Snowden condemns Britain’s new surveillance bill

 

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Published time: 5 Nov, 2015 15:18

 

Former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. © Vincent Kessler / Reuters

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has voiced his opposition to the Investigatory Powers Bill, which was unveiled Wednesday by the British government, saying ministers are “taking notes on how to defend the indefensible.”

 

 

His remarks come as Home Secretary Theresa May has admitted that UK spy agencies MI5, MI6 and GCHQ secretly collected communications data for decades to protect “national security.”

Snowden, who sought asylum in Russia after leaking top-secret documents about American and British mass surveillance techniques, posted a series of tweets condemning the new bill.

He said the powers given to security agencies in the bill amounted to access to “the activity log of your life.”

May announced on Wednesday that internet companies would be required to store a record of every website accessed by users for a year. The new bill also targets encrypted messaging services, such as WhatsApp and iMessenger, which allow users to evade hackers and data collection.

Edward Snowden

 

✔ @Snowden

It's not about something to hide, it's about something to lose.

10:17 AM - 4 Nov 2015

 

 

Snowden expressed his opposition to the bill, which was created in the wake of his revelations.



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Heatwaves could prove fatal for flora and fauna too – top up ponds and put out water and food in the garden

Naturalists urge British public to help wildlife survive the hot weather

• Natalie Starkey and Shiona Tregaskis
• The Guardian, Friday 19 July 2013 08.59 EDT

The plantation pond drying up at RSPB reserve, The Lodge in Sandy, Bedford. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

While many of us are enjoying the heatwave, naturalists have urged the British public to help wildlife struggling to survive as water and food supplies have dwindled in the heat.
After six consecutive days of 30C-plus temperatures and with rainfall at only around 15% of average monthly totals so far, wardens at The Lodge in Sandy, an RSPB nature reserve in Bedfordshire, are working to keep their animals, insects, pondlife and trees well hydrated.
Richard James, wildlife adviser for the RSPB at The Lodge reserve said ponds need to be constantly topped up, otherwise species such as natterjack toads will leave the water before they're fully developed.  Gull chick taking a splash! Heatwaves and hot weather are affecting local wildlife too. Video: JennyBrighton via GuardianWitness 






All flora and fauna, from bumblebees to bats, need water to stay alive, but some species are finding the heat more difficult than others. For example, house sparrows – who tend not to venture far from their nests – require a source of water nearby.
Conservationists suggest putting out a plate of water in the garden or balcony and filling up ponds. However water straight from the tap contains organic concentrates which can be toxic to certain animals, James said. Water left to stand for a day in a bucket is ideal.
Like humans, birds and animals need to keep their body temperature below lethal temperatures and most do so by panting. At high temperatures, they can rapidly become dehydrated and can die within a matter of hours.
Staff at a nature reserve in Kent this week even witnessed a chaffinch drop dead in front of them. Tim Webb from the RSPB said that although it was rare to witness birds dying from the heat, large numbers will have perished. "Most birds will die hidden in thick shrubbery so it's very unusual to see a chaffinch collapse like that outside the shop. But this bird was one of hundreds, if not thousands, that won't have made it through the heatwave."


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UK stops all smart meter installations

Smart Meters - Commons Select Committee Meeting (Clip 1 of 6)

SSITAorgUK·

Published on May 3, 2013

 

This video series shows the Commons Select Committee enquiry into the UK Smart Meter roll-out held on Tuesday 23rd April 2013. Witnesses appearing to give evidence to the Committee in the first session include Dr Elizabeth Evans and Mike Mitcham from Stop Smart Meters! (UK), alongside Dr Jill Meara, representing Public Health England, and Dr John Swanson, from the Biological Effects Policy Advisory Group for the Institute of Engineering and Technology.

The representatives from Stop Smart Meters! (UK) share their concerns about adverse health effects from wireless smart meters due to the pulsed microwave radiation that is emitted 24/7 by these meters, up to 190,000 pulses a day - acute effects (insomnia, headaches, nausea, anxiety and depression, fatigue and memory/concentration problems) and chronic effects (including increased risk of cancer, infertility, dementia, immune system dysfunction, damage to fetuses); environmental damage from wireless smart meters - RF radiation affecting bees, plants, trees, birds etc and the inherent energy-inefficiency of wireless technology: cybersecurity problems - leaving homes and communities vulnerable to hacking of their smart meters; privacy issues - concerning the masses of real-time data on energy usage collected by the utility company which gives a detailed picture of family life inside a home with a smart meter, who will have access to that data, and how that data will be used; and the specter of higher bills resulting from smart meters - as has been the experience in Canada where 80% of Smart Meter users complain of higher bills within a year of installation, often more that 50% higher. Stop Smart Meters! (UK) http://stopsmartmeters.org.uk/

GM food off the menu in Parliament's restaurants despite ministers telling the public to drop their opposition

• Genetically modified food banned from Houses of Parliament

• Environment Secretary Owen Paterson launched pro-GM campaign

By Sean Poulter
PUBLISHED: 10:22 EST, 21 June 2013 | UPDATED: 10:25 EST, 21 June 2013

GM foods are banned from restaurants in the Houses of Parliament despite government claims it is ‘probably safer’ than other meals.
Government ministers are demanding that ordinary families should abandon their reluctance to eat genetically modified food, however they are banned from MPs’ plates.
This week the food and farming secretary, Owen Paterson, launched an extraordinary propaganda campaign to encourage the nation to accept GM crops and farming.

Menu: Genetically modified food is banned in the Houses of Parliament, despite ministers insisting it is safe

He bolstered his campaign with claims that some seven million children in the Far East could have been saved from blindness or  death in the last 15 years if only people had opened the door to a new form of GM ‘Golden Rice’.
However, his efforts were unravelling today amid evidence that GM food is banned from the dinner tables of MPs, while his claims for the GM rice proved to be bogus.
The House of Commons Catering service today confirmed that the ban on GM ingredients which dates back to 1998 remains in place as a matter of ‘customer choice’.
It said: ‘In line with its procurement policy, the House of Commons Catering Service avoids, wherever identifiable, the procurement of foods that contain genetically modified organisms.  

Speech: Environment Secretary Owen Paterson this week urged Brits to eat GM

‘To this end, as part of the tendering process, food suppliers are required to work to a strict GM organisms policy and give assurances that goods supplied be free from genetically modified materials.’
It added: ‘The decision to avoid GMs is seen as largely a matter of customer choice.’
Mr Paterson has set himself up as the chief cheerleader for so-called Frankenstein Foods, however it appears that he has been unable to convince fellow MPs to accept them in their restaurants.
As a result, the minister and fellow MPs leave themselves open to accusations of hypocrisy and complaints that they are telling people to ‘do as I say, not as I do’.
Speaking earlier this week, Mr Paterson said: ‘The use of more precise technology and greater regulatory scrutiny probably makes GM organisms even safer than conventional plants and food.
‘There is no substantiated case of any adverse impact on human health…An enormous amount of material has been eaten, not a single case has been brought to my attention.’
Mr Paterson’s most powerful argument for accepting GM was the development of Golden Rice, which has been genetically modified to boost levels of beta carotene and Vitamin A, which can protect eyesight.
In an extraordinary statement, he said: ‘Over the last 15 years, despite offering the seeds for free to those who would need them, every attempt to deploy this golden rice has been thwarted.
‘In that time seven million children have gone blind or died.’


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Nuclear firm Sellafield has been fined £700,000 and ordered to pay more than £72,000 costs for sending bags of radioactive waste to a landfill site.

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Sellafield fined for sending radioactive waste to landfill

Published on the 15 June
2013

The error was attributed to failures in leadership and management at the site.
The bags, which contained waste such as plastic, tissues and clothing, should have been sent to a specialist facility that treats and stores low-level radioactive waste. But instead a number of mistakes led to them being sent to Lillyhall landfill site which deals with conventional waste in Workington, Cumbria.
This breached the conditions of Sellafield’s environmental permit and the Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Use of Transportable Pressure Equipment Regulations.
At Carlisle Crown Court the firm was fined £700,000 and ordered to pay an additional £72,635.34 costs.
Sellafield found the error was caused by the wrong configuration of a new monitor which passed the bags as “general” waste, making them exempt from strict disposal controls.
The Environment Agency and the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) carried out an investigation and the bags were retrieved from the landfill and returned to Sellafield.
They were then disposed of correctly.


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Related articles

• Sellafield bosses play down near catastrophe (morningstaronline.co.uk)
• United Kingdom: Radioactive materials lost in more than 30 incidents over past decade (guardian.co.uk)
• UK watchdog admits losing nuclear materials dozens of times (rawstory.com)

Bradwell-on-Sea identified as potential site to dump radioactive waste

Bradwell Power Station

Aerial view of the power station.

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Nuclear Decommissioning Authority proposes use of Essex site to store intermediate level waste until 2040

• Terry Macalister
• The Guardian, Sunday 16 June 2013 15.25 EDT

The nuclear power station in Bradwell-on-Sea closed in 2002 and is being decommissioned. Photograph: Steve Morgan/Alamy

When it comes to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, the only way is Essex. Bradwell-on-Sea has been identified as a possible site to dump radioactive waste.
"Everybody was aghast when a local representative from the NDA stated that the possibility was being looked into," Brian Beale, a district councillor for Maldon, told the Essex Chronicle. "To say this could happen when it had always been understood that Bradwell was not intended to be a site for waste, created uproar."
Nuclear materials are already being stored at Bradwell, a former nuclear power station that closed in 2002 and is being decommissioned. The operating company, Magnox Electric, was fined £250,000 in 2009 for presiding over a radioactive leak that had gone undetected for 14 years.


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Related articles

• Sizewell A: New nuclear waste store could be set for decommissioned site (eadt.co.uk)
• Sizewell: Defuelling reaches half way stage at nuclear site (eadt.co.uk)
• UK government's big gamble in subsidising new nuclear power (nuclear-news.net)
• Radioactive waste dumping into the world's oceans (nuclear-news.net)