Tennant Creek taken over by anti nuclear, anti -waste-dump protest, led by Aboriginal elders
Elders lead dump demo http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/northern-territory/elders-lead-dump-demo/story-fnk0b1zt-1226932228540 BY MONIKA O’HANLON NT NEWS MAY 26, 2014 THE main street of a Territory town was flooded with more than 250 people protesting the proposed nuclear waste dump at Muckaty Station yesterday. Tennant Creek was overrun by a sea of yellow signs reading “Don’t radioactive waste the Territory” as kids led the march, holding up homemade banners and chanting “land rights not dump sites”.
Seven years ago the Northern Land Council nominated Muckaty Station as a potential site for a nuclear waste storage facility, including waste from nuclear medicine and operations of the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in Sydney.
The site is part of a land trust shared by five interrelated indigenous groups – Milway, Ngapa, Ngarrka, Wirntiku and Yapayapa. Most traditional owners oppose the plan but some said “yes” to the proposed storage facility.
Bunny Nabarula – a senior traditional elder and part of the Milway group – is among those who have spent years fighting to preserve Muckaty.
“I was eight years of age when my grandfather first showed me country, but I never forget,” Ms Nabarula said.
“We don’t want the waste here. NLC picked out the wrong people. Us mob fight for this land.”
Dianne Stokes has worked tirelessly over the years to protect the Muckaty site, and on Saturday was named an ambassador at the Tennant Creek and Barkly Region Golden Hearts Awards.
“We won’t be stopping – we will continue to talk about it,” Ms Stokes said. “It’s time to put my foot down and protect the elders’ words. They’ve passed away and now they left it to us to protect our country.”
Wirntiku woman Penelope Phillips said she was concerned what would happen if the land wasn’t protected for the next generations. “We want to send a clear message out to the politicians and the people who said yes to it,” she said. “Tell them that we are still strong and we don’t want a nuclear waste dump in our country. Come back and meet the people. See what it looks like. “The politicians don’t talk to us. They don’t reply.”
The protest comes a week before a Federal Court hearing challenging the proposal for the dump on Muckaty begins in Melbourne. The hearing will continue in Tennant Creek before finishing in Darwin on July 4.
No future in sight for Yeelirrie or Kintyre uranium mines, nor for Olympic dam expansion
Uranium fall dents Olympic outlook BARRY FITZGERALD THE AUSTRALIAN MAY 27, 2014 BHP Billiton’s recasting of its expansion plans for its Olympic Dam copper/uranium mine in South Australia’s outback have been served up a new challenge — the collapse in uranium prices.
Spot uranium has fallen 30 per cent in the past 12 months to $US28.15 a pound, plunging most of the world’s uranium-only mines into losses. More telling has been the steady decline from the record price of $US137 a pound in mid-2007, due in part to the fall in demand in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
BHP dropped plans for a big-bang expansion of Olympic Dam in mid-2012, blaming the $30 billion cancellation on the over-heated resources sector and the country’s high-cost environment. Concerns about uranium’s outlook post-Fukushima was also a factor……….
When it shelved the big-bang expansion plan, BHP said it would investigate a less capital-intensive design, and one that drew on new mining and processing technologies to improve the economics of the project.
BHP chief executive Andrew Mackenzie also undertook in September to say more about plans for the expansion “within about a year’’. While that timing is almost up, BHP’s considerations of what the price slump means for the future of what is the world’s biggest uranium deposit makes its planning for an expansion all the more complex.
Like the rest of the industry, BHP will be pinning its hopes on the restart of nuclear power plants in Japan, and the forecast surge in China’s nuclear power industry, to eventually produce more sustainable prices — in the context of being able to make a profit from the material at any rate……..
“uranium prices continue to suffer downward pressure and we do not see any reason to expect improvement soon.’’ -Tim Gitzel, the chief executive of Canadian uranium giant Cameco, which owns two of the world’s biggest undeveloped uranium deposits in Western Australia — Yeelirrie and Kintyre.
That means that neither Yeelirrie, acquired from BHP, and Kintyre, acquired from Rio Tinto, are about to be developed anytime soon…..
Australia needs to learn from traditional Aboriginal knowledge about fire
Living sustainably with fire, Aboriginal Knowing 26 May 14,
Where to burn, where to grow”………..I would suggest that the planning of Adelaide, surrounded by parklands with open spaces is based on this Aboriginal model of clearing land to create clear space around where you live. Australians need to think in this manner to protect ourselves from intense and destructive bushfires. We need to clear the trees around where we live, and we need to grow trees and plants in the right places.
Decisions of when and where to burn are informed by many environmental and social considerations, and vary with country. Our sophisticated patterns of land burning, the knowledge of what and where to burn is encoded within traditional knowledge. Such rules tell of wind directions, cloud formations, smoke patterns, soil condition, the position and movement of constellations and planets, the type of plants and stage of growth, the presence or absence of particular plant and animal species and so on.
Fire and water are interconnected. Water is a fuel for fire and fire fuels the rain. After a large fire, it usually rains.
Burning and planting in the right place can increase rainfall. (excellent references) http://aboriginalknowing.com/2014/05/22/living-sustainably-with-fire/
Murdoch media takes its”facts” on renewable energy from fossil fuel and right-wing promoters
Why the Murdoch media hates renewable energy so much, REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson on 26 May 2014 Here is an admission. For more than two years, over two stints, I wrote a weekly column on green energy for The Australian newspaper, called Greenchip.
It appeared prominently on the business pages, and on no occasion was I ever instructed by any editor to take a certain angle, and my copy was never changed to convey another meaning – although one sub-editor did choose the word “seaweed” in a story about algae fuels.
That’s the way it should be. And possibly the way it still is. But I make mention of it now because the position of the Murdoch media towards renewable energy has become a major issue: It appears designed to bring a multi-billion dollar industry to a halt, and apart from ideological reasons, or sympathy with vested interests, it is not clear why.
Certainly, it is not based on the facts.
Some of the reporting on renewables from the Murdoch global network has been laughable, such as the assertion by one Fox News reporter that solar could never work in the US because it didn’t have as much sun as Germany. Continue reading
A sun smart school in Perth is tracking UV radiation
St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls the first in Australia to install UV meter http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/st-hildas-anglican-school-for-girls-the-first-in-australia-to-install-uv-meter/story-fnhocxo3-1226931735377 RACHEL NORMAN PERTHNOW MAY 16, 2014 ST Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls is now the most sunsmart school in Australia. The Mosman Park school has become the first in the country to install a meter that tracks ultraviolet radiation from the sun. If the meter hits level 3 or above, students have to cover up.
The move is an attempt to mitigate the prevalence of Australia’s most common form of cancer.
The Cancer Council says almost 77,000 skin cancer cases are treated each year in WA alone. Mark Strickland, the Cancer Council of WA’s SunSmart manager, said installation of the meter on the school’s junior campus was a positive step towards reducing skin cancer in the community.
“It has been shown that reducing lifetime UV radiation goes a long way to reducing the risk of skin cancer,” he said.
“A UV meter is another way of reminding people that the sun’s radiation in WA is strong enough that they need sun protection.
“It’s a silent but constant reminder of the ever-present need to cover up.”
Andrea McNally, the head of Junior School at St Hilda’s, said childhood was a particularly important time to recognise the need to seek shade and form good habits for the future.
“Having the visual prompt of the UV meter has taught the students that it’s not the heat that determines danger, but the UV index; and hopefully that will create a lifelong awareness and a change in their attitudes,” she said.
Data from the UV meter will also be used as part of the junior school curriculum, with students from year 1 currently monitoring and recording data every day.
Australia’s first public UV meter was installed at Deep Water Point in Melville last year.
There is also a Cancer Council meter at the Surfing WA club house at Trigg Beach.
St Hilda’s year 6 pupil Angelique Preau said she and her fellow students were paying close attention to the meter – regardless of the sort of day it was.
“When it gets to 7 or more it’s bad and you have to go into the shade and/or put sunscreen on,” the 11-year-old said.
Solar power proving a good investment for Western Australians
Solar Helps Delay New Power Station In Western Australia http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=4319 26 May 14, WA’s solar households and businesses are collectively generating as much power as a major traditional power station. According to The West Australian’s Daniel Mercer, given forecasts from Synergy of a continuing increase in solar uptake, the State Government now says a new power station would not need to be constructed in the state until 2029.
Synergy predicts there could be as much as 1500MW of solar capacity feeding into Western Australia’s electricity grid by 2020.
The rate that Western Australians have embraced solar is quite stunning. The numbers of solar power systems connected to the grid has grown from just three in June 2007 to 135,419 (Synergy customers) as of March 2014.
According to solar provider Energy Matters, a 5kW solar panel system installed in Perth can return a financial benefit of between $1,577 and $2,196 annually. In some cases, a system of this size can basically blow away an average household’s power bills.
Energy Matters’ Australian Solar Index estimates the internal rate of return of a system installed in Perth to be 17.8%; making it one of the best investments around.
However, as is the case in the rest of Australia, clouds are gathering on the horizon for WA’s solar industry and potential new solar households. The Renewable Energy Target review is currently under way and concerns have been expressed regarding possible outcomes; including a gutting of subsidies.
Current support for acquiring systems can translate to thousands of dollars off the cost of going solar. The uncertainty surrounding the review means the best time to go solar in Western Australia could be right now.
Going solar in WA doesn’t necessarily mean a significant up-front financial outlay. Energy Matters offers a zero-deposit “Save As You Go” arrangement to eligible customers where monthly repayments can be less than what would otherwise be spent on mains-grid supplied electricity.
How BHP determined Abbott government energy policy
Worried BHP CEO pressed Hockey to keep diesel rebate. Financial Review 23 May 14 BHP Billiton chief executive Andrew Mackenzie was among several mining executives who directly lobbied the federal government against cutting the industry’s rebate for diesel excise at last week’s budget. (subscribers only) http://www.afr.com/p/national/worried_bhp_ceo_pressed_hockey_to_byOkNSIXbue5I2qIxnFZPP
A quick meeting with the Government reassured them that by ‘everyone’ the Liberals meant the young, the sick & the poor, not big miners.
TAKE ACTION to call on the Senate to #BustTheBudget here:http://campaigns.greens.org.au/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1792&ea.campaign.id=28562&ea.tracking.id=fb
Rio Tinto finds that solar is the best way to power Queensland off-grid mine
Rio Tinto to deploy 6.7MW solar PV + storage at off-grid mine
REneweconomy By Giles Parkinson on 22 May 2014 A ground-breaking, $23.4 million project to cut out daytime diesel consumption at Rio Tinto bauxite mine at Weipa could unlock billions of dollars of similar investments in the mining industry – which is weighed down by soaring energy costs.
Mining giant Rio Tinto is to host a $23.4 million solar PV plus storage facility at its Weipa bauxite mine, that is the first of its type and scale in the world and could unleash billions of dollars of similar investment. Rio Tinto Alcan – with the help of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency – is to install a 1.7MW solar PV array at its Weipa bauxite mine later this year, and then add a further 5MW of solar PV and battery storage.
The Weipa mine is located on the Cape York Peninsula at the very northern tip of eastern Australia, and relies on expensive diesel that has to be shipped in.
The first phase of the solar project – to be built with First Solar thin-film modules and constructed by Australian solar firm Ingenero – is expected to reduce daytime diesel demand from the mine’s 26MW diesel generator by up to 20 per cent.
However, the addition of more solar and storage to balance out intermittency could reduce daytime diesel consumption altogether at certain times.
The Weipa project was the first of around 70 submissions – worth several billion dollars of investment – from mining operators in Australia for funding for such ground breaking projects under ARENA’s $400 million remote energy program.
The ending of the commodities boom has made miners more focused on energy costs. Continue reading
Victoria’s Ararat wind farm project in jeopardy, due to uncertainty over Renewable Energy Target
Wind future up in the air with renewable energy target uncertainty http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/2301438/wind-future-up-in-the-air-with-renewable-energy-target-uncertainty/?cs=12 By KARA IRVING May 22, 2014, THE developer of the Ararat Wind Farm project believes the federal government’s renewable energy target (RET) review has caused uncertainty among green energy developers, investors and retailers. RES Australia is behind the $450 million Ararat Wind Farm to be built on the Pyrenees Highway about 17 kilometres from Ararat. Head of development Annette Deveson said the ongoing RET review had stirred uncertainty in the green energy sector.
“We are working very hard to get the Ararat Wind Farm ready for construction,” Ms Deveson said. “But the government is causing uncertainty in the industry and for us.” The federal government is currently reviewing the RET to examine the operation, costs and benefits of the scheme.
The RET was developed to ensure 20 per cent of Australia’s electricity comes from renewable sources by 2020.
Although a decision had yet to be made about the renewable energy targets, Ms Deveson said the review had caused difficulties for prospective green energy developers. “They are not out there in the market looking for new projects,” she said. “As a business you are uncertain of your future market.”
Ms Deveson said the potential change impacted on investor confidence. Ararat Rural City Council last Friday made a submission to the RET review to pledge the importance of the project.
Mayor Paul Hooper said it was likely the wind farm would not be built because of the review. “The project will create 13 full time jobs after the construction has finished,” he said. “About $75,000 will be put back into community grants.”Mr Harper said the Ararat community would miss out if the project were to cease.“We will not see those benefits come to town, nor the long term employment opportunities,” he said.
“The community misses out.” kara.irving@fairfaxmedia.com.au
Renewable Energy Target must stay – call by Australia’s sugar industry
Sugar industry calls for Renewable Energy Target to stay http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-22/sugar-industry-calls-for-renewable-energy-target-to-stay/5471258 22 May 14, Sugar millers say any move to scrap the Federal Government’s Renewable Energy Target would be a ‘retrograde’ step.
Set up under the Howard government with the goal of having 20 per cent of Australia’s electricity generated through renewable sources by 2020, the RET scheme is currently under review.
The Australian Sugar Milling Council, in a meeting with the review panel today in Brisbane, described the program as being ‘absolutely critical’ for the industry.
ASMC chief executive Dominic Nolan, says the sugar industry has invested heavily in renewable energy and the current uncertainty surrounding the scheme’s future, places further development in jeopardy. “The sugar milling sector has invested over $300 million over the past 5 years [and] we’ve got more than $1 billion identified for further investment in energy efficiency and co-generation.”
The review is considering what role the RET scheme has had on reducing emissions and its impact on electricity prices as well as the costs and benefits to industry.
Mr Nolan insists any change to the current scheme could force sugar millers to ‘undo’ their more recent advances in burning the fibrous by-product ‘bagasse’, to produce electricity for the national grid.
He says the industry would take a $35 million hit in lost revenue and there would be no cost incentive for millers to be more energy efficient.
“We export 80 per cent of what we make, we price our sugar on the global market, we live and die on the basis of our cost of production.
“Our major competitors, Brazil, Thailand and even India, are heavily down the path around co-generation and biofuels and we need to keep pace in order to maintain our international competitiveness.”
Australian climate activism goes local, and rural
Climate activism research shows new move to localism ABC Rural News 23 May 14, The protesters at various mine sites around northern NSW, and the way local farmers are actually quite supportive of the protests, are all part of a relatively new phenomenon in terms of climate activism.
Joint research by the University of Sydney and the University of Technology Sydney has found a new focus for climate change activism, localism.
Assoc Professor James Goodman University of Technology Sydney is one of the authors and researchers involved in a new book that looks at the issue.
“We have seen more and more evidence of farmers concerned about their rights when faced with mining companies demands to drill, about their right to farm and the impact of mining on water quality and aquifers. “We are seeing two types of protesters; those worried about local impacts on their environment, health and their community and others worried about the impacts on the wider environment and the longer term, the next 20 or 30 years.
“At some of those Maules Creek and Bentley protests, we are seeing the two groups come together.
“There has been a shift in focus away from the big picture to the local………..http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-22/nrn-climate-activism-research-22-05-14/5471028
Australia’s climate denialist government meets the reality of climate change
Australia’s extreme budget meets extreme climate, Guardian, Alex White 22 May 14, The Abbott government’s first budget was the least popular and most extreme in forty years, and was handed down during an almost unprecedented May heatwave.……On the climate and environment front, it is genuinely difficult to narrow down the most extreme elements of this deeply and widely disliked budget.
Firstly, the fact is that this is a deeply unpopular budget, and it has been presented to the Australian people by a government that is neither liked nor trusted……..
A particularly egregious cut is the abolition of ARENA, the renewable energy agency. This action is a loud declaration that the Abbott government is addicted to carbon-intensive energy.
Tied to this, although not a budget initiative, is the review of the previously bi-partisan Renewable Energy Target, with climate denier Dick Warburton appointed as review head. Before the election, there were clear statements made that an Abbott government would continue to support the renewable energy target. Greg Hunt, the environment minister, said before the election that the Coalition “does agree on the renewable energy target” and “support the RET, the 20 per cent”.
The cut to ARENA and the review of Australia’s renewable energy target is a breathtaking assault on the $18 billion renewable energy sector, and introduces substantial elements of sovereign risk for companies and people considering investing in this area in Australia. Before last year’s election, the Coalition repeatedly promised to keep ARENA. In opposition, the Coalition supported ARENA.
The Clean Energy Council has also expressed major concerns, a rare event for a body that has to keep governments on side. In a statement, the CEC deputy CEO said: “A global race for renewable energy is on, and the removal of ARENA will see potential Australian and international investors now look to countries with much stronger support for renewable energy innovation, meaning we may well miss out on billions of dollars of investment and highly-skilled jobs.”
(The Coalition had previously promised to remove funding for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, an ideologically motivated decision based on Abbott’s view that it was “socialism masquerading as environmentalism”.)
Other renewable and clean energy programs have also been scrapped, such as the One Million Solar Roofs program, research into carbon capture and storage technology, the Clean Technology Program, the Cleaner Fuels grant scheme, and more.
There is a real risk that the result of the RET review will see the end of the renewable energy target, once a bi-partisan policy. Removing or reducing the renewable energy target, currently 20 percent by 2020, would effectively lock Australia to a carbon-intensive, fossil fuel addicted future.
Climate change remains a serious and present threat to Australia’s society and economy. Major global economic forces are moving to clean energy and low carbon technologies. China for example is planning to triple its solar capacity by 2017, and other major economies including US states and nations in the EU are heading in that direction also.
To do nothing about climate change, as the Australian government now appears committed to, is immoral and amounts to abandoning both current and future generations……..http://www.theguardian.com/environment/southern-crossroads/2014/may/21/may-heatwave-budget-2014-abbott-renewable-energy-cuts
Weipa solar project brings cheap energy to remote Queensland community
AUDIO: Cheaper electricity from Weipa solar project final act of axed renewable energy agencyhttp://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-22/cheaper-electricity-from-weipa-solar-project-final/5469770?section=qld Many remote communities around Australia are totally reliant on costly diesel fuel to provide the electricity that most take for granted. But the far north Queensland mining town of Weipa is adding solar energy to the mix in what’s being called an Australian first. It could be the final act for an agency that’s facing the axe after last week’s savage federal budget.
Sophisticated Farmers and Land Managers – Australian Aborigines across the continent
“Most other civilisations had various levels of dissent from time to time but here it seems there was a consensus on how to manage the land and the people.”
Mr Pascoe says he has received many calls from Aboriginal people recalling cultivation activities and stories. He expects further research will substantiate his claims.
Australian Aborigines Were Sophisticated Farmers and Land Managers ‘Hunter and gatherer’ label is a misnomer, say academics By Shar Adams, Epoch Times | May 21, 2014 SYDNEY–Australian Aborigines, among the oldest continual inhabitants of their land in the world, have long been depicted as hunters and gatherers. Mounting evidence, however, suggests they were not primitives but sophisticated cultivators and land managers.
Researcher and author Bruce Pascoe, a Bunurong man from south eastern Australia, searched the accounts of early explorers and settlers for evidence of cultivation and was astounded at what he found.
“I came across repeated references to people building dams and wells, planting, irrigating and harvesting seed, and manipulating the landscape,” he said.
One of the most vivid accounts was from explorer Charles Sturt, who was the first European to penetrate the interior and see the Simpson Desert. Continue reading
Australia’s energy utilities fight to stop rooftop solar
Solar Industry Battle — Australian Energy Utilities Pushing For End To Rooftop Solar Subsidies, Clean Technica 21 May 14 Australia’s major energy utilities are now united in pushing for an end to rooftop solar subsidies – pitching the incumbent utilities into a major battle with the solar industry and consumer groups over the treatment of household solar.
AGL Energy became the last of the major utilities to throw its hat into the anti-solar ring, declaring on Friday in its submission to the renewable energy target review that rooftop solar subsidies were no longer needed.
AGL Energy also said the large scale renewable energy target would be impossible to meet – earning an extraordinary rebuke from PowerShop, the Australian offshoot of New Zealand energy giant Meridian Energy, its joint venture partner in Australia’s largest renewable energy project, the 420MW Macarthur wind farm – of joining other utilities on the “dark side”.
The issue around support for solar, however, is now the major flash point for the industry. Given the stoppage in large scale developments because of uncertainty around the LRET, rooftop solar is currently accounting for the bulk of renewable energy investment in the country. It supports an industry that provides more than 11,000 jobs, and nearly $3 billion in investment in 2013, as well as supporting ongoing world-leading research.
Those jobs and investment are now under threat. Continue reading
1 This month
Help Aunty Sue Protect Her Land and Sacred Sites From Destructive Rocket Testing.
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PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
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