Australia's nuclear industry has a shameful history of 'radioactive racism' that dates from the British bomb tests in the 1950s, writes Jim Green. The same attitudes persist today with plans to dump over half a million tonnes of high and intermediate level nuclear waste on Aboriginal land, and open new uranium mines. But now Aboriginal peoples and traditional land owners are fighting back!
Radioactive waste and the nuclear war on Australia's Aboriginal people Jim Green | 1st July 2016 News Australia Waste Pollution Nuclear Politics WMD Indigenous Peoples kylie sambo-cut.jpg Australia's …
A tangle of undercapitalised companies are coming forward to cash in on old deep coal mines in Wales, writes Guy Shrubsole - by digging them all out from above from huge open cast pits. But local communities, alarmed at the noise, pollution and destruction of landscape, increasingly see coal as an industry that's best consigned to the scrapheap.
Coal companies trying to revive 'zombie' open cast mines in Wales Guy Shrubsole Greenpeace Energydesk | 24th February 2016 Activism Energy Coal Fossil Fuels Mining Corporations UK Wales Politics …
Among Cuba's greatest achievements is its organic farming sector, writes Miguel Altieri. Developed in the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union, small agroecological farms now employ 300,000 campesinos and provide an abundance of healthy fruit and vegetables. But now US food and agribusiness corporations are eyeing up a multi-billion dollar business opportunity.
… strategy that characterizes modern industrial agriculture. It encourages local … managed carefully, Cuba could revert to an industrial approach that relies on … the 1990s are examples of this process. If US industrial agriculture expands into Cuba, …
The proposed Directive on Trade Secrets Protection is meant to repress industrial espionage, write Corporate Europe Observatory & Co-signatories. But under its Draconian provisions, punitive lawsuits, jail sentences and €350,000 fines await journalists, campaigners and whistle-blowers. The European Parliament must reject this wicked law tomorrow!
… Trade Secrets Protection is meant to repress industrial espionage, write Corporate Europe … Protection. This text is meant to repress industrial espionage but abuses its purpose by … or motives. This is not needed to fight industrial espionage, but is rather a big gift …
GMO crops are marketed as providing quick fixes to complex problems, writes Julia Wright. But they only perpetuate 'business as usual' farming that's depleting soils, water and biodiversity, and entrench unsustainable models of agriculture in place of agroecological systems that work with, not against, nature.
… - all the result of several decades of industrial agriculture. The mainstream … nothing for biodiversity in agriculture. The industrial agriculture mindset The … simply a manifestation of the same misguided industrial mindset, a mindset that tries to …
It's now clear what place government ministers and senior officials want for the UK in a post-Brexit world, writes Mark Curtis - and it's not pretty! A new era of corporate 'free trade' colonialism looms, spearheaded by aid spending, with ramped-up arms exports to the world's most corrupt and repressive regimes, all backed up by military force to project the Britain's global financial interests.
Post-Brexit dreams of empire: arms, free trade and corporate conquest Mark Curtis Global Justice Now | 5th December 2016 News Brexit Politics Human Rights Trade Development hms-vanguard-cut.jpg It's …
Food has never been more affordable for middle class families in rich countries. But it comes at a high cost: the impact of industrial food production on health, environment and society has never been greater as Patrick Holden explained to Emily Lewis-Brown. Now the real cost of food US production will be examined in a ground-breaking conference in San Francisco.
… But it comes at a high cost: the impact of industrial food production on health, … The post war drive for food security through industrial farming and ever-cheaper food has, … that's routinely inflicted on animals under industrial farming systems. "You've got damage …
Don't believe the spurious claims of nuclear shills constantly doing down renewables, writes Mark Diesendorf. Clean, safe renewable energy technologies have the potential to supply 100% of the world's electricity needs - but the first hurdle is to refute the deliberately misleading myths designed to promote the politically powerful but ultimately doomed nuclear industry.
… about the ability of RE to power an industrial society, they bombard …
The BBC has been excelling itself in its deliberate understatement of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, writes Chris Busby. While calling in pseudo experts to say radiation is all but harmless, it's ignoring the science that shows that the real health impacts of nuclear fallout are around 1,000 times worse than claimed.
No matter what BBC says: Fukushima disaster is killing people Chris Busby | 14th March 2016 Comment Japan Nuclear Radiation Health Science fuku-water-sampling-cut.jpg The BBC has been excelling …
Tesla's Powerwall battery may be the poster-boy of the forthcoming dynamic power grid, writes Margaret McAll. But a far more accessible, low cost solution beckons: grid-interactive water heaters can soak up excess power from peaking renewables, reduce expensive peak demand, and cut power companies' need to invest in generation and distribution.
Water heaters as batteries: as sexy as a Tesla? Margaret McAll RMI | 6th April 2016 Comment Energy Renewables Smartgrid water-heater-cut.jpg Tesla's Powerwall battery may be the poster-boy of the …
America's crumbling nuclear power plants, dozens of them built to the design that spectacularly failed at Fukushima, must be closed down to prevent catastrophe, writes Harvey Wasserman. So let's hear Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton speak out on the topic and make it a core issue in the Presidential race!
Bernie and Hillary - speak out on America's dying nuclear reactors! Harvey Wasserman | 8th February 2016 Comment Nuclear Energy Politics Regulation Renewables bernie-hillary-cut.jpg America's …
The increasingly militant protests by dairy farmers against low prices forced on them by the corporate 'free market' represent serious and effective resistance against the 'free trade' agenda being forced on the world by neoliberal governments, writes David Miller. They are the first steps to building a new global food system that respects food, people, culture and environment.
Dairy farmers' uprisings lead the way to a democratic world food system David Miller | 17th February 2016 News Protest Farming Food Trade EU Canada USA Labour Corporations Law Politics …
Now that the US is signed up to ambitious Paris targets to limit warming, it too must play its part in keeping fossil fuels under the ground, write leading US campaigners. So let's make an immediate start by halting all new federal oil and gas leasing on public lands pending a full climate and environmental impact study.
… aside in these public places in favor of industrial development and private profit. …
Given the long list of technical and financial problems afflicting the Hinkley C power plant, writes David Thorpe, the Labour Party's continuing support for the over-priced, highly subsidised project is increasingly paradoxical. Labour must take a fresh look at HPC and the renewable alternatives that can do better at far lower cost.
… global average energy savings are achieved by industrial energy efficiency around the … including Best Practices and Case Studies for Industrial Energy Efficiency Improvement , … Thorpe Best Practices and Case Studies for Industrial Energy Efficiency Improvement (with …
Bhaskar Save, the 'Gandhi of natural farming', died last year after a lifetime of organic growing and determined campaigning against the destruction of India's traditional, sustainable agriculture, writes Colin Todhunter. His 2006 open letter, published here, sets out a devastating critique of industrial agriculture and its impacts, and an eloquent and timely agroecological manifesto.
… here, sets out a devastating critique of industrial agriculture and its impacts, and an … less perishable cereals to fuel the urban-industrial expansion favoured by the … you vigorously promoted benefited only the industrialists, traders and the …
The TTIP 'trade agreement between the US and the EU would devastate EU farms as it opens them up to competition from larger, less regulated US operations, writes Dario Sarmadi. This is the conclusion of a new study to be published tomorrow, which also finds that small-scale farmers would be the first to go - with the big winners the large agri-food corporations.
TTIP: the downfall of European agriculture? Dario Sarmadi EurActiv.de | 14th January 2016 News Trade Farming Food EU USA GMOs Economics Health german-farms-cut.jpg The TTIP 'trade agreement between …
The 'cancer industry', including charities with close links to chemicals corporations, is always keen to blame cancer victims for their morally deficient lifestyles, writes Colin Todhunter. But the real fault lies with the commercial interests touting bad food, nutritionally unbalanced and laced with toxic agrochemicals - like the ubiquitous glyphosate - and their residues.
… unaddressed. CRUK - blaming the victims of industrial food, pollution A piece, ' People …
North American buffalo are officially 'vulnerable to global extinction', writes Louise Willcox, yet the US National Parks Service and Montana are intent on their wholesale slaughter. In place of a complete ecosystem with wild-roaming buffalo and grizzly bears, wildlife managers are systematically favoring the over-abundant elk that drive the politically powerful hunting industry.
Buffalo slaughter in Yellowstone and the death of a spirit animal Louise Willcox | 5th April 2016 News Natural World Hunting Conservation Ecology USA Indigenous Peoples bison-yellowstone-cut.jpg …
The main claim used to justify nuclear is that it's the only low carbon power source that can supply 'reliable, baseload electricity', writes Mark Diesendorf - unlike wind and solar. But not only can renewables supply baseload power, they can do something far more valuable: supply power flexibly according to demand. Now nuclear power really is redundant.
Dispelling the nuclear 'baseload' myth: nothing renewables can't do better! Mark Diesendorf | 10th March 2016 News Renewables Energy Nuclear UK Wind Solar Australia …
Bayer's $66 billion takeover of Monsanto represents another big click on the ratchet of corporate power over farming and food, writes Colin Todhunter. With the 'big six' of global agribusiness now set to turn into the 'even bigger three', farmers and consumers are facing more GMOs and pesticides, less choice, and deeper price gouging. Agroecology has never looked more attractive.
… conglomerates specialise in a globalised, industrial-scale, chemical-intensive model of … you choose to look at it. It's the system of industrialised, capital-intensive agriculture …
There's absolutely no evidence for BBC Panorama's claim of 90% success for Bt brinjal in Bangladesh, writes Claire Robinson. But that has not stopped the BBC Trust from dismissing all complaints against its monstrously dishonest report. Nor has it diminished the jubilation of GMO cheerleaders.
BBC's GMO coverage 'fair and accurate'? You decide Claire Robinson GMWatch | 14th April 2016 Comment GMOs Science Bangladesh Media UK Regulation Farming Corporations brinjal-cut.jpg There's …
The UK imports millions of tons of American wood pellets every year to be burned in power stations for 'climate friendly' electricity, writes Matt Williams. But his recent visit to the southern US showed him that this practice is devastating beautiful, natural forests rich in wildlife - while the UK government's own research shows that it's worse for the climate than the coal it replaces.
Dirtier than coal: burning forests for 'green' energy Matt Williams | 19th July 2016 News Energy Climate Change Forests Emissions US UK EU Biofuels stumps-cut.jpg The UK imports millions of tons of …
President-elect Trump's widely anticipated appointment of Exxon's CEO Rex Tillerson as new US Secretary of State is creating a government of, by, and for the oil and gas industry, writes Steve Horn.
Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson new US Secretary of State? Steve Horn DeSmogBlog | 12th December 2016 News Politics Oil Gas Energy Climate Change USA tillerson-putin-cut.jpg President-elect Trump's widely …
While the government is cutting vital public expenditure across the board there's one industry for which no costs are too great, writes Martin Forwood. The price of an 'evaporator' at the Sellafield nuclear complex is escalating towards £1 billion, while billions more of taxpayer finance are being lined up to finance cooling systems, power lines and transport links for the adjacent Moorside new-build nuclear power plant.
Nuclear plundering of the public purse - the Sellafield and Moorside billions Martin Forwood | 13th December 2016 News Nuclear Waste Finance Energy UK ecaporator-d-cut.jpg While the government is …