Japan
Companies expand and companies contract. That’s capitalism, and it’s hard to get too angry at Toyota’s decision to sack 350 workers given the high Aussie dollar which makes it incredibly tough to sell Aussie-made cars overseas, and especially compared to the greedy banks, who dispense with families’ livelihoods in order to make huge profits even bigger.
That said, there were several ugly things about the sacking of 350 workers from Toyota’s Altona plant this week.
One was the officious way Toyota did the deed, humiliating long-serving workers with heavy-handed security guards which union leaders likened to “Nazis”. Then there was Tony Abbott, who showed zero sympathy to the workers or their families by harnessing the moment as a platform to say how the auto industry would be even worse off under the “caaaaarbon tax”.
Continue reading "Aussie workers forced to turn Japanese, I really think so" »
Nothing makes me yearn for a whale steak like the sight of Aussie extremists acting all macho on the high seas.
Japanese whaling is roundly condemned by Australians (including me, for the record) but we don’t have much truck with feral activists either.
So when three Forest Rescue campaigners were detained after boarding a Japanese whaling vessel off the WA coast last weekend (with nary a tree or a whale in sight) you could well imagine the collective roll of the eyes in households across middle Australia.
Continue reading "Mmmm whale steak. Sweet, sweet whale steak" »
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peter says:
When your friends are being slaughtered you act, when any ship acts against your interests you act, the australian government had a term ships of shame and as a whaling venture they certainly to a lot of australians come under this term. Citizens arrest is legal and as a large… Read more »
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MasterMariner says:
What would be the point of raising this issue again and again with the International Whaling Commission? The IWC has proven to be a ‘toothless tiger’ and is corrupted by pro-whaling nations garnishing votes by offering aid money to small impoverished countries, many of which have no historical or current… Read more »
What happened
An earthquake. A tsunami. A nuclear meltdown.
Just one would’ve been devastating. But we’ve seen few catastrophes quite like this troika in human history.
A 9.0 magnitude earthquake. A tsunami that was more than a dozen metres tall in some areas. A huge radiation cloud. More than 15,000 people killed. A first world country crushed.
Continue reading "Biggest moments of 2011 #4 A Japanese catastrophe" »
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bob says:
Everytime an online debate over the viability and safety of a nuclear power industry in Australia appears, i can’t help but think that “we don’t think we are competent enough to run an industry safely” excluding Lucas Heights of course. Yet other countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and our… Read more »
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Daniel Piotrowski says:
Nope, you’ve blown that out of proportion and completely ignored everything I just said. If you think the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times are nonsense, then you’re just perpetuating nonsense. Yes, I’m an “alarmist” and a “nuclear extremis"t for saying that nuclear power is dangerous and needs… Read more »
Author Craig Shirley announced with some fanfare in The Australian that the United States had “no intelligence of a potential Japanese attack.”
Tell us something we don’t know.
Writing all the way back in 1962, Roberta Wohlstetter made clear that the United States “failed to anticipate [the] Pearl Harbor [attack] not for want of the relevant materials, but because of a plethora of irrelevant issues.”
Continue reading "Pearl Harbor attack highlights lack of intelligence" »
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Greg says:
St. Michael, the “wall of text” is in reality some basic facts to support my argument. I can’t help it if you are feeling overwhelmed by the amount of evidence that I have provided. I am not avoiding any aspects of the discussion either, even though the topic of discussion… Read more »
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Greg says:
marley, I never said that the Sudetenland was part of Germany or that it was taken from Germany after WW1. You are just making that up, or imagining it. Go read what I actually wrote. It’s still there. And German speaking people had been living in the region since at… Read more »
Sixty-six years ago today the face of civilization was changed forever, when a nuclear bomb almost incinerated the Japanese city of Hiroshima, instantly killing tens of thousands of people.
By the end of the decade that bomb – and another bomb dropped on nearby Nagasaki – had claimed the lives of half a million people.
This year on Hiroshima Day, 6 August 2011, Australian Red Cross begins a campaign to re-ignite the push for a ban on the use of nuclear weapons – calling on young Australians from all walks of life to finish what their parents started.
Continue reading "Australia should lead a global nuclear weapons ban" »
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Mum of two says:
Nukes are stopping another world war., thought that was obvious. No one wants to be the first to launch one again, I’m happy they are around to keep the peace. Read more »
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Occam's Blunt Razor says:
Australia should have it’s own Nuclear Industry. We should be the Saudia Arabia of Nuclear with a mine site to waste disposal. Our Universities would be world leadrs in Nuclear science and associated scientific endeavours such as high end theoretical physics. As a part of this we should develop a… Read more »
Shame and humiliation are now par for the course. Privacy and decency are on their way out. But let’s get one thing straight - kissing is just not made for the internet.
A great kiss is impossible to transcend. Its magic lies in the moment; the timing, your surroundings and the person with whom you’re sharing it. Their touch, the sound of their voice and most importantly, their smell.
Without these things, a kiss is just all in your mind, right?
Continue reading "Cyberpashing? Dear internet, no. Leave love alone." »
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Valerie Woodruffe says:
Cyberpashing can’t hold a candle to Cybersex Read more »
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BK says:
What about a way to give virtual bitch slaps to certain Punch posters? Read more »
One steamy night in February 1974, I went with friends to hear the great blues guitarist B.B. King in concert at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion.
All went well until, an hour or so in, King collapsed on stage and had to be carried off. I left the Hordern in search of a phone box.
The first one was broken. Finding one that worked, I stuffed some money in, rang one of the copy-takers at ABC News and dictated five lines of copy.
Continue reading "A journalist kicking it old school on Twitter" »
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Harquebus says:
Peak oil Mark. You must be real proud that your generation of journalists has conned us to this point in time. Now, billions are going to starve and your profession has let it happen. Thanks. Read more »
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ZSRenn says:
Xingjian is populated by the ethnic minority Uyghur (wee-ger) people who are Muslim. The language they use is actually a Turkic language. It is Perso-Arabic in the style. I used Arabic as it best describes what the language looks like when written as opposed to Chinese. A Uyghur minority member… Read more »
The after effects of the quake and tsunamis in Japan will cause clear and on-going pain and suffering for years, while the risks from the damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors look to be subsiding - see here for the latest updates. Meanwhile, Geoff Russell argues that any and all risks need to be put in perspective.
Residents living in the vicinity of the Fukushima nuclear plant face some considerable cancer risks during coming decades. They will come primarily from cigarettes, red meat, alcohol and salty foods. These should hardly be called risks, since each will definitely cause tens of thousands of new cancer cases every single year throughout Japan.
An additional possibility, a potential risk, hardly visible in comparison, may come from radiation as a result of the quake and tsunami damage at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Continue reading "Cancer deaths in Japan will be from alcohol and ciggies" »
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While Japan 2011 will be remembered for the tragic earthquake and tsunami that swept a destructive path through coastal communities, it will also go down in history as a date with destiny on the nuclear energy debate following the fallout from the Fukushima reactor emergency.
Fears surrounding the ongoing crisis at the Japanese nuclear plant have seen it described as the “New Chernobyl”.
The immediate scale of the disaster may not be as dire as Chernobyl but, like the Ukrainian accident, its potential to set back for years the proliferation of nuclear energy as an alternative to carbon-based sources of power is equally as significant.
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Ashley says:
Radiation is scary ... maybe this will put it into perspective: http://xkcd.com/radiation/ Read more »
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Paul says:
So many of you people are so backward looking and still stuck in the 20th century idea of nuclear energy generation. The Japanese are smart people. They are already looking beyond nuclear energy systems to a space-based solar energy future by 2030. It’s real. And it’s going to happen: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=farming-solar-energy-in-space… Read more »
The Punch put some questions to one of the nation’s nuclear experts - Dr Gerald Laurence. Dr Laurence is a Radiation Safety Adviser and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Adelaide’s School of Chemistry and Physics.
Q) How scared should people in Japan be about the nuclear situation?
A) Not a great deal – the 20-year total of deaths from Chernobyl (from the UN 20-year report) suggests that the radiation related deaths are of the order of a few thousand at most; of the thyroid cancers, mostly in the young 99 per cent were treated & cured (note all the data in the report are strongly disputed by environmental and progessive groups who claim that WHO & IAEA are under the influence of the nuclear industrial complex).
In Japan so far it is spent fuel rods that were removed from the core in November, so iodine-131 (which has an eight-day half life) is not a major risk. The most serious fission product that will be released will be caesium-137 with a 30-year half life.
The possibility of food (rice, milk, etc.) being contaminated because of contaminated fields is real, but public health measures (testing and so on) should mean such produce should not reach the public. Local contamination (houses, towns) will clear at rates dependent on the weather (dissolved in rain, etc.). Local weather also disperses & dilutes the plume (and I assume the Japan Met Bureau can model this very well).
Continue reading "Punch Q & A on Japan and the nuclear disaster" »
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Jason Todd says:
Let’s talk about risk vs reward again. If countries like Indonesia are building nuclear, it is because the reward of having a plant outweighs the level of risk. Indonesia may be seismically active, it may have engineering dramas, but obviously if they are building the plants they need the power. … Read more »
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Paul says:
@Anthony “Not quite sure where you got centuries from, the technology has only been around for half a one…” Anthony your logic is faulty. The fact that nuclear power generation has only been around for half a century does not somehow magically change the half-lives of radioactive materials. Chernobyl was… Read more »
The crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station has been unfolding for about a week. The on-site situation remains extremely serious, with glimmers of hope being shrouded by a shadow of deep uncertainty.
If you’ve not been following the situation on BraveNewClimate, please visit the site, which contains assumed knowledge for understanding the rest of this post.
As predicted, attention over the last couple of days has focused on the critical situation with the ponds used for temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel at the individual reactor units, before it is moved to a centralised facility on site. Although this old fuel has lost much of its original radioactivity, the decline is exponential, which means that thermal energy must continue to be dissipated for months.
Continue reading "Fukushima: Situation critical, information scarce" »
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Dan Cass says:
C’mon nuke boys. Nuclear power was never going to power the world and its public enemy number one now. Stop wasting time on a dead issue and be constructive - support renewables and save the climate. Read more »
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marley says:
Sorry Gregg, but you’re wrong. Chernobyl had no containment chamber. When the pressure vessel blew, that was pretty much it. Read more »
Some parts of the environmental movement will be quietly high-fiving each other this week, as the nuclear industry’s progress over the past decade looks certain to take a massive step backwards.
They have been quick to proclaim ``I told you so’’ and make the fallacious analogy that the incidents in Japan mean that Australia and indeed all other countries should not consider nuclear as part of the energy mix.
Incidents which, it should be kept in mind, involved an unprecedently large earthquake and decades-old technology.
Continue reading "Nuclear still part of a viable energy mix" »
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Sharon H says:
Where are we today? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSkoqRV_YRU&feature=related . Read more »
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Doh says:
Your search fu is weak, but then again leftists never like to do their own work. Just this once I will do your work for you: http://www.gabberface.com/index.php?search=japan+whales http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/11/some-respond-to-japan-earthquake-by-pointing-to-global-warming/#ixzz1GLXG8DyR http://www.grist.org/article/2011-03-11-todays-tsunami-this-is-what-climate-change-looks-like/ Some late attempts to diffuse, but the true colours came out first for all to see. Shameful. Read more »
It’s time that Mr. Rudd learned some manners.
Imagine, for a moment, that your house has caught fire. Imagine that some of your family members are still inside the house.
You are doing everything within your power to get them out, and to safety. At the same time, you know that some of your family members have already died.
Continue reading "Rudd’s demand for ‘urgent briefings’ downright rude" »
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catherine says:
Slightly insulting, not worded sympathetically, but sadly mostly true, at least in regard to our leaders. Gillard makes me shudder with mortification every time she opens her mouth. Rudd was a grossly incompetent leader but at least he had some degree of integrity. Gillard lies through her teeth at every… Read more »
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Jugg says:
What do you know MarK, The situation deteriorates, it’s worse than reported or first understood. Of course, we and the 11,000 Australians in the country, aren’t entitled to know this information. It could cause their deaths, but they aren’t entitled to know this. Read more »
If you’re a science or nuclear energy buff, you’ll have to excuse us for starting pretty much at the bottom of the knowledge tree here. First of all, let’s define a meltdown: basically it’s when the core of a nuclear reactor is unable to cool, because of some kind of system failure like, oh, a 10 metre wall of sea water crashing into a nuclear power plant. Radiation can then be released, and that’s when things get really dangerous. So is it happening in Japan? Latest reports say no, not yet and hopefully not at all.
Click this link for an incredible series of graphics on the internal workings of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, pictured above. This really is some amazing work the New York Times has done at short notice. There’s another really helpful infographic here:
Despite what appears to be an easing - or at least a temporary containment - of the threat of a major radiation leak, let’s dwell briefly on the worst case scenario. Could we be facing another Three Mile Island or Chernobyl? The answer, according to the Science Media Centre of Japan, is almost certainly no. Read a full Q&A at the SMCJ website here. Highly informative, yet accessible, material. Well done them.
Continue reading "A busy person’s guide to Japan’s nuclear threat" »
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Mel says:
I am most curious about the thorium reactors that have been mentioned a few times on ABC 24, but so far not too much mention on other tv stations. Sounds like it could be a goer - without cooling needs, and without the production of materials for nuclear weapons production. Read more »
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skepdad says:
@alcotrel: it is my understanding that a comprehensive risk analysis was done, but with Japan’s total lack of natural resources they had a choice of massive energy imports or nuke plants. Not hard to see how they arrived at the decision, and to be fair the plants have stood up… Read more »
It didn’t take long for the whackjobs and nutbags to start pushing their spiteful little barrows in the aftermath of the Japan earthquake and tsunami. In fact, it took them all of about two minutes.
The minute The Punch threw up an open thread for people to express sympathy, or share other information related to this unprecedented catastrophe, the snide, narky little comments started sneaking in. And it happened not just here but all over the internet, the twittersphere, and beyond. Sometimes, all this connectedness really is a curse.
Ludicrously, some hailed the event as evidence of climate change. Others thought they’d restart the age old religious debate on God, and the Problem of Evil. Others jumped headlong into the nuclear debate, like that couldn’t wait a day or two. One reader cheekily but tastelessly suggested the event was fair payback for Japanese whaling. Most astonishingly of all, some thought they’d harness the terrible moment to have their daily dig at Julia Gillard. Like this website hadn’t had 10 stories in the last week where people could vent on the PM.
Continue reading "Whackjob barrow-pushers make light of Japan’s tragedy" »
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Thommo says:
“The Punch exists for robust debate. We wouldn’t be here without it, and we never delete anyone’s comments, regardless of political leaning, as long as they don’t revert to name calling, really bad language or incitement to violence/hatred. We allowed the barrow pushers in the weekend thread and we’ll grit… Read more »
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Josephus says:
You mad, Shane? Read more »
The day after Japan suffered its largest ever earthquake and a subsequent, devastating tsunami, the number of deaths and extent of damage is still unclear. Up to 1000 people are feared dead, and there are concerns about radiation leaking from reactors. The Pacific remains on tsunami alert.
For full coverage including pictures and video, and live updates throughout the day. see news.com.au.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard this morning described it as a “terrible, terrible natural disaster” and said about 45 Australians were registered in the region.
Continue reading "Major disaster still unfolding in Japan" »
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thhe pieman says:
@ jag I find the whole scene over in Japan overpowering. In my case when these disasters happen as the always will; we should elect a govt that is finacially adept enough to have large reserves of money and food to be able to help out immediatley. I am most… Read more »
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paul says:
My wife and i have visited Japan on several occasions. A beautiful country with beautiful, friendly people. The earthquake and resultant tsunami have produced a tragedy of mammoth proportions. It is heart wrenching to see the loss of life. The Japanese are such resiliant people that they will bounce back… Read more »
General Douglas MacArthur orders Shinto to be abolished as the state religion of Japan today in 1945.
It’s Wednesday at The Punch. What’s on your mind?
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AnthonyG says:
Nosthow I apologize wholeheartedly for my last rant. I shouldn’t have put the words child molester in it i was only having a go jokingly about your looks and did a bad job of it Read more »
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MarK says:
Yep you are totally wrong confusing. Feel free to educate yourself and come back with the truth. Don’t hurry though. Wouldn’t want you to strain a muscle. Read more »
Japanese forces launched a suprise attack on an American naval base in Pearl Harbour today in 1941.
And it’s Tuesday at The Punch. What’s on your mind? Share it here.
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TheRealDave says:
I hit 82 and went to bed at 1:30am - how did you go?? late for work this morning…. Read more »
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BobbyDan says:
@ Reg, if you want to be pedantic about my spelling well Hello/Good bye to you. Ms. PM has not got the presentation skills of Parky or most of the Greeks I know. And she would stand out in my old location of RAAF Laverton and the Bowling Club @… Read more »
Australian Ambassador to Japan, Murray McLean OAM, caught up with Thom Woodroofe at APEC this week and discussed the prospect of him moving to be our man in Beijing, and the behaviour of the Chinese at Copenhagen last year .
Reports in the Australian Financial Review last weekend suggested that Murray McLean is on the shortlist to be our head diplomat in Beijing.
While the job has been advertised internally in DFAT, the mandarin speaking Ambassador humbly brushed off the suggestion he was being considered for the shift to China. He says he will go “wherever the government wants him to go” when his term expires “sometime in 2011”, but he may be asked to pack his bags for Beijing before then.
Ambassador McLean has been our main man in Tokyo for almost six years now, a lengthy appointment by any measure. But his CV oozes China.
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BobbyDan says:
MarK, consider your wave has been returned with a nod from me. You are good at arithmetic too, nice! Read more »
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MarK says:
When i checked back here there were 9 posts. I was mine leaving 8. 3 were addressed at em - and were being nasty. It made me sad. Actually it didn’t 2 were accusing Thom of being self serving and self important that leaves ummmm 8 - 3 - 2… Read more »
Tokugawa Yoshinobu, Japan’s last shogun was born today in 1837.
And it’s Thursday, so what’s on your mind? Share it here.
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How much do we really care about whales? How much are the Australian people and its Government really willing to put on the line in our relationship with Japan to stop the killing of our sonar speaking cousins?
Tony Abbott has gone some way to answering this question by saying he doesn’t think it’s worth taking Japan to the International Court of Justice or International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. In Abbott’s summation it’s just not worth pissing off the Japanese and risking a legal fall-out with our number one trade partner.
“We don’t like whaling. We would like the Japanese to stop,” he told Macquarie Radio yesterday. “On the other hand, we don’t want to needlessly antagonise our most important trading partner, a fellow democracy, an ally.”
Continue reading "How much do we actually care about whales?" »
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James says:
The real issue is that the Japanese are defying the IWC with bollocks about whaling for scientific reasons (in a whale sanctuary), I really don’t care whether they say it won’t lead to the extinction of the Minke whale, they shouldn’t be there in the first place. It is now… Read more »
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B S Goh says:
Thanks James. As I have said we ALL in fact share the common objective to SAVE each and everyone of the whale species. We differ on to achieve this common objective. The bigger and more important issue for us as a Nation from this whaling controversy is how the Government… Read more »
This week there is an amazing discussion going on in Tokyo between Chinese and Japanese companies, academics and Government representatives about how to cooperate in the area of new energy. It is part of the ‘PVJapan Solar Power/Photovoltaic 2009’ conference and trade show.
Both countries are realizing that the new kind of economy we need to cut greenhouse gases, is itself going to become an opportunity for jobs and development.
Japan’s PM Mr. Taro Aso raised the stakes back on June 9 when he said that solar power and electric cars are the foundation of Japan’s future economic growth and the way out of the financial crisis. He announced that by 2020 Japan’s new low-carbon sector will be a 50 trillion yen market ($AU650 billion), employing 1.4 million people.
Continue reading "Solar power puts China and Japan on top of the world" »
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Chris says:
Without subsidy and political patronage, solar PV will not cut it. Placing mini-power plants on the roof-tops of buildings sacrifices economies of scale - an advantage in big centralised power stations. What the German observer failed to admit is that subsidised solar panels are a politically defensible way to buy… Read more »
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