Australians buying up big, in electricity guzzling appliances
Rise in appliance sales prompts fears of a climate time bomb The Age, June 19, 2013 Peter Hannam Australia’s rush to acquire airconditioners and fridges is creating a greenhouse gas time bomb, which the Greens and environmental groups say existing regulations, including the carbon tax, are ill equipped to defuse.
The country has at least 45 million cooling devices, up from about 30 million in 2007, with 1 million airconditioners alone sold each year for home use and a similar number in new passenger vehicles.
The vast bulk of the equipment uses fluorocarbon coolants which, though small in weight – about 600 grams per car or more than 1 kilogram per airconditioner – can pack as much as 10,890 times the global warming impact of carbon dioxide when released, either through leakage or when the device is disposed of. The deliberate release of such gases has been illegal since 1989, but with as little as 25 per cent of the gases recovered each year from discarded devices, the rest of the gas is vented with impunity.
The replacement coolants, mostly hydrofluorocarbons (HFC), don’t deplete ozone but are potent greenhouse gases……. http://www.theage.com.au/environment/climate-change/rise-in-appliance-sales-prompts-fears-of-a-climate-time-bomb-20130618-2ogq3.html#ixzz2WhGlp0fs
Hear about Western Australia’s wave energy project
AUDIO: Renewable wave energy project to begin in Western Australia http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/program/pacific-beat/renewable-wave-energy-project-to-begin-in-western-australia/1147652 18 June 2013, Wave energy is one of the great renewable energy hopes because it can create electricity through the power of the ocean
The technology has huge potential for the Paccific Islands and their search for sustainable energy sources
Construction on a major wave energy project is about to begin in Western Australia at Australia’s largest naval base, HMAS Stirling.
The technology behind the Perth Wave Energy Project has been developed over the past 10 years, and promises to make Australia a global leader in wave energy.
Fran Kelly asked Tim Sawyer, the Project Development Officer for Carnegie Wave Energy for more details.
Presenter: Fran Kelly Speaker: Tim Sawyer, the Project Development Officer for Carnegie Wave Energy
Danger in Australia selling uranium to undemocratic Middle Eastern regime
Australia’s plan to sell uranium to the UAE is ill-considered. It essentially requires us to turn a blind eye to the UAE’s poor democratic form and strikes a blow to the goal of a nuclear-free Middle East. It also fails to apply adequate scrutiny and attention to Australia’s corner cutting uranium trade – an industry described by a Senate report as needing urgent changes in order to protect the environment and people from ‘serious or irreversible damage’
Why Australia shouldn’t sell uranium to the UAE Online opinion, By Dave Sweeney , 17 June 2013 For most Australians nuclear issues are the concern of other nations, largely because we don’t, and are most unlikely to ever have, domestic nuclear reactors. But as home to one third of the world’s uranium Australia is a significant player in the global nuclear game and we are playing an increasingly irresponsible hand.
Today in Canberra representatives from the Australian Conservation Foundation, Friends of the Earth, the Medical Association for the Prevention of War and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons will have a rare window of opportunity to put their case to a Parliamentary committee as to why Australia should not sell uranium to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The UAE is country with an illiberal government situated in one of the world’s most insecure regions. The commercial interests of multi-national uranium producers have been prioritised over the wider national interest. Instead of industry assurances it is now time to test the claims – and examine the costs – of Australia’s uranium industry.
The value of the employment and economic contribution made by the Australian uranium sector is consistently exaggerated while its risks and liabilities are routinely played down. When it comes to jobs and dollars uranium is a small contributor to Australian export revenue and employment, but when it comes to global impact and risk Australian uranium is in the major league.
From 2002 to 2011, uranium sales averaged $627 million annually and accounted for only 0.29 per cent of all national export revenue: small beer, but with a big hangover…… Continue reading
Regional renewable energy projects to get funding through Regional Australia’s Renewables (RAR) initiative
ARENA Launches $400 Million Regional Renewable Energy Fund Design Build, By Marc Howe, 17 June 13, The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has launched a new $400 million fund which seeks to replace the usage of diesel in remote off-grid parts of the country with renewable energy options such as solar and wind power.
The Regional Australia’s Renewables (RAR) initiative seeks to create 150 megawatts in renewable energy capacity in remote locations over the next five years. The funding program specifically targets off-grid and fringe-of-grid areas in Australia, and in addition to rural communities could also apply to remote industrial operations such as mines.
The plan is already expected to lead to the creation of two large-scale renewable energy plants with capacities of at least 10 megawatts…..
Australian Government assimilates Aboriginal people by deceit and theft
“Now the governments’ efforts through the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NT Intervention) are designed to get the people away from their own Country and to force the people to live amongst the white people so as to be absorbed.
“Now there is the move to have Aboriginal people recognised in the Australian constitution by referendum. There will be no rights granted as a result. Just simple recognition so that the Government can run around the world saying look at us, look how good we are, and Aboriginal people have consented to be governed by us.
“They are doing it by engaging deceitful covert policies. The Government seeks to erase our Aboriginality and make us Australian, and then we will have no connection to our land, or our spirituality.
Anderson: Governments are attempting to steal our original sovereign citizenship and independence by deceit and assimilation by Grant. Michael Anderson said from his home today that research analysis has now shown the real nature of the contemporary Australian Assimilation policies.
“The Policy of Assimilation of the Aboriginal Peoples was first developed by all the Australian States and the Commonwealth Government during the Aboriginal Welfare conference[1] in the same year as the German Final Solution decree was made in 1937 against the Jews.
“During the course of the Canberra meeting, which was designed to develop a solution to ‘The Aboriginal Problem’, the Western Australian Chief Aboriginal Protector (sic), A.O. Neville, concluded that, ‘In 50 years we should forget that there were any Aborigines in this country.’ What this man was proposing was the total annihilation of the Aboriginal race.
“The policy that was agreed upon at this 1937 National Conference was that a policy of assimilation could have the same effect, that is, remove the children from their families, educate and acculturate them into a single Australian community where everyone shall be influenced by the same beliefs, have the same customs as everyone else, by having the Aborigines ‘absorbed’ into the main stream community of the Australian State. Moreover, marrying the Aboriginal ‘half-castes’ into the lower class white Australia would see the disappearance of colour. Absorption into the white community will have been completed.
“The Commonwealth and State Government social engineers have been very clever in covering up the real and hidden agendas that all of the Australian Political Parties have been running for a long time. To understand this, we must revisit some of the evil doings of past Government practices. Continue reading
Nimbin to have Aboriginal Tent Embassy
Aboriginal tent embassy going up at Nimbin Rocks next month, Northern Star Melissa Gulbin 17th Jun 2013 AN Aboriginal tent embassy at Nimbin Rocks will be established next month. It is being set up in solidarity with the West Papua Freedom Flotilla, a convoy of resistance against what the independence movement call the “genocide” of its indigenous population under Indonesian military occupation.
It will be a tight itinerary, but last week it was decided that Nimbin would be added to healing ceremonies taking place from Lake Eyre to West Papua. The official Nimbin ceremonies will take place on Sunday, July 28, but the public are also invited to prepare the day prior.
The indigenous populations have granted each other with Aboriginal passports……. The convoy intends to transport sacred water collected from the mound springs of Arabunna country while following the ancient song lines across Australia in a freedom ride from Lake Eyre.
The convoy aims to reconnect culturally and creatively with Aboriginal communities at Alice Springs, Tennant Creek and now Nimbin.
The people of the Northern Rivers have been invited by Arabunna Aboriginal Elder Uncle Kevin Buzzacott, who believes that following their song lines will reveal a deep connection between the lands which were once joined.”We were one people, we still are one people. We must uphold our cultural connection, the old land is calling us,” he said. To be involved email ruth.forsythe@gmail.com. http://www.northernstar.com.au/news/uniting-to-retrace-past/1909144/
Report on first World Indigenous Network Conference, held in Darwin
“…a worldwide movement of Indigenous Peoples to highlight their strong connections to ancestral territories and waters and ever greater recognition by governments and international community of the importance of these connections”.
Summary of ICCA Consortium participation at World Indigenous Network (WIN) Conference http://iccaconsortium.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/summary-of-icca-consortium-participation-at-world-indigenous-network-win-conference/ June 13, 2013 Darwin, Australia – A small yet strategic group comprising 10 delegates from countries such as Iran, Philippines, Nepal, Pakistan, Taiwan, Zimbabwe and Australia associated with ICCA Consortium participated in the first World Indigenous Network (WIN) Indigenous and Local Communities Land and Sea Mangers’ Conference, May 26-30 in Darwin, Australia.
Darwin is a ‘country’ of Larrakia nation, also known as ‘Saltwater People’ who are aboriginal traditional custodians of all land and waters of the greater Darwin region. Hosting of this conference in the country of Larrakia peoples is symptomatic of respect and recognition of strong connections to land and sea, and the conservation stewardship of aboriginal peoples in the Northern Territory of Australia. Continue reading
Property Council of South Australia’s Nathan Paine,Theo Maras, Chris Burns push for importing nuclear waste
Christina Macpherson, 15 June 13, In 1980, Senator Jean Melzer warned about Australia becoming “the quarry and waste dump of the world” . The Australian Labor Party soon got rid of her. In 2007 Kevin Rudd came into power as Labor appeared to be opposing a nuclear waste dumping industry in Australia.
You might think that this nuclear waste importing idea has gone away. But it never did. And Australia has a global agreement that could swing it into action faster than you can swing a cat – the International Framework for Nuclear Energy Cooperation(IFNEC)
You might think that this noxious idea is not getting any support from the Australian public.
If so – you thought wrong.
In South Australia, the Property Council of SA, and several businessmen with more dollars in their eyes, than brains in their heads, are now pushing that same old nuclear barrow.
Here’s how they were reported in Adelaide Now today: “Some also call for the development of a domestic nuclear power sector that Property Council of SA executive director Nathan Paine predicts could turn us into the “Dubai of Asia”….
He said: “You’d almost be able to give every South Australian … when they turn 18, a cheque for $50,000 and a house.”……
, Mr Burns said SA should develop a nuclear sector. He said: “What we’ve got unique resources for in this state are for nuclear energy. We have the resources in the ground; we should be digging it up and processing it. Never sell it, only lease it and bring it back here to bury it. I think that’s the industry for the state.”
SA has 40 per cent of the world’s known uranium reserves. Mr Maras said if the government championed a nuclear industry, business would soon come on board…..
They even want South Australia’s “mums and dads” to invest in developing such ideas in the We’re for Jobs in SA campaign
Australian Greens dispute Senate Committee’s claim that nuclear energy is “clean”
No one need be killed or injured for want of a wind turbine or solar panel and for this reason it is appropriate to call renewable energy peaceful and clean. Every country has abundant indigenous sources of their own renewable energy. The Indian Ocean Region has abundant solar radiation that could power solar thermal power plants, providing sustainable, reliable and independent energy. Australia providing that form of technology and assistance, rather than uranium, would provide tangible and material benefits to both Australia and the countries of the Indian Ocean Rim
Dissenting Report Australian Greens Senator Scott Ludlam 14 June 13 The Senate Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee inquired into The Importance of the Indian Ocean rim for Australia’s foreign, trade and defence policy . http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate_Committees?url=fadt_ctte/indianocean/index.htm
The Greens dissented on some statements about nuclear power and uranium
These dissenting remarks are restricted to citations or comments in the Committee’s report that exaggerate the prospects of the uranium market in the Indian Ocean Region or which erroneously refer to nuclear as a clean energy source.
The Department of Resources and Energy falsely states that uranium is the “sleeping giant of Australian export commodities.” While the indestructible optimism of the Department may have therapeutic value, it is simply not grounded in reality. Uranium accounts for only 0.29 per cent of national export revenue and less than 0.015 per cent of Australian jobs in the decade to 2011. Further, companies like BHP and Cameco are mothballing their uranium projects.
The fact is that the nuclear industry has been badly shaken by the global financial crisis, its spiralling costs, the ongoing Fukushima disaster and overwhelming competition from renewable energy. Continue reading
Australia’s campaign for community owned renewable energy- 60 communities seeking funding
A Push For Community Owned Renewables In Australia http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3793 14 June 13, More than 60 communities throughout Australia want to develop community owned wind and solar farms; but few have received funding to assist in the early stages.
Fund Community Energy is an initiative of the Coalition for Community Energy calling on the Federal government to establish a $50 million grant program to support the development stage of these projects. The investment could leverage over half a billion dollars in investment in community renewable energy. The group has organised meetings with Liberal and Labor politicians in June and wants to ensure it can show significant community support, so has implemented a petition that aims to collect at least 5,000 signatures.
“Community-owned renewable energy projects cut carbon pollution and bring new life to regional and rural Australia. Most importantly, they pave the path for an Australia powered by renewable energy that’s owned by everyday people, not big energy companies with vested interests in fossil fuels,” states the Fund Community Energy web site. Coalition for Community Energy refers to the 3Ds of community energy to highlight its benefits: decarbonising energy supply, decentralizing and localising energy generation and democratising energy governance.
At this point in time, only two community owned renewable energy projects are up and running in Australia; one of them being Hepburn Community Wind Park, winner of the 2012 World Wind Energy Award.
There has been some good news in recent days – the NSW government recently announced $411,000 in grants for nine new community renewable projects; but the concern is for the dozens of other projects languishing that may fade into obscurity.
The Fund Community Energy campaign is being led by the Community Power Agency and Yes 2 Renewables with support from dozens of other groups including 100% Renewable and the Alternative Energy Association.
Two new renewable energy programs for remote locarions
Regional boost for clean energy http://ecogeneration.com.au/news/regional_boost_for_renewable_energy/081907/, 13 June 2013 The Federal Government has announced a new program that will aim to generate 150 MW of electricity from renewable energy sources in regional and remote locations in Australia.
The $400 million program, known as the Regional Australia Renewables (RAR) initiative, will be supported via the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. The program will construct at least two large-scale renewable energy plants of 10 MW or greater in Australian regional and remote locations within the next five years.
The initiative is split into two programs – the Industry RAR program and the Community RAR program. The Industry RAR program will support the development of renewable energy solutions, including hybrid and integrated systems in off-grid and fringe-of-grid locations across Australia. The Community RAR program will work directly with electricity distributors to demonstrate technologies that can feed more renewable energy into community electricity grids, such as energy storage systems.
Federal Resources and Energy Minister Gary Gray said in the Pilbara – where the cost of wind energy can be half that of diesel – energy demand is growing faster than in any other part of Australia.
“It’s no secret that in Western Australia we have a lot of remote areas and meeting our growing energy demand is a big issue,” Mr Gray said. “Where there is no grid-connected electricity, many communities and industries truck-in fuels to generate energy.”
Tony Abbott is a danger to clean energy in Australia
Tony Abbott’s proposed main business adviser just revealed that he thinks efforts to build more clean energy in Australia should be scrapped.
Top Abbott business adviser wants renewables target scrapped Maurice Newman, chairman of Coalition’s proposed business advisory council, doubts scientific case for global warming Lenore Taylor, political editor guardian.co.uk, 13 June 2013 The chairman of Tony Abbott’s proposed business advisory council, Maurice Newman, has called for the renewable energy target (RET) to be scrapped because he believes the scientific evidence for global warming and the economic case for renewable energy no longer stack up…….
Whether the Coalition will change their policy on the RET is up to them … I believe it should be removed because the basis upon which we accepted in good faith that we needed it is no longer there…..
- when we look at the science it no longer supports the global warming theory and when we look at the health and economic effects of windfarms and the obscene wealth transfer from poor to rich we have to ask: why are we persisting with them? I think it is a crime against the people.”….
Guardian Australia contacted Newman after seeing minutes of a meeting of an anti-windfarm group called the Crookwell District Landscape Guardians at his southern highlands property on 28 April.Newman appeared to warn the 56 attendees they might not sway the Coalition……
other anti-windfarm activists are preparing for a 18 June rally at Parliament House, effectively trying to use the same “people’s revolt” strategy encouraged by Abbott against the carbon tax to try to push the Coalition leader to drop the RET and stop new windfarms.
A slick, anonymously-run website called Stop These Things (STT) urged readers to attend the June rally because “while it’s safe to assume the Coalition will cruise to victory in September, don’t assume they are on our side”. It added: “It’s time to put them in the spotlight and find out precisely where they stand … the main game is in Canberra where the RET policy was started and where it has to end. The Coalition need to get the message loud and clear – and the message is simple. Australia simply can’t afford the great wind power fraud…… Continue reading
REneweconomy exposes the lies of the anti wind farm lobby
How wrong can a press release for an anti-wind rally be? REeweconomy By Mike Barnard 12 June 2013 It’s time for another installment of Count the Whoppers. You may remember that we started this occasional feature a year ago with Max Rheese of the mischievously-named Australian Environment Foundation and Australian Climate Science Coalition, funded by the IPA and Heartland Institute respectively, and his fourteen whoppers in less than 1,700 words. We continued it in November with Senator John Madigan’s party policy on wind energy (subsequently removed), where he managed only 10 whoppers, but did it in a quarter of the words, 364.
This time the target in our sights is the anonymously written blog stopthesethings.com (STT). 
This site is setting new lows in the anti-windpower astroturfing arena, featuring new posts daily attacking all aspects of wind energy and the people associated with it with imaginary data and unpleasant prose. The author has been anonymously vilifying members of the wind industry, researchers into wind energy and proponents of wind energy for nearly six months.
It’s become the go-to echo chamber for Australian anti-wind power activists, and attracts regular comments from the few but impressively vocal anti-wind activists in Canada, the USA and the UK. Unsurprisingly, the Internet quality rating service Web of Trust gives STT very poor marks indeed.
STT is trying to mobilise their small but angry readership to rally at Parliament House in Canberra on 18 June and has issued an anonymous media release to publicise it. They’ve lined up a remarkable number of current and retiring politicians who don’t seem to be fazed by the vitriol, lack of facts or the anonymity of the organisers. These include: Senator John Madigan, retiring MP Alby Schultz, retiring Senator Ron Boswell (all of whom are challenged by climate science) and, oddly, Senator Nick Xenophon who used to hold a rather more fact-based view of wind energy. They also have a handful of others, including a barrister and a fact-challenged radio ‘personality’ to round out the slate.
Unsurprisingly, given their website’s quick-and-dirty approach and the track record of anti-wind campaigners on this front, the presser is chock full of whoppers. For those interested in reading the full statement, please see the complete text at the end of this article.
Wind Reality 1: Wind energy is saving Australian consumers money….. Continue reading
A new community windfarm- breakthrough in Victoria
“We wanted to spread financial benefits beyond the landowners, and we’ve done that through share ownership scheme,”
Vic wind farm breakthrough, with pioneering share structure, REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson 12 June 2013 A small 5-turbine wind farm project with an innovative share ownership model has become the first wind energy project in the state of Victoria to receive council approval in recent years.
The application for the Coonooer Bridge wind farm – with 5 turbines of up to 150m tall to be built near the locality of 
the same name north-west of Bendigo – was approved by the Buloke Shire Council on Wednesday night.
It is a notable project for several reasons. It is the first wind farm proposal to gain approval from a council in the state since former Premier Ted Baillieu introduced restrictive planning policies in 2011. And the project –located between the towns of Charlton and St Arnaud, about 90 km northwest of Bendigo – is also the first in Australia to find a way to combine corporate and community ownership, and the first renewable energy project in the country with an ownership structure that includes the local farming community in this way.
In all, 30 owners of property sited within 3kms of the planned wind farm have been offered shares, including one family with turbines on their land. All have taken up the offer, despite the concerns about wind energy of some. Windlab, a spin-off from the CSIRO which has developed an expertise in identifying strong wind resource areas, retains the majority stake. Continue reading
Labor and Liberal in happy agreement pro uranium mining
States sign agreement on uranium ABC News, Jun 12, 2013 The New South Wales and South Australian governments have signed an agreement to encourage mining and exploration along the border of the two states.
The memorandum of understanding was signed at a uranium mining conference in Darwin yesterday.
Uranium exploration has only recently been allowed in NSW, while it is already being mined at Honeymoon and Beverley over the border…… “They want to see politicians whether they’re Liberal, Labor or National all working together and we are.”
Mr Hartcher says the agreement does not open the door to uranium mining in NSW….. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-12/states-sign-agreement-on-uranium/4748452
1 This month.
20 September –National Day of Action in Melbourne on the International Day of Peace
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)
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