Monday 16 December 2013

"Never say die -Up man and try.."

When I was a kid, I was once taken to tea with two ladies who lived in the next lane.  As kids do, I was looking at the ornaments in their sitting room and I saw a tiny jug, made out of pottery, no bigger than a minute coffee cup.  On one side was painted the words "Never Say Die - Up man and try".
"I like that!" I said, and one of them immediately gave it to me as a present.  My mum was a bit upset.  She said no, of course, I wasn't to take it.
When we went home, she explained that I wasn't to say I liked other people's things.  (I had just meant that I liked it... not that I wanted it.)  It seemed a bit silly to me that you couldn't tell someone that you liked what they had, but I had learned and I didn't do it again.
However, the kind lady really did want me to have it, and later it was presented to me....and I have it still.
Well, I have been in all sorts of messes, most of which I have made myself, but I still draw strength from the words.
Just now, in the world, it seems a good time to look at it again.Things are pretty much of a mess, I mean really pretty much of a mess, but there are always the good guys who haven't stopped trying and really, I mean really, are succeeding.
What gives me a lot of hope is the way the younger generation are trying for better things. Take this year's award for the best student film in the 2013 International Uranium Film Festival. "No to a Nuclear Jordan".  The director, Solenne Tadros, explains that she aims to present the dangers that come with having a nuclear power plant and what the alternatives are... but let her tell it in her own words, on their website.... http://www.uraniumfilmfestival.org/index.php/en/thursday-23-may-2013/213-at-3-pm/441-no-to-a-nuclear-jordan
I decided, as I wasn't able to see the film, to come up with some of my own recent discoveries about renewable energy alternatives.. and I wondered if they matched any discoveries of yours!
Fact one: For over 90 hours in Denmark recently, the wind power produced more than the nation's electricity requirements, peaking at 122%  on October 28th at 2 a.m.
http://ecowatch.com/2013/12/13/wind-denmark-electricity-needs/
http://oncirculation.com/2013/11/19/denmark-passes-100-wind-power/ 

That's just wind! And when it comes to solar, look at this enthusiasm in the USA:
http://cleantechnica.com/2013/12/25/mosaic-encourages-people-put-solar-new-year/
We could do with a bit more of this in the UK!
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2013/nov/03/weatherwatch-solar-power-renewable-energy
Did you know that solar panels pay for themselves in six months to one and a half years for Southern Europe and under three years for the rest of Europe, which as the author of the article winningly states, has approximately the solar irradiance levels of Alaska?...Scroll down to the bottom of the post for this gem! http://cleantechnica.com/2013/12/26/solar-energy-payback-time-charts/

 All we need now is some decent storage... but the geeks are working on it. At present my favourite schemes are for the kind you have stored up even when the power lines are down, micro storage, so here are a couple from one extreme to another:
http://cleantechnica.com/2013/12/19/hydrogen-storage-large-scale-renewable-energy-storage-demonstration-projects/  If you are thinking big
to http://cleantechnica.com/2013/10/30/energy-storage-silicon-chips-new-supercapacitor-creates-interesting-possibilities-solar-cells/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IM-cleantechnica+%28CleanTechnica%29
...if you want something that fits on the back of a silicon chip!


And here's a round up of just some of what's been going on.
http://cleantechnica.com/2013/12/23/13-huge-clean-energy-breakthroughs-2013/

 Meanwhile, what has been happening in Jordan?
The people are protesting..
http://jordantimes.com/tribesmen-azraq-residents-say-no-to-nuclear-reactor-location
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/11/jordan-nuclear-rosatom-environment-energy.html#

At this time of year, many of us Christians are remembering shepherds watching their flocks by night in a starlit field in Judea. Now, today, I am thinking of shepherds not so far away in the countryside of Jordan.  I wish you well.





Friday 6 December 2013

Life or death?


This week I should have liked to have been in Window Rock, Arizona.  I should particularly like to have been there on Tuesday to see the film, Ground Zero -Sacred Ground. It shows Three Rivers, an ancient rock art site, where over 10,000 petroglyphs were created by the Jonada Mogollon people between 900 and 1400 AD. There are birds, fish, humans, insects and plants, as well as geometric designs, found over an area of 50 acres of the Northern Chihuahuan Desert. There are trails to walk and campsites where you can stay to see them for yourself.
Some  thirty five miles away, however, is the Trinity nuclear test site, now called the White Sands Missile Range. This lies in New Mexico, near the area of the desert aptly named Jornada del Muerto, or "Route of the dead man."
The one desert holds the pictorial  history of man living with nature, the other, a history of its destruction, written in the sand.
This contrast is explored in a description of the film, which can be read at the brilliantly visual website of the Uranium Film Festival. They staged the film's showing along with many others I would have liked to have seen, in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Window Rock, as part of their travelling film festival.
The next festival stopover is also in the USA, in Washington from February 10th-12th.  The festival program is on their website at http://www.uraniumfilmfestival.org/index.php/en/travelling-festival/usa-2014/washington  After that, it travels to New York City on February 14th until February 18th.




Tuesday 26 November 2013

EU citizen? You can add your name to a couple of letters about nuclear power which may affect your future.

So... I'm really bad at getting round to writing letters... that's why, when someone else has done it for me, even better than me...I'm happy...especially when I can put my name to it, too.

There are two such letter out there at the moment, both about the fact that a whole lot of us don't want nuclear power and a whole lot of us don't want to subsidise it... and probably even more don't want their energy bills to go up in the future, especially when other people's are going down.

The first is an open letter from Energy Fair to E.U. Commissioner Almunia:

No valid justification for subsidising nuclear power, which you can endorse. The instructions are with their letter and they will make sure that your endorsement reaches the commissioner, with copies to Günther Oettinger, Commissioner for Energy, Connie Hedegaard, Commissioner for Climate Action, and President José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission.

The link to the letter is http://www.energyfair.org.uk/home/open-letter

The letter is also in The Ecologist, http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2160503/nuclear_subsidies_open_letter_to_commissioner_almunia.html

The other E protest is a new one from Global 2000. (Their previous successful petition against nuclear power being included in the EU subsidies for renewable energy was called “My Voice Against Nuclear Power”.)

This new E protest is “Not a single cent for nuclear power!” and is against any new state aid for nuclear power.   Using the Global 2000 form you can send the EU Commissioner for Competition Almunia an email.

This is the link   http://www.my-voice.eu/

Why?

These are six relevant articles!

http://cleantechnica.com/2013/10/30/hinkley-c-nuclear-power-plant-get-twice-rate-solar-pv-uk-government/?utm_source=Cleantechnica+News&utm_campaign=07cc6df6e8-RSS_

http://www.no2nuclearpower.org.uk/news/comment/hinkley-a-huge-contribution-towards-yesterdays-energy-thinking/ 

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/damian-carrington-blog/2013/oct/21/nuclear-power-energy-edf-deal

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/damian-carrington-blog/2013/sep/04/fukushima-farce-nuclear-industry-flaw

http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=208

http://cus.net/news/news4.html





Sunday 10 November 2013

CENSORED NEWS: International Uranium Film Festival coming to Navajo Nation

CENSORED NEWS: International Uranium Film Festival coming to Navajo Nation

What happens when a film is about your life?

On November 27th  the travelling Uranium film festival arrives in the USA.  The main festival takes place each year in Rio de Janeiro, when films from all over the world are entered for the festival. It's the only one of its kind, showing films about nuclear power, uranium mining, nuclear weapons and the health effects of radioactivity. You can find out a lot more from their amazing website.
The first films will be shown in Albuquerque NM, followed by screenings in Santa Fe and Window Rock.  Next year films will be shown in Washington D.C. and in New York City in February.
One of the films is 'The River That Harms'.  Just fourteen weeks after the accident at Three Mile Island, which a great many people have heard about, there was another nuclear tragedy, which I for one, did not find out out about for many years.
When I read that ninety million gallons of liquid nuclear waste and eleven hundred tons of solid mill wastes burst through a broken dam wall at the Church Rock Uranium Mill Facility, contaminating the Puerco River,  and I had never heard about it, I was bemused.
Many of the people affected were from the Navajo Nation. It was the river they lived by. It was the land that their animals grazed and the water that they drank, and the pools that their children played in....
Now we have films about children who don't play outside in Japan and children whose lives were affected by a poisoned river in the USA. But did their parents ever think it would happen to them, or that a film would be made about them? If the films weren't made, would you know about them?
The uranium that powered the plants in Fukushima, apparently, came from mines in Australia, but I also read of protests and long protest marches by Aboriginal people along with international protesters against the mining of uranium  http://indymedia.org.au/2013/05/10/wgar-news-walkatjurra-walkabout-stepping-out-against-uranium-mining-wanfa-anawa
 Our children, your children, have the right to be in happy films in a bright future.  It's up to us to see that this happens.

Friday 6 September 2013

travelling Uranium Film Festival comes to Munich and then Bamberg and Berlin.



This is the poster for the travelling Uranium Film Festival in Munich.  It is being held from 26th to 29th September which coincides with the Beerfest in Munich.  It will be a lively time to visit the city. The films are exceptional.  A truly international film festival, it hosts films from across the world, including Germany and the programme and details of the films being shown, as well as at previous festivals can be seen at the website, http://www.uraniumfilmfestival.org/index.php/en/
The website can be read in German, English and Brazilian and if you click on the German language version you can find all the details of the festival in Bamberg, from 30th September to 1st October and Berlin, from 3rd October to 7th October.
The website is worth visiting, even if you can't make it to the cinema; it is very visual.  If you are thinking of entering the 4th international festival, entry is open until 1st. January 2014 and it's free!
At a time when the world is slowly waking up to the seriousness of the situation in Japan and the consequences of nuclear power, weapons and waste, these films have a most powerful message.

Wednesday 22 May 2013

Rio de Janeiro. The International Uranium Film Festival.

Yesterday, I saw the waves breaking on the shorerline of Rio de Janeiro.  I really did! Well, it was on EarthCam  Rio de Janeiro  If you have a moment, it's a lovely sight.... If I had really been there, I would have been making my way a little further up the coast to Flamengo Park and the Museum of Modern Arts where The Third International Uranium Film Festival  is being held.  They are showing forty eight films from a large number submitted this year from around twenty countries, too many for them all to be shown in the time. I always wonder about the forty ninth film.
This is one of those rare film festivals which shows films that the mainstream frequently seems to shy away from, often made by brave, deeply committed people who are determined that the truth should be heard and the victims given a voice. Even more bravely, when the victims themselves, speak out.
Like me, you don't have to go there to find out about them, the festival has a really amazing website. http://www.uraniumfilmfestival.org/index.php/en/ and if you go to their program, you can find out about individual films.
These people are making waves.

Thursday 4 April 2013

Hot water

On April 1st, Mochizuki wrote in the Fukushima Diary that the sea water off shore Fukushima is warmer than the average of past 30 years by around 2.5 degrees C   http://fukushima-diary.com/2013/04/sea-water-offshore-fukushima-is-warmer-than-the-average-of-past-30-years-by-2-5%E2%84%83/
This dramatic rise in temperature was also picked up in the Fukushima webcam discussion thread, in ENE news.
On  April 4th, I looked at the Unisys Weather - Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies chart and it was still showing up. This is a map from their archives for April 7th 2013   http://weather.unisys.com/archive/sst/sst_anom-130407.gif
This comes from a very helpful SST anomalies archive provided by Unisys.  You can link to it from the previous map, or follow this link, http://weather.unisys.com/archive/sst/ to a list which is updated about weekly for sea surface temperature anomalies.  I couldn't see anything significant in the March 4th weekly map, or in the weeks just preceding it, but there is clear evidence in the week of March 11th onwards of a temperature rise.
There is also a Unisys Weather - Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies chart  (current)  http://weather.unisys.com/surface/sfc_daily.php?plot=ssa&inv=0&t=cur    and Elders has a an excellent chart of current anomalies,  http://www.eldersweather.com.au
If you are also new to this area, don't forget that these are maps of sea surface temperature anomalies, not overall sea surface temperatures.  It can be a bit confusing!
I don't think that global warming is responsible for this.

Sunday 31 March 2013

Uranium Film Festival. 2013

Last year, after a spectacular film festival, the films were taken on tour to Berlin and India. The need for films like these to be shown is becoming more and more obvious.  How many mainstream films do you see about uranium mining and nuclear accidents, and how long have we got left on this planet?
 This year, the festival will be held from May 16th to May 26th in Rio de Janeiro, at the Museum of Modern Art cinema.  If you can't get there, you can still find out about the films at http://www.uraniumfilmfestival.org/index.php/en/   About 150 films were submitted from 20 countries.  They had the hard task of picking just 48 of these for this year's festival.
The website is dramatic and you can read about every film being shown in the program, under 'Films'.  http://www.uraniumfilmfestival.org/index.php/en/programme/films 
by clicking onto each film.  

Monday 25 March 2013

You can ring the president and perhaps you should.

Just had this letter from "Food Demoracy Now" If you live in the USA, this is for you.


Dear....
We want to thank the more than 175,000 Food Democracy Now! members who have taken action so far. The response has been incredible and a sign of how outraged everyday Americans are at the continued backroom deals struck by our elected officials and Monsanto lobbyists.
How do these things happen? This morning we are reminded of the famous quote from Edmund Burke:
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
Let's make sure our voice is heard loud and clear today!
Right now, the short-term spending budget bill with Monsanto's poison pill is sitting on the President's desk, waiting for him to sign. He has until Wednesday March 27th to sign this into law, unless you stop him.
We need you to do three things:
1. Make a phone call to the White House asking that President Obama veto H.R. 933, and send it back to Congress with the express instructions of removing Section 735: The Monsanto Protection Act.
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/801?t=3&akid=791.402322.4A-_A4
We realize that the phone lines will be very busy today, but please keep calling until you get through. Every voice counts! Update: we're hearing the phone line is very busy today so please click on the link to make a call and report back.
You can call the White House at (202) 456-1111 or if that line is busy, please call (202) 456-1414 - then ask at least 5 of your friends to join you!
2. If you haven't already done so, please sign this letter calling for President Obama to veto the Monsanto Protection Act.
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/791?t=6&akid=791.402322.4A-_A4
If we reach more than 200,000 signatures today, Dave and Lisa will fly out to Washington DC to deliver your comments to the White House.
3. Please consider chipping in $3 to help send us to the White House to deliver your comments and then help spread the word to your friends.
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/804?t=9&akid=791.402322.4A-_A4
We understand the odds that we're up against, that many will say that President Obama can't afford not to sign this budget bill, which if not signed will temporarily shut down the federal government.
But the truth is there is no legitimacy in elected officials that stand idly by when violations of our basic rights like this happen. Section 735 sets a dangerous precedent that allows corporations to work back room deals to undermine the rule of law.
Obama has a clear choice, veto the Monsanto Protection Act or allow Congress and corporate special interests to continue to lead America down this slippery slope.
Tell President Obama to veto the Monsanto Protection Act! America deserves better. Every voice counts.
Thanks for participating in food democracy,
Dave, Lisa and the Food Democracy Now! team


SOS: Last Chance to Stop the Monsanto Protection Act!
Dear.....
This is the fight of the century, either corporations like Monsanto will rule America with an iron fist or we will rise up and take our country back. It's that simple.
Tell President Obama to veto the Monsanto Protection Act!
Late Friday evening we electronically delivered more than 100,000 comments from Food Democracy Now! members from all 50 states to the White House calling for President Obama to veto the Monsanto Protection Act.
This is in an incredible response from Americans who are outraged that once again Congress has allowed Monsanto lobbyists to undermine our most basic and fundamental rights in another shady backroom deal.
Right now, H.R. 933 - with its poison biotech pill - is sitting on President Obama’s desk waiting for him to sign it. We need you to contact President Obama before he signs and HR 933 and the Monsanto Protection Act become law.
Tell President Obama to veto the Monsanto Protection Act! If we reach 200,000 comments, we’ll hand deliver your comments to the White House. Every voice counts!
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/791?t=18&akid=791.402322.4A-_A4
When he first ran for president, Barack Obama promised to clean up Washington’s culture of corruption, pledging to put an end to the revolving door and backroom deals with lobbyists. Sure, we know that hasn’t happened yet, but with your help it could today.
Now is President Obama’s chance to make true on that promise. Either he is for the American people and our democratic rights or he supports Monsanto and corporate lobbyists undermining our basic rights. We already know that Congress has abandoned us.
The choice is clear, President Obama can veto H.R. 933 or he can side with Monsanto.
Tell President Obama to stand up for your rights over Monsanto’s and do the right thing and Veto the Monsanto Protection Act.
Already people are telling us that this is a fight we cannot win. That's because Section 735, the Monsanto Protection Act, is a small provision snuck into a 841 page “appropriations bill for the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs and other departments and agencies for the fiscal year 2013” so the President "has to sign it".
We disagree. As a Constitutional law scholar, President Obama understands better than anyone the threat the Monsanto Protection Act poses to our Constitution and our democracy. Unfortunately, President Obama does not have the option of a line item veto, and the only recourse is for him to veto the entire bill.
Don’t worry, we understand the odds. More importantly we know the odds if we don't stand up. This is a corporate coup d'etat and Monsanto and everyone else in Washington DC wants you to be quiet.
But we can’t afford to. There’s too much at stake to sit silent. Some say it will only last 6 months and expire in September. And we think that’s much too long. Here at Food Democracy Now! we’re not willing to surrender our democratic rights for even one second. As long as these bastards work to undermine our rights we will fight them. And with your help, we’re just getting started.
Please join us in telling President Obama to veto the Monsanto Protection Act! If we can reach 200,000 comments by Monday afternoon, we’ll fly to Washington DC and hand deliver your comments to the White House. Every voice counts!
What’s at stake:
By sneaking Section 735 into a federal appropriations bills, Monsanto has successfully planted a dangerous provision in U.S. law that strips judges of their constitutional mandate to protect American’s health and the environment while opening up the floodgates for the planting of new, untested genetically engineered crops.
Even if their new GMO crops are ultimately proven to be harmful to human health or the environment, Section 735 allows them to be planted the minute the USDA approves them!
Even more alarming, currently 13 new crops are awaiting approval at the USDA and AquaBounty’s GMO salmon is on the verge of being approved by the FDA. This new provision opens the door wide open for these approvals.
The floodgates would literally be open for Monsanto, DuPont and Dow Chemical’s new GMO crops that are resistant to more toxic chemicals like 2,4-D, Agent Orange and dicamba that will replace failing Roundup Ready GMO crops.
According to legal experts, this provision would create a precedent-setting limitation on judicial review and is a dangerous assault on fundamental federal and judicial safeguards needed to protect America’s farmers, citizens and the environment from the wanton approval of Monsanto's new GMO crops.
Tell President Obama to Veto H.R. 933 and the Monsanto Protection Act - Every voice counts!
Thanks for participating in food democracy,
Dave, Lisa and the Food Democracy Now! team
Background:
1. "H.R. 933: Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013", passed Congress March 22, 2013 containing Section 735, Monsanto Protection Act.
Monsanto Protection Act language:
Sec. 735. In the event that a determination of non-regulated status made pursuant to section 411 of the Plant Protection Act is or has been invalidated or vacated, the Secretary of Agriculture shall, notwithstanding any other provision of law, upon request by a farmer, grower, farm operator, or producer, immediately grant temporary permit(s) or temporary deregulation in part, subject to necessary and appropriate conditions consistent with section 411(a) or 412(c) of the Plant Protection Act, which interim conditions shall authorize the movement, introduction, continued cultivation, commercialization and other specifically enumerated activities and requirements, including measures designed to mitigate or minimize potential adverse environmental effects, if any, relevant to the Secretary’s evaluation of the petition for non-regulated status, while ensuring that growers or other users are able to move, plant, cultivate, introduce into commerce and carry out other authorized activities in a timely manner: Provided, That all such conditions shall be applicable only for the interim period necessary for the Secretary to complete any required analyses or consultations related to the petition for non-regulated status: Provided further, That nothing in this section shall be construed as limiting the Secretary’s authority under section 411, 412 and 414 of the Plant Protection Act.
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/803?t=24&akid=791.402322.4A-_A4
2. “H.R. 933: Department of Defense, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Full-Year ... (Concurring in the Senate Amendment)”, which contains Section 735, the Monsanto Protection Act passes Congress 318-109.
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/802?t=26&akid=791.402322.4A-_A4
3. “H.R. 933: Department of Defense, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Full-Year (On Passage of the Bill)” March 20, 2013
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/797?t=28&akid=791.402322.4A-_A4
4. “House Votes to Prevent Government Shutdown, Support Troops and Veterans”, March 6, 2013
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/798?t=30&akid=791.402322.4A-_A4
5. “Monsanto Protection Act, Section 735 Language from Senate Continuing Resolution, HR 933,” Passed Senate vote 73-26, March 20, 2013  Page 80
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/799?t=32&akid=791.402322.4A-_A4
6. “Sen. Tester: Who Put These Agribiz-Friendly Riders into This Unrelated Bill?” Mother Jones, March 15, 2013
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/800?t=34&akid=791.402322.4A-_A4
7. "‘Monsanto Protection Act’ would keep GMO crops in the ground during legal battles ", Grist, June 29, 2012
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/734?t=36&akid=791.402322.4A-_A4