The problem of hazardous waste from discarded old solar panels
I have long been worried that environmentalists are seen to be enthusiastic about renewable energy, seeing it as the panacea for the world’s climate woes. Solar power is a great technology for replacing polluting fossil fuel power, but it’s only a part of what needs to be done – in the urgently needed transition from our wasteful CONSUMER SOCIETY to a CONSERVER SOCIETY. It must not become a contributor to the waste disaster. Australia’s enthusiastic embrace of rooftop solar has brought clear environmental and economic benefits, but critics say governments have dragged their feet in addressing the looming waste crisis.
As of December more than 2 million Australian households had rooftop solar installed. The uptake continues to grow due to the technology’s falling cost and rising electricity bills.
Photovoltaic panels last about 30 years, and those installed at the turn of the millennium are nearing the end of their lives. Many have already been retired due to faults or damage during transport and installation.
The nation’s environment ministers in April last year agreed to fast-track the development of new product stewardship schemes for photovoltaic solar panels and associated batteries. Such schemes make producers and retailers take responsibility for an item across its life cycle.
However, Total Environment Centre director Jeff Angel, a former federal government adviser on product stewardship, said action was long overdue and the delay reveals a “fundamental weakness” in Australia’s waste policies.
“We’ve had a solar panel industry for years which is an important environmental initiative, and it should have been incumbent on government to act in concert with the growth of the industry so we have an environmentally responsible end-of-life strategy,” he said.
Mr Angel said photovoltaic panels contain hazardous substances and “when we are sending hundreds of thousands of e-waste items to landfill we are also creating a pollution problem”.
“It’s a systemic problem that [applies to] a whole range of products”, he said, saying schemes were badly needed for paint, batteries, floor coverings, commercial furniture and many types of electronic waste.
Photovoltaic panels are predominantly made from glass, polymer and aluminium, but may also contain potentially hazardous materials such as lead, copper and zinc.
Australian Council of Recycling chief executive Peter Schmigel attributed delays in product stewardship schemes to both “bureaucratic malaise” and unfounded concern about cost.
The national television and computer recycling scheme, which since 2011 has required manufacturers and importers to participate in industry-funded collection and recycling, showed that regulatory measures can work, he said.
“Recovery rates have been out of sight since the beginning of the scheme, nobody has said anything at all about there being an inbuilt recycling cost. It generates jobs, it generates environmental outcomes and yet for some reason we have policymakers who are hesitant about [establishing similar schemes] for solar PVs and batteries,” he said.
Victoria will ban electronic waste in landfill from July 2019, including all parts of a photovoltaic system, mirroring schemes imposed in Europe.
Sustainability Victoria is also leading a project examining end-of-life management options for photovoltaic systems, which may progress to a national program. The issue is particularly pertinent in Victoria where a new $1.3 billion program is expected to install solar power on 700,000 homes.
Sustainability Victoria resource recovery director Matt Genever said there was strong support from industry, government and consumers for a national approach to photovoltaic product stewardship. Final options are due to be presented to environment ministers in mid-2019.
He rejected suggestions that plans were progressing too slowly.
“The analysis we’ve done in Victoria … shows that it’s in 2025 that we see a real ramp up in the waste being generated out of photovoltaic panels. I certainly don’t think we’ve missed the boat,” he said.
A report by the International Energy Agency and the International Renewable Energy Agency in 2016 found that recoverable materials from photovoltaic panel waste had a potential value of nearly $US15 billion by 2050.
Reclaim PV director Clive Fleming, whose business is believed to be the only dedicated photovoltaic recycler in Australia, said it recycles 90 per cent of materials in a panel. The company has been lobbying for state bans on solar panels entering landfill.
The NSW Environment Protection Authority said it has commissioned research to better understand how e-waste, including solar panels, was managed. The panels can be dumped in NSW landfill, however given their life span they were “not a common item in the waste stream”, it said.
The Queensland government is developing an end-of-life scheme for batteries used in solar systems and other appliances.
Mr Genever hoped the review would result in a broader range of products being subject to stewardship programs and take steps to ensure voluntary schemes were effective.
Both the Smart Energy Council and the Clean Energy Council, which represent solar industry operators, said a well-designed product stewardship scheme was important and should be developed through cooperation between industry, governments and recyclers.
Doubt about what happens to spent nuclear fuel rods within casks
Derek Abbott Nuclear Fuel Cycle Watch South Australia, 13 Jan 19, Something that is never discussed about dry cask storage (before it is transferred into a repository canister) is that the fuel rods have been emitting alpha particles for 40 years in the dry cask. The nuke enthusiasts who don’t understand physics naively think those alpha particles are impotent. They say “a piece of paper can block an alpha particle.” True but misleading.What actually happens is that alpha particles do indeed get blocked and don’t go far within a fuel rod, but they get converted to back to helium. [Remember an alpha particle is a helium nucleus anyway].So you get helium bubbles building up inside the fuel rod. Over 40 years this can fracture the fuel rod into pieces. So transferring the rods into a repository canister may not be possible. Because no one has actually opened up a bunch of old dry casks to get the rods into a repository yet, there isn’t much experience on exactly how much alpha particle damage affects the rods. I’m not sure there has even been a proper study of this. I am searching and will post it here if I find a study. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1021186047913052/
Australia’s environment – a winner at National Labor Party Conference
Labor will strengthen the law to protect Australia’s Environment and Heritage – TONY BURKE
Environmental wins at the National Labor Conference, Independent Australia By Stephen Williams | 13 January 2019 Stephen Williams questions national co-convenor Felicity Wade of the Labor Environment Action Network (LEAN) about new Labor policy.
“………Our goal was to ensure climate action was no longer an issue to be used tactically, becoming instead an article of faith. We believe a deep-rooted response to the environmental challenges of the 21st Century is essential to the long-term survival of a modern social-democratic party.
At the 2015 Labor National Conference, LEAN won the commitments to 50% renewable energy and 45% emission reductions by 2030. But it was just a few days ago, at the 2018 National Conference, that our real goal was won. Watching the debate on the floor, there was confidence and enthusiasm. Labor not only believes climate change is real, but that it is core business.
Party heavyweights lined up to affirm their commitment to turning around the “climate emergency”, as one of the motions described it. The continued challenge of the proposed Adani coal mine in Queensland is still outstanding. LEAN believes that while Labor will continue to support existing coal operations for some time, allowing a new, huge coal basin to be opened up is both risky and undermines perceptions of our commitment to climate change.
LEAN’s next task is to rebuild commitment to the natural environment in the same way. On issues of the natural environment, it is more about remembering something lost, rather than embracing something new. Visionary environmental policy has a Labor history and this week’s commitment to a new environment Act and an independent Environment Protection Authority are the first steps in reclaiming this.
The current environmental legislation, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) (EPBC), is from the Howard era. It is primarily a tool to facilitate development, not to protect the environment. What’s more, it annoys business, and costs money by creating delays and confusion, little of which translates into good environmental outcomes. The only proactive aspects of the Act create lists of environmental threats with no power to protect anything or make a difference to real-world outcomes.
Since the EPBC Act was legislated in 1999, the number of threatened species and ecosystems has increased by 30%, with three animals going extinct. About 7.4 million hectares of threatened-species habitat (more than the size of Tasmania) has been cleared. Only 0.3% (21 of 6,100 developments assessed by the Act) have been rejected for unacceptable risks to the environment.
Australia has the highest rate of mammal extinctions in the world and is the only developed nation in the world’s top ten land-clearers. About 3,000 Australians die each year due to air pollution, plastics clog our waterways, while the community’s efforts to recycle are not matched by government-led national responses to ensure the waste is re-used.
We need more power at the federal level to stem these losses. ……..
When asked by our campaigners how they felt about climate change policy, the message they sent back to the party was unequivocal: 370 local ALP branches endorsed our call for 50% renewables by 2030 and credible emission-reduction targets.
Having achieved the policy outcome at the 2015 National Conference, we applied the same methodology to our call for a complete overhaul of Australia’s environmental laws and institutions. And thanks to Bill Shorten, who personally advocated for the reforms, Labor committed to these outcomes at the 2018 National Conference………https://independentaustralia.net/environment/environment-display/environmental-wins-at-the-national-labor-conference,12270
Bushfire in Adelaide Hills is still a threat
Just after 4pm on Sunday, the Country Fire Service issued an alert to residents around the Mt Lofty Ranges after a fire started on Montacute Rd, Montacute.
The fire, started from a discarded cigarette butt, was burning steep terrain, making it difficult for crews to access. The spread of the fire has been contained, however the hot and dry conditions forecast this week mean it could pick up again, the CFS say……….A severe fire danger warning, as well as a total fire ban, has been issued today for the Mt Lofty Ranges due to very hot and dry conditions. https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/sas-breaking-news-blog-the-pulse-fire-crews-battle-uncontained-fire-in-mt-lofty-ranges/live-coverage/dc7bcd73c3c461533c4d8f911319fd20
Air conditioners make a massive contribution to global warming (Why not promote SOLAR air-conditioning?)
Why does this article not mention that solar-powered air conditioners are the most successful way to overcome this problem ?
Treaty on HFCs aims to curb global warming from greenhouse gases in air conditioning, refrigeration https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-12/rising-demand-for-air-conditioning-alarms-climate-change-experts/10710956, ABC Weather By Ben Deacon In many parts of Australia, air conditioners have gone from being a luxury to what many consider a necessity.
It’s a trend that’s being echoed around the world as billions of people in hot counties lift themselves out of poverty.
But the explosion in demand for the energy-intensive appliance is alarming climate change experts, who say we’re heating the world up by cooling it down.
Victoria MacLean, who runs the Bureau of Meteorology’s weather station in Alice Springs, said the start of 2019 was unbearable, even by local standards.
“We had 11 days in a row recently of 40-degree-plus days. We had a 45.6 day. In fact we had another one like this as well and that did break the record for the Alice Springs airport,” said the meteorologist.
During the heatwave, Alice Springs had more days over 45 degrees Celsius in a single week than the town has recorded in the past 76 years.
Like most people in the desert community, Ms MacLean coped by running her air conditioner flat out.
“We closed off the downstairs side of the house and we actually stayed down there, we slept down there a few times, just to stay cool.
“We’ve got two dogs; we had to keep them inside because they just couldn’t handle it.”
But she does worry about the environmental impact of air conditioning.
“It’s kind of ironic that you’d been using the air conditioning, and we’ve got climate change going on, so we’re trying to conserve energy, but then you have to use more of it.”
Air conditioners’ environmental impact
Air conditioners are a double whammy in terms of climate change.
They’re the most energy-hungry appliance in the average home, which in Australia is mostly powered by fossil fuels, and the refrigerants inside air conditioners are potent greenhouse gases
Experts say demand for air conditioning is increasing so fast internationally that it will have a real impact on the earth’s climate. Continue reading
Australian Julian Assange in new danger as Ecuador caves in to USA pressure (and Australian govt does nothing)
More troubles for Julian Assange as ecuador bows to pressure to extradite him following this letter, http://thewikidaily.com/more-troubles-for-julian-asange-as-ecuador-bows-to-pressure-to-extradite-him-following-this-letter/ We have been monitoring Julian asange’s asylum in Ecuadorian embassy in britain to outline the dangers the computer proggrammer and wikileaks founder face in coming future and it seems alot have been happening lately than the mainstream media’s are reporting.
Ecuador has begun a “Special Examination” of Julian Assange’s asylum and citizenship as it looks to the IMF for a bailout, the whistleblowing site reports, with conditions including handing over the WikiLeaks founder.
Former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa tweeted an image of the letter he received from the State Comptroller General on December 19, which outlines the upcoming examination by the Direction National de Auditoria.
The audit will “determine whether the procedures for granting asylum and naturalization to Julian Assange were carried out in accordance with national and international law,” and will cover the period between January 1, 2012 and September 20, 2018.
Assange has been in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since he sought asylum there in 2012. He was granted Ecuadorian citizenship last December in a bid to protect him from being extradited to the US where he fears he faces secret charges for publishing US government cables and documents.
WikiLeaks tweeted the news on Wednesday, joining the dots between the audit and Ecuador’s consideration of an International Monetary Fund bailout. The country owes China more than $6.5 billion in debt and falling oil prices have affected its repayment abilities.
According to WikiLeaks, Ecuador is considering a $10 billion bailout which would allegedly come with conditions such as “the US government demanded handing over Assange and dropping environmental claims against Chevron,” for its role in polluting the Amazon rainforest.
Assange’s position has increasingly been under threat under Correa’s successor, President Lenin Moreno, with Ecuadorian authorities restricting his internet access and visitors.“I believe they are going to turn over Assange to the US government,
From uranium mining to nature conservation – Kakadu National Park to get $216 million boost,
Kakadu National Park to get $216 million boost, SBS News, 13 Jan 19, The federal government will invest $216 million in the Northern Territory’s Kakadu National Park to improve road access and tourist facilities. The World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park will receive at least $216 million in funding to improve to improve roads and tourist facilities no matter who wins this year’s federal election.
Labor has pledged $220 million for Kakadu if it wins government.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday announced the coalition’s $216 million package for the Northern Territory site during a visit to the town of Jabiru in Kakadu……https://www.sbs.com.au/news/kakadu-national-park-to-get-216-million-boost
UK “reviewing” files on nuclear bomb tests in Australia- this smacks of a cover-up
“To now withdraw previously available documents is extremely unfortunate and hints at an attempted cover-up.”
“worrying that properly released records can suddenly be removed from public access without notice or explanation.”
Review or ‘cover up’? Mystery as Australia nuclear weapons tests files withdrawn https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/11/australia/uk-australia-nuclear-archives-intl/index.html, By James Griffiths, CNN
More than 65 years since the UK began conducting secret nuclear weapons testing in the Australian Outback, scores of files about the program have been withdrawn from the country’s National Archives without explanation.
The unannounced move came as a shock to many researchers and historians who rely on the files and have been campaigning to unseal the small number which remain classified.
“Many relevant UK documents have remained secret since the time of the tests, well past the conventional 30 years that government documents are normally withheld,” said expert Elizabeth Tynan, author of “Atomic Thunder: The Maralinga Story”.
“To now withdraw previously available documents is extremely unfortunate and hints at an attempted cover-up.”
Withdrawal of the files was first noted in late December. Access to them has remained closed in the new year.
Dark legacy The UK conducted 12 nuclear weapons tests in Australia in the 1950s and 1960s, mostly in the sparsely populated Outback of South Australia.
Information about the tests remained a tightly held secret for decades. It wasn’t until a Royal Commission was formed in 1984 — in the wake of several damning press reports — that the damage done to indigenous people and the Australian servicemen and women who worked on the testing grounds became widely known.
Indigenous people living nearby had long complained of the effects they suffered, including after a “black mist” settled over one camp near Maralinga in the wake of the Totem I test in October 1953. The mist caused stinging eyes and skin rashes. Others vomited and suffered from diarrhea.
These claims were dismissed and ridiculed by officials for decades — until, in the wake of the Royal Commission report, the UK agreed to pay the Australian government and the traditional owners of the Maralinga lands about AU$46 million ($30 million). The Australian authorities also paid indigenous Maralinga communities a settlement of AU$13.5 million ($9 million).
While the damage done to indigenous communities was acknowledged, much about the Totem I test — and other tests at Maralinga and later at Emu Field — remained secret, even before the recent withdrawal of archive documents.
“The British atomic tests in Australia did considerable harm to indigenous populations, to military and other personnel and to large parts of the country’s territory. This country has every right to know exactly what the tests entailed,” Tynan said. “Mysteries remain about the British nuclear tests in Australia, and these mysteries have become harder to bring to light with the closure of files by the British government.”
Alan Owen, chairman of the British Nuclear Test Veterans Association, which campaigns on behalf of former servicemen, said “the removal of these documents affects not only our campaign, but affects the many academic organizations that rely on this material.”
“We are very concerned that the documents will not be republished and the (Ministry of Defense) will again deny any responsibility for the effects the tests have had on our membership,” Owen told CNN.
Unclear motives Responding to a request for comment from CNN, a spokeswoman for the National Archives said the withdrawal of the Australian nuclear test files was done at the request of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which has ultimate responsibility over them.
The NDA said that “a collection of records has been temporarily withdrawn from general access via The National Archive at Kew as part of a review process.”
“It is unclear, at this time, how long the review will take, however NDA anticipates that many of the documents will be restored to the public archive in due course,” a spokeswoman said.
Jon Agar, a professor of science and technology at University College London, said the withdrawal “is not just several records but two whole classes of files, many of which had previously been open to researchers at the National Archives.”
“These files are essential to any historian of the UK nuclear projects — which of course included tests in Australia. They have been closed without proper communication or consultation,” he added.
Agar shared correspondence he had with the NDA in which a spokeswoman said some files would be moved to a new archive — Nucleus — in the far north of Scotland. However the Nucleus archives focus on the British civil nuclear industry, and it is unclear why files on military testing would be moved there, or why those files would need to be withdrawn to do so.
Nucleus also does not offer the type of online access to its records as the National Archives does.
“Why not just copy the files if the nuclear industry needs them at Nucleus for administrative reasons? Why take them all out of public view?” Agar wrote on Twitter.
Information freedom In correspondence with both CNN and Agar, the NDA suggested those interested in the files could file freedom of information (FOI) requests for them.
Under the 2000 Freedom of Information Act, British citizens and concerned parties are granted the “right to access recorded information held by public sector organizations.”
FOI requests can be turned down if the government deems the information too sensitive or the request too expensive to process. Under a separate rule, the UK government should also declassify documents between 20 and 30 years after they were created.
According to the BBC, multiple UK government departments — including the Home Office and Cabinet Office — have been repeatedly condemned by auditors for their “poor,” “disappointing” and “unacceptable” treatment of FOI applications.
Commenting on the nuclear documents, Maurice Frankel, director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information, a UK-based NGO, said it was “worrying that properly released records can suddenly be removed from public access without notice or explanation.”
“It suggests that the historical record is fragile and transient and liable to be snatched away at any time, with or without good reason,” he added.
Bureau of Meteorology’ reveals Australia’s record-breaking month of climate change
The stunning chart revealing Australia’s record-breaking run of rising temperatures https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/federal/the-stunning-chart-revealing-australia-s-record-breaking-run-of-rising-temperatures-20190110-p50qk1.html By Nicole Hasham10 January 2019
If there was any question Australians are enduring a more extreme, topsy-turvy climate, look only to the month just gone.
In early December, Cyclone Owen unloaded 678 millimetres of rain in one day on the tiny North Queensland town of Halifax. It was a new December daily rainfall
By mid-December, a month’s worth of rain fell in parts of Victoria in 24 hours. On December 20 it was Sydney’s turn when a monster thunderstorm dropped giant hail stones – some the size of cricket balls. The insurance bill is nearing $675 million.
Then, the sun came out. By month’s end, much of Australia was baking under torrid temperatures. Marble Bar in Western Australia reached 49.3 degrees – the third-highest December temperature recorded anywhere in the country.
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The record-breaking events are outlined in the Bureau of Meteorology’s 2018 climate statement released on Thursday, which confirmed the nation experienced its third-warmest year on record in 2018. The bureau attributed the year of meteorological extremes to both climate change and natural variability.
The national mean temperature in 2018 was 1.14 degrees above average. Nine of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2005.
The bureau’s senior climatologist Lynette Bettio said every state and territory experienced above-average day and night temperatures last year.
“The average maximum temperature for the country as a whole was particularly warm, sitting 1.55 degrees above the 1961-1990 average, making 2018 Australia’s second warmest year on record for daily high temperatures,” Dr Bettio said.
Australia’s September rainfall was the lowest on record. Nationally, rainfall in 2018 was the lowest since 2005 and 11 per cent below average, while rainfall in some areas was significantly further below normal.
“Large areas of southeastern Australia experienced rainfall totals in the lowest 10 per cent on record, which exacerbated the severe drought conditions,” Dr Bettio said.
“NSW had its sixth driest year on record, while the Murray-Darling Basin saw its seventh-driest year on record.
“We did see some respite in the final three months of the year with decent rainfall in the east of the country.”
In other significant weather events last year, Broome broke its annual rainfall record just two months into the year and Tropical Cyclone Marcus was the strongest to affect Darwin since Tracy in 1974.
In August and September, up to 100 bushfires were active across NSW, Queensland and Victoria when warm, dry conditions brought an early start to the bushfire season
The Morrison government has been riven with internal tensions over climate change policy. Under the Paris climate accord, Australia has vowed to reduce greenhouse emissions, based on 2005 levels, by 26 per cent before 2030.
The government says Australia will meet that target “in a canter” however this claim has been contradicted by international bodies and the government’s own data.
Most recently, figures released by the Department of Environment and Energy last month showed that on current trends Australia will reduce emissions by just 7 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030, a massive 19 percentage points or two-thirds of the way short of the Paris agreement.
A major report prepared by the United Nations body for climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in October said coal-generated electricity must be phased out globally by 2050 if the world is to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of global warming, including the total destruction of the Great Barrier Reef.
The bureau said Australia was strongly influenced by both natural variability and climate change in 2018. Natural drivers included sea surface temperatures in the southern Tasman Sea which rose to “exceptionally high levels” in late 2017 and early 2018, contributing to warm overland conditions.
The report said Australia’s climate “is increasingly influenced by global warming” and the nation has warmed by just over one degree since 1910. Most warming has occurred since 1950.
Australia could use a little-known loophole to help meet up to half its Paris climate commitments in a move that analysts warn could undermine the global accord.
It said radical, swift efforts must be taken to curb greenhouse gas pollution and keep the global temperature increase below the critical 1.5 degree threshold.
“The background warming trend can only be explained by human influence on the global climate,” the bureau said.
Climate change: Victoria’s iconic Great Ocean Road at risk from sea level rise
Great Ocean Road at risk from surging sea , Canberra Times, By Royce Millar, 10 January 2019 Key sections of the Great Ocean Road are at risk of being washed away, raising safety fears and calls for the Andrews government to reroute parts of the world-recognised tourist road.
New studies of dramatic beach erosion around Apollo Bay over the last two years highlight the mounting problem of erosion, flooding and sea level rise along Victoria’s coast.
In a report to the State government released exclusively to The Age, leading coastal geomorphologist Neville Rosengren and engineer Tony Miner recommend urgent action to protect the foreshore of Mounts Bay next to Apollo Bay, after major erosion there in 2017.
They warn the national heritage-listed road could be “compromised” within five years.
A second report on erosion at Apollo Bay by engineers GHD also recommends the eventual “realignment” of the road outside township areas at Apollo Bay. It notes that five metres of erosion at Apollo Bay beach during a June 2018 storm put the road “at risk”.
The studies point to erosion at critical levels at the very time the state’s south-west is hosting ever greater numbers of visitors, now more than five million a year.
Similar problems are being faced along the wider coast, from Port Fairy in the south-west to Inverloch and the Ninety Mile Beach and Lakes Entrance in the south-east and east……..
findings raise the prospect that rising seas due to climate change are now proving a real problem for vulnerable coastal locations.
Mr Rosengren said rising sea levels contributed to the erosion at Mounts Bay.
“You’re witnessing the effects of a complex of processes of which sea level is one,” he said.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) current projection for sea level rise, based on high emissions, ‘business-as-usual’ scenario, is almost 90 centimetres by the year 2100, relative to an average sea level for the period 1986-2005.
That projection will be updated, most likely upwards, in the IPCC’s special oceans report due for release this year.
Other peer-reviewed studies have forecast a much steeper rise in sea level by 2100.
……… While possible, realignment of the road would be difficult and expensive at Mounts Bay because the Barham River runs along the landward side of the road, making the area also susceptible to flooding.
…….. A quandary for all concerned is that sea walls of any form will alter the character of a coastline renowned for its rugged, natural beauty. Sea walls also interfere with the coast’s ecology and its ability to naturally replenish itself.
Bankrolled by public donations, the 243-kilometre Great Ocean Road was built by World War I veterans between 1919 and 1932 as a memorial to soldiers killed in the war, and to open the south-west coast to tourists and daytrippers. It was built as close to the ocean as possible.
……… A Victorian Department of Environment Land Water and Planning spokesperson said accounting for sea level rise was now “embedded” in the Victorian planning system.
The Age has sought an interview and comments from federal Environment Minister Melissa Price about the Morrison government’s policies on, and plans for, sea level rise. https://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/victoria/great-ocean-road-at-risk-from-surging-sea-20190110-p50qjb.html
Australian govt manages Kakadu National Park, and must upgrade it, and the town of Jabiru
Show Kakadu the money, insists Moss,https://www.news.com.au/national/northern-territory/show-kakadu-the-money-insists-moss/news-story/d3494eb0e5093466e2becebe1b1ad9bf– 11 Jan 19
IT is time the Federal Government made clear what its funding plans are for Kakadu National Park and the town of Jabiru, Tourism Minister Lauren Moss said yesterday
IT is time the Federal Government made clear what its funding plans are for Kakadu National Park and the town of Jabiru, Tourism Minister Lauren Moss said WEDNESDAY.
Ms Moss said she is regularly quizzed about the Federal Government’s intentions.
“We have been advocating for a really long time and we have a blueprint that we presented to the Federal Government that has been done in conjunction with Aboriginal traditional owners and we want to make that we see the tired infrastructure upgraded and the complete transformation of Jabiru,” Ms Moss said. “The township is transitioning out of being a mining town into a really pumping tourist town that supports the surrounding communities.
“In line with this we continue to encourage the Federal Government to put the badly needed investment into Kakadu.
“It is a park that is managed by the Federal Government and more needs to be done in Kakadu.
“We love our parks and that’s why we are making investments in Litchfield, Nitmiluk and a whole range of other park estates.
“Kakadu National Park is important to Australia and to our Top End tourism operators. It’s an incredibly important cultural and natural asset for the Territory. This is recognised by its heritage listing.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has committed to working with the Territory Government and Traditional Owners “to ensure the future of Jabiru is settled as soon as possible”, but has not committed to a timeline
ANSTO’s duplicity on what is or is not “High Level” nuclear waste
Anthony Clark Isn’t High Grade reclassified to Intermediate radiation, in order to calm the multitude?
After this stuff is sent overseas for ‘processing’ it returns as ‘waste’.
So either they have to be honest about high level waste being generated in Australia or accept that Australia is accepting waste that is generated overseas.
If it isn’t called waste when it leaves Australia and is called waste when it returns, it’s hard to argue that it isn’t ‘waste generated overseas’.
Jillian Marsh to lull the uneducated into thinking ‘its just hospital grade waste and quite harmless’ and to justify government endorsement of a plan to turn our country into the world’s dumping ground …. Happy New Year? i think not if that’s what the people of this nation are supporting. absolutely crazy https://www.facebook.com/groups/344452605899556/
Climate change denier Peta Credlin for Liberal preselection? That would finally blow up the Liberal Party!
The Liberal party is suffering an existential crisis. And no other issue defines this crisis like the looming threat to our safety and security caused by inaction on climate change. Credlin understands this and has used her position as a climate change-denying, hard-right mouthpiece of the Murdoch empire to advance her own political interests, and the interests of the coal industry.
She’s consistently claimed climate change is a political hoax, and used her position in the media to undermine a sitting prime ministerand any energy policy supported by the Coalition party room that does not involve more coal and the end of renewables.
She doesn’t represent real liberal views, and if she appeals to what’s left of the “base”, then many people who used to vote Liberal will keep moving for the exits.
Inspired by Donald Trump, Credlin has argued Australia should tear up the Paris agreement, tear up any sensible national energy guarantee. Credlin has demanded taxpayers’ money go to the Adani coalmine and be used to build new coal-fired power stations. It’s madness.
Australians don’t want this. We would prefer a Great Barrier Reef, renewable energy and a future we can survive and thrive in.
These views are so ignorant – their political manifestation through Tony Abbott, Craig Kelly and their ilk – that it presents a grave economic and security threat to Australia’s future. And it could be the final death knell to the Liberal party.
Credlin’s demonstrated lack of understanding of the serious climate emergency we face, or even the basic economics of power production costs are breathtaking. She promotes the view that climate change is some leftwing conspiracy and that the science is rubbish.
These views need to be called for what they are: dangerous.
In her media roles, Credlin has even attacked the scientific foundation for energy and climate policy. From the desk at Sky, she announced her displeasure that former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull asked chief scientist Alan Finkel for real consideration of the climate change transition and energy policy. Instead she demanded a manufactured report devoid of reality………
Australians know it’s getting hotter every summer and see the increases in extreme weather. Report after report, overflowing with scientific evidence, traditionally a solid foundation for investment and public policy making, has been abandoned by the federal Liberal party. We understand how this will threaten our families, economy and security, and we must act to provide people with a real liberal alternative.
Credlin, Abbott and the rest of the hard-right’s “commitment to coal” is entirely political. The calculation they’ve made is that their short-term political interests, and the interests of the coal industry, are more important than the future of our country, our people and holistically the environment we all share.
It is essential now that real liberals stand against this reckless game of Russian roulette the hard right are playing with our future. If not, they too will adorn the walls as climate change deniers, who, despite all the evidence, refused to act.
• Oliver Yates is a member of the Liberal party and former chief executive of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/09/peta-credlins-preselection-could-be-the-spark-that-blows-up-the-liberal-party
The global nuclear lobby co-opts academia- now they’ve got University of Tasmania
IAEA and University of Tasmania Sign Practical Arrangements Agreement to Enhance Cooperation in Human Health, Agriculture, Environment and Marine Sciences , On 12 December, the IAEA and the University of Tasmania (UTAS) signed a Practical Arrangement which provides a framework for closer collaboration in the areas of health, agriculture and the marine environment. The agreement – the first signed between the two organizations – covers the period of 2018 to 2021.
Pangea, reborn as ARIUS, waiting in the wings for the Australian govt to privatise a nuclear waste dump
Kazzi Jai Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste In The Flinders Ranges, PANGEA was leaked to the Australian Media in 1998. Although it has since changed its name to ARIUS in 2012, it still remains active, as shown clearly by the Royal Commission into the Nuclear Fuel Cycle recently, and the very heavy push for an International Nuclear Dump by invested interests.But South Australia said NO MEANS NO!
There is no doubt in my mind that this is the ENDGAME.
The fact that this current proposal by the Federal Government does not address the Intermediate Waste final disposal AND that the Intermediate Waste will be part of the dump – as “temporary storage” has all of the hallmarks of a Claytons INTERNATIONAL NUCLEAR DUMP. …..All it needs is a stroke of a pen, PRIVATIZATION, and WHAM, BAM – THERE YOU GO! https://www.facebook.com/groups/344452605899556/
1 This month
PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
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
19 May – Webinar- Webinar: No Nuclear Weapons in Australia
Start: 2026-05-19 18:00:00 UTC Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (GMT+10:00)
End: 2026-05-19 19:30:00 UTC Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (GMT+10:00)
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 