Rich deposit brings Australians rich responsibilities

Australians were recently warned that in having one of the world’s richest deposits of uranium meant we also had equally rich responsibilities.

Prof Robin Batterham

Our former chief scientist, Professor Robin Batterham, now with the University of Melbourne’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, reminded us of that challenge while summarizing a panel discussion entitled: “Fukushima: The Facts and the Fallout”.

The Japanese nuclear power plant was irreparably damaged in Japan’s earthquake and tsunami early in March this year and late last week the situation at Fukushima was upgraded to a level equivalent with damage at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986.

With about 30 per cent of the world’s uranium, Prof Batterham said all Australians needed to take an active interest into whom the ore was sold and, subsequently, the intended use of that same uranium.
Although the uranium, coal, gas, or what little there is of oil, leaves our shores it is still, in a disconnected but serious sense, Prof Batterham said, our responsibility.
The ultimate use, or misuse, of that uranium, coal or gas is critical as the residues of its application can come back through our water, food supplies or the atmosphere to damage our health.
Of course there is the further complication in that whatever finite resource it is we are exploiting, we are using another irreplaceable resource to recover it.
Considered in isolation, uranium power may well be emission free, but the reality is that it is not as massive amounts of fossil fuel is needed to mine, transport and finally safely store the waste and, importantly, build the power station itself.
Gross energy costs, and the resultant damage to our atmosphere, might be less than coal, but the costs are more than society should be prepared to pay.
Arguments that liquefied natural gas (LNG) should be excluded from Australia’s proposed carbon tax have been raised by the Australian-owned oil and gas producer, Woodside.
The company’s claims LNG will help deliver a "better world" and so should be excluded from the carbon tax.
At 16, I worked in Bass Strait with an oil survey company and fellow who understood the implications of our work urged me to buy shares in the then fledgling Woodside company.
Knowing nothing of the share market, I didn’t, but I should have taken his advice as those shares that then cost about five cents are closing on $50.
With our blessing, Woodside have plundered our resources for decades and it is time they paid some tax.
True, gas is less polluting, but recovering and distributing it is energy intensive and in gross terms is a massive contributor to our nation’s carbon dioxide emissions.
The broader welfare of our world should not be sacrificed to the short-term profits of one corporation.
(April 13, 2011)

Confusion over traffic lights raises many questions

The inability of many adults to understand the sequential operation of traffic lights leaves me wondering.

Traffic lights, or rather in this
 instance, a traffic clock,
 should be a welcome
 intrusion to our lives.

Those same people are, I assume, literate and numerate, intelligent and allowed to vote for our government, and so are intimately involved with our civil society.
However, despite their engagement with society, an everyday occurrence, such as the fundamentals of traffic lights, seems to escape their capacities.
Some would argue that such matters are trivial and so in the greater scheme of things unimportant; I see it differently.
Each of us, whether we like it or not, has a responsibility to have an understanding of society’s infrastructure and although dealing with traffic lights might appear near the bottom of the hierarchy, having a grasp of their operation reflects a person’s mindful role in their community.
Our communities urgently need thoughtful people who care about what it is that underpins our society and an aware appreciation of something that appears as basic as traffic lights suggests that same person would have an intelligent opinion about more abstract matters such as equality, fairness, justice and decency.
Traffic lights are relatively simple things, but they introduce us to complex human traits such as respect and giving the other person a fair go and, critically, patience; something on which all the good things in life hinge.
Looked at from afar, a traffic light is just that, but looked at somewhat more closely it becomes something of a metaphor, at least for the modern life it symbolises.
Traffic lights are about control and within that offer us a structure for living in an ordered manner, ensuring that we cause no harm to others, or ourselves.
Obedience is prominent in the proper use of traffic lights and considered in that metaphorical sense decent societal behaviour is about doing no harm, something of which all of us are guilty just by being alive and living in modern society.
However, it is dangerous to deconstruct life so much and instead we should see traffic lights as a pointer urging respect, patience, sharing and, beyond that, a red light should be a welcome intrusion, demanding we slow down.
(April 13, 2011)