Thursday, October 31, 2013

Rare Hybrid Solar Eclipse Sunday November 3: 2013

Rare Hybrid Solar Eclipse Sunday November 3: 2013
Oct 31, 2013 | GabeHashTV

The eclipse will travel about 13,600 kilometers of Earth's surface , the eclipse path begins in the Atlantic Ocean off the east coast of the United States and head east across the Atlantic and throughout Central Africa.

Totality will be visible from the northern Atlantic Ocean (east of Florida) to Africa (Gabon (landfall), R. Congo, DR Congo, Uganda), with maximum of 1 minute and 39 seconds visible from the Atlantic Ocean south of Ivory Coast and Ghana.


Toxic algae killing Florida manatees at record rates

Toxic algae killing Florida manatees at record rates
Oct 31, 2013 | Raw Story / Agency France-Presse

Toxic algae blooms that deplete the water of essential oxygen are killing a record number of manatees in Florida this year, biologists say.

A total of 769 manatees have died trough Tuesday, making 2013 the deadliest year ever for the blubbery denizens of the deep found off the Florida coast, Save the Manatee Club announced.

With more than two months left this year, nearly twice the number of manatees have already died compared to all of 2012, which saw 392 confirmed manatee deaths.

The last record — 766 dead manatees — was set in 2010, when an unusually cold winter and spring killed hundreds of the delicate creatures, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Manatees live near the coastline, and when the weather turns cold, they often shelter near springs or in warmer discharge canals at power plants to avoid the condition known as “cold stress,” which can weaken and eventually kill the aquatic mammals.

“With 2013′s catastrophic loss of manatee lives coming so close on the heels of the mass mortality suffered during 2010, the already difficult job to ensure the survival of these gentle and defenseless marine mammals has been made all the more challenging, and it’s not over yet,” said the club’s executive director Patrick Rose.

“What we put into our waters, how much we pump from our aquifer and draw from our springs and rivers, together with how we use our waterways, all has an impact on our own lives and the lives of every aquatic species.”

The club’s director of science and conservation blamed two “unusual mortality events” for this year’s major losses.

Toxic red-tide bloom killed 276 manatees this winter and spring in southwestern Florida, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Most of the deaths took place in the Cape Cora-Fort Myers region off the Gulf coast.

The second event remains unexplained, but saw more than 100 manatees die of undetermined causes in Brevard County off the Atlantic coast.

Tripp said those deaths were linked to various algal blooms and the loss of 47,000 acres (19,000 hectares) of seagrass since 2010.

Of the total number of deaths this year, 123 were stillborn, newborn or young calves, in another record for that mortality category.

Manatees are a protected species in Florida, highly affected by urban development in recent years along the coast in the central and southern parts of the state.

In the bay of Miami, where families of three or four manatees are commonly spotted along the shore, many of the animals are killed after being struck by boats.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

‘Melting’ Starfish Along West Coast Prompts Fukushima Fears

‘Melting’ Starfish Along West Coast Prompts Fukushima Fears
Oct 30, 2013 | Story Leak | Mikael Thalen

Scientists are attempting to find out why one species of starfish is literally melting in the waters off of Washington state and Canada.

Biologists in Seattle took to the Puget Sound waters last weekend to collect sick and healthy sunflower starfish for testing. Several labs including one at Cornell University will examine and compare samples with Canadian specimens already being analyzed.



“We’ve got some sea stars that look like they’re melting on the bottom,” Seattle Aquarium biologists Jeff Christiansen said.

Whether the cause is environmental or disease related is currently unknown, but the number of melting starfish increases drastically with each passing day.

“At this time, we don’t have a good idea of what’s causing it, so we’re going to look for everything,” Christiansen said. “There are a lot of melting sea stars out there, more than even a couple days ago.”
According to Veterinarian Lesanna Lahner, the starfish specie’s condition is rapidly deteriorating, with more than half displaying the same disturbing symptoms.

“It’s concerning to hear in a short time period we’re seeing 60% of this species diseased in this area,” Lahner said.

Strangely, the symptoms have only been seen in certain areas of Washington’s Puget Sound and Canadian waters. While the verdict is still unknown, many are pointing fingers to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant, which has continued to leak over 300 tons of highly radioactive water into the ocean every day.

As reported by investigative journalist Michael Snyder, massive evidence of Fukushima’s effect on the West Coast continues to be evident despite the silence from most most western media.

Earlier this month, Canadian authorities found massively high radiation levels in sea bass, with one fish showing 1,000 becquerels per kilogram of cesium.

Plankton tested from Hawaii to the West Coast have been found to have high levels of cesium-137, with scientists in California finding the same isotopes present in 15 out of 15 Bluefin Tuna tested.

Even in light of one Canadian study that found cesium-137 present in 100 percent of carp, seaweed, shark and monkfish sold to the Canadian public, western governments have continued to import Japanese sea food.

As radiation levels rise, it is likely the EPA will continue to raise ‘acceptable levels’ of radiation in the food supply. With experts predicting a grim outlook, the best options now available are informing others while protecting one’s thyroid health from increased radiation exposure.

Storyleak’s Anthony Gucciardi sits down with Dr. Edward Group to discuss the importance of protecting yourself from radiation exposure with high-quality nascent iodine.



Time to Jail the Banksters...

© The Big Picture RT
Time to Jail the Banksters...
Oct 30, 2013 | The Big Picture RT

Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone Magazine, joins Thom Hartmann. It didn't take Wall Street's allies in the financial media long to start whining about JPMorgan's $13 billion settlement with the federal government.

But is that record fine really as bad as the people on CNBC say it is?

Long Green: Squandering taxpayers' money on the Green Climate Fund

Long Green: Squandering taxpayers' money on the Green Climate Fund
Oct 27, 2013 | Willis Eschenbach / Watts Up With That

The US has some of the world's most boring looking money - it's all green. So we have terms like "greenbacks" for dollars, and "long green", meaning lots of money.

I offer this as context for what I found when I got to wondering what had happened to the United Nations "Green Climate Fund". You may recall that the Green Climate Fund was set up by the UN as the only result of the recent Rio de Janeiro Cancun conference on climate idiocy. When the Fund is going full throttle, it is supposed to disburse no less than $200 billion ($200,000,000,000) dollars each and every year to the developing countries.

It turns out that, unlike those of us skeptics who are falsely accused of receiving big bucks from big oil, the "Green Climate Fund" has already raked in millions of dollars to spend on fighting the evil forces of carbon. They have a catchy slogan, viz: "The urgency and seriousness of climate change call for ambition in financing adaptation and mitigation". Ambition in financing? What's not to like?

Now, I've worked for development organizations before. The rule of thumb is that no more than 15% of the funds should go for administration, the rest needs to go to the eventual intended recipients of the largesse.

© WattsUpWithThat

So ... how many of the millions of dollars that have been "donated" by taxpayers in a variety of countries have gone to the actual poor, to aid them in their battle against the dread CO2?

Let's start how much money we're talking about.

Here's a list of the countries who are both rich and improvident enough to squander their taxpayers' money on the Green Climate Fund. It's the usual suspects, my condolences to their citizens who are paying for this:

Australia, $513,000
Denmark, $608,000
Finland, $648,000
France, $326,000
Japan, $500,000
Germany, $1,053,000
South Korea, $2,099,000
Netherlands, $286,000
Sweden, $752,000
UK, $770,000
TOTAL, $7,555,000

The Koreans put in two megabucks ... but then, they also negotiated a deal where the Green Climate Fund is headquartered in Seoul. So no tears for them, they'll make out like bandits. Landing a UN drone hive is like landing a money machine, the local landlords will be overjoyed.

Now, of course, $7.5 million, that's a long ways from their goal of dispersing $200 billion per year. In fact, it's about this far from their goal:

© WattsUpWithThat
I see this as very good news - perhaps the countries of the world have figured out that they have better things to do with their money.

Anyhow, I started all of this out with a simple question. How much of the $7.5 million went to help the people it's supposed to help?

Here's the not-so-simple answer. When you do this kind of thing, first you have to hand out the plum jobs. Among those are the Members of the Board. Of course, then you have to pay for their travel, and a place for them to meet, for their meetings. And it turns out that three Board Meetings cost just under a million dollars. Expensive meetings. Very expensive meetings.

Oh, can't forget the Board Committees, Panels, and Working groups. They cost just under four hundred thousand. Total, a million three ...

The next round of plum jobs are the people who make up the "Interim Secretariat". From the name, I take it that these folks are just placeholders until we get more parasites for the real Secretariat ...in any case, there's two million in the budget to hire fifteen people. My mathematics makes that $133,000 per person per year.

So one thing is clear. The UN Personnel came to do good for the poor ... and they're doing very well indeed. A hundred and thirty grand per person? You can see why the South Koreans will be the big winners in the deal.

It gets worse. They actually hire themselves to do the work, at incredible rates. For example, from the UN FCCC they are hiring one full-time and one part-time person, plus some administrative support ... for a cool half million dollars. One and a half people. Half a megabuck.

And from the UN GEF, same deal, one full-time and one 60% time person, cost, another half million.

Now, you and I might be satisfied by that. But the UN folks are realists. They know that even if all those fifteen UN drones could somehow work together, they still couldn't organize a booze-up in a frat house. For that, they always hire consultants. You know, people who can actually do the stuff the UN employees can only talk about.

So the Green Climate Fund has three-quarters of a million bucks in the budget for consultants, to make sure something gets done.

Oh, and did I mention $200,000 per year for the Executive Director?

Now, you gotta know that you can't have fifteen pluted bloatocrats, plus 3.1 loan-drones from other UN agencies, and three-quarters of a million dollars worth of consultants, without renting some executive-type hive to house the worker bees. Plus phones and faxes and the like, that's a million two ...

Of course, you can't do business by email, phone, and Skype. Gotta have a travel budget ... three hundred grand.

Add all that up, and the "Interim Secretariat" costs $5.3 million ...

Lastly, a Trust Fund needs an Interim Trustee. The Green Climate Fund hires that service from the World Bank for just under three-quarters of a million dollars per year ... one trustee ...IT costs ... I can hardly believe it myself, but by a strange coincidence, what it costs them to run the Green Climate Fund adds up to ... well ... about seven and a half million dollars.

And that means that of the $7.5 million dollars donated by taxpayers all over the world, the people in the developing countries will get ...

None.

Like I said, while I bemoan the waste of resources, I see all this as good news. Any country that takes a serious look at what's happened to the first seven plus million that was donated to the Green Climate Fund will certainly have second thoughts about giving them money.

And that's a good thing, because if they are this profligate with the first seven and a half million ... can you imagine these same pack of over-fed fools in charge the dispensing of two hundred billion dollars to the developing world? I shudder to think of the waste, corruption, bribery, blackmail, and tribalism that would be involved in that kind of an industrial-scale goat-rope. The only people who'd be happy if that happened would be corrupt developing world leaders ... and of course, Swiss bankers ...

w.

DATA: I do give the GCF high marks for one thing: transparency. All relevant documents are here.

☢ Fukushima: Beyond Urgent ☢

☢ Fukushima: Beyond Urgent ☢
Oct 29, 2013 | Platos Cave



PLEASE SHARE/REMIX THIS VIDEO which briefly covers the 3 core meltdowns, the vulnerable and leaky water storage tanks, radiation health effects, contamination of the Pacific Ocean and marine life, Unit 4 collapse risk and Unit 4 fuel rod removal risk. The situation is ongoing and deteriorating, and it's highly likely that it's actually worse than presented here. This is only a basic outline of some key elements, which I have tried to present in a way that should be easily understood by everyone, particularly those who've not been following this crisis. I have also compiled a list of links below that will inform you more.


FOR REGULAR NEWS UPDATES ABOUT FUKUSHIMA:

ENEnews:
http://enenews.com/
ENEnews on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/ENENEWS
Fukushima Diary:
http://fukushima-diary.com/
Fukushima Diary on Facebook:
http://tinyurl.com/kgumyud

THREE HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FILMS:

On Fukushima Beach 1 (remastered):
http://tinyurl.com/ooc77tt
On Fukushima Beach 2: The Lights of Fukushima (Director's Cut): http://tinyurl.com/nr8rq2j
On Fukushima Beach 3: The Bombing of Kyoto:
http://tinyurl.com/n3v569n

YOU TUBE CHANNELS GIVING NEWS UPDATES ABOUT FUKUSHIMA:

MsMilkytheclown1
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQHop...
Kevin Blanch:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9xHD...
NibiruMagick2012:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCguov...
MissingSky101:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTtph...
Rad Chick:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq_6B...
redbuttonstudio:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCayPT...
HatrickPenry
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2u90...

VIDEOS/ARTICLES ABOUT HEALTH EFFECTS OF FUKUSHIMA RADIATION ON THE PACIFIC:

28 Signs That the West Coast of the U.S Is Being Fried with Nuclear Radiation from Fukushima:
http://tinyurl.com/qgzg4b9

Hot particles from Japan to SEATTLE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9urTb...

Hot Particles detected in SEATTLE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-e1H...

Is Fukushima killing babies in PHILADELPHIA?:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMV4p...

Take action to lower radioactivity allowed in food::
http://tinyurl.com/l7n7tmn

Post-Fukushima Food Monitoring in the U.S (must watch):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXhlGs...

Fukushima & Pacific: Leuren Moret & Rad Chick Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx3pb...
Fukushima & Pacific: Leuren Moret & Rad Chick Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCnFk...
Fukushima & Pacific: Leuren Moret & Rad Chick Part 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgUoE...
Fukushima & Pacific: Leuren Moret & RadChick Part 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVdWt...
Fukushima & Pacific: Leuren Moret & RadChick Part 5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aniKq...

Nascent Iodine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC8Ysl...

THE COVER UP

'The story of Plume-Gate, the world's largest, provable cover-up':
A book by Hatrick Penry

Video about the book:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uU7Kg...

PDF of the book:
http://hatrickpenryunbound.com/?p=3683



REPORTS FROM THE LAST FEW WEEKS OF PACIFIC OCEAN MARINE LIFE DIE-OFFS AND SICKNESS:

The Ocean is Broken:
http://tinyurl.com/ozmfg23

The complete collapse of sardine population on West Coast of Canada around Vancouver:
http://tinyurl.com/kzevukv

Alarming mass die-off of starfish in areas along Canada's Pacific coast:
http://tinyurl.com/mch9mdp

Diseased Alaska seals with abnormal brain growths and undersized lymph nodes: http://tinyurl.com/mhmz3c6

There are many more similar reports, but I cannot fit anymore in the space provided here.

'Fukushima: Beyond Urgent' was made of clips from the videos below. All footage reproduced for educational purposes only. Thanks to all those who uploaded the originals:

Earthquake in Japan as it started:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWgJn...
Shocking New Footage of 2011 Japan Tsunami
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVb9Y...
Michio Kaku - Fukushima is still a ticking time bomb (2011):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgNcN...
Michio Kaku on 'Democracy Now' (2011)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNSoX...
Dr Helen Caldicott - Fukushima Nuclear Disaster:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ITrX...
Fukushima Is the China Syndrome Happening (August 2013):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOhb4...
Fukushima farmers describe what it's like to harvest poisoned food:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfaPh...
BBC News: Fukushima nuclear plant. Radioactive water leak found:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC8kg...
MONUMENTAL Troubles at Fukushima. From BAD to WORSE update 8_31_13:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT1-r...
Nuclear power expert Imad Khadduri discusses Fukushima:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urE-R...
Dr. Helen Caldicott on Fukushima and the Perils of Nuclear Power:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsrik...
Under Fire, TEPCO Prepares for Critical Phase of Fukushima Cleanup:
http://tinyurl.com/ka2stgr

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Exposed: Are You Eating Poop? Human BioSludge Sold as 'Organic' Compost

© TruthStream Media
Eat Sh*t! Human BioSludge Sold as 'Organic' Compost
Oct 29, 2013 | TRUTHstreammedia

Sewage sludge is "the wet solid cake produced after human, residential and industrial wastes are combined in wastewater treatment plants". (http://www.sludgevictims.com/3-SV2002...)

Industrial companies need viable places to dump their waste products, and just as the fertilizer industry has found a market for fluoride waste in drinking water, the waste water industry has created a fertilizer market using sewer sludge as a cheap crop input. Moreover, the "organic" and natural compost movement associated with healthy, homegrown crops has adopted this up-cycled humanure that the EPA and several lobbyists say is 'safe' for unrestricted use on veggies and more. The only problem is that the compost made by cities from what is flushed down the toilet may contain residual pharmaceutical drugs, antibiotics, sex hormones and other endocrine disruptors, radiated derivatives from cancer treatments, steroids and other excreted compounds that could enter the human body, crops or food chain/environment with total affects unknown.

TEPCO must address ‘institutionalized lying’ before it restarts world’s biggest nuclear power plant – governor

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) Fukushima Dai-ichi
nuclear power plant at Okuma town in
Fukushima prefecture (AFP Photo)
TEPCO must address ‘institutionalized lying’ before it restarts world’s biggest nuclear power plant – governor
Oct 28, 2013 | RT

Tokyo Electric Power Co must give a more thorough account of the Fukushima disaster and address “institutionalized lying” in the company, before it will be permitted to restart the Kashiwazaki Kariwa plant, according to a local governor.

“If they don’t do what needs to be done, if they keep skimping on costs and manipulating information, they can never be trusted,” Niigata Prefecture Governor Hirohiko Izumida told Reuters on Monday, adding that these limitations need to be overcome before the plant is restarted. 

Hirohiko Izumida (Image from h-izumida.jp)
It is up to Izumida to approve plans to restart the reactor at the TEPCO-run Kashiwazaki Kariwa – the world’s biggest nuclear complex, located on the Japan sea coast, north-west of Tokyo. His personal commission would examine both the causes and handling of the disaster at Fukushima and lay them alongside existing regulatory safeguards to ensure a similar crisis could not reoccur.

However, he declined to mention to the wire agency when he would be launching his review and provided no agenda. “If they cooperate with us, we will be able to proceed smoothly. If not, we won't,” he said in response to questioning on the subject.

If Japanese nuclear safety regulators do lend their approval to the restart plans, Izumida remains able to essentially block TEPCO’s plans for the plant as the facility requires the backing of local officials, allotting Izumida some leverage.

Safety is our utmost priority and we are not acting on an assumption of nuclear restarts," said TEPCO spokesperson, Yoshimi Hitotsugi. “We want to work on this issue while gaining the understanding of the local population and related parties.”

Izumida suggested that TEPCO should be fully stripped of responsibility for decommissioning the destroyed Fukushima reactors, and the company subjected to a taxpayer-funded bankruptcy program. Presently, the company remains primarily concerned with funding the process, along with the frequently-occurring and very immediate issue of contaminated water leaking rather than overall nuclear safety.

“Unless we create a situation where 80-90 percent of their thinking is devoted to nuclear safety, I don't think we can say they have prioritized safety,” he said.

The decommissioning of the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi plant itself will be a long and arduous process – expected to take 30 years – and has already sparked controversy in the country.

Reuters investigations have identified widespread abuses at the plant, among them the involvement of illegal brokers. Over 6,000 staff are involved in the project. “The workers at the plant are risking their health and giving it their all,” said Izumida.

However, wage-skimming has been a habitual practice. Izumida offered to make the workers participating in the clean-up public employees.

TEPCO aims to restart Kashiwazaki Kariwa next April. If all of its reactors became operational again, the company could potentially save $1 billion on a monthly basis in fuel costs. 

(FILE) A general view of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Kariwa village,
Kashiwazaki 18 July 2007. (AFP Photo / Kazuhiro Nogi)
The TEPCO-run Fukushima Daiichi power plant was disrupted in March 2011 by a massive earthquake and tsunami which wreaked havoc at Fukushima and sparked a nuclear crisis in which meltdowns occurred in three reactors.  It was considered to be the world’s worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and has since cost TEPCO some $27 billion in losses.

Since then it has suffered frequent spillages of water containing radioactive substances. In August, one storage tank leaked over 300 tons of contaminated water. TEPCO first admitted that the Fukushima plant was leaking radioactive substances in July after months of denial.

In September, a senior utility expert at Fukushima, Kazuhiko Yamashita, said that the plant was “not under control.” TEPCO downplayed his comments, saying that he had only been talking about the plant’s waste water problem – not the facility as a whole.

There are three things required of a company that runs nuclear power plants: don't lie, keep your promises and fulfil your social responsibility,” Izumida concluded.

Monday, October 28, 2013

University of Florida Police Evict GMO Activists Scheduled to Speak

University of Florida Police Evict GMO Activists Scheduled to Speak
Oct 28, 2013 | Veterans Today | Harold Saive

Campaign to STOP Genetically Engineered Trees

For Immediate Release 28 October 2013

University of Florida Threatens to Arrest anti-GMO Presenters and Bans Them from Campus

Global Justice Ecology Project

Gainesville, FL (US) – The University of Florida, a leading institution researching genetically engineered (GE) trees [1], threatened to arrest activists from the Campaign to STOP GE Trees when they arrived on campus Saturday to prepare for a presentation to highlight critical perspectives on tree biotechnology that was scheduled for tonight. The police informed the group that their presentation had been cancelled, and warned them that they were banned from University of Florida (UF) property for three years.

“Evicting us from campus was a blatant act of censorship by the University of Florida, likely linked to the millions they are receiving for GE trees research,” said Keith Brunner, from the international Campaign to STOP Genetically Engineered Trees [2].

In 2011, the University of Florida School of Forest Resources and Conservation along with GE tree company ArborGen won a three-year, $6.3 million grant from the US Department of Energy to develop GE loblolly pines for liquid biofuel production [3]. There is rising opposition to GE trees due to concerns over genetic contamination, increased flammability, deforestation and other ecological impacts of industrial tree plantations.

The UF presentation was part of a multi-week speaking tour titled “The Growing Threat: Genetically Engineered Trees and the Future of Forests” [4]. The tour will travel through several southern states (NC, GA, FL, SC) to educate the public about the social and environmental threats posed by the proposed commercial release of billions of genetically engineered freeze tolerant eucalyptus trees in seven southern states from South Carolina to Florida to Texas.

University of Florida Professor Bron Taylor teaches a course on Environmental Ethics and had encouraged students to attend the presentation. He expressed disappointment about the cancellation and stated, “The University is supposed to be a place characterized by free and robust debate. This situation begs the question, why was the presentation cancelled and these activists banned from campus under a threat of arrest?”

City Commissioner of Lake Worth, FL, Christopher W. McVoy, Ph.D, an expert in ecological restoration of the Everglades, stated, “As a UF alumnus, I am dismayed that the University would interfere with the free exchange of ideas,” he said. “GE tree plantations have the potential to irreversibly affect large areas of Florida and the South. As Florida’s flagship academic institution and as a thought leader regarding southern plantations, the University of Florida has a particular responsibility to foster open discussion of the pros and cons of GE trees.”

“The reaction by UF was a pathetic attempt to stifle growing dissent against GE trees by an industry which is flailing amidst major public opposition,” stated Anne Petermann, International Coordinator of the Campaign to STOP GE Trees and Executive Director of Global Justice Ecology Project. “Last April, the USDA received over 37,850 comments – almost 10,000 to one – opposing the commercialization of ArborGen’s freeze tolerant GE eucalyptus trees [5]. One month later, the largest ever protest against GE trees was held at the international Tree Biotechnology 2013 conference in Asheville, NC. Opposition is building and the GE trees industry is clearly nervous about it.”

CONTACT

Will Bennington, Global Justice Ecology Project and the Campaign to STOP GE Trees, +1.802.777.5244 will@globaljusticeecology.org (on site)

Rachel Kijewski, Everglades Earth First! +1.772.361.9406 evergladesearthfirst@gmail.com (on site)

NOTES FOR EDITORS
# # #

Why We Can't Trust Anything TEPCO Says About Fukushima

Why We Can't Trust Anything TEPCO Says About Fukushima
Oct 28, 2013 | TRUTHstreammedia

Two-and-a-half years after a massive earthquake crippled the Dachaii Power Plant at Fukushima, TEPCO is giving people one of the dumbest theories on radiation proliferation we have ever heard while looking the other way at blatant corruption within the clean up...and the mainstream media refuses to put the pieces together to give anyone the bigger picture. Here's a rundown (we tried to be quick) of what's been going on...and it ain't pretty.


Sunday, October 27, 2013

How Much Mercury Escapes From Broken CFL Light Bulbs?

How Much Mercury Escapes From Broken CFL Light Bulbs?
Oct 26, 2013 | Farm Wars


Just how much mercury is emitted from broken CFL bulbs?

This video not only shows you the answer, but provides you with shocking information from an experiment conducted by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

Will your house become un-sellable if tested for mercury?

Will you inhale dangerous amounts of mercury vapor when a CFL bulb breaks in your house, even after it is cleaned up?

When a CFL bulb breaks, how far above legal limits will the mercury vapor in a room rise to?

To view the State of Main CFL study, visit this address: http://gsw.bz/maine-cfl

Please share this video with everyone you know.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Mount Etrna erupts - Italian volcano spewing lava

Mount Etrna erupts - Italian volcano spewing lava
Oct 26, 2013 | Channel 4 News

Europe's tallest and most active volcano, Mount Etna, erupted on Saturday, spewing glowing lava into the air and sending a vast plume of smoke over the southern Italian island of Sicily.

World Map of Lighnting Strikes 1995 through 2003: Notice Anything?

World Map of Lighnting Strikes 1995 through 2003: Notice Anything?
Oct 25, 2013 | Article source: Live Science | Becky Oskin

The global distribution of lightning from April 1995 to February 2003.
Credit: NOAA

Read more at:

Electrocution: New Way to Erode Mountains
Note: Be sure and view the larger image.

Friday, October 25, 2013

Twin X Class Solar Flares October 25, 2013

Twin X Class Solar Flares October 25, 2013
Oct 25, 2013 | SolarWatcher


TWIN X-CLASS SOLAR FLARES

Two major X-Class solar flares peaking to X1.7 and X2.3 were both registered from newly numbered Sunspot 1882 at 08:01 UTC this morning and15:03 UTC this afternoon . Associated with this major event was a 10cm Radio Burst (TenFlare) lasting 24 minutes and measuring 610 solar flux units and 44 minutes measuring 370 solar flux units. Two large coronal mass ejections (CME) are now visible in the latest LASCO imagery and looks to have a possible Earth directed components and we should begin to see a series of strong geomagnetic disturbances over the next 2-3 days.

Facebook Live Quake Data
https://www.facebook.com/EarthquakeHu...
http://solarwatcher.net
Earthquake Forecasting Channel
http://youtube.com/thebarcaroller
Another Quality Solar youtube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/Skyywatch...
Earthquake Reporting Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/EQForecaster
Soho Website
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/
Solar Soft website
http://www.lmsal.com/solarsoft/latest...
Solar Terrestrial Activity Report
http://www.solen.info/solar/
WSA-Enlil Solar Wind Prediction
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/wsa-enlil/cm...
Helioviewer
http://www.helioviewer.org/
Quality Solar Website
http://www.solarham.com
Estimated Planetary K index information
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/alerts/k-ind...
GOES Xray Flux Data
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rt_plots/xra...
Sunspot Information from Solar Monitor
http://www.solarmonitor.org/
Quality Weather Website
http://www.westernpacificweather.com
Space Weather Website
http://www.spaceweather.com/

Music Used is composed by Zack Hemsey - "Redemption"

Mozilla's new Lightbeam download allows users to track trackers

Reuters / Albert Gea
Mozilla's new Lightbeam download allows users to track trackers
Oct 25, 2013 | RT

Mozilla, the open-source software community responsible for the Firefox browser, has released a new download that allows users to identify who’s tracking their Internet movements.

Dubbed “Lightbeam,” the free Firefox extension will enable users to see which third party companies are monitoring their online presence, a move that Mozilla states will “illuminate the inner workings of the web.”
 
“It’s a stake in the ground in terms of letting people know the ways they are being tracked,” said Mark Surman, Mozilla’s executive director, to the UK-based Independent. “At Mozilla, we believe everyone should be in control of their user data and privacy and we want people to make informed decisions about their Web experience.”
 
With the download in place, Lightbeam creates a visual representation of all the third parties that are active on the websites you visit. Typically, that would include advertisers or other companies looking to sell your data for marketing purposes. Mozilla is also encouraging Lightbeam users to crowd-source their data in order to generate “a big-picture view of how tracking works on the Internet,” potentially singling out which companies are the most active in their monitoring.

"The visualization grows with every site you visit and every request made from your browser,” Mozilla said in its online description of Lightbeam. “In addition to the graph view, you can also see your data in a clock view to examine connections over a 24-hour period or in a List view to drill down into individual sites."
 
Considering the software’s ability to access such detailed information, there’s already concern that the program may jeopardize the privacy of users willing to share and upload the data it tracks. Mozilla, however, says there’s no need to worry: Lightbeam does not record IP addresses, and everything users decide to share will be done anonymously. It can also be easily uninstalled.

Mozilla has already upgraded its Firefox browser after learning the NSA was exploiting deficiencies in the browser to uncover people using the anonymity-protecting Tor software and gain access to their data.
 
“Our focus in on building a web based on openness and transparency,” Surman added.“Our dream is a world where people know more about how the web works and take control of their lives online. We need a posse of people to get involved and make that happen.”

Thursday, October 24, 2013

The Forest Mafia: How Scammers Steal Millions Through Carbon Markets

A forest village of the indigenous
Matses tribe in the Amazon.
(Rebecca Spooner/Survival International)
The Forest Mafia: How Scammers Steal Millions Through Carbon Markets
Oct 11, 2013 | The Atlantic | Ryan Jacobs
"The product is invisible, poorly understood, and regulation is extremely limited."
When the balding Australian first stepped off the riverboat and into the isolated pocket of northeastern Peru's Amazon jungle in 2010, he had what seemed like a noble, if quixotic, business plan.

An ambitious real estate developer, David Nilsson hoped to ink joint venture agreements with the regional government of Loreto province and the leaders of the indigenous Matses community to preserve vast thickets of the tribe's remote rainforest. Under a global carbon-trading program, he wished to sell shares of the forest's carbon credits to businesses that hope to mitigate, or offset, their air pollution.

Located a six-day ride from the frontier city of Iquitos, the jungle’s vegetation, soils, and looming trees store an immense amount of carbon dioxide—roughly one ton, the equivalent of one UN-backed carbon credit, per tree.

In an ideal scenario, this is how it's supposed to work: A community in a developing country works with an NGO or developer to design a plan to protect a large swathe of forest and thus prevent the release of the harmful chemical compound into the atmosphere, in accordance with the United Nations’ program called REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation). Then, it can get the emissions reductions certified by a third-party auditor and sell the resulting carbon credits to corporations in developed countries interested in reducing their own carbon footprints. (Deforestation accounts for roughly 17 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions.)

Nilsson's Hong Kong-based company, Sustainable Carbon Resources Limited, planned to help the indigenous community set up the Peruvian carbon credit project in exchange for sharing the profits once they were sold. If Nilsson’s plan worked, in theory the forest would be spared from loggers, his company would net some profit, and the indigenous community would receive millions of dollars in funding for education and medical care from investors and corporations interested in expanding sustainability and social responsibility efforts. 

Continue reading..

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

China's industrial pollution is so bad that it's dumping toxic mercury on Japan's Mount Fuji

© Natural News
China's industrial pollution is so bad that it's dumping toxic mercury on Japan's Mount Fuji
Oct 23, 2013 | Natural News | PF Louis

China and India combined have more coal-burning energy plants than the rest of the world, and China has more than India. Japanese scientists are openly complaining that the almost 13,000 foot Mt. Fuji is coated with toxic mercury from China's coal burning plants.

Some Chinese scientists have challenged that by explaining Mt. Fuji's high mercury counts could be from other sources, but Japanese scientists have noted the mercury count is highest when the air currents are westerly from the Chinese mainland. They say they are lowest when Pacific air currents come through.

Considering the exaggerated hype on carbon emissions causing global warming, it's easy to say the clear and present danger of coal-burning plants is mercury emissions.

During the 1990s and into the early 2000s, China expanded its coal-burning power plant capacity tremendously using older "dirty" technologies that did nothing to curb mercury emissions.

China's mercury emissions from coal burning plants and other industries are the highest in the world, and mercury emissions are easily carried long distances by air currents.

Recently, China has begun to modify coal-burning plants with newly developed cost-effective technologies that can reduce mercury emissions by 90%. They've also begun switching to gas-powered power plants.

High mercury levels of seafood are mostly from coal plant mercury emissions 

A recent study completed by researchers from the University of Michigan and the University of Hawaii have determined that the bulk of mercury contamination in fish throughout the Pacific Ocean is from Asian atmospheric mercury deposits.

The major Asian contributors are India and China. Their mercury pollution from coal plants comprises over 50% of the world's mercury pollution.

They deduced the mercury sources from a method of chemical analysis "finger printing" that enabled the determination of atmospheric coal emissions, usually delivered into the ocean via rainfall, as the primary source of mercury in Pacific fish.

They also explained how deeper water fish, such as tuna, were affected more than shallow water fish or those closer to the surface.

According to the study's scientists, sunlight on water creates a biochemical process that neutralizes much of the mercury. But as the mercury drifts downward into the depths, certain waterborne bacteria convert mercury into monomethylmercury, a compound that collects in animal tissue and is highly toxic to humans.

Most of us know that extreme mercury toxicity induces severe neurological reactions that can cause convulsions and death. Less intense mercury contamination can accrue to cause long-term mental disabilities.

But some scientists think it's not just mental or neurological issues that exist from mercury contamination. Mercury depletes the immune system and damages cellular DNA.

This not only can precipitate cancer, it can cause it. According to cancer researcher Dr. Yoshiaki Omura, "All cancer cells have mercury in them."

The USA has its own coal plant mercury emission problems

25 coal-burning energy plants in the USA were creating 30% of all the nation's mercury emissions while contributing only 8% of the nation's electric energy. There are more than 25 coal-burning energy plants in the USA, of course.

Many of them have or are planning to install ACI (activated carbon injection) technology that has demonstrated the capacity to reduce mercury emissions by over 90%. And the price tag for ACI has dropped considerably over the last decade.

Most states have their own mercury emission limit standards. But the 25 worst mercury emitters, as of 2010, were in states that didn't have limits. Texas is one of them, and they have seven of the top 25.

So China and parts of the USA have begun to lower mercury emissions for coal-burning power plants with ACI technologies. Hopefully it's not too little too late.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.rsc.org

http://www.huffingtonpost.com

http://www.edf.org

http://www.edf.org

http://ourtoxicplanet.com

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

28 Signs That The West Coast Is Being Absolutely Fried With Nuclear Radiation From Fukushima

28 Signs That The West Coast Is Being Absolutely Fried With Nuclear Radiation From Fukushima
Oct 22, 2013 | The Truth | Michael Synder

The map above comes from the Nuclear Emergency Tracking Center.  It shows that radiation levels at radiation monitoring stations all over the country are elevated.  As you will notice, this is particularly true along the west coast of the United States.  Every single day, 300 tons of radioactive water from Fukushima enters the Pacific Ocean.  That means that the total amouont of radioactive material released from Fukushima is constantly increasing, and it is steadily building up in our food chain.  Ultimately, all of this nuclear radiation will outlive all of us by a very wide margin.  They are saying that it could take up to 40 years to clean up the Fukushima disaster, and meanwhile countless innocent people will develop cancer and other health problems as a result of exposure to high levels of nuclear radiation.  We are talking about a nuclear disaster that is absolutely unprecedented, and it is constantly getting worse.  The following are 28 signs that the west coast of North America is being absolutely fried with nuclear radiation from Fukushima…

1. Polar bears, seals and walruses along the Alaska coastline are suffering from fur loss and open sores
Wildlife experts are studying whether fur loss and open sores detected in nine polar bears in recent weeks is widespread and related to similar incidents among seals and walruses.

The bears were among 33 spotted near Barrow, Alaska, during routine survey work along the Arctic coastline. Tests showed they had “alopecia, or loss of fur, and other skin lesions,” the U.S. Geological Survey said in a statement.
2. There is an epidemic of sea lion deaths along the California coastline…
At island rookeries off the Southern California coast, 45 percent of the pups born in June have died, said Sharon Melin, a wildlife biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service based in Seattle. Normally, less than one-third of the pups would die.   It’s gotten so bad in the past two weeks that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared an “unusual mortality event.”
3. Along the Pacific coast of Canada and the Alaska coastline, the population of sockeye salmon is at a historic low.  Many are blaming Fukushima.

4. Something is causing fish all along the west coast of Canada to bleed from their gills, bellies and eyeballs.

5. A vast field of radioactive debris from Fukushima that is approximately the size of California has crossed the Pacific Ocean and is starting to collide with the west coast.

6. It is being projected that the radioactivity of coastal waters off the U.S. west coast could double over the next five to six years.

7. Experts have found very high levels of cesium-137 in plankton living in the waters of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and the west coast.

8. One test in California found that 15 out of 15 bluefin tuna were contaminated with radiation from Fukushima.

9. Back in 2012, the Vancouver Sun reported that cesium-137 was being found in a very high percentage of the fish that Japan was selling to Canada…

• 73 percent of mackerel tested
• 91 percent of the halibut
• 92 percent of the sardines
• 93 percent of the tuna and eel
• 94 percent of the cod and anchovies
• 100 percent of the carp, seaweed, shark and monkfish

10. Canadian authorities are finding extremely high levels of nuclear radiation in certain fish samples…
Some fish samples tested to date have had very high levels of radiation: one sea bass sample collected in July, for example, had 1,000 becquerels per kilogram of cesium.
11. Some experts believe that we could see very high levels of cancer along the west coast just from people eating contaminated fish
“Look at what’s going on now: They’re dumping huge amounts of radioactivity into the ocean — no one expected that in 2011,” Daniel Hirsch, a nuclear policy lecturer at the University of California-Santa Cruz, told Global Security Newswire. “We could have large numbers of cancer from ingestion of fish.”
12. BBC News recently reported that radiation levels around Fukushima are “18 times higher” than previously believed.

13. An EU-funded study concluded that Fukushima released up to 210 quadrillion becquerels of cesium-137 into the atmosphere.

14. Atmospheric radiation from Fukushima reached the west coast of the United States within a few days back in 2011.

15. At this point, 300 tons of contaminated water is pouring into the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima every single day.

16. A senior researcher of marine chemistry at the Japan Meteorological Agency’s Meteorological Research Institute says that “30 billion becquerels of radioactive cesium and 30 billion becquerels of radioactive strontium” are being released into the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima every single day.

17. According to Tepco, a total of somewhere between 20 trillion and 40 trillion becquerels of radioactive tritium have gotten into the Pacific Ocean since the Fukushima disaster first began.

18. According to a professor at Tokyo University, 3 gigabecquerels of cesium-137 are flowing into the port at Fukushima Daiichi every single day.

19. It has been estimated that up to 100 times as much nuclear radiation has been released into the ocean from Fukushima than was released during the entire Chernobyl disaster.

20. One recent study concluded that a very large plume of cesium-137 from the Fukushima disaster will start flowing into U.S. coastal waters early next year
Ocean simulations showed that the plume of radioactive cesium-137 released by the Fukushima disaster in 2011 could begin flowing into U.S. coastal waters starting in early 2014 and peak in 2016.
21. It is being projected that significant levels of cesium-137 will reach every corner of the Pacific Ocean by the year 2020.

22. It is being projected that the entire Pacific Ocean will soon “have cesium levels 5 to 10 times higher” than what we witnessed during the era of heavy atomic bomb testing in the Pacific many decades ago.

23. The immense amounts of nuclear radiation getting into the water in the Pacific Ocean has caused environmental activist Joe Martino to issue the following warning
“Your days of eating Pacific Ocean fish are over.”
24. The Iodine-131, Cesium-137 and Strontium-90 that are constantly coming from Fukushima are going to affect the health of those living the the northern hemisphere for a very, very long time.  Just consider what Harvey Wasserman had to say about this…
Iodine-131, for example, can be ingested into the thyroid, where it emits beta particles (electrons) that damage tissue. A plague of damaged thyroids has already been reported among as many as 40 percent of the children in the Fukushima area. That percentage can only go higher. In developing youngsters, it can stunt both physical and mental growth. Among adults it causes a very wide range of ancillary ailments, including cancer.

Cesium-137 from Fukushima has been found in fish caught as far away as California. It spreads throughout the body, but tends to accumulate in the muscles.

Strontium-90’s half-life is around 29 years. It mimics calcium and goes to our bones.
25. According to a recent Planet Infowars report, the California coastline is being transformed into “a dead zone”…
The California coastline is becoming like a dead zone.

If you haven’t been to a California beach lately, you probably don’t know that the rocks are unnaturally CLEAN – there’s hardly any kelp, barnacles, sea urchins, etc. anymore and the tide pools are similarly eerily devoid of crabs, snails and other scurrying signs of life… and especially as compared to 10 – 15 years ago when one was wise to wear tennis shoes on a trip to the beach in order to avoid cutting one’s feet on all the STUFF of life – broken shells, bones, glass, driftwood, etc.

There are also days when I am hard-pressed to find even a half dozen seagulls and/or terns on the county beach.

You can still find a few gulls trolling the picnic areas and some of the restaurants (with outdoor seating areas) for food, of course, but, when I think back to 10 – 15 years ago, the skies and ALL the beaches were literally filled with seagulls and the haunting sound of their cries both day and night…

NOW it’s unnaturally quiet.
26. A study conducted last year came to the conclusion that radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster could negatively affect human life along the west coast of North America from Mexico to Alaska “for decades”.

27. According to the Wall Street Journal, it is being projected that the cleanup of Fukushima could take up to 40 years to complete.

28. Yale Professor Charles Perrow is warning that if the cleanup of Fukushima is not handled with 100% precision that humanity could be threatened “for thousands of years“…
“Conditions in the unit 4 pool, 100 feet from the ground, are perilous, and if any two of the rods touch it could cause a nuclear reaction that would be uncontrollable. The radiation emitted from all these rods, if they are not continually cool and kept separate, would require the evacuation of surrounding areas including Tokyo. Because of the radiation at the site the 6,375 rods in the common storage pool could not be continuously cooled; they would fission and all of humanity will be threatened, for thousands of years.”
Are you starting to understand why so many people are so deeply concerned about what is going on at Fukushima?

For much more on all of this, please check out the video posted below




About the author: Michael T. Snyder is a former Washington D.C. attorney who now publishes The Truth. His new thriller entitled “The Beginning Of The End” is now available on Amazon.com.

RELATED:

Nuclear Danger: World Action Now on Fukushima

Monday, October 21, 2013

China smog emergency shuts city of 11 million people

© Reuters
People ride along a street on a smoggy day
in Daqing, Heilongjiang province Oct 21, 2013.
China smog emergency shuts city of 11 million people
Oct 21, 2013 | Reuters

Choking smog all but shut down one of northeastern China's largest cities on Monday, forcing schools to suspended classes, snarling traffic and closing the airport, in the country's first major air pollution crisis of the winter.


An index measuring PM2.5, or particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5), reached a reading of 1,000 in some parts of Harbin, the gritty capital of northeastern Heilongjiang province and home to some 11 million people.

A level above 300 is considered hazardous, while the World Health Organisation recommends a daily level of no more than 20.

The smog not only forced all primary and middle schools to suspend classes, but shut the airport and some public bus routes, the official Xinhua news agency reported, blaming the emergency on the first day of the heating being turned on in the city for winter. Visibility was reportedly reduced to 10 meters.
The smog is expected to continue for the next 24 hours.

Air quality in Chinese cities is of increasing concern to China's stability-obsessed leadership because it plays into popular resentment over political privilege and rising inequality in the world's second-largest economy.

Domestic media have run stories describing the expensive air purifiers government officials enjoy in their homes and offices, alongside reports of special organic farms so cadres need not risk suffering from recurring food safety scandals.

The government has announced plans over the years to tackle the pollution problem but has made little apparent progress.

Users of China's popular Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblogging site reacted with both anger and bitter sarcasm over Harbin's air pollution.

"After years of effort, the wise and hard-working people of Harbin have finally managed to skip both the middle-class society and the communist society stages, and have now entered a fairyland society!" wrote on user.

Other parts of northeastern China also experienced severe smog, including Tangshan, two hours east of Beijing, and Changchun, the capital of Jilin province which borders Heilongjiang.

Last week, Beijing city released a color-coded alert system for handling air pollution emergencies, to include the temporary halt of construction, factory production, outdoor barbeques and the setting off of fireworks.

Beijing suffered its own smog emergency last winter when the PM2.5 surpassed 900 on one particularly bad day in January.

(Reporting By Adam Rose; Editing by Ben Blanchard and Michael Perry)

Yachtsman describes horror at 'dead', rubbish strewn Pacific Ocean

© Greenpeace, Alex Hofford/AAP
A fishing net on a boat in the Pacific Ocean
loaded with tuna and bycatch.
Yachtsman describes horror at 'dead', rubbish strewn Pacific Ocean
Oct 21, 2013 | Oliver Milman | The Guardian

Ivan MacFadyen says he was shocked by absence of sea life during his 37,000km voyage between Australia and Japan

An Australian sailor has described parts of the Pacific Ocean as "dead" because of severe overfishing, with his vessel having to repeatedly swerve debris for thousands of kilometres on a journey from Australia to Japan.

Ivan MacFadyen told of his horror at the severe lack of marine life and copious amounts of rubbish witnessed on a yacht race between Melbourne and Osaka. He recently returned from the trip, which he previously completed 10 years ago.

"In 2003, I caught a fish every day," he told Guardian Australia. "Ten years later to the day, sailing almost exactly the same course, I caught nothing. It started to strike me the closer we got to Japan that the ocean was dead.

"Normally when you are sailing a yacht, there are one or two pods of dolphins playing by the boat, or sharks, or turtles or whales. There are usually birds feeding by the boat. But there was none of that. I've been sailing for 35 years and it's only when these things aren't there that you notice them.

MacFadyen said that the lack of ocean life started at the edge of the Great Barrier Reef, describing Queensland waters as "barren" and "unquestionably overfished".

"We saw a boat come towards us and we thought they might be pirates, but they had bags and bags of fish," he said. "We said 'there's only two of us, we can't do anything with all that' and they said 'don't worry, just throw it over the side'.

"There was around 100 large fish there. But it was valueless for them because they were after tuna and nothing else. They just trawled the whole ocean and everything other than tuna was bycatch."

For the majority of the voyage to Japan, MacFadyen had to ensure that his yacht wasn't holed by clumps of rubbish he said were "as large as a house".

"There were fenders from ships, balls of net and telegraph poles with barnacles on them that were never going to sink," he said. "There was nothing like that 10 years ago. I couldn't believe it.

"We wouldn't motor the boat at night due to the fear of something wrapping around the propeller. We'd only do that during the day with someone on lookout for garbage. When you stood on the deck and looked down you'd see the rubbish shimmering in the depths below, up to 20 metres under the water.

"We went onto the US and back again. We did 23,000 miles [37,000km] and I'd say 7,000 of those were in garbage. The boat is still damaged from it. We had to free the rudder of rubbish one night, which was scary. We were terrified of something ripping a hole in the boat."

MacFadyen said that the trip had made him "very cranky" and has inspired him to encourage better monitoring of ocean rubbish to ensure governments' anti-pollution policies are working.

"Humans are such a blight on the planet that we will just trash an area because it is out of sight most of the time," he said. "It completely changed the way I look at things. I used to chuck rubbish away without thinking twice but there's no way I will do that now."

According to marine conservationists, overfishing is a global problem affecting nearly 90% of the world's fisheries.

The problem has resulted on catch quotas being placed on many species of fish, although the exact extent of overfishing in Australia is slightly unclear.

Government fisheries data shows only bluefin tuna and the school shark are dangerously overfished in Australian waters. However, the Australian Marine Conservation Society's guide to sustainable seafood places 26 species - including kingfish, snapper and tiger prawns - on a "red list" that should not be consumed due to their fragile status.

Pamela Allen, marine campaigner at the Australian Marine Conservation Society, told Guardian Australia that there have been improvements in Australian fisheries in recent years but problems remain.

"The quota for bluefin tuna has just been increased by 10%, despite there being no evidence to justify this," she said. "There are also issues in state fisheries - Queensland has no scientific observer system, for instance, and rely just on fishers' logbooks for what they catch in sensitive areas such as the Great Barrier Reef.

"Trawling the ocean results in a high level of bycatch because it's hard to be exact with what you're catching when you're dragging a gigantic net along the sea floor.

"People don't realise that flake is shark and that sharks are threatened due to overfishing. There is no single sustainable source of shark in fisheries. Consumers have a choice every day to make a small difference.

"Fish is one of the last wild foods we eat, along with mushrooms, and we have to realise that once it has gone, it is gone. Governments and fishers are making some changes but they need to move more quickly or there won't be any fish left."