Earth ChangesS


Nuke

Japanese Government Criticized for Downplaying Nuclear Disaster

Ulrike Mast-Kirschning
DW.de
Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:30 UTC
Fukushima
© Picture-alliance/DPA
Reports from Japanese journalists confirm what anti-nuclear activists fear: the situation in Fukushima is much worse than the government is letting on - and the Japanese people are being misled.

The Japanese government doesn't seem to be doing a good job providing information about the situation in Fukushima - at least that's how Junko Naggai sees it. That's why she created an information site on the web. Though the 78-year-old is a long-time German resident, she has decided to create her website in Japanese language.

"I didn't know it would be so bad, that there would be so little information. That was a bit of a shock to me," Naggai says in Berlin.

The former TV moderator was invited to a discussion by the Lutheran Church and various NGOs in Berlin to talk about the Japanese government's handling of the nuclear disaster in Fukushima. Among other things, he explains how radiation measurements in Fukushima are manipulated.

"The top surface is removed and the area is cleaned with water before the Geiger counters are used," he says.

Disinformation

Considering the current levels of radiation, the decision of the Japanese government to reopen parts of evacuated areas is something completely irresponsible, says physicist and head of the Society for Radiation Protection Sebastian Pflugbeil.

"It is reckless. Those people should travel to Chernobyl and see how it looks after 26 years."

After the nuclear meltdown in the Ukraine in 1986, the government also made efforts to decontaminate the areas and also to get rid of the affected layers of topsoil. But the endeavor proved to be impossible.
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Attention

Humans Behind Strongest Oklahoma Quake Ever Recorded, Research Suggests

Andrea Mustain
OurAmazingPlanet
Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:43 UTC
Oklahoma Quake
© USGSMap of shaking intensity from the magnitude 5.6 earthquake that hit Oklahoma on Nov. 5, 2011.
San Diego - On the night of Nov. 5, 2011, as midnight approached, a magnitude-5.6 earthquake rocked central Oklahoma, the state's most powerful quake ever recorded. The shaking injured two people, destroyed 14 homes, and bent a local stretch of highway.

Research presented here at the annual meeting of the Seismological Society of America today (April 18) suggests the quake could be related to an industrial practice of injecting fluids deep into the Earth.

"This is part of a growing number of cases of earthquakes caused by fluid injection - and if it was found to be linked, this would be the largest," said Steve Horton, a research scientist at the University of Memphis's Center for Earthquake Research and Information.

There are three wells within 3 miles (5 kilometers) of the main shock location that are actively injecting fluids nearly a mile (1.3 km) down into the subsurface, Horton told OurAmazingPlanet.

"They are not doing fracking," Horton emphasized. Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, a practice used to extract natural gas from deep rocks, has been much in the national consciousness lately; some have tried to link the practice to earthquakes, though no such evidence has surfaced, said scientists gathered at the SSA.

"We simply do not see that there is a connection between hydrofracking and earthquakes that are of any concern to society," William Ellsworth, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey said during a media briefing.
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Phoenix

Popocatépetl Volcano Erupts Spewing Hot Rock Fragments and Ash in Mexico

Alex Sosnowski
AccuWeather
Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:40 UTC
Popocatepetl volcano
© APBirds fly in the foreground as a plume of ash and steam rise from Popocatepetl volcano as seen from San Andres Cholula, Mexico, Wednesday April 18, 2012. Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano is continuing to spout gases and hot rock fragments and it is dusting towns on its flanks with volcanic ash.
A volcano within view of Mexico City continues to erupt.

Steam, smoke and hot fragments of rock began to be ejected from Popocatepetl this past weekend.

The volcano is located about 50 miles southeast of Mexico's capital, Mexico City. The metropolitan area of Mexico City is home to approximately 21 million people.

According to Reuters, Mexico's National Center for Disaster Prevention this week raised the alert level to three on a scale from one to seven, with seven being the greatest threat.

If eruptions intensify, evacuations of nearby villages may be necessary.
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Arrow Up

Earthquake Swarm attacks New Brunswick Town - 35 Tremors in 5 Weeks

Joe O'Connor
National Post
Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:53 UTC
McAdam
© Kuzwa/Wikipedia CommonsMcAdam, New Brunswick, has been struck by over 35 minor tremours — called an “earthquake swarm” — in the past five weeks.
Springtime in McAdam, a tiny village in southwestern New Brunswick not far from the Maine border, is like springtime in most other parts of Canada. Locals chatter about the NHL playoffs, the garden they are planting, the grass that needs to be cut, the fish they can't wait to catch and the cottage they can't wait to get to, once the warm weather really settles in.

Lately, however, an interloper has elbowed its way into the community's daily dialogue. Pushing aside the playoffs. Pushing its way to the very top of the talking points.

"Everybody is talking about the earthquakes," says David Blair, a retired science teacher and lifetime McAdam resident from his home on Old Harvey Road, just east of downtown.
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Bizarro Earth

Gulf Seafood Deformities Alarm Scientists

Dahr Jamail
Aljazeera
Wed, 18 Apr 2012 20:03 UTC
Eyeless shrimp, from a catch of 400 pounds
© Erika Blumenfeld/Al JazeeraEyeless shrimp, from a catch of 400 pounds of eyeless shrimp, said to be caught September 22, 2011, in Barataria Bay, Louisiana.
Eyeless shrimp and fish with lesions are becoming common, with BP oil pollution believed to be the likely cause.

"The fishermen have never seen anything like this," Dr Jim Cowan told Al Jazeera. "And in my 20 years working on red snapper, looking at somewhere between 20 and 30,000 fish, I've never seen anything like this either."

Dr Cowan, with Louisiana State University's Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences started hearing about fish with sores and lesions from fishermen in November 2010.

Cowan's findings replicate those of others living along vast areas of the Gulf Coast that have been impacted by BP's oil and dispersants.

Gulf of Mexico fishermen, scientists and seafood processors have told Al Jazeera they are finding disturbing numbers of mutated shrimp, crab and fish that they believe are deformed by chemicals released during BP's 2010 oil disaster.

Along with collapsing fisheries, signs of malignant impact on the regional ecosystem are ominous: horribly mutated shrimp, fish with oozing sores, underdeveloped blue crabs lacking claws, eyeless crabs and shrimp - and interviewees' fingers point towards BP's oil pollution disaster as being the cause.
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Bizarro Earth

Monsanto Blamed for Bee Collapse, Buys Leading Bee Research Firm

Anthony Gucciardi
Natural Society
Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:41 UTC
Honey Bee
© Alex Wild / alexanderwild.comA honeybee forager visits fall asters in Urbana, Illinois.
Monsanto, the massive biotechnology company being blamed for contributing to the dwindling bee population, has bought up one of the leading bee collapse research organizations. Recently banned from Poland with one of the primary reasons being that the company's genetically modified corn may be devastating the dying bee population, it is evident that Monsanto is under serious fire for their role in the downfall of the vital insects. It is therefore quite apparent why Monsanto bought one of the largest bee research firms on the planet.

It can be found in public company reports hosted on mainstream media that Monsanto scooped up the Beeologics firm back in September 2011. During this time the correlation between Monsanto's GM crops and the bee decline was not explored in the mainstream, and in fact it was hardly touched upon until Polish officials addressed the serious concern amid the monumental ban. Owning a major organization that focuses heavily on the bee collapse and is recognized by the USDA for their mission statement of "restoring bee health and protecting the future of insect pollination" could be very advantageous for Monsanto.
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Igloo

Ice Age Cometh? Forecasters predict the "Coldest May in 100 years"


The Telegraph
Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:12 UTC
Britain could be facing the coldest May for 100 years, with snow, bit
snow
© Tim Ireland/PAA family walk in the snow in the Brecon Beacons, south Wales
ter winds and freezing temperatures putting summer on hold.

The winter weather follows a wet start to April, with the threat of floods and storms to come over the next few days.

The Met Office has issued weather warnings for the South West, London, South East, Wales and the West of England due to flooding on roads and 60mph winds.

Hail storms are expected across the country and it is feared windows could be broken by giant hail, up to 1cm thick. In the north and Scotland temperatures could fall to -2C.

Despite the ongoing drought, heavy downpours could cause localised flooding, even in areas where there is hosepipe ban in place.

Independent forecaster WeatherAction has also predicted the next month will be the "coldest or near coldest for 100 years" in the East of England, with cold northwesterly winds.
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Cloud Lightning

Three Gorges Dam danger may force out 100,000 people


Associated Press
Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:13 UTC
Image
© Xinhua, Cheng Min/Associated Press)Flood water is released from the Three Gorges Dam's floodgates in Yichang, in central China's Hubei province, in this July 20, 2010 photo by China's Xinhua news agency.
Landslides and other disasters up 70% since the water level hit maximum level in 2010

Another 100,000 people may have to move away from China's Three Gorges Dam due to the risk of disastrous landslides and bank collapses around the reservoir of the world's biggest hydroelectric facility, state media said Wednesday.

The Ministry of Land Resources says the number of landslides and other disasters has increased 70 per cent since the water level in the $23 billion showcase project rose to its maximum level in 2010.

Some 1.4 million people already have been resettled due to the huge project on the Yangtze River. Authorities may move another 100,000 people in the next three to five years to minimize the risk of casualties from such threats, Liu Yuan, a ministry official, told China National Radio in a report posted on a government website and carried by the Shanghai Daily newspaper.
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Fish

Eyeless Shrimp? Report Raises Concerns in Gulf

Dustin Lushin
Al Jazeera
Wed, 18 Apr 2012 19:07 UTC
Mutant creatures showing up after BP spill, says Al Jazeera English

Shrimp missing their eyeballs (and even eye sockets), fish covered in lesions, deformed crabs, and other mutated sea creatures are showing up in unsettling numbers in the Gulf of Mexico two years after the giant BP oil spill, according to an investigation by Al Jazeera English. "The fishermen have never seen anything like this," says one scientist at Louisiana State University. "And in my 20 years working on red snapper, looking at somewhere between 20 and 30,000 fish, I've never seen anything like this, either."

The sentiment is echoed by several others interviewed in the article, both fishermen and scientists. The BP disaster released 4.9 million barrels of oil into the water, and the company then poured in 1.9 million gallons of chemical dispersants to sink the oil. Biologists are pointing to the toxins in the dispersants as the catalysts behind the abnormalities. Despite the signs, both the state and BP says the local seafood is rigorously tested and safe to eat.
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Bizarro Earth

Mexico's Erupting Popocatépetl Volcano Spied from Above


OurAmazingPlanet
Wed, 18 Apr 2012 11:26 UTC
Popocatépetl Volcano
© NOAAThe Suomi NPP satellite snapped this image of Mexico's Popocatépetl volcano on April 16, 2012 after a new eruption that sent an ash plume high into the sky.
Mexico's Popocatépetl volcano, which lies only about 40 miles away from Mexico City, dusted nearby areas with ash this week in one of its largest explosions in recent years. The eruption, combined with a billowing plume of steam and ash and increased seismic activity, has prompted authorities to raise the volcano's alert status and advise people to stay at least seven miles away from the summit.

The eruption covered about 30 communities with ash, ranging from a light dusting to up to 7 centimeters (2.8 inches), according to Wired's Eruptions Blog.

There are signs that new magma inside the volcano is near the surface, says Eruptions Blog author Erik Klemetti, a professor of geosciences at Denison University in Ohio.

Popocatépetl, whose name means "smoking mountain" in Aztec, is the second highest volcano in North America, at 17,802 feet (5,426 meters). Only Mexico's Pico de Orizaba is taller.

The volcano's alert status has been raised to Yellow Stage 3, the third highest stage, by Mexico's National Center for Prevention of Disasters. There are seven total alert stages.
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