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Sunday, 25 October 2009

Mass Protest against radioactive shipwrecks

Il Manifesto 25 October 2009 Tonino Perna.

The Revolt of the population of Calabria http://www.ilmanifesto.it/archivi/commento/anno/2009/mese/10/articolo/1698/

ON SATURDAY THERE WILL BE A MASS PROTEST AT AMANTEA IN CALABRIA, SOUTHERN ITALY, AGAINST THE MAFIA.

Over the last few days the Quotidiano della Calabria has collected more than thirty thousand signatures in protest against the inertia of the government. The protestors want the government to clean up the seabed around Cetraro, Vibo and Capo Bruzzano, where they know that there are shipwrecks with cargoes of toxic and radioactive waste. They are also demanding that proper research be carried out to find the other shipwrecks with toxic and radioactive cargoes in their holds.

Trades Unions from Alto Tirreno, Calabria have gone to Rome to protest. Hundreds of Trades Unionists from all over Calabria will go to Amantea to take part in the mass protest. There has never been such an angry rebellion in Calabria.

Neither the seven hundred people killed by the ‘ndrangheta in 1985 and in 1992, nor the hundreds of kidnappings that have affected many local professionals, nor the tens of scandals that have involved most of the Calabrian politicians have caused such an angry reaction from the people of Calabria. Not even the Fortugno murder, which resulted in the movement of young people “now kill us all”, succeeded in involving all the people of Calabria.

Whoever transported these tens of ships with cargoes of toxic and radioactive waste, has produced an ecological disaster that looks as if the consequences for the food chain could be as bad as Cernobil. ‘Ndrangheta got involved in this and they look really bad now, but they were only the workmen for a vast criminal organisation.

The real people responsible are the multinationals, the managers of nuclear power stations, important people in Government and secret services. The network of people involved goes way beyond what we can imagine.
Powerful people from many countries, including Colombia, Mexico, Russia are involved in this.

Experts such as Umberto Santino and the attorney for the Republic of Italy, Piero Grasso, have been talking about “borghesia mafiosa” rather than mafia, camorra and ‘ndragheta.

This is the first time there has been an conflict with the mafia, who are doing everything they can to cover up, to block the investigation, stop the inquest, prevent any more shipwrecks being found. It is an unequal fight.

But this time, you can be sure that the people of Calabria will not run away and hide in the mountains.

This is not just a local problem. This is a national and international problem that must be resolved because the sea cannot be contained within national borders.

Posted by Angela Paine at 04:23 0 comments Links to this post

Nuclear New Build is not compatible with a real Renewable Energy Policy

The UK government has set aside money to subsidize nuclear new build. This money is not available for research and development into renewable energy projects, which is why we in Britain have less renewable energy than many other European countries, although we have the best renewable energy resources. The nuclear corporations also put pressure on our government to prevent them introducing proper feed-in tariffs, which would make small scale renewables much more attractive to individual home owners. Germany, which is not going to have any new nuclear power stations, has a policy of paying feed-in tariffs at four times the rate that people pay when they buy electricity. This has resulted in a huge increase in micro-generation projects. You cannot have nuclear power and a proper well-funded renewable energy programme. The two things are not compatible. Angela

Infant Leukemias near all German Nuclear Power Stations is not an Example of Bad Science

John Mclevy (letters Dec 24) alleges that the German study on infant leukemias near all German power stations is an example of bad science being used for political purposes. However he fails to back this claim with any evidence from the study itself. It is doubtful whether he has read the study.

In fact, the German study is extremely robust: it was commissioned by the German Government and carried out by a expert team of epidemiologists at the University of Mainz. These scientists actually supported nuclear power, so there was no "political purpose" as he falsely alleges. The reality is that the German study is thoroughly competent and its findings are scientifically valid, as vouchsafed by the German Government itself.

Contrary to Mclevy's view, the study is not bad science, but very good science. The problem is that its findings are, in the words of Al Gore, "An Inconvenient Truth" for Mclevy and his pro-nuclear bias.

Faced with this incontrovertible evidence of infant leukemias near nuclear reactors, what should we do? Should we, as the cigarette companies did for decades, seek to distort, deny, and smear the clear evidence of increased cancers, as Mclevy seems to do? Or should we seek safer healthier alternatives to generate electricity?

Mclevy states that he supports nuclear as "we need to stop burning carbon". But does he consider the huge amounts of carbon released during the nuclear fuel cycle, especially by uranium mining, uranium milling, and uranium fuel enrichment?

Renewable energy and energy efficiency measures are a better future for us, not the old-fashioned dangerous WW II technology of nuclear power.



Reg Illingworth