Clean Futures

President rejects Keystone XL pipeline

roman November 12, 2015

Posted Nov. 6, 2015 / Posted by: Kate Colwell

WASHINGTON, D.C. — After seven years of intense public campaigning on the Keystone XL, a pipeline that would have bisected the United States carrying the world’s dirtiest oil, President Obama has denied Canadian oil company TransCanada a presidential permit for construction. The president cited the pipeline’s projected contribution to climate change in deeming it not in the national interest.

Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica issued the following statement:

This is an extraordinary moment for grassroots activism and the fight against fossil fuels. For seven years, people from around the United States campaigned together to transform a previously routine decision to approve a pipeline into a leadership test on climate change. With this decision, President Obama has taken leadership in significantly slowing the expansion of the tar sands industry. We have not only succeeded in stopping the Keystone XL pipeline, we’ve awakened a grassroots climate movement. The battle to move beyond fossil fuels continues, and Friends of the Earth thanks President Obama for taking a strong step in the right direction.

Clean Futures, Climate, Mining, Old_Notes

“Don’t Nuke the Climate” bloc at the People’s Climate Rally Nov 29th

robyn November 10, 2015

On November 29th, will you help create the biggest climate march the world has ever seen?

As world leaders gather in Paris to discuss a global agreement on climate change, we will be part of an international movement- on Sunday November 29th.

Starting from the Torrens Parade Ground, we will march for a transition to renewable energy, secure job creation, and a fairer, more resilient economy, for clean air, a healthy environment, and for a safe climate in the People’s Jobs Justice Climate March.

In a vibrant, musical, and visually creative show of people power and the diversity of our movement, the march will take us down King William Street through the centre of Adelaide.

We will march in sector blocks, each making up a part of the collective, while demonstrating its unique qualities through banners, placards, costumes etc.

At Victoria Square/Tarndanyangga the march will blend into a festival, where there will be music, food, speeches, and stalls.

Join the anti-nuclear “Don’t Nuke the Climate” block and march behind our SA: RENEWABLE NOT RADIOACTIVE banner. Meet 10:30am Torrens Parade Ground on the day.

Contact Robyn Wood for more info robyn.wood@foe.org.au 0423 219 096

Actions, Clean Futures, Climate, Nuclear, Old_Notes

Adelaide, anti-nuclear, clean futures collective, climate change, community, friends of the earth, Sustainability

Media Release: THE APPEARANCE OF BIAS – NOT A GOOD LOOK

robyn November 6, 2015

MEDIA RELEASE

Thursday 5^th November, 2015

THE ROYAL COMMISSION INTO THE NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE:

THE APPEARANCE OF BIAS – NOT A GOOD LOOK

Today the Royal Commission into the Nuclear Fuel Cycle will be hearing oral evidence from London based insurance company Nuclear Risk Insurers, on the subject of insuring against a nuclear accident. On 1st October 2015, Dr Timothy Stone, member of the Royal Commission’s Executive Advisory Committee, was appointed director of this company.

“How critically will evidence given by this company be treated, when a member of the Executive Advisory Committee is also one of its directors?” asked Nectaria Calan of Friends of the Earth Adelaide.

On Friday 30^th October GE Hitachi gave oral evidence to the Royal Commission on their new PRISM reactor design. GE Hitachi is a global nuclear alliance between General Electric (US) and Hitachi (Japan). Hitachi is the parent company of Horizon Nuclear Power, a UK energy company developing new nuclear power stations, of which Dr Stone is also a director.

“Dr Stone’s connections with these companies highlights the broader issue here, which is his direct involvement in the nuclear industry, regardless of whether companies he’s employed by are giving evidence. He also owns Alpha-n Infrastructure, an elusive company with a partially built website which promotes nuclear power. This interest has not been disclosed by the Royal Commission on its website,” said Ms Calan.

Dr Stone is not the only Royal Commission member directly involved in the nuclear industry. Julian Kelly, its Technical Research Team Leader, is currently the Chief Technology Officer of Thor Energy, a Norwegian company focusing on the use of Thorium in nuclear reactors.

“If you’re directly involved in the very industry the Royal Commission is considering expanding, you potentially stand to gain something if a recommendation is made that this industry expand. … Read more >>

Clean Futures, Media releases, Nuclear, Old_Notes

anti-nuclear, clean futures collective

SA LABOR ON NUCLEAR: WRONG WAY, GO BACK

robyn November 3, 2015

Members of the SA antinuclear coalition gathered outside the ALP state conference on 24 October to ask Labor to maintain the ban on any expansion of the nuclear industry. Friends of the Earth campaigner Nectaria Calan gave interviews to the ABC, Channel 9 and 10.

MEDIA RELEASE

Friday 23^rd October 2015

SA LABOR ON NUCLEAR: WRONG WAY, GO BACK

Members of South Australia’s anti-nuclear coalition will gather outside the South Australian Labor Party’s State Conference at Adelaide’s Festival Theatre tomorrow morning at 8am, calling on the SA Labor Party to keep legislation in place banning nuclear waste dumps in South Australia, and to keep the state on its path to becoming a global leader in renewable energy.

The State Government’s formation of a Royal Commission into the expansion of the nuclear industry in SA has led to concerns that a national or international nuclear waste dump is back on the cards for SA, a little over a decade after the last proposal for a waste dump near Woomera was defeated. This followed an extended campaign opposing the project, spearheaded by senior Aboriginal women – the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta.

In 2000, in response to growing public opposition to the proposal, the then Liberal Government passed legislation banning the disposal of certain types of nuclear waste in the state. This legislation was extended by the incoming Labor Government in 2003 to include all nuclear waste. The stated objective of the legislation is “to protect the health, safety and welfare of the people of South Australia and to protect the environment in which they live…”

“We are calling on the Labor Party to honour this commitment to protecting the health, safety and environment of South Australia,” said Nectaria Calan of the anti-nuclear coalition and Friends of the Earth Adelaide. ”Nuclear waste is not a business opportunity, it’s an intractable problem.”… Read more >>

Actions, Clean Futures, Nuclear

Adelaide, anti-nuclear, clean futures collective, Mining

Irati Wanti nuclear waste free SA exhibition 15 October

robyn October 8, 2015

Dear Friend of the Irati Wanti campaign,

Emily Munyungka Austin, Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta, and Karina Lester, granddaughter of Eileen Kampakuta Brown, invite you to attend a special event:

Talking Straight Out: Images and insights from the campaign that stopped South Australia from becoming a nuclear waste dump.

The Lyrics Room, Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide, Kaurna Land

Thursday 15 October, 2015

Doors open at 5pm, Inma, stories and speakers from 6pm

October 15, 2015 marks 62 years since the first atomic bomb test at Emu Junction, South Australia. The Kungka Tjuta remember, “All of us were living when the Government used the country for the bomb. Everybody got sick… They thought they knew what they were doing then…

In February 1998 the federal government announced its plan to build a national radioactive waste dump in the South Australian desert. In March a council of senior Aboriginal women from Coober Pedy, the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta, made an announcement of their own. “We say no radioactive waste dump in our ngura—in our country.”

For six years the women travelled the country, talking straight out. They called their campaign Irati Wanti. “We all say enough is enough. Irati wanti—the poison leave it.”

They explained, they demanded, they marched and sang. They told of extraordinary personal histories. They worked with greenies and wrote passionate letters to politicians.

They won.

They published a book to share these stories with you. Now we are sharing them again.

There is talk again about radioactive waste dumps in South Australia. When word got to Coober Pedy, women again got together to talk, “We know the stories from the bomb. We know the history. We know the country. And it is crying for us. We will talk over and over and we won’t stop.… Read more >>

Clean Futures, Old_Notes

*events*, Adelaide, anti-nuclear, Mining