Heatwaves hurt disadvantaged Australians the hardest ABC GREG FOYSTER 1 April 14, Heatwaves hit the most disadvantaged Australians the hardest. And with hot-spells expected to increase with climate change, there are calls to act early to save lives…….http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2014/03/30/3974586.htm
Ten ways you personally will notice the effects of climate change, Sydney Morning Herald, Fiona Johnson March 31, 2014 -On Monday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its latest report on the impacts of global warming
JCNN, By Domanii Cameron, 31 March 14 “…………“I tend to say it’s like having a car. There’s a risk there but there’s road rules to reduce that risk. The problem with cell phones and a lot of new technology is that even though the evidence is that there can be adverse effects, there’s no road rules.” author of numerous publications on Electromagnetic Fields health issues Don Maisch says in his most recent publication……..
With around one billion smart phones sold worldwide in 2013, mobile phone radiation is being considered by some as a serious health risk and for obvious reasons. Specialists, researchers and some of Australia’s top neurosurgeons are unanimously concerned that the radiation emitted from mobiles is an impending health risk that needs to be acknowledged soon.
And it’s the long term effects of this health issue that creator of EMFacts Consultancy Don Maisch says will first effect Generation Y.
“It’s the young people that are going to be effected the most,” Maisch says.
“Evidence from the Interphone Study which is a 13 nation study shows that over the duration of 10 years, there seems to be a connection with long term phone use and brain tumours.”……..http://jcnn.com.au/spotlight/generation-radiation/
Earth Hour matters in fight for Great Barrier Reef March 27, 2014 SMH, Anna Rose
On Saturday at 8.30pm, millions of Australians will join over a billion people in 154 countries to make a stand for our climate by turning off their lights for an hour.
It’s a small gesture. Given the scale of the crisis facing our climate, one hour of awareness certainly isn’t enough. But Earth Hour does prove that the citizens of the world can unite around the climate change cause – even if just for an hour.
This global movement has never been more needed, as we expect the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to make very clear when they release their much-anticipated report into climate impacts on Monday.
Earth Hour was founded in Australia, and support has remained strong. Volunteers will hold over a thousand Earth Hour events on Saturday, including at the Prime Minister’s favourite beach in Manly, to highlight the urgent threat our Great Barrier Reef faces from rising temperatures…….
modelling shows it’s extremely unlikely that the amount of funding put aside by the federal government to cover the costs of paying polluters will be enough to reach Australia’s emission reduction target of 5 per cent by 2020. If we can’t even reach a 5 per cent target, how are we going to reach the higher targets that scientists say are needed to protect the reef?
For these reasons, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation – the government financing body tasked with speeding up the transition to renewables, has been very cautious about “direct action”. Earlier this year, they warned ”direct action” would only have a chance of working if it was combined with other policies around renewable energy – policies that the Prime Minister has already signalled might be wound back.
Earth Hour was founded in Australia on the principle that no one can do everything but everyone can do something. It would be ironic if the country that started the biggest global movement on climate change in history was the first country to wind back effective climate change policies…….http://www.smh.com.au/comment/earth-hour-matters-in-fight-for-great-barrier-reef-20140327-zqnow.html
Greens say there’s plenty of scope for renewable energy push http://www.coffscoastadvocate.com.au/news/is-clean-and-green-viable-local-greens-say-there-i/2209168/ 27th Mar 2014 IS CLEAN green energy viable or just a pipe dream?
According to Coffs Harbour Greens convener John Courcier, there is plenty of scope and merit to a push to shift NSW to renewable energy. He spent the weekend at a workshop in Sydney and now hopes to spread the good oil with locals.
“The key messages were that clean and sustainable energy from 100% renewable sources is possible, affordable and essential,” John said. Continue reading
Move to 100 per cent renewable energy for Esperance “decades away” ABC Esperance, By Kirstyn March, Rebecca Brewin, 28 Mar 14 With the closure of the Ten Mile Lagoon wind farm imminent Member for Mining and Pastoral, Robin Chapple, says now is the time to move to town from 20 to 100 per cent renewable energy generation. Horizon Power Midwest Supply Program Director, Scott Davis, said while the move would be possible, it is unlikely to happen any time soon. “I think from a technical point of view, 100 per cent renewable energy is possible, I think it really comes down to a question of cost and when that will happen,” he said………
Mining Lease Land Aboriginal Land Rights not Delete Blog Cerdas Bumiputera 24 Mar 14, Aboriginal Society in Western Australia welcomes the decision of the Supreme Court of Australia , which states that the rights and mining activities could apply simultaneously. In other words , no mining lease land to remove the customary rights .
(see also: obat burung)
Bumiputera institution that represents citizens Ngarla in Western Australia said that the decision also affects the relationship between land rights and land leases for farms .
Chairman of the agency , Simon Hawkins , said that the State Government of Western Australia lost the appeal , and it is clear that the lease for mining activities and state-level approval will not abolish customary rights .
– …………http://tercerdas.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/mining-lease-land-aboriginal-land.html#sthash.pGjDlIX4.dpuf
“The future of the Renewable Energy Target will be a key issue in the WA Senate election. From our questions to candidates, householders will know which candidates commit (to) help them reduce their power bills.”
Australian Solar Council Launches Save Solar TV Ad http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=4231 The Australian Solar Council has launched its first ever TV and print advertising campaign as part of its efforts to save the nation’s Renewable Energy Target.
Timed to coincide with the lead-up to the election in Western Australia; the Save Solar campaign advertising underlines the importance of the Renewable Energy Target in relation to providing financial support for the installation of home solar power systems. Currently, the RET provides up to $3,450 subsidy on a 5kW solar power system. A solar panel system of this size is large enough to wipe out the power bills of an average Australian household.
If the RET is gutted, it would not only seriously impact on the affordability of systems; but also on solar jobs throughout Australia.
Elders declare Native Title deal “outrageous insult” Indigenous Times 24 March 14 One of the most senior Elders of the Noongar peoples, Richard Wilkes has slammed the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council’s (SWALSC) role in the $1.3 billion Native Title negotiations with the Western Australian State Government.
Mr Wilkes said the SWALSC had degenerated from a representative body of the Noongar peoples to a “collaborative body with the government”.
“They are no longer representing…(Subscribers only) http://www.nit.com.au/news/3499-elders-declare-native-title-deal-outrageous-insult.html
WGAR News: Muckaty legislation hits two year mark: renewed call for nuclear dump plan to be scrapped: BNI http://indymedia.org.au/2014/03/21/wgar-news-muckaty-legislation-hits-two-year-mark-renewed-call-for-nuclear-dump-plan-to-be
Clive Palmer speaks out in support of renewable energy SMH, March 18, 2014 Heath Aston Political reporter Clive Palmer could pose a threat to any attempt by the Abbott government to dismantle the renewable energy framework associated with the carbon tax.
Mr Palmer, who plans to develop a $6 billion coal mine in Queensland, told Fairfax Media he was a ”supporter of renewable energy”.He endorsed the decision of Palmer United’s lead WA candidate, Zhenya ‘Dio’ Wang, to come out on Tuesday in support of the 20 per cent renewable energy target, currently under review by the Abbott government.
Mr Wang said the review of the RET is a ”waste of taxpayers’ money” and described it as ”the right scheme for maintaining and improving Australia’s environment”.
”It is for these reasons, that I believe the RET scheme should remain as is. It worries me when the government says everything is on the table in reviewing the RET,” he said………http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/clive-palmer-speaks-out-in-support-of-renewable-energy-20140318-3509b.html
Reporting on a World of Environmental Catastrophes – All in Just One Month TruthOut, By Dahr Jamail, Truthout | News Analysis March 2014
When all the trees have been cut down,
when all the animals have been hunted,
when all the waters are polluted,
when all the air is unsafe to breathe,
only then will you discover you cannot eat money.
– Cree Prophecy……..
A new study has confirmed that a magnitude 5.7 earthquake in Oklahoma – one of the state’s biggest man-made quakes – was caused by fracking-linked wastewater injections.
Water
Even the depths of the oceans are now at risk………
Australia can expect the other extreme, as the recent State of the Climate report by Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology shows the country being hit by even more extreme heat and high fire danger and the southern regions of the country drying up. The report says these trends will only continue to accelerate as the planet continues heating up and that the projected increase in the number of extremely hot days is underlined by the fact that there were more extreme heat days in 2013 than in the entire 1910-1940 period.
This is particularly bad news, given that the current drought in Queensland is officially the worst and most widespread on record, with 15 more districts and shires in Australia recently declaring drought.
A coal seam gas project in Australia has contaminated a nearby aquifer with uranium at levels 20 times higher than those set by safe drinking water guidelines………..
Radiation from the ongoing Fukushima nuclear disaster is being tracked, and a recent study shows radioactive cesium from the Japanese plant reaching the Pacific Coast of North America by April.
Fukushima remains on the forefront of many folks’ minds because it is an ongoing disaster, and its direct impact on our health is obvious. However, we tend to forget how much radiation has already been bombed into the oceans.
Those who have been bombed, however, haven’t forgotten.
Residents of the Marshall Islands recently marked 60 years since the United States dropped a hydrogen bomb on the Bikini Atoll, causing islanders to be exiled from their homeland. Islanders, rightly remain too fearful to go back because of the nuclear contamination.
The United States conducted six nuclear tests there in all, leaving hundreds of forgotten victims among the islanders to live with ongoing health effects and painful memories of loved ones lost from radiation exposure.
Closer to home for those living in the United States, “significant construction flaws” in some of the “newer” double-walled storage tanks at Washington state’s Hanford nuclear waste complex could lead to additional leaks of some of the worst radioactive waste at the most contaminated nuclear site in the country.
Not to be outdone, the only nuclear waste repository in the United States, located in Carlsbad, New Mexico, has an ongoing radiation leak. But that has not stopped the brilliant minds running the repository from pushing to obtain even more nuclear waste.
Japan is struggling with ongoing radiation problems, as more than 500 tons of radioactive waste from Fukushima that is being stored in Tokyo is threatening residents………
Shockingly, all of this ongoing pollution and dramatic evidence of ongoing ACD are happening amid what US and UK scientists recently described as a brief slowdown in global warming. Everything you’ve just read is occurring despite the planet being in the midst of a “pause” in a longer-term trend of increasing temperatures, according to Britain’s Royal Society and the US National Academy of Sciences.
Their joint announcement added that the current “slowdown” in the pace of global warming since a peak in 1998 “does not invalidate our understanding of long-term changes in global temperature arising from human-induced changes in greenhouse gases.”
Yet, there remain those who have chosen to remain willfully ignorant of ACD and ignore the evidence from around the globe that is slapping us in the face every day. Those folks aren’t likely to believe the pedantic scientific data produced by sophomoric institutions like Britain’s Royal Society or the US National Academy of Sciences.
Hence, they are also unlikely to believe anything that comes out of the “progressive” and “left-leaning” US Pentagon, which just released its 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review Report, which states:
“Climate change poses another significant challenge for the United States and the world at large. As greenhouse gas emissions increase, sea levels are rising, average global temperatures are increasing and severe weather patterns are accelerating. …….. http://truth-out.org/news/item/22483-a-world-of-environmental-degradation-all-in-just-one-month
Julie and the Mushroom ~ Welcome to nuclear wonderland. http://storytellerproductions.net/2014/03/17/julie-and-the-mushroom-welcome-to-nuclear-wonderland/
Oh dear…
New Zealand’s nuclear free stance and continued work towards nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, regardless of political party, is something to be proud of, if not vaguely surprised by in some cases.
It is disappointing, to say the least, that our special friends in Canberra appear to view this ANZAC relationship differently when it comes to the nuclear industry and the money uranium brings into the Australian economy. Even to the extent it will actively work against the NZ government and it’s partners within international forums. Continue reading
Big solar could boost Australia’s power, if renewables funding stays, Climate Spectator, Vassilios Agelidis17 Mar,The Conversation The recent start of construction on the first of two large-scale solar photovoltaic power plants in outback NSW shows the importance of renewable energy targets and funding.
The first, currently being built at Nyngan, will be the largest solar PV farm in the southern hemisphere, producing 103 megawatts at peak capacity. This will be enough to power more than 33,000 average NSW homes, roughly equivalent to taking 53,000 cars off the road. Both projects have received federal and state funding, and have benefited from the Renewable Energy Target.
The Solar Flagships Program, of which the Nyngan plant is the major part, will also deliver a further 50 MW plant at Broken Hill, providing a combined solar power output 10 times larger than anything else ever built in Australia.
It is not just the sheer size of this project that makes it the potential tipping point for the Australian renewable energy industry. This project will once and for all answer the question of whether solar power can be a legitimate source of industrial scale energy in this country, and if such projects can be technically, commercially, socially and environmentally viable.
Plenty of sun, slow on solar
If there is one natural resource above all others which Australia possesses in abundance, it is sunshine. The integration of large-scale wind farms into the Australian energy mix has been a reality for the past decade, yet the same cannot be said for solar energy. So far it has only been harvested by small-scale residential and commercial applications, most commonly rooftop solar and hot water systems……..
one-off support for pilot large-scale solar projects is a far more efficient way of supporting the realisation of Australia’s greenhouse emissions reduction targets than continuing subsidies for small-scale distributed generation.
Put simply, the Solar Flagships project has the potential to prove to industry that large-scale solar is a sound commercial investment, and if this is indeed proven, then there will be more winners than losers.
Part of the energy puzzle
The social impact of the Solar Flagships generators will also likely be extremely positive. The Nyngan plant and a second plant at Broken Hill will be good for the regional economies. The Nyngan plant alone will generate around 300 jobs during the construction phase of the project, while both generators will provide longer term maintenance jobs.
Furthermore, such large solar infrastructure will hopefully help to develop Australia’s skills base in this field, helping to drag the country’s quantum of smart, green jobs somewhere closer to major international competitors’.
Solar PV is a vital piece of the energy puzzle, as the fossil fuels we have relied on for decades to produce our electricity will be slowly phased out due to either increased cost or unacceptable environmental impact.
The need for a concerted effort to make solar power work in an industrial context is key to securing reliable, affordable and sustainable energy supply for Australia. The first sods of earth that are turned at Nyngan will hopefully be looked back upon as a critical step in that journey. http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2014/3/17/solar-energy/big-solar-could-boost-australias-power-if-renewables-funding-stays
Nuclear Plant Builders In UK Want Higher Carbon Tax http://cleantechnica.com/2014/03/14/nuclear-plant-builders-uk-want-higher-carbon-tax/#dVvzlmBpAqYyqE5P.99 Australian government members harbouring a not-so-secret fantasy to see nuclear generation in Australia can add another major offence to its principals that such projects would require.
The Telegraph in the UK is reporting that EdF, the mostly French government-owned nuclear giant that is proposing to build the $26 billion Hinkley Point C, is now pushing the UK government to increase its carbon tax so the financials for the first nuclear plant in the UK for nearly three decades adds up.
As Centrica (formerly British Gas) chairman Sir Roger Carr noted last year when pulling his company and its 500 million investment out of the consortium: “Nuclear is not a cheap option.”
It also requires massive subsidies. The Hinkley Point plant requires a guaranteed tariff of £92.50/MWH ($170/MWH), that is twice the wholesale price in the UK and about four times the price in Australia. Continue reading
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/235274195556
20 May – Webinar – The dangerous world of AUKUS, US, military occupation and suppression of dissent
National Webinar, 20th May, 2026, 6.30pm AEST. Confronting laws restricting/suppressing protest speech and action
Speakers: Former Sen. Rex Patrick, Lawyer Nick Hanna ,Arthur Rorris ,Jorgen Doyle, Sen David Shoebbridge,
Facilitator Kelley Tranter.
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 