12 Signs that something big is happening to the Earth's crust under North and South America

© The Economic Collapse Blog

Sott.net | Mar 30, 2014 | Michael Snyder \ ECB

Why are fault lines and volcanoes all over North and South America suddenly waking up? Are we moving into a time when major earthquakes and volcanic eruptions will become much more common?

For the past several decades, we have been extremely fortunate to have experienced a period of extremely low seismic activity along the west coast of the United States. You see, the west coast lies right along the infamous Ring of Fire.

Approximately 75 percent of all the volcanoes in the world are on the Ring of Fire, and approximately 90 percent of all global earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire.

Scientists tell us that it is inevitable that "the Big One" will hit California someday, but people have gotten very apathetic about this because things have been so quiet out there for so many years.

Well, now it appears that things are changing in a big way - and not just along the California coast. The following are 12 signs that something big is happening to the earth's crust under North and South America...

#1 The 5.1 earthquake that shook Los Angeles on Friday was the worst earthquake that the city had seen in many years.

#2 Following that earthquake, there were more than 100 aftershocks.

#3 A 4.1 earthquake shook Los Angeles on Saturday. Scientists are hoping that this earthquake swarm in southern California will end soon.

#4 Earlier this month, a 4.4 earthquake rattled Los Angeles so badly that it caused news anchors to dive under their desks.

#5 A 6.9 earthquake just off the coast of northern California in early March was the largest earthquake to hit the west coast of the United States since 2010.

#6 Up in Oregon, Mt. Hood recently experienced more than 100 earthquakes over the course of just a few days.

#7 During the past month, there have also been some other very unusual geologic events that have been happening up in Oregon...

• Two large landslides - one in the Columbia River Gorge dumped about 2,000 cubic yards of rock and debris on highway I84 just 3 miles west of the Hood River, and another blocked US30 near Portland.

• Loud booms and ground shaking reported by people from Lincoln to Tillamook Counties; some reported hearing a rumble, as well (No earthquakes recorded by the USGS in the area at the time.)

• A 20 ft. deep sinkhole swallowed a woman and her dog in her Portland backyard.

#8 A 4.8 earthquake rattled Yellowstone National Park on Sunday, and there have been at least 25 earthquakes at Yellowstone since Thursday.

#9 Scientists recently discovered that the Yellowstone supervolcano is now releasing far more helium gas than they had anticipated.

#10 Over the past month, there have been more than 130 earthquakes in the state of Oklahoma. This is highly unusual.

#11 There have been several dozen earthquakes in Peru over the past month, including a 6.3 earthquake that made headlines all over the globe.

#12 Earlier this month, the northern coast of Chile was hit by more than 300 earthquakes in a seven day stretch. 41 of those earthquakes were stronger than magnitude 4.5.

Fortunately, the quake that hit Los Angeles on Friday did not cause too much lasting injury. But it sure did shake people up. The following is how the Los Angeles Times described the damage...

The quake, centered near La Habra, caused furniture to tumble, pictures to fall off walls and glass to break. Merchandise fell off store shelves, and there were reports of plate glass windows shattered.

In Brea, several people suffered minor injuries during a rock slide that overturned their car. Fullerton reported seven water main breaks. Carbon Canyon Road was closed.

Residents across Orange and Los Angeles counties and the Inland Empire reported swinging chandeliers, fireplaces dislodging from walls and lots of rattled nerves. The shake caused a rock slide in Carbon Canyon, causing a car to overturn, according to the Brea Police Department.

Why this particular earthquake is of such concern is because it occurred along the Puente Hills fault line. According to one seismologist, this is the fault line that would be most likely to "eat L.A."...

Experts said that the earthquakes occurred on the Puente Hills thrust fault, which stretches from the San Gabriel Valley to downtown Los Angeles.

Last night's quake was shallow, which 'means the shaking is very concentrated in a small area,' said Caltech seismologist Egill Hauksson.

Hauksson revealed that the earthquake was unusual because the 5.1 quake was preceded by the weaker foreshock.

Scientists such as Hauksson are very concerned about the Puente Hills fault because it runs directly under downtown Los Angeles.

'This is the fault that could eat L.A.,' seismologist Sue Hough told The LA Times in 2003.

The fact that this fault appears to be waking up is really bad news.

According to seismologists, a major earthquake along this fault line could cause hundreds of billions of dollars of damage...

Video simulations of a rupture on the Puente Hills fault system show how energy from a quake could erupt and be funneled toward L.A.'s densest neighborhoods, with the strongest waves rippling to the west and south across the Los Angeles Basin.

According to estimates by the USGS and Southern California Earthquake Center, a massive quake on the Puente Hills fault could kill from 3,000 to 18,000 people and cause up to $250 billion in damage. Under this worst-case scenario, people in as many as three-quarters of a million households would be left homeless.

For years, we have watched as the rest of the Ring of Fire has been absolutely ravaged by major seismic events.

We all remember the earthquakes that caused the Indonesian tsunami of 2004 and the Japanese tsunami of 2011.

And the world mourned when major earthquakes devastated New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Japan and the Philippines.

Scientists assured us that it was only a matter of time before the west coast started to become seismically active again, and now it is happening.

If you live on the west coast, I hope that you will consider these things very carefully.

Just because the earth under your feet has been relatively quiet for a very long time does not mean that it will always be that way.

Something big appears to be happening to the earth's crust, and you won't want to be in the "danger zone" when things finally break loose.

THE REVOLUTION HAS TO COME FROM YOU

Cinema Forum Fukushima | Mar 30, 2014 | CHANNEL

CFF Video Archive Highlight vol.2

"The Revolution Has To Come From You ~ Highlight of the Symposium: The Medical & Ecological Consequence of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident~"
HD, 31 min 10 sec, in English

Presented by
Helen Caldicott Foundation
Physicians for Social Responsibility

The New York Academy of Medicine
March 11th & 12th 2013

Watch the rest of 23 lectures of this Symposium at Cinema Forum Fukushima Video Archive
Vimeo:
https://vimeo.com/album/2366337
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

**Support & Donate to CFF Video Archiving on NPO events in NYC
**Be a Part of CFF Video Archiving Effort
**Help Fundraising for Adding Subtitles in Japanese on These Videos!

https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/f...

The world is not flat

RT America | Mar 30, 2014 | Subscribe

The world is not flat. The Titanic was sinkable after all. Dewey never defeated Truman. Nixon was indeed a crook. Al Gore did not invent the internet. WMDs were never found in Iraq. Benghazi was not caused by an anti-Muslim film. Question more with RT America.

Find RT America in your area: http://rt.com/where-to-watch/

Chemical plant to wipe small Louisiana town off the map

Natural News | Mar 29, 2014 | L.J. Devon

For over a decade, residents of the small town of Mossville, Louisiana, have been reporting numerous cases of premature death, disease and cancer. A new plot by a large chemical plant looks to finish them off, paying 80 percent or more of the residents to leave the town, which could nearly wipe Mossville off the map.

© Natural News

Residents of the community have long suspected the causes behind the community's deteriorating health situation, pointing to the 14 chemical plants that surround their town.

"I got cancer. My dad had cancer. In fact, he died of cancer. It's a lot of people in this area who died of cancer," says Herman Singleton Jr., 51, who has lost two uncles and an aunt to cancer.

Fellow resident Debra Ramirez said her sister died of a rare inflammatory disease called sarcoidosis.

They aren't the only ones.

14 chemical plants destroying the health of nearby Mossville, Louisiana, residents 

The town consists of about 375 homes, occupied primarily by about 500 African American residents.

According to the EPA's Toxic Release Inventory, these 14 chemical plants release thousands of pounds of carcinogens, such as benzene and vinyl chloride, near Mossville each year, filling the air and soil with inflammatory toxins that can accumulate in the tissues of people.

One resident, Dorothy Felix, belongs to a local environmental group that has asked the government to intervene for health reasons, but shuttering the plants and initiating cleanup efforts is a hard concept to bear. The very serious and humbling reality of the situation is hard to confess.

At one point, residents appealed to an international court, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. A 2002 documentary, Blue Vinyl, highlights the town's dilemma, showing the toxic consequences of the chemical manufacturing plants. Even evidence can't persuade official action. According to a 1998 study by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the blood of 28 Mossville residents was tested and contained dioxin levels three times higher than the national average. Follow-up blood tests in 2001 showed similar results, reaffirming how dangerous these plants are based on their proximity, as the byproducts penetrate residents' cells and accumulate. The town has basically been a horrid science experiment, as many have died off or come down seriously ill in the past decade.

New chemical plant to wipe small Louisiana town off the map 

While the Mossville residents look for help, a newer, larger chemical plant is making preparations to take over the town. The new 21-billion-dollar project, initiated by a South African chemical giant named Sasol, is set to overtake the region, which could ultimately wipe Mossville off the map.

Supported by $2 billion in state incentives, the chemical plant is set to buy out 80 percent of those still living in the region. The chemical plant, which is expected to be the largest in the Western Hemisphere, is estimated to bring in $46.2 billion in economic benefits in the first year, providing new jobs and opportunities.

But many residents of the Mossville community are at odds with the takeover, even though their homes are set to be bought off at 160 percent of appraised value. They are especially angry to see their town be seized at the hands of a chemical plant.

New plant estimated to pump out an astonishing 10 million cubic tons of greenhouse gases yearly 

While many business leaders and politicians welcome the plant due to its economic potential, the income potential doesn't justify the environmental and health damages that will surely be hammered out into the people in coming years. An analysis conducted by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in February 2014 stated that the chemical plant "will result in significant net emissions increases," which will include greenhouse gases, promethium, sulfur oxide, nitric oxide and carbon monoxide.

The analysis estimates that the new plant alone will add more than 10 million cubic tons of greenhouse gases per year to the atmosphere. An Exxon-Mobil refinery only puts out a little over half that amount. So the negative impact to the air quality of the entire region may be compromised to extents unimaginable.

But that probably won't stop the project from going forward, as SASOL has cleared requirements set by the Clean Air and Clean Water acts. Now the facility waits to be erected on three square miles near Mossville, as residents prepare to be forced out in a massive buyoff.

"That's the thing that hurts," says Dorothy Felix, a seventh-generation Mossville resident and community activist. "I'm going to leave all of this behind, a place that I love so much, a place that I grew up, a place that I saw go from rags to riches. Now it's about to go to nothing but the plants."

Sources for this article include:

http://www.motherjones.com

http://www.cnn.com

http://science.naturalnews.com

10 Ways to Reduce Radiation from Cell Phone Use

© Courtesy Natural Society

Natural Society | Mar 30, 2014 | Christina Sarich

The world loves its cell phones  - so much so that there are more cell phones on this planet than people! While these technological devices can offer incredible service and ease in a hectic, modern world, they can also be a serious health hazard.

Cell phones emit radiofrequency energy, a form of non-ionizing radiation. Our bodies absorb this radiation and have a difficult time processing it – leading to numerous bodily complications. One study found that 10 years of cellphone use resulted in an average 290% increased risk of brain tumor development. Interestingly, the tumor development was found on the side of the head in which the cellphone was most used.

And while everyone’s soft tissues are especially (negatively) affected by cell phone use, due to developing organs, lower bone density of the skull, lower body weight, and a less effective blood brain barrier, children are very vulnerable to cell phone radiation.

It is easy to see why protecting yourself from cell phone radiation is more important than ever. Below are 10 tips for reducing exposure.

Protecting Against Radiation 

1. Use the speakerphone on your cell phone when you can have a public conversation, or hook your cell phone up to an earphone or headphones to keep it as far from you as possible while still talking on it.

2. Keep your phone charged up. When the bars are low on your cell phone it is working harder to capture a signal from the radio towers, which means that the radiation it emits is even greater. Only make calls when your signal is strong. Consider texting when you can’t charge your phone.

3. Text instead of talk. This pings the cell phone towers for seconds rather than minutes and minimizes your radiation exposure.

4. Don’t talk while you drive. The constant movement means that your phone is also trying to make contact with cell phone towers over and over again, increasing its frequency, and therefore your radiation exposure. But you shouldn’t text while you drive either – so don’t do anything while driving!

5. Look for low-radiation emitting phones. There is a list of the 20 best phones for low-radiation emissions, here. The Samsung Galaxy Note is at the top of the list – sorry iPhone users!

6. Go old school. Use a landline. If you are under the age of 20, you might scoff at this suggestion, but landlines don’t expose you to radiation. Wait to talk to your BF at your grandmother’s house on her old wall phone. Your brain will thank you.

7. Don’t put the cell phone to your ear until a call connects. Dial on speaker phone and then if you must talk straight into the phone, only talk once your end-user picks up.

8. Minimize use. Talk less on your phone and you will be exposed to less radiation. I know this is difficult for some of us, but when you can have your conversations in person. I recently took a vacation for an entire week and couldn’t use my cell phone at all. After the first day I had technology withdrawal since I was so used to having a phone in my hand, but after that, it was remarkably peaceful not to have to respond to every little thing within minutes.

9. Keep your cell phone far away from you while sleeping or simply not using your cell phone. There is no reason for it to be close to you if you aren’t using it unless you’re expecting a call – especially if you keep it on sound, not vibrate.

10. Lastly, consider investing in some form of radiation protection. There are tons of products out there, such as Global Healing Center’s cell phone radiation protector. You can also protect yourself from radiation in your home by placing a large electromagnetic field protector in the area.

Additional Sources:

Cancer.gov

The Definition of the Militant Cancerous Society: Noam Chomsky on "Worker Insecurity"

The Chomsky Videos | Mar 30, 2014 | CHANNEL

March 1, 2014

"It is all working quite well for the rich and powerful. In the US, for example, tens of millions are unemployed, unknown millions have dropped out of the workforce in despair, and incomes as well as conditions of life have largely stagnated or declined. But the big banks, which were responsible for the latest crisis, are bigger and richer than ever, corporate profits are breaking records, wealth beyond the dreams of avarice is accumulating among those who count, labor is severely weakened by union busting and "growing worker insecurity," to borrow the term Alan Greenspan used in explaining the grand "success" of the economy he managed."

― Noam Chomsky

Town That Shouted 'No!' to Fracking, Says 'Yes!' to Rooftop Solar

This community decided that fighting off the frackers wasn't
enough and wanted a project to generate enough clean,
renewable energy locally to meet the electricity
needs of the entire village.

Common Dreams | Mar 28, 2014 | Jon Queally

Balcombe village in the UK has seen loud and raucous protests against gas drilling, but it's real solution is as silent as the sound

The small village of Balcombe has been at the epicenter of the battle against hydraulic fracture gas drilling in the UK since last year when fiery locals and activated environmentalists converged to stage dramatic rallies and blockades against attempts to drill exploratory wells in the region.

But now—though the protests have died down and the drilling company Cuadrilla has at least temporarily puts its drilling hopes on hold—a new energy collaborative in the town is making a new bold statement about the energy system it wants to see.

Police officers try to break a human chain
formed by anti-fracking protesters at
Balcombe last July. (Photograph:
Tony Kershaw/Rex Features)

The local group of villagers, under the name REPOWERBalcombe, has launched a community project to put rooftop solar panels on homes, barns, and other buildings in order to generate the "equivalent of 100% of Balcombe’s electricity demand through community owned, locally generated renewable energy."

Their plan at the moment, according to the Guardian,  is to raise an initial "£300,000 in a community share offering for six solar arrays on roofs in and around the village that will supply 7.5% of the village's power demand."

In the longer term, however, the group hopes solar will provide all of the village's total electricity demand.

Championing the effort, their allies at Friends of the Earth-UK, say the idea is exactly what's needed in order to adequately fight the fossil fuel companies themselves and the energy and economic systems they now dominate.

“People don’t need to accept risky fracking on their doorsteps," says FOE campaigner Brenda Pollack. "It’s great to see community energy initiatives like this that enable local residents to produce their own clean and safe power, and earn themselves an income too.”

And Tony Bosworth, writing on the FOE-UK blog, argues that this kind of proactive protest which says "Yes" to alternative energy is just one more way of saying "No" to fossil fuels. He writes:

We need to show that the claims made by the fracking industry and its supporters don’t stand up to scrutiny: it’s very unlikely to cut energy bills, it’s not clean (the academic jury is still out on whether shale gas is cleaner than coal, but  the bottom line is that it's still a fossil fuel) and it involves big risks for the local environment and human health. In short, fracking is a risk we simply do not need to take, and cannot afford to take.

We need to show that there are alternatives. And that’s where Balcombe is showing the way. The local community isn’t just saying no to fracking – it has launched Repower Balcombe, an initiative to install solar panels on village roofs to generate all the electricity the village needs.

Alongside community solutions we also need big-scale renewables, and that’s why the announcement of a £300 million investment in offshore wind manufacturing in Hull was a real boost.

And we need to make our voice heard by politicians. Non-violent protest is a part of this, and Friends of the Earth supports the right of people to protest peacefully.

It’s not just happening in Balcombe. Wherever unconventional fossil fuel exploration is being proposed, local people are protesting - in Lancashire, Salford, Nottinghamshire and many other places. And it’s great when our elected politicians themselves have the courage of their convictions to join the protests.

We know what the real answers to our energy crisis are: energy efficiency and renewables. But getting these involves saying no to false solutions such as shale gas.

Let’s hope that the example of Balcombe – opposition to fossil fuel extraction coupled with support for community-based renewables – spreads far and wide.

Americans' brains being fried by cell towers: New scientific evidence reveals shocking extent of electropollution damage

Natural News | Mar 26, 2014 | Mike Adams

Exposure to cell phone towers alters brain function in alarming ways, causing a lack of concentration, irritability, difficulty sleeping and lack of appetite. That's the conclusion of a new study just published by the British Medical Journal.(1)

The study, authored by Professor Enrique A Navarro, concluded that the severity of such symptoms directly correlated to cell tower exposure levels. In other words, the closer a person lives to a cell tower, the greater the severity of their symptoms. This was true regardless of race, income level and other demographics.

Cell towers, of course, broadcast and receive electromagnetic switching signals. Human biology -- and the brain in particular -- relies on electro-biochemical pathways for healthy function. Many scientists have long suspected that chronic exposure to low levels of EMF pollution (electropollution) may interfere with healthy functioning of the brain and body. This latest research adds yet more support to that alarming idea.

It's not your imagination: Electromagnetic hypersensitivity is real

Electromagnetic hypersensitivity has long been dismissed as non-existent by some doctors and industry-funded scientists. After all, if EMF pollution from cell towers really does harm public health, then the implications are truly massive, both economically and in terms of human suffering.

But electromagnetic hypersensitivity is a genuine phenomenon. People are not "inventing" side effects or symptoms. As Navarro writes in the study:

The term electromagnetic hypersensitivity has been recently introduced in discussions attributing symptoms to exposure to EMFs. A review of this topic in 2010 found that 8 of the 10 studies evaluated through PubMed had reported increased prevalence of adverse neurobehavioral symptoms or cancer in populations living at distances < 500 m from [cell phone towers].

Importantly, all these symptoms were recorded in people living near cell phone towers whose broadcast signal strength meets current safety guidelines. As the study author points out, this most likely means current government guidelines on cell phone towers are inadequate to protect the public. Revising such guidelines could have drastic implications for the nationwide telecommunications infrastructure.

By the way, people who live fewer than 500 meters from cell phone towers appear to be especially at risk of electromagnetic interference with brain function. Because electropollution strength is determined by the inverse square of the distance, a person who moves twice as close to a cell tower experiences four times the radiation.

190,000 cell phone towers and growing 

There are currently over 190,000 cell phone towers across the United States.(2)

Their typical "maximum range" is over 21 miles, meaning their electromagnetic pollution extends in a sphere with a radius of over 21 miles. (In reality, this pollution extends indefinitely, but the intensity of it drops off with the square of the distance.)

The following map shows AT&T coverage areas in orange. If you live inside an orange area, you are currently exposed to cell tower radiation.

People who live within range of two or more cell phone towers experience electropollution from all the towers within a range of 21 miles. This electropollution effect is cumulative.

It is not known how many Americans live within 21 miles of at least one cell tower, but given that over half the U.S. population lives in urban areas, it's safe to assume that at least 150 million -- and more likely close to 300 million -- Americans are exposed to EMF electropollution from cell towers.

Modern society increasingly confused, irritable and sleepless 

Have you noticed how the mass public seems increasingly confused and irritable? A society that once operated with some degree of sanity and politeness has become largely demented and rude. Mathematical abilities are nearly lost across the population, as very few people under the age of 40 can even calculate 15% waiter's tips at a restaurant. The ability of voters to understand laws, liberties, freedom and even the structure of government is almost entirely lost in nations where cell phone towers are ubiquitous.

Given this recent research revealing the negative impact of cell phone radiation of human brain function, it would be incredibly irresponsible to fail to consider how cell tower radiation alters healthy brain function and promotes confusion and irritability. As more scientists look into this issue, we may indeed find that the fall of American civilization is being accelerated by electromagnetic pollution that leads to disastrous cognitive consequences across the population.

Sources for this article include:

1. http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/3/12/e003836....
2. http://www.statisticbrain.com/cell-phone-tow...

Underground explorers and the shocking dimensions of the world's deepest cave

© Anatolia Media Group

Sott.net | Mar 28, 2014 | The Blaze

Just how far down do you think the deepest caves on the planet go? As far down as the Washington Monument is tall? How about the Eiffel Tower?

A project dubbed "The Call of the Abyss" took explorers to the deepest cave on Earth, and they ventured down to a breathtaking depth of nearly 2,200 meters - around 1.3 miles.

The depth of the cave, named "Krubera-Varonya," is fascinating, but the winding length of the entire cave system also boggles the mind. Located in the Arabika Massif, of the Western Caucasus in Abkhazia, Georgia, it extends for 13.432 kilometers, or roughly 8.3 miles.

To date, Krubera-Varonya is the only cave known on the planet that plunges past 2,000 meters in depth.

The vast cave is the hyphenated name for the first Russian explorer to find the cavernous path, and for the bats that have been found within.   

Read more..

School Science Project Reveals High Levels Of Fukushima Nuclear Radiation in Grocery Store Seafood

The Truth | Mar 27, 2014 | Michael Snyder

A Canadian high school student named Bronwyn Delacruz never imagined that her school science project would make headlines all over the world.  But that is precisely what has happened.  Using a $600 Geiger counter purchased by her father, Delacruz measured seafood bought at local grocery stores for radioactive contamination.  What she discovered was absolutely stunning.  Much of the seafood, particularly the products that were made in China, tested very high for radiation.  So is this being caused by nuclear radiation from Fukushima?  Is the seafood that we are eating going to give us cancer and other diseases?  The American people deserve the truth, but as you will see below, the U.S. and Canadian governments are not even testing imported seafood for radiation.  To say that this is deeply troubling would be a massive understatement.

In fact, what prompted Bronwyn Delacruz to conduct her science project was the fact that the Canadian government stopped testing imported seafood for radiation in 2012…

Alberta high-school student Bronwyn Delacruz loves sushi, but became concerned last summer after learning how little food inspection actually takes place on some of its key ingredients.
The Grade 10 student from Grande Prairie said she was shocked to discover that, in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) stopped testing imported foods for radiation in 2012.

And what should be a major red flag for authorities is the fact that the seafood with the highest radiation is coming from China…

Armed with a $600 Geiger counter bought by her dad, Delacruz studied a variety of seafoods – particularly seaweeds – as part of an award-winning science project that she will take to a national fair next month.

“Some of the kelp that I found was higher than what the International Atomic Energy Agency sets as radioactive contamination, which is 1,450 counts over a 10-minute period,” she said. “Some of my samples came up as 1,700 or 1,800.”

Delacruz said the samples that “lit up” the most were products from China that she bought in local grocery stores.

It is inexcusable that the Canadian government is not testing this seafood.  It isn’t as if they don’t know that it is radioactive.  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 the mackerel

• 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

So why was radiation testing for seafood shut down in Canada in 2012?

Someone out there needs to answer some very hard questions.

Meanwhile, PBS reporter Miles O’Brien has pointed out the extreme negligence of the U.S. government when it comes to testing seafood for Fukushima radiation.  The following comes from a recent EcoWatch article…

O’Brien also introduces us to scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute who have been testing waters around the reactors—as well as around the Pacific Rim—to confirm the levels of Fukushima fallout, especially of cesium.

These scientists are dedicated and competent. But they are also being forced to do this investigation on their own, raising small amounts of money from independent sources. They were, explains lead scientist Ken Buesseler, turned down for even minimal federal support by five agencies key to our radiation protection. Thus, despite a deep and widespread demand for this information, no federal agency is conducting comprehensive, on-the-ground analyses of how much Fukushima radiation has made its way into our air and oceans.

In fact, very soon after Fukushima began to blow, President Obama assured the world that radiation coming to the U.S. would be minuscule and harmless. He had no scientific proof that this would be the case. And as O’Brien’s eight-minute piece shows all too clearly, the “see no evil, pay no damages” ethos is at work here. The government is doing no monitoring of radiation levels in fish, and information on contamination of the ocean is almost entirely generated by underfunded researchers like Buesseler.

A video news report in which O’Brien discusses these issues is posted below…



It is the job of the authorities to keep us safe, and the Fukushima nuclear disaster was the worst nuclear disaster in human history.

So why aren’t they doing testing?

Why aren’t they checking to make sure that this radiation is not getting into our food chain?

The Japanese are doing testing off the coast of Japan, and one fish that was recently caught off the coast of the Fukushima prefecture was discovered to have 124 times the safe level of radioactive cesium.

So why are all the authorities in North America just assuming that the fish are going to be perfectly fine on this side of the Pacific?

One test that was conducted in California discovered that 15 out of 15 Bluefin tuna were contaminated with radiation from Fukushima.

So how can the authorities say “don’t worry, just eat the seafood”?

Everyone agrees that a plume of radioactive water has been moving from Fukushima toward the west coast of the United States.

According to researchers at the University of South Wales, that plume is going to hit our shores at some point during 2014…

The first radioactive ocean plume released by the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster will finally be reaching the shores of the United States some time in 2014, according to a new study from the University of New South Wales — a full three or so years after the date of the disaster.

The following graphic comes from that study…

 And multiple independent tests have already confirmed that levels of nuclear radiation are being detected on California beaches that are more than 10 times the normal level.

Clearly something is happening.

So why are the U.S. and Canadian governments willingly looking the other way?

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.

States unite to fight fracking-linked earthquakes

David McNew / Getty Images / AFP

RT | Mar 27, 2014

As concerns over fracking-induced earthquakes mount, regulators from four US states met for the first time in March to discuss limiting the risk posed by the controversial practice.

According to Bloomberg News, officials from Ohio, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas are looking to cooperate on the project. The group reportedly discussed how to strengthen their standards related to fracking, and is working on establishing similar monitoring procedures across the states that would prevent earthquakes from occurring in the future.

“It was a very productive meeting, number one, because it gave the states the opportunity to get together and talk collectively about the public interest and the science,” Gerry Baker, the associate executive director of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, which represents energy states, told Bloomberg. “It was a good start in coordinating efforts.”

One rule being considered by Oklahoma, pending the support of the lawmakers and the governor, would require companies to record injection well pressure every day rather than every month. If such a rule is authorized, Oklahoma would be the first state in the country to require this.

The move to collaborate comes in the wake of a US Geological Survey study that found the number of earthquakes occurring in the central United States was six times higher in 2011 than it was in 2000. In Oklahoma, for example, the state experienced less than three quakes a year from 1975 – 2008. Since then, there have been an average of 40 earthquakes every year.

The process of fracking – which involves blasting water, sand, and other chemicals into layers of rock in order to release gas and oil – has been highlighted as the likely trigger for the quakes, since the wastewater is then injected into underground wells that sometimes cause friction near fault lines.

While state officials are serious about creating new regulations and procedures to monitor fracking operations and limit quakes, Dan Whitten of America’s Natural Gas Alliance said the amount of earthquakes connected to fracking injection wells is minor compared to how many wells exist.

“There’s close to 150,000 injections wells and the number where there’s even been a connection suggested is just a handful,” Whitten said to Bloomberg. “It’s appropriate that this be addressed at the state level.”

Still, multiple cities and states have begun taking action. As RT reported earlier this month, Los Angeles became the largest city in the country to ban fracking, with the prohibition expected to remain in place until it’s proven the process won’t harm public safety or contaminate the drinking water. A co-sponsor of the bill noted the procedure’s connection to earthquakes, while others have pointed not only to its environmental consequences, but also to the fact that it uses up significant amounts of drinking water in a state that’s been stricken with drought.

According to the Sacramento Bee, “millions of Californians live in areas threatened by oil industry-induced earthquakes,” with more than 800 injection wells near “recently active faults,” including the San Andreas.

Meanwhile, Arkansas has banned fracking in an area known for its spike in seismic activity, while Ohio has barred wells near fault lines. Other cities, such as Dallas, have effectively banned fracking as well, prohibiting it within 1,500 feet of a home, school, church, and other areas.

‘A complete surprise’: Astronomers find asteroid called ‘Chariklo’ has twin rings

Raw Story | Mar 26, 2014 | Agence France-Presse

Astonished astronomers said Wednesday they had found rings around an asteroid, the smallest object known to have this feature and only the fifth after Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

The twin rings around a rock called Chariklo were spotted in June last year as it passed in front of a star, scrutinised by seven telescopes dotted over a 1,500-kilometre (930-mile) stretch of South America.

As expected, the star seemed to vanish for a few seconds as Chariklo blocked its light — a phenomenon known as occultation, an international team reported in the science journal Nature.

But the mini-eclipse turned out to be much more than the astronomers were expecting.

“A few seconds before, and again a few seconds after the main occultation, there were two further very short dips in the star’s apparent brightness,” the European Southern Observatory (ESO) said in a statement.

“Something around Chariklo was blocking the light!”

It turned out to be two narrow, dense rings — a feature believed to be limited to the four giant planets of our Solar System.

By comparing data from the different sites, the team not only reconstructed the shape and size of Chariklo itself but also the shape, width and orientation of its twin halos.

These were seven and three km (4.3 and 1.8 miles) wide respectively, separated by a nine-km gap. Like Saturn’s rings, Chariklo’s may be composed of water ice.

“We weren’t looking for a ring and didn’t think small bodies like Chariklo had them at all, so the discovery, and the amazing amount of detail we saw in the system, came as a complete surprise,” said Felipe Braga Ribas of Brazil’s National Observatory.

- Celestial centaur -

Chariklo, a lumpy 250-km-wide rock discovered in 1997 and named after a water nymph in Greek mythology, orbits the Sun between Saturn and Uranus, more than a billion kilometres from Earth.

It is a Centaur, a category of celestial bodies that share the characteristics of comets, which are made of ice and dust and form tails when they pass near the Sun, and asteroids which are made of metallic rock, have shorter orbits and tend to cluster in groups.

Centaurs have unstable orbits that cross those of the giant planets and live for a few million years. Like other “minor planets”, they are not massive enough for their own gravity to pull them into a near-spherical shape.

The origin of Chariklo’s rings are a mystery for now, but may be the result of a debris-releasing collision with another body.

“I try to imagine how it would be to stand on the surface of this icy object… and stare up at a 20-km-wide ring system 1,000 times closer than the Moon,” said fellow researcher Uffe Grae Jorgensen of the University of Copenhagen’s Niels Bohr Institute.

The debris may eventually become welded together into a single, larger moon orbiting Chariklo — one of the theories for how our own Moon was formed.

Studying occultations is the only method astronomers have to determine the size and shape of bodies so far from Earth that even with the best telescopes they appear as faint points of light.

The rings around Uranus and Neptune were found in the same way, in 1977 and 1984. Galileo, in 1610, became the first person to observe the brilliant rings of Saturn, while the dusty rings around Jupiter were first spotted by the US probe Voyager 1 in 1979.

The project leaders have named Chariklo’s rings after the Brazilian rivers of Oiapoque and Chui, but the epithets have yet to be confirmed by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

- Planet-like body? -

In a separate study in Nature, astronomers said they had found a second planet-like body in what was long thought to be an uninhabited zone beyond the orbit of Pluto.

The remote area, said to represent the outer edge of our Solar System, is a supposed repository of comets known as the Oort Cloud.

Only one other body, a 1,000-km-diameter dwarf dubbed Sedna, has been spotted in what is thought to be the inner region of the hypothetical “cloud”.

The newcomer, spotted by the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory’s four-metre telescope in Chile, has been dubbed 2012 VP.

The point of its orbit closest to the Sun is about 80 astronomical units (1 AU = the distance from the Sun to Earth). Neptune is the furthest planet from the Sun at 30 AU.

“2012 VP is the smoking gun for the existence of the inner Oort Cloud,” Megan Schwamb of the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taipei, wrote in a comment.

U.S. Still Cleaning up Chemical Weapons from World War II…in 40 States

ALLGOV | Mar 26, 2014 | Noel Brinkerhoff, Danny Biederman

Bring us your nerve gases, your blister agents, your horrible weapons of warfare, your wretched refuse of World War II… This about sums up the decision of leaders in Washington after World War II when it came time for the American military to dispose of its arsenal of chemical weapons and those belonging to both the countries it fought against and alongside.

After the war’s conclusion, the U.S. government buried thousands of munitions loaded with chemical agents all across the country. These weapons of mass destruction were part of the U.S. arsenal as well as those belonging to ally Britain and enemies Germany and Japan.

The bombs and containers were simply dumped in the ground and buried, without concern for long-term environmental and health consequences.

Alabama is home to the largest of 249 such sites that are located in 40 states. Redstone Arsenal, a longtime U.S. Army base, sits atop miles of hidden trenches containing blister agents, choking agents, blood agents and more.

The 38,000-acre base is surrounded by homes, schools, churches and shopping centers—a city of 200,000 people. It was reported that few residents are aware of the toxic danger lurking nearby.

A disposal team has been working at Redstone since the 1970s trying to locate all of the chemical weaponry that is buried beneath 17 six-mile-long trenches. Once those trenches have all been located, the next step—scheduled to begin in 2019—is to remove the bombs and containers with great care, due to the uncertainty of the weapons’ condition after being held deep underground for decades. No more than six munitions can be safely removed each day.

“Even if we tried to do this as fast as anybody could ever get it done, we’re talking decades and decades,” James Watson, a disposal team member, told the Los Angeles Times. “This stuff is very dangerous to dig up. It’ll hurt you. It will blister you up. If you get that nerve agent on you, it will kill you.”

Redstone’s cleanup is expected to take until at least 2042. The quantity of weapons: 388,000. Between 20,000 and 25,000 of these are intact and, once disturbed, may be volatile.

Alabama has a second site, at former Camp Sibert (pdf) near Huntsville, with at least 13 stockpiles of mustard and phosgene gas.

Another of these sites is located in Spring Valley, Virginia, not far from the White House. Its arsenal features even older chemical munitions—possibly including mustard and arsenic—manufactured during World War I.

Several years ago, a vast supply of munitions from World War II was discovered beneath the grounds of Odyssey Middle School in Orlando, Florida. One of the weapons ignited into flames, but didn’t explode, injuring an Army Corps of Engineers contractor attempting to remove it. More than 200 potentially volatile explosives were found, most under the school and some near homes in the surrounding neighborhood. Home values, which were originally in the $600,000 range, plunged by at least 30%, while banks told homeowners their residents were worthless to lend against.

The U.S. military also dumped a huge volume of chemical weapons off both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. There are no plans to clean up those sites, although Congress has authorized studies to look into it.

In 1958, about a hundred miles offshore of California, the SS William Ralston—loaded with more than 300,000 mustard gas bombs and 1,500 one-ton containers of Lewisite, a blistering agent—was scuttled by the U.S military. To this day it sits beneath nearly 14,000 feet of water just outside of San Francisco.

Ralston believes the U.S. task of removing 1,300 tons of secured chemical weapons from Syria for destruction at sea will be something of a breeze compared to the job here at home. “In Syria, you know where the weapons are and what they are, and they can move them with a forklift,” Watson told the Times. “Here, we don’t know. We have to go out there and dig them out of the ground … The sheer mass of this stuff is overwhelming.”

1999 study predicted catastrophe in Washington mudslide area

This photo obtained March 25, 2014, courtesy of the Washington
State Department of Transportation shows the Stillaguamish dam
breach at SR 530, created after the landslide near Oso,
Washington, on March 22, 2014 (AFP Photo)

RT | Mar 2, 2014

With the death toll in last weekend’s deadly Washington mudslide likely rising to two dozen, a report commissioned by the US Army Corps of Engineers well over a decade ago predicted that a catastrophic landslide in the area was all but inevitable.

Rescue workers continued to dig through viscous muck and debris under drizzling rain throughout Tuesday near the rural town of Oso in Snohomish County, Washington. As many as 176 people are listed as missing three days after a massive mudslide gushed down a rain-saturated hillside, swallowing a neighborhood after barreling over a river and a nearby highway.

"Unfortunately we did not find any signs of life today, we didn't locate anybody alive, so that's the disappointing part," Reuters cites local fire chief Travis Hots as telling a media briefing. Hots noted that eight sets of remains had been found as a result of rescue efforts, though the official death toll would remain at 16 pending medical examinations.

Officials believe the number of missing could decline, as many of those believed missing have been double-counted or have not made friends and family aware of their whereabouts in a timely manner.

Search and rescue operations continued throughout the night and were set to return to full strength at daybreak.

Meanwhile, a 1999 report filed with the US Army Corps of Engineers warned of “the potential for a large catastrophic failure,” the Seattle Times recently reported.

“I knew it would fail catastrophically in a large-magnitude event,” though not when it would happen, said geomorphologist Daniel Miller, who was hired to do the study. “I was not surprised.”

Snohomish County officials have denied knowledge of the study, while John Pennington, director of the county’s Emergency Department, said local authorities had done their best to warn residents of the landside dangers.

Pennington said residents in the area which had long been dubbed "Hazel Landslide" due to the frequency of such events over the last half century, "were very aware of the slide potential," AP reports.

"We've done everything we could to protect them," he said.

However, according to the Seattle Times, Pennington seemingly contradicted himself by telling a press conference that the hill “was considered very safe.”

“This was a completely unforeseen slide. This came out of nowhere,” he said.

Patricia Graesser, a spokeswoman for the Army Corps of Engineers in Seattle, said that Miller’s report had not been intended as a risk assessment, but rather as a feasibility study for ecosystem restoration.

Asked whether the agency should have done anything with the information, she told AP: "We don't have jurisdiction to do anything. We don't do zoning. That's a local responsibility."

Miller, who also documented the hill’s landslide conditions in a report written in 1997 for the Washington Department of Ecology and the Tulalip Tribes, has extensive knowledge of the landform’s volatile history.

Following the last major landside in the area, which occurred in 2006, Miller was shocked to see new homes being built despite the inherent risks.

“Frankly, I was shocked that the county permitted any building across from the river,” he said.

“We’ve known that it’s been failing,” he said of the hill. “It’s not unknown that this hazard exists.”

Saturday’s landslide was not the first to strike an inhabited area in the state. In the late 1990s, a slowing moving landslide destroyed more than 100 houses in the town of Kelso. But the event in Oso ranks among the deadliest landslides in modern US history. In 1969, 150 people were killed in landslides and flooding in Nelson County, Virginia.

Submerged Oil Mats from BP Spill Found Near Pensacola Beaches

Activist Post | Mar 25, 2014

The remnants of the BP oil spill are still impacting the environment around the Gulf. During a post-response monitoring survey last month, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) found 1250 pounds of submerged oil mats near Pensacola beaches.  The discovery was baffling because the area was surveyed 9 times since the Deepwater Horizon oil in 2010.

 The report from February 27th, 2014 states:

In segment FLES2-005, several SRBs were found during the initial survey of the segment. Most SRBs were recovered as the team continued its survey. Exceptionally calm conditions allowed the team to survey a few meters offshore and a submerged oil mat (SOM) was found east of the Fort Pickens Ranger Station. The SOM measured about 3 meters by 3 meters in diameter, was up to 15-20 centimeters thick, and was found about 7 meters offshore in water that was about 1 meter deep.

Immediately upon discovery, an NRC report was filed. The team met with USCG personnel in the field shortly thereafter and the OSRO was deployed to assist with recovery of the SOM. However, the OSRO’s safety policies would not allow the crew to go in further than knee-deep water. As a cooperative effort, FDEP personnel removed product by hand using shovels provided by the OSRO. As chunks of the SOM were removed by FDEP personnel, the OSRO began sifting, weighing, and categorizing the material. By the end of the day, 1,249.56 lb of SOM product was removed just from a small 3 m x 3 m area.

The FDEP calls the discovery "remarkable" because the area has been surveyed repeatedly since the Deepwater Horizon spill:

What is remarkable about this area is that this segment has been previously surveyed 9 times by FDEP since the end of the active Deepwater Horizon response in June 2013. On one previous survey (December 10, 2013) four yellow Driftcards from the Texas A&M study were found in this area, indicating that this may be a natural collection area. The 9 previous surveys of this segment amounted to 32 lb of MC-252 product before today. However, through persistent proactive monitoring, a significant deposit of MC-252 oil was located and removed today.

See full report here.

Meanwhile, there's breaking news today that BP is responsible for an ongoing oil spill in Lake Michigan.

America's infrastructure nightmare

© RT America

RT America | Mar 25, 2014 | CHANNEL

Every year, when temperatures head South for the winter, plumbing companies work overtime to accommodate a growing number of pipe ruptures and leaks. The East Coast of the United States has some of the oldest piping in the country made of materials ranging from wood to lead to plastic. Infrastructure experts warn that if America's aging piping problem isn't addressed soon, the cost could skyrocket. RT Correspondent Meghan Lopez reports.

Road to environmental destruction

ENN.com | Mar 21, 2014 |

Roads are considered connectors of human development providing opportunities for economic success and communication but the flip side of this network is that it has also brought enormous destruction to our fields and forests. With forest destruction comes increased human development and ecological degradation. Recent mapping and modeling has been done to document and measure forest destruction in an initiative by the Ames Research Center of NASA and ENN affiliate, Mongabay.

 Using satellite imagery to detect deforestation as it is happening allows the opportunity to measure the deforestation and investigate it before it expands. Past satellite imagery has revealed the increased forest depletion in the proximity of new roads.

According to Kriton Arsenis, Greek Member in Parliament (MEP) of the European Parliament, "95% of forest loss occurs within 50 km of a road. Scientific reports and satellite imagery have demonstrated road building is a major driver of deforestation, from the Amazon to Indonesian and Congo Basin forests."

Because of their ability to store carbon stores, their capacity to prevent floods, and protecting biodiversity, Arsenis believes that urgent measures are needed to curb the construction of roads in forested regions. Further, protection is critical to the preservation of the environment and the ongoing struggles with climate change. Arsenis says, "Keeping our last intact forests free of roads is a cost efficient way to protect the climate, halt biodiversity loss and keep illegal traffickers at bay."

William Laurence, a professor at Australia's James Cook University, sees roads as a gateway to the destruction of forestland.

"Roads are often fatal for forests and other native ecosystems," he said. "They open up a Pandora's Box of environmental problems, such as illegal deforestation, colonization, hunting, mining, and land speculation."

Presently the European Union has several rules governing exploitation of forest resources including the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR), which prohibits selling illegally harvested timber and its products, but regulations currently contain no road construction legislation in forests.

Roads are generally constructed to connect isolated communities with the remainder of the country or support economic development within a remote area. Juliette Ebélé, spokesperson for the International Road Transport Union, while admitting the sector's impact on deforestation, says, "Road infrastructure and road transport are a major driver of economic and social development, granting access to rural or remote areas, hence bringing about agricultural, business, habitat opportunities, and so on." Ebélé goes on to say that there should be policies to protect the environment in the construction of  roads through sensitive areas.

Read more at Euractive.com.

Construction in the forest image via Shutterstock.

IPCC Admits The Scientific Consensus Was Wrong in a Stunning Reversal on Biofuels

Watts Up With That | Mar 24, 2014 | Anthony Watts

It just goes to show you that sometimes, consensus in science amounts to a “whole lot of nothing” as this story from Robert Mendick in The Sunday Telegraph tells us.

Growing crops to make “green” biofuel harms the environment and drives up food prices, IPCC admits in dramatic U-turn

The United Nations will officially warn that growing crops to make “green” biofuel harms the environment and drives up food prices, The Telegraph can disclose.


A leaked draft of a UN report condemns the widespread use of biofuels made from crops as a replacement for petrol and diesel. It says that biofuels, rather than combating the effects of global warming, could make them worse.

The draft report represents a dramatic about-turn for the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Its previous assessment on climate change, in 2007, was widely condemned by environmentalists for giving the green light to large-scale biofuel production. The latest report instead puts pressure on world leaders to scrap policies promoting the use of biofuel for transport.

The summary for policymakers states: “Increasing bioenergy crop cultivation poses risks to ecosystems and biodiversity.”

Full story (subscription required)

Al Gore and Palm Oil is a prime example of one such mess that once looked like a good idea: Al Gore’s palm oil train wreck gets worse

BP to Blame for Exxon Valdez: Environmental Disaster 25 Years Later | Interview with Greg Palast

Greg Palast
© RT

BreakingtheSet | Mar 24, 2014 | CHANNEL

Abby Martin features an exclusive interview with investigative journalist, Greg Palast, discussing his article on TruthDig which exposes the extent of BP's culpability in the Exxon Valdez oil spill 25 years ago, specifically for not providing adequate safety equipment, a criminal offense which was repeated in the 2010 Deep Water Horizon spill.

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