250,000 homes ‘at risk’ from rising seas

250,000 homes ‘at risk’ from rising seas

ABC News By environment reporter Sarah Clarke and staff 14 Nov 09

A new report has warned that up to 250,000 homes around Australia will be inundated due to climate change by the turn of the century.

The Federal Government report titled Climate Change Risks to Australia’s Coast is the most comprehensive assessment to date, taking into account a projected 1.1-metre rise in sea level and an increasing risk of extreme weather events like tidal and storm surges.

Up to $63 billion worth of residential property faces inundation, as well as 120 ports, some airports – including Brisbane and Sydney – and 1,800 bridges.

Rising sea levels also threaten the five power stations and three water treatment plants located within 200 metres of Australia’s coastline.

250,000 homes ‘at risk’ from rising seas – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Kevin Rudd rmaintains stand against uranium to India

Kevin Rudd refuses to buckle on refusal to sell uranium to India * Matthew Franklin, Chief political correspondent  The Australian * November 12, 2009  KEVIN Rudd has made clear he will not buckle on Australia’s refusal to sell uranium to India just hours ahead of a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi.The Prime Minister told reporters in the Indian capital this morning that India’s refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty meant Australian would not sell it uranium, even though it had helped the Indian Government obtain materials to support its nuclear program through the Nuclear Suppliers Group – an international grouping of nations supplying nuclear technology and resources which seeks to contribute to non-proliferation……………………
Australia maintains a blanket ban in selling uranium to nations which refuse to sign the NPT Treaty.

This morning Mr Rudd said the United States, Australian and other nations had worked together in recent years through the international Nuclear Suppliers Group to ensure India could access “the supply of inputs to its own nuclear program”.

“We also worked in close concert with other nations from around the world, some of whom had profound reservations about that action,” Mr Rudd said.

Kevin Rudd refuses to buckle on refusal to sell uranium to India | The Australian

NSW gross feed in tariff for solar energy

NSW to go gross with solar  The Northern Rivers Echo  by Andy Parks  12th November 2009  Environmental and industry groups have welcomed the announcement by the NSW Government that they will introduce a gross feed in tariff for renewable energy systems such as solar and wind.A gross tariff system pays for all of the electricity that the system produces, not just the excess that is fed back into the grid.
NSW will be the second region in Australia to introduce a gross tariff system (Canberra was the first) and there are now calls for other states to follow because there is strong evidence that gross feed in tariffs are a key element in increasing the uptake of domestic solar systems and the main reason for Germany’s dominance as a solar power producing nation.
The announcement by Premier Nathan Rees on Tuesday was that households will be paid at 60 cents per kilowatt hour for systems up to 10kW………..The scheme will begin on January 1, 2010.

NSW to go gross with solar | Northern Rivers News | Local News in Northern Rivers | Northern Rivers Echo

Australia evolving its position on uranium sales to India?

Australia evolving its position on uranium sales to India? Business Standard Jyoti Malhotra / New Delhi November 14, 2009, highly placed Australian sources confirmed to Business Standard that Rudd’s own position on uranium sales to India was an “evolving one,” that he was working on reversing the Labour Party’s historical position on uranium sales to India and could do this around the time of the national elections in October 2010.In order to cement the already-strong relationship with India, Rudd knew he would have to iron out this particular wrinkle, the sources confirmed. Australia’s previous Conservative government led by John Howard had promised uranium sales, a promise that had been broken by Rudd’s government when it came to power.

Australia evolving its position on uranium sales to India?

Uranium mining companies to fight it out in court

Miners clash on native title
* Sarah-Jane Tasker
* From: The Australian
* November 13, 2009

THE joint-venture partners in what is expected to be Australia’s next uranium mine are locked in a legal dispute over a native title agreement on the project.

Radioactive land to be given back to aborigines

A South Australian ex-serviceman who was exposed to radiation during the Maralinga atomic tests in the 1950s and 60s says land should not be handed over to the traditional owners until a contaminated area is cleaned up or fenced off.

The South Australian Government says the Tjarutja people are meeting this week to give their final approval to a proposal to allow for the vast expanse of desert in the state’s far north-west to be returned.It says legislation will be introduced to State Parliament following the approval.
The previous federal government cleaned up radioactive material at Maralinga, but ex-serviceman Avon Hudson says some land is still contaminated.

Tjarutja people ‘at risk’ from contaminated land – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

India waiting for Australia to sell uranium

Australian PM arrives, India concerned over attacks on students►  Trak In News by Indo Asian News Service  November 11, 2009 Buoyed by bilateral civil nuclear deals with five countries, the Indian side is expected to renew its pitch for the purchase of uranium from Australia.
However, no tangible movement in this area is expected as Canberra has made it clear that it does not sell uranium to countries which have not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.Australia supported the resumption of global nuclear trade with India in the International Atomic Energy Agency and the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group last year.
India is hoping it will be among the first countries to get Australian uranium after Canberra revises its domestic policy.

Australian PM arrives, India concerned over attacks on students

The truth about nuclear and uranium weapons

Before the Bomb – book review - On Line Opinion, by Noel Wauchope  – 9/11/2009 Where do we go, to find out about the radiological effects of atomic weapons?We usually seek out the rather patchy and incomplete stories of the victims – those at the “receiving end” of bombing, at Hiroshima, or of the atomic tests of Nevada, of Mururoa, Montebello, Maralinga. These have been covered in several books.But, how much was known about these radiological effects before the Bomb?

Here, at last, is the book that answers this question. And Paul Langley’s book The Prediction of the Radiological Effects of Atomic Bombs From Knowledge Published Prior to August 1945 answers it with evidence in forensic detail, a plenitude of exact primary documentary evidence, including digital evidence available on the Internet.

This is also a book that raises questions: questions that matter very much right now. Today, World War II veterans, Pacific Islanders, Navajo people and Australian Aborigines seek acknowledgment and justice for their diseases from exposure to radiation. Iraqi doctors and communities, and US, Canadian and UK Gulf War veterans claim health damage from depleted uranium. Where is the truth?…………..

It is an Australian shame that recognition has not been given to aboriginal victims. The reaction of Australian authorities has been a record of “lies, denial, racial taunts and suppression of evidence.” In Project Sunshine’s calculations of exposure dose to Australians, two population groups were excluded. These were: Aborigines living in remote areas around the bomb test sites, and the soldiers and others involved in the tests. In other words the two most affected groups.

A later health study continued to exclude the Aborigines, ignoring the testimony of survivors, their memory of the “Black Mist”, and even of those with Beta burns. Secrecy surrounded the investigation. Professor Ernest Titterton, Chairman of the Australian Atomic Weapons Test Safety Committee, kept project information from the Committee. As he stated “I was subject to American control on information.”

Before the Bomb – book review – On Line Opinion – 9/11/2009

Solar households to get paid for all their power

Solar households to get paid for all their power ABC News  Nov 10, 2009 The New South Wales Government has reversed its policy on solar power – meaning households with solar energy systems will soon be paid for all of the electricity they generate.
The state Government is adopting a gross feed-in tariff system for solar energy rather than the net model which is in place in other states.The Environment Minister John Robertson says it means households will be paid for all of the electricity produced by solar panels, not just the surplus which is fed back into the grid.

“It will be the highest payment for families anywhere in the country at 60 cents per kilowatt-hour,” he said.”This will provide households the opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint and also ensure they’re generating electricity using solar cells.”

Solar households to get paid for all their power – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Renewable energy the best bet for Queensland

Miners digging their own graves to preserve profits

Courier Mail John Connor

November 10, 2009

QUEENSLANDERS, particularly in the regions, have been pounded with ads from the mining industry talking about job losses and closures should coal mines and other industries shoulder their share of efforts to reduce Australia’s carbon pollution.

But you don’t need to scratch much below the surface to show the slipperiness and shortsightedness of such claims.

The reality is that tens of billions of dollars are pouring into the mining industry and more than a dozen new mines are slated for opening………….

What industry lobbyists are also not telling you is the CPRS and other clean-energy policies, if effectively implemented, could grow a million more clean-energy, clean-technology jobs across Australia by 2030.

Climate Institute research shows Queensland could triple the jobs in the renewable energy sector by 2020.

These industry lobbyists and some Queensland politicians are also remarkably silent when it comes to the job losses and economic impacts that will follow as climate change hits Queensland’s natural and economic assets such as the Great Barrier Reef, the Wet Tropics and coastal and regional communities.

What’s more, they were silent when research was released showing Australia was well behind all other developed countries, and indeed some developing countries, in its carbon competitiveness – the ability to prosper in a world already turning to clean energy and low-carbon economic growth……………………….

In 2008 alone, $167 billion was invested in new clean-energy sources, representing a four-fold increase since 2004 and, for the first time, outstripping investments in the fossil fuel technologies. Worldwide, the renewable energy sector already employs about 2.3 million people – more than the number employed directly by the oil and gas industry.

The pace of these changes needs to accelerate to avoid the worst impacts of climate change but only dinosaurs in business and politics can’t or don’t want to see these changes.

Miners digging their own graves to preserve profits | The Courier-Mail