Environment group urges Prime Minister to visit Hazelwood crisis
Environment group Friends of the Earth Australia has called on Prime Minister Tony Abbott to visit Morwell where a public health emergency is unfolding from a coalmine fire.
“Premier Denis Napthine has been slow to act, putting Morwell residents at risk from serious health impacts,” said Leigh Ewbank of Friends of the Earth.
“It’s time for the Prime Minister to visit the region and provide Commonwealth support for the community.”
Morwell residents have been urged to leave town or face serious health impacts from the Hazelwood coalmine fire which has been burning for almost three weeks.
A Morwell primary school has been evacuated due to dangerous levels of carbon monoxide and particulate matter in the air. Authorities have drawn up plans to evacuate 10,000 Morwell residents.
“Failure to visit Morwell will reflect poorly on the Prime Minister who has a reputation as a man of action,” said Mr Ewbank.
The Prime Minister put himself in the line of fire in last October, joining firefighters for back burning near the Blue Mountains. Earlier this week the Prime Minister was visiting drought-affected farmers in Queensland and NSW.
The Abbott government appears to have double standards when it comes to energy.
“If the Prime Minister ignores the crisis at Hazelwood it will confirm the suspicion that this government puts ideology ahead of good policy,” said Mr Ewbank. “That it favours fossil fuels over clean renewable energy.”
Despite the obvious health consequences from coal pollution, the Abbott government has ordered yet another investigation into wind energy and human health.
A review by Australia’s peak medical body–the National Health and Medical Research Council–released this week, found wind energy to be clean and safe.
Government politicians have been reported saying the Renewable Energy Target review is “cover” to “kill the RET.”
Further comment: Cam Walker, Friends of the Earth, 0419 338 047
At last, some FANTASTIC news for our Great Barrier Reef! Construction giant Lend Lease has announced its withdrawal from the biggest proposed coal port in this World Heritage Area!
In recent years, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton have done the same. We’ve still got a long way to go to protect our Reef and climate from plans to expand coal exports through the Reef, but this is another sign that companies should move away from Reef wrecking projects.
“The European patent office is granting a patent to Monsanto to screen for biodiversity in soybean plants (glycine). Amazingly most of these plants are in Australia. This is bio-piracy on a vast scale.
Our unfolding understanding of the universe is marked by epic searches and we are now on the brink of discovering something that has escaped detection for many years.
The search for gravity waves has been a century long epic. They are a prediction of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity but for years physicists argued about their theoretical existence.
By 1957 physicists had proved that they must carry energy and cause vibrations. But it was also apparent that waves carrying a million times more energy than sunlight would make vibrations smaller than an atomic nucleus.
Building detectors seemed a daunting task but in the 1960s a maverick physicist Joseph Weber, at the University of Maryland, began to design the first detectors. By 1969 he claimed success!
There was excitement and consternation. How could such vast amounts of energy be reconciled with our understanding of stars and galaxies? A scientific gold rush began.
Within two years, ten new detectors had been built in major labs across the planet. But nothing was detected.
Going to need a better detector
Some physicists gave up on the field but for the next 40 years a growing group of physicists set about trying to build vastly better detectors.
By the 1980s a worldwide collaboration to build five detectors, called cryogenic resonant bars, was underway, with one detector called NIOBE located at the University of Western Australia.
These were huge metal bars cooled to near absolute zero. They used superconducting sensors that could detect a million times smaller vibration energy than those of Weber.
Gravity waves caused by two rotating black holes. Nasa
Click to enlarge
They operated throughout much of the 1990s. If a pair of black holes had collided in our galaxy, or a new black hole had formed, it would have been heard as a gentle ping in the cold bars… but all remained quiet.
What the cryogenic detectors did achieve was an understanding of how quantum physics affects measurement, even of tonne-scale objects. The detectors forced us to come to grips with a new approach to measurement. Today this has grown into a major research field called macroscopic quantum mechanics.
But the null results did not mean the end. It meant that we had to look further into the universe. A black hole collision may be rare in one galaxy but it could be a frequent occurrence if you could listen in to a million galaxies.
Laser beams will help
A new technology was needed to stretch the sensitivity enormously, and by the year 2000 this was available: a method called laser interferometry.
The idea was to use laser beams to measure tiny vibrations in the distance between widely spaced mirrors. The bigger the distance the bigger the vibration! And an L-shape could double the signal and cancel out the noise from the laser.
Several teams of physicists including a team at the Australian National University had spent many years researching the technology. Laser beam measurements allowed very large spacing and so new detectors up to 4km in size were designed and constructed in the US, Europe and Japan.
The Australian Consortium for Gravitational Astronomy built a research centre on a huge site at Gingin, just north of Perth, in Western Australia, that was reserved for the future southern hemisphere gravitational wave detector.
The world would need this so that triangulation could be used to locate signals.
Latest detectors
The new detectors were proposed in two stages. Because they involved formidable technological challenges, the first detectors would have the modest aim of proving that the laser technology could be implemented on a 4km scale, but using relatively low intensity laser light that would mean only a few per cent chance of detecting any signals.
The detectors were housed inside the world’s largest vacuum system, the mirrors had to be 100 times more perfect than a telescope mirror, seismic vibrations had to be largely eliminated, and the laser light had to be the purest light ever created.
A second stage would be a complete rebuild with bigger mirrors, much more laser power and even better vibration control. The second stage would have a sensitivity where coalescing pairs of neutron stars merging to form black holes, would be detectable about 20 to 40 times per year.
Australia has been closely involved with both stages of the US project. CSIRO was commissioned to polish the enormously precise mirrors that were the heart of the first stage detectors.
A gathering of minds
The Australian Consortium gathered at Gingin earlier this year to plan a new national project.
Part of that project focusses on an 80 meter scale laser research facility – a sort of mini gravity wave detector – the consortium has developed at the site. Experiments are looking at the physics of the new detectors and especially the forces exerted by laser light.
The team has discovered several new phenomena including one that involves laser photons bouncing off particles of sound called phonons. This phenomenon turns out to be very useful as it allows new diagnostic tools to prevent instabilities in the new detectors.
The light forces can also be used to make “optical rods” – think of a Star Wars light sabre! These devices can capture more gravitational wave energy – opening up a whole range of future possibilities from useful gadgets to new gravitational wave detectors.
Final stages of discovery
The first stage detectors achieved their target sensitivity in 2006 and, as expected, they detected no signals. You would know if they had!
The second stage detectors are expected to begin operating next year. The Australian team is readying itself because the new detectors change the whole game.
For the first time we have firm predictions: both the strength and the number of signals. No longer are we hoping for rare and unknown events.
We will be monitoring a significant volume of the universe and for the first time we can be confident that we will “listen” to the coalescence of binary neutron star systems and the formation of black holes.
Once these detectors reach full sensitivity we should hear signals almost once a week. Exactly when we will reach this point, no one knows. We have to learn how to operate the vast and complex machines.
If you want to place bets on the date of first detection of some gravity wave then some physicists would bet on 2016, probably the majority would bet 2017. A few pessimists would say that we will discover unexpected problems that might take a few years to solve.
Community Rights educator Paul Cienfuegos explains how “We The People” are exercising the authority to govern ourselves and fight corporate rule. When small farmers in rural Pennsylvania wanted to say “no” to a corporate factory farm coming into their community, they learned they couldn’t, because it would violate the corporation’s “rights” and state pre-emption laws. So they did something technically illegal — their town passed an innovative ordinance banning corporate factory farming. It worked! The corporation left town. Pittsburgh upshifted the approach: Rather than define what we don’t want, define what we DO want. Their “Right to Water” stopped natural gas fracking in the city. Ordinances like this have been passed in over 150 communities in 9 states.
Design and lead meetings that bring out the best in people and reach trustworthy results?
Generate inclusive dialogue and deal with issues and conflicts creatively?
Apply flexible and practical tools that foster fresh thinking and commitment to sustainable action?
YCAN are excited to offer a three day comprehensive training workshop for those individuals daring to lead towards sustainability and eager to improve their practice to make things happen for positive change.
When: Saturday 5, Sunday 6 and Saturday 12 April 2014
Time: 9.00am – 5.00pm
Location: Holden Street Neighbourhood House, 128 Holden St, Fitzroy North VIC 3068
Restricted to 20 participants only so get in quick!
This workshop is a practical course tailored to your needs and interests. It builds on what you already know and do and prepares you for a leap in your capacities to bring people together for common action. It will help you to enable teams to act in tune with each other and better relate to many others not yet interested or active regarding sustainability.
The workshop offers:
Practical demonstration of principles and models by two experienced facilitators
Highly interactive and hands-on learning, building on your strengths and style
Guided practice and supportive feedback in small groups
Topics related to concerns regarding sustainability; the content will be coming from you
Guided practice and supportive feedback in small groups
A detailed clear manual to use throughout your career
A chance to plan how you will use what you have learned in your daily work
Many ideas and ongoing support for applying these methods in your situation
Workshop facilitators Richard and Maria Maguire have been facilitating groups, organisational change, conferences and community development for over thirty years. They have consulted widely and taught in the business, government and community sectors in Australia, Asia, Europe and the US. Both Richard and Maria are passionate about enabling participative decision –making and responsibility towards a sustainable future for all.
For further information regarding the Facilitative Leadership Skills Workshop or to securer your position, please email Ian at ianmack@ycan.org.au
MARCH Fitzroy Urban Harvest – Welcome Autumn!
It’s swap time again: Saturday 1st March 10am – 12.30pm Smith Reserve,
Alexandra Pde (parkland next to Fitzroy Pool)
bring along your garden produce, seeds, cuttings, jars, eggs, jams, chutneys, recipes etc – everyone welcome!
* As usual we need some extra hands to set up and pack up so if you can lend a hand please let Peta know – that would be FANTASTIC! please email peta@cultivatingcommunity.org.au or call 0411899618
We’re a powerful, new campaign bringing together communities across Melbourne that are opposed to the East-West Link.
The communities working with Public Transport Not Traffic range in size and focus. However, all of these communities are opposed to the East-West Link because they know that another inner city toll road will add to our traffic crisis rather than improve our quality of life and economy by enabling efficient mobility.
Our goal is to stop this expensive project – a tunnel and toll road that could cost Victorian taxpayers up to $14 billion – and demand our money be invested in public transport infrastructure. If you support us, we’d love to have you and your community join us onboard the campaign train.
The campaign will run a range of activities throughout the year from local stalls to state wide actions focused on lobbying politicians and gaining broad media attention. We will be inviting all of our supporters to take part and work collaboratively on local initiatives. We want to enable our supporter groups by providing access to community campaign training, materials and networking opportunities.
The Public Transport Not Traffic website is a great place to learn more about our campaign activities and supporters:http://www.ptnt.org/
Our campaign is financially supported by the Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) and auspiced by Friends of the Earth (FOE). We have two part-time campaigners, Cait Jones and Danae Bosler, who work alongside an amazing team of volunteers from community groups across Melbourne.
We would love to add your group to our growing list of supporters. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me 0421 571 849 or via email info@ptnt.org .
Warm regards,
Shaun Knott
P.s. I’ve attached a petition if your group would like to sign for better Public Transport not traffic.
PTNT_Petition.pdf
Exxon Mobil’s CEO opposes fracking regulations and claims environmental concerns are overblown, but when another fracking company proposed to start drilling near his $5 million horse ranch, he filed a lawsuit to stop them.
transitionyarra 