclear button — Trump’s boasts to North Korea about his big one notwithstanding — it would be all too easy for a petulant madman to start a nuclear war. And we have one in the White House.
No one here needs to be reminded of the eye-stretching scenes of mob violence that unfolded at the Capitol on January 6, egged on by Trump on the day itself, and fueled by the reckless rhetoric and actions of the White House and its Republican lackeys over the past four years.
The events of January 6 in part prompted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to speak to the “Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike.
“The situation of this unhinged President could not be more dangerous, and we must do everything that we can to protect the American people from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy,” Politico reported Pelosi as saying on Friday.
In a statement issued on January 7, Physicians for Social Responsibility wrote that the scenes of mayhem at the Capitol, brought on by Trump’s “increasingly irresponsible and reckless behavior” should finally “put to rest any doubt about the danger posed by giving any president sole authority for the decision to launch a nuclear weapon. While the incident yesterday did not directly involve that power, President Trump’s alarming conduct demonstrated incontrovertibly why providing a president with the sole authority to launch a nuclear weapon needs to be changed—right now.”
How easy would it be for Trump to launch a nuclear strike? Global Zero explains it, chillingly, in this video, which suggests that starting a nuclear war would be “as easy as ordering a pizza.”
In a January 24, 2018 article in The Straits Times, Mark Fitzpatrick, a nuclear non-proliferation expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Washington, was quoted in an interview he gave to the BBC.
“There are no checks and balances on the president’s authority to launch a nuclear strike,” he said. “But between the time he authorizes one and the time it’s carried out there are other people involved.”
We’ve been saved more than once from nuclear disaster, most notably by Stanislav Petrov, a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Union’s Air Defense Forces who, on the night of September 26, 1983 just happened to be in charge of monitoring his country’s satellite system that watched for a potential launch of nuclear weapons by the United States. In the early hours, such a launch appeared to have happened.
Petrov had only minutes to decide if the launch was genuine. He was supposed to report the alert up the chain of command. Doing so would almost certainly have led to a counterstrike, triggering a full-on nuclear exchange between the Soviet Union and the U.S. Instead, Petrov decided to check if there was a computer malfunction, later discovered to have been the case. Petrov became known as “the man who saved the world.”
But back at the White House, with only conspiracy-theory believing acolytes left around a man who doesn’t in any case listen to anyone’s advice, we cannot count on there being any Petrovs to save us this time.
Of course, as the PSR statement concluded: “the best way to protect ourselves and the rest of the world from the danger posed by the dysfunctional leadership of a nuclear-armed nation is to eliminate nuclear weapons altogether.
“The incoming Biden administration should embrace the principles of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and lead negotiations that move us toward a nuclear-weapons free world.”
That Treaty will become international law on January 22. Not a moment too soon.
Biden urged to give up sole power to launch nuclear weapons
 Biden urged to give up sole power to launch nuclear weapons, https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/biden-urged-to-give-up-sole-power-to-launch-nuclear-weapons/news-story/fc90ee663c0db888c82917606b7e685e 10 Jan 21, A former US defence secretary has called on president-elect Joe Biden to reform the system that gives sole control of the nation’s nuclear arsenal to the president, calling it “outdated, unnecessary and extremely dangerous”.The call from William Perry came the same day House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke with the nation’s top military leader about ensuring that an “unhinged” President Donald Trump not be able to launch a nuclear attack in his final days in office.
“Once in office, Biden should announce he would share authority to use nuclear weapons with a select group in congress,” said Dr Perry, who served under Bill Clinton. He was writing in Politico magazine with Tom Collina of the Ploughshares Fund, which advocates for stronger nuclear controls. They said Mr Biden, who takes office on January 20, should also declare that the US would never start a nuclear war and would use the bomb only in retaliation. The piece argues that the current system gives the president — any president — “the godlike power to deliver global destruction in an instant”, an approach the authors call “undemocratic, outdated, unnecessary and extremely dangerous”. Dr Perry, defence secretary from 1994 to 1997, calls Mr Trump “unhinged” and adds: “Do we really think that Trump is responsible enough to trust him with the power to end the world?” American presidents are accompanied at all times by a military aide who carries a briefcase known as “the football” that contains the secret codes and information needed to launch a nuclear strike. Dr Perry and Mr Collina warn that presidents possess the “absolute authority to start a nuclear war. Within minutes, Trump can unleash hundreds of atomic bombs, or just one. He does not need a second opinion. The defence secretary has no say. Congress has no role.” They then ask: “Why are we taking this risk?” Such vast presidential authority, the article notes, dates from the waning days of World War II, when Harry Truman decided, after the nuclear horror unleashed by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, that the power to order the use of atomic weapons should not be left in the hands of the military — that it should be up to the president alone. |
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Deceitful nuclear propaganda exposed in ”The Wretched Atom”
The Wretched Atom https://jacobdarwinhamblin.com/books/the-wretched-atom/
Coming in June 2021 from Oxford University Press
A groundbreaking narrative of how the United States offered the promise of nuclear technology to the developing world and its gamble that other nations would use it for peaceful purposes.
After the Second World War, the United States offered a new kind of atom that differed from the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This atom would cure diseases, produce new foods, make deserts bloom, and provide abundant energy for all. It was an atom destined for the formerly colonized, recently occupied, and mostly non-white parts of the world that were dubbed the “wretched of the earth” by Frantz Fanon.
The “peaceful atom” had so much propaganda potential that President Dwight Eisenhower used it to distract the world from his plan to test even bigger thermonuclear weapons. His scientists said the peaceful atom would quicken the pulse of nature, speeding nations along the path of economic development and helping them to escape the clutches of disease, famine, and energy shortfalls. That promise became one of the most misunderstood political weapons of the twentieth century. It was adopted by every subsequent US president to exert leverage over other nations’ weapons programs, to corner world markets of uranium and thorium, and to secure petroleum supplies. Other countries embraced it, building reactors and training experts. Atomic promises were embedded in Japan’s postwar recovery, Ghana’s pan-Africanism, Israel’s quest for survival, Pakistan’s brinksmanship with India, and Iran’s pursuit of nuclear independence.
As The Wretched Atom shows, promoting civilian atomic energy was an immense gamble, and it was never truly peaceful. American promises ended up exporting violence and peace in equal measure. While the United States promised peace and plenty, it planted the seeds of dependency and set in motion the creation of today’s expanded nuclear club.
An act of love — Beyond Nuclear International
Courts threaten freedom of Russian nature protector
An act of love — Beyond Nuclear International
January 10 Energy News — geoharvey
Opinion: ¶ “Why I Would Buy A Used Tesla Model 3 Instead Of A New One – Free Full Self Driving!” • The author noticed that Tesla is enabling the $10,000 Full Self Driving capability on every Model 3 that it is selling used. He spoke to a couple of salespeople and verified that is […]
January 10 Energy News — geoharvey
Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – theme for January 2021
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the first international ban on nuclear weapons, came into force on Jan. 22, 2021.
It joins the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological Weapons Convention as a treaty prohibiting weapons of mass destruction . It joins those international agreements that prohibit and eliminate weapons based on their humanitarian harm. The treaty has widespread support in the international community — 122 countries voted for its adoption in 2017, and these countries have continued to express their support for the treaty .
The Traty is not merely symbolic. It prohibits states parties from developing, testing, producing, manufacturing, transferring, possessing, stockpiling, using (or threatening to use) nuclear weapons, or allowing nuclear weapons to be stationed on their territory. It also prohibits states parties from assisting, encouraging, or inducing states to engage in any of these prohibited activities.
A NATO State may join the Treaty and remain in the alliance as long as that state renounces participation in the nuclear dimension of the alliance and indicates that it does not support activities prohibited by the treaty.
About compliance concerns in the Treaty. international treaties reinforce norms and provide a forum to discuss and condemn violations of international standards for peace and security.
The treaty will continue to grow and integrate into the international system well beyond its entry into force in January and first meeting of states parties. The norm established by previous weapons prohibitions impacted banks, companies, and government policies in countries that had not joined the treaty, and the same can be expected for the nuclear prohibition norm.
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will impact the norm against nuclear weapons and in the meantime will provide concrete assistance for victims of nuclear weapons use and testing and contribute to remediating radiologically contaminated areas.
These notes adapted from https://warontherocks.com/2020/11/five-common-mistakes-on-the-treaty-on-the-prohibition-of-nuclear-weapons/
1 This month
17 October, Free Public Talk on Nuclear Issues in South Australia
David Noonan will speak on public interest concerns over the new Roxby Downs Indenture Act 2026 on BHP copper-uranium mining and ore processing in SA, and on how AUKUS may face SA with a High-Level nuclear waste agenda.
Dr Jim Green will discuss international developments in the field of nuclear power including ‘small modular reactors’ and Generation 4 ‘advanced’ nuclear reactor concepts.
Help Aunty Sue Protect Her Land and Sacred Sites From Destructive Rocket Testing.
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Australians deserve the truth
about
AUKUS – https://aukuspublicinquiry.com/
PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
