environment
London to Geneva Peace Walk, May 2008
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 06/11/2008 - 5:27pm.I cannot begin to share all of the stories we have heard - especially about the massive resistance from local people to stop the nuclear industry. Some of the stories we have heard have been of great success, while others have been more challenging and still continue today - 50 years since the beginning of French’s nuclear program.
So far we have visited Cherbourg Nuclear Submarine Manufacturing Facility, La Hague Reprocessing Facility on the Normandy Coast, ANDRA - the storage of waste material from La Hague, Flamanville Nuclear Power Plant where they have 2 reactors and are now building a 3rd reactor which is the new European Pressurized Reactor (EPR), from here we walked along the proposed site of the THT Line (High Tension Line) that will carry 400,000 volts of electricity from Flamanville over 200 kilometres, a site of AREVA that makes the canisters to hold the fuel rods needed for the power plants, Chinon Power Plant that has 4 operational MOX fuel reactors and 3 reactors that are being decommissioned. For further information on these facilities and the local campaigns check our webpage for updates on www.footprintsforpeace.net
France made the decision to go massively for nuclear power in 1973. The opposition to nuclear power was largely overridden with rhetoric of energy independence. But in fact France imports all of its uranium. France is the 3rd highest importer of Australia’s uranium. France’s less than adequate public checks on the massive nuclear expansion was made much easier by the fact that it had just one electric utility - Electricite de France (EdF) - that was 100% government owned. Today EdF is over 80% government owned!! Cogema - the reprocessing company was also 100% government owned. Today EdF is part of the conglomerate AREVA - which is more than 80% French Government owned.
An Ancient Alternative to Oil
Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 05/23/2008 - 4:16pm.Billion Dollar Crop
The ONLY way our past foreign policy, and present war, can be justified is if we accept the fundamental premise that WE NEED OIL TO SURVIVE. We must believe that oil is our only source of energy and without it civilization as we know it would collapse. In order to justify more "precision bombing" and selling weapons to terrorists, we must believe that protecting our oil-based economy is the same as protecting the people of America.
This quickly leads to the concept of "overpopulation" and the idea that our planet cannot support this many people, so some have to die. The people of the First World take all the oil we need, while the people of the Third World have to fight for clean food and water, because it is better for them to die than for us to die. Better for Arabs to die than Christians. Better black people die than white people. Better for my neighbor to die than me.
At every level, we allow the fundamental fear of starvation to justify our ignorance and hatred toward anybody who seems different and is therefore perceived as a threat to our family and friends. When self-preservation is our only goal, we can safely justify any actions that seem to protect our lives, no matter how violent, because it is "self-defense."
Unfortunately, this desperation and fear of death is based on a century of lies.
WE DON’T NEED OIL AND NEVER HAVE.
Our forced dependence on the limited supply of petroleum is due entirely to greedy politicians protecting their own business interests instead of the American people.
Everything now done by fossil fuels can be done cheaper and better with renewable natural resources grown on American soil by American farmers. For more than 12,000 years before it was banned in 1937, the world’s number one natural resource for food, fiber, fuel and natural oil was hemp.
Second Global Rainbow Gathering of the Tribes Invite & Progress Report
Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 05/19/2008 - 8:22pm.Southern Nuclear Company Seeks Early Site Permit for Georgia Power's Two New Nuclear Reactors at Plant Vogtle
Submitted by diannevalentin on Thu, 04/24/2008 - 10:45am.The first step Georgia utilities are taking to try to get federal approval to build new nuclear reactors along the Savannah River is to apply for an “early site permit.” If the permit is issued, concerns such as water, land, public health, and safety cannot be brought up again even if we learn new information. For example, the new reactors will require tens of millions of gallons of water above and beyond the tens of millions Vogtle is already pulling from the Savannah River—this issue cannot be revisited again if the “early site permit” is granted. If approved, this permit essentially allows the Southern Company and its utility partners in Georgia to use the permit at any time for up to 20 years in any future applications with the NRC. Together, Atlanta WAND, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Center for a Sustainable Coast, Savannah Riverkeeper, and Southern Alliance for Clean Energy legally challenged the permit.
The Savannah River basin and nearby communities are already suffering; building more nuclear reactors will only make this situation worse. Since the Early Site Permit (ESP) process allows a company to potentially ‘bank’ a site for up to 20 years, the NRC should have to look not only at Georgia ‘today,’ but the Georgia we are likely to live in several decades from now.
Water Use & Supply:
Public Comment on Plant Vogtle's Two New Nuclear Reactor Early Site Permit Application
Submitted by diannevalentin on Thu, 04/24/2008 - 10:11am.Atlanta Women’s Action for New Directions
Community Action is Needed
This is a Request for Your Support
!A Call-Out to the Community!
Tell the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board that you have concerns about the proposed expansion of Plant Vogtle from two nuclear reactors to four. Tell the Board that you are concerned about water use, accident risks, security, nuclear waste, and health impacts.
The Action: Email, fax, or postal mail the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board by noon, April 25th to register* to speak at the public hearing being held at the DoubleTree Hotel in Augusta on Sunday, April 27th or Monday, April 28th.
Hold the Bush administration accountable - no more nukes!
Submitted by peacehq on Sun, 03/16/2008 - 10:04am.We need to act now. We need to demand our government stand by its treaty obligations. We need our country to lead the way to end the nuclear arms threat. It's this simple folks. Write them, email them, fax them! Tell them to stop it. You can do it and it can work. And get your family and friends to do the same. The following is a letter that has been sent.
Dear Mr. Wyka,
I attended the public hearing on the Draft SPEIS in Oak Ridge the other day, but had to leave before my name was called to give my comment, so I am submitting it at this time. I am opposed to the three options laid out in the Draft SPEIS and support the No Production Alternative presented by OREPA. I would much rather live in a world where the U. S. joins with the desires of most of the rest of the world that we dismantle our stockpile of nuclear weapons and begin to implement the directives of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty than to continue the Bush Doctrine of refurbishing our nuclear arsenal to support plans for wars of aggression around the world.
Super Charged Weather
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 02/20/2008 - 2:54pm.NOAA released a report Friday that says January's temperature was close to average although they also pointed out that the Northeast region of the US had unusually warm weather.[1]
Bond Money Needed to get activists out of jail
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 02/19/2008 - 5:54pm.We need your help!
24 hours after hundreds of environmental protestors shut down the construction site of Florida Power and Light's natural gas power plant (see press release below), 23 activists are still in jail! Nine of them should be released shortly on their own recognizance, but 14 are awaiting bond at a total cost of $10,000!
The legal office is working hard to come up with the money to front the cost and we need donations ASAP to get these activists out of jail! We will also need money for legal defense for all 27 arrestees!
To make a donation via PayPal please http://pbcec.blogspot.com -visit the PBCEC website and click on the "Donate" button.
{press release}
Activists shut down power plant construction site, 27 Arrested
Early Monday morning dozens of concerned community members from Palm Beach County and all over the nation put their bodies on the line to halt construction of FPL's West County Energy Center (WCEC), demanding energy efficiency, truly clean, renewable energy and a moratorium on development in south Florida. Everglades Earth First! blocked the main entrance to the WCEC site, a proposed massive 3800 MW gas-fired power plant that would emit 12 million tons of CO2, a leading greenhouse gas, every year. The plant is currently under construction despite ongoing legal challenges to the plant's needed permits and certification, which have been spearheaded by the local Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition.
A dozen activists locked themselves together through metal pipes as 200 supporters rallied around them. The blockade stopped work on the construction site for six hours before a total of 27 people were arrested.
Position Paper - 15th February 2008: Digging Machinery operating at Lismullen
Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 02/16/2008 - 5:33pm.Digging machinery has appeared on the 6th February 2008 at the Lismullin National Monument near the Hill of Tara in Ireland as attempts are begun to fill in the Henge in advance of Irish and European Court decisions. (http://www.indymedia.ie/article/86111)
As of February 15th 2008, the situation appears to be escalating at
Lismullen. Protestors at Lismullen state that Diggers are trying to
cross the protected area of the National Monument. More machinery is
arriving and protesters are attempting a blockade. The protesters say
that SIAC / Ferrovial employees are attempting to bury the Lismullen
National Monument with earth, in the face of the High Court / EU Court
of Justice cases concerning Lismullen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXtF0KeAFpI
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/savetara/message/3909
Protesters at Lismullen are saying that SIAC / Ferrovial employees are attempting to bury the Lismullen National Monument with earth, in the face of the High Court / EU Court of Justice cases: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXtF0KeAFpI
The Tara Foundation are very concerned that moves could be being made
to demolish the Lismullen Henge in advance of High Court Proceedings
initiated on the 5th February 2008 aginst the Irish Government over
Clinton and Obama: Failures on War and Global Warming
Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 02/10/2008 - 2:04pm.By STEVEN ARGUE
Today, every national academy of science of the industrialized world recognizes human caused global warming as a fact. These include the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences who explicitly use the word "consensus" on the issue.
The problem of global warming is one that will, and is, devastating the planet’s environment, causing mass extinction of species while also destroying agricultural and habitable land through rising oceans, more severe hurricanes, droughts, more unpredictable weather, increases in tropical diseases, year round freezing weather with a potential ice age in the northern hemisphere combined with higher temperatures closer to the equator, and the potential of runaway global warming with the melting of the ocean’s methane hydride that could actually cause the extinction of the human species.
Despite the severity of the problem, and despite the United States being the biggest contributor to global warming in the world, the U.S. government and corporate leaders continue to do worse than nothing, through blocking and sabotaging all potential solutions for the past fifty years up until the present. This is due to the massive profits that continue to be made by the big oil corporations, and the political strength they have in being able to buy the politicians in Washington.
