Saturday, May 31, 2014

Official in Fukushima: “Please Please HELP US!” — Hot particles of melted fuel are inhaled by children everyday — We are forced to have it in our bodies — “Please let all people in the world know the life we are living”

image
ENE News | May 30, 2014

Excerpts from Oyama Koichi of the Minamisoma City Council, May 13, 2014 — Translation by Dissensus Japan, May 25, 2014:
  • I want to shout for all the people in this world: “Please Please HELP US!”
  • The cause substance have been found. This is an aggregate of radionuclides which starts with Uranium [in] a nuclear reactor at more than 5000°C.
  • This mixed metal contains four different substances, α・β・γ and also have the possibility to radiate neutron ray.
  • No creature on earth never knew this substance.
  • We are forced to have those strong substances inside our body without knowing where it exactly stays.
  • To say that “Cesium has got the same system as potassium and it will be discharged from the body” is just a lie! [...]
  • We are all manipulated by the words “radiation” and “radiation doze” without knowing the real identity of radiation source. We are not told the real facts of being irradiated [...]
  • They only compare radiation doze and natural potassium contained in bananas and manipulated people as if it was a scientific study. I really want the scholars patronized by the government to be punished by the rancorous of all children on this earth. [...]
  • The informations say that hot particles were diffused and flied in all directions in Japan. The particles from hell is flying in the air and people don’t protect themselves anymore three years after the nuclear accident and children are aspirating those horrible particles everyday!!!
  • PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HELP US!  Please let all people in the world to know the life we are living since the accident, everyday and toda

Meltdown Update : No Change In Arctic Sea Ice Over The Last 19 Years

Real Science | May 30, 2014


Daily Arctic Sea Ice Maps

Hungry for land: small farmers feed the world with less than a quarter of all farmland

Alcides Raméon Ramírez, a member of one of 200 peasant
families fighting to defend their land in Curuguaty,
Paraguay. Eighty percent of the country's land is in the
hands of just two percent of landowners.
(Photo: Pablo Tosco/Oxfam Intermon)
GRAIN | May 28, 2014

It is commonly heard today that small farmers produce most of the world's food. But how many of us realise that they are doing this with less than a quarter of the world's farmland, and that even this meagre share is shrinking fast? If small farmers continue to lose the very basis of their existence, the world will lose its capacity to feed itself.

GRAIN took an in depth look at the data to see what is going on and the message is crystal clear. We need to urgently put land back in the hands of small farmers and make the struggle for agrarian reform central to the fight for better food systems.

Governments and international agencies frequently boast that small farmers control the largest share of the world's agricultural land. Inaugurating 2014 as the International Year of Family Farming, José Graziano da Silva, Director General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), sang the praises of family farmers but didn't once mention the need for land reform. Instead he stated that family farms already manage most of the world's farmland1 – a whopping 70%, according to his team.2 Another report published by various UN agencies in 2008 concluded that small farms occupy 60% of all arable land worldwide.3 Other studies have come to similar conclusions.4

But if most of the world's farmland is in small farmers' hands, then why are so many of their organisations clamouring for land redistribution and agrarian reform? Because rural peoples' access to land is under attack everywhere. From Honduras to Kenya and from Palestine to the Philippines, people are being dislodged from their farms and villages. Those who resist are being jailed or killed. Widespread agrarian strikes in Colombia, protests by community leaders in Madagascar, nationwide marches by landless folk in India, occupations in Andalusia – the list of actions and struggles goes on and on. The bottom line is that land is becoming more and more concentrated in the hands of the rich and powerful, not that small farmers are doing well.

Rural people don't simply make a living off the land, after all. Their land and territories are the backbone of their identities, their cultural landscape and their source of well-being. Yet land is being taken away from them and concentrated in fewer and fewer hands at an alarming pace.

Then there is the other part of the picture: that concerning food. While it is now increasingly common to hear that small farmers produce the majority of the world's food, even if that is outside of market systems, we are also constantly being fed the message that the "more efficient" industrial food system is needed to feed the world. At the same time, we are told that 80% of the world's hungry people live in rural areas, many of them farmers or landless farmworkers.

How do we make sense of all this? What is true and what is not? What action do we take to deal with these imbalances? To help answer some of these questions, GRAIN decided to take a closer look at the facts.5 We tried to find out how much land is really in the hands of small farmers, and how much food they produce on that land.6

The figures and what they tell us 

When we looked at the data, we came across quite a number of difficulties. Countries define "small farmer" differently. There are no centralised statistics on who has what land. There are no databases recording how much food comes from where. And different sources give widely varying figures for the amount of agricultural land available in each country.

In compiling the figures, we used official statistics from national agricultural census bureaus in each country wherever possible, complemented by FAOSTAT (FAO's statistical database) and other FAO sources where necessary. For statistical guidance on what a "small farm" is, we generally used the definition provided by each national authority, since the conditions of small farms in different countries and regions can vary widely. Where national definitions were not available, we used the World Bank's criteria.

In light of this, there are important limitations to the data – and our compilation and assessment of them. (See Annex 1 for a fuller discussion of the data.) The dataset that we produced is fully referenced and publicly available online and forms an integral part of this report.7

Despite the inherent shortcomings of the data, we feel confident in drawing six major conclusions:
  1. The vast majority of farms in the world today are small and getting smaller
  2. Small farms are currently squeezed onto less than a quarter of the world's farmland
  3. We are fast losing farms and farmers in many places, while big farms are getting bigger
  4. Small farms continue to be the major food producers in the world
  5. Small farms are overall more productive than big farms
  6. Most small farmers are women
Many of these conclusions might seem obvious, but two things shocked us.

One was to see the extent of land concentration today, a problem that agrarian reform programmes of the 20th century were supposed to have solved. What we see happening in many countries right now is a kind of reverse agrarian reform, whether it's through corporate land grabbing in Africa, the recent agribusiness-driven coup d'état in Paraguay, the massive expansion of soybean plantations in Latin America, the opening up of Burma to foreign investors, or the extension of the European Union and its agricultural model eastward. In all of these processes, control over land is being usurped from small producers and their families, with elites and corporate powers pushing people onto smaller and smaller land holdings, or off the land entirely into camps or cities.

The other shock was to learn that, today, small farms have less than a quarter of the world's agricultural land – or less than a fifth if one excludes China and India from the calculation. Such farms are getting smaller all the time, and if this trend persists they might not be able to continue to feed the world.

Let's go through these findings point by point.

1. The vast majority of farms in the world today are small and getting smaller By our calculations, over 90% of all farms worldwide are "small", holding on average 2.2 hectares (Table 1). Even if we exclude China and India – where about half of the world's small farms are located – from the calculations, small farms still account for over 85% of all farms on the planet today. In over two-thirds of all countries, small farms – as defined in each country – represent more than 80% of all farms. In only nine countries, all of them in Western Europe, are small farms a minority.8

How many small farms are there – and how much land do they have?

Read more..

Water in Gaza - total collapse draws ever nearer

Palestinian boys showing the Free Gaza passengers
the lakes of untreated sewerage inside Gaza.
Photo: Free Gaza movement via Flickr.
The Ecologist | May 31, 2014
After suffering devastating winter floods, Gaza now prepares for a long, dry summer of acute water shortages, declining water quality and a collapsing sewage system, as its coastal aquifer faces permanent damage from over-use and seawater contamination.
The consequences of a dry winter in the Middle East are being studied particularly closely in Gaza, where the area's 1.9 million residents already face a number of largely man-made threats to water security.

The following round-up of recent publications by think tanks, analysts and human rights organizations highlights the close link between water security and electricity supplies, and the near exhaustion of Gaza's coastal aquifer.

A power crisis in the territoriy has reduced the availability of running water in most households, according to a factsheet produced by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), with more than 30% of homes in Gaza receiving running water for just 6-8 hours every four days.

Immediate action needed to avert 'irreversible damage'

In March, a petition signed by nearly 13,000 people and organised by the Emergency Water and Sanitation-Hygiene Group (EWASH), a coalition which includes national and international NGOs and UN agencies, was handed to the European Parliament to urge action to end the water crisis in Gaza.

"The scale and severity of the water crisis facing the Gaza Strip is enormous, and unless immediate action is taken, the damage to Gaza's natural water resources will be irreversible", says a factsheet produced by the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA).

At least 90% of the water supply in Gaza is contaminated with a combination of nitrate (NO3) or chloride (Cl), according to the PWA. It says water quantity is also an issue, with average consumption of 90 litres per person per day, below WHO's recommended guidelines for minimum health requirements of 100 to 250 litres per person per day, say EWASH.

In the coming years, the population of Gaza is expected to continue growing, creating increased water and power needs. The power supply required to operate current water and wastewater facilities, currently 29 MW (megawatts) is expected to rise to 81.5 MW by 2020, according to PWA, as the population grows and new water projects are built.

'Significant water deficits' loom

According to an OCHA factsheet on the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs), "The insufficient supply of electricity and fuel to operate water pumps and wells has caused a further reduction in the availability of running water in most households. This has increased people's reliance on private, uncontrolled water suppliers and lowered hygiene standards."

Israel is the main source of electricity in the OPTs, with 4,702 gigawatt hours purchased from Israel in 2012, constituting 89% of its total energy purchases.

The Gaza Strip, specifically, is supplied with electricity from three sources: purchases from Israel (120 megawatts) and from Egypt (28 MW) and production by the Gaza Power Plant (GPP) (currently 60 MW). According to OCHA, this supply meets less than half of the estimated demand.

In a recent report on water in the OPTs, Friends of the Earth says: "Water injustice and inequitable allocation of water to Palestinian people has seriously deteriorated the overall economic and social well-being of the people ...

"The majority of water resources are concentrated in the hands of Israel, while the Palestinian population endures significant water deficits."

B'Tselem: 'an unequal division'

In a press release issued in February, the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem said the Israeli government was largely responsible for this discrimination due its water policy: "Minimal amounts of water are supplied to Palestinians and water from shared resources is unequally divided."

The Israel Water Authority on the other hand says Israel goes well beyond existing water obligations in providing additional water supplies to OPT. It says uncontrolled drilling in OPT is a major threat to supply:

"Over 300 unauthorized wells were drilled by the Palestinians in the West Bank. These unauthorized wells may ruin the shared aquifer as they almost completely ruined the one in Gaza and caused an ecological disaster."

Gaza's coastal aquifer 'unusable' by 2016

Almost all the water in Gaza comes from the coastal aquifer, which is shared with Israel. "[D]ue to the absence of any policy coordination between Israel and the Gaza Strip with regard to the Coastal Aquifer, both authorities are currently over-extracting", says EWASH.

A UN report in August 2012 entitled Gaza in 2020 forecast that at current rates of deterioration the coastal aquifer will become unusable by 2016 and beyond repair by 2020.

In 2009 the UN Environment Programme recommended ending abstraction from the aquifer completely, but with low rainfall and no year-round rivers, Gaza has few other options.

PWA has long-term plans for a central desalination plant and short-term plans for several low-volume desalination projects, wastewater treatment plants and developing treated wastewater reuse for irrigation. But given the challenges posed by the blockade and electricity shortages, the viability of such plans is in question.

Without power, adequate water is a pipe-dream

While large-scale emergency and strategic water desalination and wastewater treatment projects are necessary to provide for the population in the future, without adequate power sources, these projects will only add to the challenges.

As part of its 2014 response plan for OPT, the UN has appealed for US$25 million to help improve access to basic water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services for 1.9 million of the people in need.

So far, the chronically underfunded Water and Sanitation-Hygiene (WASH) sector is just 5.6% funded, well below the average of 18% for other sectors.



This article was originally published by Irin News - a service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

URGENT: FRACKING EXPLOSIONS in Colorado - 4 Mile Long eruption of Liquid Sand + stored CO2

DutchSinse | May 31, 2014 | CHANNEL


Full breakdown of the Collbrand Colorado "landslide" from our live broadcast on Friday Night (May 30 2014). All links below.

It appears a large deposit of high pressure liquid sand, underground at the Collbran Colorado fracking location, found a weak point to the surface.

After doing some research on the "Collbran Gas System" , which is part of the Piceance shale deposit, I found that in addition to hydraulic fracturing (fracking), there is also a LARGE amount of CO2 being pumped into the ground (like carbonation in a can of soda).... a process called "Carbon Sequestration", where CO2 is pumped into old oil wells filled with liquid frack sands.

Carbon Sequestration is a Geoengineering method to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere (under the belief that there is global warming due to excessive CO2 in the atmosphere).

The geoengineers have partnered up with the US Government, and oil companies -- to use old oil wells to "store" Carbon Dioxide gas. (each well thousands of feet deep, capable of being filled and compressed with billions of cubic feet of gas across thousands of old wells).

It is my supposition that a high pressure liquid sand CO2 "eruption" occurred at the fracking operation (the weakest point in the crust due to drilling)...

The weak point allowed the liquid frack sands, along with subterranean high pressure sands, along with highly compressed CO2 to all "erupt" and flow down the mountain more like a LAHAR than a "landslide".

Complete lack of water , and the presence of a sandy silicate mixture, also the confirmed CO2 storage... means we're getting a bogus line from the powers that be on the reasons behind this fracture.

LINKS

West Texas rapidly running out of water - less than 90-day supply remaining in dozens of towns

 © Natural News
Natural News | May 30, 2014 | Julie Wilson

At least 33 communities in Texas could soon be completely out of water, some within three short months. Others say they could go dry in just 45 days.

Pebble Beach, a town northwest of San Antonio, has had their request approved for a $350,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to dig new, deeper wells.

Bandera County, an area located on the Edwards Plateau, said they intend to match $90,000 in order to acquire property so they can build a 30,000-gal. ground storage tank for the community.

Resident Joe Mooneyham told KHOU-TV that he hasn't been able to water his lawn since last September.

"Everything was just emerald green," said Mooneyham. He told the local news that he misses the green landscape, deer and the normal water levels that once existed in Lake Medina. The lake behind the Pebble Beach resident's home has receded more than one and a quarter mile away.

"Every day I go on and check the level," Mooneyham said.

Pebble Beach is named as such because of a field of small stones covering a nearly dried up lakebed. Neighbors just a few miles down the road are purchasing tens of thousands of dollars worth of water and having it shipped in just to survive. Unfortunately, communities are routinely being developed in areas lacking the water needed to support them. Existing communities nearby then have their water resources dried up attempting to support the new developments.

Often, the developer gets in, builds and gets out, leaving residents to face water shortages.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) monitors towns like Pebble Beach for water shortages but has failed to enforce necessary regulation on developers building in areas with unsustainable water resources.

"The well-service people have been lowering pumps. Some have had to have new wells drilled. It's just a fact of nature," said Bandera County Judge Richard Evans.

Pebble Beach only has one well, said Judge Evans. "They need another well. They need storage capacity. So, that's what we're trying to help them effect."

St. Mary's University water law professor Amy Hardberger weighed in, saying, "We have sort of taken water for granted for a long time. And I think that time is over. I think its valuation has gone up. Some communities are in more trouble than others."

Desperate for rain


Texas was hit hard with a drought three years ago, leaving many regions still unable to recover. More than two-thirds of the state suffers from moderate to severe drought conditions.

Lake Travis provides water for more than 1 million people throughout the Austin area. Officials with the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) say prolonged drought is the cause of extremely low water levels, which are still about 50 ft. below average.

Repeated, heavy rainstorms are required to "significantly raise storage levels," said the LCRA's website. The LCRA is primarily reliant on water flow from the Colorado River to supply demand for cities, power plants, farming and environmental flow requirements.

While many Texas regions have been affected by droughts, counties in the North and Northwest have suffered the most, with areas listed as a #4 for Exceptional Drought on the intensity scale.

As of May 21, statistics provided by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) indicate that there are 12 public water systems that could run out of water in 45 days, and 21 that could run out in 90.

Residents of Wichita Falls came up with a new way to deal with water shortages last month when they proposed to recycle toilet bowl water, reported National Public Radio. TCEQ officials are required to conduct testing of the recycled wastewater before approving the $13 million proposal.

The city is expecting an answer by the end of May.

Additional sources:

http://www.chron.com

http://www.npr.org

http://www.tceq.texas.gov

http://hydromet.lcra.org

http://travis.uslakes.info

http://www.khou.com

Friday, May 30, 2014

Utah Oil Spill Cleanup Continues After BLM’s False Claims of Containment

© EcoWatch
EcoWatch.com | May 29, 2014 | Brandon Baker

As rain poured on Utah land this past weekend pushing oil about five miles upstream into a wash adjacent to the Green River, it appeared that a Bureau of Land Management assessment of a leak was completely wrong.

A BLM report released a week ago stated that a breached oil well had been contained after the May 21 leak. Now, the federal agency says “intense thundershower activity overcame prevention measures” and, as a result, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency continues cleanup efforts that could take another week, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

“This pollution of the Green River could and should have been prevented,” said Zach Frankel, executive director of the Utah Rivers Council. “The fact that the BLM claimed it was contained before it went on to contaminate the Green River with carcinogens is disturbing.”


Initial BLM estimates indicated that the damaged well gushed 80 to 100 barrels of oil per hour for more than 30 hours. Groups like the Utah Rivers Council, the Sierra ClubLiving Rivers and the Colorado Riverkeeper believe that amount equals 100,000 gallons of crude oil into a wash adjacent to the river. It is unknown how much of the oil entered the river, which is the largest tributary to the Colorado River, the main source of drinking water for about 35 million people. It is also the habitat of four endangered fish species.

Officials told Utah’s KSL that the oil’s contact with the river was “minimal.”

The spill is the third to occur in the state in just three months. Utah is now ranked 11th in the country in terms of crude oil production. The state isn’t trying to slow its oil boom down, either. The annual Utah Governor’s Energy Development Summit begins June 3 and is typically an effective recruiting tool for new development. Additionally, thousands of proposed new wells are awaiting approval.

“It’s unlikely that [Gov. Gary R. Herbert] and his friends from the fossil fuels industries will be talking about another oil spill in Utah,” Tim Wagner of the Sierra Club said. “Rather, we can be sure that they will be discussing additional ways that they can tap into more of Utah’s black gold, including plotting to take away our public lands.”

Environmentalists are worried about what the miscalculation means for the future.

“With the energy policies of our state leaders, lower basin residents can see the future, which means more pollution in their taps,” said John Weisheit, conservation director of Living Rivers and Colorado Riverkeeper.

6-Year Study Reveals Toxins Contaminating Columbia River, Wildlife


Natural Society | May 28, 2014 | Elizabeth Renter

In the first such study of toxic contaminants within the Columbia River, researchers have found troubling results. Not only is the water polluted, but so is the wildlife—the fish which both birds and people are eating. The contaminants being blamed? Those that go down the drains in homes all across the country.

As OPB reports, the study was conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey. It lasted six years and was the first time household toxins were effectively tested for in the Columbia river.
“In a lot of cases, there’s not even thresholds set for safe and unsafe because we’ve never looked for them before,” said USGS hydrologist Steven Sobieszczyk. 
The toxins were found in the water, fish, and osprey eggs. The fish species they looked at, the largescale sucker, had sperm abnormalities which make it more difficult for them to reproduce. These fish are caught for consumption, which means the toxins they are absorbing are coming back to the people who are likely to blame for polluting the water in the first place.
“A lot of these things come through the pathways of the wastewater treatment plant into the river,” says Elena Nielsen, a research chemist with the USGS in Portland. “But the ultimate source was usually us,” she admits.
Read: Canada River Loaded with Artificial Sweeteners

Their findings—which resulted from analysis of river sediments, insects in the water, the largescale sucker, and osprey eggs—show bioaccumulation. This means there are higher levels of toxins the higher you go up the food chain. Further, contamination levels were also higher as you move downstream, as toxic impact accumulated.
“Water quality often goes overlooked and ignored because it’s not tangible. You can’t see it,” said Sara Thompson of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. “We can see fish populations decrease in the Columbia River system and the Willamette System but we can’t see these toxics. We have to make water quality standards a priority in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.”
While local tribes depend more on salmon and steelhead, the study on suckers indicates a larger water-quality issue, one that no doubt affects all fish varieties.

The household toxins we’re talking about here are those many of us use on a daily basis and don’t think twice to pour down the drain or spray on the lawn. But despite them disappearing from our view, these pollutants continue to have effects on the world around us.

‘Smart’ Meter Spying Finally Admitted


Take Back Your Power | May 28, 2014 | Warren Woodward

Industry mouthpiece SmartGridNews finally admitted that “smart” meters are surveillance devices.  Of course they didn’t quite put it that bluntly.  In fact, they celebrate the ability of utilities to know what appliances people use as another tool to help craft the wonderful world of the future.

Below is my letter to the Arizona Corporation Commission pointing out that industry has finally come out and admitted what I and others have been saying for years. [Note from TBYP: It's important that you send your utility your notice of Non-Consent via registered mail.  Subscribe to our Newsletter for forthcoming news, and see our Solutions page for current links to templates.]

The SmartGridNews article, entitled “Now utilities can tell customers how much energy each appliance uses (just from the smart meter data),” is here.

May 15, 2014

Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC)
Docket Control Center
1200 West Washington Street
Phoenix, Arizona 85007

Re: Docket # E-01345A-14-0113

Ladies and Gentlemen;

Here is breaking news. SmartGridNews has just come out of the closet and admitted what I and others have been saying all long: “Smart” meters are surveillance devices.

APS and utilities nationwide have been denying the surveillance capability of “smart” meters but here is one of the foremost “smart” meter cheerleaders in the world finally admitting the truth.

SmartGridNews calls such “smart” grid industry names as Telvent, Silver Spring Networks and Lockheed Martin its “major sponsors”. So of course the news story attempts to put a positive spin on the surveillance, hyping such nonsense as an “over 4% conservation [of energy] after just a few months”.

Wow, that means I might save four whole dollars and change on a one hundred dollar electrical bill. Where do I sign up to be spied on?

Enclosed is the SmartGridNews article, Now utilities can tell customers how much energy each appliance uses (just from the smart meter data).

Sincerely,

Warren Woodward
PS – In the article, note the creepy picture of a guy dressed in black and using binoculars. SmartGridNews is shameless to promote Peeping Toms as cool. Note also Orwellian phrasing such as “behavioral science“ and turning ratepayers into “willing partners“. It’s not a “smart” grid; it’s a sick grid.

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Why Would You Want To Spy On Yourself For The Government?

© Alt-Market
Alt-Market | May 28, 2014 | Melissa Melton

And alternately, how “smart” do you really want your home to be?

The commercials have been airing for awhile now: you can protect your home with a smart CCTV camera system that includes full streaming, night vision, two-way talk back, and digital zoom for only $150. You can even add on the optional cloud recording to access stored footage of your home for up to a month (all encrypted for your security, of course).

Now news has surfaced that Google’s “Nest” division, which involves smart thermostats that program themselves and can be remotely controlled to change your home’s temperature over the Internet from anywhere, is looking to move into home security with plans to purchase home CCTV system-maker Dropcam.
“With a Dropcam Wi-Fi video monitoring camera and optional cloud recording service you can remotely drop in on your house, baby, pets, business, or anything else from a smartphone, tablet, or computer,” the firm says. (source)
Check out the video. Dropcam’s CEO says they built it to answer a really simple question: “What goes on at home when I’m not there?”

Guess it depends who is asking the question. Google’s plans ultimately involve, according to Mail Online, total home automation.

Apparently this comes just as Apple is planning to unveil its own home automation app that would tie everything together:
An Apple patent published in November last year gave the first hints of the system, showing a system that automatically turned on lights when a user comes home.
It is believed the firm is already working with home automation firms to ensure their gadgets work with the app.
The firm already sells home automation gadgets in its stores, including including arch rival Google’s Nest thermostats, Dropcam wireless cameras, Philips Hue lightbulbs and Belkin WeMo switches. [SIC] (source)
That means you and your house will be constantly creating bits of data that form a blueprint of your daily life: how much electricity and water you use and when you use it, on top of a camera that video tapes you using it.

And what of privacy?

And if you can “drop in” on your house, you have to wonder, who else can drop in, too?

After all, it was just last month that a hacker tapped into a couple’s app-controlled baby monitor, and they awoke to a strange man operating the camera and screaming at their baby in the middle of the night from inside their home.

Beyond that, we live in a world where the so-called National Security Agency’s habit of spying on Americans through major telecommunications companies like Google and Apple has been fully exposed now. It’s not even a question of if they do it anymore. They are openly doing it. Period.

Why else would they need to build a $3 billion data hub in the Utah desert?

(On a side note, it’s pretty interesting that out of three American cities that Google chose to first launch it’s Fiber super high speed internet, one of them is Provo, Utah…a choice that hardly makes sense in lieu of larger cities until you consider Provo is just 30 minutes away from the aforementioned NSA spy hub.)
In addition to apps that track your house, Apple is also set to unveil an app that tracks…you:
Called Healthbook, the new app is expected to be unveiled in June at Apple’s annual developer conference. It offers everything from food and sleep tracking to blood sugar level analysis – and can even tell how much water you’ve drunk. (source)
Check out the control panel that comes with your trendy new “health-tracking wristband” iWatch:

We now live in such a fear-based technocratic society, we are literally paying to give up liberty for security.

Pretty soon, your smart phone/smart pad/smart watch/computer (and anyone with access to it) will know everything about you, your home, your habits, and basically your whole entire life. The concept of privacy is quickly going out the virtual window.

The human race is about to get sucked up into the Internet of Things — “a global, immersive, invisible, ambient networked computing environment built through the continued proliferation of smart sensors, cameras, software, databases, and massive data centers in a world-spanning information fabric.”

Are you ready?

 This article was written by Melissa Melton and originally published at The Daily Sheeple

Pesticide Companies Use Clever Loophole to Avoid Regulation of Genetically Modified Grass

Scotts Co. scientist Bob Harriman
looks over genetically e
ngineered grass (AP Photo)
ALLGOV | May 28, 2014 | Noel Brinkerhoff


The biotechnology industry has found another use for pesticide-resistant gene technology by putting it in grass seeds, and in the process, completely avoided federal regulation of this new genetically engineered (GE) product.

Soon, lawns and farms across America could consist of Scotts Roundup-Ready Kentucky Bluegrass (whether people want it or not), designed to withstand “massive amounts of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide,” according to EcoWatch.

Monsanto and Scotts managed to get their GE grass on the market without approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) due to loopholes in federal law.

Ordinarily, GE crops come under federal regulation as long as they contain genetic material from “plant pests”—the beings that the gene manipulation are designed to resist.

But Scotts decided to use DNA from other plants in creating the new kind of Kentucky bluegrass, along with other techniques that avoided triggering the USDA to step in and require testing, as well as its approval, before the grass could be sold to consumers.

EcoWatch’s Charlotte Warren and Ronnie Cummins warn that because of bluegrass’ light pollen, the grass can easily spread to neighboring properties. Once it does, the GE version will genetically merge with existing grasses—including organic ones that farmers rely on to produce organic meat, for example.

“As these seeds spread and more and more grass takes up that genetic trait, we’ll find organic farmers who want to grass feed their beef, can’t do it because their grass is genetically modified, which is prohibited in organic standards,” Bill Duesing of the Northeast Organic Farming Association wrote for CT News Junkie. “GMOs are pollution with a life of its own.”

Warren and Cummins noted that research has shown that GE grass eaten by animals has a “devastating impact” on their health, whether they be “prized horses” or cattle raised for the meat market. The journalists also predict that the use of GE grass will lead to increased use of the widely used herbicide Roundup, which contains the ingredient glyphosate, said to cause numerous diseases, from Parkinson’s to cancer.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Hidden fee on your electric bill since 1982 raised $40 billion - now wait until you hear what the gov't did with it

© AP/Robert Ray
In this March 16, 2011 file photo, steam escapes
from Exelon Corp.’s nuclear plant in Byron, Ill.
Sott.net | May 18, 2014 | Source

Uncle Sam has been nickel-and-diming Americans to pay for a nuclear waste disposal facility that doesn't exist.

But on Friday, after a protracted legal battle between the Department of Energy and power companies, the feds are backing down.

For 30 years, customers who got their energy from nuclear power plants had an extra fee tacked on to their monthly bills, ostensibly to pay for the cost of disposing nuclear waste.

"The fee is tiny - one mill, or a tenth of a cent, for every kilowatt hour generated by nuclear power," CNN reported. "That amounts to about 15 to 20 cents on the average monthly electric bill, industry officials estimate."

The catch: the feds weren't actually using the money to deal with nuclear waste.

Instead, the feds shelled out roughly $7 billion on the abortive attempt to open a waste facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, and after that failed, they sat back and collected the cash.

Now the Nuclear Waste Fund holds about $31 billion, having collected $40 billion since starting in 1982.

The Department of Energy was actually ordered to stop collecting the fees - which add up to $750 million a year - back in November, but the lawsuits weren't finally settled until Friday.

The Nuclear Waste Fund will continue to balloon despite the end of the fees - interest payments will grow the fund by about $1.3 billion annually.

Dust In The Wind: Dust Bowl Conditions Have Returned To Kansas, Oklahoma And North Texas


Economic Collapse Blog | May 27, 2014 | Michael Snyder

In early 1978, a song entitled "Dust in the Wind" by a rock band known as Kansas shot up the Billboard charts.  When Kerry Livgren penned those now famous lyrics, he probably never imagined that Dust Bowl conditions would return to his home state just a few short decades later.  Sadly, that is precisely what is happening.  When American explorers first traveled through north Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, they referred to it as "the Great American Desert" and they doubted that anyone would ever be able to farm it.  But as history has shown, when that area gets plenty of precipitation the farming is actually quite good.  Unfortunately, the region is now in the midst of a devastating multi-year drought which never seems to end.  Right now, 56 percent of Texas, 64 percent of Oklahoma and 80 percent of Kansas are experiencing "severe drought", and the long range forecast for this upcoming summer is not good.  In fact, some areas in the region are already drier than they were during the worst times of the 1930s.  And the relentless high winds that are plaguing that area of the country are kicking up some hellacious dust storms.  For example, some parts of Kansas experienced a two day dust storm last month.  And Lubbock, Texas was hit be a three day dust storm last month.  We are witnessing things that we have not seen since the depths of the Dust Bowl days, and unless the region starts getting a serious amount of rain, things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get any better.

Over the past two months, very high winds and bone dry conditions have made the lives of ordinary farmers in the state of Kansas extraordinarily difficult.  Just check out the following excerpt from a recent article posted on Agriculture.com...
The dust has settled, but for how long no one can be sure. At any moment, the winds may blow, moving the topsoil -- soil that took Mother Nature generations to craft -- even farther from its origin.

One farmer reckons that precious topsoil, native to his farm in Kearny County, Kansas, now sits in a field at least 200 miles away, blown there by the relentless winds of March and April 2014.

Affecting counties in western Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, and eastern Colorado, it was reminiscent of what folks in the same region faced 80 years ago.

"There were several days we couldn’t see 100 yards in front of us," says Tom Hauser, a farmer near Ulysses, Kansas. "We didn’t know where the dust was coming from. It was moving in here from somewhere else, just like it did back in the 1930s."
When heavy winds blow day after day but there is no rain, it creates ideal conditions for dust storms.  According to the same article that I just mentioned, the average wind speed in the little community of Syracuse, Kansas has been over 50 miles an hour so far this year...
Since the beginning of 2014, the average maximum daily wind speed in Syracuse, Kansas, is 50.6 miles per hour, according to the Kansas State University Weather Data Library. In that same time, Syracuse has received just 1 inch of total precipitation.
That is a recipe for disaster.

“I’ve had to chisel more ground this year than the last 20 years put together,” says Gary Millershaski, who farms near Lakin in Kearny County. Chiseling the ground roughs it up, and helps prevent soil from blowing – at least for a little while.
I couldn't imagine living somewhere with such high winds day after day.

But this is what farmers in the High Plains have to deal with on a constant basis.

And needless to say, when things are this dry those kinds of winds can kick up some immense dust storms.  In fact, a dust storm in late April was so large that it covered most of the region...
Monday's dust storm was so large it covered most of Kansas, western Oklahoma, the Texas Panhandle and eastern Colorado, said weather service meteorologist Jeff Hutton in Dodge City. Tuesday's dust cloud was more localized, only found in some parts of Kansas.

"That is what happens when you get drought, a lack of vegetation and you have wind," Hutton said. "I mean, that is just the nature of the High Plains. And then that dirt that was lofted is eventually carried into eastern Kansas."
When one of these dust storms strikes, you want to get indoors and stay there.  It isn't even safe to be driving.  When you can't even see five feet in front of you, the odds of getting into a fatal accident rise exponentially.  Just check out what happened earlier this year near the little town of Liberal, Kansas...
At least 12 vehicles were involved in an pileup accident near Liberal, Kansas.

The accident happened around 1:40 p.m., nine miles southwest of Liberal. It appears that blowing dust limited visibility so severely that it cause vehicles to not see each other until it was too late and they collided. One report states that visibility was less than five feet.

According to Chief Anthony Adams of the Tyrone Fire Department in Oklahoma, six of the vehicles involved were cars and trucks, the other six were tractor trailers.
As bad as things are in Kansas right now, the truth is that things are probably even worse down in Texas.  Amarillo has had 10 dust storms so far this year, and Lubbock has already had 15 days of dust storms in 2014...
The number of dust storms seems to rise with the length of the drought. Amarillo has had 10 this year; it had none in 2010. The city is about 10 percent drier now than the 42 months that ended April 30, 1936, and drier than the state’s record drought in the 1950s.

Lubbock already has seen 15 days with dust storms this year, the National Weather Service said.
And remember, we haven't even gotten to the summer months yet.

As conditions get even worse in the heartland of America, it is going to end up deeply affecting all of us.  The farmers and ranchers that live there provide a tremendous amount of food for the rest of the country, and food prices are already starting to rise at an alarming pace.

So what is going to happen if this drought extends for several more years or even longer?
Some experts such as paleoclimatologist Edward Cook have suggested that we could be in the midst of a "megadrought" that could last for decades or even centuries.

Many of those that were convinced that we could never see a return of the Dust Bowl days are now being forced to reevaluate their beliefs.  According to the National Weather Service, parts of Kansas, Colorado, Texas and Oklahoma are already drier than they were in the 1930s.  The following is an excerpt from a recent National Geographic article entitled "Parched: A New Dust Bowl Forms in the Heartland"...
Four years into a mean, hot drought that shows no sign of relenting, a new Dust Bowl is indeed engulfing the same region that was the geographic heart of the original. The undulating frontier where Kansas, Colorado, and the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma converge is as dry as toast. The National Weather Service, measuring rain over 42 months, reports that parts of all five states have had less rain than what fell during a similar period in the 1930s.
It is hard to put into words how incredibly serious this all is.

A few years ago, when I wrote articles with titles such as "20 Signs That Dust Bowl Conditions Will Soon Return To The Heartland Of America", a lot of people laughed.

Not that many people are laughing now.

The truth is that we are now in the midst of the worst drought crisis since the days of the Great Depression.
Fortunately, over the past week or so there has been some rain in some of the hardest hit areas.  Let us hope that this is a sign of better things to come.

Because if this drought does not come to an end, it is going to become much, much more expensive for Americans to feed their families.

And considering the fact that 49 million Americans are already facing food insecurity, that is a threat that should not be taken lightly.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

How Do You Like Being Exposed to 80,000 Unregulated Chemicals Every Day?


Natural Society | May 26, 2014 | Christina Sarich

In a new documentary by Ed Brown titled, ‘Unacceptable Levels,’ we can learn how the industrial revolution led to more than 80,000 toxic chemicals that are unregulated and untested by independent scientific bodies, while still being given the rubber stamp of approval by agencies like the EPA.

Companies are free to put these untested, carcinogenic, toxic chemicals in any product they wish without government oversight. Jennifer Sass, senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council says:

“Almost all of our consumer products are made up of chemicals, and a lot of those chemicals are harmful.”

 Jeff Sell, the VP of Public Policy and General Council for the Autism Society of America, points out that, “different chemicals, in different levels are getting into us in every conceivable way.” Andy Igrejas, a senior chemist calls the human body, ‘ground zero’ for this chemical onslaught.

These chemicals cause reproductive problems, interfere with our immune systems, induce cancer, interfere with child development, and cause serious cognitive disorders. Just one of these 80,000 chemicals, bisphenol A, causes severe developmental and DNA changes in fetuses. More than 232 chemicals were recently found in babies – brand new beings that have been on this planet for days. These chemicals were found in the umbilical chords, which means they were getting toxic ‘transfusions’ from their mothers, and the environmental chemicals they were exposed to.

Read: 5 Toxic Household Chemicals to Eliminate from Your Home

Just one of many other chemicals detected in newborns was a toxic flame retardant chemical called tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), which permeates computer circuit boards, synthetic fragrances (Galaxolide and Tonalide) used in common cosmetics and detergents, and perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA, or C4), a member of the notorious Teflon chemical family used to make non-stick and grease-, stain- and, water-resistant coatings for cookware, textiles, food packaging and other consumer products.

Many learning disabilities, cancers, cognitive diseases like Alzheimer’s, and auto-immune disorders are linked to these 80,000 chemicals, yet they are allowed by our governments. Some say we are being systematically poisoned so that corporations can continue to make billions from products that we don’t need, and that are choking the planet. Either way, the ‘system’ is so broken. It should be completely trashed so that we could start over, beginning with a ban on every single one of these toxic elements.

It’s time to raise some heck. With headline’s like these: ‘Nine Million Pounds of Toxic Chemicals Pumped into Ohio’s Waterways’ and this, ‘Company Admits Dumping Toxic Waste into Sewers’, or this one, ‘Corporations Dumping Toxic Chemical Waste in Developing Countries,’ we need to act swiftly and radically. Corporations will kill us.


Monday, May 26, 2014

670,000 people ordered not to drink the water in Portland Oregon

OffGridSurvival.com | May 23, 2014

Residents in the city of Portland, Oregon are being told not to drink their tap water without boiling it first as officials are investigating how the city’s water supply became contaminated with E. coli.

The Boil Water notice was issued today after health officials detected E. coli bacteria in water samples at three locations over a three-day period.
“Until further notice, all Portland Water Bureau customers and those in the affected areas should boil all tap water used for drinking, food preparation, tooth brushing and ice for at least one minute. Ice or any beverages prepared with un-boiled tap water on or after May 20 should be discarded,” the water bureau said on its website.

In three separate incidents from May 20 to May 23, repeat water samples confirmed the presence of total coliform and E. coli in routine drinking water samples. The water samples that tested positive for bacteria were collected at the outlets of Mt. Tabor Reservoirs 1 and 5, and at the SE 2nd Avenue and Salmon Street water sampling station.
Both reservoirs have been taken offline, causing 670,000 people to placed under a boil water order. It is the largest boil water notice in the city’s history.
“We’re painfully aware that we’re going into a holiday weekend and that this is an inconvenience for people,” City Commissioner Nick Fish said. “We regret that, but we’re also guided by good science and regulations.”
All Portland Water Bureau customers are affected. Also affected are customers of the following water providers:
  • Burlington Water District
  • City of Gresham (North of I-84)
  • Lake Grove Water District
  • Lorna Portland Water
  • Palatine Hill Water District
  • Rockwood Water District
  • Tigard Water Service Area (including Durham, King City and Bull Mountain)
  • Valley View Water District
  • West Slope Water District

Alaska wildfire is bigger than Chicago

© Sue Mann
Sott.net | May 26, 2014 | Rob Quinn \ Newser

A huge fire burning in Alaska's Kenai National Wildlife Refuge has exploded in size and now covers 243 square miles - an area bigger than the city of Chicago. The Funny River fire in the heavily forested reserve south of Anchorage is just 30% contained and authorities have ordered the evacuation of around 1,000 structures, the AP reports. The fire isn't unusually big by Alaska standards, a state spokeswoman says, but it is occurring much earlier in the year than usual; unusually dry conditions, accompanied by high winds, are helping the blaze to spread.

Some 900 people have been evacuated from an area near the city of Soldotna, and it's not clear whether they will have homes to return to when the fire is contained. "Living there, you have in the back of your mind it's one way in and one way out - and it's surrounded by forest," a 71-year-old resident who fled his home in a pickup truck carrying clothes, photos, and a trailer with two ATVs tells the Anchorage Daily News. "It's still not a good feeling when you're deciding what you can take, what you can't take, and what you may leave."

© AP Photo/Peninsula Clarion, Rashah McChesney
A plane sprays over a portion of a wildfire in the
Funny River community of Soldotna, Alaska.


Sunday, May 25, 2014

Ecuador's tribes declare 'national mobilization' against oil and mining

Worth saving? Yasuni National Park.
Source: http://www.ecohustler.co.uk/.
The Ecologist | May 24, 2014 | David Dene

Ecuador is facing an unprecedented confrontation between a 'progressive' left-leaning government and a national coalition of indigenous peoples determined to stop vast oil and mining projects taking place on their community land and villages. 

Ecuador's umbrella organization representing the country's Tribal Nations, CONAIE, has declared a National Mobilization to oppose a wave of oil and mining projects that threaten tribal territories across the country.

The declaration comes in the wake of increasing hostility by Ecuador's government against the indigenous people resisting large scale resource extraction on their ancenstral lands. The government has announced a 'national security alert'.

At present more than 200 Tribal National leaders are under investigation for terrorism - relating to the growing popular resistance to polluted water and environmental destruction arising from extractive industries.

The government of the 'progressive' and left-leaning President, Rafael Correa, is pushing hard for the development of oil and mineral resources as a means of bringing wealth to the country and raising much needed revenues for social spending.

However its insistence on pursuing massive resource projects on lands owned by indigenous communities, and in some of the most biodiverse areas on Earth, is causing growing tension across the country.

Oil Exploration and Extraction

Yasuni National Park is an area of incredible biodiversity which the Government has declared open to oil extraction. It is also home to indigenous communities including two groups living in voluntary isolation, the Tagaeri and Taromenane.

However Yasuni is estimated to hold over 800 million barrels of oil worth some $18 billion, and its exploitation would yield Ecuador's government revenues of $7 billion.

The decision to exploit Yasuni's oil has caused widespread outrage in the small Andean nation and 756,000 people signed an official petition demanding a referendum on whether the project should go ahead.

To force a referendum 583,323 voters would have to sign, 5% of the electorate. However after a brief inspection of only four days, the government declared that only 359,762 of the 756,000 signatures were valid, claiming that the remainder were fakes and duplicates - and refused to hold the demanded referendum.

There are loud calls declaring the process "fraudulent" and a failure of the Democratic process, and insistent demands that the electoral council publish the annulled signatures.

"This is without precedent. This is fraud, a clear fraud. There is no precedent on a global scale", said Patricio Chavez, one of the petition organizers. "We have a copy of everything we turned over and before turning it over we went through a verification process to prevent any problems."

Sapara territory at risk

Another Amazonian hotspot is the Sapara territory - 380,000 hectares of forest under the official tenure of the Sapara Nation, now threatened with Chinese oil exploration.

Leaders have held rallies and raised awareness of their danger. Several Sapara leaders are now facing investigation by the Attorney General's Office for terrorism and undermining the security of the country.

Sapara leaders met this week to decide on future actions to save their forests. We are in communication with Gloria Ushigua, who is President of the Association of Sapara Women, Ashinwaka.

The Sarayaku, who won a Human Rights case in the International Courts have also pledged to defend their lands against oil exploration. We are in communication with Jairo Santi, communicator for the Sarayaku.

The government has designated further oil concessions in Aschuar territory, which the Aschuar People are resisting.

The threat of huge mines

Two areas in Ecuador threatened by large open pit copper and gold mines. The longest struggle is at Intag in the North West of the country. In recent weeks the military and police have invaded the territory and made arrests. The situation is tense and the people are determined to protect their territory.

In the South East of the country in the province of Morona-Santiago, the Central Ecuadorian Government have launched major mining concessions which are not acceptable to the Provincial Government who are committed to preserving ecosystems and biodiversity.

The situation is particularly tense in the area of The Mirador Mine, an open pit copper and gold mine of enormous scale. The destruction of water sources, endemic species, and cultural life have brought this mine to the first ever Citizens Rights of Nature Ethics Tribunal.

Corriente Resources

About two weeks ago a church and school were demolished in San Marcos de Tundayme in Zamora-Chinchipe by EcuaCorriente S.A (ECSA), a subsidiary of Corriente Resources, which has a troubled human rights history in the country. San Marcos is situated in an area to be submerged in toxic mine waste. The church was being used for Christian worship until it was destroyed.

Last week workers locked themselves into the mine works citing Human Rights abuses. This is a very difficult situation exacerbated by Government irregularities in relation to both Human Rights and The Rights of Nature, both of which are incorporated into the Ecuadorian Constitution.

With growing spirit of rebellion across the country, the national mobilization of indigenous tribes, a National Security Alert in place, the disputed petition, and the government's continued commitment to seeking development by resource extraction, the tension in Ecuador is palpable.

All indicators portray the picture of a country heading into crisis.



David Dene is co-founder of Protect Ecuador.

This article is based on an original story in EcoHustler.

smart meters & smart grid: what's the real story?

Take Back Your Power | May 24, 2014


Could "smart" meters be part of the largest corporate con job on the planet? This May 2014 interview with Josh del Sol, director of the documentary Take Back Your Power (watch at http://takebackyourpower.net), discusses the installation of "smart" meters worldwide, the growing resistance to the agenda, and how to prevent or reverse installation of one on your home.

What You Will Hear:
00:00 - Stacy Lynne, investigative journalist (her story: http://bit.ly/1ml7Qza)
01:18 - exposing UN Agenda 21 / ICLEI's influence on local gov'ts
13:45 - Josh del Sol, director & producer of Take Back Your Power
15:41 - health issues caused by "smart" meter radiation
18:15 - live blood analysis: before & after "smart" meter exposure
21:45 - the electromagnetic human body
25:58 - how much radiation come from "smart" meters?
27:32 - how does this compare to cellphones?
29:07 - your right of refusal (template: http://bit.ly/THQe7b)
29:59 - follow the money... who benefits?
32:30 - energy wasted, corporate doublespeak
33:51 - (coal industry paper: http://bit.ly/1kAjmXj)
36:10 - what's behind the overbilling?
39:53 - worldwide program, conflicts of interest
40:58 - widespread resistance, hundreds of local moratoriums, criminal & individual liability
44:04 - upcoming film screenings, awards
46:09 - energy control, new energy technology
52:31 - asserting our right to freedom and life

Source:
http://archive.wbai.org/show1.php?sho...

Take Back Your Power is the winner of the AwareGuide Transformational Film of the Year (2013), and the Indie Fest Annual Humanitarian Award (2013).

Buy DVDs, Screenings & Subscribe for Solutions: http://TakeBackYourPower.net
Facebook: http://facebook.com/TakeBackYourPower
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TBYPfilm

More research:
http://takebackyourpower.net
http://stopsmartmeters.org
http://emfsafetynetwork.org
http://stopsmartgrid.org
http://stopsmartmeters.org.uk
http://stopsmartmeters.com.au
http://smartgridawareness.org
http://smartmetereducationnetwork.com/
http://bc-freedom.com