We’re coming up on the second anniversary of the BP spill, and the specter of that flaming rig, oiled pelicans, and a sullied Gulf seems to be dimming by the day. Unless, of course, you happened to have your life ruined by the disaster; in that case, it’s not as easy to watch the BP-sponsored TV ads that paint the region as back to its happy, sunny self and assume the hardship is over.
Bloomberg News has a great roundup of the myriad ways that the fallout from the catastropher is still deeply impacting the Gulf economy. Businesses, especially those in the seafood industry, have been ruined. The oyster market has been “destroyed”. Fishermen and distributors must trawl further than ever for shrimp, populations of which have been wiped out. Continue reading “Gulf Spill still Destroying”
On March 11 2011, at 2:46pm, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck Japan. The earthquake, followed by a colossal tsunami, devastated the nation, together killing over 10,000 people. The earthquake also triggered the start of a triple nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, run by Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco).
Of the three reactors that melted down, one was nearly 40 years old and should have been decommissioned two decades ago. The cooling pipes, “the veins and arteries of the old nuclear reactors”, which circulated fluid to keep the core temperature down, ruptured….
..Tepco has long been a scandal-ridden company, caught time and time again covering up data on safety lapses at their power plants, or doctoring film footage which showed fissures in pipes. How was the company able to get away with such long-standing behaviour?
According to an explosive book recently published in Japan, they owe it to what the author, Tomohiko Suzuki, calls “Japan’s nuclear mafia… A conglomeration of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats, the shady nuclear industry, their lobbyists…” And at the centre of it all stands Japan’s actual mafia: the yakuza…..
For his book, The Yakuza and the Nuclear Industry, Suzuki went undercover at Fukushima to find first-hand evidence .
….The initial work, directly after a series of hydrogen explosions in March, was extremely dangerous. Radiation was reaching levels so high that the Japanese government raised the safety exposure levels and even ordered scientists to stop monitoring radiation levels in some areas of the plants
. Tepco sent out word to their contractors to gather as many people as possible and to offer substantial wages. Yakuza recruited from all over Japan; the initial workers were paid 50,000 yen (£407) per day, but one dispatch company offered 200,000 yen (£1,627) per day.Even then, recruits were hard to find. Officials in Fukushima reportedly told local businesses, “Bring us the living dead. People no one will miss.”
‘SAFETY’ LEVEL RAISED TO OVER 500 TIMES HIGHER
The labour crunch was eased somewhat when the Japanese government and Tepco raised the “safe” radiation exposure levels at the plant from pre-earthquake levels of 130-180cpm (radiation exposure per minute) to 100,000cpm…. OVER 500 TIMES HIGHER
this week, ‘occupy london’ activists opened up a new community squatted building in the city, near old street. it is a deserted primary school with loads of beautiful airy classrooms, a small gym, and some pleasant outdoor space. it has lain unused for three years and the owners are awaiting planning permission before demolishing. in the meantime, the hope is to put it to good use for the community. see photos and report and watch video of the new ‘school of ideas’.
American consumers are unwittingly contributing to the destruction of endangered rainforests in Sumatra by purchasing certain brands of toilet paper, asserts a new report published by the environmental group WWF.
Wiping your ASS with the Rainforest ??The report, Don't Flush Tiger Forests: Toilet Paper, U.S. Supermarkets, and the Destruction of Indonesia's Last Tiger Habitats, takes aim at two tissue brands that source fiber from Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), a paper products giant long criticized by environmentalists and scientists for its forestry practices on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
The brands — Paseo and Livi — are among the fastest growing, in terms of sales, in the United States. Both brands are commonly marketed for hotels, restaurants, and public restrooms, according to the report.
APP has converted large tracts of Sumatran rainforest for wood-pulp plantations used to produce fiber for paper products. The forests serve as critical habitat for a range of endangered species and generate livelihood for rural communities.
“APP is rapidly expanding into the U.S. market with paper products linked to rain forest destruction, originating from areas that are the last home for critically endangered Sumatran tigers, elephants, and orangutans,” states the WWF report.
Wood is stacked up outside APP’s mill in Riau Province, Sumatra, one of the world’s largest pulp mills. Photo by Daniel Beltra / Greenpeace“The mill is in development by a plantation forest concession holder who currently supplies pulpwood to APP,” an APP representative told mongabay.com, refuting the RISI story.
WWF estimates that APP has destroyed nearly 5 million hectares of forest in Sumatra since it began operations in 1984. APP is still heavily dependent on sourcing fiber from natural forests, a consequence of “historically low investment in plantation development and a strong reliance on plantations located on peat soils and in areas with community conflict,” according to the report. ……
Global mobilization for May 2012
May 1: strike (in Latin America and the U.S.)
May 12: day global rally
May 15: Global Strike / day Transition
info: Minutes of the meeting of the International via Mumble 28/01/2012
(The ‘TAV’ here is a stupid, useless expensive high speed train that was set to destroy the unique Soussa valley till a mass uprising got in the way)
With charges such as violence, property damage and injuries to police officers, more than 40 activists of the NO TAV movement have been put under investigation: 25 are under arrest, while the remaining ones are under house arrest and similar banning orders. The operation started at dawn on January 26, saw more than 150 officers involved, and took place all over Italy (and even parts of France, where some local activists were prohibited to travel to Italy). The majority of arrests were made in Turin, but many other towns and cities were also targeted by the raids: Milan, Palermo, Rome, Padua, Genoa, and many more.The operation is specifically linked to the clashes that took place between NO TAV activists and police officers in the two big action days of summer 2011, June 27 and July 3.
Many of the arrestees are prominent activists, linked to various radical movements. In Milan the police arrested Paolo Ferrari, an ex-Red Brigade member who’d got out of prison in 2004 after a 30-year sentence, and who’d been recently linked to a local social centre. In Turin one of the historical founders of the social centre Askatasuna was also arrested, and many other social centres were raided. Guido Fissore, a retired Councillor famous in th
NO TAV: it's impossible to stop us!
e No TAV movement for going on hunger strike last summer as part of the protests, was arrested and his house searched. He’s now under house arrest and can only communicate with his close family.
Also arrested Tobia Imperato, employee of Piedmont’s Institute for the History of Resistance and author of the book Le scarpe dei suicidi (The suicidees’ shoes, PDF downloadable here), about 3 anarchists arrested in the 90′s in Turin accused of sabotage. Two of them, Edoardo Massari and Soledad Rosas, committed suicide while still in jail. Also under investigation are four editors of Radio Black Out, the most prominent radio in the world of political activism in Italy.
17 Jan 2012: China Sets First-Ever Cap
On Greenhouse Gas Emissions
”The Chinese government has ordered five cities and two provinces to set caps on greenhouse gas emissions in preparation for a series of regional carbon markets. Last week, China’s National Development and Reform Commission urged Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing and Shenzhen, as well as the provinces of Hubei and Guangdong, to set “overall emissions control targets” and submit strategy proposals on how to achieve them. A plan developed by Guangdong — which commits the province to achieving 20 percent of its total energy consumption from non-fossil fuels by 2015 — has already been approved by the central government. The province must also cut its “carbon intensity,” or the CO2 emissions per unit of economic growth, by 19.5 percent. China as a whole, which has already passed the U.S. as the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter, has committed to reducing its carbon intensity by 40 to 45 percent by 2020. According to a new government report, China’s urban population surpassed its rural population for the first time ever in 2011.”
Ironically a centralised authoritarian government is more able to respond to the imminent scientifically proven climate disaster.
Environmental activists have been repressed again, just like unions an all ‘wage slaves’. It’s also ironic that to help stop climate chaos (and supply a plus 12% p.a. energy demand) the state is pressing ahead with the biggest and most destructive mega dam projects in history. Green Activists Feel Sting of Chinese Government Crackdown
Meanwhile back in the USA, the other great CO2 producer, politicians who ”believe” in climate change can’t survive, and reports of Climate disasters are disappearing from the media. The climate deniers are having a field day, with false or manipulated evidence spread by right wing and oil company funded media and white male bloggers.
The latest this week, featured again by the BBC, says CO2 emissions have averted an Ice Age.. perfect propaganda to keep on destroying the planet, while even they admit levels would have to be below 240ppm for icing to even begin, way below even pre industrial levels.. no matter, damage done, and a name made for some happy researchers.Carbon emissions ‘will defer Ice Age’
The Free 