Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency righteous about possibly radioactive jewellery, silent on nuclear threats
Michelle Drummond – I feel the important thing about this article is the fact that the AUSTRALIAN RADIATION PROTECTION AND NUCLEAR SAFETY AGENCY raised a warning about the dangers associated with radiation and getting too close to uranium and thorium in jewellery, however, they argue there are no dangers associated with mining, processing, using uranium and thorium in the production nuclear power, let alone storing the waste for thousands of years.
I also find it concerning that individuals are unable to connect the dots.
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Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency warns over wearing ’scalar energy’ jewellery, Adelaide Now , Tory Shepherd, State Editor, Sunday Mail (SA), April 28, 2019 Radioactive jewellery being sold in Australia can expose wearers to uranium and thorium, the radiation watchdog has warned. |
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How Big Oil Tried to Capture the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The lobby group focused its efforts on trying to constrain the strength of the IPCC’s statements about human causes of climate change in the run up to the UN’s annual climate meeting in Kyoto in 1997, where world leaders agreed to the world’s first global climate change treaty. Officials from President George W. Bush’s administration would later credit the GCC for influencing his decision to abandon the landmark Kyoto treaty.
Despite sophisticated coordination, connections to the highest political echelons, and huge resources, the GCC had limited success at influencing the UN’s main scientific body. The group was disbanded in 2002 after many members left, citing reputational risks around the groups’ peddling of climate science denial as the reason for their departure.
The documents show the GCC:
- Spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on an ‘IPCC Tracker Fund’ to monitor and lobby the UN’s climate science advisory body in the three years leading up to world leaders signing the Kyoto Protocol;
- Attacked the IPCC’s peer-review process, while also using the body’s status as a well-respected scientific institution to bolster its climate science denial claims;
- Targeted specific scientists responsible for establishing human activities caused climate change, using adverts and op-eds in the mainstream media to attack the scientists’ credibility……..
Industry efforts to quash inconvenient scientific conclusions continue, according to Robert Brulle, a Professor of Sociology at Drexel University. He told DeSmog the “efforts of the GCC continue to live on in the ongoing efforts of many conservative think tanks to dispute the findings of climate science, and to attack climate scientists.”
“One key component of this effort was to manipulate climate science as summarized in the IPCC reports. Not unlike other industries, such as asbestos, tobacco, or lead, scientific findings pose a major threat to fossil fuel corporations’ bottom line. Hence one key part of their strategy has been, and continues to be to minimize the anthropogenic factor driving climate change.”
“This is still a common talking point among politicians.” ndustry efforts to quash inconvenient scientific conclusions continue, according to Robert Brulle, a Professor of Sociology at Drexel University. He told DeSmog the “efforts of the GCC continue to live on in the ongoing efforts of many conservative think tanks to dispute the findings of climate science, and to attack climate scientists.”
“One key component of this effort was to manipulate climate science as summarized in the IPCC reports. Not unlike other industries, such as asbestos, tobacco, or lead, scientific findings pose a major threat to fossil fuel corporations’ bottom line. Hence one key part of their strategy has been, and continues to be to minimize the anthropogenic factor driving climate change.”
“This is still a common talking point among politicians.” https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/04/24/how-big-oil-tried-failed-capture-un-intergovernmental-panel-climate-change?utm_source=dsb%20subscriber%20newsletter
April 28 Energy News — geoharvey
Science and Technology: ¶ “Major Report To Highlight ‘Natural And Human Emergency’” • Scientists and government officials are in Paris to finalize a report examining humanity’s relationship with nature. One author says the report from the Intergovernmental Panel for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services highlights a “social and ecological emergency” the world faces. [BBC News] ¶ […]
The Truth-Teller: From the Pentagon Papers to the Doomsday Machine — IPPNW peace and health blog
We, as a society, are conscious of the risk of the devastating impacts that could come from climate disruption. In contrast to the absence of public discourse around nuclear conflict since the end of the Cold War, climate has been a subject of intense public debate. Although the danger of the nuclear threat remains undiminished, the proposed $1.7 trillion nuclear modernization program in the US is not a matter of serious debate.It is difficult to compare climate and nuclear threats. The climate catastrophe toward which we are moving, while uncertain in terms of timing and outcomes, is indisputable. We have survived the nuclear danger for seventy years, although we have come close to conflict more frequently than the public realizes.
via The Truth-Teller: From the Pentagon Papers to the Doomsday Machine — IPPNW peace and health blog
John Connor re-enters policy wars as head of Carbon Markets Institute — RenewEconomy
John Connor to head Carbon Markets Institute, says business now realising there is no such thing as a “low carbon” future, it has to be zero carbon. The post John Connor re-enters policy wars as head of Carbon Markets Institute appeared first on RenewEconomy.
via John Connor re-enters policy wars as head of Carbon Markets Institute — RenewEconomy
Facebook’s newest ‘fact checkers’ are Koch-funded climate deniers — RenewEconomy
The fatal flaw in Zuckerberg’s effort to deal with fake news. The post Facebook’s newest ‘fact checkers’ are Koch-funded climate deniers appeared first on RenewEconomy.
via Facebook’s newest ‘fact checkers’ are Koch-funded climate deniers — RenewEconomy
How Climate Change is Making Storms Stronger — Evaporation, Precipitation, Instability — robertscribbler
With Cyclones Idai and Kenneth generating record breaking, back-to-back landfalls in Mozambique, with new studies indicating an increase in U.S. tornado activity and a general movement of tornadoes eastward, and with many air travelers recently grounded, it’s a good time to revisit climate change’s overall effects on extreme weather. (Kenneth was the strongest storm to […]
CopperString is back, with plan to unlock outback wind and solar — RenewEconomy
New transmission line that could unlock major wind and solar resources in remote Queensland takes a big step forward. The post CopperString is back, with plan to unlock outback wind and solar appeared first on RenewEconomy.
via CopperString is back, with plan to unlock outback wind and solar — RenewEconomy
Uranium to be transported across Nullarbor Plain all the way from Yeelirrie to Port Adelaide
They will ship uranium across the Nullarbor through Pt Adelaide. I understand that Pt Adelaide and Darwin are the only ports they can ship out of, as Fremantle refuses. That extremely long journey will put up the cost of the uranium which as I understand is still very low.
The yellowcake highway to Port Adelaide , The Adelaide Advertiser
Uranium produced from a controversial West Australian mine approved a day before the federal election was called will be exported from Port Adelaide……. (subscribers only)
Federal Environment Minister, Melissa Price, fails the environment with secretive Yeelirrie uranium approval.
South Australian aborigines again face a nuclear threat – as Federal Government plans a nuclear waste dump
Trident celebrations ignore Aboriginal victims of British nuclear weapons testing, Green Left, Linda Pearson, April 26, 2019 Issue 1218, Scotland New threat from nuclear waste dump
“………..Aboriginal communities in South Australia now fear that they will be forced to bear the risks of radioactive contamination again. The Australian government is currently considering three sites for the location of a national nuclear waste dump, two on Barngarla land, near Kimba, and one on Adnyamathanha land at Wallerberdina Station, near the Finders Ranges.
The dump will host nuclear material currently stored at different sites in Australia, plus waste from Britain pursuant to a 2012 agreement between the British and Scottish governments. The agreement relates to waste generated by the reprocessing of Australian nuclear fuel at Dounreay. However, that waste is to remain where it is and a substituted amount will be shipped from the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing and decommissioning site, located on the coast of the Irish Sea.
The views of traditional owners have been sidelined throughout the process for choosing the dump’s location and Adnyamathanha’s traditional owners say that federal government contractors have already damaged sacred sites. As a result, two separate human rights complaints are outstanding in Australian courts.
Campaigners have called on the British and Scottish governments to halt the shipment while there is a risk that it will end up dumped on Aboriginal land without the consent of the Traditional Owners. However, the British government said the shipment “will comply with all relevant international laws” and the eventual destination of the waste is “a matter for the Australian authorities”. The British Environment Agency has so far failed to respond to requests to halt the shipment of waste from Sellafield.
The Scottish government has also failed to act to stop the shipment, despite expert advice it commissioned, which states that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and, ultimately, Scottish ministers could refuse to authorise the shipment on human rights grounds.
Britain’s plans to celebrate 50 years of at-sea nukes erases the experience of Indigenous people affected by nuclear weapons testing. Those experiences should be front and centre in any discussion about nuclear weapons, as ICAN recognised.
Instead of celebrating, we should be looking at ways to redress the past and prevent future harm. Britain should apologise for its nuclear weapons testing and pay adequate compensation to those affected. The shipment of nuclear waste from Sellafield should be stopped.
But there is only one way we can prevent more lives being destroyed by nuclear weapons and that is by eliminating them altogether. https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/trident-celebrations-ignore-aboriginal-victims-british-nuclear-weapons-testing
UN global assessment of the state of Nature – it’s not good
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In degrading Nature humanity harms itself, UN report warns, https://www.france24.com/en/20190425-degrading-nature-humanity-harms-itself-un-report-warns Diplomats and scientists from 130 nations gather in Paris next week to vet and validate the first UN global assessment of the state of Nature in more than a decade, and the news is not good.A quarter of 100,000 species already assessed are on a path to extinction, and the total number facing a forced exit from the world stage is closer to a million, according to an executive summary, obtained by AFP, of a 1,800-page scientific report three years in the making.
A score of 10-year targets adopted in 2010 under the UN’s biodiversity treaty — to expand protected areas, slow species and forest loss, and reduce pollution impact — will almost all fail, the draft Summary for Policy Makers reports.
But the focus of the five-day meet is not just pangolins, pandas, polar bears and the multitude of less “charismatic” lifeforms that humanity is eating, crowding or poisoning into oblivion. Rather, the spotlight is on the one species that has so ravaged Earth’s natural systems as to imperil its own existence as well. That, of course, would be us: homo sapiens. The accelerating loss of clean air, drinkable water, healthy soil, pollinating insects, protein-rich fish and storm-blocking mangroves — to name but a few of the dwindling services rendered by Nature — poses no less of a threat to humanity than climate change, according to the report, set to be unveiled May 6. “Up to now, we have talked about the importance of biodiversity mostly from an environmental perspective,” said Robert Watson, chair of the UN-mandated body that compiled the report, told AFP. “Now we are saying that Nature is crucial for food production, for pure water, for medicines and even social cohesion.” And to fight climate change, he added. Forests and oceans, for example, soak up half of the planet-warming greenhouse gases we spew into the atmosphere. If they didn’t, Earth might already be locked into an unliveable future of runaway global warming. And yet, an area of tropical forest five times the size of England has been destroyed since 2014, mainly to service the growing global demand for beef, biofuels, soy beans and palm oil. It would be like setting fire to a lifeboat while lost at sea in order to cook the fish one just caught. – Hidden impacts – “We need to recognise that climate change and loss of Nature are equally important, not just for the environment, but as development and economic issues as well,” Watson said. The way we produce our food and energy is undermining the regulating services that we get from Nature.” Set up in 2012, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) synthesises published science for policymakers in the same way the IPCC does for climate. Both advisory bodies are tied to UN treaties. But the Convention on Biological Diversity has always been a poor stepchild compared to its climate counterpart, and the IPBES — unlike the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — was added two decades later as an afterthought, making its authority harder to establish. For the public, “biodiversity” remains an abstract concept, and its impacts harder to see: species loss is invisible and remote compared to deadly heatwaves, superstorms and sea-level rise. “There is no question that the climate convention is stronger,” Watson said. “But our goal is to make sure that governments and the private sector really start to take biodiversity as seriously as they do climate.” – Species disappearing – One major finding of the report to be reviewed next week that might help do that is “an imminent rapid acceleration in the global rate of species extinction.” The pace of loss “is already tens to hundreds of times higher than it has been, on average, over the last 10 million years,” it notes. “Half-a-million to a million species are projected to be threatened with extinction, many within decades.” Experts on biodiversity are also trying to engineer a “Paris moment,” something equivalent to the 2015 climate treaty that set a hard target for capping global warming at under two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit). That could come next year in China at the next full meeting of the Convention on Biodiversity, they say. But the plan to save Nature — and humanity along with it — must be every bit as “transformative” as the changes proposed to avert a climate-addled future of human misery, said Watson. “The way we produce and use energy, with way we produce and waste food — all of that has to be looked at,” he said. “The global report will make the case that biodiversity is essential to a sustainable world and human well-being.” |
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Clandestine approval for controversial uranium mine is evidence Australia needs better environment laws
https://www.acf.org.au/clandestine_approval_for_controversial_uranium_mine, 26 APRIL 2019
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Radioactive risks last longer than any politician and deserve real assessment, not backroom fast-tracking. The Morrison Government’s quiet approval of a controversial uranium mine in Western Australia on the eve of the federal election being called is more evidence our national environment laws are broken, the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) says. Environment Minister Melissa Price approved the Yeelirrie uranium mine on April 10, the day before the Prime Minister headed to Government House to call the 2019 federal poll. Ms Price did not announce the approval via a public release. Instead a notice was later placed on the Environment Department’s website. The mine had been previously rejected by the WA Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) because it could drive to extinction rare subterranean fauna species and do harm to other wildlife species like the Malleefowl, Princess parrot and Greater bilby. The Yeelirrie mine, which is in Ms Price’s electorate of Durack, is still being legally challenged on appeal by senior Tjiwarl native title holders and conservationists. Ms Price had previously told media: “My department advised that it was prudent to wait for the result of the WA Supreme Court proceedings before finalising the federal assessment [for Yeelirrie].” ACF Nuclear Free Campaigner, Dave Sweeney, said Yeelirrie could produce more than 35 million tonnes of radioactive mine waste, use up to 10 billion litres of groundwater, and require 2500 hectares of vegetation to be cleared for its nine-kilometre long open pit. “The lack of respect for the Australian people and due process demonstrated by this clandestine approval under the cover of a national election is astounding,” Mr Sweeney said. “The Western Australian EPA explicitly rejected this mine because it threatens rare native fauna with extinction and would harm other species. This prudent recommendation was overruled by the Barnett Government weeks before it lost the 2017 state election. “Now the Morrison Government has performed the same trick, approving it hours before a federal election was called. This was done without regard for the Tjiwarl Traditional Owners, on whose land the planned mine sits, or the people of Esperance, who could have radioactive material shipped through their port. “There are many with deep concerns about this project. Any move to mine at Yeelirrie will be actively contested. We thought the rushed approval of Adani’s plans to guzzle billions of litres of groundwater for its massive coal mine on the eve of the election was a new low. But somehow hours later this low point was dug deeper by Minister Price. “Radioactive risks last longer than any politician and deserve real assessment, not backroom fast-tracking. “For too long Australia’s environment laws have been abused and short-changed by politicians cutting deals that put the interests of big companies over nature, Traditional Owners and local communities. “The assessment of this project has been deficient. This rushed rubber stamp must be reviewed by any future federal government. “Australia needs new and stronger national environment laws that actually protect nature and take politics and undue influence out of approval decisions for major industrial projects. “These laws should be overseen by an independent national EPA that is charged with making approval decisions free from the interfering hand of big businesses and their politician mates.” |
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Coalition slammed over ‘misleading’ Adani billboard
Worse than GetUp’: Coalition slammed over ‘misleading’ Adani billboard, SMH, By Dana McCauley. April 25, 2019 The Morrison government has been accused of misleading Queensland voters in a seat set to benefit most from the controversial Adani coal mine, with a billboard that appears to show Labor leader Bill Shorten participating in a campaign to stop it.
Critics have condemned the billboard as a misuse of political advertising after Liberal National senator for Queensland Matt Canavan posted a photograph of it on social media, boasting it had “just gone up in Rockhampton to remind everyone – including Bill – what he actually said”.
“Labor just can’t be trusted,” Senator Canavan, who is federal Resources Minister, wrote.
The billboard is in the ultra-marginal electorate of Capricornia, held by Liberal National MP Michelle Landry, which would house the proposed mine.
It will be a key battleground at the federal election along with fellow north Queensland coal seats Dawson, Herbert and Flynn, as jobs, energy and environment policy firm up as key concerns for voters heading into the May 18 federal election.
Political advertising is covered by electoral rules that make it illegal to mislead citizens about how to cast their votes, such as in how-to-vote cards.
Progressive lobby group GetUp was forced to pull a satirical campaign advertisement depicting Tony Abbott as a lifeguard ignoring pleas to help someone drowning after a barrage of criticism.
Mr Shorten, who has previously said he did not support the Adani mine, repeatedly refused to explicity rule out a review of the project’s federal approval this week before firming up his position not to do so on Wednesday, saying: “We are not going to review Adani, full stop.”
The issue has caused ructions within the Labor Party and the unions that are bankrolling a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign to install Mr Shorten as prime minister, with those in north Queensland campaigning for mining development in the Galilee basin.
The Queensland branch of the powerful Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union is demanding that all candidates sign a pledge outlining their support for coal jobs, while more than 30 unions have endorsed strikes by school students demanding that the Adani mine be stopped.
Labor candidates campaigning in marginal seats in Queensland have expressed support for coal mining, while those in Sydney and Melbourne have opposed it.
The Coalition campaign has been approached for comment. https://www.smh.com.au/federal-election-2019/worse-than-getup-coalition-slammed-over-misleading-adani-billboard-20190425-p51h51.html
Morrison govt approved Yeelirrie uranium mine just the day before calling the election
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Government approved controversial uranium mine one day before calling the election ABC News, 25 Apr 19, by national environment, science and technology reporter Michael Slezak, The Morrison Government signed off on a controversial uranium mine one day before calling the federal election, and did not publicly announce the move until the environment department uploaded the approval document the day before Anzac Day.
Key points:
The Yeelirrie Uranium mine, located 500 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, requires both federal and state approval. The state approval of the proposed mine is still being fought in the state’s Supreme Court by members of the Tjiwarl traditional owners. In 2016, the West Australian Environment Protection Agency advised the mine not be approved, concluding it posed too great a risk of extinction to some native animals. The former Liberal Barnett government controversially approved the mine in 2017, just weeks before it lost the West Australian election. Canadian company Cameco, the world’s largest uranium producer, is seeking to develop the uranium mine, which would cover an area 9km long and 1.5km wide. It would involve the clearing of up to 2,422 hectares of native vegetation. It is also approved to cause groundwater levels to drop by 50cm, and they would not completely recover for 200 years, according to Cameco’s environmental reports. A spokesperson for Environment Minister Melissa Price said the approval was subject to 32 strict conditions to avoid and mitigate potential environmental impacts. Traditional owner of the area, Tjiwarl woman Vicky Abdullah, said she was surprised by the announcement, and was hoping for the project to be rejected. “It’s a very precious place for all of us. For me and my two aunties, who have been walking on country,” she said……. Ms Price has declined an interview with the ABC. …… Dave Sweeney, an anti-nuclear campaigner at the Australian Conservation Foundation, said the timing suggested the decision was political. “We need decisions that are based on evidence and the national interest, not a company’s interest or not a particular senator’s or a particular government’s interest,” he said. “This reeks of political interference, rather than a legal consideration or due process.” The approval is one of several controversial moves the Government made before entering caretaker mode, where such decisions would be impossible, including approving Adani’s two groundwater management plans for its proposed Carmichael coal mine. At a federal level, both Labor and the Coalition support the development of uranium mining in Australia…….. The company said the mine was expected to produce up to 7,500 tonnes of yellow cake concentrate over a 15-year period. Over its life, the mine would produce around 36 million tonnes of radioactive waste, which would be stored at the site. The West Australian EPA’s recommendation to block the mine was based primarily on the impacts the mine would have on animals that live in groundwater, called stygofauna. Dr Tom Hatton, chairman of the West Australian EPA, said there was more stygofauna in the area near the mine “than anywhere else in the northern Goldfields”. “The stygofauna habitat at Yeelirrie is particularly rich, with 73 species recorded,” Dr Hatton said in 2017. The federal approval is conditional on Cameco producing a groundwater management plan, which manages the risks to those animals. It also has a number of other conditions, including surveys to confirm reports of night parrots in the area, and if they are found, a night parrot management plan would be required. Ms Abdullah told the ABC she and her family have used the area for years to hunt and camp. “Where are all the next generation of our kids going to go,” Ms Abdullah asked……. Ongoing court challengesIn October, it was reported that Ms Price would not approve the mine before the court case in Western Australia was resolved. “My department advised that it was prudent to wait for the result of the WA Supreme Court proceedings before finalising the Federal assessment,” she reportedly told the Kalgoorlie Miner. “This ensures that we know the state decision is valid and we can avoid overlapping with any state approval conditions.”…….https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-26/government-approved-uranium-mine-day-before-election/11047252 |
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1 This month.
Australians deserve the truth
about
AUKUS – https://aukuspublicinquiry.com/
Australians deserve the truth
about AUKUS
PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 