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Australia’s new Prime Minister urged to focus on Climate Change

New Australian PM ‘should focus on cutting emissions’, Low Carbon Economy, 6/25/2010 There are hopes that Australia’s new prime minister could help improve the country’s environmental record………..In her first speech as prime minister Ms Gillard said she believes in climate change and that humans are contributing to the problem……Greenpeace Australia Pacific said that the first steps Ms Gillard should take would be to move subsidies from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, introduce a carbon levy and limit emissions from new power stations.

New Australian PM ‘should focus on cutting emissions’ – Low Carbon Economy

June 26, 2010 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, climate change | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Renewable energy – the numbers add up

The global financial crisis is partly to blame, but political will would seem to be the resource in shortest supply. BP’s Gulf of Mexico disaster may have changed that.

Do renewable energy by the numbers, and it all adds up, Sydney Morning Herald,  MIKE SANDIFORD June 24, 2010 “……..Each year, we are increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 1 per cent. The effect of this increase is to trap a tiny extra bit of the incoming solar energy, so we are heating not only the atmosphere, but also the oceans and land, and at a phenomenal rate.The scary thing is we have only just begun. Continue reading →

June 24, 2010 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, climate change | , , , , | Leave a comment

U.S. Senators trying to greenwash nuclear power

The nuclear power industry has skillfully and successfully painted itself green — an environmentally benign answer to reducing carbon emissions. The industry and many in Washington want us to believe that a new generation of nuclear reactors will solve the problems of climate change and allow us to live happily ever after. That’s a costly fairy tale.

US climate proposal a nuclear bailout By Richard Clapp  Shanghai Daily, 2010-6-19 THE long-awaited climate proposal crafted by US Senators John Kerry and Joseph Lieberman has finally landed on Capitol Hill. The proposal, though, is a massive nuclear bailout under the guise of an energy overhaul. Continue reading →

June 21, 2010 Posted by | climate change, USA | , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

$600 billion in global subsidies to fossil fuel industries

What will it take to create a level playing? Just how much do governments spend on fossil fuels anyway? Thanks to a new report by IEA, http://www.iea.org/files/energy_subsidies.pdf , we now know the number is $557 billion worldwide as of 2008.

Time to come clean on energy subsidies? Renewable Energy World, Elisa WoodJune 11, 20100 Time to come clean on energy subsidies?What you don’t know will hurt you. That’s the message in Michael Lewis’ new book, “The Big Short,” which traces today’s worldwide economic downturn to a single problem: the secretive nature of prices in the subprime mortgage bond markets.

What’s this got to do with energy? Our industry has its own opaque corners that can cause widespread damage. This week the International Energy Agency (IEA) is attempting to focus light on a big one: energy subsides for fossil fuels. Continue reading →

June 12, 2010 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change | , , , , | Leave a comment

Core aim of U.S. Climate Bill is to promote nuclear energy

Nuclear Energy Has a Friend in Heads of Obama’s BP Oil Disaster Commission,  by kgosztola May 25, 2010“……..Public Citizen reports the current climate legislation is a “nuclear energy-promoting, oil drilling-championing, coal mining-boosting” piece of legislation “with a weak carbon pricing mechanism thrown in.” The public interest groups warns against the nuclear power incentives currently in the climate change bill: Continue reading →

May 26, 2010 Posted by | climate change, USA | , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Nuclear fuel cycle requires huge energy, and emits huge C02

Some estimate that the energy requirements of mining and milling lean ores may surpass the energy produced in a nuclear reactor.

5 Questions Iowans Should Answer Before Accepting Nuclear Power, Blog for Iowa, by Paul Deaton, 17 May 2010,” .… 2.    Do you accept the socialization of nuclear power? In a recent study in Idaho, Warren Buffet’s MidAmerican Energy found that there is no financial return on investment in nuclear power without substantial government subsidies. Our open market system of capitalism won’t support nuclear power without government subsidies. Continue reading →

May 16, 2010 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change | , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Uninhabitable planet if Climate Change is not checked

urge instead the use of carbon tax revenue to develop technologies that can supply clean energy to everyone and provide ‘human dignity’.

Climate change could make half the world uninhabitable Climate change could make half of the world uninhabitable for humans as a rise in temperature makes it too hot to survive, scientists have warned. Telegraph UK,  By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent
12 May 2010

Researchers from the University of New South Wales in Australia and Purdue University in the US said global warming will not stop after 2100, the point where most previous projections have ended.In fact temperatures may rise by up to 12C (21.6F) within just three centuries making many countries into deserts. Continue reading →

May 13, 2010 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Natural gas could help bridge to renewable energy

Will Natural Gas Save Us? Michael J. Newport: 10 May 2010, “………Natural gas is more than 50 percent cleaner than coal and can serve as the foundation for power generation and the expansion of renewable energy sources. The New York Times reported that that “natural gas could emerge as a critical transition fuel that could help to battle global warming.” Since about 98 percent of natural gas consumed in the United States is produced in North America, increased use results in more jobs and economic growth…….

Michael J. Newport: Will Natural Gas Save Us?

May 11, 2010 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change | , | Leave a comment

Nuclear power promotion should not be included in USA’s Climate Bill

“The nuclear power industry stands to benefit tremendously,” said Slocum. “And this is probably the most undeserving industry in the entire American economy.”

5 Green Groups Declare Senate Climate Bill unacceptable, ,  SolveClimate.com, Stacy Feldman – Apr 28th, 2010 Five national environmental groups declared the stalled Senate climate and energy bill “unacceptable” on Tuesday, saying the nation would be better off in the long run without it. Continue reading →

April 29, 2010 Posted by | climate change, USA | , , , , | Leave a comment

Inclusion of nuclear energy might spell defeat for U.S. Climate Bill

Nuclear opponents argue that there are serious unresolved public safety and national security issues with nuclear energy–and that it isn’t as clean as supporters claim

Is the Senate Climate Bill Heading for a Nuclear Accident?, About.com, by Larry West, April 22, 2010 “…..nuclear energy, and the promise of as much as $54 billion in government loan guarantees to revitalize and expand the U.S. nuclear industry. Ironically, April 26, the day the bill with all of those nuclear loan guarantees is supposed to begin its march toward passage, is also the anniversary of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident–the poster event for the anti-nuke movement.
Radiation from Chernobyl affected more than 3,600 villages and 2.5 million people, disrupted agriculture by contaminating soil and food crops, and forced more than 350,000 people to relocate. According to estimates by several scientific bodies, Chernobyl radiation has already caused thousands of deaths and is expected to cause thousands more…….Nuclear opponents argue that there are serious unresolved public safety and national security issues with nuclear energy–and that it isn’t as clean as supporters claim. Is the Senate Climate Bill Heading for a Nuclear Accident?

April 24, 2010 Posted by | climate change, USA | , , , , | Leave a comment

U.S. Climate Bill could be stuffed up with pro-nuclear measures

Along the way, the industry has hired a bevvy of flacks with marginal green credentials.

Will Progressives Swallow a Pro-Nuclear Power Energy Bill Stuffed with Nuke Plant Subsidies?, HARVEY WASSERMAN,  BUZZFLASH, 20 April 2010, The Climate Bill is due on Earth Day.By all accounts it will be a nuclear bomb. It will be the ultimate challenge of the global grassroots green movement to transform it into something that can actually save the planet. For the atomic power industry, the bill will cap a decade-long $640-million-plus virtual cleansing of its radioactive image. Continue reading →

April 20, 2010 Posted by | climate change, USA | , , | Leave a comment

Nuclear power just too slow to help address climate change

Nuclear power is a particularly slow technology to grow. It is neither a short-term nor medium-term solution to the climate crisis.

Nuclear power: no solution to climate change, Green Left , quoting Mark Diesendorf, 17 April 2010 “……Nuclear power stations, whether conventional plant or hypothetical integral fast reactors, are inherently slow to build, because they are gigantic construction projects.
On the other hand, most renewable energy systems are fast to build, because their components can be manufactured in factories. Continue reading →

April 19, 2010 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, climate change | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Regions and cities acting on Climate Change, side-stepping international agreements

Coalition of the Tired of Waiting: Fighting Climate Change at Ground Level: More Nimble Cities and Regions Eyeing First Mover Advantage, SolveClimate.com, by Ann Danylkiw – Apr 16th, 2010
A pattern is emerging in the geopolitics of climate change this year: Countries are banding together to begin to map out strategies to adapt to and mitigate climate change outside of the UNFCCC process and ahead of a final international climate agreement. Continue reading →

April 17, 2010 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Rupert Murdoch aware of Climate Change dangers, despit Fox News

Murdoch said, “Climate change poses clear, catastrophic threats.”

Murdoch seems as much in the dark about Fox’s Neanderthal stance on the environment as he is about its deep complicity in far-right politics. In a painfully embarrassing public interview with Marvin Kalb last week, Murdoch claimed he had no idea that Fox News has been actively and directly promoting the tea party movement

Fox News Ignores Rupert’s Clean Little Secret, The Nation,  by Leslie Savan on 04/16/2010 Continue reading →

April 17, 2010 Posted by | climate change, media, USA | , | Leave a comment

Nuclear power no good against global warming

Why James Hansen is wrong on nuclear power | Links   April 8, 2010 With both third- and fourth-generation nuclear plants outside the time bracket, what is left for environmentalists who hanker after nuclear power? The only option for them is the one embraced by the French and Chinese governments, and now, it seems, by the Obama administration in the US: an accelerated roll-out of second-generation nuclear plants, built to standardised designs following rushed or non-existent consultation with the plants’ future neighbours. Continue reading →

April 9, 2010 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change | , , , , | Leave a comment