Post by grater on Nov 27, 2010 7:35:27 GMT 10
After all of the problems created for the present day by the old anti-nuclear warriors of last century, some are having a change of mind. Or maybe they just dont' want those ugly, noisey wind turbines in their own backyard.
JOHN Coombs, the former maritime union heavyweight who refused to let radioactive waste cross the nation's docks, has experienced a change of heart.
He reckons it's time Australia went nuclear. And that's the message he wants to send to the man who stood beside him during the waterfront dispute - former ACTU secretary, now Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet.
His conversion is part of a new world of climate change politics, in which unlikely alliances are being formed and long-held positions being revised.
Mr Coombs, long retired as national secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia, now finds himself in the same camp as ABC chairman and former Australian Securities Exchange chair Maurice Newman.
Both own property at Crookwell on the NSW southern tablelands, a couple of hours southwest of Sydney. And both have serious doubts about the wisdom of a planned explosion of wind-power developments in the area. "There is a view that wind power will turn out to be for electricity generation what the Zeppelin was for air transportation," Mr Newman said. "It looked promising but was not the answer."
[Full story: www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/waterfront-warrior-john-coombs-sails-against-wind/story-fn59niix-1225961755944 ]
JOHN Coombs, the former maritime union heavyweight who refused to let radioactive waste cross the nation's docks, has experienced a change of heart.
He reckons it's time Australia went nuclear. And that's the message he wants to send to the man who stood beside him during the waterfront dispute - former ACTU secretary, now Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet.
His conversion is part of a new world of climate change politics, in which unlikely alliances are being formed and long-held positions being revised.
Mr Coombs, long retired as national secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia, now finds himself in the same camp as ABC chairman and former Australian Securities Exchange chair Maurice Newman.
Both own property at Crookwell on the NSW southern tablelands, a couple of hours southwest of Sydney. And both have serious doubts about the wisdom of a planned explosion of wind-power developments in the area. "There is a view that wind power will turn out to be for electricity generation what the Zeppelin was for air transportation," Mr Newman said. "It looked promising but was not the answer."
[Full story: www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/waterfront-warrior-john-coombs-sails-against-wind/story-fn59niix-1225961755944 ]