Monday, July 26, 2010

Carrots come in purple?!


Yep, it would appear so! I know these guys are a bit paltry, but I'm still at the point where I'm pretty pleased to be able to produce anything at all! Current culinary stylings at our house are along the lines of '100 ways with carrot'. Can recommend grating a carrot up to make a salad with lemon juice, olive oil, vinegar and salt and pepper (this recipe comes courtesy of a Swiss friend).

And now for something entirely different....Its been ages since my last post. This is probably a bit to do with the fact that The Booba has been going through a little bit of a 'challenging phase'(read: he's being a little toerag) so when he's not been needing immediate attention (when he's asleep) I've pretty much just been collapsing in a heap and zoning out infront of Masterchef. Excuses aside, despite the maternal angst I have had some pretty major bees in my bonnet lately that I've really been wanting to share with you all.....

Uranium mining in W.A.! I was aghast to discover relatively recently that since our illustrious State Government lifted the moratorium on uranium mining in this state at the end of 2008 several major mining companies have basically been champing at the bit to get started. There are several projects due to start operations in the next few years. Why is this so scary?..

* Uranium mining produces large quantities of radioactive waste. There is at present no satisfactory system for disposing of it safely. The government regulations for how this should be managed are depressingly scant.
* The statistics for rates of cancer in workers in uranium mines are frightening. And there is currently no national register keeping track of how much radiation these workers have been exposed to.
* Despite popular belief many people do actually live in the outback of W.A. Why should they and their kids be getting irradiated?
* Uranium mining consumes vast quantities of water
* The products of uranium mining get used to make nuclear weapons. Not cool.

While no uranium mine is yet operational in W.A. theres still time to do something about it. For more information and to get involved check out www.anawa.org.au.

1 comment:

  1. Couple of things:

    1. Try the Polish version of grated carrot salad: grated carrot, crushed garlic to taste, mayonnaise to bind. Delicious!

    2. Do you have any statistics for the proportion of uranium that is used for various products? I'd be curious what volume goes towards radiopharmaceutical production (not that I imagine it's the majority).

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