#WETOOARE PROTESTERS FREE JULIAN ASSANGE
https://weetoo.home.blog/We are a group of mothers, fathers, teachers and students from all over the world, and we are extremely worried about the health condition, as well as the violations of the most basic human rights, of journalist and editor Julian Assange.
The award-winning journalist, in fact, has been held for months in isolation in the maximum security of Belmarsh Prison waiting for extradition to the United States where, confirmed by United Nations experts, it will be difficult for him to have a fair trial and where he risks up to 175 years in prison or even the death penalty.
The motive for the indictment was made mainly by his having published military documents confirming corruption and atrocious war crimes; in particular his website Wikileaks documents show how the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that have massacred millions of people were created by governments for economic interests and for the exploitation of resources. In these territories the number of terrorists has increased exponentially. Not only that, Assange unveiled the conditions of Guantanamo prisoners, abuses of every type, and tens of thousands of civilian homicides in Iraq and Afghanistan by the American army, including the assassination of two Reuters journalists all documented in the chilling video, Collateral Murder. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0&t=59s
In Julian Assange’s long and frightening persecution, we witnessed seven years of systematic violation of his human rights. The right of citizens to question public interests was also completely ignored. Now, we refuse to participate in a further extension of psychological and physical torture perpetrated against the journalist, as reported by Nils Melzer, the special reporter of the United Nations, who found Assange in a condition of extremely troublesome health. Continue reading
Media coverage of Kimba nuclear waste dump is found wanting
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Marc Daniel, Commenting on the story: Kimba nuclear dump laws hit parliament So much misinformation in this article. It does not have broad community support. The voting pool was narrowed to 800 and the vote was won by 70 votes. That’s not broad support. It’s a manipulated outcome. Then the actual figures ‘vanish’ and they talk of percentages and broad support. ” ‘I thank the people of Kimba, Hawker, Quorn and surrounds, Traditional Owner groups, the Kimba District and Flinders Ranges councils and the Outback Communities Authority for their participation in this process,’ Pitt said today.” They took the Kimba traditional owners to court to specifically exclude them from the poll. Funny how the first site was offered by the sitting Liberal member Rowan Ramsey, and this was only withdrawn when someone pointed out the conflict of interest so blatant but unrecognised by him. It’s actually against the laws of South Australia, a law that was given broad discussion and brought in by the SA Rann Government, now to be overridden by federal law. 45 Jobs. Maybe, but that’s during construction. Maybe. They promise 25 in operation, but who can trust that figure when any new process built in a modern era can be fully automated. Maybe 2 security guards on the gate if its not remotely monitored from a capital city somewhere. Where is the nearest hospital and medical services? Kimba has none. How will it get there? None have been consulted about this, especially in Whyalla, the port that a report nominates as the shipping point. This article has taken the Government’s “facts” and failed to examine any of them. Its not reporting, its propaganda. Marc Daniel https://indaily.com.au/opinion/reader-contributions/2020/02/14/your-views-on-a-city-stadium-nuclear-dump-and-planning-reform/ |
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Kimba nuclear dump laws hit parliament. In Daily 13 Feb 20Draft laws to turn a Kimba farm into a national nuclear waste facility have hit federal parliament, only weeks after the site on SA’s Eyre Peninsula was announced.
Resources minister Keith Pitt said today legislative amendments had been introduced to parliament to “support the delivery” of the facility, at Napandee near Kimba. …… [Pitt goes on to put the “medical “argument for the waste dump – not a word about spent fuel rods from the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor] Under this Government, decisive action has been taken to finally provide a facility where we can consolidate existing and future radioactive waste stream.” The Bill would also enable the establishment of a $20m community fund to help deliver on federal commitments to Kimba, which Pitt said “broadly supports” the facility. Kimba was chosen after a four-year process and is expected to be a nuclear waste dump for 100 years. About 45 people will be employed at the site, which the government says will store low-level waste permanently and intermediate-level waste temporarily. Environmental and indigenous groups oppose the dump, but a recent poll conducted around Kimba returned a 62 per cent vote in favour of the facility. A site near Hawker was ruled out after a community survey found minority support. Native title has been extinguished at the Kimba site, but the government insists it wants to protect indigenous cultural heritage and work with the Aboriginal community near the facility. “I thank the people of Kimba, Hawker, Quorn and surrounds, Traditional Owner groups, the Kimba District and Flinders Ranges councils and the Outback Communities Authority for their participation in this process,” Pitt said today. The draft laws will be considered by a parliamentary committee so stakeholders can give feedback. https://indaily.com.au/news/2020/02/13/kimba-nuclear-dump-laws-hit-parliament/ |
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Controversial legislation for Kimba nuclear waste dump is tabled in Federal parliament
Nuclear legislation on the table, Whyalla News, Louis Mayfield 14 Feb 20 The federal government’s goal of establishing a National Radioactive Waste Management Facility (NRWMF) at Napandee, Kimba is a step closer after key legislation was tabled in the Parliament on Thursday.
The controversial National Radioactive Waste Management Amendment (Site Specification, Community Fund and Other Measures) Bill 2020 will be subject to much scrutiny from the Senate crossbench and other stakeholders.
“It is wrong to say there is broad community support. Traditional Owners have rejected the proposal. Once again the Morrison Government and Minister Canavan haven’t listened,” she said.
“Whilst the decision by 62% of the community to back the facility being built must be respected, so too must the views of those who were under the impression that the facility would not go ahead without ‘broad community support’,” he said.
The bill will also allow the government to establish a $20 million Community Fund for Kimba, promising to support long-term infrastructure and development priorities for the town……. https://www.whyallanewsonline.com.au/story/6629280/nuclear-legislation-on-the-table/?fbclid=IwAR0Q46EnPyGMac0c6shR7o_dhPh5BQBhWwkN1FuCaq6zwJi_6lfc2qjS0SA
Shrinking Antarctic ice shelf Pine Island Glacier sheds giant iceberg
Shrinking Antarctic ice shelf Pine Island Glacier sheds giant iceberg, ABC News, Digital Story Innovation Team By Mark Doman 14 Feb 20, In one of the fastest-changing areas of the Antarctic ice sheet, satellites have captured the formation of a giant, 300-square-kilometre iceberg.
Researchers monitoring satellite imagery of the Pine Island Glacier (PIG), in west Antarctica, first noticed two large rifts forming in the shelf in 2019.
Over the next few months, as the glacier moved out towards the Amundsen Sea, the rifts expanded, eventually leading to the splitting of the iceberg from the glacier on February 9.
Within a day, the iceberg had broken up into smaller pieces.
Only one of the pieces was large enough to be named (B-49) and tracked by the United States National Ice Centre.
It comes just days after a station on the Antarctic Peninsula logged its hottest day on record, registering a temperature of 18.3 degrees Celsius.
The peninsula, which juts out to the north-east of the Pine Island Glacier, is among the fastest-warming regions on the planet. Temperatures there have increased almost 3C over the last 50 years, according to the World Meteorological Organisation.
Last month, scientists also recorded unusually warm water beneath the Thwaites Glacier, a neighbour to Pine Island.
While the calving of icebergs from shelves such as the Pine Island Glacier is a natural process in the life of a giant glacier, the rate at which this glacier and others in the region have been disintegrating is a cause of concern for scientists.
Previously the ice shelf calved once a decade. By the early 2000s, it started calving once every five years. But since 2013, the glacier has calved five times, according to Stef Lhermitte, a remote sensing scientist from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands……. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-13/antarctic-ice-shelf-pine-island-glacier-sheds-giant-iceberg/11957770
100% renewables by 2050: a technology, market, system, business model toolset for your nation
100% renewables by 2050: a technology, market, system, business model
toolset for your nation.
Energy Post 10th Feb 2020, A growing number of countries are announcing
increasingly ambitious renewable energy targets. But how do you deliver the
results? IRENA’s Elena Ocenic explains that they have developed a toolset
for countries to plot their unique pathway to success.
Those tools range widely across technology, market design and regulation, system operation practices, and business models. The article lists the tools, and runs through some notable successes.
Ocenic emphasises that, today, there is enough evidence to show that 80-100% renewables within decades is a realistic goal for many countries. She looks at the tailored solution they have created for Sweden, in collaboration with the Swedish Energy Agency, to achieve 100% renewable power by 2040.
An important observation is that technology alone is never enough: the right policy frameworks must be put in place too. And one of the biggest challenges is how to maximise renewables beyond the power sector and in to the industrial, transport and buildings sectors while making use of all the innovations now coming to the fore.
Yearly climate costs $29bn for Australia with ‘business as usual’
Australia faces annual $29bn climate bill The Saturday Paper, Max Opray 15 Feb 20, A “business as usual” response to climate change will cost Australia at least $29 billion a year, according to a new study. The World Wide Fund for Nature report projected that Australia’s economy will be the fifth worst-affected over the next three decades. This was a best-case scenario, and did not factor in the cost of more intense bushfires. “Because so much of Australia’s population, infrastructure and service sector output is concentrated in coastal areas, we are more vulnerable than most to sea-level rise and storm surges,” said WWF-Australia economist Joshua Bishop. The modelling shows that the global price of some key commodities will rise by almost 10 per cent. The report noted that environmentally friendly land-use management techniques alone could halve the hit to national GDP. The news comes as an Australian Conservation Foundation analysis found that the fossil-fuel industry has doubled its donations to the major parties in the past four years. …. https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/thebriefing/max-opray/2020/02/13/australia-faces-annual-29bn-climate-bill?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Briefing%20-%20Thursday%2013%20February%202020&utm_content=The%20Briefing%20-%20Thursday%2013%20February%202020+CID_a8e00424e41f86960e9b9
Australia’s Mawson research station monitors radionuclides in the atmosphere
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Nuclear watchdog sniffs wind at Mawson, Mirage News, 14 Feb 20 An ordinary-looking shipping container at Australia’s Mawson research station plays an important role in the global network that polices a ban on nuclear testing.Inside is a high-volume air sampler, one of 80 world-wide, running every day since 2013 to ‘sniff’ the wind for traces of radioactive debris.
The air sampler at Mawson is part of the international monitoring system for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which aims to ensure that no nuclear explosion goes undetected. The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) is responsible for a total of 21 monitoring stations within Australia and its territories. Three are in Antarctica – Mawson research station monitors radionuclides in the atmosphere and seismic vibrations in the earth’s crust, and an infrasound facility near Davis research station uses acoustic pressure sensors to detect very low-frequency sound waves in the atmosphere. A radionuclide is an atom with an unstable nucleus that loses its excess energy by emitting radiation in the form of particles or electromagnetic waves. All chemical elements can exist as radionuclides. They occur naturally or can be produced artificially by nuclear reactors, particle accelerators, or nuclear explosions. ……. https://www.miragenews.com/nuclear-watchdog-sniffs-wind-at-mawson/ |
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RBA says climate change already having profound impact on Australian economy — RenewEconomy
RBA says climate change already having “profound” impact on Australian economy, dragging down production, the value of exports and the confidence of consumers. The post RBA says climate change already having profound impact on Australian economy appeared first on RenewEconomy.
via RBA says climate change already having profound impact on Australian economy — RenewEconomy
How rooftop and big solar are pushing coal out of daytime energy market — RenewEconomy
The increase in output from rooftop and utility scale solar had a big impact on the day-time generation of coal generators, including Eraring, Stanwell and Gladstone. The post How rooftop and big solar are pushing coal out of daytime energy market appeared first on RenewEconomy.
via How rooftop and big solar are pushing coal out of daytime energy market — RenewEconomy
Senate backs Greens call for ARENA funding extension as money dries up — RenewEconomy
Senate passes motion calling on the Morrison government to extend the life of Australian Renewable Energy Agency that faces funding cliff. The post Senate backs Greens call for ARENA funding extension as money dries up appeared first on RenewEconomy.
via Senate backs Greens call for ARENA funding extension as money dries up — RenewEconomy
Australian ‘Solar Skin’ invention could power cities and vehicles of the future — RenewEconomy
Australian researchers will accelerate the commercialisation of ‘solar skins’ – generating power from the surface of cars and buildings – after receiving research funding boost. The post Australian ‘Solar Skin’ invention could power cities and vehicles of the future appeared first on RenewEconomy.
via Australian ‘Solar Skin’ invention could power cities and vehicles of the future — RenewEconomy
Is there a pro-coal faction brewing within the Labor Party? — RenewEconomy
Details of a pro-coal faction within the Labor party emerge as Labor ponders next steps for climate and energy policies. The post Is there a pro-coal faction brewing within the Labor Party? appeared first on RenewEconomy.
via Is there a pro-coal faction brewing within the Labor Party? — RenewEconomy
Wind and batteries saved the day when storm cut South Australia adrift — RenewEconomy
South Australia, and its growing wind, solar and battery resources, pass key test after storms tear down power lines and leave renewable-dominated grid operating as an island. The post Wind and batteries saved the day when storm cut South Australia adrift appeared first on RenewEconomy.
via Wind and batteries saved the day when storm cut South Australia adrift — RenewEconomy
February 14 Energy News — geoharvey
Science and Technology: ¶ “Airbus MAVERIC Design Study Project Is 20% More Efficient Than Today’s Airplanes” • At the Singapore air show, Airbus took the wraps off a super secret design project. That project, started in 2017, could lead to exotic new commercial aircraft which are up to 20% more efficient than the single aisle […]
Government extends price controls to households with rooftop solar — RenewEconomy
The federal government expands the ‘default market offer’ to all households with rooftop solar. The post Government extends price controls to households with rooftop solar appeared first on RenewEconomy.
via Government extends price controls to households with rooftop solar — RenewEconomy
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 