Public meeting: 50 years since Maralinga
Beyond nuclear testing – Australia’s nuclear past…towards a nuclear free
future
Speakers:
Lew Rice, National President Atomic Ex-Servicemen’s Association
Keith Jaffray, Shoalwater Wilderness Awareness Group
RobinTaubenfeld, Peace Convergence/Friends of the Earth
Medical Association for the Prevention of War
Date: Oct 1 (Sun)
Time: 2pm – 4pm
Place: Ahimsa House 24 Horan Street West End
September 27th marked the 50th anniversary of British atomic tests at Maralinga in South Australia. Further nuclear tests took place at Maralinga on October 4, 1956.
Australia’s nuclear history is little known and rarely discussed by the government which is now promoting nuclear expansion at home and overseas. Australian uranium was used to make the bombs dropped at Maralinga. The fallout clouds from these tests dispersed over most of Australia, reaching Townsville in the north and Lismore in the east.
The safety and clean up of contaminated areas has never been successfully achieved. The indigenous people whose lives and lands were torn apart by these tests have never been compensated.
Nuclear testing in our region has left a legacy of contamination and health problems for Australians and Pacific Islanders for generations to come. Australia has the potential to play a major role in reversing the nuclear legacy by refusing to be part of the nuclear chain.
We have the opportunity to safeguard where our uranium goes by not mining it and we have the possibility of promoting peace on the planet by refusing to take part in military expansion.
Join us for a forum to explore our nuclear past and to develop a vision for a nuclear free future today.
For more information or media:
Friends of the Earth Brisbane
Robin Taubenfeld 0411 118 737
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Friday, September 29, 2006
News on Climate - 29th September, 2006
Qantas, Virgin Blue in full flight to save fuel and cut carbon emissions. Qantas and Virgin Blue say they are taking significant steps to reduce aircraft emissions as the aviation industry's environmental record comes under scrutiny. Australian
Weather Channel ready to take heat on global warming. With a new weekly program called "The Climate Code with Dr. Heidi Cullen," the Weather Channel will take the position that global warming is happening, people are contributing to it, and it's a big problem. Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Climate warriors say coal is their main enemy. Cheap coal will be the main enemy in a fight against global warming in the 21st century because high oil prices are likely to encourage a shift to coal before wind or solar power, a top economist said on Thursday. Reuters
Manila whipped by storm as it heads for Vietnam. Typhoon Xangsane weakened over the Philippines on Thursday but fierce winds and driving rains killed at least eight people, displaced nearly 5,500 and devastated parts of the central islands and Manila. Reuters
Benefits can be fictional in fiscal switch to green. Green taxes are the future: so say a large coalition of politicians, economists and environmentalists. Financial Times
National Walk to Work Day
When: Friday 6th October
From their website: You can be a Walking Class Hero on Friday 6 October 2006 by simply walking all or part of the way to work. Use public transport and get off the bus, train, tram or ferry a few stops earlier and walk the rest of the way. Or take a half-hour walk at lunch-time. And where possible, walk up stairs. But, PLEASE, leave the car at home. If you have to drive, leave the car at least a kilometre or two from your destination and walk the remaining distance.
From the press release: “Walking is not only good for your health but it is also good for the health of the environment, said Ms Lisa Corbyn, Director General of the Department of Environment and Conservation, today when she announced her support for the official Walk to Work Day.
“If everyone in Sydney walked, cycled or caught public transport just once a week, around 2,400 tonnes of smog forming chemical and 13 tonnes of fines particle pollution would be eliminated from the atmosphere each year in Sydney,” she said
“Motor vehicles are still the most significant source of urban air pollution in Sydney. By leaving the car at home you can help reduce potentially harmful emissions from the air.
For more info
News on Climate
28th September, 2006
Leading NASA scientist claims of global warming. Another decade of business-as-usual carbon emissions will probably make it too late to prevent the ecosystems of the north from triggering runaway climate change, concludes a new study. New Scientist
Global temperature highest in millennia. The planet's temperature has climbed to levels not seen in thousands of years, warming that has begun to affect plants and animals, researchers report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Associated Press
California tackles global warming. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday signed into law an initiative that imposes the nation's first cap on greenhouse gas emissions. Associated Press
Support for Branson plea to clean up skies is slow to get off ground. Sir Richard Branson called on airlines to take greater responsibility for global warming yesterday, but his plan to slash fuel emissions by a quarter received a lukewarm response from some corners of the green lobby and the aviation industry. London Guardian
US blocked hurricane statement. US officials blocked the release of a statement by government climate scientists that explored possible links between global warming and stronger hurricanes. Reuters
Warming 'terrifying.' The impact of climate change on South Australia was "terrifying", raising temperatures and lowering rainfall by the end of the century, Premier Mike Rann said yesterday. Australian
Climate change sews weed threat seeds. Some of the 3000 foreign plant species established as weeds in Australia could explode in numbers in new areas because of human-induced climate change. Australian Associated Press
Farmers seek to bring climate change to political arena. While the Australian government is busy pushing water as a major political issue, farmers are backing a campaign to make climate change an election issue. ABC News
Church brings God into climate debate. One of Australia's main churches has called for urgent action on climate change out of 'respect for all of God's creation, including future generations.' Perth West Australian
Global meltdown feared: UN report
Scott Simpson
Vancouver Sun
Monday, September 25, 2006
A landmark climate change report coming early next year will reveal such a strong link between global warming and fossil fuels that the world will have to end its addiction to oil, says a leading Canadian climate researcher.
Ignoring the findings of the report will lead to widespread environmental catastrophes, Andrew Weaver added. "We do not need more research to tell us what the first-order problem is, and what needs to be done," said Weaver, Canada research chairman at the University of Victoria's school of earth and ocean sciences.
He is one of the authors of a climate change report -- the first major study since 2001 -- that will be released next year by an international panel of scientists.
See the full story here...
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Brisbane's First Walk Against Warming
On December 3, 2005, Australians united for a Walk Against Warming – a community initiative simultaneously staged across the country to draw attention to the need for urgent action to prevent global climate change.
The Walks Against Warming were part of an International Day of Action on Climate Change, scheduled to coincide with the first meeting of the 156 signatories to the Kyoto Protocol in Montreal, Canada. On December 3, demonstrations around the world declared Australia a climate ‘rogue state’ as the international community demanded that Australia and the United States of America ratify the Kyoto Protocol immediately, and that the entire global community commit to a clean energy future.
As part of these demonstrations, walks took place in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra and Cairns.
In Brisbane, local residents staged an umbrella parade, beginning in King George Square, and walking through the city to Musgrave Park in West End. Sporting colourfully decorated “Kyoto Umbrellas”, participants in the parade called on the Australian government to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and commit to a rapid reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to prevent dangerous climate change.
Speakers at the event included Australian Senator Andrew Bartlett and Jerry Colby-Williams from the ABC’s Gardening Australia, and the picnic showcased local bands Future Native and Timbah.
The inaugural Walk Against Warming was the first attempt of its kind aimed at providing the general public with an opportunity to take to the streets on the critical issue of climate change. Future Walks will enable people to add their voice to the call for the Federal Government to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
The 2006 Walk Against Warming Umbrella Parade will begin on Saturday, November 4th in Queens Park at 2pm, and participants are encouraged to bring family and friends, along with their personally decorated Kyoto Umbrella or windmill.
For more info ...
'The threat is from those who accept climate change, not those who deny it'
If the biosphere is ruined it will be done by people who know that emissions must be cut - but refuse to alter the way they live
George Monbiot
Thursday September 21, 2006
The Guardian
<http://www.guardian.co.uk>
You have to pinch yourself. Until now the Sun has denouncedenvironmentalists as "loonies" and "eco beards". Last week it published"photographic proof that climate change is real". In a page that could have come straight from a Greenpeace pamphlet, it laid down 10 "rules" forits readers to follow: "Use public transport when possible; use energy-saving lightbulbs; turn off electric gadgets at the wall; do notuse a tumble dryer ... "
Two weeks ago the Economist also recanted. In the past it has assertedthat "Mr Bush was right to reject the prohibitively expensive Kyoto pact". It co-published the Copenhagen Consensus papers, which put climate change at the bottom of the list of global priorities. Now, in a special issue devoted to scaring the living daylights out of its readers, it maintainsthat "the slice of global output that would have to be spent to controlemissions is probably ... below 1%". It calls for carbon taxes and anambitious programme of government spending.
Almost everywhere, climate change denial now looks as stupid and as unacceptable as Holocaust denial. But I'm not celebrating yet. The danger is not that we will stop talking about climate change, or recognising thatit presents an existential threat to humankind. The danger is that we will talk ourselves to kingdom come.
If the biosphere is wrecked, it will not be done by those who couldn't give a damn about it, as they now belong to a diminishing minority. Itwill be destroyed by nice, well-meaning, cosmopolitan people who accept the case for cutting emissions, but who won't change by one iota the way they live. I know people who profess to care deeply about global warming,but who would sooner drink Toilet Duck than get rid of their Agas, patioheaters and plasma TVs, all of which are staggeringly wasteful....
Environmentalism has always been characterised as a middle-class concern; while this has often been unfair, there is now an undeniable nexus of class politics and morally superior consumerism. People allow themselves to believe that their impact on the planet is lower than that of the great unwashed because they shop at Waitrose rather than Asda, buy Tomme de Savoie instead of processed cheese slices and take eco-safaris in the Serengeti instead of package holidays in Torremolinos.
In reality, carbon emissions are closely related to income: the richer you are, the more likely you are to be wrecking the planet, however much stripped wood andhand-thrown crockery there is in your kitchen....
So the question which now confronts everyone - politicians, campaign groups, scientists, readers of the Guardian as well as the Economist and the Sun - is this: how much reality can you take? Do you really want tostop climate chaos, or do you just want to feel better about yourself?
George Monbiot's book Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning is published by Allen Lane next week. He has also launched a website -turnuptheheat.org - exposing false environmental claims made bycorporations and celebrities
www.monbiot.com
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Global Warming a Moral Issue, Say Interfaith Panelists
Alana Herro
WorldWatch Institute
September 25, 2006 – 12:13am
Speakers at an Interfaith dialogue say caring for creation is part of religious peoples’ duty. Representatives from a variety of world faiths discussed the role of religion in addressing global warming and other pressing environmental challenges at a September 18–21 conference on climate stabilization inWashington, D.C.
Sharing a panel on “Achieving Intergenerational andInternational Equity,” speakers from the Catholic, Episcopal, Evangelical,Islamic, Jewish, Mormon, and Presbyterian faiths described the progress their communities are making in tackling climate change. Reverend Sally Bingham of the Episcopal Grace Cathedral in San Francisco noted that her job as a religious leader is to “introduce people in the pews to the fact that they are environmentalists.” If a person attends church and professes a love for God, then caring for creation is his or her duty, she explained.
“If you love your neighbor, then you don’t pollute your neighbor’s air.”
According to Bingham, who is also Executive Director of the Interfaith Power & Light climate change campaign, enormous potential exists for involving religious communities in the environmental movement. If the 300,000 or so houses of worship in the United States reduced their energy use by just 25 percent, this would save 13.5 billionkilowatt-hours of electricity, five million tons of carbon dioxide, andUS$500 million in costs, she noted.
For the full story...
Saturday, September 23, 2006
South Pacific countries sound alarm at UN debate on impact of global warming
20 September 2006
UN News Service
The South Pacific nations of Papua New Guinea and Kiribati have used their addresses to the annual debate of the General Assembly to voice concern about rising sea levels in the region and to urge United Nations Member States to do much more to reduce global warming.
Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Michael Somare warned the Assembly that small islands and low-lying atolls across the Pacific are already being submerged by rising sea levels.
“For us, this is not academic, it is reality!” he said, adding scientific studies indicate that climate change is also responsible for the increasing frequency of natural disasters, such as hurricanes, tsunamis, flash floods and landslides.
Mr. Somare called on industrialized nations to slash their greenhouse gas emissions and on those countries which have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol to do so.
For the full story... and Kofi Annan on Climate Change
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