Critical Times

By Renfrey Clarke

Global warming, General Motors Corporation Vice Chairman Robert A. Lutz argued to reporters in a closed-door meeting during January, was “a total crock of shit”.
Within hours the remark was on the internet, and spreading, as Lutz himself subsequently lamented, “like ragweed”.

“The Rudd government is making much of the announcement that there will be no new AWAs after midnight tonight – but I’d challenge any worker who has an ITEA stuck in front of them tomorrow to spot the difference,” said Senator Rachel Siewert today.

“This is nothing like the end of AWAs that Australians voted for last November.”

“Working people already on AWAs who voted to tear up Work Choices will be disappointed to learn that their AWAs could continue beyond the next election.

Source: mike-servethepeople.blogspot

The Tibetan separatist movement is a creation of US imperialism. It is not a product of an “independent” Tibet having been overrun by “occupying” Chinese.

The New South Wales Government says methane gasses from a landfill site near Goulburn, in the state’s south, will be captured and turned into enough electricity to power 20,000 homes.

A new contract signed between Energy Australia and the owners of the Woodlawn Bioreactor, Veolia, will see 25 megawatts produced and sold to customers as green power.

Garbage from Sydney will be transported by rail to the disused mine site.

Oil spikes above $US107

From correspondents in New York | March 28, 2008

OIL prices leapt higher today as concerns about tight supplies were stoked by news that saboteurs had blown up an Iraqi export pipeline, traders said.

New York’s main oil contract, light sweet crude for delivery in May, rose $US1.68 to close at $US107.

by David Palmer
Text of his 16 March, 2008 talk at the Nowar meeting held at the Friends Meeting House, North Adelaide

Five years have gone by since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States. Its allies – including Australia – played a role in the Occupation, but the invasion basically was an American action. Even at the present moment, there can be little doubt that the Occupation itself is mainly an American Occupation.

By David Shukman
BBC environment correspondent, Midway

Plastic bag experiment (BBC/Mark Georgiou)
The team is testing how long it takes plastic to degrade in water
Plastic waste in the oceans poses a potentially devastating long-term toxic threat to the food chain, according to marine scientists.

Studies suggest billions of microscopic plastic fragments drifting underwater are concentrating pollutants like DDT.

Most attention has focused on dangers that visible items of plastic waste pose to seabirds and other wildlife.

Heavy fighting has continued for a third day between Shia militias and the Iraqi security forces in southern Iraq.

There are reports of extensive exchanges of fire between the Iraqi army and militiamen in Basra and in the town of Hilla, just south of Baghdad.

More than 70 people have died and hundreds have been injured in days of violence sparked by an Iraqi crackdown on Shia militias in Basra.

Jeremy Roberts | March 27, 2008

BHP Billiton will need nearly half of South Australia’s current electricity supply to power its vastly expanded Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine.

The mining company wrote to potential suppliers this month revealing that power demand for the mine was expected to top 690megawatts when it reaches full production in 10 years.

This 30 per cent increase on previous forecasts for the mine 600km northwest of Adelaide is equivalent to nearly 42 per cent of South Australia’s total electricity consumption and nearly half of Adelaide’s power supply.

Source: Communist Party of Australia SA Blogspot

When Michael Wright was the Opposition spokesperson for Industrial Relations and Workers Compensation prior to the election of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) to government in 2002 he was provided with an enormous amount of information from people inside the Trade Union movement and within the WorkCover Corporation that clearly showed that the scheme was on a downward slide as a consequence of political decisions that had been taken by the Liberal State Government and the leadership of the Corporation.

In 2000/01 the WorkCover Board and the CEO of the WorkCover Corporation decided to not only reduce the levy rate but also to provide a rebate to employers throughout South Australia.

In 2000-01 Michael Wright attended at least three meetings at the United Trades and Labor Council’s office on South Terrace.

Source: Mercury

By GREG BARNS

March 24, 2008 12:00am

WHICH country’s interests are best served by an uprising in Tibet on the eve of the Beijing Olympics?

The USA’s, of course.

The Bush administration has long been frightened of China’s burgeoning rival superpower status, and US stoking of the Tibetan fires to provide maximum international embarrassment to China cannot be ruled out.

Tibet is a cause celebre for the Hollywood glitterati, pop stars and celebrity politicians.

By Helen Briggs
Science reporter, BBC News

Wilkins Ice Shelf from Twin Otter (Image: British Antarctic Survey)

Flyover of the breaking iceberg

A chunk of ice the size of the Isle of Man has started to break away from Antarctica in what scientists say is further evidence of a warming climate.

Satellite images suggest that part of the ice shelf is disintegrating, and will soon crumble away.

The Wilkins Ice Shelf has been stable for most of the last century, but began retreating in the 1990s.

Concerned citizens have gathered outside of Adelaide’s Hilton Hotel this morning in opposition to the annual Paydirt Uranium Conference 2008.

“South Australians are currently experiencing the hottest March on record. As climate change further restricts SA’s precious water, Friends of the Earth is calling for a framework that acknowledges and protects the integrity of Australia’s unique groundwater resources,” said Friends of the Earth campaigner Shani Burdon.

Start: 29 Mar 2008 – 6:30pm

Celebrate the struggle with Green Left, guest speaker, Indigenous activist, Lynette Crocker, live music from Ben Bugden & friends. Delicious 3 course meal. South West Community Centre, 171 Sturt St, City.

The number of United States military personnel killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion five years ago has passed the 4,000 mark.

The latest to die were four soldiers whose patrol vehicle was blown up by a bomb in southern Baghdad on Sunday.

Source: http://mike-servethepeople.blogspot.com

A small group of a dozen people managed to attend a hastily called rally last Monday, supporting a call to ban uranium mining in the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary.

Noted progressive historian and academic, Humphrey McQueen, has written on the Rann Government’s proposed cuts to injured workers’ entitlements. His contribution follows:

South Australia is the latest Australian Labor Party administration to cut compensation payments.

An Adelaide academic advised the Rann regime that reducing benefits was the only way to save the State’s WorkCover from bankruptcy.

Bob Briton

As the myth of the “sound” Australian economy continues to unravel, the ACTU has stepped in to claw back some of the financial losses suffered in recent times by the country’s lowest paid workers. These workers have been hit hardest by rising rents and mortgage repayments and spiralling fuel and food prices. While executive pay has risen on average by 30 per cent in the last 12 months, the ACTU calculates that workers on minimum wages have lost $43.

Ardno, Victoria, Australia — Greenpeace activists trained in procedures for dealing with genetic hazardous materials, have entered a genetically engineered (GE) canola field trial near the border of South Australia. The activists have unfurled a giant 20m x 30m banner in the field, reading ‘GE CANOLA KNOWS NO BORDERS’. The action comes two days after the New South Wales (NSW) Government officially announced that it would join Victoria in commercially growing GE canola.

Some glaciers in Europe have suffered significant losses
The rate at which some of the world’s glaciers are melting has more than doubled, data from the United Nations Environment Programme has shown.

Average glacial shrinkage has risen from 30 centimetres per year between 1980 and 1999, to 1.5 metres in 2006.