“Free trade” as corporate freedom is a threat to the planet and our freedoms

May 26, 2016

“Free trade” has substituted the freedom of the planet and its diverse species to evolve and nourish, with freedom for corporations to destroy the planet and the living economies that sustain people. The ecological and social destabilisation of the world in the last two decades is a result of the deregulation of commerce through the “free trade” agreements of the World Trade Organization, engineered and written by corporations for the benefit of corporations.

We commit ourselves to resisting the attempts to push new “free trade” agreements based on corporate rights and corporate personhood, which dismantle human rights and our democracies and constitutions. We do not recognise corporations as persons. They are legal entities that society gives permission to exist within the limits of social, ecological and ethical responsibility; corporations having responsibility for climate change are subject to the ‘polluter pays’ principle.

—- from “A New pact with the planet”, Vandana Shiva, from resurgence magazine, March/April 2016

 

Clean Futures, Old_Notes

Huge leap in solar cell efficiency

May 26, 2016

Some good news…

A University of NSW team led by Professor Martin Green and Dr Mark Keevers has reported a new world efficiency record for solar cells using unfocussed sunlight, the sort of light that falls on the rooftop solar modules on homes and businesses.

The striking part of the new record is that it is so far ahead of previous achievements – 34.5 per cent instead of 24 per cent – and is edging closer to the theoretical limits of sunlight to electricity conversion – more than three decades earlier than  predicted.

The scientists also voiced their concern about the future of solar R&D in Australia, given that much of it is made possible by funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, which the Coalition wants to effectively close in all but name, end grant payments and strip $1.3 billion in legislated funding.

— Giles Parkinson, renewEconomy, may 18th. More details

Climate, FoE, Old_Notes, Renewables

Some good advice

May 20, 2016

“The fission reactor produces both energy and radioactive waste; we want to use the energy now and leave the radioactive waste for our children and grandchildren to take care of. This is against the ecological imperative: Thou shalt not leave a polluted and poisoned world to future generations.”
Hannes Alfven, 1970 Nobel Laureate in Physics

Nuclear, Old_Notes

MAJOR ENVIRONMENT GROUPS REJECT INQUIRY REPORT INTO CHARITABLE STATUS

May 4, 2016

MAJOR ENVIRONMENT GROUPS REJECT INQUIRY REPORT INTO CHARITABLE STATUS

Media Statement, Places You Love Alliance

Key Australian environment groups today called on the Federal Environment Minister, Mr Greg Hunt, to reject recommendations of a report of an inquiry into the charitable status of environment groups.

The CEOs of WWF, The Australian Conservation Society, The Wilderness Society, Greenpeace Australia Pacific, Friends of the Earth and the Nature Conservation Council of NSW issued the following statement on behalf of the Places You Love alliance:

Report here, including a dissenting report by Labor members.

The Report of the Inquiry into the Register of Environmental Organisations correctly recognises the enormous contribution environment groups have played in safeguarding Australia’s precious yet fragile environment, protecting icons from the Great Barrier Reef to the Franklin River.

However, the report contains a number of deeply flawed and dangerous recommendations, including an arbitrary requirement to spend a quarter of donor funds on ‘environmental remediation’ and a draconian attempt to clamp down on the type of work organisations conduct.

This flawed Inquiry, initiated by the Abbott Government and driven by a small handful of conservative MPs with the support of the mining industry, failed to uncover any evidence to justify removing the charitable status of any environment group.

We welcome the dissenting statements made by Liberal MP and committee member Jason Wood, raising significant concerns about the two most dangerous recommendations. (*See excerpts below).

We have identified two highly flawed and dangerous recommendations in the report.

Recommendation 5

The recommendation requiring environment groups spend at least 25 per cent of their supporters’ hard-earned money on ‘environmental remediation’ is ludicrous, imposing a huge bureaucratic burden on both the government and organisations, particularly small groups working with local communities. In Canada, the same policy experiment failed dismally, creating enormous red tape with no resulting public benefit.… Read more >>

Environmental Law, FoE, Media releases, Old_Notes

Petition: No New GMOs through to back door

May 4, 2016

Please sign Friends of the Earth’s petition to Fiona Nash Assistant Minister for Health against ‘new’ GMO techniques. Include your street address and ask for a written reply.

https://friendsoftheearthmelbourne.good.do/whatpartofnogmosdonttheyunderstand/tellfionanashtoreinintheregulators/

Big agrochemical chemical companies are trying to sneak crops derived from a range of new genetic modification (GM) techniques into our food chain without safety testing or labelling. And our regulators – Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) and the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) – seem only too happy to help them!

New GM techniques such as oligo-directed mutagenesis, zinc finger nucleases and CRISPR pose the same risks as older GM techniques and need to be assessed for safety before they are allowed in our food. They should also be labelled to protect choice for farmers, food producers and consumers.

Most Australians don’t want to eat GM food and it’s high time our regulators stopped letting industry write the rules for them.

FoE, Food, Old_Notes

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