Showing posts with label United States. Show all posts
Showing posts with label United States. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

If U.S. Fracks Gas For Europe, How Much Sooner Will We Poison Our Water Supply ?

The foolish drive to export liquefied natural gas to Europe overlooks the environmental hazards to the United States

Congressional pressure is building on the Obama administration to "quicken gas exports to Europe," The New York Times is reporting, in order to reduce the continent's dependence on dirty fossil fuels from Russia. Instead, U.S. oil companies want Europe to increase their dependence on dirty fossil fuels from the U.S.

For the U.S. to ship its gas to Europe won't solve the fossil fuel dependency problem in any permanent sense, but it will hasten the day when the U.S. poisons its groundwater supply as a result of fracking and may foreseeably force the U.S. to, as a consequence, import clean drinking water from Europe, if European nations are willing to sell it that precious commodity to us in the future.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Anonymous - Message to America

Hello all of America. Hello Mister president. We are Anonymous. Dear Mister president, We would like to ask you, are you happy with what you have allowed the United States to become? The entire country a war machine, people rising in protest against you, and the city governments allowing the brutal beatings and arresting of citizens across America. By allowing this to happen you are a disgrace to the office of presidency. You mister president, you need ought rightfully to set your political career aside and focus on the city streets of your own country. So far you have done nothing about the thousands of people arrested in the streets for exorcising their first amendment rights. Stop and listen to the people you took an oath to uphold, stop treating the people of America like terrorists with the building of FEMA camps to imprison all who stand up against political control. You Mister President are a failure to America.

Citizens of the United States. The corporations that profit from permanent war need us to be afraid. Fear stops us from objecting to government spending on a bloated military. Fear means we will not ask unpleasant questions of those in power. Fear permits the government to operate in secret. Fear means we are willing to give up our rights and liberties for promises of security. The imposition of fear ensures that the corporations that wrecked the country cannot be challenged. Fear keeps us penned in like livestock.

And yet, Who will govern the governors? There is only one force in the nation that can be depended upon to keep the government pure and the governors honest, and that is the people themselves. We alone, if well informed, are capable of preventing the corruption of power, and of restoring the nation to its rightful course if it should go astray. We alone are the safest depository of the ultimate powers of government.

It is for this reason that our constitution was written. America, and the world at large is becoming informed and in turn preparing. Soon, We the people will no longer stand by in silent consent. This is a call to every citizen, this is a message to all of government.

Knowledge is free. We are anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Julian Assange Appeared by Video on Q&A News Program with Prime Minister Julia Gillard


Julian Assange grills Julia Gillard on live television

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard appears on live Australian television program ''Q & A'' and is surprised with a video question from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Epic win. Clip aired on 14 Mar 2011.

Check out an article from The Age, which reports that ASIO was spying on Mr. Assange -- and then sharing that intelligence with the United States.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Japan nuclear fallout map -- it started out as a hoax, but could it turn out to be true ? At least, as it concerns the direction of any fallout ?

UPDATED : Breaking news :


UPDATED ! No official link-back can be found to the Japan fallout forecast map. (The graphic has been removed, but it can be seen by clicking on the preceding link.) Further research indicates that the graphic was a hoax. Nevertheless, the direction indicated on the map is consistent with the Pacific Ocean jet stream and with a forecast by an Austrian meteorological model. There is no way to confirm the rad level predictions. (A ''rad'' is a measured unit of absorbed radiation dose.) Furthermore, comments to this blog post suggest that the trade or prevailing winds, such as the westerlies, would carry any nuclear radiation particles, not the jet stream. No contradiction, though, suggests that the direction of the map was incorrect. In fact, nuclear radiation is already being detected by the U.S. Navy down wind from the site of the nuclear power plant explosions. In the latest news report, The Daily Mail reports that the "Nuclear Regulatory Commission admits it is 'quite possible' radiation could reach the U.S."

Early on Saturday morning (New York Time), a suspicious map circulated on the Internet. The map was exposed to be a hoax, because the rad levels were unrealistic, and there was no official link-back to the map. But with several explosions at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, could nuclear meltdown occur ? And could wind currents carry dangerous levels of radioactivity ?

The suspicious map, bearing the logo of Australian Radiation Services, indicated that exposure to radiation following a likely nuclear fallout from the nuclear power plant explosion in Fukushima, Japan, could reach the West Coast of the United States within 6 to 10 days time. While the map may appear suspicious, the direction of the spread is consistent with the Pacific Ocean jet stream and/or trade or prevailing winds. And if the rad levels were wrong, has a scientist issued any realistic levels of radiation that would be spread by wind currents in the event of a nuclear meltdown at Fukushima ? Confirmation that nuclear radioactivity is now in the wind currents comes from The New York Daily News : "The U.S. 7th Fleet, positioned about 100 miles northeast of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to deliver aid to Japan's coastal region, moved its ships further away due to 'airborne radioactivity' and contamination found on its planes." Making the worst case scenario -- a nuclear meltdown -- all the more likely is the fact that employees at the Fukushima nuclear power plant have abandoned their posts and fled their responsibilities -- this comes after a third explosion at the doomed power plant.

Even as David McIntyre, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said, "Right now it's quite possible that there could be some radiation floating over the United States," the NRC "downplayed the threat to Americans," however. Mr McIntyre told the AFP: "We don't think that it would be particularly harmful... even in a worst case scenario," according to The Daily Mail.

Meanwhile, here is a YouTube video of the first nuclear power plant explosion at Fukushima from a Japanese news program. It shows what could be white smoke and/or steam rising from the building as a result of the nuclear power plant explosion. Video Credit : ProducerMatthew.


Separately, supplemental reports have come in that the Japanese government has imposed an evacuation area spreading 20 kilometers around the nuclear power plant in Fukushima. Prior to the explosion, energy scientists had been managing the nuclear emergency at the power plant by releasing steam, to relieve pressure in the cooling system. One risk from releasing steam is that critical water in the cooling system is lost ; if too much water is lost, there is a depletion in the cooling system, thereby leading to a risk of exposing the core, leading, in turn, to a nuclear meltdown.

Apparently, radiation would be carried across the Pacific Ocean by the wind currents, such as the jet stream. Scientists have not yet determined the amount of radiation that has been released by the nuclear power plant explosion. So far, the only information available is coming from nations nearer to Japan. United States government officials have yet to make any risk assessments in connection with radiation exposure.

Fukushima is approximately 150 miles north from Tokyo. Residents within the immediate Fukushima radius are being told to stay indoors, turn off air conditioners, and avoid drinking tap water. It is not yet known what nuclear emergency advisories are being made, or preparations being taken, at other large large cities in Japan. Later on Saturday, however, there was news that the company that operates the power plant planned to use sea water to cool down the reactor's core, and it was also reported that authorities were planning for the distribution of Iodine to residents. (Iodine can be taken to prevent the absorption of radiation by the thyroid, reported MSNBC.)


Related updates :

[Updated Monday, 14 March 2011 9:20 am EDT] : Whereas the original photograph that circulated last weekend was not an official map, the forecast direction where wind currents would carry airborne radioactivity is generally consistent with the jet stream and the westerly wind currents over the Pacific Ocean. Tom Costello, an NBC News correspondent for The Today Show, predicted that nuclear radiation would be carried by wind currents over the Pacific Ocean, but would ''dissipate'' over the ocean, presumably before any radioactivity would reach the U.S. West Coast. No scientific evidence was given to support that radioactivity would completely dissipate, however.