THE AUSTRALIAN likely to change its attitude to Climate Change
While a highly qualified science writer, Julie Posetti, gave up on efforts to cover Climate Change properly at THE AUSTRALIAN newspaper, that paper’s view is likely to now do an abrupt u-turn in its coverage of climate change.
As Australia’s top right-wing voice, THE AUSTRALIAN is now urgently touting nuclear power for Australia. With no economic, environmental, (especially water) argument for nuclear power in Australia – THE AUSTRALIAN will now be forced to become a firm believer in climate change, climate change being now the only (supposedly) acceptable argument for nuclear power in Australia.
(It wouldn’t do to argue that nuclear power is in the interests of BHP Billiton and other uranium corporations, or the interests of slavishly following the USA, or the prospect of an Australian international radioactive waste business.) Christina Macpherson
NUCLEAR POWER and ETHICS – theme for December 2010
The unethical nature of nuclear power, nuclear weapons, and the entire nuclear fuel cycle is becoming more obvious, as its history unfolds. On grounds of nuclear weapons spread, unsolved wastes problem, health and environment, effects on indigenous and poor peoples, injustice to today’s and future generations – and even the sheer financial costs for now and the future – it is clear that “atoms for peace” is a false and unethical enterprise.
Why is it so rare for ‘important’ people to face up to the evil nature of the whole nuclear fuel cycle? It’s not just money. Is it that so much of their reputation, their work has already been invested in nuclear? just too much effort to change track
Like Shakespeare’s Macbeth, who said “For mine own good,
All causes shall give way: I am in blood
Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er”
(Image from MACBETH IS A BAD, BAD MAN design by Dave Shanker&Danilo Groppa, Charles W. Flanagan High School, Macbeth – Webquest)
However, some notable Australians have changed track, and next week, this blog heading will take a more positive view of Australians and nuclear power
Australia’s nuclear lobby steps up the spin, in fear of renewables’ success
The nuclear lobby fears the success of renewable energy. This is a pressing reason for stepping up nuclear spin in Australia today.
The cheerleader of pro-nuclear, anti-renewables spin is THE AUSTRALIAN newspaper. Their “environment editor” Graham Lloyd, is more of an Anti Environment editor. Today’s edition (27 Nov) has no less than three articles promoting nuclear power, and rubbishing wind energy.
We have foot-soldiers of nuclear spin – Jennifer Marohasy, Janet Albrechtsen, Martin Nicholson, Tom Biegler and Barry Brook getting coverage in the mainstream media. And even Australian Radiation Protection Society getting lectures on how we need nuclear powered submarines, and the” ideal of having a national nuclear industry”
Minister for Resources, Martin Ferguson launched a technical paper that portrays nuclear power as an economic option for Australia
Internationally, papers are appearing on the theme of ionising radiation being “good for you”.
The nuclear lobby has very little time, (with most nuclear reactors soon reaching their close-down date) to market its product against its popular and fast-developing competitors – renewable energy and energy efficiency. – Christina Macpherson
Australia’s stupidity over skin cancer and radiation
Ain’t it great! Australia is the skin cancer capital of the world! You can see how stupid we are, at any beach, with bodies determinedly exposing themselves to ultra-violet radiation and skin cancer.
Well, the Australian government is either just as stupid as the public, or perhaps banks on the apathy of Australians. Australia is to compund our skin cancer risk by installing the radiation “back scatter’ scanning security at airports. bad luck for airline crews and frequent flyers. We won’t even get thge choice of a pat-down (that might be a bit embarrassing, but its not cancerous). If you keep up with news on the radiation scanners – their biggest risk is that of skin cancer.
But never mind – Australia can keep on winning in the world skin cancer stakes! – Christina Macpherson
Uranium company chairperson spruiks nuclear power to solve Australia’s water problems
Here’s a lovely bit of spin – from Erica Smyth, of Toro Energy uranium company, at Toro’s AGM yesterday. Of course, she’s on the board of ANSTO – Australia’s nuke-spruiking agency. and a member of Julia Gillard’s mining tax advisory panel.
Erica spruiks nuclear energy as a solution to Australia’s water shortage! Hers is a complicated story about combining nuclear energy with desalination plants.
She also advocates nuclear power for electric cars – well, we knew that particular spin was coming! But nuclear power to provide fresh water for Australia – that is indeed a new and wonderful spin. (And, let’s not forget – the uranium/nuclear industry is the most water-intensive, water guzzling, of all industries. – Christina Macpherson
Australians – all too NICE on matters nuclear and military
What a week of sycophantic subservience it has been!
USA’s Clinton and Robert Gates informed Australia of our increased role in America’s war strategy, with a new target for terrorism to be set up in W.A. And, Australians fawned and applauded.
Global airline pilots worried about radiation security scanning at airports, and the biggest international pilot union is boycotting them. But Australia’s airline pilots will apparently let the government assure them that somehow, OUR radiation scanners won’t pose the same cancer risk.
The media happily applauded the U.S. top level secret military mission, and Obama’s visit to India. What didn’t rate a mention were the big and passionate anti-U.S. protests that greeted Obama in India, and of course, the mass anti-nuclear action in Germany.
But them I forgot – this is the Australian monopoly mass media – and, Hillary and Julia had a lovely walk together. And, Tiger Woods is in town, too. – Christina Macpherson
Hillary Clinton talks sweet nothings to a tame Australian youth audience
The venue was secret. The audience members were carefully selected. The questions to Hillary Clinton were pre-planned.
Hardly a surprise then that nothing of critical relevance to Australia was discussed. And certainly not a heckler in sight, – heaven forfend! – in this reverential audience.
Sad, isn’t it? As Australia already hosts the world’s biggest secret USA spy base (Pine Gap), we’re about to get another one. You’d think that would be a topic, wouldn’t you? (Well, it will be, today, in top level secret talks with Robert Gates, Clinton, Rudd, Gillard. That, and a lot more.)
But, bear in mind – USA is looking like going broke – so, they gotta sell a lot of military stuff to Australia, India, Asian countries – anyone, really.
It’s not about war, and the danger of naughty China. No, it is about America’s need to be the world’s military police, but mainly, it’s just the money, stupid!
By the way, one little U.S. worry that might be discussed – possible export of U.S nuclear wastes to Australia. Even trickier, now that Europe has decided than nuclear waste is too dangerous to export.
Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates – quiet pro nuclear spin to Australia?
The nuclear sales show is sure getting complicated. AS USA can’t sell new nukes to its own people, and France falters in that same effort at home – then it’s time to flog off the nuclear industry to Asia while you can still make a buck or a euro out of it.
Below you can read of Obama’s efforts right now, as he visits India with a stack of nuclear industry executives. Sarkozy’ does a similar deal in China.
Where does Australia come into all this? Surely not! Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates are in Australia for a jolly sunny holiday. No?
No – they’re in Australia to sell us military stuff, and to get Australia further into USA’s military machine. The Australian public will, as usual, be kept in the dark about this, and who knows what else?
Perhaps USA wants Australia to sell uranium to India – to further USA’s nuclear reactor sales there, and to spit China?
While Europe has just decided that it’s too dangerous to transport nuclear wastes beyond its shores, USA has made no such decision. Perhaps Australia is the preferred destination for USA’s mounting embarassment of nuclear wastes?
Hillary Clinton not likely to be answering questions on nuclear wastes
Pardon my cynicism, but I bet that Hillary Clinton will be answering nice safe (non-nuclear) questions from young Australians.
Hillary Clinton to take questions from young Australians in Melbourne forum from Herald Sun, 4 Nov 10, |US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will take part in an hour-long question and answer forum in Melbourne on Sunday.Ms Clinton, who will be in Melbourne for the first time as Secretary of State, will answer questions from a live audience as well as respond to questions posted on Facebook, Twitter and others posted via video link.
The forum, aimed at people under-35 and at a secret location for security reasons, comes one day ahead of Ms Clinton’s expected attendance at the Australia-United States Ministerial (AUSMIN) consultations on Monday at Melbourne’s Government House
Questions for the forum, which will be televised on Sunday evening, can be posted on ABC News’s Facebook page or on Twitter with the hashtag #hillaryoz.
BUSTING THE NUCLEAR SPIN – theme for November
The nuclear industry is, in reality, in quite a mess. As French, American, South Korean companies scramble to sell nuclear power to the “Third World” – the industry stalls at home. The nuclear emperor’s new clothes are starting to be revealed to the world.
So – loads of money pour into this desperate sales pitch – while it becomes ever clearer that the nuclear industry is expensive, dangerous, and produces long-lasting toxic wastes – for which there is no storage solution.
Meanwhile – technologies for energy efficiency, and renewable energy get cheaper and more practical. And – renewable energy can be operated both as large scale projects on the grid – or as small-scale decentralised forms – very suitable for developing countries.
Australia’s nuclear power spinners – theme for November
It is well accepted, (even by Ziggy Switkowski in his 2006 report) that Australia does not need nuclear power. Yet, Ziggy and other old nuclear lobbyists are now urgently “spinning” , promoting nuclear energy for Australia. And new spinners are joining them
Apologies to Bob Hawke – I left that old attention-seeker off the picture!
One reason for this nuclear spinning is the fact that Australia will be expected to take back international wastes, as part of its uranium export industry. So, by getting Australia into the entire nuclear fuel cycle, this would make a smoother transition from “our” nuclear wastes, to “theirs” too.
The radioactive waste question is becoming critical in Australia – with the government’s attempt to impose a dump on Aboriginal land, and with Lucas Heights wastes soon. due to return from England.
Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates visited Australia. Their mission? – to get Australia deeper into the US military machine, with Western Australia, like Pine Gap, part of the Space War project.
The USA’s urgent nuclear waste problem might have been on the agenda in talks with Julia Gillard. We, the great unwashed, would not know. (but for USA to export its nuclear rubbish to Australia could be a bit more difficult now – since the European Union declared that export of nuclear waste overseas is unsafe)
Australia’s top nuclear lobbyist gets top education job
Ohmygawd, now we have Australia’s top nuclear salesman in a top position in academia! Yes, forget the humanities, forget scientific inquiry, RMIT university’s new Chancellor is to be a paid nuclear front man, trained only in the narrow field of nuclear physics.
Yes, it’s none other than Ziggy Spinowsky. He got some top post in the Australian Opera, presumably to get prestige in that area, rather than just as a nuclear lobbyist. Now, nuclear lobbying is entering education.- Christina Macpherson
Lies about ethical investments, lies about Climate Change
Today’s news – articles about “ethical investments”. That turns out be an issue for “Secrets and Lies”. Some companies are described as ethical because they claim not to invest in uranium. But – read the fine print, where it sometimes goes on to say “where uranium is directly intended for nuclear weapons fuel”. Now that’s a nice copout, isn’t it?
Another issue for “Secrets and Lies” – the enormously successful push by fossil fuel companies to set up the incorrect story that scientific opinion is “equally” divided on Global Warming and Climate Change.
One silly part of this is that climate scientists are accused of having a secret agenda to promote “socialism”.
Strange – because the nuclear and fossil fuel lobbies also want governments to cover the costs of nuclear power setup, security, and waste disposal – apparently nuclear socialism is OK!
Nuclear Secrecy- Australia – theme for October
Australia has long been involved in the secrecy surrounding the nuclear industry, and still is today.
It started in the early 1940s, as Australia supplied uranium for the nuclear weapons of America and Britain. From 1952, the UK’s atomic weapons were tested in South Australia and Western Australia.
Australia’s Atomic Energy Commission was set up in 1953, with the purpose of developing nuclear power, and the later option of nuclear weapons. In the 1960s and ’70ssecret litary bases at North West Cape, Pine Gap and Nurrungar tied Australia to the US nuclear war-fighting machine.
It is generally accepted that the CIA engineered the dismissal of Australia’s Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, due to particular concern of the USA government to keep Australia in the dark over these bases, particularly Pine Gap. In America, Christopher Boyce was gaoled as a traitor, 1n 1977. He alleged that the CIA had engineered Whitlam’s downfall and had not honoured the 1966 agreement to share the military information gained at Pine Gap.
Renewable energy is happening, and nuclear isn’t
I know that this is supposed to be an anti-nuclear blog. But I get bored with all the stuff in the media about nuclear. For one thing, it’s just not happening – the “nuclear renaissance”.
For another thing, the Australian media is full of hype about uranium. Today – several articles on how wonderfully well Paladin Energy is doing in Africa- oh you gotta invest! Nary a word about how Paladin is pulling out of Niger because uranium workers are getting kidnapped by al-Qaida.
But for the main thing – Renewable Energy is happening! It’s happening both on a big scale – how business and the media love BIG!
It’s happening on a small scale – where communities, schools and households are getting truly clean energy, and making a profit out of it.
Not apparently a scenario for Australia. Are we some sort of cultural outpost – where the idea of energy has to be always BIG, corporate-owned, and coal or uranium fueled?
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