108 Environmental Policy and Law, 11 (1983)

Australia (New South Wales)

Hazardous Chemical Wastes According zo a Federal The Committee said some wastes should be required to

Patliamenlary Committee the Australian States were behaving as register them, whether stored' or Australian Governme. t should if these hazards did not exist. New disposed of; legi~lale to control the disposal of South Wales and Victoria had made (li) uniform standards should be hazardous chemic-at was!ca if considerable progress in providing set for hazardous waste s:orage AustPalian State Governmen~ ;'~il facilities for the disposal of hazar- areas; to introduce effective waste- dous wastes but the situation in (iii) national standards should be disposal strategies by 1985. Brisbane (Queensland) w~ts a ,~tablished for hazardous waste

The House Standing Committee disaster, the Committee said in its recycling and disposal; and ~n Environment and Consz.:~ation Rcport. It also eritleised Western Hid it was appa;led =: the ! ~ k of Australia and the Australian (iv) the Australian Government aceurale [nformalion in Ar~ .'ralia Capital Territory. should consult with the AustraLian on the amounts of haz~,Jous Some of the key recommenda- States and the Northern Territory wastes I~ing gen.'rated, sin:cO and tions are that - - of Australia on the qvestion disposed of in the country. (i) generators of hazardous ofasinglenationalincinet-ator . []

Canada Environmental Board Proposed

Canada, at odds with the U.S. over acid J-z, ln, has proposed the consideration of that and other en- vironmental issues by a new United Nations ager, cy which could, it" enough environmental damage oc- curr~l on a global scale, insist that the entities responsible account for their actions and change them.

The proposed board, the UN En- vironmental Protcctio~ Board,

"would be competent to judge whether a given environmental de- gradation had serious enough im- pact on a global scale to warrant an explanation by its perpetrator," Canadian Minister of the Environ- ment Charles Caccia said.

He said acid rain and the poten- tial effect of increased amounts of carbon dioxide on global climate were examples of the kind of prob- lems that could be tack[ed by the or-

ganization on an international level.

It is extremely important, he said, " tha t we k~ow soon if countries should move to reduce fossil fuel consumption by greater refiancc ~-, ienewable r fsonrccs ."

The proposal was made before a meeting of the U N ' s Economic Commission. [ ]

USA

After Nuclear War A con rl[,'ence* (Jl Americun

European and Soviet scientists on *he long-term worldwide biological

~u,~n Pr im ly . Nil~nmi Audubor 5~' ly, ~lSD Thtld r'~,~. ~¢, y,~t . N.y. JUm.2, USA

consequences of Nuclear War reported in Washington on 31 Oc- tober and 1 November that the climate changes resulting from a nuclear was using a fraction of to- aay 's arsenal would, over several

months, threaten nearly all life that survived the immediate devastation from the blast.

Hundreds of millions of tons of dust dispersed into the atmosphere would black out the sun for months

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