indigenous issues « nuclear-news

Native Americans lead the way in Solar Energy Education

Native Americans ….. lead the five groups of recipients taking advantage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (also known as ARRA, or the stimulus) and as a result eligible for the IREC awards.

Native Americans Turn to Solar Energy, CALFINDER 15 Oct 10, In an interesting show of how established solar energy has become, on Monday Oct 12October 12, the New York-based Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) gave one of its 2010 Innovation Awards to Lakota Solar Enterprises, a renewable energy company owned entirely by Native Americans and located on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Continue reading →

October 15, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | indigenous issues, USA | antinuclear, climate change, energy efficiency, global warming, renewable energy, renewables, solar | Leave a comment

Mohawks join opposition to shipment of nuclear wastes over Great Lakes

Mohawks will not stand for nuclear shipment By Michelle Lalonde, Montreal Gazette September 30, 2010 The Mohawk community of Kahnawake is determined to stop a plan by Ontario’s Bruce Power to ship 16 massive steam generators from its nuclear facility in southwestern Ontario along the St. Lawrence Seaway for recycling in Sweden.”The fact that the Seaway was built through our territory without our approval in the first place is bad enough,” said Clinton Phillips, the chief responsible for environmental issues on the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake.

“To use it to transport nuclear waste literally through our backyard would be adding insult to injury in a huge way. There is absolutely no way we’ll stand for it.”……………

October 1, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Canada, indigenous issues | antinuclear, indigenous, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear wastes, reactors | Leave a comment

International church group slams Australia’s Aboriginal Intervention

“The Intervention has taken control of the lives of Aboriginal peoples through such measures as compulsory income management and compulsory acquisition of leases over Aboriginal land.

“The Labor Government has continued the Intervention which remains a blight on Australia’s reputation.”

Territory shame The Catholic Leader: : 26 September 2010By: Paul Dobbyn AUSTRALIA’S “shameful treatment” of indigenous people in remote Northern Territory communities has been exposed during a six-day fact-finding mission by local and international visitors, Continue reading →

September 23, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA, indigenous issues | antinuclear, AUSTRALIA, indigenous | Leave a comment

Radiation poisoning of Navajo due to uranium mining

The Church Rock flood is only one incident among many in the “slow-motion disaster” investigative journalist Judy Pasternak comprehensively recounts in her chilling new book, “Yellow Dirt: An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed.”

“Yellow Dirt”: Radioactive reservation, The shocking story of how industry and government poisoned and then abandoned the Navajo Nation, Salon.com, Laura Miller, 19 Sept 10,

In the summer of 1979, an earthen dam over the town of Church Rock, Utah, broke, flooding the arroyo below and then the bed of the Rio Puerco (an intermittent stream) on the southern border of the Navajo Nation. It was a small flood, but a dangerous one. It burned the feet of a boy who stepped into it, and caused sheep and crops along the banks to drop dead. That’s because the pond it came from had been used by a nearby uranium mine to store the tailings (residue) of its excavations — the water kept the radioactive dust from blowing away. The 93 million gallons of contaminated water that poured into the Rio Puerco remains the largest accidental release of radioactive material in U.S. history, bigger than the notorious Three Mile Island reactor meltdown that occurred 14 weeks later. Continue reading →

September 20, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | indigenous issues, resources - print, Uranium, USA | antinuclear, indigenous, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

BHP Billiton, starts with potash – then on to uranium mining.

by Christina Macpherson, 21 Aug 2010. International mining giant BHP Billiton has an agenda for world-wide uranium mining leadership, as well as a history of world-wide inadequate treatment of indigenous people.

Unable to convince Australian Aborigines of the value to them of uranium mining, and radioactive waste tailings on their land, BHP still hopes to convince Canadian indigenous peoples of their bounty to them – promising jobs (mining) etc.

BHP Billiton touts city Mining firm sees Saskatoon as potash centre By Cassandra Kyle, The StarPhoenix August 20, 2010 The world’s biggest mining company will work to make Saskatoon an international potash hub if it wins its bid to acquire Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., BHP Billiton said Thursday…..
Mackenzie acknowledged in the telephone interview that while potash is BHP Billiton’s priority, it has “not ruled out” the development of any of Saskatchewan’s other resources, which include uranium, diamonds, gold, coal and rare earth elements. “We obviously play in many commodities and I think from time to time we do look in a small way at uranium,” he said…
BHP Billiton is starting an advertising program today in an attempt to convince PotashCorp shareholders to accept its takeover offer.

BHP Billiton touts city

August 21, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Canada, indigenous issues, Uranium | antinuclear, AUSTRALIA, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons, uranium | 1 Comment

Australian Aboriginals’ legal challenge against nuclear waste dump

The traditional owners have launched a legal challenge against the federal government and the Northern Land Council over plans for the nuclear waste dump at Muckaty station, near Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory.

Nuclear dump opposed by elders, Sydney Morning Herald, EDWINA SCOTT, July 26, 2010 Aboriginal landowners have protested in Resources Minister Martin Ferguson’s electorate to oppose the establishment of Australia’s first radioactive waste dump on their land. Continue reading →

July 27, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA, indigenous issues | antinuclear, AUSTRALIA, indigenous, nuclear weapons, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

Navajo’s stand against uranium mining supported by scientists

“I’ve never seen such poor science, poor accountability and poor traceability,” said Mike Wallace, a groundwater hydrologist who has worked in the nuclear industry at WIPP in New Mexico and the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada.

Scientists Back Navajos’ Uranium Mining Fight: Tribe fears contamination of drinking water BRENDA NORRELL Indian Country 19 July 2010, RED ROCK, N.M. – Navajos fighting proposed uranium mining in an area once devastated by a radioactive spill, were bolstered by scientists who criticized the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for approving new uranium mining that could result in the contamination of drinking water for 15,000 Navajos and ultimately lead to kidney failure.” Continue reading →

July 20, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | indigenous issues, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear technology, radiation, radioactive, uranium, water | Leave a comment

American Indians confront USA’s ‘Blue Ribbon’ Nuclear Waste Commission

Tribes: Nuclear waste can’t be stored at Hanford, Google hosted news, (AP) – 15 July 2010, RICHLAND, Wash. — Northwest American Indian tribes say highly radioactive waste cannot be permanently stored at the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site.Members of the Yakama, Nez Perce, Umatilla and Wanapum tribes on Wednesday addressed a commission appointed by President Barack Obama to examine U.S. disposal of radioactive waste. It was prompted by his decision not to proceed with the Yucca Mountain waste repository in Nevada…..

The Associated Press: Tribes: Nuclear waste can’t be stored at Hanford

July 15, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | indigenous issues, USA | antinuclear, indigenous, nuclear, nuclear technology, nuclear weapons, radioactive, uranium | Leave a comment

Nuclear injustice to the people of Marshall Islands

And now the US government is washing it hands of the people of the Marshall Islands. Aid, funding and compensation are being cut off and forced returns to the contaminated islands are being contemplated…

Remember the Rainbow Warrior and the Marshall Islands | Greenpeace International, 9 July 2010, Tomorrow is the 25th anniversary of the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior by the French secret service in New Zealand’s Marsden Wharf. Continue reading →

July 10, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | indigenous issues, OCEANIA | antinuclear, cancer, indigenous, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive, uranium | 1 Comment

Australia’s strategy to get Aboriginal land for mining and nuclear industry

Through the intervention, the government is weakening land rights. It is clear who [uranium miners] will benefit as Aboriginal people move off their land, settle in larger towns and lose connection with country.

What’s behind the NT intervention? | Green Left Weekly. July 3, 2010 By Peter Robson, Continue reading →

July 9, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA, indigenous issues | antinuclear, AUSTRALIA, nuclear, nuclear weapons, uranium | Leave a comment

Uranium mining, radiation and indigenous land

VIDEO Another Green World: McCain declares (nuclear) war on Navajo & Sioux McCain declares (nuclear) war on Navajo & Sioux, Another Green World, 1 July 2010 ‘Our Mother is suffering….’Radiation levels rising, uranium mining for ‘clean’ nuclear power is killing indigenous land in Arizona and McCain wants more, bet it would be different if his house was next to a radioactive mine.posted by Derek Wall

July 1, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | indigenous issues, USA | antinuclear, cancer, indigenous, nuclear, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, radioactive, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment

Land grab from Australian Aboriginals for the nuclear industry

Uranium mining has to go, along with the racist government policies used to justify and continue the theft of Aboriginal land.

Youth candidates to witness NT intervention , Zane Alcorn, candidate for Newcastle , Green Left Weekly, 26 June 2010, We need to stand behind the first people of this country and fight for their land and cultural rights. The government’s so-called concern for Aboriginal welfare and living conditions is nothing but a cloak for a blatant land grab.

The uranium-rich land of central Australia is coveted by government and private mining corporations alike. Aboriginal land rights are a direct threat to this potential source of huge wealth. Continue reading →

June 28, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA, indigenous issues | antinuclear, AUSTRALIA, indigenous, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear wastes, radiation, radioactive, uranium | 1 Comment

Australian govt’s welfare measures push Aboriginals off homelands

The NT intervention is clearly racist and is not motivated by concern for Aboriginal children but to enable government control of Aboriginal land.

Many Aboriginal communities have been forced to sign over their land on five-year leases to the federal government — land that contains gold, iron ore, uranium as well as areas that have been slated as potential nuclear waste dumps.

We are all in this together, Green Left Weekly, Ruth Ratcliffe June 20, 2010“…….The Rudd government plans to extend the paternalistic policy of welfare quarantining, which the Howard government initiated in remote Aboriginal communities, to other areas of disadvantage. Instead the government should adequately fund appropriate services and empower communities. Continue reading →

June 23, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA, indigenous issues | antinuclear, AUSTRALIA, indigenous, nuclear wastes, uranium | Leave a comment

Report from Indigenous Peoples on Climate Change

Climate Change And Indigenous Peoples: Second Edition, Indigenous Peoples Issues and Resources, 14 June 2010, The severity of the impacts of climate change and mitigation processes on indigenous peoples and the complex negotiating processes around climate change compels us to have a basic understanding of climate change and the policies and actions being taken to address it.

We, indigenous peoples, have long observed and adapted to the climatic changes in our communities for tens of thousands of years. Continue reading →

June 15, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, indigenous issues | climate change, global warming, indigenous | Leave a comment

American Indians against new uranium mining

“Our Navajo communities rely on the groundwater for everything. These new projects could contaminate the source of drinking water for 15,000 Navajo community members,”

Navajo Activists Protest Uranium Mining Plans, May 28, 2010, warresisters By Bruce Finley, The Denver PostUranium-mining leaders and federal regulators poised to fuel a resurgent nuclear power industry gathered in Denver on Wednesday,…outside the conference Wednesday, American Indian demonstrators with drums and signs demanded a halt to all new uranium mining on Navajo land, where federal regulators have permitted several projects. Continue reading →

May 29, 2010 Posted by Christina Macpherson | indigenous issues, USA | antinuclear, indigenous, nuclear, nuclear wastes, radioactive, reactors, uranium | Leave a comment