Australia’s farmers feeling the effects of climate change
Betting the Farm: Farmers confront climate change http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-30/farmers-confront-extreme-reality-of-climate-change/7887720 Climate change is here, and Australian agriculture is acutely feeling the effects. Three farmers explain how it’s impacting their lives and livelihoods.
In some instances the rates of warming are tracking at 2050 scenarios.
Scientists concerned that climate change is biting harder and faster than models anticipated are campaigning for more research investment to protect Australia’s $58 billion agriculture industry from extreme weather.
Background Briefing has learned that their concerns about the capability of Australian research to address climate change will be validated in an independent review by the prestigious Australian Academy of Science.
The review, due for release in the next few weeks, has identified a substantial shortfall in the nation’s climate research firepower.
It’s understood that the review will recommend that the number of scientists working for CSIRO and its partners on climate science needs to increase by about 90. That is almost double the current number of full time positions.
Meanwhile, the reality is already confronting farmers on the front line, many of them battered by this last year of wild conditions.
Climate change makes farming more of a gamble than it ever was. It should be a complete concern to everyone who eats on this planet, because the whole world is going to be gambling on food production.
Liz Tynan on the secret history of Maralinga
ABC Conversations interview: Liz Tynan on the secret history of Maralinga British nuclear testing on Australian ground: cover-ups, aftershocks and contamination. Dr Liz Tynan is a science writer, and senior lecturer at the James Cook University Graduate Research School.
In the 1950s and 60s, Australia’s then Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, agreed to provide land and support to the British nuclear test program.
At Maralinga in South Australia, the British exploded seven mushroom cloud bombs (the ‘major trials’).By doing so, they became the world’s third nuclear power, and created some of the most contaminated land on the planet.
Elements of the program were shrouded in secrecy. Prior to 1978, most people had never heard of Maralinga.
Then whistle-blowers and journalists began to expose the extent of the environmental and human costs of the program.
Listen now or download podcast at: http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2016/08/09/4515140.htm (49min 21sec audio.)
The Radioactive Show marks anniversary of Hiroshima nuclear bombing
Tune in to the Radioactive Show at 10am on 855AM in Melbourne, or listen from anywhere in the world on www.3cr.org.au:Is the international community poised to outlaw the most destructive weapons ever created? In this episode, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons reports on the progress made at the May session of a special UN working group on nuclear disarmament in Geneva. There the vast majority of nations declared a readiness to start work on a treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons.
We talk about Nuclear and Peace Issues; follow the most current news on nuclear issues in Australia.
See this short video explaining the South Australian nuclear waste dump proposal
TodayTonight Adelaide: Nuke Dump
SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: Should SA accept 70,000 tonnes of radioactive waste from 37 countries?
http://todaytonightadelaide.com.au/stories/nuke-dump
(Video 4min 54sec)
AUDIO: Radioactive Show on nuclear disarmament
Let us decipher the recent developments in disarmament diplomacy for you: tune into the Radioactive Show every Saturdaymorning at 10am on 3CR (855AM), or get the podcast at www.3cr.org.au/radioactive.
We delve deeper into the world of disarmament diplomacy, examining landmark United Nations talks that began in Geneva, Switzerland, in February. The new working group is gathering for three sessions this year to discuss how to take forward disarmament negotiations, and a ban treaty is front and centre. This is Part 1 in a two-part report, featuring an interview with Ray Acheson from Reaching Critical Will.
Saturday 9th April at 10am: UN talks to prohibit nuclear weapons #2
We continue exploring the landmark discussions in the UN working group, laying the groundwork to negotiate a new instrument prohibiting nuclear weapons. This process is challenging the nuclear weapons possessors and their faithful allies, like Australia. Listen in to what happens behind the UN’s doors. This is part 2 in a 2-part report, featuring an interview with Richard Lennane, Chief Inflammatory Officer with Wildfire.
Produced by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, spoken by Tim Wright.
China’s State Grid Eyes Australia
China’s State Grid Eyes Australia (VIDEO) http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2016-04-01/china-s-state-grid-eyes-australia April 1, 2016
It has more than one billion customers and sales bigger than Apple’s and Boeing’s combined. But not many people have heard about State Grid. It’s a Chinese-owned power company with ambitious plans to expand, especially in Australia. Bloomberg’s James Paton reports on “First Up.” (Source: Bloomberg)
Radio Ecoshock explodes the propaganda for Nuclear Power
THE DEATH OF NUCLEAR POWER http://www.ecoshock.info/2016/01/the-death-of-nuclear-power.html
SUMMARY: Lead author of “World Nuclear Industry Status Reports” Mycle Schneider on new Nuclear Leap Forward in China. Famous activist Helen Caldicott on plan to make S. Australia a world nuclear dump; and dangerous nuke waste in St. Louis, Missouri. Radio Ecoshock 160127
A tiny but powerful number of scientists, applauded by a few famous greens, urge us to accept nuclear power. They see it as the salvation of our civilization, our climate, our future.
It isn’t happening. As you’ll hear, nuclear power is shrinking, not expanding. World-wide, major nuclear companies are going bankrupt, or soaking up billions more of your taxes, or both.
Expert Mycle Schneider looks into secrets of the Great Nuclear Leap Forward in China. Remember, after Chernobyl and Fukushima, an accident anywhere in the world can irradiate the Northern Hemisphere. China’s new untested reactors are your reactors. Their radiation can land in your backyard.
All our lives, we’ve been told the problem of storing nuclear waste for a million years will be solved by science and technology. Instead, you will hear how hot waste from 70 years ago continues to threaten and poison a suburb of St. Louis Missouri. Dr. Helen Caldicott also reports on the mad rush to turn beautiful South Australia into a nuclear waste dump for the world.
Boiling water with reactors has become a time-bomb, a failed technology, a path better not taken, a threat and a burden to all succeeding generations.
This is Radio Ecoshock. I’m Alex Smith.
Listen to/download this Radio Ecoshock show in CD Quality (56 MB) or Lo-Fi (14 MB).
Or listen on Soundcloud right now!
Film “Containment” timely, as #NuclearCommissionSAust blocks environmental and Aboriginal voices
It would certainly be beyond their comprehension that any community, any government, would actually volunteer to take other countries’ nuclear waste, which remains radioactive for thousands of years. Yet in Australia, this is what nuclear proponents, the SA premier, and now the prime minister are backing.
South Australia’s Royal Commission has refused Australian environmental movement experts ACF and Friends of the Earth permission to appear. On 8 December Rose Lester, a second-generation Yankunyjatjara nuclear survivor, found her own plea blocked by Commissioner Scarce.
Fears and fictions in SA’s nuclear waste tussle, Eureka Street, Michele Madigan | 10 December 2015 The long anticipated arrival of reprocessed nuclear fuel rods in the first week of December has thrown the spotlight again on Australia’s nuclear industry. Greenpeace’s highlighting of the deficiencies of transport gives little hope that government plans will fit with the usual assurances of ‘world’s best practice’ in this, the world’s most dangerous industry…….
At a screening last month of his film Containment, Harvard Professor Robb Moss agreed with me regarding the ‘providence’ of its timely showing to Australian audiences. Five years in the making, Containment shows, among other sequences, how the US is attempting to tackle the massive problem of dealing with their own high level radioactive waste.
It includes interviews with government officials and regulator personnel amid their attempts to contain the radioactivity for the expected 10,000 years — a time frame that will embrace ‘people who will not share our language, our nation and even our civilisation’. It’s unsurprising that the oft repeated phrase from those from the nuclear industry was that ‘the hardest thing is to get the community onside’. Continue reading
PODCAST No Nuclear Dump at Hill End
http://www.3cr.org.au/radioactive/episode-201511281000/hill-end-hiroshima This week we tune into the radioactive waste dump debate in Hill End, near Sally’s Flat, an area that is suddenly in the spotlight for being one of six potential sites for the national radioactive waste dump. We speak with Jodie Carter from the No Central West Nuclear Waste Dump Committee and Nat Wasley from the Beyond Nuclear Initiative. Further afield, we speak with Yankunytjatjara woman Karina Lester, in Japan for the World Nuclear Victims Forum. – See more at
Podcast: ‘Renewables not Radioactive ‘ forum Port Augusta, South Australia
Tune in to powerful speeches from members of ANFA on Rad Show this week!
Podcast from www.3cr.org.au, under ‘Radioactive Show’
Featuring recordings taken at the ‘Renewables not Radioactive ‘ forum held in the Port Augusta, South Australia, on 19th October 2015. Listen to an eloquent summary of Australia’s history of struggle against remote radioactive waste dumping, up to the present push, as outlined by Dave Sweeney from the Australian Conservation Foundation. Hear Gillian and Enice Marsh, both Adnyamathanha women, dissect misleading ‘community engagment’ approaches taken by corporations and government when consulting with Indigenous peoples. Plus passionate comments made from audience members at the forum.
AUDIO: ABC Radio talks with Prince Charles about Paris UN Climate Conference
Prince Charles to attend Paris climate change summit, ……http://www.
abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2015/s4342148.htm ABC Radio The World Today Lisa Millar reported this story on Friday, October 30, 2015
KIM LANDERS: Prince Charles has announced he’ll be attending the UN climate talks in Paris to urge leaders to send an unequivocal message to the world. With a month to go, organisers of the talks say there still some thorny issues to be thrashed out but they’re confident of an agreement. What they’re desperate to do is avoid the failures of Copenhagen where hopes were raised and negotiations then collapsed.
Europe correspondent Lisa Millar reports.
LISA MILLAR: More than 80 world leaders have confirmed they will be in Paris on November the 30th for the opening session.
The French President has asked them to arrive at the start of the 12 day summit, rather than the end, hoping that change of tactic will help avoid the shambles seen in Copenhagen.
Prince Charles has announced he’s accepting an invitation to speak on the first day.
PRINCE CHARLES: Paris will be an absolutely crucial milestone, as you all know better than I, in the long overdue international effort to keep to a two degree world.
Although I think that everyone realises that this cop will be the beginning of a new phase in the process, not, not the end in itself.
It must, however, send an unequivocal long-term signal to the international community and to global markets that the transition to a low carbon, sustainable climate-compatible economy is firmly and irreversibly underway.
LISA MILLAR: The Prince of Wales has been an environmental advocate for more than 40 years, and has long argued that profound changes are needed to save the planet from the risks of global warming.
Between now and Paris, he’ll be visiting New Zealand and Australia, and meeting Commonwealth heads of government in Malta.
PRINCE CHARLES: The two degree world is therefore still, just, if we stretch every sinew, by setting a proper price for carbon, within reach.
It seems to me that we must build on all that has been achieved to date by establishing a whole new set of strong partnerships for action between forest countries and regions, donor governments, civil society and the private sector.
The policy and governance drive to reduce deforestation can come only from forest countries, with the benefits being of almost incalculable value both locally and globally. ……
Film CONTAINMENT – Melbourne November 11
Can we contain some of the deadliest, most long-lasting substances ever produced? Left over from the Cold War are a hundred million gallons of radioactive sludge, covering vast radioactive lands. Governments around the world, desperate to protect future generations, have begun imagining society 10,000 years from now in order to create monuments that will speak across the time. Part observational essay filmed in weapons plants, Fukushima and deep underground − and part graphic novel −Containment weaves between an uneasy present and an imaginative, troubled far future, exploring the idea that over millennia, nothing stays put.
Directors / Producers Peter Galison and Robb Moss will participate in an interactive discussion along with national nuclear-free campaigners following the film screening.
Wednesday, November 11, 7pm to 9pm
Loop: 23 Meyers Place, Melbourne (off Bourke St)
To book tickets: http://www.melbourne.foe.org.au/containment_film_screening
$10 concession / $15 waged / $25 solidarity
Dave Sweeney explains concerns on nuclear waste transport
ACF nuclear campaigner Dave Sweeney talks to RT International
AUDIO: South Australia’s nuclear future
18 October 2015. In 1995, South Australians were dazzled by the prospect of becoming the ‘Saudi Arabia of the South’ because of the state’s large uranium deposits and the prospect of a global nuclear power renaissance. Twenty years on, national anti-nuclear campaigner, Dr Jim Green looks at how the nuclear renaissance is going, how the number of power reactors has declined and how Australia’s uranium industry today accounts for just 0.2% of national export revenue.
The talk coincides with the start of the royal commission into the nuclear fuel cycle in Adelaide.
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/jim-green/6857914
PODCAST: Into An Uncertain Future: Containment of Radioactivity
Radioactive Show, 26/9/15: Into An Uncertain Future: Containment of Radioactivity
… features Tauto Sansbury (2015 NAIDOC Lifetime Achievement Award) reporting back on a meeting between 16 Traditional Owner groups in South Australia and the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission. Followed up by some recordings from a panel discussion at the Environmental Film Festival’s Melbourne screening of the documentary on radiation and nuclear waste, ‘Containment’, featuring Dave Sweeney (Nuclear Free campaigner with ACF and Dr.Margaret Beavis (President of MAPW).
Download program (28 min) at http://www.3cr.org.au/radioactive/episode-201509261000/uncertain-future-containment-radioactivity
(The radioactive show airs on 3cr 855 am (Melbourne) at 10am Saturdays and repeated at 6am Tuesdays, broadcast nationally on Tuesdays at 12 noon on the Community Radio Network and podcast on the 3cr website www.3cr.org.au/podcasts. Find the Radioactive Show on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/radioactiveshow)
1.This month
For international nuclear news go to https://nuclear-news.net/
For a nuclear-free, climate friendly nation – New Zealand shows the way – theme for November 19
Citizen Advocacy: The Achievements of New Zealand`s Peace Activism, Asia Pacific Journal Pinar Temocin and Noriyuki Kawano, October 1, 2019 Volume 17 | Issue 19 | Number 2Abstract
Aotearoa New Zealand provides an important example of successful citizen activism in the form of anti-nuclear peace advocacy. The collective efforts by peace actors over several decades resulted in the successful demand for a nuclear-free nation. This paper highlights the widespread participation and political support that facilitated the process and assesses its achievements.
Introduction New Zealand, a small and isolated country, is a rare example of a nation achieving nuclear-free status. The peace-seeking nation unified around an anti-war narrative, and moved from activism based on public awareness and engagement to the passage of laws that eliminated nuclear weapons through a number of stages: from the first generation of movements against the atomic bomb after 1945 to the response to French nuclear testing in the late 60`s to US and UK nuclear warship visits in the 70`s and the early 80`s. As part of this shift, the US-led military alliance with Australia and New Zealand (ANZUS) was redefined by New Zealanders from a guarantee of security to a threat that posed a security dilemma. As this essay shows, social consciousness and activism was ultimately successful in bringing fundamental change. The Labor Party, in particular, played a critical role in translating strong public participation on the part of a broad section of the population into a significant policy outcome: `the creation of a peaceful and nuclear-free nation`.
This mobilization involved persistent and substantial public pressure over decades. Public pressure to change the nation’s foreign policy also included opposition to involvement in the United States-led coalition in the Korean and Vietnam wars. As these wars came to an end, the matter of nuclear testing became a hot-button election issue forcing each political party to adopt a policy on nuclear weapons. The anti-nuclear argument was placed within a broader moral vision. New Zealand peace advocates problematized the threatening conditions and demanded a solution under the narratives of a `democratic, egalitarian, decolonized, independent, non-violent, non-militarist nation which is intrinsically based on `a peaceful nation`. A peaceful nation for them required a nuclear-free approach in its domestic and foreign policies. To achieve this, they organized actively, coordinated professionally, sustained effective campaigns, and engaged in the policy-formation and shaping process.
Since the end of the 60s, successful protest movements have established new modes of political participation in advanced democracies.1 In some democratic societies including New Zealand, social movements have benefitted from tolerant political structures. Their success depends further on specific configurations of resources, trustworthy institutional arrangements, and historical precedents for social mobilization that facilitate the development of protest movements.2
Strong democracies are conducive to positive engagements and interactions between citizen and the state. The strengthening of practices of participation, responsiveness to a majority, and the development of inclusive and cohesive societies are powerful components of the democratic decision-making process. Therefore, citizen participation in governance with a responsive, open, and tolerant state can produce positive effects based on popular consensus……https://apjjf.org/2019/19/Temocin.html
New Zealand passes historic zero carbon bill with near unanimous bipartisan support – The New Zealand parliament has passed landmark legislation that enshrines the country’s commitment to the Paris Agreement into law, and will see the country achieve zero net carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 ….. https://reneweconomy.com.au/new-zealand-passes-historic-zero-carbon-bill-with-near-unanimous-bipartisan-support-33500/
Free Julian Assange, before it’s too late. Sign to STOP the USA Extradition
EVENTS
More information at Action Australia
November 17 – Port Lincoln, South Australia – Say NO to Nuclear Waste on the Eyre Peninsula
December 3rd 2019 “The fate of journalism and Julian Assange”. Kristinn Hrafnsson: National Press Club Australia Event
Make a submission about the radioactive waste dump!
The Federal Government wants to put a National Radioactive Waste Facility in Kimba or the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. The Department is calling for submissions and says these will be “one of the factors the Minister for Resources and Northern Australia may take into account when determining broad community support for the Facility.” If you live outside the ballot area, a submission is the only way to have your say! It only takes a minute to voice your opposition – use our online proforma submission and add whatever comments you like.
Submissions can be made by: Email: radioactivewaste@industry.gov.au Post: The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science. National Radioactive Waste Section. GPO Box 2013, Canberra ACT 2601| More information
Honest Government Ad | Visit Australia!
FEDERAL. Inquiry into the prerequisites for nuclear energy in Australia Read the published submissions on the Parliamentary website. Read the SUMMARIES of submissions here.
