nuclear-news

Opinion:

¶ “What Trump really means for global climate-change progress” • Maybe it just won’t get that bad. Yes, United States president-elect Donald Trump is threatening to pull the world’s second-largest emitter out of a major international deal to ratchet down greenhouse gases. But, no, it will not scuttle progress. [Christian Science Monitor]

Participants at the COP22 climate conference
(David Keyton / AP)

Science and Technology:

¶ Pioneering techniques that use satellites to monitor ocean acidification are set to revolutionize ocean study. This new approach, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, offer a way to monitor of large swathes of inaccessible ocean from satellites that orbit the Earth some 700 km above our heads. [Satellite PR News]

World:

¶ Fruit producer Del Monte Philippines Inc is now able to save 25% of its annual power costs, thanks to a waste-to-energy project developed by…

Figure 1: Mars One, serious vision or fantasy….or scam? [Source: Mars One, 2014]

I previously discussed the idea of colonising space as a possible solution to climate change and a future resource crunch. I think the conclusion would be that its not really a feasible solution. Yes, I have no doubt space exploration (as opposed to colonisation) will continue and I would argue that any money spent on space science is money well spent. But migrating large numbers of people off the planet, or start to mine other worlds for their resources just isn’t an economically feasible or practical proposal. It is therefore worthwhile looking at some of the proposals for colonisation doing the rounds on the internet, most notably Mars One, as well the proposed missions from the Mars Society and Elon Musk.

Mars One

The central theme of Mars One is “Mars to stay”. They propose…

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley whose family is from India would count as a two for one “minority” in Trump’s administration, even though Asians are an est. 37% of world population (India is now considered Asia for those who missed that). Proposed as Secretary of State for which she is unqualified, she would bring close ties to the India-American nuclear industry-lobby and the ability to promote it, like India-American nuclear lobbyist Richard Verma who became Ambassador to India under Obama. Although an advocate of the nuclear industry, she is suing the US government to take radioactive waste away from South Carolina. A US State Governor who is suing the US government promoted to US Secretary of State appears unseemly.

The disparity between black and overall unemployment in Governor Nikki Haley’s South Carolina is greater than Sen. Jeff Session’s state of Alabama; and far greater than Mississippi. So, she has no…