Issue #121 | July 2014 chain RRP $5.50 reacti n The National Magazine of Friends of the Earth Australia www.foe.org.au EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES & CORPORATE CONTROL s0ATENTLAWANDCLIMATEENGINEERING s#ORPORATEINmUENCEOVERNANOTECHREGULATION s4HEBRAVENEWWORLDOFSYNBIO s.ATIONAL%NABLING4ECHNOLOGIES s#RITICALSCHOLARSHIPINAHOSTILECLIMATE s3TRATEGY4ECHNO UTOPIANNARRATIVES s#ORPORATEEFFORTSTOIMPEDERENEWABLEENERGY ANDCORPORATECONTROL s2EGULATORYFAILUREORINSTITUTIONALCORRUPTION s#RAZYTECH Congratulations to Muckaty Traditional Owners for defeating the government’s plan to impose a nuclear waste dump on their land in the NT. Pictured are Muckaty Traditional Owner Dianne Stokes with Nat Wasley from the Beyond Nuclear Initiative. www.foe.org.au/muckaty-winnerz Contents Edition #121 − July 2014 Regular items Publisher - Friends of the Earth, Australia Join Friends of the Earth 4 #HAIN2EACTION!". &O%!USTRALIA!". FoE Australia News 5 www.foe.org.au YOUTUBECOMUSER&RIENDS/F4HE%ARTH!53 FoE Australia Contacts inside back cover TWITTERCOM&O%!USTRALIA FACEBOOKCOMPAGES&RIENDS OF THE %ARTH !USTRALIA FoE’s Emerging Technologies Campaign mICKRCOMPHOTOSFOEAUSTRALIA Editorial: emerging technologies 11 Chain Reaction website and corporate control - Jeremy Tager and Louise Sales WWWFOEORGAUCHAIN REACTION Late lessons from early warnings: 13 Chain Reaction contact details Is it impossible to learn from history? - Steffen Foss Hansen 0/"OX &ITZROY 6ICTORIA The new Sorcerer’s Apprentices? - Clive Hamilton 15 EMAIL CHAINREACTION FOEORGAU PHONE The brave new world of synbio - Jim Thomas 17 Chain Reaction team Corporate corruption of science and its effects on workers 20 *IM'REEN &RANKLIN"RUINSTROOP ,EIGH%WBANK and the environment - David S. Egilman and Susanna Rankin Bohme Layout & Design #CrazyTech 24 4ESSA3ELLAR Done deals and revolving doors: 27 Printing the story of GM in Australia - Kath Wilson !RENA0RINTINGAND0UBLISHING -ELBOURNE ‘Partner or Perish’? The convergence of public 32 0RINTEDONRECYCLEDPAPER and private interests pose new questions for controversial university research - Kristen Lyons Subscriptions 3IXISSUESTWOYEARS ! Critical scholarship in a hostile climate: academics 35 4WELVEISSUESFOURYEARS ! and the public - Steve Tombs and David Whyte 3EESUBSCRIPTIONADINTHISISSUEOF#HAIN2EACTION ORSEEWEBSITEANDCONTACTDETAILSABOVE Corporate influence over nanotechnology 37 #HAIN2EACTIONISPUBLISHEDTHREETIMESAYEAR regulation - Louise Sales ISSN: Corporate efforts to impede renewable 38 energy - Mark Diesendorf Copyright: Geopiracy: Patent law, climate change, 41 7RITTENMATERIALIN#HAIN2EACTIONISFREEOFCOPYRIGHT UNLESSOTHERWISEINDICATEDORWHEREMATERIALHASBEEN and geoengineering - Matthew Rimmer REPRINTEDFROMANOTHERSOURCE0LEASEACKNOWLEDGE #HAIN2EACTIONWHENREPRINTING Regulatory failure or institutional corruption? 43 The case of Food Standards Australia New Zealand 4HEOPINIONSEXPRESSEDIN#HAIN2EACTIONARENOT and the ‘regulation’ of nanomaterials in food - NECESSARILYTHOSEOFTHEPUBLISHERSORANY&RIENDS Jeremy Tager OFTHE%ARTHGROUP Public engagement and the National Enabling 46 Technologies Strategy - Georgia Miller Chain Reaction Advisory Board The use of techno-utopian narratives to further 48 +AREN!LEXANDER BIODIVERSITYCAMPAIGNER6IC corporate control - Jeremy Tager 'REG"UCKMAN AUTHORRESEARCHER#ANBERRA $AMIAN'RENFELL 'LOBALISM#ENTRE2-)4-ELBOURNE 'EOFF%VANS SUSTAINABILITYRESEARCHER.EWCASTLE *O)MMIG .ATIONAL4OXICS.ETWORK"ANGALOW .37 "INNIE/$WYER &O%REPRESENTATIVE,ISMORE *AMES7HELAN #HANGE!GENCY"RISBANE www.foe.org.au #HAIN2EACTION*ULY3 Friends of the Earth (FoE) Australia is a federation of independent local groups. Friends of the Earth Online You can join FoE by contacting your local www.foe.org.au group − see the inside back cover of Chain Reaction for contact details or visit foe. YOUTUBECOMUSER&RIENDS/F4HE%ARTH!53 org.au/local-groups TWITTERCOM&O%!USTRALIA There is a monthly FoE Australia email newsletter − subscribe via the website: FACEBOOKCOMPAGES&RIENDS OF THE %ARTH !USTRALIA www.foe.org.au mICKRCOMPHOTOSFOEAUSTRALIA To financially support our work, please visit foe.org.au/donate Campaign against CSG extraction at Renewable Energy Nguddaboolgan Target Road Trip Steve Marsh court case (Mt Mulligan) The Abbott government has initiated Steve Marsh is an organic farmer A series of events are planned for Far a review of the Renewable Energy from a community south of Perth North Queensland over the next few Target (RET) − Australia’s flagship in Kojonup, WA. In 2010, the WA months by a coalition of traditional renewable energy policy. It is widely government lifted the ban on GM custodians, landholders, concerned feared that the review will result in canola, allowing for the commercial people and FoE Kuranda to inform the a watering down of the target, and cultivation of this GM crop for the general public about the detrimental hence damage the investment climate first time. As a result, many farmers, impacts from unconventional gas for renewable energy in the country. including Marsh’s neighbour, began extraction. This development may In May, FoE’s Yes 2 Renewables growing GM canola. Subsequently, include ‘fracking’ within a 550 sq campaign launched its fact-finding Steve found GM canola plants km area around Nguddaboolgan (60 RET Review Road Trip at the Hepburn spread over much of his farm, kms north-west of Mareeba), one of Wind farm in Victoria − the birthplace containing seed. Steve lost his Australia’s most sacred and culturally of community energy in Australia to organic certification. significant sites. highlight the benefits that have come This contamination has had a There are real concerns that the from the RET target. The visit to the dramatic impact on Steve and his underground aquifers and iconic Hepburn Wind farm was the first livelihood, while Monsanto, because the iconic Mitchell and Walsh Rivers stop of an 11-week road trip to get a of their ‘no liability’ agreement could be polluted as a result. Fracking real understanding of the impact the signed with each GM farmer, are at Nguddaboolgan could be the first Renewable Energy Target has had on free of any responsibility for GM step to opening up the rest of North communities in south eastern Australia. contamination. Instead of accepting Queensland to this particularly We visited a range of places that have this biotech invasion, Steve decided destructive form of mining. No tier benefitted from renewable energy to take a stand. As the only avenue of government has conducted any projects or experienced the impacts available, Steve took his neighbour community consultation on this of fossil fuel pollution. This included to court for compensation of loss and proposed development to date. manufacturing facilities in Portland damages. This case is the first of its Meanwhile, FoE Kuranda has an in south west Victoria, the Latrobe kind in the world, where an organic ongoing campaign to improve the Valley, where communities have been farmer is seeking compensation from a water quality of the Barron River, badly impacted by a major fire at the GM farmer when his rights have been which is polluted with intensive Hazelwood coal mine over summer, and violated by GM contamination. agricultural runoff and sediment. suburbs where there has been significant On May 28, the judgment came down in This polluted river is damaging the uptake of roof top solar. We finished Steve’s case. We are very disappointed Great Barrier Reef and is also a threat the tour in the wind region around to report that Steve lost the case. Steve is to the health of the people of Kuranda Canberra, and helped co-host a major currently considering his options. and Mareeba that take their town event at Parliament House in Canberra For further information, and water supply from the river. for world wind day in mid June. documents from the case, please More information: http:// check the Safe Food website. http:// yes2renewables.org/2014/04/08/yes- safefoodfoundation.org/what-we-do/ 2-renewables-launch-ret-road-trip help-this-farmer/ www.foe.org.au #HAIN2EACTION*ULY5 Advertisement Climate change related displacement Very positive feedback followed a the Prime Minister of Tuvalu on symposium held in Brisbane on May UNFCCC negotiations; Ratu Manasa 23, titled ‘When people have to move: Katonivualiku, Fiji Ministry of Climate change related displacement Foreign Affairs, involved in the and pre-emptive migration pathways development of a national relocation in the Australia-Pacific region’, jointly plan; and QUT’s Bridget Lewis, on organised by the QUT Faculty of Law regional responses to displacement. and the Climate Frontlines collective s-IGRATION0ATHWAYS0ROGRAMSAND of FoE Brisbane. Experiences, including analysis of Some highlights of the program were: existing programs in both Australia s3ETTINGTHE3CENE%XPERIENCESOF and New Zealand, their potential for Displacement – a combined short expansion, and new initiatives. videos and commentary presentation s!MOCKTRIAL4HECASEFOR by SBS journalist Stefan Armbruster. climate ‘refugees’. s/VERVIEWOF)NTERNATIONAL s!lNALPANELDISCUSSIONONTHEWAY Frameworks, with presentations by forward, moderated by independent Claire van Herpen addressing the May QUT’s Dr Rowena Maguire and FoE’s Pacific journalist Nic Maclellan, 23 symposium. Claire van Herpen. with participation by Senator s4HE0ACIlCAND)NTERNATIONAL Larissa Waters. Negotiations, with contributions A summary of the presentations is in the symposium. A special edition of from Peter Emberson, Pacific preparation and will be available for the QUT Law Review will be dedicated