Thursday, August 29, 2019

If the grounds not cold, Everything is gonna burn....


I'm reminded of the song by the Pixies, "This Monkey's Going to Heaven," particularly this stanza:

The creature in the sky
Got sucked in a hole
Now there's a hole in the sky
And the ground's not cold
And if the ground's not cold
Everything is gonna burn
We'll all take turns, I'll get mine too


WHY IS THIS SONG RELEVANT? 

Timothy Puko (Aug. 29, 2019). Energy Companies Set to Get Reprieve on Methane Rules. The Wall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/articles/energy-companies-set-to-get-reprieve-on-methane-rules-11567051201
Plan to end Obama-era regulations is likely to draw protests from environmental groups.
Methane is about 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping the earth’s heat, according to estimates used by the EPA. A natural-gas flare with a drilling rig in background, in Texas.

BACKGROUND

Rebecca Elliott of the Wall Street Journal has been chronicling the increase in natural gas "flaring" in Texas: from 407 million cubic feet of gas a day in her December 2018 article to 740 million in her recently July 2019 article:
Rebecca Elliott July 17, 2019 Texas Showdown Flares Up Over Natural-Gas Waste. The Wal Street Journal,https://www.wsj.com/articles/texas-showdown-flares-up-over-natural-gas-waste-11563361201
...As shale companies turned America into the world’s top oil producer, they unlocked massive quantities of natural gas as a byproduct and Texas has allowed them to freely burn off vast volumes as area pipelines fill up. The process is known as flaring....
In the region’s two largest oil basins, the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford, operators flared or vented—where gas is released without being burned—into the atmosphere an average of about 740 million cubic feet of gas a day during the first quarter, according to public data compiled by energy analytics firm Rystad Energy....equivalent to that of nearly five million cars driving for a day....

Rebecca Elliott (2018, December 27). In Booming Oil Field, Natural Gas Can Be Free. The Wall Street Journal, https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-booming-oilfield-natural-gas-can-be-free-11545906601?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=2

One option for Permian operators with too much gas is to light it on fire, a practice known as flaring. Flaring levels reached record highs in the Permian last quarter, when companies burned an average of 407 million cubic feet a day, according to analysis of public data compiled by Rystad Energy, an energy consulting firm.... equivalent to the daily exhaust emitted by about 2.7 million cars, according to estimates from the World Bank and Environmental Protection Agency.

This is non-sustainable. It's not just that our energy infrastructures are non-sustainable. The way we operate within them is just as problematic:  
Suzanne Goldenberg (2013, November 20) Just 90 companies caused two-thirds of man-made global warming emissions. The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/20/90-companies-man-made-global-warming-emissions-climate-changeChevron, Exxon and BP among companies most responsible for climate change since dawn of industrial age, figures show

he climate crisis of the 21st century has been caused largely by just 90 companies, which between them produced nearly two-thirds of the greenhouse gas emissions generated since the dawning of the industrial age, new research suggests.
The companies range from investor-owned firms – household names such as Chevron, Exxon and BP – to state-owned and government-run firms.
The analysis, which was welcomed by the former vice-president Al Gore as a "crucial step forward" found that the vast majority of the firms were in the business of producing oil, gas or coal, found the analysis, which has been published in the journal Climatic Change.

RELATED POSTS





Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Russians Playing Badly


Russians and other nuclear powers threatening us all with their deathly pursuits:
Nilsen, T. (2019, August 26). Isotopes composition proves a reactor was involved in Nenoksa accident, expert says. The Barents Observer. https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/security/2019/08/isotopes-composition-proves-reactor-was-involved-nenoksa-accident-expert-says

Analyses of the radionuclides in the fallout over Severodvinsk show several isotopes that would not have been present if was a simple RTG in the explosion....

...Norwegian nuclear safety expert Nils Bøhmer says the information removes any doubts.

«The presence of decay products like barium and strontium is coming from a nuclear chain reaction. It is a proof that is was a nuclear reactor that exploded,» Bøhmer says.
There are no innocent nuclear powers. They are all indebeted to Thanatos.


Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Kate Brown on Unreported Deaths, Child Cancer & Radioactive Meat


Excellent interview:

Unreported Deaths, Child Cancer & Radioactive Meat: The Untold Story of Chernobyl StoryAugust 26, 2019. Democracy Now, Watch Full Show
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/8/26/kate_brown_chernobyl_manual_for_survival

Guests Kate Brown, professor of science, technology and society at MIT specializing in environmental and nuclear history.

Following a mysterious nuclear accident in Russia that left seven dead, we look back at the 1986 nuclear disaster in Chernobyl. It sent a cloud of radioactive fallout into Russia, Belarus and over a large portion of Europe, but the death toll from Chernobyl remains unknown. 


Chernobyl is considered the worst nuclear accident in history, but Kate Brown, an MIT professor of science, technology and society, says much of what we understand about the disaster is inaccurate. Her new book, “Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future,” chronicles the devastating and underreported impact of radiation on tens of thousands in the Soviet Union that went unreported for decades. Brown says, “After about five years of research, I realized that much of what we know about Chernobyl is just either incomplete or fully incorrect.”

Monday, August 26, 2019

Emergency Powers and Slippery Slopes



The Italian social philosopher Giorgio Agamben points out that sovereignty in the modern era is most aptly dramatized by the power of decision that emerges under conditions of crisis.[i]

He describes sovereignty as arising from the decision to deny individuals full recognition of their rights, a kind of exclusion smuggled into democratic government.

There is little doubt that rights foundational to liberal democratic government, and encoded constitutionally, can be sacrificed during times of crisis. Indeed, many if not most governments in the world have exceptions built into their constitutions that afford executives inordinate emergency decision-making power.

For example, fifty-three states of emergency have been declared by US presidents since 1976 when the US passed the National Emergencies Act and the majority of these declarations remain in effect.[ii]

As of 2014, President Barack Obama had declared nine emergencies, allowed one to expire and extended 22 emergencies enacted by his predecessors.”[iii]

These Executive Orders afford the president’s office special powers, including the capacities to declare martial law, seize property, call up the National Guard, censor sensitive information, and fire military officers, among other discretionary powers.

TRUMP INVOKES EMERGENCY POWER

President Trump has demonstrated disregard for procedures and legal frameworks, seeking to impose his will arbitrarily as illustrated today:

Tubman, K. (2019, August 26).White House insists Trump has authority to block American companies from doing business in China. Yahoo. https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-house-insists-trump-has-authority-to-block-american-businesses-from-doing-business-in-china-172450694.html

“Do you believe that the president does have the authority to block private businesses from investing in China?” CBS News' Margaret Brennan asked Kudlow on “Face the Nation” Sunday.

“Ultimately, he does have authority,” responded Kudlow. “It’s an emergency economic power authority,” he said, adding that Trump “is not intending to” block trade with China at this time.

Amid an escalating trade war, Trump in a series of angry tweets Friday “ordered” American companies “to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing our companies HOME and making your products in the USA.”
Fascism is the slippery slope upon which democracy founders. This has long been acknowledged given the rise of authoritarianism within liberal democracies over the 20th century. Now the US is sliding downward....



China and Russia may be economic adversaries for the US but they are also partners in our collective salvation as we all face ruined eco-systems and limited vital resources.


SOURCES

[i] Giorgio Agamben, Means Without Ends: Notes on Politics V. Binetti and C. Casarino, Trans. (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, 2000). 32-33.

[ii] Gregory Korte, “Special Report: America’s Perpetual State of Emergency,” USA Today, October 23, 2013, accessed October 23, 2014, http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/10/22/president-obama-states-of-emergency/16851775/.

[iii] Ibid.




Saturday, August 24, 2019

Conspiracy Theories and Tin Hats


When I was a kid, my parents regarded as conspiracy nuts anyone who believed that Fluoride was a threat to children's health. I was required to take fluoride pills because we didn't have fluoridated water.

Well, it turns out that there is an inverse relationship between fluoride level exposure in pregnancy and IQ scores in children. This relationship has been empirically documented in quite a few studies over the last 10 years or so. Here is the latest:
Green, R. et al (2019, August 19). Association Between Maternal Fluoride Exposure During Pregnancy and IQ Scores in Offspring in Canada. JAMA Pediatr. Published online August 19, 2019. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.1729
Question Is maternal fluoride exposure during pregnancy associated with childhood IQ in a Canadian cohort receiving optimally fluoridated water?

Findings In this prospective birth cohort study, fluoride exposure during pregnancy was associated with lower IQ scores in children aged 3 to 4 years.

Meaning Fluoride exposure during pregnancy may be associated with adverse effects on child intellectual development, indicating the possible need to reduce fluoride intake during pregnancy.

 There is a story that circulates that the amoral or perhaps immoral PR legend, Edward Bernays, was responsible for strategizing how to get rid of unwanted industrial fluoride, generated from nuclear fuel processing, by selling it as a means for increasing dental health.

I've looked for evidence that Bernays was responsible, but not found any. It would be clear evidence of depravity if found.

Regardless, citizens and experts have been questioning this practice that turns out to be a kind of (inadvertant?) poisoning for decades; yet, those who challenged fluoride in water were stigmatized as conspiracy theorists wearing tin hats.

I have no doubt that the same pattern is going to hold for the role out of 5G.  But it will be too late when they discover that microwaves and radiowaves can impact fetal development.



Thursday, August 22, 2019

No Maternal Effects Reported from Fukushima Daiichi Explosion



Fukushima Pref. to end maternal health survey as no effects of radiation found 5:12 pm, August 21, 2019 The Yomiuri Shimbun https://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0005952743

The Fukushima prefectural government decided to end in fiscal 2020 its health survey of expectant and nursing mothers, which began in the wake of the accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant….
…In past survey results, the percentages of birth defects, babies with low birth weights and other abnormal conditions have been almost the same in the prefecture as the nationwide average.…
 
Therefore, the prefectural government judged that there have not been any remarkable negative effects feared to be caused by radioactive substances discharged by the nuclear accident on the health of mothers and children.


MY RESPONSE
http://nuclearhotseat.com/2019/06/11/radiophobia-schmadiophobia-the-lie-at-the-heart-of-nuclear-ignorance-majia-nadesan-8th-anniversary-nh-416/

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Kids Emulating Nazis


In a video publicized by Yahoo, teenage boys experiment with fascism: 
 Southern California middle-classed boys embracing Nazism.

When I went to school with these kids at San Diego State University in the mid 1980s they were partying and listening to New Wave and Punk, both of which had a decidely left-wing vibe:


Now they are making Nazi salutes while listening to Nazi music.

What happened here?


Monday, August 19, 2019

Human-Engineered Radioactivity Alarming


Just check out the Nuclear Emergency Tracking Application's last 24 hour readings:
https://netc.com/anim-map.htm

Are elevated readings from Russia's recent radioactive disaster?

Or perhaps China had some censored catastrophe?

Or maybe the US?

As nuclear plants fail, they will add to the long-lasting radioactive contamination from the heedless and horrendous nuclear explosions of the 20th century:

 


I strongly agree that greenhouse gasses are escalating climate change - in addition to desertification and depleting fresh water supplies - but why isn't anyone talking about role of 2,053 nuclear explosions and radioactive waste in affecting climatic disturbances?

In fact, nuclear testing produced "heavy weight methane", as reported in 1962:
Heavyweight Methane Formed in Bomb Tests SCIENCE NEWS LETTER for January 13, 1962

METHANE containing the triple weight hydrogen known as tritium is formed in the fireball resulting from hydrogen bomb explosions, a United States scientist reports. Dr. Richard Wolfgang of the University of California, San Diego, states the amount of tritium in methane (marsh gas) has been found to be considerably higher than expected. The tritium, he believes, comes from "the testing of nuclear devices."

Prior to this suggestion there was no satisfactory explanation for the fact that tritium occurred in relatively high amounts not only in atmospheric methane but also in atmospheric hydrogen and water vapor in the stratosphere.
Methane super-charged by tritium must be a real climate risk.

I don't for a second believe that over 2,000 nuclear detonations had no impact on icecaps and the atmosphere.

A commentator at this blog observed that many of the original Manhattan scientists were concerned that an atomic explosion would ignite the atmosphere - yet they went ahead with "Trinity" in New Mexico, followed by dropping two atomic bombs over Japan - See discussion in Scientific American.

We literally made the earth and our encompassing atmosphere more radioactive with long-lasting radionuclide contamination. More radioactivity means more heat.

Perhaps it wouldn't be too late to turn it all around but we are clearly very far from that possibility with nuclear plants' lifespans being extended and plants uprated, while the the world edges closer to all out nuclear war by superpowers and/or the terrorists produced by them.







Thursday, August 15, 2019

Increasing Cases of Shingles in the Eyes Raise Questions






Many diseases are increasing in incidents so that more people in the population are afflicted with them.

The article below published in the JAMA suggests that the incidents of shingles in the eye raises questions about causation given a near-tripling of incidents over a 12-year time span:
Voelker R. Increasing Cases of Shingles in the Eye Raise Key Questions. JAMA. Published online August 07, 2019. doi:10.1001/jama.2019.10743https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2748020?guestAccessKey=b8c9f5ca-5d6d-4c06-bf27-b82541612172&utm_source=silverchair&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=article_alert-jama&utm_term=mostread&utm_content=olf-widget_08142019
Among the study population of 21 million adults enrolled in United Healthcare insurance plans, HZO incidence increased from 9.4 cases per 100 000 population in 2004 to 30.1 cases per 100 000 in 2016.

The finding of increased HZO incidence persisted when Shekhawat and his colleagues adjusted their analysis for age, race, and sex, raising some important questions. For example, why is the incidence of HZO and shingles increasing? “Diseases don’t usually double or triple over a 12-year time span,” said Shekhawat, who is now in a cornea fellowship program at the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute. Several theories exist, but study results are mixed....
There are many diseases that are increasing in incidents, especially neurological disorders in adults and children, as I've documented in my blog here and also in my publications.

I am confident that there are complex environmental causes, especially toxic chemicals, elements, and electro-magnetic radiation. These causes extend well beyond the typical scope of "environmental" factors, such as questions of whether someone smokes or not or whether they exercise.

Will these complex but also catastrophically hazardous environmental pollutants be regulated or will we simply degrade our biological facticities to the point of non-sustainability?



Wednesday, August 14, 2019

RT Video of Russian "Nuke-Like" Explosion

Thanatos and Nuclear Governmentality


All great powers are the same when it comes to nuclear:

Russia accused of cover up over lethal submarine fire. (July 3 2019) Reuters. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-submersible-incident/russia-accused-of-cover-up-over-lethal-submarine-fire-idUSKCN1TY1D0
Russian officials faced accusations of trying to cover up the full details of an accident on board a military submarine that killed 14 sailors, but the Kremlin on Wednesday defended its record. 


Russia says radiation levels rose by 4-16 times in city after accident: TASS (2019, August 13). Reuters. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-blast-radiation/russia-says-radiation-levels-rose-by-4-16-times-in-city-after-accident-tass-idUSKCN1V30KH
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Radiation levels in the Russian city of Severodvinsk rose by up to 16 times on Aug. 8 after an accident that authorities said involved a rocket test on a sea platform.... Greenpeace has said radiation levels rose by 20 times.
Russia's cavalier attitude toward nuclear risk is of course well established and well documented, most recently by Kate Brown's excellent historical work on Chernobyl, as she discusses in this article at the Guardian.

Russia is not alone in disregarding the catastrophic character of nuclear/radiation risks.

Although each great power is unique in its particularities, all share a common risk-seeking logic when it comes to nuclear because it is the great ring of power, or at least, it was and hasn't yet lost all its luster.

I describe that logic in an upcoming publication but the gist of the argument is that although the administration of nuclear and radiation-based enterprises are couched in terms of risk management, there are sovereign decisions made about who can live and who can die.

It is indeed unfortunate for us all that nuclear decisions about life and death are made using conceptions of security that have nothing to do with biological life, at its great cost.

As many other critics have observed (e.g., Helen Caldicott), nuclear was the 20th century ring of power and most nation-states are clearly still committed, but who knows what terrible weapons also enthrall the imagination of this shared brute form of power, whose reign has become so obvious that Hollywood had to incorporate it:

Thanatos

Russian bravado about its next-generation nuclear weapons are part of new arms race, as described recently in Quartz:
Wellerstein, A. (2019, August 6). America’s nuclear-weapons policy isn’t what you think—it’s much worse. Quartz. Retrieved from https://qz.com/1680411/us-and-russia-are-starting-another-nuclear-war/
And you know the saying about boys and their toys, they just cannot stop playing with them.

And the rest of us don't know how to stop them because entire institutions are set up for collective suicide:


 

Monday, August 12, 2019

Out of Control Domestic Terrorism, the Shock Doctrine, and the New World Order


Get ready as the roller coaster is out of control. Crash landing imminent in a new world order.

Domestic terrorism is up, fueled by a president who flashes a thumbs up at the camera while his wife holds a baby orphaned by a domestic terrorist, who was likely inspired by presidential ideology.

All this death is a great opportunity for the shock doctrine specialists:


Terrified, but also numb, the American public will be shepherded into a new world order absent free speech, policed by repressive apparatuses that kill more people domestically than foreign wars.

Did you see the leaked proposal for censoring the Internet?

I'm not a big fan of the Democratic Party, preferring the Greens, however if Trump wins the 2020 election, what is left of civil rights will be completely torn down.

Frankly, I am terrified.






Saturday, August 10, 2019

Fukushima Daiichi Today


It doesn't look very healthy on webcam




I read a tweet stating that TEPCO had decided to stop efforts to remove the highly radioactive vent stack after workers were ill. There is no confirmation of this tweet content that I can find using Google as my search, although I can find the original Manichi article from a week ago describing plans to take down the stack:
 The Mainichi (2019, August 2). TEPCO begins demolition work on Fukushima nuke plant exhaust stack
TEPCO) launched demolition work on Aug. 1 to remove the upper half of the about 120-meter-tall exhaust stack for the No. 1 and 2 reactors at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.

COULD efforts to remove the exhaust stack have resulted in the worsening of visible conditions or is it all an effect of naturally-occurring and allegedly radionuclide free "fog"?

TWEETS
What is the status of TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi vent stack which has been reported to be visibly emitting radiation this past week? - are you monitoring? do you have data that could be used to inform the public for safety reasons? #law
Quote Tweet
·
3 #Fukushima site workers feel ill while on day1 mission of dismantling the extremely radioactive vent tower. 2 of'em diagnosed as heat stroke. Day2 work postponed to Aug6. Pray for their safety Where's Tepco going to store removed parts w/fatal #radiation?Common pool? #脱原発 twitter.com/microcarpa1/st…