Contamination
Contamination
We look at the complex issue of violence as an occupational hazard for Journalists in Latin America, why the latest plan to save the Murray Darling River has been called ‘laughable’ by the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, and we’ll hear how a community responds to Dart Energy beginning construction on the company’s first coal seam gas pilot production wells in the state.
A look at media in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. With Mbuyi Tshielantende and Patrice Nyembo of the Congolese Community of Australia and their plans for an online platform based on the West Papua Media website. We also talk to Journalist Shant Fabricatorian who was in DRC last year.
We look at the Union push for a national asbestos authority to be established, the conflicts of interest with the Environmental Authority’s assessment of the James Price Point gas hub, and we head to Rio for the International Uranium film festival, the week after Rio plus 20 Earth Summit.
This week - the UN cautions Australia on industrial development near the Great Barrier Reef, the Federal Government is looking to give away some of its environmental regulations to the states, and we look at managing e-waste in the Pacific.
We hear about gas bubbling up through the Condamine River, near Chinchilla in Queensland, we question Australia's involvement in carbon offset forestry programs in Indonesia, and discuss the Federal Government's cuts to green building incentives
We look at the health effects of living near an aluminium plant, electronic waste, and the latest, surprising update for coal seam gas in inner Sydney.
Last week we looked at the defamation case Lynas Corporation has brought against local community groups in Malaysia, who are campaigning against their planned rare earths refinery in Kuantan. This week we look at how the raw earth concentrated will be transported to Malaysia. Also, Alkane Resources is planning a rare earths mine in Dubbo. And we look at open cut coal mining at Boggabri.
Orica’s troubled Kooragang Island plant is closed for maintenance, and with nowhere to store 3000 tonnes of explosive ammonium nitrate - Orica boarded it onto a cargo ship and sent it out to sea. And in Malaysia, Australian mining company Lynas Corp planning to operate a controversial rare earths processing plant in Kuantan, is suing a local campaign group and an alternative news website for defamation. And unlike Australian law, Malaysian law has no cap on damages that can be awarded for defamation.
The Federal Court gives the go ahead for the expansion of the Olympic Dam uranium mine in South Australia. Kevin Buzzacott, Arabunna elder from Lake Eyre, was taking on BHP Billiton, the State of South Australia, and the Federal Environment Minister. And in Argentina the Government has renationalised one of the countries largest oil companies. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has taken back the country’s largest oil company, seizing a controlling share from Spanish Repsol.
There were delays in notifying workers of asbestos at the Barangaroo site in Inner Sydney, and hazardous chemicals found on the Pacific Highway during upgrade works. The latest draft for the Murray Darling Basin Plan is hotly contested by the South Australian Government, Environment groups and scientists saying it's not 'best science', and has attracted calls that it flouts Aboriginal Sovereignty over the water.
A look at industrial pollution, environmental regulations and communities affected by contamination. Mining companies are dumping waste tailings into oceans and rivers, the NSW EPA is overhauled, and we hear about the Newcastle community affected by the Orica spills.
The Radioactive Waste Management Act has passed in the Federal Senate, with support from both the ALP and the Coalition. This new legislation paves the way for the Government to unilaterally name a nuclear waste dump site, widely expected to be at the remote Indigenous community of Muckaty Station, near Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. We also look at Environmental Crime.
Canadian miners Nautilus minerals has won approval from the PNG government to embark on a large commercial project more than a thousand metres underwater – mining mineral deposits around hydrothermal sulphur vents on the sea floor. The Solwara-1 project is the first commercial operation of its kind.
