The week to June 4 in nuclear and climate news « Antinuclear

Posted on by

GR:  Production of solar energy certainly produces wastes.  Storage batteries last only seven years and solar panels last only 20-30 years.  Our mountains of trash will continue to grow with renewable energy,  BUT, solar-energy trash is cheaper to manage than nuclear trash, and it doesn’t stay deadly to all life for thousands of years.

Politicians love nuclear energy.  They receive support from the nuclear industry and its investors, and they can pretend they are offering a sensible alternative to fossil fuels.  Do not be tricked!  Taking the construction costs and the waste problems into account, rooftop solar energy is far cleaner and cheaper than nuclear energy, and it avoids corporate power over politicians and people.

Christina MacPherson:  “SOUTH AUSTRALIA again. You might all be getting sick of hearing about South Australia’s nuclear woes. But, spare a thought for the indigenous people of South Australia! They’ve been through all this before – and now again – the nuclear lobby planning to radioactively trash their homeland! And a thought for the decent, aware people of South Australia, who also fight to prevent their State, and their country being radioactively trashed.

“It’s Submission Time Yet Again. Submissions about nuclear waste dumping will be received up until 1st July by the new JOINT COMMITTEE ON FINDINGS OF THE NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE ROYAL COMMISSION , Parliament of South Australia. Great timing, just the day before the federal election – so they hope that nobody will notice. Except perhaps again for all those nuclear companies, who have already sent in their secret submissions to South Australia’s shonky Nuclear Fuel Chain Royal Commission.”  Source: The week to June 4 in nuclear and climate news « Antinuclear

Save

Save

Wildlife Weekly Wrap-up – Defenders of Wildlife Blog

Posted on by

Weekly Wildlife Wrap-up Stories

Cracking Down on Ivory

This week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finalized new regulations to help protect elephants from the demands of the ivory trade. Previous rules had loopholes that allowed those selling illegal ivory attempt to pass it off as legal. But with the new regulations comes a near-total ban on the commercial trade of ivory in the U.S., putting an end to the trade of products that had served as a cover for illegal ivory. More than 300,000 African elephants are killed for their ivory tusks each year, pushing the species closer to the brink of extinction.

Learn about the new ivory regulations

Back in the Wild Again . . . .

A Bear Doesn’t Care . . . .

Protect the Pallid! . . . .

Source: Wildlife Weekly Wrap-up – Defenders of Wildlife Blog

Save

A tragedy larger than Harambe | Fight for Rhinos

Posted on by

In the age of cell phones, selfies, and convenience, are zoos an insignificant place where the awe and wonder of animals are taken for granted? Is conservation just a trend on twitter? What is more endangered, the animals or our empathy and connection with our world?

Source: A tragedy larger than Harambe | Fight for Rhinos

Save

Save

Nigeria’s Massive Oil Cleanup Could Take Decades And A Billion Dollars | ThinkProgress

Posted on by

Fossil Fuel Pollution

Oil is seen on the creek water’s surface near an illegal oil refinery in Ogoniland, outside Port Harcourt, in Nigeria’s Delta region. A region of Nigeria’s oil-rich southern delta suffers widespread ecological damage as spilled oil seeps into its drinking water, destroys plants and remains in the ground for decades at a time.

Fossil fuels pollute the air, the land, and the sea.

What’s been described as the most wide-ranging and long-term oil clean-up plan in history was launched in Nigeria Thursday to restore hundreds of square miles of Delta swamps ravaged by nearly sixty years of oil extraction and spills.

The move to restore Ogoniland, located in southern Nigeria and home to more than 800,000 people, comes a year and a half after Shell agreed to an $84 million settlement with residents for two massive oil spills in 2008 and 2009. By then Nigeria had asked the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) to study the area. UNEP released a report in 2011 noting oil impacts on Ogoniland are ongoing, widespread, and severe. In turn, Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, started a $1 billion restoration plan this week to clean up decades of spills by Shell and other companies, including the state-owned company.

Source: Nigeria’s Massive Oil Cleanup Could Take Decades And A Billion Dollars | ThinkProgress

Save

CBO warns of climate change’s budget impact – POLITICO

Posted on by

Climate Change Recognized by The Congressional Budget Office

The CBO is warning lawmakers about the fiscal risks of climate change, putting the studiously non-partisan agency at odds with Republican Party orthodoxy.

The report, released as hurricane season begins, warns that hurricane damage will “increase significantly in the coming decades” due to climate change. The agency added that humans are playing a role in fueling rising temperatures and a shifting climate.

“Human activities around the world — primarily the burning of fossil fuels and widespread changes in land use — are producing growing emissions of greenhouse gases,” the report states. “Experts in the scientific community have concluded that a portion of those emissions are absorbed by the oceans, but a substantial fraction persists in the atmosphere for centuries, trapping heat and warming the Earth’s atmosphere.”

Source: CBO warns of climate change’s budget impact – POLITICO

Save

From floods to forest fires: a warming planet – in pictures | Environment | The Guardian

Posted on by

Photos of Human Impact:  Droughts, floods, forest fires and melting poles – climate change is impacting Earth like never before. From the Australia to Greenland, Ashley Cooper’s work spans 13 years and over 30 countries. This selection, taken from his new book, shows a changing landscape, scarred by pollution and natural disasters – but there is hope too, with the steady rise of renewable energyAshley CooperFriday 3 June 2016 06.05 EDT

Source: From floods to forest fires: a warming planet – in pictures | Environment | The Guardian

Save

Climate Engineering Contributing To Climate Chaos » Climate Engineering Contributing To Climate Chaos | Geoengineering Watch

Posted on by

Dane Wigington, Geoengineeringwatch.org:  “Earth’s former energy balance has been completely derailed, we are now in a free-fall state toward an irreparably altered and very inhospitable planet. The majority of populations (especially in industrialized countries) are even now immersed in total denial in regard to the damage that has been inflicted to the environment and climate systems by human activity. Any form of anthropogenic activity that impacts Earth’s natural processes must be considered a form of geoengineering. The greatest and most destructive form of biosphere interference is the ongoing highly toxic climate engineering/weather warfare global assault. Burning forests, drought, deluge, volcanic eruptions, nuclear contamination and die-off, are already now the norm and this process will accelerate rapidly. Geoengineering is being ramped up to unimaginable levels as the collapse of the biosphere and social structure unfolds. The 9 minute video compilation below is a revealing recent update that covers numerous climate and environmental catastrophes.”  Source: Climate Engineering Contributing To Climate Chaos » Climate Engineering Contributing To Climate Chaos | Geoengineering Watch

Save

Federal Agencies Find That Fracking In The Pacific Would Have No ‘Significant’ Environmental Impacts | ThinkProgress

Posted on by

The debate over fracking in California is about to get even more heated, following a report from two federal agencies that found that fracking for oil and gas in the ocean — known as offshore fracking — is unlikely to have a “significant” impact on the environment.

On Friday, both the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) jointly released an environmental study that looked at the impact of hydraulic fracturing — or fracking — on marine ecosystems. The report analyzed 23 offshore fracking operations that operated in California between 1982 and 2014, and found that the operations have a minimal impact on the quality of water and ocean health. To the fossil fuel industry, this signals a return to normalcy, as both the BOEM and BSEE will resume approval of offshore fracking permits that they had temporarily suspended while the environmental study was being conducted.  Source: Federal Agencies Find That Fracking In The Pacific Would Have No ‘Significant’ Environmental Impacts | ThinkProgress

Save

Rum Jungle still polluted 45 years after uranium mine was closed « Antinuclear

Posted on by

Australia’s Rum Jungle uranium mine in NT polluting environment 45 years after closure, ABC Radio The World Today By Sara Everingham Traditional owner Kathy Mills finds every visit to site of the old Rum Jungle uranium mine upsetting. AUDIO: Listen to Sara Everingham’s story on TWT(The World Today)

Source: Rum Jungle still polluted 45 years after uranium mine was closed « Antinuclear

Save