Bob Katter hails remote spots as safe for nuclear reactors
KATTER HAILS REMOTE SPOTS AS SAFE FOR NUCLEAR REACTORS
A nuclear reactor could be built in north west Queensland because the uranium deposits are there, the terrorists have multiple different ways to carry out mass killings, and barely anyone lives out there, maverick Federal MP Bob Katter has said…. (subscribers only) Townsville Bulletin, 20 Jan 2020
Bangladesh and Australia- both vulnerable to climate change – but will that stop the coal lobby?
 Despite climate impact, Bangladesh wants Australian coal to fire 29 new power stations, https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/rba-told-to-mobilise-all-forces-to-save-the-economy-from-climate-change-20200120-p53szi.html Bangladesh has been criticised for its ambitious plans to build 29 new coal-fired power stations, but its high commissioner to Australia believes the new projects could be an opportunity for greater trade between the two nations. 20 Jan 2020 , BY BRETT MASON SBS chief political correspondent Brett Mason reports from Dhaka, Bangladesh
Bangladesh’s high commissioner to Australia has urged the Australian government to consider new trade opportunities with the country, including the potential to supply it with 80 million tonnes of coal over the next five years. SBS News is currently in Bangladesh as part of a parliamentary learning tour organised by Save the Children. Speaking to SBS News ahead of the trip, Mohammad Sufiur Rahman said Bangladesh’s controversial plans to construct 29 new power stations over the next two decades would require a “huge quantum” of coal to power them. “We’ll have to source it from places, either Indonesia, or Australia, or maybe South Africa,” he said. Mr Rahman began spruiking the “enormous” export opportunity to the Australian media last year and doubled down on it in his interview with SBS News. “The quality and calorific value of Australian coal is much better in comparison to other sources,” he said. Climate impactBangladesh has the sixth-highest number of current and proposed coal-powered projects compared to the rest of the world, according to environmental advocacy group Market Forces. But the nation is also particularly vulnerable to climate change, with fears a projected half a metre sea-level rise by 2050 could leave 11 per cent of the country’s landmass underwater and 15 million people displaced. Continue reading |
Morrison says NSW minister “doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” Does Morrison? — RenewEconomy
Morrison misrepresents federal emissions targets and renewables investment while trying to chastise NSW energy minister Matt Kean over climate. The post Morrison says NSW minister “doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” Does Morrison? appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Morrison says NSW minister “doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” Does Morrison? — RenewEconomy
Fire fighter’s anger at Scott Morrison, over climate change
cartoon – Reproduced with permission from Mark David and Independent Australia.
The Firefighter Whose Denunciation of Australia’s Prime Minister Made Him a Folk Hero New Yorker, By Amanda Schaffer, January 18, 2020
Since September, millions of acres of land have burned, thousands of people have lost their homes and businesses, and at least twenty-eight have perished.
Morrison’s history of skepticism toward climate change and the government’s record of inaction have infuriated Australians who understand that record-breaking heat and dryness, symptomatic of a warming planet, are fuelling the crisis. On Sunday, Morrison announced an inquiry into the country’s fire response, nodding to the role of climate change but failing to support policies to decrease fossil-fuel use or promote renewable energy……
“Then the wind changed, so the flames were fully involved across the road, and we had to drive the truck through the fire front to get ourselves out. We were driving to stop the fire from going into the village, and we saw a TV-news team down on one of the access roads. It just was a boiling point for me. I said, ‘Are you from the media? Tell the Prime Minister to go and get fucked, from Nelligen. . . . We really enjoy doing this shit.’
“A couple of weeks earlier, the Prime Minister commented that Rural Fire Service members enjoy going out and fighting fires. He’s just got no understanding of what it’s all about. We don’t enjoy fighting bushfires and saving people’s homes. We do it because we have to. He’s got no understanding of what real people in Australia go through. And he doesn’t care anyway. Any real man would never have left the country while his country was in turmoil…….
“Climate change is also a real thing. It’s not something that can be fixed overnight, and the government’s got to make a stand at some stage. Scott Morrison doesn’t even believe in climate change. I don’t think he even considers that we are going through climate change……. https://www.newyorker.com/news/as-told-to/the-firefighter-whose-denunciation-of-australias-prime-minister-made-him-a-folk-hero
Liberal Party misinformation on climate change
Notorious climate denier Craig Kelly at it again, Independent Australia, By Steve Bishop | 19 January 2020, Official figures reveal the Liberals’ foremost climate change denying MP, Craig Kelly, resorted to lies and misinformation to dispute factual evidence in his presentation to a Sky News program.Kelly and other MPs such as George Christensen, have helped sabotage the Federal Government’s climate change policy to a point where it is viewed as the worst in the world.
Just examine the absurd whoppers Kelly told in claiming most of the U.S.’s hottest years on record had occurred in the 1930s.
He used these lies to justify an even bigger lie: Here’s a transcript of Kelly’s snake-oil claims:
……… The United States’ climate records are kept by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
I have searched the records, which go back to 1895, and can find no statistics to support Kelly’s claims.
The only set of figures which bear any resemblance to Kelly’s fake news are for one-off freak temperature extremes in each state……….
All Australians should be concerned by Kelly’s lies because he has the personal backing of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who intervened before the last election to ensure the climate change denier was selected as the candidate for Hughes.
This gives Kelly credibility with the ridiculous right of the party when coal-loving Morrison, as PM, has to appeal to a broad church….. https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/notorious-climate-denier-craig-kelly-at-it-again,13501
Australia led the world in climate action, in 2012 with the Gillard Labor government
Who to Blame for Australia’s Bullshit Approach to Climate Change https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/dygvjy/who-to-blame-for-australia-coal-mining-lobbyists-fires-bushfires-bullshit-approach-to-climate-change
Look these coal lobbyists in the eye. Remember their names. By Royce Kurmelovs, 16 January 2020,
Now people are asking: “why?”
The answer, for many, is that we’ve begun a long and unnerving slide into a world of supercharged weather. The CO2 humanity had been pumping into the atmosphere for decades is now affecting our seasons in precisely all the ways we were warned. For Australia, that means hotter summers with less rainfall, which is exactly what 2019 delivered.
Australia just sweltered through its hottest year on record with temperatures averaging 1.52C above the 1961—1990 average, according to data from the Bureau of Meteorology. This came after an unprecedented period of drought across much of the country’s east, which unsurprisingly led to widespread fires.
But even if the science is clear, the reality seems lost on those who hold the country’s highest political offices. When confronted with the suggestion his government was not acting in a meaningful way on climate change, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has simply said he “did not accept that” and insisted, like his Minister for Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor, that Australia has been “doing its part”.
he truth is that Australia is the fourth largest coal producer in the world, and has relied on tricky accounting practices to book progress toward reducing its carbon emissions while actually doing the bare minimum.
Because of this, Australia was recently rated 57th on a list of countries for its handling of climate change—placing it just slightly above Iran with its oil-dependent national economy.
And yet just eight years ago, Australia was leading the world on climate change action. In 2012 we’d achieved what many pundits believed was a political impossibility. Australia had levied a tax on carbon that forced an almost immediate drop in the country’s CO2 emissions. That was until a new conservative government took power and repealed the carbon tax a short two years later.
PM under pressure as Coalition changes tune on climate change
PM under pressure as Coalition changes tune on climate change , Daily Telegraph , 19 Jan 2020
Prime Minister Scott Morrison could be facing a cabinet revolt on climate change with the horror bushfire season sparking new calls for action from his own top-ranking MPs…. (subscribers only)
Scott Morrison probably intransigent on climate policy
If the bushfires won’t force climate policy change, we need to circumvent Scott Morrison. Guardian, Lenore Taylor The cabal of Coalition denialists calling the shots are still impervious to facts. But it’s not yet time to despair @lenoretaylor, Fri 17 Jan 2020 It’s time to face a dreadful truth. If this bushfire crisis, this nation-wide trauma, can’t loosen the denialists’ grip on Coalition climate policy, then maybe nothing will.
That would mean everyone sifting through Scott Morrison’s verbiage for signs that he might really be intending to change direction is searching in vain, because he’s just trying to talk himself out of political trouble.
It would mean everyone patiently pointing out that the prime minister could quite easily “evolve” his current policies into something that actually reduced Australia’s greenhouse emissions could save their breath, because that isn’t the kind of evolution he is considering.
And it would mean there’s no point reprising the facts, that Australia’s emissions are flatlining, not falling, that we could seize an economic advantage in a low-carbon world and at the same time help the globe avoid the all too obvious costs of inaction. The Coalition cabal who apparently still call the shots thinks climate science is “voodoo”. They’re impervious to facts. They are already threatening, via anonymous quotes to the Australian, to “blow the place up”. Again. Just like they’ve been blowing up national climate action for more than a decade.
And as this week’s Guardian Essential poll showed, despite the widespread sense that the fires are a tipping point, despite global outrage at the self-defeating stupidity of our policies, despite the world’s largest fund manager ditching thermal coal, despite the wave of grief and anger from around the world – even from James Murdoch – it’s still not clear that Australian public opinion will force this government to change.
Sure, Morrison’s mishandling of this crisis has cost him. His overall approval ratings have dived but his numbers have held fairly steady in his base. The strategists – who always pay more heed to those numbers than to other benchmarks, like, say, a country in ashes – no doubt believe that, with enough confusing obfuscation about “meeting and beating” targets, enough revising of the figures, enough serious practical efforts to help burnt-out communities, and just enough rhetoric conceding the reality of global heating, all will be well in time, without promising to do anything about it. All will be well for the poll numbers that is. Not for the nation.
This is not, repeat not, an argument for abandoning the arguments in favour of climate action. It is not a counsel to cop out in despair. …………
Maybe, under the current political pressure, something will give. But we’ve been fooled before and there’s no time to be fooled again. So that means it’s time to think of ways around the federal Coalition’s intransigence, because those deniers will never be swayed, and we can’t allow them to dictate our future. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/17/if-the-bushfires-wont-force-climate-policy-change-we-need-to-circumvent-scott-morrison
Australian Nuclear Technology and Science Organisation, (ANSTO), jumps on the bushfire propaganda bandwagon
Today, 15 January, there was a ’round table” meeting, (I think in Canberra) of “top scientists” on the urgent need to develop new bushfire adaptation and mitigation techniques.
And guess who’s at the top of the list in these TOP SCIENTISTS ON CLIMATE CHANGE. Why, none other than The Australian Nuclear Technology and Science Organisation, (ANSTO)
Of course, ANSTO is prominent in promoting the lie that nuclear power is the solution to climate change. They’ve put in submissions to parliamentary inquiries, You can bet that they’ve got one in now, to the Victorian Inquiry (submissions close 28 February.) One must admire the timing of the nuclear lobby’s manipulations, and the speed with which they are jumping on the bushfire-fix bandwagon.
Coalition right wing unhappy, as moderate Liberals seize on PM Morrison’s comments about cutting emissions.
Coalition MPs split over Scott Morrison’s apparent shift on climate policy, Moderate Liberals seize on PM’s comments to argue the government will do more to cut emissions but conservatives push back, Guardian Sarah Martin 13 Jan 2020 Chief political correspondent Moderate Liberals have seized on Scott Morrison’s apparent shift on climate change policy to argue the government will do more to cut emissions, as some conservatives push back against any “symbolism” that could damage the economy.
In a sign of the challenge facing the prime minister as he seeks to “evolve” climate change policy, government MPs have split over the prime minister’s comments on the weekend that the Coalition wanted to reduce emissions “even further” than current commitments.
While saying Australia’s 2030 emission reduction targets remain government policy, Morrison said he wanted to do “better” and would only rely on the use of carryover credits from the Kyoto protocol if needed.
Australia is the only country relying on carryover credits to meet its Paris 2030 target of 26% to 28% of 2005 levels by 2030, which critics say do not represent the cuts required to limit global warming to as close to 1.5C as possible.
Katie Allen, the Liberal MP for the Victorian seat of Higgins, welcomed Morrison’s remarks, telling her constituents that she would be a “strong voice” in the party room for stronger action on climate change…….
The self-styled modern Liberal MP Tim Wilson also endorsed Morrison’s comments, saying the commitment at the last election to “cut emissions, but not jobs” was a baseline for action.
“The prime minister has rightly identified there’ll be more evolution of policy to cut emissions, but not jobs, and I look forward to contributing to that important evolution,” Wilson told Guardian Australia.
Dave Sharma, the MP for Malcolm Turnbull’s former seat of Wentworth, said he was “pleased to hear” Morrison’s comments on the importance of responding to climate change and promoted the government’s plan to “continue to evolve our policies with a view to reducing our emissions further”…..
But as moderates welcomed the shift, conservative MPs were warning against a change in policy.
The Queensland Nationals MP Llew O’Brien told the Courier Mail that if Australia went beyond its current commitments, it would be “pure symbolism at the expense of the economy”.
The former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce also issued a thinly veiled warning that the government risked a backlash in the bush if it moved to ramp up emission reduction targets……..
The divide comes as Morrison insists the role of climate change is “not in dispute” within his ranks, despite several MPs denying the role of a warmer planet as an underlying cause of the severe bushfire season.
The Nationals MP George Christensen was the latest to promote his view that climate change was not a factor, telling his supporters on Facebook that climate change is not “a bogey man who can go around lighting bushfires”…..
The Liberal MP Craig Kelly last week caused a storm of controversy after appearing on UK television to argue that there was “no link” between climate change and Australia’s drought.
Following the appearance, Morrison told his MPs that backbenchers should not do any international media interviews. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/13/coalition-mps-split-over-scott-morrisons-apparent-shift-on-climate-policy
Australia can have zero emissions and still profit from minerals, says Ross Garnaut
 Australia can have zero emissions and still profit from minerals, says Ross Garnaut, ABC NEWS BREAKFAST BY PATRICK WOOD 13 Jan 2020 Australia could have avoided the scale of the devastating bushfires, Professor Ross Garnaut has said as he warned the situation would continue to worsen if there wasn’t global action on climate change, something he said didn’t have to come at the expense of the economy.Key points:
The economist said he “strongly endorsed” Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s focus on reducing emissions without damaging the economy, and believed Australian industries could still reap the benefits of the country’s mineral resources in a zero-emissions world. As this bushfire season has claimed lives and thousands of homes, Professor Garnaut has become a focus on the debate around climate change and the Government’s response.That is because in 2008 he conducted a widescale review into the impact of climate change on Australia and its economy, and came to a conclusion: the nation would face a more frequent and intense fire season by 2020. As that prediction comes to pass, the Prime Minister is facing renewed scrutiny on the Government’s climate change policy and whether it will change due to the fires……..
Professor Garnaut said the bushfire crisis could have been avoided if Australia, as part of a global effort, had “done a lot more much earlier”. “The tragedy has been building over a long time,” he said. “Things will continue to get worse … until the world has zero net emissions of greenhouse gases.” In this zero-emissions world, Professor Garnaut argued Australia could be a world leader by processing its minerals locally using renewable energy. “I think the point about avoiding cuts to the economy is a sound one,” he said in response to the Prime Minister’s interview. “The way you make steel in a zero-emissions economy is using renewable energy to make hydrogen, to make steel, instead of using coal.
The way you make aluminium in a zero-emissions world economy is to use renewable energy to turn bauxite and aluminium oxide into aluminium metal. “Australia is by far the biggest exporter of aluminium ores and iron ores, [and] when the world is producing aluminium and iron without emissions, we’ll be the place that’s done. So it will be positive for the economy. “So I strongly endorse the Prime Minister’s focus on getting to zero emissions without damaging our economy. It can do us a lot of good.” Carbon pricing ‘faster and cheaper’The question of how Australia reduces its emissions is still up for debate. He said policies would continue to evolve but did not outline specific plans. Professor Garnaut said putting a price on carbon was a good option, but one he acknowledged was not going to happen with the current Government. “We would have got to low emissions much more cheaply if we’d had an economy-wide carbon price, but you can get there without a carbon price,” he said. “For the time being we have to make progress without a carbon price. We can do that. “We would make faster and cheaper progress later on if later we adopted a carbon price.”He said the current fires could also prompt a shift in the way the country tackled climate change. “My reading of the complex electoral arithmetic of the last election is that on balance the electorate was favouring stronger action on climate change,” he said. “Not in every place. The coal-producing areas in the Hunter Valley and up the Queensland coast were very nervous. “We have to show those communities that there are alternatives … [that] those places can do very well in the zero-emissions economy of the future. “But we’ve actually got to develop the programs that have them doing very well.” https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-13/ross-garnaut-on-bushfires-scott-morrison-climate-change/11861846 |
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When traditional Aboriginal owners are included in the vote, support for Kimba nuclear waste dump drops to 43%
“Barngarla Speak Out” : vimeo.com/382855709
“SAVE SA Farmland – Kimba, Eyre Peninsula” : vimeo.com/381938156
Dramatic drop in P.M. Scott Morrison’s popularity, over his climate stance
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Appearing on Insiders on Sunday morning, Mr Morrison said it was his “intention to meet and beat” Australia’s 2030 commitment to cut emissions 26 to 28 per cent on 2005 levels. And he left the door slightly ajar to cut more emissions if needed.
It’s a small but significant step considering just weeks ago Mr Morrison said he saw no need to change his climate policies. In another move to show it is helping the environment, the Morrison government will on Monday announce it is pledging $50 million to help protect wildlife and fauna impacted by bushfires. Could it signal that the bushfire disaster has finally woken the government up to do more to acknowledge and fight manmade climate change? Experts aren’t holding their breath. And now the polls indicate the PM has some work to do to persuade voters amid fury over Mr Morrison’s bushfire response. The latest Newspoll figures show Mr Morrison’s approval rating has plunged and Labor leader Anthony Albanese is now the preferred leader. Mr Albanese leads the Liberal leader 43 to 39 per cent, according to the survey results released on Sunday night. Labor is in front 51-49 on a two-party-preferred basis in the poll conducted for The Australian, a significant turnaround from early December when results showed the coalition led 52-48. Support for the Greens rose one point to 12 per cent, while One Nation lost ground, falling one point to four per cent. Meanwhile, scientists say Mr Morrison’s mea culpa on his holiday and hint on climate policy shift are nowhere near the strong response needed to show the government is going to commit to any meaningful change in their climate response. Lesley Hughes, a professor of biology at Macquarie University and a climate councillor at the Climate Council of Australia, said the government’s targets are so “weak” that it means little when the PM promises to meet or beat them. “It’s like saying I want a 20 per cent pass rate on my exam. So we met those targets because they were so low,” Professor Hughes told The New Daily. Meeting the 2030 Paris targets would rely heavily on including emissions reductions from the previous international agreement, the Kyoto protocol. “The best analogy I’ve heard – and it’s not mine – but it’s like saying I got a really good mark on my kindergarten colouring test and I want to use that to pass my university test now,” Professor Hughes said. On top of the targets being criticised as too low, the UN reported last year that Australia was not even on track to meet them. “There has been no improvement in Australia’s climate policy since 2017 and emission levels for 2030 are projected to be well above the target,” the report found. Central to the government’s climate plan is the Emissions Reduction Fund, which was allocated an additional $2 billion to purchase about 100 million tonnes of emissions from businesses between 2021 and 2030. While the framework of the ERF has been praised, the OECD said in a 2019 report it would need to be scaled up to meet the Paris targets. Australia is part of a growing cohort of G20 countries that are falling short. This will have dire consequences for our environment and economy, Professor Hughes said. If we do meet our 26 per cent reduction, it is not enough if you multiply that on a global scale to stop us from getting to three degrees of warming,” she said. “This fire season has been with just one degree of warming. Just imagine three times – what that means. That’s what we’re talking about.” Coal: Australia’s kingOpposition leader Anthony Albanese has said the government is “refusing to act” on climate change, but he has also backed coal exports……. https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2020/01/13/scott-morrison-insiders-climate-change/ |
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Thousands protest in Sydney and other cities, against govt inaction on climate change
Protesters chanted, “Hey hey, ho ho ScoMo has got to go” as speakers climbed Town Hall’s side steps, and later moved on to “The liar from the shire, the country is on fire”.
She was given a move-on order by police while protesting outside Kirribilli House last September. Her hope is that Friday’s protest will create change……….
Protests also took place in other Australian capital cities. https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/sydney-cbd-climate-protest-attracts-thousands-20200110-p53qhq.html?promote_channel=edmail&mbnr=MTM2NDAwMjM&eid=email:nnn-13omn655-ret_newsl-membereng:nnn-04%2F11%2F2013-news_pm-dom-news-nnn-smh-u&campaign_code=13INO009&et_bid=292
The $billions cost of Australia’s climate disasters
Australia’s bushfires to cost billions as climate risks rise Climate Home News 07/01/2020, Australian government announces national bushfire recovery fund, as cost of natural disasters expected to rise in coming years, By Chloé Farand
Bushfires ravaging Australia are expected to cost billions of dollars in recovery efforts and the nation’s bills for tackling natural disasters risk soaring in coming decades with worsening climate change.
Record-breaking temperatures and severe droughts have fuelled the fires which have burnt millions of hectares across the country. At least 24 people and hundreds of thousands of animals have been killed.
Data from the Australian government Bureau of Meteorology shows December’s mean temperature was 3.21C warmer than the average for the month. Ed Hawkins, a professor of climate science at the University of Reading, said the country’s mean December temperature had warmed about 1.4 times faster than the global annual average temperature over the past century.
But pro-coal Prime Minister Scott Morrison has denied the link between climate change and the unprecedented intensity of bushfires across the country, describing it as “misconstrued”.
The costs of wildfires is difficult to estimate due to the indirect costs such as the destruction of wildlife and the environment, damage to public health and harm to tourism.
Swiss Re, one of the world’s largest insurance companies, found direct economic losses only represent a fraction of the true economic impact, which can span years.
Across the world, the economic cost of wildfire has increased in recent decades. In 2017, direct economic losses from wildfires amounted to $21bn worldwide – up from $6bn in 2016, according to Swiss Re
The costs of wildfires is difficult to estimate due to the indirect costs such as the destruction of wildlife and the environment, damage to public health and harm to tourism.
Swiss Re, one of the world’s largest insurance companies, found direct economic losses only represent a fraction of the true economic impact, which can span years.
Across the world, the economic cost of wildfire has increased in recent decades. In 2017, direct economic losses from wildfires amounted to $21bn worldwide – up from $6bn in 2016, according to Swiss Re. https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/01/07/australias-bushfires-cost-billions-climate-risks-rise/
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 