Green News, Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Spirit, Environment, Healing, Peace, Political Resistance in Florida. News gathering space for Crimes Against Humanity & Ecocide in the Gulf of Toxico & after affects on life here. Now covering FRACKING, MINING, LNG PIPELINES, WATER QUALITY & so many more environmental issues. Hoodooing in the Green Swamp & other Wild Places throughout our State.
The HUMAN factor now begins to dominate the GULF OIL SPILL victim list. Sea life, mammals, birds, insects, all wetland life and seepage inland through water tributaries like the Mississippi River are beginning to show the signs of corexit / crude destruction / death. Join us on HERE BE MONSTERS All Liberal Talk Radio today for a conversation that explores what is not being acknowledged or addressed by our government or BP...
LIVING AND DYING IN GULF POISON!
The only place you can find the TRUTH is posted on the internet or in your mailbox... your voice is required to manifest the grassroots effort we need to bring the crisis to national and global awareness.
MONDAY, MAY 2ND:
The justBernard Show
A year later, BP is still in the cross-hairs of many. And anger against the company has not subsided along the Gulf Coast. Roughly 4.9 million barrels of oil blew out of BP's broken well and bled into the water, with a portion of that crude making landfall along the coastline. Add in the unknown effect of 1.84 million gallons (7 million L) of chemical dispersants, much of which were applied directly to the well deep below the surface of the ocean — something that had never been done before. Anita Stewart from the Hillsborough County Soil & Water Board returns to update us on the effects and toll the spill has taken.
Anita is the Green Party candidate who with only $300, social networking and her singular grassroots efforts in the community achieved success being elected to the Hillsborough County Soil and Water Conservation Board - SEAT 5. She understands intimately how to establish and work the TRUTHSAYING within our global consciousness via *the internet*. Anita has been a consistent resource in uncovering the ongoing poisoning of our Gulf basin.
Caption: Karen Mayer Hopkins of Grande Isle, LA, long-time resident and Gulf Coast activist.
For many along the Gulf coast, last week’s anniversary of the country’s greatest oil disaster was a solemn affair. The constant barrage of happy PR from BP and local government officials stood in stark contrast to the folks who live near coastal areas still devastated by the onslaught of oil.
The happy talk doesn't sit right with many folks in Grand Isle. For most Louisianans, the island beach community is a refuge from the heat and the stickiness of the swamps and marshlands nearby. It’s a place to let your hair down, run through the sand and forget about the modern day hassles that plague us all.
But the BP oil disaster changed all that. Grand Isle was one of the hardest hit of all area in the Gulf. A year later, residents still struggle with rebuilding their lives, praying that tourists will once again venture to this sandy outcrop on Louisiana’s most southern coast. The early signs here are not very good. Tar balls continue to wash in, another oil spill dumped more crude on the beaches a few months ago, and ocean waves still spit brown, dirty foam onto the beach. Dead fish and birds dot the beaches.
All of this does not deter the hardy, vivacious souls of this wind-swept coast from remembering the good life and having some fun. With this in mind, locals Karen Hopkins and Darlene Eschete organized the Big Oil Panty Protest, described as a day of “peaceful protest for the lack of response and cover-up of the clean-up and health issues experienced by many Gulf residents.” Here’s how they advertised it on Facebook:
Check out more at the link:
Times staff and wire reports In Print: Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Senate President Mike Haridopolos said in an interview broadcast Tuesday that new oil drilling is needed in the Gulf of Mexico, a reversal from last year, when, in the wake of the BP spill, he said Florida was going to "turn the page" away from drilling. In an interview with Newsmax TV, the U.S. Senate candidate said gas prices have changed the paradigm. "We have to start drilling, we need to become more self-dependent," Haridopolos said. "We need to open up those new opportunities in the Gulf and ANWR (the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge). Four dollars-plus in gasoline (is) crippling the middle class. … America needs to lead by example." Haridopolos' remarks contrast with what he said in July when he acknowledged after the BP oil spill that his previous push for new drilling in the gulf didn't account for the possibility of a spill. "We tried to look at oil and natural gas production in the gulf. We trusted that, at least in my lifetime … there had not been a major spill," Haridopolos said then. "But guess what? We went to verify the scenario and it didn't work for Floridians."
The Japanese government has imposed a ban on entering an exclusion zone around the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex. The no-go zone extends 20-kilometres around the facility, and will be enforced from midnight on Friday (1500GMT on Thursday). Residents fled the area after an evacuation was ordered on March 12, a day after a 9.0 earthquake and 15-metre tsunami critically damaged the plant's power and cooling systems. Several of them have since returned for short trips to retrieve their belongings. Al Jazeera's Harry Fawcett reports from Tashiwazaki, Japan.
Corexit is a solvent. In general, solvents can cause acute and chronic neurological symptoms, ranging from headaches to mood changes to short-term memory loss. Solvents are also toxic to the liver, potentially resulting in chemical hepatitis or jaundice. Prenatal exposure to solvents has been linked to miscarriage. Some solvents, such as toluene (found in many glues) can cause birth defects. Other solvents, such as benzene and vinyl chloride, are known to cause cancer, while some others are suspected carcinogens. One clear-cut case of an adverse health effect in a breastfeeding infant due to a solvent -- perchloroethylene -- has been reported.
If you run into a dead shark on the beach, MOTE asks that you contact them at (941) 388-4441.
MANATEE COUNTY --
A mystery is brewing on Manatee County's beautiful beaches -- researchers are trying to figure out why sharks are washing ashore dead.
Recently more than a dozen dead sharks were found on the north ends of Longboat Key and Anna Maria Island.
"There were no real indicators of what went wrong with them," Dr. Nick Whitney, Staff Scientist for the Center for Shark Research at MOTE Marine Laboratory said. "There are no obvious signs of damage from fishing or net damage or anything like that."
The species of sharks found were bonnetheads, blacknose and sharpnose. Whitney said he's ruled out the possibility that the sharks died as a result of last year's oil spill.
"Oil spill is pretty unlikely because these animals tend to be coastal," said Whitney. "They move up and down coast, but they wouldn't tend to go off shore and in deep water where oil is."
For now, Whitney says what happened to these sharks remains a mystery.
Researchers have sent samples from the sharks to a different lab to try and see if red tide killed them.
However, they say this is highly unlikely since they have not detected any red tide in the area. MOTE researchers say finding a dead shark now and then is not rare, but it is uncommon to find a group of them dead within a few days.
***Thanks to Lauren Hallahan for sending this news story to me!
Kenneth Feinberg (AKA Black Heart Feinberg) Came to New Orleans on the anniversary of the BP disaster. Mr. Feinberg, who works FOR BP spent most of his time with pep rally type speech making. When it came time for "public question and answer" time he was getting some pretty hot questions. When he saw the line-up he said just a couple more questions and called Drew Landry to the mic. After Drew was Paul Doomm, a young man confined to a wheelchair since the end of Summer 2010 after swimming in the Gulf. After all, the government said it was safe. A lot of controversy has surrounded Paul's illness. That doesn't give Black Heart Feinberg the right to ignore him.
These are the shocking images of the long term damage last year's BP oil spill has done to the Gulf coastline.
Coming a day after scientists said Gulf of Mexico surface water was 'almost back to normal', these shots paint a very different picture of how wild life and fauna in the affected zones have fared a year on from the Deep Water Horizon accident.
Only yesterday, more than three dozen scientists graded the Gulf's health a 68 on average, using a 1-to-100 scale. This is just below the 71 grade the same researchers last summer said they would give the ecosystem before the spill.
But despite the optimistic analysis for marine life, the shore line has suffered far more long lasting damage from the cloying oil.
Damage: Shots from May 2010 (left) and April 2011(right) Scientists said Cat island is significantly eroded, with much of the mangrove dead or dying because the island was completely overwashed by the oil
Part OneLeuren Moret is a Nuclear Power whistleblower who is telling all who will listen about the dangers of Nuclear Power. Like playing with fire... mankind has not learned as can be seen in the engineering mistakes made in building the Fukushima Plant in Japan. Nuclear radiation is very dangerous and we will be stuck with the consequences for a long time to come. There are certain measures you can take to protect yourself. Listen as she explains.PDX 9/11 Truth http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Portland911Truth/ Let Japan now lead the world away from Nuclear Energy to safe unpolluting power...Zero Point, Engines that run on Wate, Browns Gas .. whatever. Japanese people are now paying a terrible price from the Energy Monopolys mistakes and control, short sightedness and foolishness. Time to dump Nuclear Power and we know alternative energy is being suppressed because it may be non centrailised and uncontrolled..off the grid which is controlled and monopolised by Corporations for their profit . (Disclaimer: Views presented here are those of the the speaker and not necessarily those of the video maker who is presenting it for educational and informational purposes only)
What effect did last year's BP oil spill have on changing government and energy company policies? And how can we assess the damage of the spill when so many conflicting scientific reports are continuing to be published?On Tuesday's Riz Khan Show, we talk to Mike Robichaux, a Louisiana physician who has been treating patients suffering from mystery illnesses believed to be caused by the effects of the accident; Cherri Foytlin, a woman who walked from New Orleans to Washington to highlight the suffering of victims of the spill; and Carl Safina, a prominent ecologist and author of "A Sea in Flames: The Deepwater Horizon Oil Blowout." You can watch the show at 1930 GMT on Al Jazeera English. Repeats will air next day at 0430 GMT, 0830 GMT and 1430 GMT.
Last of a series
Today, on the first anniversary of the deadly explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, Floridians should walk along the beach and look toward the horizon. We should remember those whose livelihoods were endangered by the nation's worst environmental disaster. We should give thanks for the friendly winds and ocean currents that spared the state from further devastation. And we should vow to never put Florida at risk by allowing offshore drilling anywhere near our coast.
We should take another look at the pictures of the oil slicks in the gulf, the birds covered in black, the globs of oil on the beaches in Alabama and North Florida. We should remember the idled fishing fleets, the empty hotel rooms and the desolate Memorial Day weekend last year when tourists stayed away. We should imagine oil covering the Pinellas beaches, or seeping through the Florida Keys, or sweeping up the east coast. And we should draw a line in the sand and pledge to minimize the possibility of those nightmares becoming reality.
Memories are short. A year after the broken oil rig began spewing 206 million gallons of oil into the gulf, opinion polls show most Florida voters favor offshore drilling. The prospect of gasoline at $4 a gallon triggers short-term thinking, and the oil has been largely erased from North Florida beaches.The clogged Louisiana marshes, the disfigured fish, the oil-slicked dolphins and the microscopic oil particles deep below the gulf's surface seem less pressing. But spread oil on the Pinellas beaches or along Miami Beach on these warm sunny days, and the poll results would be different.
Allowing drilling off Florida's shores is not worth the risk, regardless of how much risk has been reduced in recent decades. It would not decrease Americans' dependence on foreign oil or lower gasoline prices. The estimated deposits in Florida's state-owned waters would meet the nation's needs for less than a week. Drilling would not produce a big windfall in state revenue, and the number of jobs it would create was estimated last year to be no more than 2,500. It's not worth risking Florida's natural beauty or its economy, no matter how many technological advances or new regulations are put in place.
The BP oil disaster is the only reason Florida isn't preparing for oil drilling now in state waters. After "drill, baby, drill!" became a 2008 campaign chant, the state House actually passed a plan in 2009 to allow drilling. Even after the Deepwater Horizion explosion last year, the Legislature refused Gov. Charlie Crist's call to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot to ban drilling in state waters. That amendment is still needed. Gov. Rick Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi won't even join a federal lawsuit against the Deepwater Horizon's operator. Governors and state lawmakers cannot be trusted to do the right thing when they are smitten with energy lobbyists and desperate for more state revenue. They are watching the opinion polls and waiting for memories to fade. If it's not next year, it will be the following year or the year after that when oil drilling resurfaces in Tallahassee.
At the moment, Florida remains protected by federal and state law. Thanks to Sen. Bill Nelson and a handful of others in Washington, a 2006 federal moratorium keeps drilling 125 miles from the Panhandle and 235 miles from Florida's west coast. For now. Florida also has a two-decade-old ban on drilling in state waters, which stretch 10 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico and 3 miles out in the Atlantic. For now. Congress and the Legislature could overturn those bans quicker than the BP oil well was capped.
The governor and members of the state Cabinet spent Tuesday afternoon fishing off Panama City, still encouraging tourists to return a year after the oil rig exploded hundreds of miles away. Imagine that postcard scene cluttered with rigs or soiled by oil, a fragile economy destroyed by political games, misguided energy policy and a thirst for oil money. Florida deserves better.
Today, let's remember those who lost their lives when the oil rig exploded and the acts of heroism by the survivors. Let's remember the damage to the water, the marshes and the beaches along the Gulf Coast. Let's remember the financial pain inflicted on hundreds of thousands of businesses and individuals still struggling to recover. And as Floridians, let's recommit ourselves to preserving our state's natural beauty and standing firm against offshore drilling. It's just not worth it.
To all members of the Senate, House of Representatives and the President of the United States:
Hello.
My name is Cherri Foytlin. I am from Rayne, Louisiana, and am a mother of 6, a journalist for my hometown paper, and the wife of an oil worker.
Starting on March 13th, I walked from New Orleans, LA, to Washington D.C. to meet with you and discuss the continuing need for humanitarian, ecosystem and economic relief for the people of the Gulf of Mexico. Unfortunately, I was unable to speak with you - for whatever reason.
Although, I must return to my home today, to prepare for events concerning the memorial of the catastrophe, I will be back.
I will also be bringing a small delegation of coastal citizens with me to personally discuss our needs, in particular the need for health care, as we now have thousands who are suffering now from the effects of the crude oil and dispersant's toxic cocktail in our waters and on our shores.
Please respond to this email and make yourself available to us upon our return. You may well find this the optimal opportunity to make a concrete statement as to your role as a pubic servant who is in solidarity with coastal citizens and communities - the millions of us - who need your help.
Please also see below a link to our events which will be held on April 20 in New Orleans; you or a representative of your post is not only invited, but sincerely encouraged to attend.
***NOTE FROM ANITA: This is what happened to my friends on Saturday in Tampa.The Tea Party people and their esteemed list of speakers and of course CORPORATE AND LOBBYIST Sponsors were not without opposition. My wife and I ended up being the ONLY Anti-Propagandists to show up to this hypocritical... and mis-informing event. I brought my trusty new megaphone with me and spent my time in between being PHYSICALLY ACCOSTED... by one individual whose overtly aggressive behavior we captured on video as we she committed her acts of violence upon my person as well as my wife. I with some degree of success through exercise of my first amendment rights was able to convey the hypocritical nature of the entire event which was sponsored by Corporate Sponsors including LOBBYING groups from DC e.g., Americans for Prosperity , Americans for Freedom, Robert Watkins and Company....In the end I was confronted with a gentleman who was apparently was in charge of event security, although he later said he used to be in business doing diagnostic imaging and said that he would do MRI's for $245 dollars!It was amazing to have all of these people (350-450tops), perhaps 15-20 of which were first accosting me. One gentleman first got right up in my face and screamed at the top of his lungs calling ...me an A**%ol@ repeatedly, then was grappling me around my shoulders when a woman came up and struck me in the arm with great purpose accompanied by a barrage of "colorful" expletives. When her "active "baiting" of this writer failed to elicit the retaliation so desired (so that her GROUP could jump on me in unison)... she turned her attention to my wife who was 1. Holding a large sign, 2. Holding a still camera and 3. Filming me with a hand held video camera. After taking a minimum 10 foot running start the attacker belted the video camera striking my wife in the face, leaving lipstick on the camera. She is observed in the video taking multiple shots at my wife with kicks and fists.As I noted earlier the news coverage was markedly embellished as to NUMBERZ in attendance, attributing attendance numbers to "organizers" (5,000 attendees), without ANY critical analysis of said figures which were so exponentially OVERBLOWNNNN ...as to be beyond laughable.As if people were BOTH coming and GOING from the event at a rate of ohhh about 1,000 people per hour... Where were the cars? The foundation of the coverage was ludicrous! Just one MORE example of HOW... "IN THE TANK" the CORPORATE MEDIA is with the FARRR RIGHT. Relentlessly "PUMPING" Marco to the N'th degree! Lastly, I had to deal with "Black Water Guy" (alias BWG), up in my face... telling me "You Don't Know WHO I Am and you're very fortunate..." Well, if ya got a guy with a BUTTONED suit on a hot day with a very serious set of shades on, shaved head and a U.S. Marine lapel button on... I'm smart enough to know which one of us is... the "trained killer." And I told him so!!! So this is what America has come to? Get in line and SHUT UP! Or else??? Lots of church goers here too! My message was about informing people in attendance how THEY were being used as PAWNS for the Corporation. THINK!!!! True it was just my wife and myself, but I carry a BIG Megaphone. Here is the link for the corporate sponsors for this event. http://taxdaytampabay.com/OurSponsors.html It is BLASPHEMY in the opinion of the Corporate Sponsored Organizers for their audience to hear about something like say Medicare for All... which is NOT Socialized Medicine, and clearly makes sense to the average person. As someone who has a pretty fair understanding of formulation of National Health Policy... and IF Marco listened to what I was saying, would have heard me criticize ObamaCare... for the Insurance Industry CONCOCTED CORPORATIST policy that it is, while offering in the same breath the Medicare for ALL LOGICAL alternative. As for the media reporting, I was not surprised that there was some LOOSE editing OUT of CONTEXT of the content of my remarks by the CORPORATE televised News Media, (FOX). IMAGINE THAT??? Of note, was the observation that the woman who assaulted my wife and myself appeared to get in to the SUV with Marco as he was departing the event. Questions, questions! Myself and two other witnesses observed this!
WATCHING "CHANGING THE ENDGAME" and U CAN TOO! Go to the following website: http://www.changingtheendgame.org/. Watch, completely FREE, no hook or catch! (This is a 2 hr presentation on 3 videos. Grab a cup of tea and a comfy chair. If you love Mother Earth, parts of this will make U cry... This presentation will only be available online until April 22nd...
Japan Nuclear Crisis The Dangers of Radiation Global Research TVTHE GREATEST PUBLIC HEALTH HAZARD THE WORLD HAS EVER WITNESSED. People of Japan.People of The World.Take notice of what Helen Caldicott is saying about the dire consequences for 'all of us' over the next few decades from the near-destruction of the FUKUSHIMA DAICHI PLUTONIUM-ENRICHED NUCLEAR POWER PLANT.Excerpt recorded at the press conference "The Dangers Of Nuclear War" in Montreal, Canada, in March 18th, 2011
By Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Sunday, April 17, 2011
Some red snapper caught in the area of the oil spill have severe fin rot, particularly on their anal fins. A healthy fish would be able to fight off such infections, scientists say. They suspect that the immune systems have collapsed as a result of a toxin.
MY NOTE***YA THINK?
(Caption for the picture on the original article).
A year after the Deepwater Horizon disaster spewed oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the Florida beaches are relatively clean, the surf seems clear and the tourists are returning. But there are signs that the disaster is continuing to affect marine life in the gulf far from where humans can observe it.
Over the winter, anglers who had been working the gulf for decades began hauling in red snapper that didn't look like anything they had seen before.
The fish had dark lesions on their skin, some the size of a 50-cent piece. On some of them, the lesions had eaten a hole straight through to the muscle tissue. Many had fins that were rotting away and discolored or even striped skin. Inside, they had enlarged livers, gallbladders, and bile ducts.
"The fish have a bacterial infection and a parasite infection that's consistent with a compromised immune system," said Jim Cowan, an oceanographer at Louisiana State University, who has been examining them. "There's no doubt it's associated with a chronic exposure to a toxin."
***NOTE: DO YA'LL STILL THINK THE SEAFOOD IS SAFE? We tried to warn people at the Science of the Spill event in St. Pete put together by the local Sierra Club last November, but they would not allow us to speak about the safety of the seafood or the human impact.
Protester: 'Lives and livelihoods have been destroyed while the BP board continues to prosper'
LONDON — Police arrested one person who traveled from the Gulf Coast to attend a BP shareholder meeting in London and four others were refused entry Thursday, according to an msnbc.com editor at the scene.
The five were among a group from the U.S. who went to the meeting to tell the company's shareholders about the ongoing plight of people in the area following theDeepwater Horizon disaster last year.
They were acting as proxies for people who have BP stock, but nonetheless were prevented from entering the hall where the meeting was taking place at the vast ExCel center in London's Docklands district.
"They're scared of us, that's why they didn't let us in," one of those refused entry, Tracy Kuhns, told msnbc.com. Barataria Bay, La. resident Kuhns, 57, runs a family fishery business with her husband.
Protesters told msnbc.com that Diane Wilson, a shrimper from Sea Drift, Texas, was arrested after covering herself in black paint inside the building. A police officer later confirmed that one person was arrested.
Adding to BP's woes, two of the world's biggest pension funds have added their names to a growing list of investors planning to vote against the company's annual report, including executive bonuses, and the re-election of a key safety executive.
Also planning protests were indigenous communities angry at the company's involvement in tar sands extraction in Canada and scores of local workers embroiled in a dispute at a BP-owned biofuels plant in northern England.
Two opposite ways to approach solar energy in Florida, long overdue:
The first way:
Let a million flowers bloom. Dedicate ourselves to the goal that X percent of our energy has to come from solar and other alternative sources.
Pass aggressive laws to encourage solar. Create an open market that rewards the better mousetrap. Throw open the state to competition, innovation and jobs.
The second way:
Just put Florida's electric companies in charge.
Let the traditional electric monopolies build (or not build) centralized, larger-scale solar projects as they see fit.
Let them automatically bill their customers as they choose, outside normal regulation, putting hundreds of millions if not billions into their pockets in coming years.
Don't require the electric companies to deal with anybody else, or at least not much.
Which will Florida choose?
Here's a hint. The decision is up to our state Legislature.
Want another hint?
The state's biggest electric company, Florida Power & Light, really, really wants the second approach.
***My comment at the bottom of the online news article:
"Are they going to legislate and sell the energy from the sun that is used in my garden? Sun energy is free and we could power the whole planet in addition to creating many jobs if it was used and harnessed in the proper way, for the people...not for the corporations who will sell this free energy back to us at the highest rates they can get away with. Time for a change in Tallahassee and in DC too! Not just the word but the energy and the actions behind the word CHANGE..."
MEXICO CITY: A total of 713 oil platform workers were evacuated Tuesday when a semi-submersible residence began to collapse into the Gulf of Mexico, said state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex). No oil was leaked in the incident and no injuries reported at the Flotel Jupiter platform which housed workers about 80 kilometers (50 miles) off the coast of Campeche state in the Gulf of Mexico.Initially 638 workers were evacuated earlier Tuesday after water entered part of the facility and it began to lean to one side, but Pemex said by the afternoon all 713 workers on board the platform had been evacuated. After several attempts to rescue the facility, the platform late Tuesday "turned over and partially sank," said Pemex.-AFP/ac
CEO, Monday Morning, Founder, Green Growth Leaders
Every minute, 15 children die from drinking dirty water. Every time you eat a hamburger, you consume 2400 liters of the planet's fresh water resources -- that is the amount of water needed to produce one hamburger. Today poor people are dying from lack of water, while rich people are consuming enormous amounts of water. This water paradox illustrates that we are currently looking at a global water conflict in the making.
We are terrifyingly fast consuming one of the most important and perishable resources of the planet -- our water. Global water use has tripled over the last 50 years. The World Bank reports that 80 countries now have water shortages with more than 2.8 billion people living in areas of high water stress. This is expected to rise to 3.9 billion -- more than half of the world's population -- by 2030 in a 'business as usual'-scenario. The status as of today is sobering: the planet is facing a 'water bankruptcy' and we are facing a gloomy future where the fight for the 'blue gold' is king.
The growing water scarcity is a primary driver for insecurity, instability and conflicts and is currently setting the stage for future water wars -- unless global action is taken. This was the main message from a report released last month from the US Senate "Avoiding Water Wars: Water Scarcity and Central Asia's Growing Importance for Stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan". The report warned of coming water wars in Central and South Asia due to water scarcity and predicted that it "will be felt all over the world".
A looming crisis
As little as 0.75 percent of the total water available on earth is accessible fresh water. These 0.75 percent are perhaps the world's most important resource. Our global economy, our industries and our everyday life runs on this water.
But fresh water is a finite and vulnerable resource. In some places, like parts of North America and Europe, water is plentiful, but in most parts of the world the water resources are under stress due to a growing imbalance between a mounting demand for water and shrinking water reserves. This means that large parts of the world are running out of water. Sana -- the capital of Yemen -- is likely to be the first capital city to completely run dry in a few years. A paper presented by the World Bank entitled "the Aftermath of Current Situation in the Absence of Work" concluded that Yemen will run out of water in the period between 2020-2050. Some 60 percent of China's 669 cities are already short of water and the current record drought in several of China's region is directly linked to their problems with water scarcity.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) seismic hazard map show the probability level for an earthquake across the U.S. based on ground shaking, faults, seismicity and geodesy. This information helps dictate everything from building codes, insurance rates and public policy.
U.S. Seismic Activity Near Nuclear Power Plants/Research Reactors
Looking at the overlap of U.S. nuclear reactors (both power and research facilities) and earthquake zones is pretty alarming. The West Coast isn't as peppered with nukes as the states east of the Mississippi are but they're sitting atop some pretty shaky ground.
Five U.S. reactors in quake zones
Map points out at-risk nuke plants
By Steve Sternberg
USA TODAY
At least five U.S. nuclear reactors are in earthquake-prone seismic zones, potentially exposing them to the forces that damaged the Fukushima plant in Japan, a new analysis shows.
The at-risk reactors are the Diablo Canyon Power Plant and San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in California; the South Texas Project near the Gulf Coast; the Waterford Steam Electric Station in Louisiana; and the Brunswick Steam Electric Plant in North Carolina.
They appear in an analysis by the mapping and geographic data firm ESRI Inc., based in Redlands, Calif. The online map, the first of its kind to let the public search potential danger zones by address, includes U.S. Geologic Survey (USGS) seismic information and earthquake history for every nuclear plant in the USA.
After the Fukushima disaster, President Obama ordered the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to evaluate the earthquake risk of every nuclear plant in the nation, said Victor Dricks, an NRC spokesman. Dricks said NRC regulations require companies that build nuclear plants to take into account local seismic history and fortify the plants against the largest quake that is likely to occur.
Dricks said the U.S. has taken proper precautions to ensure the safety of its plants. San Onofre, for instance, is built to withstand a magnitude-7.0 earthquake within 5 miles of the site, he said. In addition, the plant is 30 feet above sea level and has a reinforced concrete sea wall that is 30 feet tall and could withstand a 27-foot tsunami.
Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi plant suffered major damage from a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and 46-foot tsunami that hit March 11. The disaster triggered nuclear radiation leaks and an extensive evacuation in the region around the plant, which was built to withstand a 19-foot tsunami.
The ESRI map aims to help Americans determine their risk. It allows users to plug in their location and find the five nearest nuclear plants.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Tasers. Brand-new SUVs. A top-of-the-line iPad. A fully loaded laptop. In the year since the Gulf oil spill, officials along the coast have gone on a spending spree with BP money, dropping tens of millions of dollars on gadgets and other gear — much of which had little to do with the cleanup, an Associated Press investigation shows.
The oil giant opened its checkbook while the crisis was still unfolding last spring and poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Gulf Coast communities with few strings attached.
In sleepy Ocean Springs, Miss., reserve police officers got Tasers. The sewer department in nearby Gulfport bought a $300,000 vacuum truck that never sucked up a drop of oil. Biloxi, Miss., bought 14 SUVs. A parish president in Louisiana got herself a deluxe iPad, her spokesman a $3,100 laptop. And a county in Florida spent $560,000 on rock concerts to promote its oil-free beaches.
In every case, communities said the new, more powerful equipment was needed to deal at least indirectly with the spill.
In many instances, though, the connection between the spill and the expenditures was remote, and lots of money wound up in cities and towns little touched by the goo that washed up on shore, the AP found in records requested from more than 150 communities and dozens of interviews.
Florida's tourism agency sent chunks of a $32 million BP grant as far away as Miami-Dade and Broward counties on the state's east coast, which never saw oil from the disaster. BP announced Monday it would give another $30 million to help several northwest Florida counties promote tourism.
***NOTE: THE CORPORATIONS ARE KILLING EVERYTHING, INCLUDING US AND A LOT OF PEOPLE DO NOT GIVE A DAMN!
Amateur video taken near Deerfield beach FL that shows damage to the reef being caused as I write this by excessive sand and silt on a delicate ecosystem. The damage is visible even in the video which is hard to capture with no point of reference. Ledges are filled in with fresh sand, silt covers delicate corals and sponges and silt pours down like snow.
The sound of dredge machines hums in the background at tax payers expense, pumping grey sand onto the beach for the benefit of beach front condos and hotels that could not even exist without tax payers to subsidize the insurance costs of living on a barrier island.
As efforts are made in Washington to trim the federal government, one group is pointing to an area of the government that, it says, “must be cut back”—the string of national nuclear laboratories. These facilities, it charges, are “spending billions upon billions in taxpayer money annually while developing deadly nuclear technology.”
The organization is the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space based in Maine and for 25 years active in challenging nuclear technology.
In a statement it issued last week in connection with the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the Global Network declared that the U.S. national nuclear laboratories have been “breeding grounds for developing lethal atomic energy.” The laboratories are Los Alamos and Sandia in New Mexico, Oak Ridge in Tennessee, Lawrence Livermore and Lawrence Berkeley in California, Brookhaven in New York, Argonne in Illinois, Pacific Northwest in Washington, Savannah River in South Carolina and Idaho National Laboratory.
The U.S. national nuclear laboratory system grew out of the Manhattan Project, the World War II crash program to build atomic bombs. Los Alamos, Oak Ridge and Argonne were original Manhattan Project laboratories. Later other laboratories were set up, all owned by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, with the mission of developing nuclear technology.
The Obama administration lifted the drilling ban early to appease the industryand its political supporters, even as it backtracked on requiring environmental studies of some drilling operations. And there are questions about the reliability of even the best equipment in deep water."
The Obama administration should not rush a decision on whether to allow BP to resume oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Offshore drilling may be safer thanks to reforms enacted in the wake of last year's Deepwater Horizon disaster. But those new safety procedures are only now taking hold, and there still are serious questions about the industry's ability to prevent or respond to any spill. BP also has additional questions to answer, from how it operated the Deepwater rig and dealt with regulators to what the company has learned and how committed it is to making good on damage to property, business and the environment.
The New York Times reported this week that BP has asked the government for permission to resume drilling at 10 existing production and development wells in deep gulf waters. BP agreed to follow new safety measures put in place over the past 11 months that seek to harden undersea wellheads and give operators more capability to respond to a crisis. The deal would not include any new drilling. But reopening BP's access to the gulf would be a victory for the oil industry and a key step toward new exploration and development.
The federal government has approved eight deepwater drilling permits in the gulf since imposing the new safety rules, and the measures go a long way toward correcting the voids in safety that contributed to the Deepwater rig explosion that spewed more than 200 million gallons of oil into the gulf. Operators must build stronger wellheads and bore casings, better manage the buildup of pressure in the pipes and have equipment that can kill and cap the well should a blowout occur. The measures require third-party monitoring of key equipment, and new training and reporting procedures would better prepare rig operators and first responders to tackle any spill.
But the federal government should keep reviewing these permits in a methodical way. It already has taken at great faith the industry's assurances that these new safety protocols are part of a new culture and not protections that exist only on paper. The Obama administration lifted the drilling ban early to appease the industryand its political supporters, even as it backtracked on requiring environmental studies of some drilling operations. And there are questions about the reliability of even the best equipment in deep water.
BP's application should be given special scrutiny given its role in the nation's worst environmental disaster. The civil suits, federal criminal probe and national investigating panel have helped provide a clearer picture of the flawed decisionmaking process in the run-up to the Deepwater explosion, which killed 11 workers. BP's candor and its process for compensating victims of the spill leave much to be desired. Its track record is relevant, because the company is making assurances about what it would do next time. The Obama administration has come a long way in less than a year to make drilling safer. That needs to remain the focus, not expediting the return of an oil company that brought disaster to the gulf.
Join us during Earth Week for webcast Teach-In hosted by Ultimate Civics' Riki Ott and Goodwill Ambassador John Francis. Our three-part, on-demand web cast Changing the Endgame will revisit the Gulf----and other communities disproportionately bearing the cost of America's fossil fuel dependency----to unite Americans in a serious commitment to transitioning away from fossil fuels and confronting the dangerous expansion of corporate power. register now at www.ChangingTheEndgame.org/registration.
Last year's oil spill is still affecting communities along the US Gulf coast. A recent survey in southern Louisiana found a high number of people who say they are getting ill more often and their sickness is consistent with chemical exposure. Al Jazeera's Monica Villamizar reports from Louisiana.
Unfortunately the oil disaster of 2010 is not the only disaster we have faced in recent history. But because of these trials by fire that we have experienced in the past, we have become acutely aware of public health concerns that come with the response and aftermath of such events. Due to what we feel was an underestimated risk surrounding the cleanup environment of the oil spill, LEAN purchased and gave away $12,000.00 worth of personal protective gear in an effort to help workers, fisherman, and residents protect themselves. As a small organization, unsanctioned by the official response authorities, our efforts were vastly inadequate to effectively combat the dangers of such a vast area of concern.
It is greatly distressing that we now find ourselves in a situation we hoped would not happen. There seems to be an alarming number of individuals along the Gulf Coast experiencing severe health problems as a result of events related to the oil disaster of 2010. What is even more distressing is that these individuals are finding little support and even less relief from there struggles. There is a great need for effectively identifying these illnesses and adequately treating them.
Our efforts to assist the individuals suffering in the aftermath of this tragedy has led us to partnering once again with our friend Dr. Mike Robicheaux of Raceland, LA. LEAN, Dr. Mike, as well as the patients he is seeing, for free, hope that our combined voices will garner the attention necessary to gain the assistance that is needed to remediate the suffering occurring here.
The videos below are the personal testimony of Mr. Clayton Matherne. Mr. Matherne has asked us to publish his story in hopes that it will help others who are suffering know that they are not alone and for those who are not aware of their plight that assistance is greatly needed.
Please watch, share, and assist in the solution in whatever way you can.
Friday will mark three weeks since the horrific earthquake/tsunami devastated Japan’s northeast and knocked out the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant reactor’s cooling system.
ABC News reports that Japanese officials are testing the soil contaminated by radiation from the crippled plant to try to determine whether spring farming can begin, as “alarmingly high radiation levels” have been detected outside the evacuation zone today.
In the immediate days that followed the disaster, discussions began about the viability of nuclear power — from which the U.S. currently gets at least 20 percent of its energy — without a firm consensus on what happens next.
Although much has been made of the fact that no nuclear power plants have been built in the U.S. since the incident at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1979, it isn’t because those who favor such plants have been spooked by that incident. No, it’s because of the exorbitant costs associated with building a plant that has stopped production.
According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the last construction permit for a nuclear plant was issued in January of 1978. The last year a nuclear plant went on line was in 1996, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
In Florida, there are currently five nuclear reactors in operation in Florida, with two at Turkey Point on Biscayne Bay, two in Port St. Lucie, and one at Crystal River. The Crystal River reactor (CR-3) has been shut down for repairs since September 2009, when a large crack was discovered in the concrete and steel containment vessel. In recent weeks, just as the plant was being prepared to go back online, new cracks were discovered.
Now the Green Party of Florida says after Japan, no more.
Anita is the Green Party candidate who with only $300, social networking and her singular grassroots efforts in the community achieved success being elected to the Hillsborough County Soil and Water Conservation Board - SEAT 5. She understands intimately how to establish and work the TRUTHSAYING within our global consciousness via *the internet*. Anita has been a consistent resource in uncovering the ongoing poisoning of our Gulf basin. 
USGS 
