Author Archive: roman

Fight Morrison’s Dirty Gas Plans

roman April 23, 2021

Alex, from AYCC writes:

The Morrison Government has just signed a $1 BILLION energy deal with South Australia – bankrolling millions for polluting gas projects under the guise that it will help Australia “responsibly combat climate change” [1]

They’re not fooling us.

The Government’s dirty gas agenda would lock us into emissions for decades to come, exacerbating climate change – yet instead of prioritising our climate and our communities, the Morrison Government is planning to spend millions of public dollars expanding the dirty gas industry.

With the upcoming Federal Budget, right now is a crucial moment in the fight for climate action, – Can you chip in $12 to help us rapidly scale up our grassroots organising in order to counter the Government’s vested interests?

Together, we can ensure the Morrison Government doesn’t trade away our futures for corporate profits.

Right now, our public money should be used to create the solutions to the climate crisis that we want to see, that will actually serve our communities– not spending millions of public dollars propping up the greedy gas industry.

At a time when other countries are increasingly ramping up their climate ambitions, Australia is yet to commit to a net-zero emissions timeline [2].

So, on Thursday 29 April we’re coming together for a national day of action ahead of the budget, with creative stunts, storytelling, and banners to ensure our message is clear – Fund our future not gas

By raising our voices through collective action, we can harness media attention and public energy to make sure our message is seen far and wide and heard loud and clear. Our communities will not stand for public money going to dirty gas projects that risk our climate and our futures

Actions in Adelaide:

Adelaide – The RiverBank Bridge – Thursday April 29 @ 11:00am RSVP HERE (AYCC)

Adelaide – Rex Patrick/SA Senator – 31 Ebenezer Place, Adelaide, April 30 @ 12:30pm (350 Aus) RSVP HERE

[1] Scott Morrison signs $1bn deal to shore up energy reliability in South Australia, The Guardian, April 2021

[2] ‘No action on anything’: Australia increasingly isolated as US and others ramp up climate ambition, The Guardian, April 2021

Old_Notes

Biden pledges to slash emissions by at least half by 2030, Japan and Canada follow suit

roman April 23, 2021

In one of the landmark moments of the decades-long climate debate, Biden’s commitment to cut emissions from 2005 levels by 50-52 per cent by 2030 came as he hosted more than 40 world leaders in an online two-day summit designed to re-boot efforts to deliver on the Paris climate treaty.
[…]The US pledge was designed to encourage others to follow suit. “We have to take action, all of us,” Biden said. “Countries that take decisive action now will be the ones that benefit from it. Time is short. We really have no choice, we have to get this done.”
It was quickly followed by news that Japan and Canada – often peers of Australia in the global “naughty corner” for dragging their heals on emissions – would follow the US example by increasing their targets.
Japan, one of the biggest customers of Australia’s fossil fuel exports, said it would increase its 2030 emissions reduction target to a 46 per cent per cent cut from 2013 levels – from its previous target of 26 per cent.
Prime minister Yoshihide Suga told the summit this was equivalent to a 70 per cent increase in its climate targets. He said the focus would be on decarbonising the power supply and increasing its use of renewable energy. Read: Japan’s pivot to renewables will kick Australian exports right in the thermals
Read the details in the Article by Giles Parkinson on the RenewEconomy website.

Old_Notes

10 Years since the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

roman March 17, 2021

By Philip White* March 2021

Philip White was international liaison officer for the Tokyo-based Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center at the time of the Fukushima nuclear accident. In 2014 he completed a PhD on public participation in Japan’s nuclear energy policy-forming process.

Remembering the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster
How the disaster unfolded
What’s the situation now?
Evacuees — Health issues — Liability and compensation — Decontamination of the environment and agriculture — Radioactive water and fishing — Decommissioning of nuclear power plants — Cost
Post-Fukushima energy policy
Putting it in perspective
References
Remembering the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

Ten years ago, three of the nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station suffered melt downs in the days following a Magnitude 9 earthquake that struck off the northeast coast of Japan on 11 March 2011. Along with the 1986 nuclear accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station in the former Soviet Union, it was one of the two worst nuclear power accidents in history.

On the tenth anniversary, it is important that we remember what happened then and what has happened since. It is in the interests of those who caused the accident that we forget. We must refuse to do so, for the sake of the victims and to prevent more disasters in future.

The most important take-home message is that the disaster is far from over. In order to win the bid for the (now postponed) 2020 Olympics, then Prime Minister Abe asserted that the nuclear accident was ‘under control’. The government now calls the games (if they are ever held) ‘the recovery Olympics’, with the torch relay route running through Fukushima Prefecture. But despite the efforts of the Japanese Government and the nuclear industry to lull the Japanese public and the world into a false sense of security, the fact is that radioactive contamination remains and many people continue to suffer.… Read more >>

FoE, Nuclear

‘Junk agroecology’: How corporations are co-opting peoples’ solutions to the food crisis

roman October 27, 2020

FoE International reports:

A new report launched October 13th exposes how agribusiness corporations like Nestle, Cargill, Unilever and Pepsico, together with the World Economic Forum, are using public private ‘sustainable agriculture’ initiatives to promote an environmentally and socially destructive model of food production, while undermining genuinely sustainable food systems and their democratic governance. With the backing of some high profile conservation NGOs, global agribusiness giants are using these initiatives to co-opt and weaken concepts of ‘sustainability’ and ‘agroecology’, allowing them to pursue a corporate profit-driven agenda and shape global public food policy in their interest.

“Junk Agroecology: The corporate capture of agroecology for a partial ecological transition without social justice” examines three high profile public-private initiatives:

“Sustainable Agriculture Initiative” (SAI);
“New Vision for Agriculture” (NVA);
“New Food and Land Use Economy Coalition” (FOLU).

It is published during a UN Committee on World Food Security virtual meeting in which world leaders are discussing how to transform global food systems and tackle the devastating impacts of COVID-19.(1)

“Under the umbrella of public-private initiatives such as SAI, NVA and FOLU, global agrifood corporations are attempting to portray themselves as holding the solutions to problems they played a key role in creating. Their ‘junk agroecology’ allows them to continue profiting without addressing the socio-economic, political and ecological injustices on which the agrifood system is based, or the exclusionary and short-sighted ideology that legitimises it.”
— Katie Sandwell from the Transnational Institute (TNI).

More details at FoE International

Food, Old_Notes

Adelaide FoE meeting this Thursday at 6pm

roman October 27, 2020

David Noonan is our guest speaker at this meeting, talking about matters nuclear: the waste dump and Olympic dam mine.

BHP now faces a $6.3 billion (US dollars) law-suit in the UK on behalf of 200,000 Brazilian people. The case alleges the Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP was “woefully negligent” in the run-up to the 2015 dam failure that led to Brazil’s worst environmental disaster.

Mayors of two towns wiped out by the Samarco disaster assert that BHP has been using delaying tactics to avoid paying compensation to thousands of people affected by the flood of tailings waste.

There have long been calls from environmentalists and others for Australian mining companies to be required to apply Australian standards to their overseas mining operations. The logic is sound given the often inadequate practices of Australian mining companies overseas.

But the logic is also a little shaky given that mining standards in Australia leave much room for improvement. Olympic Dam is a case in point.

BHP orchestrated approval in 2019 for a massive new tailings dam at Olympic Dam ? Tailings Storage Facility 6 (TSF6). This tailings dam is to be built in the same risky ‘upstream’ design that featured in both the Samarco disaster and the January 2019 Vale Brumadinho tailings dam disaster that killed over 250 people – mainly mine workers ? in Brazil.
— “BHP betrays international safety efforts” by Dr Jim Green and David Noonan, in The Ecologist

Zoom details: FoE Adelaide meeting
Time: Thursday, Oct 29, 2020 6:00pm Adelaide
Part One: Guest Speaker David Noonan, talking about Nukes — Oct 29, 2020 6:00pm Adelaide time
<tea break> 6:40-6:50
Part Two: Oct 29, 2020 6:50pm More discussion with David,
followed by details of the Transforming SA document,
and a discussion of FoE Adelaide activities.

Come along! It’ll be good to see you.

Nuclear, Old_Notes