Australia’s biggest private renewable energy firm has attacked Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s environmental agenda, saying his green power target is at risk of failing. Continue reading
Climate protestors released, but still face charges
Two climate prisoners released but still facing charges
Sydney Indymedia 05 Jan 2010
By takver Climate activists Australian Natasha Verco and American citizen Noah Weiss were released from a Copenhagen prison but are still facing charges of attempted assault of a police officer and planning to disturb public order. Continue reading
Call for aboriginal summit
here in Australia the government has spin doctors operating full time to hide the true state of play in respect of Aboriginal people. They are paid big dollars to convince the white Australian public that what they do for Aborigines is in the interest of the Aboriginal people and that special measures are necessary. “
Aboriginal struggle like those in China and Iran Goodooga, northwest NSW, 3 January 2010 – – A NSW activist likens the struggle for Aboriginal rights to the uprisings to win freedom in China and Iran. Continue reading
Maralinga atomic veterans join British class action
It is a race against time as applications have to be lodged before a legal deadline of May 2010
CLASS ACTION BY NUCLEAR VETERANS HEADED BY SYDNEY LEGAL TEAM – NO WIN NO FEE December 31, 2009 by Coober Pedy Regional Times Surviving Australian veterans of the British nuclear tests at Maralinga, Monte Bello Island and Christmas Island in the 1950s and 60s are joining British and other nuclear veterans in taking the British government to court in what could be one of the most significant compensation cases in legal history. Continue reading
Ziggy continues to spruik “safe, Clean” nuclear power
“It is far too expensive, much dearer than wind power. It is unnecessary because Australia has enormous renewable energy resources and in the long term it [nuclear energy] becomes a medium-level carbon dioxide emitter,“.Dr. Mark Diesendorf
Australia debates plan to build 10 nuclear reactors The National Phil Mercer, SYDNEY December 30, 2009 Conservationists have reacted with dismay and bewilderment to a call by Australia’s atomic industry to build 10 nuclear power stations by 2030. ….. Continue reading
Doubts about the future of uranium mining
“Right now, there’s a lot of speculation, but exactly how large demand will grow, no one knows.”
Canada: Two companies push Uranium mining in region By GARY HARMON/The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel December 27, 2009 Two major international suppliers of uranium, meanwhile, are out of commission temporarily and possibly permanently. The Cigar Lake Mine in Canada flooded, and the Olympic Dam Mine in Australia is out of production because of a shaft accident..………………. Continue reading
Australians prefer renewables, not nuclear energy
Renewables favoured over nuclear: Newspoll ecogeneration 29 Dec 09 December 29, 2009
Australians strongly favour renewable energy as a government priority over nuclear energy, according to a recent Newspoll survey. Continue reading
After years of denial, NSW govt quietly demolishing radioactive home
Radioactive waterfront home to be razed Sydney Morning Herald BEN CUBBY ENVIRONMENTDecember 28, 2009 NEW plans to clean up the site of a former uranium smelter in Hunters Hill mean a four-storey waterfront mansion the NSW Government has repeatedly declared safe will be demolished. Continue reading
Aboriginal people the undisputed owners of their land
Noel Pearson and Indigenous Australia A Review of the Essay Collection Up From the Mission Suite 101 Dec 16, 2009 Chris Saliba “…………When the High Court of Australia overturned the idea of terra nullius, it also stood Australia’s previously understood land title system on its head. It established that the Aboriginal people had been the undisputed owners of the land before white settlement. While this ruling would cause enormous controversy in Australia, freehold and pastoral titles would not be adversely affected in any way………………Here Pearson explains the challenges for native land title claimants:
“Non-indigenous parties to land claims can never lose any of their rights or titles, because these are indefeasible under the common law – and if they were ever invalid, the Native Title Act has now cured any invalidities. The only party that can truly lose in a native title claim is the Indigenous claimant. The non-indigenous parties – including the Crown – have nothing to lose, other than an argument to the effect that the Indigenous people have no entitlement.”
Noel Pearson and Indigenous Australia: A Review of the Essay Collection Up From the Mission
Depleted uranium was tested on soldiers in Australia
An Australian royal commission first discovered the use of depleted uranium in atomic tests at Maralinga some years ago,
Global changes ruining the world, September 25, 2009 Human Nuclear Action UK Admits Soldiers Used in Radiation Experiments The UK Ministry of Defense admitted on 12 May that it exposed British, Australian and New Zealand servicemen to radiation in tests during the 1950s and 1960s. A spokesperson for the Ministry denied that the soldiers were used as guinea pigs, Continue reading
Ziggy Switkowski’s nuclear plan would cost $225 billion or more
This could cost about $225 billion in today’s money, or close to half a trillion dollars for 50 reactors……….
Nuclear economics just don’t add up Sydney Morning Herald MICHAEL R. JAMES December 24, 2009 -“……. it was inevitable that the federal Opposition would revisit nuclear power as an option for a low-carbon future in Australia. Given the recent sobering Government report on carbon capture and storage, “clean coal” seems less and less as the likely saviour………… Continue reading
Sovereign rights of aboriginal people to South Australian land
sovereign-rights-exposed-south-australia-and-british-land-coverup-revealed-in-new-book/ – Coober Pedy Regional Times 23 Dec 09 A new book called “Coming to Terms – Aboriginal Title in South Australia”, edited by prominent lawyer Shaun Berg, has just been released. The book clearly exposes the enduring Sovereign land rights of indigenous people. Continue reading
Australia missing the renewable energy bus
PM’s green power approach ‘a fraud’ Big Pond News December 23, 2009
Review- Maralinga aborigines and vets, Copenhagen dud…
Review of the past week
Australia: poll shows Australian want renewable energy, not nuclear, and Australian Academy of Science agrees. Maralinga veterans join British vets’ legal action. Aboriginal victims’ health ignored, too, while Maralinga land returned to them. Climate sceptics continue to get media coverage, and John Howard joins Ziggy Sinowski in nuclear push.
International: China- France nuclear deal despite China’s bad record for secrecy and poor safety. Copenhagen a dud, but strong popular movement for action. Russia plans nukes in space. France’s nuclear electricity coping poorly in extreme weather. South African antinuke movement. Renewables going ahead in Scotland, and Taiwan.
In defense of leaders at Copenhagen
Yes – I know that it was a crummy outcome. But what did you expect? If Obama, Rudd etc came up with even a half-decent agreement – they would be out of office in no time, with the domestic outcry. Then somebody worse would be in office.
(Shades of Hilaire Bellooc’s advice, on the boy who had his head bitten off by a lion – “always keep a hold of nurse, for fear of finding something worse”)
As long as the public, egged on by the media, see economic groswth and consumerism as the desirable lifestyle – there is no hope for reducing C02 emissions.
It’s Christmas – what a symptom of our public disease – with everybody rushing around buying more unnecessary stuff – to watch on their great plasma screens, in their McMansions etc. It’s US – the world public – who consume all the junk that keeps the factories and mines roaring.
I just hope that the world wakes up to this before catastrophe awakens us properly.
South Australia’s history of land grab from aborigines
Book reveals SA land injustice BigPond News 21 Dec 09
A new book alleges South Australia was built on an unlawful land grab, which breached British laws protecting the rights of Aboriginal people.
The book, called Coming to Terms, says a rule requiring the settlers to obtain land from the indigenous people only with their consent was ignored.
It says by the end of 1836, the Aboriginal people had been stripped of all their land.
Former High Court justice Michael Kirby will launch the book in Adelaide.
Book reveals SA land injustice | National – Regional | Telstra BigPond News and Weather
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