Uranium ban brought benefit to New South Wales
Uranium ban brought us benefit, Newcastle Herald, Dave Sweeney, Australian Conservation Foundation 23 Aug 20,
THE state government’s proposed removal of a long-standing and popular ban on uranium mining in New South Wales flies in the face of evidence, community interest and market reality. The global uranium price remains depressed following the Fukushima nuclear disaster and is not likely to recover. The uranium market is over supplied and existing producers are shelving projects across Australia and around the world.
In November 2019 the CEO of the world’s largest uranium miner, Canadian company Cameco, stated that “not only does it not make sense to invest in future primary supply, even the lowest-cost producers are deciding to preserve long-term value by leaving uranium in the ground.”
The ban has served NSW well. It has provided policy certainty and avoided the radioactive waste and legacy mine issues affecting other places, including Kakadu, where a massive $1 billion clean-up is underway at the former Ranger mine. This poorly conceived piece of gesture politics could lead to lower tier and inexperienced mining companies cutting corners and increasing environmental and community risk and it simply makes no sense for NSW to jump aboard a sinking nuclear ship. NSW’s energy future is renewable, not radioactive.
World battles new cases, but coronavirus could be over, in two years
World Health Organisation hopes coronavirus crisis can be over in two years, https://www.sbs.com.au/news/world-health-organisation-hopes-coronavirus-crisis-can-be-over-in-two-years [Good graphs] 22 Aug 20 The head of the World Health Organisation hopes the coronavirus pandemic will be shorter than the 1918 Spanish flu and last less than two years.
The world should be able to rein in the coronavirus pandemic in less than two years, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said, as European nations battled rising numbers of new cases.
Western Europe has been enduring the kind of infection levels not seen in many months, particularly in Germany, France, Spain and Italy – sparking fears of a full-fledged second wave.
In the Spanish capital Madrid, officials recommended people in the most affected areas stay at home to help curb the spread as the country registered more than 8,000 new cases in 24 hours.
France also reported a second consecutive day of more than 4,000 new cases – numbers not seen since May – with metropolitan areas accounting for most of those infections.
But WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus sought to draw favourable comparisons with the notorious flu pandemic of 1918.
“We have a disadvantage of globalisation, closeness, connectedness, but an advantage of better technology, so we hope to finish this pandemic before less than two years,” he told reporters.
By “utilising the available tools to the maximum and hoping that we can have additional tools like vaccines, I think we can finish it in a shorter time than the 1918 flu”, he said.
The WHO also recommended children over 12 years old now use masks in the same situations as adults as the use of face coverings increases to stop the virus spread.
With no usable vaccine yet available, the most prominent tool governments have at their disposal is to confine their populations or enforce social distancing.
Lebanon is the latest country to reintroduce severe restrictions, beginning two weeks of measures on Friday including night time curfews to tamp down a rise in infections, which comes as the country is still dealing with the shock from a huge explosion in the capital Beirut that killed dozens earlier this month.
“What now? On top of this disaster, a coronavirus catastrophe?” said 55-year-old Roxane Moukarzel in Beirut.
Officials fear Lebanon’s fragile health system would struggle to cope with a further spike in COVID-19 cases, especially after some hospitals near the port were damaged in the explosion.
‘We lead the world in deaths’
The Americas have borne the brunt of the virus in health terms, accounting for more than half of the world’s fatalities.
“We lead the world in deaths,” said Joe Biden while accepting the Democratic nomination for the US presidential election late on Thursday.
He said he would implement a national plan to fight the pandemic on his first day in office if elected in November.
“We’ll take the muzzle off our experts so the public gets the information they need and deserve – honest, unvarnished truth,” he said.
Still, new daily cases of the coronavirus have been dropping sharply in the United States for weeks – but experts are unsure if Americans will have the discipline to bring the epidemic under control.
After exceeding 70,000 confirmed infections per day in July, the country recorded 43,000 cases on Thursday.
Further south, Latin American countries were counting the wider costs of the pandemic — the region not only suffering the most deaths, but also an expansion of criminal activity and rising poverty.
Without an effective political reaction, “at a regional level we can talk about a regression of up to 10 years in the levels of multidimensional poverty”, Luis Felipe Lopez-Calva of the UN Development Programme told AFP.
But the WHO said the coronavirus pandemic appeared to be stabilising in Brazil – one of the world’s worst hit countries – and any reversal of its rampant spread in the vast country would be “a success for the world”.
Economic fallout
Economies around the globe have been ravaged by the pandemic, which has infected more than 22 million and killed nearly 800,000 since it emerged in China late last year.
New financial figures laid bear the huge cost of the pandemic in Britain, where government debt soared past AUD $3.7 million for the first time in the UK after a massive programme of state borrowing for furlough schemes and other measures designed to prop up the economy.
“Without that support things would have been far worse,” Finance Minister Rishi Sunak said.
Even Germany, famed for its financial prudence, was waking up to a new reality with Finance Minister Olaf Scholz conceding his country would need to continue borrowing at a high level next year to deal with the virus fallout.
Western European politicians are also beginning to ramp up restrictions to tackle infections that are rising to levels not seen for months.
While Spain has responded with confinement measures and Germany with updated travel guidelines, putting Brussels on its list of risk zones, the UK is now watching clusters in northern England and suggesting some towns could soon face lockdown.
“To prevent a second peak and keep Covid-19 under control, we need robust, targeted intervention where we see a spike in cases,” health secretary Matt Hancock said.
2020 Is Proving Another Disastrous Year For Our Earth’s Climate
2020 Is Proving Another Disastrous Year For Our Earth’s Climate
The year already has been marked by rising global temperatures, Arctic ice melts and intensifying wildfires and storms. Huff Post, 22 Aug 20
By Nina Golgowski Record-breaking heat, melting ice caps, raging wildfires and a particularly grim hurricane forecast may have taken a backseat in news cycles dominated by politics and a health pandemic, but that doesn’t mean these climate phenomena have gone away.
Here’s a look at just some of the anomalies we’ve faced so far in 2020.
Record-Breaking Heat
The year is expected to rank among the five warmest on record for the planet, according to a July report by a National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration office, which said a 75% chance exists it ends up being the hottest or second hottest.
During the first seven months of the year, the Earth’s global land and ocean surface temperature set its second-highest heat record. The temperature of 58.79 degrees Fahrenheit (14.88 Celsius) was only .007 of a degree less than the record set in 2016.
July also saw the global temperature rise 1.66 degrees Fahrenheit (0.92 of a degree Celcius) above the 20th-century average, tying it with 2016 as the second-hottest July on record. It was just .02-degree short of 2019′s record rise in July of 1.71-degree Fahrenheit (0.95 of a degree Celcius).
The Northern Hemisphere, meanwhile, saw the highest ever recorded combined land and ocean surface average temperature in July, with the mercury rising 2.12 degrees Fahrenheit (1.18 degree Celcius) above average. This combined temperature surpassed July 2019 by 0.14 of a degree Fahrenheit (0.08 of a degree Celcius)……… https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/2020-another-disastrous-year-for-our-earth_n_5f3d8b59c5b66346157fd6e2?ri18n=true
August 23 Energy News — geoharvey
Opinion: ¶ “The Observer View On The Climate Catastrophe Facing Earth” • Thirty years ago this week, first assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned us that we faced a threat of unprecedented magnitude. Greenhouse gas emissions would be triggers of dangerous climate change. We have recklessly ignored that warning. [The Guardian] […]
August 23 Energy News — geoharvey
Visions for peace — Beyond Nuclear International
Joanna Macy says “Choose life. It’s that simple!”
Visions for peace — Beyond Nuclear International
Antarctica – global heating and nuclear issues – theme for September 20
Antarctica is not in the news as much as the Arctic is, But global heating is affecting Antarctica too, and Antarctica has its nuclear issues.
Antarctica has made headlines several times this year due to extremely warmer than usual temperatures. It has been steadily heating up for decades. Antarctic ice shelves have lost nearly 4 trillion metric tons of ice since the mid-1990s, scientists say. Ocean water is melting them from the bottom up, causing them to lose mass faster than they can refreeze. As ice shelves melt, they become thinner, weaker and more likely to break. When this happens, they can unleash streams of ice from the glaciers behind them, raising global sea levels. Antarctica is also losing ice from melting ice sheets, and chunks of ice falling from glaciers.
Less studied than the Arctic region, Antarctic is now being investigated by Australian researchers, using robots to gather data from difficult to reach underwater areas. Satellite monitoring confirms the shelves’ melting trend.
Nuclear issues. From 6,000 nautical miles away, uranium mining in Australia is polluting the Antarctic. After 1945 atomic bomb testing sent radioactive pollution to the South Pole, as well as to everywhere else on the planet.
USA operated a small nuclear power plant at Antarctica’s McMurdo Sound. It was known as “nukey poo” because of its frequent radioactive leaks. It had 438 malfunctions – nearly 56 a year – in its operational lifetime, including leaking water surrounding the reactor and hairline cracks in the reactor lining. The emissions of low level waste water where in direct contravention of the Antarctic Treaty, which bans military operations as well as radioactive waste in Antarctica. After the reactor was closed down, the US shipped 7700 cubic metres of radioactive contaminated rock and dirt to California. Many USA naval workers there developed cancers.
Today, small nuclear reactors similar to this one, are being touted for remote areas in Australia and other countries. The history of this one in Antarctica, and 7 others elsewhere, was one of malfunctions, and closing down within a few years. This does not augur well for the small nuclear reactors being promoted today.
Australia’s Dept of Industry hiding the facts on choice of Kimba nuclear waste site
Kazzi Jai No Nuclear Waste Dump Anywhere in South Australia, 22 Aug 20, FRIDAY NIGHT QUIZ QUESTION: How many times did the DIIS quote this EXACT SAME STATEMENT in their “Answers to Questions Notices” tabled recently for the Senate Inquiry?….more https://www.facebook.com/groups/1314655315214929/
Keep uranium in the ground!
Keep uranium in the ground! https://www.nature.org.au/get-involved/take-action/keep-nsw-nuke-free-no-uranium-mining/
Nuclear is part of the old, dirty and dangerous way of producing energy. In the age of cheap, reliable, clean energy, we just don’t need it. 21 Aug 20,
The media have reported that NSW Cabinet members have bowed to pressure from One Nation Leader Mark Latham and Nationals Leader John Barilaro to overturn a ban on uranium exploration and mining.
But there is still time for people like you and me to stop this disaster. Cabinet is set to make a decision this Monday (August 24), ahead of a vote in parliament.
WE URGENTLY NEED YOU to ask your MP to commit to voting down this terrible law.
Will you please also ask them to pressure their Party Leader to reject the plan and vote against it if it comes to parliament?
Uranium mining in other parts of Australia has left a terrible legacy of radioactive pollution, including in the Northern Territory where a massive $1 billion clean-up is underway at the Ranger mine in the middle of Kakadu national park.
Toxic uranium mining could become legal in NSW within weeks if your local MP supports a One Nation and National Party deal to overturn a 30-year ban.
Adam Bandt urges another Labor-Greens coalition for climate action
Adam Bandt urges another Labor-Greens coalition for climate action, https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/adam-bandt-urges-another-labor-greens-coalition-for-climate-action-20200820-p55nrc.html, By Rob Harris, August 21, 2020 —Greens leader Adam Bandt will mark 10 years since his party signed a deal to prop up the Gillard government by flagging he would be willing to again form a power-sharing deal with Labor to combat climate change.The Melbourne MP will use his address to the Greens National Conference on Saturday to urge Labor leader Anthony Albanese to commit to acting on carbon pollution by again entering into progressive pact
Labor is currently locked in a fierce internal battle over its support for coal and gas production as it wrestles with three successive election losses and poor results at the polls last year in resource-rich regional Queensland seats.
Veteran frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon warned on Thursday his party could soon split in two, arguing it is struggling to be “all things to all people” across its inner city and regional voter bases.
Mr Bandt will tell his party faithful that it was only with the Greens holding the balance of power in both the House of Representatives and the Senate which led to “world leading climate action with a price on carbon”.
“In recent Australian history, there is one indisputable fact. The only time that climate pollution meaningfully dropped is when the Greens shared power,” Mr Bandt says in a draft copy of the speech.
“When the Greens, Labor and independents worked cooperatively and shared power like we did in 2010, we got a lot done.
As Liberal and Labor rush once more to give tax cuts to millionaires while embracing coal and gas, it is clear that Greens sharing power is the pathway to change.
Mr Bandt will also use the speech to say the climate deal reached with the Gillard government was stronger and more effective in reducing carbon emissions than the Rudd government’s scheme it blocked in the Senate.
Warning of a federal election within 12 months, Mr Bandt will say the path to climate policy progress was to put the Greens into shared power through a hung parliament.
Mr Bandt said the carbon tax legislation by Labor in 2010 with the backing of the Greens was “well-designed” and it reduced pollution for the first time in Australian industrial era history.
He will promise to “hammer” a straightforward message between now and the next election that the “only way to get real change is to vote for it and give the Greens shared power”.
“Many look longingly to New Zealand, where Jacinda Ardern leads a progressive multi-party government with Greens support, and wonder if it could happen here,” he will say.
Mr Albanese on Thursday said Labor had continually evolved and a modern party with “any self-respect” would be attempting to mitigate the effects of climate change.
In a rebuke to Mr Fitzgibbon, he said the issue of climate change was not a matter of geography because “wherever people live, they’re impacted by climate change”.
“Were about also holding the government to account. Putting forward an alternative agenda for the nation,” he said.
Labor Left weighs up plan for ‘drastic’ climate policy
Labor Left weighs up plan for ‘drastic’ climate policy The Australian, 21 Aug 20
Opposition energy spokesman Mark Butler has signalled he will not back down to Joel Fitzgibbon’s plea for Labor to adopt a more moderate climate change agenda, with the Left faction heavyweight urging environmental activists to push the party to be “more ambitious and more courageous” on the issue. … (Subscribers only)
The end of the environment – Bob Brown
The end of the environment Saturday Paper, Bob Brown 21 Aug 20
The prime minister’s post-Covid-19 plan is to roar ahead with a slate of mega-projects that would be delayed by any proper consideration of their environmental and Indigenous heritage impacts. While the EPBC Act rarely leads to any project being given the thumbs down, it does require environmental impacts to be assessed, and this takes time. The government’s solution? Get rid of the federal assessment. …. (subscribers only)
Slowing of population growth could be a good thing for Australia
Learning to live with less, Online Opinion,
Population growth has been a mantra of our property industry for as long as I can remember. And once again there are predictions of a surge in growth, driven (this time) by people allegedly fleeing Victoria. However, there are good reasons to think this may not happen, and that we may need to prepare for an extended period of minimal growth. This may not be a bad thing. One of the first things to understand about our recent rates of actual and predicted future population growth is that they have been extraordinary in terms of the actual numbers and also in terms of the rate (speed) of growth. On a global scale, our forecast rates of population growth in major cities exceeded many leading world cities and was on a par with places like Shanghai and Beijing. In just 15 years, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne were predicted to grow by around a third – roughly three times the rate of growth of cities we often like to compare ourselves with like Copenhagen (for some reason), Los Angeles, San Francisco, London or Paris. Given we started this forecast period with widely acknowledged urban infrastructure deficits (failing to keep up with population growth in the past), how we were supposed to not make the problem worse with these rates of growth is something smarter people than me might like to explain. Let’s just say the Chinese do things very differently so we can’t use Shanghai or Beijing as comparisons. These predicted rates of growth were driven by three components: international migration (net overseas migration or ‘NOM’); interstate growth (net interstate migration or ‘NIM’) and natural growth (more births over deaths). And all three now look severely compromised by the policy responses intended to manage Covid……….. each of three sources of population growth looks challenged in a post Covid Queensland, for the next few years at least. Less NOM, fewer NIM and less breeding. Is this such a bad thing though? Provided we continue with infrastructure projects, it could allow the State to begin to close the infrastructure gap which has widened significantly in recent decades. The pressure is everywhere to see – rising congestion, hospital waiting lists, rising school class numbers, and hostility to development generally. If Covid forces a breather on the rapid rates of population growth we’ve been used to, perhaps it will mean we can actually enhance our quality of life and standards of amenity in the process? It’s also worth keeping in mind that there are many global examples of low growth cities and regions which remain highly attractive and economically prosperous. The surplus of demand by people wanting to live and work there, relative to supply (deliberate limits on housing supply and population caps) invariably makes these very expensive real estate markets, completely unaffordable for many. But from a selfish property market point of view, they are still viable markets for development and redevelopment. Locally, think Noosa. Being horrendously expensive for residential or commercial property hasn’t stopped some of our other property markets before? https://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=21069&page=2 |
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How the climate crisis is already harming America – photo essay
How the climate crisis is already harming America – photo essay
The damage rising temperatures bring is been seen around the country, with experts fearing worse is to come, Guardian , by Oliver Milman in New York, with photographs compiled by Gina Lachman 21 Aug 20
Climate change is not an abstract future threat to the United States, but a real danger that is already harming Americans’ lives, with “substantial damages” to follow if rising temperatures are not controlled.
This was the verdict of a major US government report two years ago. The Trump administration’s attitude to climate change was perhaps illustrated in the timing of the report’s release, which was in the news dead zone a day after Thanksgiving.
The report was the fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA), and is seen as the most authoritative official US snapshot of the impacts of climate change being seen already, and the estimate of those in the future.
It is the combined work of 13 federal agencies, and it warns how climate-related threats to Americans’ physical, social and economic wellbeing are rising, and will continue to grow without additional action.
Here we look at the regions of the US where it describes various impacts, with photography from these areas showing people and places in the US where climate change is very real.
If there was a ground zero for the climate crisis in the US, it would probably be located in Alaska. The state, according to the national climate assessment, is “ on the front lines of climate change and is among the fastest warming regions on Earth”.Sign up to the Green Light email to get the planet’s most important stories
Since the early 1980s, Alaska’s sea ice extent in September, when it hits its annual minimum, has decreased by as much as 15% per decade, with sea ice-free summers likely this century. This has upended fishing routines for remote communities that rely upon caught fish for their food.
The thinning ice has seen people and vehicles collapse into the frigid water below, hampering transport routes.Roads and buildings have buckled as the frozen soils underneath melt. Wildfires are also an increasing menace in Alaska, with three out of the top four fire years in terms of acres burned occurring since 2000. The state’s residents are grappling with a rapidly changing environment that is harming their health, their supply of food and livelihoods.
Last year was the hottest year on record in Alaska, 6.2F warmer than the long-term average.
North-east – snowstorms, drought, heatwaves and flooding…………
Northern Great Plains – flash droughts and extreme heat………
Midwest – heavy rains and soil erosion……
South-east – flooding in Louisiana………
Southern Great Plains – Hurricane Harvey……
South-west – drought in the Colorado river basin reduced Lake Mead by more than half since 2000…….
North-west – wildfire increases and associated smoke…..
Hawaii and Pacific islands – coral bleaching….….
Caribbean – hurricanes…. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/20/climate-crisis-environment-america
USA: National opposition to transport and siting of “Interim”nuclear wastes
, https://www.currentargus.com/story/news/local/2020/08/21/nuclear-waste-site-near-carlsbad-continues-opposed-covid-19/5605918002/Adrian Hedden
Nationwide opposition of a nuclear waste storage facility proposed to be built near Carlsbad and Hobbs continued its call for the licensing process for the project to be suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic and that the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission deny the application altogether.
Holtec International proposed to build the site to store high-level spent nuclear fuel rods transported to southeast New Mexico from generator sites across the county.
Many of the rods are already stored in cooling pools near the generator sites, which supporters of the project said were unsafe as many are located near large bodies of water or densely populated areas.
The concept of Holtec’s consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) was to temporarily store the spent fuel in a remote location while a permanent repository was developed.
Such a facility to permanently store the waste does not exist in the U.S.
The idea faced opposition from New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard along with other state lawmakers.
And during a Thursday public hearing held by the NRC, numerous nuclear watchdog groups from around the country voiced their opposition.
The NRC announced last week it would hold four such online hearings including Thursday’s with others scheduled for Aug. 25, 26 and Sept. 2 to solicit public comments on the Commission’s recently released environmental impact statement (EIS).
The EIS released earlier this year found the project would have minimal environmental impacts during the construction, operation and decommissioning of the facility.
The EIS was required for the first phase of Holtec’s plan for 500 cannisters to be stored, but the NRC also considered the company’s expressed intention to apply for future permits for 19 additional phases for a total of 10,000 cannisters of nuclear waste.
Leona Morgan of the Nuclear Issues Study Group based in Albuquerque said the online hearing process was unjust as many New Mexicans live without adequate internet or phone service to participate in electronic hearings.
While she called for the NRC to reject Holtec’s application, citing safety and environmental risks to the region of the facility and communities along the transportation routes, Morgan also questioned the hearing process itself as it continued during the global pandemic.
Leona Morgan of the Nuclear Issues Study Group based in Albuquerque said the online hearing process was unjust as many New Mexicans live without adequate internet or phone service to participate in electronic hearings.
While she called for the NRC to reject Holtec’s application, citing safety and environmental risks to the region of the facility and communities along the transportation routes, Morgan also questioned the hearing process itself as it continued during the global pandemic.
The Nuclear Issues Study Group, which held a continued presence during the past three public hearings held this year, and NRC’s scoping meetings held in 2018, would boycott the rest of the proceedings, Morgan said.
“There are a large portion of our state that lives without phone or internet service. Our organization is boycotting the rest of these proceedings. It is a sham. There is no reason to rush this process except to line the pockets of shareholders,” she said.
“We see this as a violation of our rights to submit our public comments under the National Environmental Policy Act. And it violates environmental justice. We can’t even verify that the NRC is sitting before us.”
More:Nuclear waste site near Carlsbad opposed by indigenous groups during public hearing
John LaForge, of nuclear watchdog group Nukewatch of Wisconsin also voiced his opposition to the project and ongoing proceedings, pointing to widespread opposition in New Mexico and among Tribal nations.
He demanded public hearings be held in up to 40 states other than New Mexico that could be impacted by the transportation of waste.
“There is no compelling reason at this time for these meetings to be rushed. I opposed this plan due to the governors of New Mexico and of 20 tribal nations,” LaForge said. “With these online meetings, it is apparent to me that the NRC has no interest in the public’s concerns. The people of New Mexico have said no.”
He also criticized the EIS as the NRC noted in the report it would expect no radiation release should there be an accident at the facility.
“In its review, the NRC said it assume in an accident there would be no release of radiation,” LaForge said. “That is alarming and preposterous.”
Petuuche Gilbert of the Acoma Coalition for a Safe Environment based in the Acoma Pueblo near Albuquerque also questioned the EIS as it only considered the environmental impacts of the project for 40 years and only within a 50 mile radius.
“We believe the analysis needs to go beyond the 40 year possibility of storing the waste. We all know the nuclear waste and radioactivity extends beyond that limited timeframe. It really needs to go on for hundreds or thousands of years,” Gilbert said.
“You have the possibility of accidents that could occur along the transportation corridors. The cumulative analysis is limited only to a 50 mile radius. It really needs to be more.”
Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, achedden@currentargus.com or @AdrianHedden on Twitter.
Global heating keeps hitting France’s nuclear industry
EDF’s use of water is regulated by law to protect plant and animal life. It is obliged to reduce output during hot weather when water temperatures rise, or when river levels and the flow rate are low.
Last month was the driest July in at least 60 years and the first half of August was the second hottest on record, making it the fifteenth consecutive month with higher than average temperatures, Meteo France data showed.
RTE published a similar warning for the Chooz reactors in northern France on Tuesday, as low water levels on the Meuse river risk extending current maintenance periods.
French nuclear availability is currently at 63.6% of total capacity, with 22.7 GW offline. (Reporting by Forrest Crellin; Editing by Jan Harvey)
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