Chain Reaction The national magazine of Friends of the Earth Australia :: www.foe.org.au 100th issue
6 The base-load electricity fallacy 6 Obscenity of carbon trading 6 Defence greenwash on war games 6 Indigenous owners reject NT waste dump 6 Earth Sanctuaries
Food Sovereignty Nano-Food vs Real Food Kokatha Mula World Water Day
100th issue NEWS & VIEWS
Issue #100 - August 2007 It’s Time For Food Sovereignty Indigenous Owners Reject - Joel Catchlove 12 Nuclear Waste Dump Publisher - Natalie Wasley 35 Friends of the Earth Australia, World Forum For Food Sovereignty ABN 81600610421 Declaration 16 Munda Yumadoo Iliga - Leave The Chain Reaction Team Land As It Is Jim Green, Cam Walker, Joel Catchlove Nanotechnology And Agriculture - Breony Carbines & Simon Prideaux 38 In Food Production - Which Food Layout & Design Future? International Campaign To Natalie Lowrey - Georgia Miller 17 Abolish Nuclear Weapons [email protected] - Felicity Hill 40 Thanks to: Estelle Pham, Monica Haynes Famous Moments In FoE and Sophie Green for help with this edition. History - Exposing The Agua Viva! Live Water Thanks to the thousands of people who have Uranium Cartel In 1976 - Sam Cossar-Gilbert 41 helped with Chain Reaction from the first - Wieslaw Lichacz 20 edition to the 100th! 100 Editions Of BOOKS Printing Arena Printing and Publishing, Melbourne Chain Reaction 23 Free Market Missionaries Subscriptions The Base-load Electricty Fallacy Suiting Themselves, Sharon Beder Four issues: $A22 (within Australia) - Mark Diesendorf 26 summarises her two latest books. 43 Cheques, etc payable to Chain Reaction Clive Hamilton’s Scorcher: The Dirty Earth Santuaries And The Failure Politics of Climate Change 45 Subscription Enquiries Of Market-based Conservation Chain Reaction, - Jasmin Sydee & Sharon Beder 27 Paul Cleary’s Shakedown: Australia’s PO Box 222, Fitzroy, Vic, 3065, Australia. Grab for Timor Oil 46 Ph (03) 9419 8700, Fax (03) 9416 2081 Australia’s Environment Email: [email protected] Groups Climate Change Policy Mark Diesendorf’s Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy 46 ISSN: 0312 – 1372 Agenda 30
Copyright Obscenity Of Carbon Trading REGULAR SECTIONS & UPDATES Written material in Chain Reaction is free - Kevin Smith 31 of copyright unless otherwise indicated, or where material has been reprinted from EDITORIAL 2 another source. Please acknowledge Chain Defence Greenwash On War Reaction when reprinting. Permission to Games A Toxic Lie EARTH NEWS 4 use graphic material must be obtained - Kim Stewart 33 FoE Australia NEWS 6 from the artist. FoE International NEWS 8 The opinions expressed in Chain Reaction are not necessarily those of the publishers or Chain Reaction is produced in Melbourne, INSPIRATION: Olatunde Johnson 10 any Friends of the Earth group. Adelaide and Katoomba. We acknowledge the Chain Reaction is indexed in the traditional owners of these lands and the fact Alternative Press Index. that Indigenous land has never been ceded. Friends of Chain Reaction is published three the Earth times a year.
CHAIN REACTION ADVISORY BOARD Cover Image: Front cover photo by Rodney Dekker. Karen Alexander - Biodiversity campaigner [Vic] Rodney is embarking on a project to Greg Buckman - Author/Researcher [Hobart] document global warming and its effects Damian Grenfell - Globalism Centre RMIT [Melbourne] on local communities. To support this Jo Immig - National Toxics Network [Bangalow, NSW] Damien Lawson - Adviser to Greens senator, Kerry Nettle [Sydney] project or for more information contact: Binnie O’Dwyer - FoE representative [Lismore, NSW] 0412 998 173, Chris Richards - New Internationalist Magazine [Melbourne]
Photo by Sam Cossar-Gilbert See World Water Day Article page 41 EDITORIAL Chain Reaction 32 years on and still going strong ______BY CAM WALKER
In the world of community publishing, a and local groups and we have limited ability 100th edition is something to be proud of. This to further develop the financial side of the magazine started its life as the Greenpeace magazine. Pacific Bulletin in 1974 and was transformed We are now at the point where we need extra into Chain Reaction in 1975. In its time it has support for the magazine. Prior to the election been run by an incredible number of people and of the Howard government, Chain Reaction collectives and has moved between Canberra, received an annual allocation of funds from Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. It is currently FoE Australia’s admin grant from the federal a joint venture run by people based in Adelaide, government. This is now long gone, meaning a Katoomba and Melbourne. short fall of $7,000 a year we have not been able Chain Reaction editors have always been given to make up through advertising or other sources. a large degree of freedom and Friends of the We have perhaps the most understanding Earth, Australia has seen the magazine as printers on the planet but continue to clock up being something that ‘belongs’ to the broader a non-viable debt to them. Something needs to social movement rather than just acting as the change. mouthpiece of the organisation. Several years Ideas canvassed have included making the ago, it was decided to make it more overtly a FoE magazine smaller, printing on cheaper paper, magazine: that is, as a forum for FoE opinions reducing the print run or frequency, increasing and a campaign tool for our activities. Since 2004 the cover cost, etc. We don’t want to do any of we have run special editions covering most of our these: feedback on the journal is resoundingly national campaigns and made a number of other positive. But we do need your help. Here are changes to reflect the renewed focus on FoE’s some ideas: campaigns. * we need a volunteer to take on marketing and However, we still do seek to produce a magazine possibly building up advertisements; that any progressive individual or group can * we have launched a new ‘Chain Reaction write for, and created an advisory board of supporter’ category for people who give $100 or mostly ‘external’ people to ensure diversity of more when they subscribe; interests and opinions. With the last edition we * organising with your local bookstore to stock included our first major photo essay for some the magazine; and time and, with the positive feedback to this, * giving a gift subscription to a friend, your intend to keep doing so. The magazine continues workplace or local library. to evolve. We make Chain Reaction freely You can phone us on (03) 9419 8700 or email available via the FoEA website and visits and
2 Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 100th issue Anti-nuclear Activists Awarded
ABOVE: Sophie Green and Joel Catchlove recieving the Jill Hudson Award for Environmental Protection from SA Minister for Environment and Conservation, Gail Cago (centre). ______Photo: Friends of the Earth Adelaide. INSET: Arabunna elder Kevin Buzzacott. Photo: Jessie Boylan.
Friends of the Earth Adelaide activists Sophie The awards were presented by the SA Minister Green and Joel Catchlove, together with for Environment and Conservation, Gail Gago, Arabunna elder Kevin Buzzacott, have been in a ceremony on May 19. Past winners include awarded the SA Conservation Council’s 2007 Jill members of the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta, a senior Hudson Award for Environmental Protection. Aboriginal women’s council, who successfully campaigned against the federal government’s The award recognises the work of South attempt to dump nuclear waste near Woomera. Australians who have made “an outstanding contribution to protecting the environment”. The annual award is in memory of Jill Hudson (1948–1997), a passionate educator who believed Sophie Green and Joel Catchlove received ‘Life is an opportunity and its purpose is to stand the award for their outstanding voluntary for something and to make a difference.’ commitment to educate and engage the general public about environmental issues and for Kevin Buzzacott was also awarded the energising the campaign against the expansion of Australian Conservation Foundation’s 2007 the nuclear industry. Peter Rawlinson Award on World Environment Day, June 5, recognising two decades of work Kevin Buzzacott recieved the award in highlighting the impacts of uranium mining recognition of his long-term campaign to protect at Roxby Downs and promoting a nuclear-free his traditional country, near Lake Eyre, from the Australia. impacts of BHP Billiton’s Roxby Downs copper- uranium mine. ______
www.foe.org.au Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 3 earth news EARTH NEWS COMPILED BY MONICA HAYNES
Denmark builds world’s Norway, the world’s number five oil of the total energy consumption across largest offshore wind exporter, has also joined the carbon the bloc by 2020. The current level is farm neutral race, and wants to cut its net 6-7%. The Commission also committed greenhouse gas emissions to zero to a target of cutting European Union Denmark has built the world’s largest by 2050. Under the plan, domestic greenhouse gas emissions by at least offshore wind farm, generating 160 emissions would be offset by cuts 20% by 2020 from 1990 levels, rising to megawatts of power. It is the newest abroad or by buying emissions quotas 30% if other developed nations join in of Denmark’s 11 offshore wind farms, on international markets. Greenpeace under an international agreement. which produce 12% of the 3,100 said that Norway should do more at ______megawatts of wind energy generated in home rather than use its vast oil wealth Denmark in 2006. to buy its way out of the problem A bright future Wind power currently accounts for through offset schemes. 20% of Danish electricity and the Greenpeace, the Australian ______Conservation Foundation and the government has announced plans to Sources and more information:
4 Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 100th issue
Environmental racism Blueprint for tackling recommendations to develop geothermal energy. Twenty years after a landmark study climate change proved that racial minorities were Half of the world’s energy needs in ______More information:
Chain Reaction has Best wishes to Chain always led the pack, Reaction’s collective: informing and teaching you produce the us about the threat to Australian green people and planet. As movement’s most we face the possibly thoughtful and gutsy the biggest threat periodical. Thanks to life in the earth’s and may you keep on history, Chain Reaction keeping on. We need is helping us to take you. action again. Frank Fisher Damien Lawson Convenor of Graduate Carbon Equity Project Sustainability programs, Swinburne University
5 www.foe.org.au [Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 FRIENDS OF THE EARTH AUSTRALIA NEWS
Friends of the Earth Australia is a The group says that consumers flows are reaching the Marshes, but need to be aware of the devastating IRN has been advised by people in the federation of independent local groups. consequences of the palm oil industry area that water thieves have again You can join FoE by contacting your in countries like Indonesia, Malaysia been active in the area. local group (see page 47). For further and Papua New Guinea, and demand IRN is a grouping of environmental details on FoEA, see: proof from companies involved in the organisations, including the Australian industry who may claim they are not Conservation Foundation, Nature
Nuclear Freeways project make way for more plantations. 2007 federal election hits the road While the Palm Oil Action Group is not - is climate the new black? opposed to palm oil and is not calling The Nuclear Freeways project is part for a boycott, the group is asking FoE is working with a range of the broader campaign to prevent the Australians to write to supermarkets, of environmental groups to ensure climate change and federal government imposing a nuclear food manufacturers including KFC, its impact on land and people waste dump on unwilling communities politicians and ambassadors urging is firmly on the agenda. The in the Northern Territory. It is focussed fast action, such as a verification on supporting communities along 2007 federal election provides system for ‘orangutan friendly’ oil and a pivotal opportunity for all potential transport routes between an improved labelling system. political parties to demonstrate the main waste producer – the Lucas More information: how seriously they take global Heights nuclear plant in Sydney – and
6 Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 100th issue
for international recognition of reductions by 2020 through seekingI remember direct financial the help very for our climate refugees. year-on-year reductions, and national level work – our campaigns, • Ratification of the Kyoto excludes all offsets. first Chain Reactions Protocol and international • ‘clean’ coal – where emissions projectsand andthe other succession of leadership by Australia in the are captured and put underground great editors who have post-2012 Kyoto negotiations (this is commercially untested, worked for minimal for rich nations accepting their expensive, potentially dangerous “differentiated responsibility” and too slow to be a core element wages to pull it together. for the global carbon debt. of a sustainable energy mix). A massive effort and CR • Putting energy efficiency Our collaboration with other is still the leading place first (the cheapest, quickest groups includes: for radical democratic and most job-rich option for • an 11-point plan created by achieving emissions reductions) a range of key state and national social change-focused in national energy policy. groups; environement movement • A national renewable • Turning Down the Heat, a thinking and discussion in energy target of 30% by 2020 to climate change action agenda for drive investment in renewable Australia, prepared by Climate Australia. Go well for the energy. Action Network Australia; and next 100! • An overseas aid budget • the Big Switch, an online (ODA) of at least 0.7% of GNI campaign: www.thebigswitch. . Geoff Evans, Board member Mineral by 2015 to help increase the com.au Policy Institute, and former national resilience of social and natural Details on our activity are liaison officer for FoE in the 70s. systems to climate change. posted at:
www.foe.org.au Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 7 FRIENDS OF THE EARTH INTERNATIONAL NEWS COMPILED BY SOPHIE GREEN
for an action in front of the hotel in of sugar cane plantations is both Friends of the Earth International the Hague where the PPIAF’s annual concentrating land ownership and (FoEI) is a federation of autonomous meeting took place. They handed creating slave labour working over a letter signed by 138 groups conditions. organisations from all over the world. from 48 countries asking the donors Full article by April Howard Our members, in 73 countries, to withdraw from PPIAF. at:
Chain Reaction is an amazing publication. It’s very existence challenges the media mould in so many ways. As the ABC folds to a conservative bias, CR remains proudly progressive. While politicians diminish serious survival issues as being beat-ups from a bunch of beatniks, CR continues to present the well-measured, well- researched, well-written articles that none of us can afford to ignore. From all your friends at the New Internationalist magazine collective, hearty congratulations on your first 100 editions ... and keep those presses rolling for a century more! Chris Richards, New Internationalist [ INSPIRATION
Friends of the Earth Olatunde Johnson Sierra Leone
Photos: FoE Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone is not often a country that conjures learning resource on issues like renewable energy, images of environmental activism. Conflict has sustainable agriculture and skill sharing. devastated the country and its economy and the In recent years the group has been supported by vast majority of its population lives in poverty. the One Sky Foundation in Canada, allowing it to Amidst this reality, Friends of the Earth (FoE) Sierra expand its work into vocational skills training. It Leone does some remarkable work. is establishing a radio program which will expand Its founder, Olatunde Johnson, was motivated its reach, encouraging ‘resistance for change’. The by seeing a story on FoE in a copy of the New centre is expanding its training opportunities and Internationalist magazine. He had established an is expanding using locally- made bricks and other organisation called Future in Our Hands in 1984 sustainable building materials. and decided to apply for membership in the FoE International (FoEI) network. A newer area of activity includes a stronger focus on gender issues and awareness, with an emphasis FoE Sierra Leone runs a range of programs, on adult education and community health. Plans focusing on education both in schools and the for the future include a micro credit program and broader community. It works to create the change increased health support for locals. in people they will need to change their lives. “If we can change our attitude, things will get better,” One of FoE Sierra Leone’s earlier successes was says Olatunde. “We need to share, we need to learn its waste management program which was based how to live together.” on the creation of an environmental sanitation program. Funding was obtained to establish The organisation has grown substantially in rubbish and recycling bins in communities around recent years and now campaigns as well as Freetown. Given the breakdown in governance in running awareness-raising projects. It works the country, these types of practical initiatives are on forests, climate change and risk assessment, both useful and significant in demonstrating that while continuing to expand its work in schools, people can begin to take control over their lives in local institutions and the community. It addresses spite of the turmoil and hardship imposed by years environmental issues by holding seminars, of conflict. The bins are collected twice a week and workshops, meetings and rallies. taken to landfill, reducing the amount of waste on the streets. Recyclables are separated from the It runs an ecological centre (ecocentre) outside waste. The group is working on plans to use waste Freetown which includes a tree nursery which to generate biogas, and to use compost as fertiliser. also produces agricultural and medicinal plants Olatunde is modest about his successes, and to support local afforestation as well as a range attempts to focus on him are invariably steered of environmental studies programs. Olatunde back to discussion on what the group has achieved. believes that access to information is vital for But clearly he has remarkable dedication and a people to be able to better their lives: the Michael desire to see a better world develop through self Simpson library at the centre provides a valuable improvement and collective effort.
10 Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 100th issue
To all the crew at Chain He had the opportunity to be involved in a Reaction. Fantastic on South–South exchange through FoEI and travelled achieving the 100th edition. I Friends of the Earth to El Salvador to experience their work with the remember when I first moved Sierra Leone Eco Centre managed by CESTA (FoE El Salvador), to Adelaide, that having Chain which helped inspire the idea of a similar centre Reaction produced there was in Sierra Leone. El Salvador had the similar actually one of the reasons experience of suffering through a long civil war, moved there! I’m really proud made worse by the intervention of the United to have been involved in a States. Massive levels of trauma continues to affect number of editions over the many in society – the same as in Sierra Leone. years. It still remains one of
the few alternative voices Olatunde sees the need to work with youth affected by the conflict, displacement and violence through in the Australian media, arts and crafts, the development of music and constantly challenging the kids bands and the creation of sustainable work neo-liberal orthodoxies of opportunities. A bike program, which addresses the Corporation Earth. Well Done! issues of sustainable transport and safety on roads is part of this vision. (CESTA has developed bikes Professor Tim Doyle that can carry considerable loads, allowing self- School of Politics, International Relations and employed workers to reach jobs carrying the tools Philosophy, Keele University, UK. of their trade).
Opportunity is vital if young people are to avoid More and more Australians despair. Access to information is part of this. are at last catching up with Olatunde estimates that around 20% of young people in Nigeria have an email address and at the insights and wisdom that least occasional access to the internet, while in Chain Reaction has imparted Sierra Leone this is somewhere between 1-5%. FoE now for 100 issues. If only Sierra Leone’s school program aims to build access its early warning systems to this source of information. had been heeded by those in power from the outset. We In a world of continued ecological devastation and would not be so badly behind social fragmentation, any positive form of activism in the urgent ecological tasks and community building is to be celebrated. But now confronting us. Friends in a country that is so poor and so ravaged by war, of the Earth has not only the example of FoE Sierra Leone stands out as a raised the environmental real example of what is possible when people band conscience of the nation. It together for a greater and deeper good. has also raised the social ______consciousness of the
For details on FoE Sierra Leone, see: environmental movement
www.foe.org.au Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 11 SPECIAL FEATURE
Itʼs Time for Food Sovereignty!
A vegetable farmer in Mali describes his crops as neighbouring rice farmers plough their paddy. Photo: Joel Catchlove
BY JOEL CATCHLOVE
On the dusty shores of Lake If you follow the road towards the power of cameras and a Sélingué, Mali, West Africa, amid the lake, you’ll come to rice fierce sense of privacy. After mud brick huts and donkey paddies, banana groves and receiving permission to enter the carts, peasants, family farmers, vegetable gardens, stretching village from the village elder you fisherfolk, nomads, pastoralists, away down the river valley. walk among the huts, thatched indigenous and forest peoples, While irrigated by a hulking dam granaries raised on wooden legs, rural and migrant workers, that contains the lake, the fields donkeys and cattle chewing consumers and environmentalists and paddies are gravity-fed, the contentedly in the shade of an from across the world laid down levels constantly readjusted with open straw barn and groves of mango and papaya trees. a challenge. From their many mattocks and shovels to regulate Even back in Mali’s capital, languages and regions emerged a the flow. The plots are leased Bamako, vacant lots, roadsides global call for food sovereignty. by families, ploughed by oxen and the banks of the Niger and The World Forum for Food and cultivated by hand. Water is its tributaries are given over Sovereignty (named ‘Nyéléni’ scooped onto rows of pumpkins, to food production through after a legendary Malian woman lemongrass, amaranth and onions meticulous grids of vegetables farmer) is held here in rural Mali, from gourd bowls. and herbs. Like rural Sélingué, because this is the reality of rural Beyond, you cross the river, a it is dominated by human scale life for much of the world. As the tributary of the Niger, to where technologies: hand tools, donkey sun slowly sinks, a shimmering pirogues are moored and the carts, bicycles; the urban gardens disc suspended in the dusty sky, fisherfolk unload their catch. are irrigated by water hoisted [silhouetted fisherfolk punt their There’s a village here of mud from wells. Mango trees grow pirogues across Lake Sélingué, huts. No photos are permitted; along the streets and papayas checking their nets. the villagers have beliefs about flourish behind compound walls.
12 Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 100th issue
The Significance of an African artificial fertilisers and to follow hot winds pick up clouds of fine World Forum the failed patterns of the ‘green pale dust, sprinkling it over the For Nnimmo Bassey, from revolution’. thatched rooves, the gleaming Environmental Rights Action “It’s very important that we’re white walls of newly built mud (Friends of the Earth Nigeria) here in Mali, because Mali is huts and the faces of the workers. there was great significance in emblematic of the continent There are clusters of women, talking about food sovereignty in of Africa. It is a place of rich luminous in swathes of wax- Africa, diversity, it’s a huge landmass printed cloth sweeping out the “Because in today’s world,” he and it has been a prominent huts, others are nonchalantly said, “when you talk about food, trade centre over the centuries painting designs in black and when you talk about hunger, the ... a country where you have ochre on hut walls, others are pictures that flash across people’s a rich agricultural heritage, pouring concrete, and others sit television screens across the world and although a vast part of the chatting under the shade of new is of people starving in Africa. country is covered by the Sahara thatch. “In fact, governments and desert, the people are still able to The forum site embodies the national agencies that meet their food needs. It shows the emphasis on the local that work on food issues would not a spirit of resilience and what permeates food sovereignty. Over readily give a thought to food Africa can achieve. It is a land of the three months it has taken to sovereignty. All they talk about is potentials, and of course, a land of build, it has been constructed food security. People don’t want very beautiful music and people,” entirely by hand using local us to care about what we eat; Bassey said. materials and local, traditional they only want us to worry about methods. The straw, the bricks, A movement under having something on the table. the bamboo are all from Sélingué. construction This directly affects our dignity When the food is prepared in the as human beings because you are International peasants’ network following days, it is prepared forced to eat whatever you are La Via Campesina, together exclusively from locally grown given. You are not given the space with Malian peasant network produce by a local women’s to meet your own needs: to decide Coordination Nationale des cooperative (GMO-free, we are what you want to eat, to decide Organisations Paysannes du Mali enthusiastically reminded). The what you want to grow and to (CNOP) and the other groups meat is slaughtered daily on a bed cultivate. involved in the development of of leaves only a few metres from “People can see that Africans Nyéléni chose to build an entire where we eat. No companies are may be hungry, but not because village to host the forum. It lies there is no food. Rather because contracted in the construction or on the outskirts of Sélingué town, the food is not in the right place running of the site; rather, local the lone paved road to Bamako at the right time, and because people are employed. “As we stretching past, buzzing with of issues like a lack of rural build this place, we also build infrastructure, because of denied motor-scooters, bicycles and the future,” announces one of the access to credit and because of donkey carts. coordinators. And like the site, twisted policies that want people With two days to go, the site is food sovereignty is a movement to follow a failed pattern. For crowded with workers, some are under construction. example, rather than pursuing digging trenches for plumbing, organic agriculture, rather than their picks and mattocks tethered Beyond food security using principles developed over with old inner-tubes to the backs As he rushes around the site centuries, our farmers are being of bicycles. The site is almost advising on the progress of the encouraged to use genetically treeless but for a few persistent work, I ask Paul Nicholson, from engineered seed, to rely on stumps and a jacaranda. The La Via Campesina and the Basque
www.foe.org.au Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 13 Farmers Union to define ‘food production [to compete].” food sovereignty in the context sovereignty’: As concepts like ‘food of everything from trade policy “Food sovereignty is the right of security’ have been co-opted to conflict and disaster to forced peoples to determine what they by institutions like the World migration to the preservation of eat, who produces it, and how it’s Trade Organisation into forms traditional knowledge. produced,” he tells me. that support free trade and There’s a lull in the heat of the “And it is a very important right corporate globalism and ignore afternoon and delegates drift from now, because we are losing that the social and environmental dusty shadow to dusty shadow, right. We don’t know what we impacts of such a system, it has returning to their huts for sweaty are eating. We don’t know who become necessary to develop siestas. By 4.00pm, the silence is produces our food and how it’s alternative principles. In response, broken again by conversation and produced. in 1996 La Via Campesina the trademark chants of different “Food is the major problem in articulated the concept of ‘food regions. the world: there are 800 million sovereignty’. This concept not “Down! Down! WTO!” explodes people who go hungry every day, only ensures communities have from a regional meeting of East and the tendency is to increase access to adequate food, but also and Southeast Asians. La Via this number, not decrease it. emphasises self-determination, Campesina’s chant, “Globalise Today, for the first time in history, environmentally sustainable struggle!” “Globalise hope!” it is also basically the rural people, food cultivation and trade that is called and answered, first peasants, who go hungry.” guarantees community well-being in Spanish, then English, then The main threat to food over corporate profit. French. sovereignty, says Nicholson, is Night is filled with music. “the whole free trade logic”. This, Packed agendas Drums are beaten in trenches he says, destroys local economies, The forum’s days are full, dug for mud bricks and here and cultures and knowledge of beginning when the sun begins to there, transistor radios wheeze sustainable land use to expand warm the inside of the huts. There out Malian classics through the industrialise, multinational are queues of people lining up kazoo of their tiny speakers. agribusiness. He offers Mali as an beside the taps outside, washing Throughout the five days of the example: their faces and cleaning their forum, amid celebrations, plates “Mali is basically an agricultural teeth. After a breakfast of millet of millet and peanut sauce and country. Historically it is self- fritters, mangoes and goat stew, performances from the stars of sufficient. Today they’ve had to the day’s activities begin. There West African music, discussions open up the markets … When are layers of complexity: regional further defined the concept of the milk industry was privatised, discussions deal with logistics; food sovereignty and how it can suddenly the import of European sectorial discussions representing be strengthened locally, regionally milk was far cheaper than milk peasants and farmers, fisherfolk, and globally. The final day was production in Mali. Now, the pastoralists, indigenous peoples, dedicated to working with Malian industry only buys milk workers, migrants, urban politicians from across the world from Europe. It has destroyed the movements and consumers to integrate food sovereignty into whole fabric of milk production. ensure each sector’s interests government policy. “Rice is a staple food here. are represented; interest groups A starting point for broader Mali is self-sufficient in food ensure that the voices of women, production, yet rice coming from youth and the environment are change Asia or from the United States heard; and combined thematic A journalist tells me how has invaded the local market, working groups draw together the World Forum for Food making it impossible for local rice these perspectives to discuss Sovereignty has very consciously
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tried to build on the lessons of the World Social Forum, while establishing itself as a major movement in its own right. This is evident in the careful selection of participants, ensuring the involvement of those whose daily lives are part of the struggle for food sovereignty. Farmers, peasants, fisherfolk, indigenous ______The tight grid structure of urban food gardens in Bamako, Mali. Photo: Joel Catchlove peoples and rural workers make up the overwhelming majority companions, or the peasants and economies and cultures. Beneath all of this, I realise, food of delegates. Latin America, indigenous peoples of Southeast Asia, Korea and Japan, or sovereignty is intrinsically about Africa, South Asia and Southeast traditional farmers throughout connection to land and connection and East Asia were the regions Latin America and Africa, it is a to place. Food sovereignty places best represented. There were a struggle to protect and maintain those from food production handful of Europeans and North resilient local economies in the traditions that have been Americans, more from Central face of corporate incursions, Free maintained within the boundaries Asia and the Middle East and as Trade Agreements and food aid of specific environments the only person from Oceania, programs that do not support over time at the centre of its I was temporarily adopted by local markets. In North America discussions and action. Southeast Asia. and Europe, the focus is not only By acknowledging the wisdom I quickly realise that food on protecting the remaining small, of those who have been feeding sovereignty is not just about traditional food producers but their communities for centuries, food. Rather it acknowledges also on rebuilding links between the peasants, indigenous peoples, food as the common ground consumers and producers. fisherfolk and others, it recognises for all peoples and identifies it For countries like Australia, that those who still maintain as a starting point and guiding where corporate food living traditions of closeness to theme for broader change. Food production and retail already the earth are best placed to make sovereignty suggests that it is has a strong foothold, part of decisions and advise on how land impossible to explore how food is the challenge is to cultivate and should be used and how food produced, traded and consumed rebuild local economies and to can continue to be cultivated, without questioning the whole support environmentally sound traded and consumed in their fabric of global economics and agricultural production. communities and beyond. society. This includes everything Australia has already More information: from resource-intensive industrial established free trade agreements * Nyéléni 2007 – World Forum production of crops and livestock, with the US, Thailand, Singapore for Food Sovereignty:
www.foe.org.au Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 15 Declaration of Nyéléni World Forum for Food Sovereignty Sélingué, Mali, 2007
______The entrance to the Nyéléni village showing the circles of huts. Photo: Joel Catchlove
We, more than 500 representatives from of markets and corporations. It defends the more than 80 countries, of organisations interests and inclusion of the next generation. of peasants and family farmers, artisanal It offers a strategy to resist and dismantle the fisherfolk, indigenous peoples, landless peoples, current corporate trade and food regime, and rural workers, migrants, pastoralists, forest offers directions for food, farming, pastoral and communities, women, youth, consumers and fisheries systems determined by local producers environmental and urban movements have and users. gathered together in the village of Nyéléni in Sélingué, Mali to strengthen a global movement Food sovereignty prioritises local and national for food sovereignty. economies and markets and empowers peasant and family farmer-driven agriculture, We are doing this, brick by brick as we live here artisanal fishing, pastoralist-led grazing, and in huts constructed by hand in the local tradition food production, distribution and consumption and eat food that is produced and prepared by based on environmental, social and economic the Sélingué community. We give our collective sustainability. endeavour the name “Nyéléni” as a tribute to and inspiration from a legendary Malian peasant Food sovereignty promotes transparent trade woman who farmed and fed her peoples well. that guarantees just incomes to all peoples as well as the rights of consumers to control their Most of us are food producers and are ready, food and nutrition. It ensures that the rights to able and willing to feed the world’s peoples. use and manage lands, territories, waters, seeds, Our heritage as food producers is critical to the livestock and biodiversity are in the hands of future of humanity. This is especially so in the those of us who produce food. case of women and indigenous peoples who are historical creators of knowledge about food and Food sovereignty implies new social relations agriculture. But this heritage and our capacities free of oppression and inequality between men to produce healthy, good and abundant food and women, peoples, racial groups, social and are being threatened and undermined by economic classes and generations. neo-liberalism and global capitalism. Food sovereignty gives us the hope and power In Nyéléni, through numerous debates and to preserve, recover and build on our food interactions, we are deepening our collective producing knowledge and capacity. understanding of food sovereignty and learning about the realities of the struggles of our Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to respective movements to retain autonomy and healthy and culturally appropriate food produced regain our powers. We now understand better through ecologically sound and sustainable the tools we need to build our movement and methods, and their right to define their own advance our collective vision. food and agriculture systems. It puts the aspirations and needs of those who produce, The full text of the Declaration is posted at: distribute and consume food at the heart of food
16 Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 100th issue Nanotechnology in agriculture and food production – which food future? ______BY GEORGIA MILLER
Nanotechnology has entered the packaging applications. The Helmut global food chain. From atomic-level Kaiser Consultancy Group, a seed manipulation to using nano- pro-nanotechnology analyst, processing to reduce the fat content suggests that there are now over of mayonnaise or to make milk taste 300 unlabelled nano food products like cola, nanotechnology has a broad available on the market worldwide. range of applications in agriculture, It predicts that nanotechnology will food processing, food packaging and be used in 40% of the food industries even farm and food surveillance. by 2015. Nanotechnology, the ‘science of the small’, represents the latest and Introduction to in many ways the most far-reaching nanotechnology in food high-technology assault on real food and agriculture. Nanotechnology is production and processing the atomically processed antithesis Nanotechnology does not to locally controlled, ecologically describe a singular technology, but sustainable, food systems. It extends rather an extremely small scale genetic engineering, enabling at which a range of technologies scientists to manipulate the DNA of operate – the “nanoscale”. This is living things. It further transforms the level of atoms and molecules the farm into an automated extension – the building blocks of the natural of the high technology factory and manufactured worlds. The nano-reconstitution; food packaging production line, using patented nanoscale is understood to be under and tracking; and interactive ‘smart’ products that will inevitably 100 nanometres (nm) in size. To put food. concentrate corporate control. It 100nm in context: a strand of DNA also introduces serious new risks for is 2.5nm wide, a protein molecule Nano-modification of seeds, human health and the environment. is 5nm, a red blood cell 7,000 nm There has been extremely and a human hair is 80,000 nm fertilisers and pesticides little public debate about wide. Nanotechnology involves the Proponents say that nanotechnology’s use in food and manipulation of structures, devices, nanotechnology will be used to agriculture. There are no new laws systems and biological materials at further automate the modern to protect human health and the this nanoscale. agribusiness unit. All farm inputs environment from its risks. There Nanotechnology embodies the – seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and are also no requirements for product dream that scientists can remake labour – will become increasingly manufacturers to label nano- the world from the atom up, technologically modified. ingredients to enable us to make an using atomic level manipulation As new nanoproducts will informed choice about eating nano- to transform and construct a wide inevitably be controlled by patents, foods. range of materials, devices, living many of which are held in the Global Yet food products and agricultural organisms and technological systems. North, this will present a new assault inputs that contain manufactured There are four key focus areas for on the ability of Southern farmers to nanomaterials have been released nanotechnology food research: nano- control local food production. commercially and nanotechnology modification of seeds, fertilisers and Nanotechnology will take the is being used widely in food pesticides; food ‘fortification’ and genetic engineering of agriculture
www.foe.org.au Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 17 to the next level down – atomic atomic scale to reduce the amount flavour or nutrients on demand. engineering. Nanobiotechnology will of fats and sugar. In this way, the Kraft is developing a clear tasteless enable scientists to rearrange plants’ nano industry could market vitamin, drink that contains hundreds of DNA to obtain different properties protein and fibre-fortified, fat and flavours in latent nano-capsules. including colour, growth season, sugar-removed junk food as health A domestic microwave could be yield etc. promoting and weight reducing. used to trigger release of the colour, Nano-reformulation will produce We could theoretically meet our flavour, concentration and texture of highly potent atomically engineered nutritional needs without changing the individual’s choice. fertilisers and pesticides. Several are our reliance on highly processed fast ‘Smart’ foods could also sense already on the market, including foods, or needing to eat fruit and when an individual was allergic products manufactured by Bayer and vegetables. to a food’s ingredients, and block Syngenta. Manufacturers of only three food the offending ingredient. Or Nano-sensors will ultimately products have so far acknowledge alternatively, ‘smart’ packaging enable plant growth, pH levels, the nano-content – canola oil, a chocolate could release a dose of additional presence of nutrients, moisture, meal-replacement diet milkshake and nutrients to those which it identifies pests or disease to be monitored a tea. as having special dietary needs, for from far away, significantly reducing example calcium molecules to people the need for on-farm labour inputs. Food packaging suffering from osteoporosis. The ETC Group warns in its and tracking seminal report ‘Down on the Farm’ Key concerns (
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the consequences of releasing Dr Donald Bruce, a chemist nanotechnology in food production organisms modified using who heads a group examining and their plans for its future use nanobiotechnology into natural technology and ethics for the is a huge a blow to transparency. systems. There is also a growing Church of Scotland, is doubtful Without any requirement for body of toxicological literature about industry claims that nano- manufacturers to label nano-foods, demonstrating that nanoparticles agriculture will help the Global or any willingness on the part of are more reactive, more mobile, and South. Bruce told the United companies to do so voluntarily, more likely than larger particles Kingdom’s Guardian newspaper there is no way for people to to be toxic to humans and the that he sat on a committee 10 years choose whether or not to eat nano- environment. ago which examined the moral foods. This breach of public trust Test tube studies have shown implications of the introduction of is compounded by government’s that some nanomaterials are toxic genetic engineering: “The public failure to regulate nano-food to human tissues, cells and DNA. were told that genetic modification products to ensure that workers, Other studies have shown that some was going to feed the world. And the public and the environment nanomaterials can kill beneficial soil so we looked for evidence of any do not face unsafe exposure to bacteria and aquatic invertebrates, application of that science that nanomaterials. stunt plant root growth and cause had addressed the needs of a poor brain damage in fish. Although not subsistence farmer. We couldn’t Real food vs nano food all nanomaterials will prove toxic to find any. The industry went for humans or the environment, there is agronomic benefits, not for people The use of nanotechnology in a clear need for caution. benefits.” agriculture, food production and In its 2004 report, the United This scepticism is shared by food processing present people Kingdom’s Royal Society recognised others. The ETC Group observes: everywhere with a stark choice the serious risks of nanotoxicity and “Despite rosy predictions that between a future where food recommended that “ingredients in nanotech will provide a technical and food production in all its the form of nanoparticles should fix for hunger, disease and forms is atomically manipulated, undergo a full safety assessment by environmental security in the South, industrialized and controlled by the relevant scientific advisory body the extraordinary pace of nanotech patents, and a future where we before they are permitted for use in patenting suggests that developing maintain and renew an integrated, products”. nations will participate via royalty healthy and respectful relationship Despite this warning, three years payments. ... In a world dominated with locally controlled farming and after the Royal Society’s report, by proprietary science, it is the food production practices. there are still no national laws patent owners and those who can If you are interested in receiving governing the use of nanomaterials pay license fees who will determine more information about how in products anywhere in the world, access and price.” nanotechnology is changing our to ensure that they do not cause Vandana Shiva has argued that food, or in getting involved with harm to the public using them, the synthesising nanotechnology the Nanotechnology Project’s work, workers producing them, or the alternatives to food will “accelerate check our website
www.foe.org.au Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 19 Famous Moments in FoE History: FoE Exposes Uranium Cartel in 1976 ______BY WIESLAW LICHACZ
Uranium has shot up in price from When we got there, we were pound from 1972 to 1974 in order to around US$14 per pound in the mid- confronted with a large box full of squeeze nuclear power producers 1990s to the current, meteoric price original files and documents leaked and US uranium suppliers. of US$120 per pound, purportedly to FoE from the offices of Mary John Proud of Peko-Wallsend on the coat-tails of global concerns Kathleen Uranium Mining Pty Ltd. (one of the original Joint Venturers about global warming. This inflation The leaked company files had of the Ranger Uranium Mining of the price of uranium is not a new evidence of: Company Pty Ltd with the federal phenomenon. A huge jump occurred * shoddy environmental practices; government before the government in the mid-1970s, thanks to a cartel * close surveillance of sold its share) was coordinator of known as the Uranium Club. The environmental organisations; the Club at the March 1976 meeting cartel was exposed by super sleuths * the close relationship between of companies and government from Friends of the Earth (FoE). the most senior ranking Australian bureaucrats. The notes of that It was disbanded and out of court trade union official, ACTU President meeting finish with the instruction: settlements resulted in the payment Bob Hawke, and the chairman of “Mr Proud stressed the need for of about $800 million in penalties. Conzinc Riotinto Australia (CRA), extreme secrecy”. FoE had grappled with the Ranger Sir Roderick Carnegie; and FoE planned to simultaneously Uranium Environmental Inquiry * the complicity of Australian release these documents around since September 1975 in a David government officials in providing the world. We knew that we would and Goliath battle against highly- advice to mining companies on how need multiple copies. The NSW paid lawyers, company officials, to avoid important nuclear non- Environment Centre in Broadway, senior government department proliferation safeguards treaties to Sydney, had three photocopiers and representatives and corporate public sell uranium to places like Taiwan we were going like gangbusters. We relations consultants. (which was not a signatory to the burnt out one older copier with a At the time, Chain Reaction Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) puff of smoke! But we kept going carried generic appeals from FoE’s via “Toll Processing” in the US. ‘Leak Bureau’ asking corporate or with the remaining machines as the bright orange sunrise burnt through governmental whistle-blowers to The Uranium Club provide information. In the dying the narrow windows over the top of days of the Ranger Inquiry we Another issue the files revealed our lone desk in the far corner of the received a phone call from someone concerned a uranium producers’ Environment Centre. who had just flown from Melbourne group called the “Uranium Club”. It The original documents now to Sydney. We were asked to come consisted of the key Australian and had to be re-stapled back into to a secret location in a terrace house other non-US uranium producers. their original state to submit to near the Oxford Street Police Station The Club appeared to have been the Ranger Inquiry as primary to see some important ‘luggage’ that established with the primary aim evidentiary material. he bought from Melbourne. We were of artificially increasing the price The first set of copies, wrapped up told not to tell anyone where we of uranium from about US$7 per in brown paper as personal luggage, were going. pound to a lofty US$45-$50 per were immediately taken to the
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airport, to be hand-delivered to the desk. He was on the phone and immediately cancelled. The US Californian Energy Commission in looked very embarrassed and Justice Department had issued San Francisco. The Commission was hung up quickly. He told us in no subpoenas for the company primed to pass on the documents to uncertain terms that to admit these executives who were named in the the US Justice Department and the documents now would mean re- documents and other members US media. opening the Inquiry for another nine of the cartel to appear before a Back-up copies were placed in a months and re-calling witnesses. Grand Jury any time they set foot locker at Central Railway Station He would not allow that as the in US. Future meetings scheduled across the road from the Ranger government had given the order for for Paris were also cancelled and Inquiry, with the key given to one the Inquiry to wind up. No more the Uranium Club was disbanded shortly after. of our office workers with whistle- extensions of time, he insisted. A person purporting to represent blowing instructions if something Counsel Assisting the Inquiry Westinghouse tried unsuccessfully went wrong with our plans. The rejected our case to admit the to bribe FoE to get their hands other set was on the back of a documents as exhibits during the on the documents, stating that final submission hearings. It is quite pushbike peddled by an intrepid “price was no object” and that likely that the Commissioners and FoE activist, always on the move through Westinghouse’s contacts their advisers may have never seen – a veritable moving target for the in the Marcos regime, a Philippino authorities! this critical primary evidentiary environmentalist on death row We took a big box of the original material. would be recommended for a documents to the Ranger Inquiry. This is only the beginning of a pardon by President Marcos. But we had to get through the filter much bigger story that ran on for Through our carefully laid out of the Inquiry Counsel Assisting, many years right into the mid-1980s plan, many of the documents John Cummins QC. During the and beyond. Many of the details were ultimately placed on the US gruelling two years or so of the are covered in books (listed below) Congressional record for all to Inquiry from September 1975 to written by former Australian Trade see despite the Australian Inquiry 1977, Counsel Assisting the Inquiry Practices Commissioner George Counsel refusing to admit them. went out of its way to preclude Venturini. Litigation by Westinghouse evidence as ‘inadmissible’ by and General Electric against the environmentalists around Australia. Cartel shut down by FoE members of the cartel picked up momentum in the US courts and We were in the corridor of the The cartel story was published eventually flowed into Australian Old Gaslight Building waiting for in The National Times in its August courts. The conservative Fraser Counsel Assisting to consider the 16-21, 1976 edition, causing serious government passed legislation documents behind closed doors. embarrassment to the government in November 1976 – the Foreign The wall clock in the Old Gaslight and the uranium cartel members Proceedings (Prohibition of building was permanently stuck that included RTZ, RioAlgom, Certain Evidence) Act 1976 on 3:33 for the duration of the Conzinc Riotinto Australia, – to prevent FoE or anyone else Inquiry – for a moment our time had Mary Kathleen Uranium Mining from providing any further stopped too! Our lawyers became (the only company producing documentary evidence against the very worried with the time Counsel uranium in Australia at the time), uranium mining companies from Assisting was taking and had Electrolytic Zinc, Peko-Wallsend, Australia. The Act was described visions of NSW Special Branch and Pancontinental, Noranda Uranium in a Chain Reaction editorial as ASIO marching down the corridors Mining and Queensland Mines. “one of the most corrupt pieces with handcuffs jingling and no On August 30, once the of legislation to go on to the escape for us. We would be thrown Californian Energy Commission Australian statutes”. into Katingal maximum security released the documents in Westinghouse finally settled out prison, the keys thrown away and San Francisco, the story broke of court with the uranium cartel we would never see the sun ever internationally, and it was participants for damages in excess again! splashed across the front pages of of US$800 million to make up for I hammered on the Counsel major financial papers and dailies its losses due to the artificially Assisting’s door, pushing it open around the world over the next inflated price of uranium supplied with my shoulder to see what he few days. over four years and some punitive was doing. Inside some of the The scheduled Uranium Club damages for breaching the US documents were spread over his meetings in New York were Sherman Anti Trust Act.
www.foe.org.au Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 21 The more things change ... blogspot.com/2004/09/trade-practices- The Australian act-and-mr-howard.html>. Democrats congratulate The Ranger Inquiry concluded that the nuclear power industry * Venturini, George, 1982, “Partners in Friends of the Earth is unintentionally leading to an Ecocide: Australia’s complicity in the and their insightful uranium cartel”, Victoria: Rigamarole increased risk of nuclear war. The 100 Editions magazine Chain Inquiry recommended caution and Books. Reviewed by Evan Jones at Reaction on making it consultation, but its findings were 22 Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 100th issue The more things change ... blogspot.com/2004/09/trade-practices- act-and-mr-howard.html>. The Ranger Inquiry concluded that the nuclear power industry * Venturini, George, 1982, “Partners in is unintentionally leading to an Ecocide: Australia’s complicity in the uranium cartel”, Victoria: Rigamarole increased risk of nuclear war. The 100 Editions Inquiry recommended caution and Books. Reviewed by Evan Jones at consultation, but its findings were www.foe.org.au Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 23 A 1977 edition of CR apologises for its lateness CR’s commitment to ensuring equal involvement by which was a result of partially-successful efforts to women and men in the collective included providing stop loading uranium at wharves in Melbourne and free child care to people working on the magazine. Sydney. Meanwhile FoE had initiated the Atom Free In 1986, Johnathan Goodfield resigned as one of the Embassy at Lucas Heights because the Australian main editors after four years in the job, and a new Atomic Energy Commission was storing uranium collective, which included people who had already there. been involved in the group for some time, was established. This team included people who then In 1979, mining magnate Lang Hancock promoted contributed several years of effort to the magazine, the use of nuclear weapons to blast artificial including Ian Foletta, Eileen Goodfield, Fran harbours. Joh Bjelke-Peterson said he could not Callaghan, Clare Henderson and Larry O’Loughlin. oppose uranium mining, “firstly because it would not be right and secondly because it would be Throughout its history, CR has had a reputation for wrong”. He had previously promoted the use of addressing issues before they become the subject nuclear weapons to halt the progress of the Crown of common debate in the environment movement of Thorns Starfish on the Great Barrier Reef. CR or broader society. One example of this is the reported: “Fortunately, the starfish seemed to have debate over the use of the ‘wilderness’ concept slackened off of their own accord – possibly tipped in environmental campaigning; that is, whether off by somebody!” wilderness actually exists in Australia given Indigenous management of Australian landscapes In the early 1980s, Mark Carter, co-founder of the for thousands of human generations. Likewise, FoE Food Justice Centre, and Leigh Holloway oversaw and CR took up the issue of the impacts of herbicide production of CR, which carried a lot of big picture use in timber plantations at a time when most strategic debate, with sharp layout and often other green groups were uncritically promoting striking covers. Some of the most inspirational plantations. inserts and editions date from that time. CR also helped raise awareness within the Under the editorship of Mark and Leigh and, slightly environment movement about counter tactics used later, Linnell Secomb, CR continued its evolution by industry, including front organisations, PR, and towards an emphasis on social issues. Cover stories ‘dirty trick’ campaigns. Bob Burton contributed included food politics, workers’ health, women’s much of this ground-breaking work. In earlier employment in the service sector and jobs in years, CR advertisements for FoE’s ‘Leak Bureau’ Wollongong. Aboriginal land rights and debates over had some success, the most spectacular being a mining on Aboriginal land were recurring themes leak which allowed FoE to expose an international from the early editions of CR. uranium cartel in 1976. In the early 1980s, there were considerable A notable feature of Chain Reaction has the differences of opinion about CR. In 1981, a faction publication of debates on ‘internal’ matters of the editorial collective moved office in the middle concerning the environmental movement. In the of the night to ‘save’ the magazine from those they early 1980s, this included debates over feminism regarded as not having the “responsibilities we and socialism, and in the late 1980s, there was had to the wider national FoE and environmentalist a brief but intense exchange over NVA or non- constituency”. The conflict was partly due to the violent action . In recent years this has included sheer size of the editorial collective: the winter issues of political positioning within the movement 1981 edition of the magazine credited 45 people and corporate engagement. This encouragement as being involved with editorial decisions. Those of debate has not been without controversy: credited included people who went on to become discussion about the role of direct action and tactics Senators, local councillors, authors, an adviser to by some groups created heated responses in the Paul Keating and the first energy minister in the early ‘80s, and in 1991 an issue of the magazine Bracks Government in Victoria. on ‘corruption in the environment movement’ generated a huge amount of angst and anger After Mark Carter and Leigh Holloway left, the CR amongst a number of individuals and environmental editorial team continued to grow, and contributing groups. to it at this time were some long-term members, including Eileen Goodfield who dedicated more than Clare Henderson and Larry O’Loughlin were the six years of service and insight to the magazine. longest serving editors and were involved in 24 Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 100th issue producing the magazine from 1986 to 1996. When they moved from Melbourne to Adelaide in early 1989, the existing Melbourne-based collective disbanded. In the following years, Clare and Larry produced CR almost entirely through their own efforts although a number of people did work with them from time to time. Guest editors produced a number of editions, while Clare and Larry did the layout and production, administration and distribution of the magazine. I first began reading Chain Their final edition, in the year that the Howard Reaction in 1976. It was Government was elected, was a scathing analysis of the Coalition’s failure on environment policy and the the cutting edge of the ‘clean and green’ image it was trying to cultivate. environmental movement, Its strong position on the partial sale of Telstra and presenting radical analyses and images by left wing cartoonist, Heinrich Hinze, were constantly making the link to a breath of fresh air compared to the timid green action. A magazine like this is movement response to the new government. precious. To survive for so long The magazine had a brief period of non-production is an amazing achievement. from 1996 until 1998, but apart from this period, My congratulations especially it has been produced consistently for 33 years, to the editors over the years, almost entirely through volunteer labour. It was whose efforts are vital to the resurrected by Anna Burlow, Kulja Coulston, Tristy Fairfield and Barbara Kerr in 1998 with magazine and the movement. the first edition, appropriately titled ‘Back from the Wilderness’, taking an anti-nuclear and Professor Brian Martin international focus. School of Social Sciences, Media ______and Communication University of Wollongong This is an edited version of a section of the 2004 FoE Australia book, ‘30 years of creative resistance’. www.foe.org.au Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 25 The Base-load Electricity Fallacy ______BY MARK DIESENDORF Opponents of renewable energy, most of the time at full power. In fluctuations in supply and demand from the coal and nuclear industries mainland Australia, base-load power on timescales ranging from a few and their political supporters, are stations are mostly coal-fired while minutes to an hour or so. These disseminating the fallacy that a few are gas-fired. Coal-fired power peak-load stations are designed to renewable energy cannot provide stations are by far the most polluting be run for short periods of time each base-load power to substitute for of all power stations, both in terms day. They can be started rapidly coal-fired electricity. of greenhouse gas emissions and from cold and their output can be If this fallacy comes to be widely local air pollution. Overseas, some changed rapidly. Some peak-load believed, renewable energy would base-load power stations are nuclear stations are gas turbines (like jet always remain a niche market rather powered. engines) fuelled by natural gas. than achieving its true potential An electricity supply system cannot Hydro-electricity with dams is also of becoming a set of mainstream be built out of base-load power used to provide peak-load power. energy supply technologies. stations alone. These stations take Some renewable electricity sources Electricity grids are already all day to start up from cold and have identical variability to coal-fired designed to handle variability in both in general their output cannot be power stations and so they are base- demand and supply. To do this, they changed up or down quickly enough load. They can be integrated into the have different types of power station to handle the peaks and other electricity supply system without any – base-load, intermediate-load and variations in demand. They also additional back-up. Examples include peak-load – and reserve power break down from time to time. the following: stations. A faster, cheaper, more flexible * bioenergy, based on the A base-load power station is in type of power station is used to combustion of crops and crop theory available 24 hours a day, complement base-load, handle the residues, or their gasification seven days a week, and operates peaks and handle unpredictable followed by combustion of the gas; 26 Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 100th issue * hot rock geothermal power, as Western Denmark is connected to which is being developed in South Norway), it does not need to install Australia and Queensland; any back-up for wind, because it Earth * solar thermal electricity, with purchases supplementary power overnight heat storage in water or from its neighbours when required. Sanctuaries rocks or a thermochemical store; By 2040, renewable energy could and supply over half of Australia’s * large-scale, distributed wind electricity, reducing greenhouse and the power, with a small amount of emissions from electricity generation occasional back-up from peak-load by nearly 80 per cent. In the longer Failure of plant. term, when solar electricity is less Moreover, energy efficiency and expensive, there is no technical Market-based conservation measures can reliably reason to stop renewable energy reduce demand for both base-load from supplying 100 per cent of grid and peak-load electricity. electricity. The system could be just Conservation The inclusion of large-scale wind as reliable as the dirty, fossil-fuelled ______power in the above list may be a system that it replaces. BY JASMIN SYDEE & SHARON BEDER surprise to some people, because The barriers to a sustainable wind power is often described as an energy future are neither ‘intermittent’ source, that is, one technological nor economic, but Earth Sanctuaries Limited (ESL), that switches on and off frequently. rather are the immense political a business publicly listed on the While a single wind turbine is power of the big greenhouse Australian Stock Exchange from certainly intermittent, a system of gas polluting industries – coal, 2000-2005, was the darling of several geographically separated aluminium, iron and steel, cement, economic rationalists and their wind farms is not. Total wind power motor vehicles and part of the oil conservative think tanks. It was output of the system generally varies industry. smoothly and rarely falls to zero. frequently cited by free-market Nevertheless, it may require some champions in their arguments for additional back-up, for example, private conservation and market- from gas turbines. ______based solutions to environmental When wind power supplies up to problems. 20% of electricity generation, the A longer, referenced version of this paper is posted at 27 www.foe.org.au [Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 It made money from a variety to an OECD/World Bank workshop removal of six species of mammal from of sources including ecotourism ‘as the international model for the endangered species list by enabling (admission fees, guided tours biodiversity conservation in the these species to thrive in the feral-free etc); food and beverage sales; private sector’. environments of its sanctuaries. But overnight accommodation; gift is a piece of ‘feral free Australia’ all shop sales; native plant nursery Corporate managerialism that wildlife need for their protection sales; weddings and functions; and conservation? And what about The private market strategies conferences; education programs; biodiversity in general? engaged by ESL clearly fit within an as well as filming and photography. By focusing entirely on their successes ecological modernist discourse where Other activities included with mammal rehabilitation through feral environmentalism is a viewed as a form consulting services (such as eradication, ESL sidelined structural and of managerialism that privileges experts fence building, feral eradication, political factors that also contribute to the and business interests in environmental native animal treatment, woodlot destruction of wildlife and ecosystems. decision making. In this view the development, as well as conceptual Feral animals certainly pose an environment has to be managed rather planning and feasibility studies immediate threat to native animals but than conserved or saved. Management is for other organisations); contract ferals cannot and should not be seen best undertaken by corporate managers services in building; contract as the only broad danger facing native who supposedly have the knowledge and management, e.g. to government animals and ecosystems. resources to provide a stewardship role National Parks; captive animal sales For example, in Australia there are on behalf of corporate stakeholders. (not endangered species); wildlife constant conflicts over the conservation Such an approach assumes that sales (reintroduction back to the value of forests. These include the East all that is required to protect the wild); as well as donations. Gippsland forests of Victoria and the environment is good management ESL was recognised with many Tasmanian old growth forests. Marsupials by private owners. The strategies of awards and honours. It was such as quolls, koalas and possums ESL explicitly and implicitly deflected awarded runner-up for Ecotourism are arguably placed under threat by so- attention away from the deeper structural in the 1997 Condes Nast Travelers called ‘sustainable’ forestry, as are the issues about the relationships between Choice Awards (USA), and was unique forest ecosystems themselves. social systems, economics, culture and in the top 50 (the only Australian Forestry, mining, farming, fisheries and ecology that other conservationists, destination) for the Travel Holiday coastal development are all examples of academics, and activists have been Insider Award for ‘Best Kept economic activities that are destroying attempting to bring to conservation International Secret’ in the same wildlife and damaging ecosystems, politics. ESL maintained instead that not year. In 1998 it was labelled particularly where vegetation is removed only is capitalism an environmentally Australia’s most ethical investment or toxins are introduced. sustainable system, but that it in fact by Choice Magazine. In 2001 its By privileging ‘cute and cuddly’ offers the key to preserving biodiversity. company structure was presented mammal species as the object of ESL claimed to have facilitated the Photo: Natalie Lowrey 28 Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 29 7 issue 200 th August 100 Chain Reaction #100 Sharon Beder Academic and author of Global Spin: The Assault on Corporate Environmentalism. Congratulations ofto Friends the Earth on its 100th issue of Chain the Reaction, best magazine thoughtful for environmental activists in Australia. In the end, ESL’s market-based In the end, ESL’s our properties in sufficient our properties numbers book ‘Environmental Principles and (UNSW Press, 2006). Policies’ Like to comment on this article? to Chain Reaction a letter Write Twenty of Australia’s environment groups have produced a climate change policy agenda. Here is a 2. Show international leadership and join the shortened version of the statement Kyoto Protocol This briefing outlines a suite of policies developed by Until Australia ratifies Kyoto, we cannot expect Australia’s environment groups to avoid dangerous less-developed countries to join the global effort. climate change. The key to achieving this will be The Kyoto Protocol is the primary international for Australia to legislate a national greenhouse gas response to climate change and was designed reduction target of at least 30% below 1990 levels by to bring all countries on board with specific 2020, and to set a long term reduction target of at least obligations to reduce greenhouse gases. 80% by 2050. ______3. Make polluters pay The Stern Review found the social cost of greenhouse gas emissions was in the order of AU$110 per tonne. Introducing a price on greenhouse pollution will drive investment and employment in low carbon industries. A price on greenhouse pollution could be implemented through a carbon tax and/or an emissions trading scheme. Either way, the price must be accompanied by a legislated cap on emissions of at least 30% by 2020. 4. Become energy smart Stabilise total energy consumption by 2010 and achieve 1.5% annual reductions to 2020 through world’s best energy efficiency standards for appliances, buildings, vehicles and industrial equipment. 5. Invest in a clean, renewable energy future Legislate a renewable energy target of 25% by 2020. Currently only 8% of Australia’s electricity is generated from renewable sources. Failure to increase the national Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET) will halt new investment in clean, renewable energy because in 2007 it will be fully subscribed. There are a number of simple mechanisms available to achieve a clean, renewable energy target of 25% by 2020: raise the current MRET program target; use market mechanisms such as a solar feed-in tariff; implement a million solar roofs program to kickstart national rollout. 1. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions 6. Switch from dirty, greenhouse polluting Legislate a national greenhouse gas reduction technologies target of at least 30% below 1990 levels by No more coal fired power stations, move 2020. Set a long term reduction target of at least away from greenhouse polluting subsidies 80% by 2050. and technologies, ensure greater scrutiny 30 Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 100th issue and regulation of coal exports and commit to 10. Help native vegetation and wildlife legislate a stringent greenhouse gas trigger in the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity survive and thrive Conservation Act. Rapidly develop and support national measures to create connected and protected ecosystem networks to maximise the survival of native 7. Reject dangerous, costly nuclear power wildlife and vegetation threatened by climate Rule out dirty nuclear power, phase out uranium change. mining and exports, prohibit any expansion of the dangerous nuclear industry in Australia, ______shelve the proposed NT waste dump. The full statement is posted at: 8. Tackle emissions from logging and Obscenity of carbon trading ______BY KEVIN SMITH In 1992, an infamous leaked memo from Lawrence change down to a discussion about numbers and graphs Summers, who was at the time Chief Economist of the that ignores unquantifiable variables such as human World Bank, stated that “the economic logic behind lives lost, species extinction and widespread social dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage upheaval. country is impeccable, and we should face up to that”. The recently released Stern Review on climate change, Junk economics written by a man who occupied the same position at the Cost-benefit analysis can be a useful tool for making World Bank from 2000 to 2003, applies a similar sort of choices in relatively simple situations when there are a free market environmentalism to climate change. limited number of straight-forward options to choose Sir Nicholas Stern argues that the cost-effectiveness from. of making emissions reductions is the most important But as Tom Burke, visiting professor at Imperial factor, advocating mechanisms such as carbon pricing College London, has observed: “The reality is that and carbon trading. applying cost-benefit analysis to questions such as While dumping toxic waste in the global South might [climate change] is junk economics. ... It is a vanity of look like a great idea from the perspective of the market, economists to believe that all choices can be boiled down it ignores the glaringly obvious fact of it being hugely to calculations of monetary value.” unfair on those getting dumped upon. Some commentators have applauded the Stern Review In a similar way, Stern’s cost-benefit analysis reduces for speaking in the economics language that politicians important debates about the complex issue of climate and the business community can understand. But by www.foe.org.au Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 31 framing the issue purely in terms of pricing, trade and Community interest economic growth, we are reducing the scope of the There is a groundswell of opinion that the “invisible response to climate change to market-based solutions. hand” of the market is not the most effective way of These “solutions” take two common forms. Under facing the climate challenge. emissions trading, governments allocate permits The Durban Declaration of Climate Justice, signed to big industrial polluters so they can trade “rights by civil society organisations from all over the world, to pollute” amongst themselves as the need arises. asserts that making carbon a commodity represents a Another approach involves the generation of surplus large-scale privatisation of the Earth’s carbon cycling carbon credits from projects that claim to reduce or capacity, with the atmospheric pie having been carved- avoid emissions in other locations, usually in Southern up and handed over to the biggest polluters. countries; these credits may be purchased to top up any Effective action on climate change involves demanding, adopting and supporting policies that shortfall in emissions reduction. reduce emissions at source as opposed to offsetting or Such schemes allow us to sidestep the most trading. fundamentally effective response to climate change that Carbon trading is not an effective response; emissions we can take, which is to leave fossil fuels in the ground. have to be reduced across the board without elaborate This is by no means an easy proposition for our heavily get-out clauses for the biggest polluters. fossil fuel dependent society; however, we all know it is There is an urgent need for stricter regulation, precisely what is needed. oversight, and penalties for polluters on community, What incentive is there to start making these costly, local, national and international levels, as well as long-term changes when you can simply purchase support for communities adversely impacted by climate cheaper, short-term carbon credits? change. But currently such policies are nigh-on invisible, as they contradict the sacred cows of economic growth Forcing the market and the free market. In the current neo-liberal economic environment, There is, unfortunately, no “win-win solution” when trading rules inevitably succumb to the pressures of it comes to tackling climate change and maintaining an corporate lobbying and deregulation in order to ensure economic growth based on the ever increasing extraction that governments do not “interfere” with the smooth and consumption of fossil fuels. running of the market. Market-based mechanisms such as carbon trading are We have already seen this corrosive influence in the an elaborate shell-game of global creative accountancy European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), that distracts us from the fact that there is no viable when under corporate pressure, governments massively “business as usual” scenario. over-allocated emissions permits to the heaviest polluting industries in the initial round. Climate policy needs to be made of sterner stuff. This caused the price of carbon to drop by more than 60%, creating even more disincentive for industries to This article originally appeared on the BBC Science and lower their emissions at source. Nature website. Kevin Smith is a researcher with Carbon There are all manner of loopholes and incentives for Trade Watch, a project of the Transnational Institute. industry to exaggerate their emissions in order to receive more permits and thereby take even less action. More information: Market analyst Franck Schuttellar estimated that in the * Kevin Smith, “The Carbon Neutral Myth - Offset Indulgences scheme’s first year, the UK’s most polluting industries for your Climate Sins”, 32 Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 100th issue Defence greenwash on war games a toxic lie ______BY KIM STEWART Brisbane Peace Parade 2007. Photo by Ted Reithmuller In 2005 the Australian Defence Force (ADF) species and habitats. The Public Environment Report commissioned an environmental report into the effects lists 38 endangered and vulnerable species in Shoalwater of the Talisman Saber 2007 military training exercises on Bay alone, and over 100 endangered and vulnerable the Shoalwater Bay Training Area just north of Yeppoon species in the combined training areas proposed for use in Queensland. in Talisman Saber. While the Maunsell Public Environment Report Although the Public Environment Report says that no gave the military the greenwash it was looking for, it nuclear, chemical, biological or radiological munitions overlooked issues of the known toxicity of military will be used during Talisman Saber, in reality all military chemicals and important social justice issues. vehicles and munitions use toxic chemicals and heavy The military would have us believe that practicing for metals with the potential to harm the environment. war can be environmentally friendly, that thousands of The toxicity of chemicals used in munitions was never troops, hundreds of tanks and vehicles, nuclear-powered considered in any part of the Public Environment warships, weapons testing, land and sea bombing and Report. live firing can leave nothing but footprints and tank The commitment of the US and Australian forces to tracks. “protect the environment, conserve biodiversity, and However, military training exercises use the same toxic protect and preserve heritage ... for future generations”, tools as real war. Toxic chemical pollution, unexploded as stated in Final Public Environment Report, is hollow shells, active sonar, heavy vehicles and ships, the given their environmental track records. everyday maintenence of equipment - added to the 30,000 United States and Australian troops participating Environmental track record of the in Talisman Saber – all have effects on the environment armed forces and the communities they interact with. The United States Department of Defence has been described as the world’s biggest industrial polluter. What’s at risk? Project Censored estimates that the US military The Shoalwater Bay Training Area is a 454,500 hectare generates 750,000 tons of toxic waste material annually, area with 300 kilometres of coastline. The Training Area more than the five largest chemical companies in the US is used by various military groups for about 300 days combined. of the year as well as for major events such as Talisman The US Department of Defence (US DoD) has Saber. exemptions from many environmental laws in the US The Training Area is listed under the Ramsar, Jamba including the Migratory Bird Treaties Act, the Wildlife and Camba treaties to protect birds and wetlands. It is Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and adjacent and the National Environmental Policy Act. Hardly the to the Byfield National Park. actions of a good environmental steward. The US Navy The Training Area is important to many endangered is currently being sued by environmental groups for its www.foe.org.au Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 33 prostitution, sexual assault, rape and murder. They often get off without prosecution. During the 2005 Talisman Saber games, US personnel were arrested for drug offences. In 2005 there were 2,374 reported sexual assaults in the US involving military personnel. Sexual assault is a problem wherever troops are posted. There have been over 500 reports of sexual assault amongst troops in Iraq since 2002, the true figure probably much higher. Drink spiking and sexual harassment are also a problem within the ADF. Anecdotal evidence indicates that the rates of sexual harassment and assault of civilian women increases in Rockhampton during war games, although there are no statistics and it is recognised that many women do not report sexual assault to police. As far as we know, Shoe installation at the main gates no action to combat sexual harassment of the locals has been considered by the ADF or the US DoD. The land on which the Shoalwater Bay Training Area is sited in the traditional land of the Durrumbal people. Traditional landowners are beholden to the military for access to their own land and are therefore not at liberty to speak their minds on this issue. In April 2007, Maunsell released their revised Public Environment Report. It did not consider many of the social justice issues mentioned here. After receiving hundreds of submissions from concerned citizens, Maunsell concluded that the general public had to “take the time to understand the commitments Defence is making to ensure environmental sustainability”. We understand them very well as an elaborate and superficial greenwashing exercise that fails to take into Brisbane Peace Parade 2007. Photo by Ted Reithmuller consideration the serious environmental and social effects of war games. use of active sonar, know to cause whale beachings The ADF sees Shoalwater as “Australia’s single and condemned by the International Whaling most important area for the conduct of amphibious Commission. and combined arms exercises” and has no interest in The US DoD still uses weapons that are widely banned addressing the impacts of military operations there. including depleted uranium and cluster bombs, and has the second biggest nuclear arsenal in the world. While ______the ADF no longer uses depleted uranium, it plans to buy cluster bombs in the near future. Kim Stewart is a member of Friends of the Earth, Brisbane The ADF often boasts of its environmental record, and helped organise the Peace Convergence which took but it has a long history of polluting the environment, place in June at Shoalwater Bay. Social risks posed by military presence include Like to comment on this article? Write a letter to Chain increased crimes, rapes and violence. Reaction 34 Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 100th issue Indigenous owners reject nuclear waste dump ______Traditional owners from Muckaty gathered to sign a letter opposing threats to dump nuclear BY NATALIE WASLEY waste on their land without appropriate consultation Source: www.no-waste.org The federal government is determined to build a ʻWe donʼt want this poison hereʼ Commonwealth nuclear waste dump in the Northern The first defence site is Athenge Lhere (Mt Everard), 40 Territory despite promising not to do so and despite kilometres north-west of Alice Springs. The Werre Therre opposition from Indigenous custodians. community lives three kilometres away. According to From the “absolute categorical assurance” that the traditional owner Steven McCormack: “This land is not NT would not be saddled with a nuclear dump, the empty – people live right nearby. We hunt and collect federal government announced in July 2005 that three bush tucker here and I am the custodian of a sacred site Department of Defence sites in the NT – Mt Everard, within the boundaries of the defence land. We don’t Harts Range and Fisher’s Ridge – would be assessed for want this poison here.” suitability. The second site, Alcoota (Harts Range), is 160 kilometres north-east of Alice Springs on the Plenty Julie Bishop, federal science minister, rationalised Highway. The Engawala community and Aboriginal- the decision by claiming that all three sites are “some owned Alcoota cattle station are 18 kilometres north of distance from any form of civilisation”. There are in the Harts Range defence site. fact people living and running successful pastoral and Mitch from the Engawala community says: “We stand tourist enterprises three, five and 18 kilometres from strong in our own culture as Indigenous people, and these sites, who believe it is very uncivilised to dump want the land and water to be protected for all children, nuclear waste on their land without their consent. black and white. If this nuclear waste is so safe, why www.foe.org.au Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 35 The traditional owners of Muckaty Land Trust, 120 kilometres north of Tennant Creek, have been offered $12 million to nominate and surrender their land. This offer has been accepted by a small number of the traditional owners, but many others have been speaking out against the plan over the past year, including travelling to the Alliance Against Uranium meeting near Alice Springs last year, to Darwin, and, on the Indigenous Speaking Tour in June, to Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney. Despite letters to Bishop and the NLC requesting that negotiations about the dump at Muckaty cease, the NLC has continued to provide what the government calls “positive and constructive assistance” to convince a On a speaking tour to protest against plans for a nuclear waste dump in the community to nominate their land for the nuclear waste Northern Territory are Donna Jackson, Stephen Atkinson, Priscilla Williams, Mitch, Dianne Stokes and Audrey McCormack. dump. Photo: Penny Stephens Muckaty traditional owner Dianne Stokes is strongly opposed: “Top to bottom, we got bush tucker right can’t they keep it at the Lucas Heights nuclear plant through the country. Whoever is taking this waste dump in Sydney where it is produced and where the nuclear into our country needs to talk to the traditional owners. experts work?” We’re not happy to have all of this stuff. We don’t The third site is at Fisher’s Ridge, 40 kilometres south want it, it’s not our spirit. Our spirit is our country, our of Katherine. Valerie and Barry Utley run a 230-square country is where our ancestors been born. Before towns, kilometre pastoral station, Yeltu Park, which surrounds before hospitals, before cities. We want our country to be the proposed site. Their home is around four kilometres safe.” from the site. The NLC supported Bishop’s amendments to the According to Valerie: “We know the area, and we see Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act, what happens after the wet season. All of a sudden there which restricts public input into the dump site selection. will be a sink hole where the limestone caves in. When The changes to the law mean that a land council can somebody goes in there to examine the area, they’ll nominate a site even if it has not demonstrated that: realise that the place has limestone, not too far under the it has consulted with the traditional owners; the top soil, and regularly caves in to sink holes. There are nomination was understood by the traditional owners; springs in the area, and also flooding, and [putting the the traditional owners have consented as a group; and dump there] would be one of the biggest mistakes they any community that may be affected has been consulted could make.” and had adequate opportunity to express its views. The undemocratic changes also removed the right Muckaty of any group – traditional owners, pastoralists or The Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management community members – to appeal site nomination on the Act 2005, which overrides NT laws opposing nuclear grounds of “procedural fairness”. waste transport and storage, also allows the NT The amendments were designed to induce government or Land Councils to nominate sites other communities to offer their land by indemnifying land than Commonwealth defence land for assessment. trusts from any damage arising from a dump. It remains The NT government remains opposed to the national unclear as to who would be liable for damage. dump plan, but after a year of meetings between federal government officials, the Northern Land Council (NLC) Lucas Heights reactor waste and some traditional owners, the full council of the NLC The waste generated at the Lucas Heights nuclear agreed in May to nominate Muckaty, Warlmanpa land, reactor in NSW must be properly stored and managed. It 120 kilometres north of Tennant Creek, as an additional is far better to keep it where it can be easily accessed and site for assessment. monitored by people trained in handling radioactive If Bishop accepts the Muckaty nomination, a short materials. scientific study will be carried out, and the preferred ANSTO, which runs the reactor, the nuclear regulatory site of the four will undergo an Environmental Impact body ARPANSA, the Australian Nuclear Association Assessment. 36 Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 [ 100th issue Chain Reaction has aged well, it gets better looking, and what’s on the inside still really matters. Felicity Hill Nuclear disarmament campaigner When Federal Science Minister Julie Bishop announced plans to dump nuclear waste on Aboriginal Land at Muckaty Station, her electorate office received a visit from FANG (The Freemantle Anti-Nuclear Group). Congratulations Chain Source: www.no-waste.org Reaction on 100 issues and remaining a truly and the federal Department of Education, Science and Training have all conceded that there is adequate independent and grass roots room, and capability, to continue storing waste at Lucas voice for environmental Heights for at least the next 40 years. justice. It is an inspiration However, it seems the federal government is keen and testamount to the to move the radioactive waste to an area with fewer hard work, dedication and voters. Dumping current stockpiles “in the middle of tenacity of FoE Australia. nowhere” helps the government justify the controversial commissioning of the new nuclear research reactor at Lucas Heights. Binnie O’Dwyer Radioactive waste is the final stage of the deadly Indigenous Justice Advocacy Network, NSW nuclear fuel chain: it is a product of all the dodgy deals and damage that has been done along the way. Dumping this waste on Indigenous and remote communities is not responsible management: it is radioactive racism. Radioactive waste management is a huge problem One hundred times telling for Australia. The Howard government’s short-term, the stories as they really irresponsible and stop-gap plans will unnecessarily are, without the gloss damage communities, country and culture. and spin. A reality check A strong alliance and support network has developed such as provided by Chain between the targeted communities and throughout the NT. But your help is needed to take this story to Reaction over the years has your families, friends and networks. You can support been an invaluable source the targeted communities by informing and activating of news the mainstream your local, state and federal representatives, and getting media don’t want citizens active in anti-nuclear campaign groups. to know. Thanks to Chain Community opposition prevented a waste dump from Reaction crew over the being built in South Australia and, with your help, we can stop the government’s shameless promotion of an years for steadfast diligence. expanded nuclear industry, and its attempt to poison the Congratulations, and heartland. may there be 100 more To support the campaign, contact Natalie Wasley at illuminating editions. the Arid Lands Environment Centre in Alice Springs: Like to comment on this article? Write a letter to Chain Reaction 37 www.foe.org.au Chain[ Reaction #100 August 2007 Marcina Coleman Richards, Simon Prideaux and Sue Haseldine. Credit: Cat Beaton Munda Yumadoo Iliga – Leave the Land As It Is ______BY BREONY CARBINES & SIMON PRIDEAUX South Australia is about to face a massive expansion In 2002, Labor’s election policy included a promise to of the mining industry. Financially and politically ban mining in the Yumbarra Conservation Park “if the supported by the SA Labor government, mining current exploration lease proves fruitless and expires”. companies are searching the state for copper, gold, The lease over Yumbarra did expire in February 2003 but uranium and mineral sands. the SA Labor government broke its promise by granting In the far west region of SA in the land of the Kokatha further licenses. Mula Nation Far West Division, 16 companies have In October 2005, Premier Mike Rann announced exploration leases over the culturally and ecologically 500,000 hectares of Yellabinna, as a wilderness area significant areas of Yellabinna Regional Reserve and the protected from mining and exploration. Although Yumbarra and Pureba Conservation Parks. this was a welcome development, the government It is an area of four million hectares containing rolling consistently fails to understand that the entire area sand dunes, clay pans, granite outcrops and water rock deserves protection. holes, and it is the largest stretch of intact stunted mallee The Kokatha Mula continue to live their culture, forest in the world. The area holds law and culture for express their grave concerns about mining, take Kokatha Mula people and they do not want it disturbed. measures to protect their heritage and share with those Companies involved in exploration include Red Metal, willing to learn the significance of this unique stretch of Adelaide Resources and Iluka Resources. Iluka, the most country. active of all the companies, mines, markets and exports “This is the last inland area where I can teach our titanium and zircon. Uses of titanium include makeup, children - this is our school ... the land houses our sunscreen, paint and electronic components, while bush medicine - our pharmacy. Hunting for our meat, zircon is used in porcelain and to line nuclear power gathering our food - our grocery stores, our garden. plants. Our spiritual beliefs are within and throughout the land 38 Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 100th issue – this is our church,” says Sue Coleman Haseldine from cultural values of this land, and what it means to our the Kokatha Mula Nation. people. Our message to the state government and any To raise awareness and share culture, Kokatha Mula mining companies ... is ‘Munda Yumadoo Iliga’ which host rockhole cleaning trips every six months. The means ‘leave the land as it is’.” last three trips consisting of 20-30 people have made Despite the successes of the campaign so far, the progress in returning significant water rockholes back urgency of the situation remains. Exploration activities to good health. The trips are an opportunity to visit a are still underway. Due to the number of sites and pristine ecosystem and make a practical contribution companies involved and the remote nature of the to land conservation with the direction of committed country, political intervention and proper protection is traditional owners. paramount. Acting as an ecological link between the northern The SA government needs to be held accountable Mulga woodlands and the southern Mallee dune for its broken election promises. Yumbarra needs to be system, the area holds significant biodiversity. It is reinstated to true conservation status and Yellabinna and valuable habitat for endangered, rare and threatened Pureba should be granted the same level of protection to flora and fauna including the Mallee Fowl, the Kularr, disallow all mining exploration. the Hairy Footed Dunnart, the Scarlet Chested Parrot, the Pimpin Mallee, Sandlewood Tree, and the Long- The rights of the Kokatha Mula need to be recognised. scaped Isotome. It is probably home to a community of the highly endangered Miniature Marsupial Mole. As Bronwyn Coleman Sleep says: As the area becomes riddled with exploration, the status of these species becomes increasingly precarious. Hunting grounds are also at risk. Areas once rich in “We donʼt want wombats and bush turkey have been rapidly altered by roadwork, sample drilling and other exploration broken promises, we activities resulting in a noticeable reduction of bush foods. Mining companies argue that exploration and mining need action.” will only have a minimal impact and restoration ______is possible. However, Kokatha Mula have already witnessed impacts at this early stage. The worry is that If you would like to support the Kokatha Mula, here are some further impacts may not only restrict their access to things you can do: * Fill out the form letter on the Kokatha Mula website foods, medicine and places of cultural importance but www.foe.org.au Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 39 shameful social behaviour and violent political practice is worth celebrating. The people who stood up to the cruel profiteers of slavery had a courage that is inspiring – can you? and instructive to us today. We remember their names ican______and stories with gratitude and respect. That abolitionist BY FELICITY HILL movement would not accept a little bit of regulated slavery under safeguarded conditions. Those abolitionists kept their “eyes on the prize” and they used the word “Governments say its premature to talk abolition quite deliberately; no slavery whatsoever would about a nuclear weapons convention – be tolerated, because slavery itself is unacceptable. don’t believe it – they said the same thing The immoral threat of annihilating whole cities, populations, countries or even civilisation with nuclear about a landmine treaty.” weapons belongs in the past. In the future, anniversaries -- Jody Williams, Nobel Laureate that mark the abolition of nuclear weapons will be celebrated, because nuclear weapons are unacceptable The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons to the vast majority of nations and people who recognise was launched around the world in April 2007 by the that they are the result of shameful social behaviour and International Physician for the Prevention of Nuclear War. violent political practice that humanity will evolve from. The goal? A Nuclear Weapons Convention. The prize we keep our eyes on is a Nuclear Weapons The good news: Unlike the landmines campaign, Convention. It is primarily a treaty – a negotiated we already have 125 countries in the UN General agreement or package of linked agreements – but it is Assembly voting explicitly to start getting on with such also a set of customs or accepted practices, which will a convention. The vast majority of governments don’t reflect norms, or universal principles. The principles have and don’t want nuclear weapons. A Model Nuclear are about our survival, now and into the future, and Weapons Convention drafted by a group of legal and the conditions under which we can best secure it. The technical experts was submitted as an official document practices are about how states and peoples relate to one by governments at the recent nuclear Non-Proliferation another internationally, the tools they need to maintain Treaty meeting, and for the first time an NPT meeting and enhance genuine security. outcome document mentioned that “support was voiced The treaty will include a mixture of legal, technical for a nuclear weapons convention.” and political elements and establish a series of steps The bad news: On nuclear issues, things have rarely to comprehensively prohibit, and systematically looked bleaker and more discouraging. There is a lot of eliminate, all nuclear weapons. It will derive from current evidence that nuclear weapons in the hands of some commitments, legal obligations and security requirements create the desire and justification for proliferation. Now of States, as such providing a practical and realistic path there are nine nuclear weapons possessing states, states to nuclear weapons abolition. possessed by nuclear weapons. The war in Iraq, that There is a lot you can do – start by informing yourself started on the pretext of non-existent WMD, rages; on the ICAN website 40 Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 100th issue Agua Viva! Live Water! ______Lead singer Joselo Schuap from the dino. Photo by Sam Cossar-Gilbert BY SAM COSSAR-GILBERT A week of activities based around water issues was to participate in the activities, which included debates, held in Buenos Aires, Argentina in mid-March leading cinema, theatre, music, information sessions, protests up to World Water Day on March 22. and radio. Friends of the Earth Argentina and other social and At the centre of the activities was a group of musicians environmental groups organised a range of activities and artists, who are travelling all over South America in that called for access to clean water for all, water in the a vintage bus from the 1960s and singing songs to build hands of the people and against the privatisation and a movement in defence of water and peoples rights to it. contamination of water. The bus is called the ‘Dino’ and is painted all the Water is the most crucial element to human existence colors of the rainbow. The Dino is a mobile cultural yet around 1.1 billion people still do not have access center with a movie projector, library, art and it is loaded to an adequate supply of drinking water according to to the brim with musical instruments. UNESCO’s 2006 report, ‘Water, a shared responsibility’. The musicians played a soul-stirring and inspiring Water usage increased six-fold during the 20th century type of folkloric music from Misones, Argentina. Lead and with a growing global population and global singer Joselo Schuap explained: “We cross borders, warming it is becoming an even more sought-after and rivers and mountains, going from town to town with important resource. our instruments as our weapons in the fight for mother People from all over Argentina came to Buenos Aires earth.” www.foe.org.au Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 41 Documentaries from a range of independent media Some of the people most severely affected are the groups were shown most nights. Topics included indigenous people living in Paraguay. From town to the massive paper factory that is being built in town in the regions affected by Yacyreta the stories Gualeguaychú, which will use a huge amount of water are similar, with many not having received a cent of and contaminate one of Argentina’s largest rivers that compensation for their losses or still waiting in shanty provides drinking water to millions. Earlier this year housing for some sort of proper housing. Many have over 130,000 people marched in Gualeguaychú against been waiting for more than 20 years. the paper factory. Currently, ‘The Assembly for Peoples Affected by Indigenous Mapuche speakers provided their Yacyreta’ are occupying an old train shed in the centre important perspective and understanding of water of Buenos Aires, where between 100-300 affected people at a conference held during the week. Their message: are living and continuing their struggle for justice. “We are the earth, water and wind, and that they don’t They are putting pressure on the High Court of belong to nobody, but to all.” Argentina to finally make a decision on their case that [ World Water Day saw a lively, musical and fun protest could give them millions of dollars of compensation. beginning in the outer suburbs of Buenos Aires and Many travel more than 30 hours from their homes and marching to the head offices of water management in families to make their voices heard in the country’s Argentina. A concert and protest in front of the offices capital. went well into the night, calling for real participatory People who have for so many years been horribly and democratic control of water. affected by the so called “clean energy” of Yacyreta are fighting back. Argentineans, Paraguayans and Yacyreta indigenous people are struggling together. On March 14, International Day of Actions Against As one man who has been living there in a train Dams, people from all over Argentina protested in shed for more than two months put it: “we are here Buenos Aires against Yacyreta, one of the world’s largest fighting not for ourselves, because the dam has already dams, situated in north-eastern Argentina. destroyed many of our lives but we are struggling for The story of Yacyreta is one of Argentina’s and our children and that this may never happen again, to Paraguay’s longest running water conflicts. Construction anyone.” of the dam began in 1983 but it has still not been completed. It has been an environmental, cultural and social disaster. The project was funded by the World Bank at a time of dictatorship in both countries. Rising water levels as a result of the dam have caused massive flooding with an estimated 107,600 hectares of land flooded. It is estimated that 100,000 people are directly affected by Yacyreta – Paraguayans, Argentineans and indigenous peoples. More than 33,000 people have been resettled. The resettlement process has been inadequate El Dino Photo by Sam Cossar-Gilbert with families of fourteen receiving a small two-bedroom ______house. A 2004 World Bank report found that many of those resettled remained in poverty and had not Sam Cossar-Gilbert is an activist, student and received any compensation. photographer currently travelling around South Fish numbers have dwindled due to changing water America and working with different social, politic and conditions and contamination, related to the water being environmental groups. stagnant for so long and also because fish can not go upstream to reproduce. People who previously lived in More information: harmony with the river can no longer do so because, as * Photo exhibitions on Yacyreta: one affected fisherman explained to me: “Before the dam 42 Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 100th issue book reviews Australia needs an environment group that is prepared to take risks and say things that might make people uncomfortable. Friends of the Earth is Free Market the group that most fits that bill and since 1975 Chain Reaction has been Missionaries its uncompromising mouthpiece. My heartiest congratulations on the 100th Suiting Themselves issue of this gutsy, bold and always provocative magazine. Sharon Beder, author of ‘Global Spin: The Greg Buckman Corporate Assault on Author/researcher, [ Environmentalism’, member of Chain Reaction Advisory Board, Hobart summarises her two latest books: Tristy Fairfield’s article ‘How ‘Free Market environment groups are financed’ Missionaries: (edition #82) is Chain Reaction at its The Corporate best: clear-minded reflective reporting Manipulation of on how the best intentions can be Community Values’, compromised by the relationships we Earthscan, London, choose to take on. For Friends of the 2006, 260pp. Earth there are no considerations about ‘Suiting Themselves: keeping quiet so as not to alienate How Corporations funders - the frequent struggle for funds Drive the Global is the harsh side of keeping it real. Agenda’, Earthscan, Subscibe to Chain Reaction and give London, 2006, 258pp. to Friends of the Earth and know that your dollars, whether they go toward a campaigner’s wage, maintaining the In the early 1930s the heads of some of the largest photocopier, or paying for the printing US corporations started meeting regularly for dinner of Chain Reaction, are feeding a in New York. It was during the Great Depression when movement for cultural and biological public confidence in capitalism was at an all time low and Roosevelt was threatening to regulate corporations diversity both within Australia and and curb their power. The group, calling themselves internationally. the ‘Brass Hats’, oversaw the corporate takeover of the National Manufacturers Association (NAM), and turned Anna Demant it into a propaganda vehicle for big business. Lonely Planet Foundation, and former Chain Reaction NAM’s conversion marked an historical turning point. editorial team member. Until this time, business people had used advertising, public relations and lobbying to sell their products and services, to promote individual companies, industries, or political views such as their preference for private Now more than[ ever we urgently need action to halt the escalating ownership of public services. But they had never teamed up to sell business values as the primary environmental crisis and Chain guiding principles for a nation. Now companies that Reaction provides the information, were supposed to be competitors colluded in a united analysis and discussion to fuel activists effort to spread the ‘free’ market message to the public in this campaign. Congratulations to using every available public relations avenue. Friends of the Earth for an impressive This was the first of several mass propaganda and important publication! campaigns conducted by business associations and coalitions that combined public relations techniques developed in 20th Century America with revitalised Kerryn Williams free market ideology originating in 18th Century Green Left Weekly Europe. The aim was to persuade people that it was in www.foe.org.au Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 43 their interests to eschew their own power as workers and citizens, and forego their democratic power to restrain and regulate business activity. The second major ‘free enterprise’ campaign occurred in the immediate post war period, key business organisations were concerned about government intervention and controls on the one hand, and union activity on the other — Big Government and Big Labour. What followed was ‘the most intensive “sales” campaign in the history of the industry’ according to Daniel Bell, then editor of Fortune magazine. What was being sold was market dogma, and the full weight of business resources were poured into it. During the early 1970s business was again under attack and public interest groups were challenging the authority of business and seeking government controls over business activities. The first-wave of modern environmentalists were blaming development and the growth of industrial activities for environmental degradation. Their warnings were capturing popular attention, resonating as they did with the experiences of communities facing obvious pollution in their neighbourhoods. Worst of all, from a business point of view, governments were responding with new Since the 1970s corporate coalitions have moved environmental legislation. from defending their economic freedom from the In the US the Advertising Council launched a major demands and interventions of labour unions and campaign in 1976 to promote free enterprise. It was governments, to being far more aggressive in their supported by so many major corporations that the goals. They have conspired to increase their power, Council boasted the list of supporters read like a ‘who’s consolidating their political influence to pressure who in American business’. The continuous campaign governments to make decisions in favour of corporate in favour of free enterprise has been described as ‘the interests. most elaborate and costly public-relations project in An inner circle of corporate executives facilitated the American history.’ formation of many business associations and coalitions In Australia, after the election of a ‘progressive’ that presented a united front for their corporate Labor government in 1972, the Australian Chamber members and asserted the power of large corporations of Commerce reacted with a nationwide ‘economic in political forums. These associations cooperate with education campaign’ to promote free enterprise. each other and ‘perform largely complementary tasks.’ Enterprise Australia was set up in 1976. It also ran They not only share members and even leaders, but a campaign to sell free enterprise and distributed associations and coalitions often join other associations textbooks, magazines, films and other ‘educational’ and coalitions as members, or create new associations materials in schools, workplaces, clubs and other and coalitions for specific purposes. community forums. In this way a vast network of business coalitions Free Market Missionaries examines these campaigns and groups, supported by an array of well-funded and the other strategies used by large corporations think tanks, front groups and public relations firms, over the last one hundred years – in the US, the UK proliferated during the 1980s and 90s. Their purpose is and Australia – to persuade people that what is good not only to coordinate public relations campaigns as in [ for business is good for the whole community. Such earlier times but to exert collective pressure on policy campaigns have touched every aspect of government makers to ensure that government policies increase policy including environmental policy, which is the power and autonomy of those corporations. Many increasingly market-oriented. of these coalitions are now global in their reach and Suiting Themselves investigates the growth of seek to implement corporate-friendly, open-access corporate power during the same period, detailing policies worldwide through pressure from institutions the schemes and tactics that corporate interests such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the have used to pressure government, persuade policy World Bank. makers against the regulation of business, and propel Corporations have been aided in their quest for globalisation. more power and business opportunities by economic advisers – educated in economic rationalist university 44 Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 100th issue economics departments – and management consultants, who have advised governments and The Dirty Politics of international development agencies on how to implement business-friendly policies. Climate Change The revolutionary shift that we are witnessing at the beginning of the 21st Century from democracy to corporate rule is as significant as the shift from monarchy to democracy, which ushered in the modern age of nation states. It represents a wholesale change in cultural values and aspirations. The eclipse of democratic values by corporate values and the growth of corporate power are not a natural evolution but the consequence of a deliberate strategy employed by corporate executives who have combined their financial and political resources to manipulate community values and set global agendas. ______ For more information on these books and their availability see: Congratulations to FoE on the 100th edition of Chain Reaction. As an active part of the worlds largest environmental federation, FoE is uniquely placed to work for a nuclear free future across Clive Hamilton Australia and around the globe. Scorcher: The Dirty Politics of Climate Change 2007 FoE cooperates with communities, Black Inc. Agenda, Melbourne agencies and groups campaigning RRP: $29.95 against all parts of the international ______nuclear trade on every continent. REVIEWED BY JIM GREEN In Australia the commitment to “thinking globally, acting locally” Scorcher is an updated, and more accessible, version means FoE works with affected of Hamilton’s equally important 2001 book, Running Aboriginal peoples, workers and from the Storm. Both expose the corrupt politics of climate change in Australia over the past decade. the wider community to create Clive Hamilton, executive director of the Australia the awareness and empowerment Institute, provides a blow-by-blow account of the needed to motivate effective action manoeuvrings of the self-described ‘greenhouse mafia’ for a nuclear free future. ACF has of corporate fossil-fuel interests, and their secretive [ dealings with the federal government. worked closely with FoE to highlight Outside of the corporate cabal and the inner echelons the impacts and risks of nuclear of the Howard government, Hamilton probably knows developments and looks forward more than anyone about climate change politics in to more work and success in the Australia and that depth of knowledge makes Scorcher a compelling read. (Guy Pearse, a political insider future. Well done Amigo’s! turned whistleblower, has released a book covering similar ground.) Dave Sweeney Alongside the political and corporate collusion and Nuclear-free campaigner, corruption, the media plays an important role in Australian Conservation Foundation climate politics in Australia. Scorcher benefits greatly from Hamilton’s analysis of the “studied ignorance” of most of the corporate media. www.foe.org.au Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 45 As if to prove the point, The Australian declined to publish excerpts from Scorcher. Instead, Hamilton Greenhouse Solutions wrote in New Matilda on June 15, The Australian used “bullying behaviour” to try to persuade him and his with Sustainable publisher to edit the book to paint the Murdoch press in a better light. Energy Commenting on The Australian’s manoeuvring, Hamilton wrote: “The Australian was always going ______to lose the climate change debate because, while it REVIEWED BY PATRICK O’NEILL dug its heels in to resist the ‘green tide,’ the science of climate change became stronger and stronger. ... Although it took a long time, Rupert Murdoch could see the writing on the wall – but the gaggle of climate sceptics at The Australian would look like fools if they began too quickly to speak with His Master’s Voice. ... “The Australian has now been mugged by the facts but is not yet ready to admit it. That is why the newspaper – through demands for corrections and threats of legal action – has attempted to silence the criticisms of it made in Scorcher.” ______An insider’s account of the Australia’s Timor oil grab Shakedown: Australia’s Grab for Timor Oil Paul Cleary June 2007 Allen and Unwin RRP: $29.95 Shakedown is an insider’s account of how Australia bullied the politically young and economically weak new democracy of East Timor out of billions Mark Diesendorf of dollars – and would Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy have robbed billions May 2007 more if not for the UNSW Press: Sydney determination of the Timorese. RRP $49.95 Paul Cleary, a former journalist, was appointed by the World Bank as an advisor to the Prime Minister of Mark Diesendorf has written a comprehensive East Timor on the Timor Sea oil and gas negotiations guide to sustainable energy systems. Greenhouse in 2000. Solutions with Sustainable Energy is simply a joy to He took part in East Timor’s backroom strategy read. meetings and was involved in the negotiations as the Whilst the technical and scientific detail is Australian government tried, with mixed success, to immense, the language is simple and the book is bully and blackmail East Timor. well laid out. It also engages in related, but oft- ignored areas of the sustainable energy discussion 46 Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 100th issue such as population issues, morality, social justice and energy demand, rethink our economic structure, equity. contraction and convergence – this book is a call The opening section of Greenhouse Solutions with for revolution, and not before time. Diesendorf has Sustainable Energy outlines succinctly the science supplied the science necessary to carry this argument of global warming and climate modelling, deals with and this movement. It is now for others to come forth, many myths of the climate change debate, and tables brandishing the book as a manual, to make the change the environmental and economic impacts. There is happen. no “moral case for further delay” in tackling climate change, he states. Like to comment on this article? Write a letter to Chain Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy then Reaction 47 www.foe.org.au [Chain Reaction #100 August 2007 AS A MEMBER OF FRIENDS OF THE EARTH YOU ARE NEVER ALONE We are part of the Australian voice of the largest grassroots environment network in the world, with groups in 68 countries. Whether you decide to get a campaign up and running, volunteer at the fabulous food coop or bookshop, or provide crucial dollars as a monthly Active Friends supporter, it is people like you who keep Friends of the Earth strong. If you are short on time but big on commitment, take a few minutes to fill in the form below. \ BREAK OUT OF THE MOULD Subscribe now to make sure you receive every issue of Chain Reaction. FoE Australia Chain Reaction receives no financial support relying entirely on subscriptions, FoE Membership and volunteers for its continued existence. Contacts All contributions are greatly appreciated by the Chain Reaction editorial team. National Liaison Officers: Local Groups: Regional Contacts: - Hannah Elvery (Brisbane): Tasmania FoE ADELAIDE [email protected] Postal address: Northern Tasmania: - Natalie Lowrey (Katoomba): 0421 356 067 c/o Conservation Centre, “Shoshin”, Lorinna, 7306 [email protected] 120 Wakefield st, Adelaide, SA, 5000 Ph/fax: (03) 6363 5171 Email: [email protected] - Cam Walker (Melbourne): 0419 338 047 Office: (08) 8227 1399, [email protected] Sophie Green Southern Tasmania: [email protected], Georgia Miller National Liaison Office: Joel Catchlove - 0403 886 951 [email protected] Box 222, Fitzroy, 3065 [email protected] http://www.foe.org.au Tasmanian Forests: Carol Williams International Liaison Officers: BRIDGETOWN GREENBUSHES Email: [email protected] FRIENDS OF THE FOREST - Sophie Green (Brisbane): 0422 487 219 Blue Mountains Postal Address: [email protected] Natalie Lowrey PO Box 461, Bridgetown, WA, 6255. Ph: (02) 4782 1181 M: 0421 356 067 - Georgia Miller (Hobart): 0437 979 402 Ph/fax (08) 9761 1176. Email: [email protected] [email protected] Email: [email protected] Website: http://members.westnet.com.au/ - Damian Sullivan (Melbourne) Maryborough [email protected] bgff/index.html 191 Pallas st, Maryborough, QLD, 4650. Ph: (07)4123 1895 - For Latin America: FoE BRISBANE Marisol Salinas (Melbourne) Northern Rivers Postal address: [email protected] - Ruth Rosenhek PO Box 5702, West End, 4101. Postal address: National Campaign Street address: PO Box 368, North Lismore, 2480 Reference Group: 294 Montague Rd, West End, Ph: (02) 66897519 Ph. 07 3846 5793, Fax: 07 3846 4791, Email: Email: [email protected] Contact point: offi[email protected] Derec Davies (Brisbane): (07) 3846 5793 Turning The Tide is a CD by Australian artists calling for action to address the grave threats posed by climate change in a manner that respects all people who share our planet. The voices of traditional Aboriginal elders are interspersed amongst songs from leading Australian artists including Missy Higgins, John Butler, Ghostwriters, Lior and Blue King Brown. The double CD also features fresh material, some produced especially for the album from a range of Australian artists including Wolf and Cub, After The Fall, Good Buddha, Ben Fink, Watussi, Declan Kelly, Gelbison and more. AVAILABLE 8th AUGUST ‘O7 www.TurningTheTide.com.au www.myspace.com/turningthetideoz Mineral Policy Institute :: Australian Student Environment Network Rainforest Information Centre :: Friends of the Earth Australia :: UM Records :: USYNC