Society's ChildS


Info

Yet another study finds fracking chemicals pose risks to public health

fracking protest
© WildEarth Guardians/flickr/ccA recent protest against fracking in Chaco, New Mexico.
Researchers had information on reproductive and developmental toxicity for only 24 percent of over 1,000 chemicals they looked at

Add this to the body of evidence suggesting that the unconventional oil and gas extraction technique known as fracking poses risks to public health.

In a study published Wednesday, researchers at the Yale School of Public Health looked at over 1,000 chemicals in hydraulic-fracturing fluids or wastewater, and found that over 150 of them were linked to potential reproductive or developmental harm.

Those chemicals include arsenic, benzene, lead, formaldehyde, and mercury.


The study, published in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental and Epidemiology, also underscores the many unknowns regarding the adverse effects of fracking.

The Yale team was able to obtain information on potential reproductive and developmental toxicity for a small portion 240 of the 1,021 chemicals; for the majority—76 percent—of the chemicals, no such information was available.

Comment: Does it really matter what aspect of fracking is 'specifically' harmful? The cocktail of chemicals contaminating the environment and ruining the health of millions, in addition to the evidence that it causes earthquakes provides more than enough evidence that fracking is evil.


Cut

Porter Ranch methane leak may be result of lax safety regulations and industry cost cutting measures

porter ranch methane
If you don't live on the West Coast of the United States, you might not have heard about the massive gas well leak that's been venting natural gas into the atmosphere at a rate of more than 100,000 pounds per hour for more than two months.

Infrared video that the Environmental Defense Fund captured in December shows that the natural gas is billowing like a volcano just above Burbank, California, on a hilltop in the Aliso Canyon area. That video was taken over a month after the leak started on October 23, after the well had already ejected an estimated 80,000 tons of methane into the atmosphere.

For perspective, 80,000 tons of methane is equal to about a quarter of what the entire state of California—which is the eighth largest economy in the entire world—emitted between October 23 and November 20, 2015. And methane, which is what's mostly in "natural gas," is actually a much stronger greenhouse gas than CO2 in the short term, during the first 20 years it's in the atmosphere it can be up to 80 times more potent than CO2.

Comment:

Catastrophe in California: Months-long methane gas leak pollutes the atmosphere north of L.A.

While appropriate safety mechanisms may have helped to prevent this disaster, there have been disturbingly frequent incidents of methane outgassing, both under the oceans and on land and it is possible that the leak could also be attributed to these natural forces: This phenomenon of methane and carbon dioxide being released in enormous quantities from below ground and water, and not 'man-made CO2', is the primary source of observed 'greenhouse gas' increases in both the atmosphere and oceans.


Stock Down

Signs of market turmoil: Worst start to a year for stocks ever!

toilet paper stocks
We have never had a year start the way that 2016 has started. In the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 have both posted their worst four-day starts to a year ever. Canadian stocks are now down 21 percent since September, and it has been an absolute bloodbath in Europe over the past four days. Of course the primary catalyst for all of this is what has been going on in China. There has been an emergency suspension of trading in China two times within the past four days, and nobody is quite certain what is going to happen next. Eventually this wave of panic selling will settle down, but that won't mean that this crisis will be over. In fact, what is coming is going to be much worse than what we have already seen.

On Thursday I was doing a show with some friends, and we were amazed that stocks just seemed to keep falling and falling and falling. The Dow closed down 392 points, and the NASDAQ got absolutely slammed. At this point, the Dow and the NASDAQ are both officially in "correction territory", and some of the talking heads on television are warning that this could be the beginning of a "bear market". But of course some of the other "experts" are insisting that this is just a temporary bump in the road.

But what everyone can agree on is that we have never seen a start to a year like this one. The following comes from CNN...
The global market freakout of 2016 just got worse.

The latest scare came on Thursday as China's stock market crashed 7% overnight and crude oil plummeted to the lowest level in more than 12 years.

The Dow dropped 392 points on Thursday. The S&P 500 fell 2.4%, while the Nasdaq tumbled 3%.

The wave of selling has knocked the Dow down 911 points, or more than 5% so far this year. That's the worst four-day percentage loss to start a year on record, according to FactSet stats that go back to 1897.

Comment: See also:


Health

UN to deliver humanitarian aid to three besieged Syrian cities

Devastated street in Syria's Deir Ez-Zor
© AFP 2015/ AHMAD ABOUD
The Syrian government on Thursday agreed to allow the United Nations to deliver humanitarian aid to three besieged Syrian cities, the UN said in a statement.

"The UN welcomes today's approval from the Government of Syria to access Madaya, Foah and Kefraya and is preparing to deliver humanitarian assistance in the coming days," the statement said.

The organizations added it was concerned over the plight of about 400,000 people in the cities of Deir Ez-Zor, Daraya, Foah and Kafraya, besieged by the conflicting parties, as well as in the besieged areas of East Ghouta region of the rural Damascus.

"Almost 42,000 people remaining in Madaya are at risk of further hunger and starvation. The UN has received credible reports of people dying from starvation and being killed while trying to leave," the statement said.

Pills

Cops abusing steroids at alarming rates, resisting mandatory drug testing

cops steroids
Police departments all over the world have physical fitness requirements for new recruits. Their argument is that strength and fitness are necessary for the job of policing. But as time goes on, the standards for officers keeping in shape are usually not maintained, making it curious why the standards were put in place at all for new officers. But over the past decade, an increasing number of officers - even seasoned ones - have been doing a lot more than keeping in shape on the job... they have been getting pretty huge. Now some people are wondering if there could be a connection between this and incidences of police brutality and violence happening all over the United States.

Steroid use among officers could account for the side effect of "roid rage" so common with abnormally high levels of testosterone.

In one case, Susan Donaldson James of ABC News spoke with a six-year veteran of a Pennsylvania police force "patrolling an area encroached upon by urban crime."

Matthew and his partner said that they "struggled for nearly seven minutes to subdue the crazed youth, who was high on PCP and had another officer in a head lock."

It was shortly after that close call, that Matthew turned to illegal anabolic steroids "for both strength and self-esteem," he said.

Comment: Clearly, there is a severe, systemic problem with the way we handle law enforcement in this country.


Snakes in Suits

The 'new normal' of the collective American consciousness

American consciousness

America is to be judged by its citizens, not its politicians. But if Americans lose contact with one another; substitute real, tangible realities with virtual ones projected on internet and television screens; refuse to engage in the democratic process and choose passivity over involvement, nihilism over hope, fatalism over self-determination; remain complacent about if not ignorant of US actions and wars in the world; adopt definitions of themselves that are crafted by self-serving special interests, profiteers or merchants of war and hate running now for president from both political parties, they lose all concepts of who they are, what they stand for, and what really constitutes American values.


As it stands, Americans are on the cusp of recognizing that they are losing their historic identity, or the one they embraced before 9/11.

In the collective American consciousness questing for material objects, success, fame, wealth, property and stock equities, together with a megalomaniacal drive for Empire to dominate a world now splitting itself into East and West, there remains no public figure speaking for "everyone"; for unity through diversity; for peace; for the poor, homeless, disabled and elderly; for children and young people who will inherit a financially bankrupt nation that cheerleads its populist billionaires who take all, avoid taxes, give little back, blame the scapegoat, and ignore the plight of others, particularly the plight of young generations who will inherit it all as they advance into tomorrow's leadership positions. Who speaks for them?

Vader

New Jersey high schooler accused of violating bullying laws for making anti-Israel tweets

Bethany Koval
Bethany Koval
A social media storm erupted after administrators at a New Jersey high school accused a student of bullying because of anti-Israel comments that she posted on Twitter. They say that the tweets may have violated the state's broad anti-bullying laws.

Bethany Koval, a 16-year-old Israeli Jew, said on Wednesday that she was called to the principal's office at Fair Lawn High School and reprimanded for making tweets criticizing Israel and mentioning that a pro-Israel classmate had unfollowed her on Twitter.

Heart - Black

Mayor of German city where women were sexually assaulted during New Year's celebrations blames women for attacks

german women drinking
© AP Photo/ Marc Kleine-Kleffmann
Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker recommended that German women should change their behavior and follow a special set of rules to avoid sexual harassment, German media reported.

During an emergency meeting on Tuesday, she proposed a number of measures to prevent similar attacks in the future.

In particular, the mayor referred to a code of conduct for young women and girls. In her opinion, women should keep themselves at arm's length from strangers. They also should immediately seek help of passers-by and the police as well as call on other people to bear witness to the attack.


Comment: Another case of an authority figure totally losing the plot when it comes to sexual assaults against women. People like Mayor Reker continually want to pin the blame on the victims, but what they seem not to understand is that no matter what women are doing, there is never, ever an excuse to rape someone. It's absolutely ridiculous to think that women keeping at arm's length from strangers will have any effect at stopping sexual assault. Get a clue Reker! We need to protect our women and punish rapists, not make women feel responsible for what is a humiliating violation of their body, mind and soul.


Recker promised to strengthen security in Cologne during festivities, but warned young women against inappropriate behavior during public events where people are drinking.

Heart - Black

Asylum seekers can't open bank accounts, left in debt & homeless

Refugees
© Yannis Behrakis / Reuters
A majority of newly arrived refugees in Britain either end up in severe debt or sleeping on the streets, as they are ineligible to open bank accounts, the Refugee Council has revealed.

Several asylum seekers, who believed their lives were about to change for the better, have found themselves sleeping rough days after arriving in Britain.

The Refugee Council reports that many refugees have problems opening bank accounts, from where they can access wages or benefits because they do not possess forms of identification recognized in the UK.

Comment: If the leaders of the UK wanted to assist the refugees fully then they could do so at any time. But they obviously aren't doing that.


Dollar Gold

Gold soars after China sells record amounts of reserves to defend its currency

China stock market
© Unknown
A little over two months ago, when official PBOC data revealed that not only had Chinese reserve outflow slowed down, but actually posted an uptick in October, we warned that "Capital Is Still Flowing Out Of China, Here's How Beijing Is Hiding It", in which we explained that in taking a page from the western playbook, the Chinese central bank had shifted to less "traceable" forms of currency manipulation, namely via "forwards". To wit:
Standard central-bank intervention to support a currency generally involves selling dollars and buying the home tender. In this case, China's large state banks borrowed dollars in the swap market, sold the U.S. currency in the cash spot market and used forward contracts with the central bank to hedge those positions.

"If you can intervene without actually diminishing your reserves, it's somehow viewed as better," said Steven Englander, global head of Group-of-10 foreign exchange-strategy in New York at Citigroup Inc. Such central-bank activity "may not look quite as dramatic as the sale of reserves, and they may prefer that optically," he said.
Since this form of FX intervention does not impact cash reserves and is not reflected in a change of underlying spot securities, China could intervene for an extended period and not show it, which is precisely what happened in October and November.

Comment: It looks like the world is standing at the cliff's edge, getting ready to dive: