Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Archives for October 26, 2005

Galarrwuy Yunupingu Says Yes to Nuclear Waste

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The Northern Territory Chief Minister, Clare Martin, has said she will fight “tooth and nail” the building of even a small nuclear waste facility in the Territory.

Australia produces nuclear waste at Lucus Heights., where the Sydney facility undertakes nuclear-related research including for diagnosing and treating cancer, Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis.

The preferred site for storing the waste from Lucas Height, which is apparently a Federal Government responsibility, is Woomera, but the South Australian government has said “no”.

The Northern Territory looks set to end up with the waste facility because the Commonwealth can force it on a Territory.

I have previously written that former Prime Minister Bob Hawke and researcher Geoff Hudson have both endorsed the Australian outback/the Northern Territory as a good place to store not only Sydney’s waste, but the world’s nuclear waste.

I was facinated to read today that an Aboriginal leader is now backing the concept of at least a small nuclear waste facility in the Territory.

According to ABC Online, Galarrwuy Yunupingu says he would be happy to consider a waste dump on his tribal land.

Mr Yunupingu said a [nuclear] dump on Gumatj Land could mean sealed roads, infrastructure and long-term benefits to Aboriginal people as well an oncology unit for Darwin’s Hospital.

He says the dump is an issue of national importance, with over 400,000 Australians receiving radioactive medical treatment each year.

He says Chief Minister Clare Martin should admit that a dump could be safely built in the Territory.

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I lived for the first few years of my life (1963-1971) at a place called Coomalie Creek just ‘around the corner’ from the first big uranium mine in Australia at Rum Jungle. The mine site has since been reabilitated and looks like this, View image (100kbs).

Global Warming for Dummies

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Several people have emailed me a piece from the Washington post titled World Temperatures Keep Rising With a Hot 2005 by Juliet Eilperin. The piece was published a couple of weeks ago (October 13, 2005) and evidently impressed many. It begins:

New international climate data show that 2005 is on track to be the hottest year on record, continuing a 25-year trend of rising global temperatures.

Climatologists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies calculated the record-breaking global average temperature, which now surpasses 1998’s record by a tenth of a degree Fahrenheit, from readings taken at 7,200 weather stations scattered around the world.

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UPDATE MARCH 17, 2008

The year 2005 did not end up being particularly hot – 1998 is still the hottest year by far. Here is an updated temperature graph from the best available satellite data from January 1990 to February 2008:

UAH_LT_with_IPCC_projections_small 2.jpg
from http://www.weatherquestions.com/Roy-Spencer-on-global-warming.htm

So carbon dioxide levels are increasing, but not temperature? Why? You can read about Roy Spencer’s findings from NASA’s Aqua Satellite at my blog post of March 2008 ‘Global Warming for Dummies (Part 2)’.

And directly from Roy Spencer at www.weatherquestions.com.

[end of update]
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The piece published October 13, 2005, ends with this graph that doesn’t actually show any temperature data for 2005. Furthermore, it shows that 1998, rather than last year, is the hottest year on record.

temps since 1860.gif

(SOURCE: National Center for Atmospheric Research | *30-year period: 1961-1990)

Anyway, I thought I would do my own quick check this afternoon. I looked up the temperature records at the USA’s National Climatic Centre.

I found some values for the land and sea for 2005 and 1998 and plotted them. This is what the plots look like:

land temps compared.jpg

and

Sea Temp Compared.jpg

Looks to me like it might be anyone’s guess whether 2005 ends up hotter than 1998.

What I am prepared to bet on, is that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels will be higher at the end of this year than they were at the end of 1998, View image (from Wikipedia).

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Update: 28th October, 10.40 am, added the ‘source’ reference under the first graph from the link as requested in a comment from David.