ian lowe-reaction time

By the end of the twentieth century, nuclear power looked like a dying industry.

Then something very strange happened.A small group in the UK nuclear industry concocted the idea of re-badging it as the answer to global climate change.

Ian Lowe quotes John Howard after his trip to America where he had met with Bush and returned as a nuclear proponent.

"Let us calmly and sensibly examine what our options are...I don`t think all the facts are in in relation to nuclear.....everybody`s said, oh well, you can`t really think about it. That`s changed a lot."

It wasn`t clear at that point that things had changed a lot, but the Prime Minister set about ensuring that they did. A taskforce described by John Clarke as "people who want nuclear power by Tuesday" was hastily put together.

..world oil production was estimated to peak between 2000 and 2020.

A recent study by the United Nations Development programme concluded that everyone could have clean drinking water, adequate nutrition and shelter, basic health care and education, for about 5% of the global military budget.

Nevertheless, the idea that there is still (climate) uncertainty is being spread by far-right lobby groups and their apologists in the media.

Promoting nuclear power as the solution to climate change is like advocating smoking as a cure for obesity.

david marr-his master`s voice

(John Howard) fought for the freedom of small businesses to sack; the freedom of parents to send their kids to private schools; the freedom of stevedores to employ non-union labour; the freedom of unionists to vote against strikes; the freedom of students not to join university unions.

..under Howard, the press has found itself misled, intimidated and starved of information.

Canberra has a taste for punishing dissent by cutting off funds. (Marr quotes Clive Hamilton and Sarah Maddison who analysed the fate of Non Government Organisations under Howard. Three hundred of these social justice, welfare,environment, disability etc organisations were surveyed. They said "the more Government funding an NGO receives, the more strained it feels in making public criticism." Ninety percent of respondents believe that dissenting organisations risk having their funding cut.)

 

"..Bush outsourced his presidency to Cheney and Rummy, and Cheney and Rummy went to war on the cheap and outsourced large chunks of the Iraq occupation to Halliburton and Blackwater. The American taxpayer got gouged, and so did the American reputation."

SMH 5/10/07

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"Both the breakdown of the old Left-Right divide and the dissatisfaction with politicians explains why minor parties at times have grown so rapidly. In Australia we’ve seen the rise, and in some cases the fall, of parties such as the Australian Democrats, One Nation, the Greens and now Family First. Many voters are happy to flirt with a new party in their quest for a new alternative."

Sol Lebovic

The Australian 26/09/07

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NEWSCIENTIST

claims a brain scan might one day predict your voting patterns.

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