Australia is now a divided society. The Adani coal mine dispute is symbolic of this division. The majority see climate change as an urgent issue. But others see coal mining as a lifeline for rural communities.
It is now the job of the environmental movement to explain to those communities, how clean energy is economic – provides jobs, can revitalise rural areas, can play a role in conserving water, and bring this society together, in positive action.
We also need to revive Australia’s role as a good global citizen. It takes a comedian to work this out. Charlie Pickering of the ABC’s “The Weekly” pointed out that Australia emits less than 2% of global greenhouse gases. The big emitters, like China and USA emit far more. (graph – not perfectly accurate, adjusted from Charlie Pickering’s Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/officialcharliepickering/videos/295306311406255/?v=295306311406255 )
However, the countries like Australia, that emit 2% or less of the total, together make up 41% of the global total, the largest contributor. If these countries together took action on climate change, they would make a major difference. But if each decides that they’re too small to matter, – the world is in trouble,
Australia used to be a leader in so many humanitarian and environmental areas. What Australia does IS WATCHED by the world. Australia has the opportunity to act on global warming, and show itself once again to be a good global citizen. Australia needs also to retrieve its former international respectability , also by giving REAL help to Pacific Islanders, as sea levels rise. (We also might want help from other countries when we have an environmental crisis, e.g bushfires.)
The Greens get it. Labor might get it. The COALition have shown that their loyalty is to the fossil fuel industries, not to the Australian public.
In working to deal with the climate crisis, we must not fall prey to the blandishments of the nuclear industry. Their shills will be coming out from under their rocks, touting nuclear power as the cure. It’s like how the tobacco lobby might recommend smoking as a cure for obesity, (a thought first expressed by Dr Helen Caldicott.)
With bewildering rapidity, opinions on climate change action are shifting. Corporate America is calling on Congress to pass big climate policy , while President Trump outright dismisses climate change as a serious issue. Climate change action is a top priority for UK’s moderate Conservatives. France is setting up a Citizens’ Convention
for the Climate. Despite record hot summer, in Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s remorseless focus on costs outweighed climate concerns, and his climate-sceptic government was re-elected.
The media is, as usual, awash with articles about the “need” for nuclear power – to solve climate change. It’s like a religious belief for journalists to mention “zero carbon” or “clean” nuclear in otherwise well-researched articles.
Don’t be fooled by folksy, blokey Prime Minister Scott Morrison. The suave and slick Josh Frydenberg is the brains of the outfit. And he knows whom he is working for – the fossil fuel industries, not the public.
Our plan is very clear’: No climate revamp for re-elected Coalition, Australians should not expect any change to the Liberal-National government’s climate change policies after their federal election win. SBS, 20 May19
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has hosed down any suggestion that the Coalition will be going back to the drawing board on climate change after the government’s come-from-behind election win.
“Our plan is very clear and it’s the plan that we took to the Australian people,” he told ABC’s Insiders on Sunday. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has hosed down any suggestion that the Coalition will be going back to the drawing board on climate change after the government’s come-from-behind election win.
“Our plan is very clear and it’s the plan that we took to the Australian people,” he told ABC’s Insiders on Sunday.
Mr Frydenberg was among Coalition members who faced a swing against them on Saturday, in the face of challenges from independent or Green candidates campaigning largely on climate change.
As the results rolled in, outgoing MP Julie Bishop said the Coalition must reassess its position on climate change and possibly revisit former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s signature energy policy.
“It will have to end the uncertainty and the National Energy Guarantee was the closest thing we had to a bipartisan position.” …..
Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek hopes the government finally grapples with climate and energy with a policy aimed at bringing down pollution, reducing power prices and boosting investment in renewables.
The election result was not what was expected. Progressive Australians are still reeling from the shock – of another 3 years of a government whose loyalty is to the fossil fuel industry and to the nuclear lobby.
The Scott Morrison government has no plans, no idea at all, about how Australia might genuinely aim to meet its Paris climate change commitments.
It seems that most Australians were taken in by Scott Morrison’s simplistic message “I alone can manage the economy, cutting taxes (for the wealthy) is all that is needed” . The message of Labor and The Greens comprehensive policies did not come across.
A Trump -like victory, a Brexit like victory – grim years ahead for Australia.
The goal of a clean, positive programme for energy, climate, water, and the environment must not be abandoned. Progressive Australians, whether in Parliament, in the Senate, in the media, or in the environmental movement will not give up.
Federal election on 18 May. If the climate-denying, nuclear-loving Liberal Coalition gets back in, I reckon that there’ll be wholesale emigration to New Zealand, where they have decent and compassionate policies, and a Prime Minister with integrity!
Deep divisions between nations as preparations made for next year’s review of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Global paralysis in weapons control agreements as a new arms race begins.
Susan Craig Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste Dump In Flinders Ranges SA, 10 May 19,
I spoke directly with the Department of Industry and Science recently who advised that once the National Waste Management Facility site was selected, they would advance the process of selecting a location for deep geological permanent solution, as the Intermediate Level waste was “temporary.” However, the report attached does not support this, stating that the ILW is “indefinite” and there are no plans for a permanent safe solution, because it can’t be justified and both ILW and LLW will be co-located.
The only safe and ethical ultimate solution is disposal in a deep geological repository. To store the ILW temporarily and indefinitely, in the hope that future generations will come up with a safe solution and furthermore assume they will have the financial resources to implement them is an unethical neglect of responsibility and a deliberate, conscious act to burden us who are alive today and future generations.
Intermediate level waste is 100% lethal. You’ll die in 4 – 5 weeks after exposure and it is radioactive for tens of thousands of years. We have been told that the ILW store was “temporary”. However, we now know it is “indefinite.” See page 65 titled Deep geological disposal.
Susan CraigLINK TO THE REPORT HERE ALSO: https://archive.industry.gov.au/…/report_on_public…Roslyn AllenMore government lack of responsibilities/pass the buck mentality, also cover up hoping no one will notice.
I wonder how they will feel if one of their children/grandchildren become contaminated in the future due to lack of duty of care to their constituents that voted them in. This reads a lack of care, lack of understanding of the gravity of the situation and a lack of understanding of the time frame.
COMMENTS
Kazzi JaiOh, they will continue to promise “the world” if they can manage to SHAFT the NUCLEAR WASTE ONTO SOUTH AUSTRALIA, SO IT BECOMES SOLELY SOUTH AUSTRALIA’S PROBLEM!!
NO MEANS NO!
Lucas Heights is the First to say Not in My Backyard…and they generate over 90% of the non-mining nuclear waste!
They generate it – their problem – particularly after THEY decided to build OPAL – which we did not really need as we had already shown we could access imported isotopes when the reactor was down for months at a time, and our usage has not increased since that time, but in fact decreased!
According to Adi Paterson at Budget Estimates 2017, Australian hospitals use 28% medical isotopes and rest – 72% – are exported overseas (2017 figures).
And they now intend ramping up production from 550,000 doses per annum to 10 million doses per annum – to become one of the leaders in export of medical isotopes!!
Leave the waste there on site at Lucas Heights – they have ample space to accomodate it – they are licenced for many decades yet to hold it – it is safe there, monitored professionally there, and it is secure there. That is the way the world is now heading with nuclear waste – storing it close to the site it is generated – until a solution can be found for dealing with it properly once and for all, which does not involve burying it and effectively abandoning it – which means it remains a liability for future generations to deal with!
Noel WauchopeA glaring example of the duplicity which pervades this entire nuclear lobby push . It is surely aimed at making South Australia a “nuclear hub” for the world. This whole crooked enterprise will make a few individuals rich and famous, while ensuring South Australia a prominent place in radioactively poisoning the planet. more https://www.facebook.com/groups/344452605899556/
Both issues – climate change, and nuclear wastes have been in the political headlines in anglophone countries. A pity that these seem to be rarely reported in English language in other countries, and probably not reported at all in totalitarian countries. Good News: In Britain, climate activists, – Extinction Rebellion, and school children’s strikes have had their political impact, asUK declares a Climate Emergency. In Australia climate ‘paralysis’ looms over its coming election.
In USA, the battle over where to put nuclear wastes heats up with renewed political turmoil over plan for Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as nuclear waste dump. Radioactive wastes continue to trouble Europe and UK, though not a peep out of Russia, China about theirs.
The harm done to indigenous people, through uranium mining – and it’s happening again. Unfinished business: a new report on the Ranger uranium mine: what its clean-up means for Kakadu National Park.
High blood pressure risk from prolonged exposure to low-dose ionising radiation. Low level radiation exposure and increased risks of hypertension, cardiovascular disease and cerebrovascular disease.
We are the joy, the sadness, the anger and the peace.’ With these moving words, Adnyamathanha Elders Aunty Enice Marsh and Geraldine Anderson opened a significant gathering in Port Augusta last month. People from the Flinders Ranges and the Kimba farming region, still threatened by the federal government’s plans to deposit the nation’s radioactive waste, met again ‘on the country in between’.
For some months now, no further government decisions have been taken — or at least not conveyed — as to the preferred final site for the nation’s long-lived intermediate and low-level nuclear waste.
On 18 December, following the Barngala people’s similar move in August against the Kimba Council, the Adnyamathanha Traditional Lands Association (ATLA) of the Flinders Ranges took to court the local council’s ruling to exclude non-resident Traditional Owners from a community ballot on the matter. Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, representing ATLA pro bono, see the situation as a justice issue. The 30 January decision deadline has come and gone.
Peter Woolford is the chairperson of the aptly named ‘It Goes Against the Grain’ group of farmers and townspeople of the Kimba region who oppose the dump and its threat to their international grain markets. From his long interview for the 7.30 Report on 28 March, only a few brief words survived the final cut, but he was pleased it was his main point: ‘We’re not activists — I’m a third generation farmer.’
His report to the Port Augusta gathering spoke of much activity, notably that the anti-dump farmers’ stand at the Cleve Field Days had attracted 1000 petitions. Meanwhile, farmer colleague Tom Harris, now on the Kimba Council, provides ‘some balance’ to the otherwise pro-dump farmers/townspeople councillors.
Originally bound to the Flinders by the tragic loss of his ten year old brother there in 1959, Greg Bannon, chairperson of FLAG (Flinders Local Action Group), paid tribute to the Adnyamathanha: ‘Support from the TOs in community from the start has been great and inspiring and has given strength to the rest of us who have no home but here.’ FLAG’s many activities include writing letters, making submissions, media appearances, presenting to the local council, and more.
Meanwhile the mental anguish of community conflict and concern — either for country or from the cash benefits promised by government — continues within both communities. The 7.30 Report highlighted this, with people on both (mainly pro) sides of the issue given voice. As Woolford wondered aloud to us in Port Augusta: ‘How is our town to heal, whichever way the decision goes?’
How can serious environmental matters in South Australia become as important in the national consciousness as those in the eastern states?”
Also in April, Friends of the Earth associates, Mara Bonacci and Dr Jim Green, travelled to Port Pirie, Port Augusta, Whyalla and Port Lincoln to meet with councils, election candidates for the Division of Grey, trade unions and Traditional Owners. Months after independent environmental expert David Noonan’s careful study of government documents revealed the ports named to possibly receive the nuclear waste, local people including council members of proposed port towns, still had no idea of this reality.
Younger members of the areas affected are speaking out. Adnyamathanha Candace Champion is standing for the Greens in the coming election. The Kimba young people are asking why they have been given no voice. As Adnyamathanha law student Dwayne Coulthard declares: ‘South Australia is being smashed right now — UCG [Underground Coal Gasification], the Bight and the Nuclear Waste Dump. How do we make this a reality for people?’
Good question! How can serious environmental matters in South Australia become as important in the national consciousness as those in the eastern states? Australia’s intermediate nuclear waste will be dangerous for 10,000 years. As Mara Bonacci explains, ‘It’s Australia’s waste, it’s a national issue, the burden of responsibility shouldn’t fall on two small regional communities.’
The SA Catholic Church recently suffered a great loss at the sudden passing of a key priest, Denis Edwards. Author of many internationally known books on a Christian response to the ecological crisis, Edwards had no hesitation in becoming a No Dump Alliance member: ‘I believe we are called by God to love and to respect this land as a gift, and to protect its integrity for future generations.’Good question! How can serious environmental matters in South Australia become as important in the national consciousness as those in the eastern states? Australia’s intermediate nuclear waste will be dangerous for 10,000 years. As Mara Bonacci explains, ‘It’s Australia’s waste, it’s a national issue, the burden of responsibility shouldn’t fall on two small regional communities.’
The SA Catholic Church recently suffered a great loss at the sudden passing of a key priest, Denis Edwards. Author of many internationally known books on a Christian response to the ecological crisis, Edwards had no hesitation in becoming a No Dump Alliance member: ‘I believe we are called by God to love and to respect this land as a gift, and to protect its integrity for future generations.’Good question! How can serious environmental matters in South Australia become as important in the national consciousness as those in the eastern states? Australia’s intermediate nuclear waste will be dangerous for 10,000 years. As Mara Bonacci explains, ‘It’s Australia’s waste, it’s a national issue, the burden of responsibility shouldn’t fall on two small regional communities.’
The SA Catholic Church recently suffered a great loss at the sudden passing of a key priest, Denis Edwards. Author of many internationally known books on a Christian response to the ecological crisis, Edwards had no hesitation in becoming a No Dump Alliance member: ‘I believe we are called by God to love and to respect this land as a gift, and to protect its integrity for future generations.’
No Dump Alliance is a broad grouping from the SA community, Aboriginal and agricultural representatives. On 29 April, the third anniversary of the day the federal government named Wallerbina, Flinders Ranges as the preferred site, the Alliance called for the scrapping of the present site selection process and the establishment of an independent inquiry to thoroughly explore all the scientifically safe options for management.
The next day, members presented hundreds of petitions to this end to federal member Rowan Ramsey. As Peter Woolford said, ‘Our homes, our communities, our jobs are at risk from this unpopular and unnecessary plan.’
Michele Madigan is a Sister of St Joseph who has spent the past 38 years working with Aboriginal people in remote areas of SA, in Adelaide and in country SA. Her work has included advocacy and support for senior Aboriginal women of Coober Pedy in their campaign against the proposed national radioactive dump.
On nuclear issues, also, where to start? With the stalemate in nuclear weapons negotiations, in several countries, and India and Pakistan on the tightrope? Or with the nuclear financial messes in USA and UK?
In London yesterday, police arrested 963 people who were part of the Extinction Rebellion climate protest. This movement is continuing, and spreading to other countries. They will also set up a political taskforce to take forward public negotiations with the Government. Climate awareness is gathering momentum. Still, climate scientists seem unwilling and perhaps unable to talk to the general public, to explain the basic facts on climate change, and the complicating factors, such as the effects on oceans warning, on sea ice loss, on air current changes, on low pressure areas, the polar vortex. There are two climate scientists who do make this effort. Paul Beckwith has made over 200 YouTube videos, and he does tackle the complicated science in an understandable way. Katherine Hayhoe almost deceptively makes climate science seem simple, and is well known for her entertaining video series Global Weirding.
Arguably the biggest news – the 
