Category: Archive

Hard Rain falls on ALP before conference

admin /1 April, 2007

AFI award-winner David Bradbury will release his new film Hard Rain on April 13.

He has worked around the clock to get the film ready for the ALP conference where a critical vote will be held to determine the future of Uranium Mining in this country. If the ALP votes to maintain its No More Mines policy it will almost certainly win the next election, if it does not it will lose the faith of the entire environmental movement, largely offsetting any gains it may have earned by recruiting Peter Garret. Of course, the right wing number crunchers in the labor party believe the opposite is true. They believe that by following Howard, they can appeal to the swinging voters.

This film will convince anyone who sees it, that it is critical that we do not mine uranium at all, let alone expand the industry. A FREE twenty minute version is available before the conference, the full length version and screening pack are available through One Stop Green Shop.

Call That Humiliation?

admin /1 April, 2007

No hoods. No electric shocks. No beatings. These Iranians Clearly Are a Very Uncivilised Bunch

by Terry Jones

I share the outrage expressed in the British press over the treatment of our naval personnel accused by Iran of illegally entering their waters. It is a disgrace. We would never dream of treating captives like this – allowing them to smoke cigarettes, for example, even though it has been proven that smoking kills. And as for compelling poor servicewoman Faye Turney to wear a black headscarf, and then allowing the picture to be posted around the world – have the Iranians no concept of civilised behaviour? For God’s sake, what’s wrong with putting a bag over her head? That’s what we do with the Muslims we capture: we put bags over their heads, so it’s hard to breathe. Then it’s perfectly acceptable to take photographs of them and circulate them to the press because the captives can’t be recognised and humiliated in the way these unfortunate British service people are.

17 Die of SuperBug in UK hospital

admin /1 April, 2007

By Laura Donnelly and Jasper Copping, Sunday Telegraph

The widow of a man who fell victim to a superbug that has claimed 17 lives at a Norfolk hospital yesterday described his death as "diabolical".

Great-grandfather Leslie Burton-Pye, 74, was infected with Clostridium difficile in January while visiting the James Paget Hospital in Gorleston for a blood transfusion. He fell ill soon after and was admitted to the hospital where he stayed until released in mid-March. He was re-admitted last Sunday and died the next day.

Efficiency targets essential say Democrats

admin /1 April, 2007

Federal Democrats Senator Allison, according to the Senate Hansard on, Wednesday, 21 March 2007, said government Senator Colbeck had argued high-energy users were attracted to Australia, and therefore mandatory energy efficiency was not in the national interest.

Democrats: data gap: Speaking to the Energy Efficiency Bill amendments (which removed mandatory requirements and diluted data collection) Senator Allison said:

• we do not have energy and energy efficiency data collected in this country; so

•  the minister cannot answer a whole range of questions about the 250 biggest energy users;

•  we do not have minimum key performance indicators of energy intensity;

•  We do not calculate those on an annual basis.

 

Geothermal cheaper than coal with emissions tax

admin /1 April, 2007

Geothermal energy: $49-60/MWh, but with carbon pricing it’s a winner, says Labor Senator On 20 March 2007, speaking to the Energy Efficiency Opportunities Amendment Bill 2006 Second Reading, Federal Senator, Annette Hurley (Labor, South Australia), said that geothermal energy had great possibilities for Australia, as long as carbon pricing was there to help it, reported Commonwealth of Australia, Senate Hansard, Tuesday, 20 March 2007, pg.100-101.

Details of process: The process that can be used relies on very well known processes in the mining industry to produce energy from that heat. The process is that water is circulated through the hot rocks up to the surface and that the heat is captured by a heat exchanger using groundwater cooling. Once the heat passes through the heat exchanger, it is transferred into another closed cycle system that has an ammonia-water working fluid which has a lower boiling point than water. It is this system that generates the vapour to spin turbines to create power generation.

Corporates form lobby group for carbon tax

admin /1 April, 2007

IF Goldman Sachs JBWere chairman Terry Campbell had his way, Australia would already be pursuing carbon trading as a way to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Business has warned that Australia risks making industries uncompetitive if we embrace carbon trading in the absence of a global system, but yesterday Mr Campbell – who last month stepped back from his executive role after 48 years at the bank – said it was important to start.

Trading, he said, would help foster social and corporate attitudes in favour of cutting emissions. "Let’s not wait until it is perfect, let’s just start. Then, if a number of industries start making a contribution to becoming carbon neutral, you can develop social attitudes that make it difficult for companies not to take some action," Mr Campbell said.

The risk of waiting for a global market was that it might never happen, Mr Campbell said.

"If we set up a whole range of local markets, companies like ours can trade in them," he said.