Earth Changes

Kangaroos Being Poisoned by Fluoride in Australia

David Gutierrez
NaturalNews
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:00 UTC

Hundreds of kangaroos have been euthanized due to acute fluoride poisoning in the Australian state of Victoria, the country's Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has announced.

The poisonings appear to be occurring due to emissions of fluoride from the Alcoa aluminum smelter at Portland and the Austral Bricks factory at Craigieburn, the state's first and second biggest emitters of fluoride dust, respectively. According to Bruce Dawson of the EPA, the toxic chemical is being absorbed by nearby plants that kangaroos and other animals forage on. The animals may also be breathing in the chemical directly.

The levels of fluoride being emitted by Alcoa and Austral are fully legal under Australian law. The smelter emits 120 tons of the dust per year, while the factory emits 66 tons.

The Real BP Gulf Tragedy: What If There Had Been No Spill?

Mike Kaulbars
News Junkie Post
Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:35 UTC

What if there had been no spill? What if the oil had simply been loaded on to tankers and gone into processing by the petrochemical industry as intended? That's the situation we're trying to create when we talk about preventing such accidents, right? We don't want the oil spilling into the ocean and killing the ecosystems there. So if there were no spill, what would have happened instead?

Some of the oil would undoubtedly wind up as the petrochemical based fertilizers and pesticides which are creating the dead zones in the Gulf when they are washed off of agricultural land. Also contributing to this killing of the oceans is all of the oil based cleaners, solvents and other products that we send down our drains.

Naturally a good proportion would go into the plastics that are so ubiquitous in our lives. Many of those wind up dumped into the oceans where they kill wildlife and form the huge garbage patches at the centre of the circulation gyres (the North Pacific patch is larger than Texas).

Some would help power the industrialized fishing that is destroying the worlds oceans. There is some evidence that the collapse of all fisheries could come in as little as three or four decades . Most of the oil would be burned for power, thereby producing more of the CO2 that is acidifying (i.e., killing) the oceans.

Gulf oil spill: Could 'toxic storm' make beach towns uninhabitable?

Patrik Jonsson
Christian Science Monitor
Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:50 UTC

Residents fear mass relocations should a hurricane kick the Gulf oil spill onto resort towns. 'Hazmat cards' are a hot commodity among residents, since they could be the key to return.

© Dave Martin/Associated Press
Mark Woodward of Daphne, Ala., looks for tar balls as he walks along the beach at dawn in Destin, Fla., Saturday, June 26. Oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill has started coming ashore in Destin and other beaches on the Florida and Alabama coasts.

Orange Beach, Alabama - Ron Greve expects the worst is yet to come in the oil spill drama that is haranguing beach towns all along the US Gulf Coast. So, like a growing number of residents, the Pensacola Beach solar-cell salesman took a hazardous materials class and received a "hazmat card" upon graduation.

Those cards, says Mr. Greve, could become critical in coming weeks and months. In the case of a hurricane hitting the 250-mile wide slick and pushing it over sand dunes and into beach towns, residents fear they'll face not only mass evacuations, but potential permanent relocation.

Oil washes onto big Mississippi tourist beach

Matthew Bigg
Reuters
Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:23 UTC

Oil from a BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico washed ashore at one of the largest tourist beaches in Mississippi on Monday, forcing tourists to pack their bags and evacuate the shore.

Sludgy brown oil, light sheen and tar balls arrived at a series of points in small towns in the Gulf state on Sunday, the first time oil has hit Mississippi's mainland. On Monday, it reached Biloxi, a major resort city famous for its casinos.

One day after state and local officials complained vehemently about the slow pace of cleanup efforts, just three people from a private contracting company hired by BP were working on Biloxi's shore, putting tar balls into containers.

Some children on holiday in Biloxi stepped into tar balls before their parents whisked them away from the beach.

"We are leaving today. My child stepped in oil yesterday as we were playing on the beach. Obviously we are cutting our vacation short. This is a complete shame and very sad," said Susan Reed, who came with her family from Texas on vacation to Biloxi.

Thick oil soils Mississippi shore as storm looms

Leigh Coleman and Guy Faulconbridge
Reuters
Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:03 UTC

Ocean Springs, Mississippi/Toronto- Gluey gobs of thick oil from BP Plc's Gulf of Mexico spill washed ashore in Mississippi for the first time on Sunday as Russia called for a special levy on oil companies to finance a fund to help clean up environmental disasters like this one.

BP and the U.S. Coast Guard kept a close watch on tropical depression Alex as it moved into the southwestern gulf.

Forecasters expect Alex to make landfall again as a hurricane early on Thursday between Brownsville, Texas, and Tuxpan de Rodriguez Cano in Mexico, sparing BP's oil collection efforts at its ruptured deep-sea well.

US: Documents Show Vast Cleanup of Plum Island Land

Frank Eltman
The Associated Press
Sun, 27 Jun 2010 00:00 UTC

Government documents obtained by The Associated Press show extensive efforts since 2000 to remove vast amounts of waste and contaminants from Plum Island, site of top-secret Army germ warfare research and decades of studies of dangerous animal diseases.

Yet some environmentalists remain concerned about the secrecy surrounding the 840-acre, pork chop-shaped island off northeastern Long Island - and they're dubious of any claims that pollution has been remedied.

"We are highly concerned that when the government acts alone they may not be doing the best job," said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment. "Every government cleanup needs the public's involvement and independent oversight to ensure its validity."

The Department of Homeland Security is preparing to sell the island 100 miles east of Manhattan and build a new high-security laboratory in Kansas to study animal diseases.

Oil Spill Efforts Ramp Up as Storm Eyed Anxiously

Ernest Scheyder
Reuters
Sun, 27 Jun 2010 06:12 UTC

© Daniel Beltra/Reuters
The Q4000 multi-purpose oil field intervention vessel (L) and the drillship the Discoverer Explorer (C) burn off material from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead near the disaster site June 24, 2010.

The first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season is posing an uncertain threat to the Gulf of Mexico, even as efforts to contain the worst oil spill in U.S. history are set to ramp up.

For now, Tropical Storm Alex, which is hitting the western Caribbean with rain and high winds, is not expected to pass close to BP Plc.'s blown-out well off the Louisiana coast.

But even a miss that only generates large waves could greatly complicate clean-up efforts from Louisiana to Florida

Current official estimates suggest between 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day are leaking from the rogue well. BP collected over 24,000 barrels on Friday and about 11,640 barrels in the first half of Saturday, the company estimated.

New equipment being moved to the site of the leak in the coming week could raise the daily collection rate to 53,000 barrels a day, U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, who is coordinating the U.S. oil spill response, said on Saturday.

Death Toll in Flood-Stricken South China Nears 400

Reuters
Sat, 26 Jun 2010 12:49 UTC

Workers struggled to repair a broken dyke in south China where persistent heavy rains and devastating floods have so far left at least 379 people dead, state media and government agencies said.

Bulldozers dumped rocks and soil to repair a breach in the dykes hemming in the Fu River, in Jiangxi province, which forced over 100,000 people from their homes earlier this week.

More water may be on its way, as a flood crest passed through Xiang River in Hunan Province, making its way to the swollen Yangtze River.

"In some villages and counties along the Xiang River, farmlands and homes are flooded," Jiang Yongpeng, an official at the Hunan Environmental Protection Bureau, told Reuters.

US: Raccoon Blamed for 5-Hour Outage in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee

The Associated Press
Sat, 26 Jun 2010 21:00 UTC

A raccoon described as acrobatic and mean-spirited knocked out power to a section of downtown Memphis that included two hospitals and the newspaper for more than five hours.

Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division president Jerry Collins told The Commercial Appeal said the raccoon climbed more than 30 feet, over barriers intended to keep animals out, and short-circuited a switch on a substation.

Overall, about 8,000 customers were without city power late Thursday and early Friday.

Lightning Sparks New Wildfires Across Alaska

Jeff Richardson
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Sun, 27 Jun 2010 04:00 UTC

A barrage of lightning strikes across Interior Alaska sparked a handful of new fires on Friday, including a fast-growing blaze near Stevens Village.

The Pat Creek Fire, about 12 miles north of the Yukon River village, has exploded in size since it was detected late Friday afternoon. Fire information officer Sarah Saarloos said the blaze has "definitely grown a lot" since it was mapped at 325 acres on Saturday morning, although the size estimate hadn't been updated.

Gusty winds and dry fuels in the area contributed to the rapid growth, despite a heavy response by firefighters.

Less than 24 hours after it was reported, Saarloos said about 160 personnel were working on the fire, including 32 smokejumpers and five 20-person crews. An incident command center has been established in Stevens Village.

I think we will all learn more when Whitney Webb's book is published.

Dwoods44

artificial intelligence would address the company's chronic problems AI will eventally realize that the problem is Zuckenberk and his ilk, and...

dom38

Here's a nice tune for a war criminal. [Link]

frankchapeau

The dude is now on his own way to Hell.

dom38

Codis Albeit I think those times were harsher with people that chose to ignore reality ... Same goes for NOW tambien.

LindaMay

Earth Changes

Kangaroos Being Poisoned by Fluoride in Australia

The Real BP Gulf Tragedy: What If There Had Been No Spill?

Gulf oil spill: Could 'toxic storm' make beach towns uninhabitable?

Oil washes onto big Mississippi tourist beach

Thick oil soils Mississippi shore as storm looms

US: Documents Show Vast Cleanup of Plum Island Land

Oil Spill Efforts Ramp Up as Storm Eyed Anxiously

Death Toll in Flood-Stricken South China Nears 400

US: Raccoon Blamed for 5-Hour Outage in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee

Lightning Sparks New Wildfires Across Alaska

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