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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Breaking: ‘Catastrophic’ sewage spill in TN; Running out of ideas: Japan dumps tons of radioactive water into the ocean as their nuclear nightmare continues to continue; The one year anniversary of the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster in WV; Guess what’s the fastest growing sector of the economy? (hint: that big glowing ball in the sky) … PLUS: Transocean execs recieve safety bonuses — less than a year after 11 men died on their rig in the Gulf … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!
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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (see links below): Climate deniers’ review supports scientific consensus; Sustainability is winning over CEOs; Coal power industry’s deceptive attack on EPA; Coal plants don’t create the jobs they promise: study; Saving bats could prevent huge U.S. farming losses; Future of Pennsylvania is a dystopian wasteland; Water utilities failed to alert public to likely carcinogen; Study: many Quebec worksites contains high levels of asbestos; Right-wing Group Writes Anti-EPA Bills For State Legislatures; Almost Two Dozen Members Of Congress Get Farm Subsidies; Rep. Praises Excessive CEO Compensation; Skeptic Fest Kind of a Let Down for Deniers; The Truth, Still Inconvenient; Confronting climate collapse … PLUS: Science bites climate skeptics in the ass on the House floor ….
STORIES DISCUSSED IN TODAY’S ‘GREEN NEWS REPORT’…
- The Waste Land (1922), by T.S. Eliot (1888″“1965) (Bartleby.com):
APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
…
What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats - Sewage spill in TN
- Two US workers missing after sewage tank bursts: Search is on for two Tennessee plant workers after 12m litres of sewage leak from holding tank, contaminating local river (Guardian UK)
- The One Year Anniversary of the Upper Big Branch Mine Explosion in WV:
- Never Again: Learning from Upper Big Branch
(Coal Tattoo) - Massey Chairman Bobby Inman Calls Upper Big Branch Explosion a ‘Natural Disaster’ (Coal Tattoo)
- More Stories on the Upper Big Branch Anniversary (Coal Tattoo)
- One Year After W.Va. Mine Explosion, Families Say Little Has Changed (ABC News)
- Mine-Blast Victims Honored; Probe Continues: One Year After Blast, 29 Victims Remembered; Investigator to Cite Firm, Regulator (Wall St. Journal)
- WATCH: Rep. Lynn Woosley on the One Year Anniversary of the Upper Big Branch Mine Explosion (YouTube):
- Pander much?: Sen. Joe Manchin: Today, we pay respect to the strong: Coal miners are the backbone of the United States (Op-ed, Charleston Daily Mail)
- Transocean Executives Receive Safety Bonuses – Less Than A Year After 11 Men Died On Their Rig:
- Guess What’s the Fastest Growing Sector of the Economy? (It Ain’t Coal, Oil, or Nuclear):
- On the Cutting Edge of Stupid: Nugent: “Embracing So-Called Green Energy Is An Energy Death Sentence For America” (Media Matters)
- Solar Industry Rising: Can Energy’s Fastest-Growing Sector Keep It Going? (Forbes)
- ONGOING COVERAGE: Japan’s Ongoing Triple Disaster & Nuclear Nightmare:
- How to Help: Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (NY Times)
- UPDATED Coverage of Japan’s Nuclear Disaster at BRAD BLOG.COM (BradBlog.com)
- Updated: Japan’s Nuclear Emergency Explained (Mother Jones)
- Updated Full Coverage: JAPAN NUCLEAR CRISIS (Kyodo News)
- Updated Full Coverage Page at Reuters (Reuters)
- IAEA Update on Japan Earthquake (International Atomic Energy Agency)
- Facts: Nuclear Power Safety (Union of Concerned Scientists)
- LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: JAPAN’S ONGOING NUCLEAR CRISIS:
- Radioactive water at 5 mln times legal limit found at Japan plant (Reuters) [emphasis added]:
* Liquid glass latest hope of stemming radioactive water
* Govt says sorry for releasing contaminated water
* TEPCO says hopes to avoid summer electricity blackouts
* Govt sets standards for seafood from reactor region
* Fukushima politicians meet PM Kan to demand compensation
* India imposes blanket ban on food imports from Japan
…The plant’s operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) offered token “condolence” mo
ney to those affected in the Fukushima region where the plant is based, but the local mayors who came to Tokyo to meet Prime Minister Naoto Kan made clear they expected far more help.“We have borne the risks, co-existed and flourished with TEPCO for more than 40 years, and all these years, we have fully trusted the myth that nuclear plants are absolutely safe,” said Katsuya Endo, the mayor of Tomioka town.
- Nuclear plant operator says it may have slowed radioactive leak (Toronto Star)
- Why is Japan dumping radioactive water into the ocean? (Christian Science Monitor):
Japanese officials allowed owners of the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant to empty tanks holding 10,000 tons of slightly radioactive water into the ocean ““ in order to make room to pump highly contaminated water out of reactor No. 2.
…
On Sunday, workers broke through the top of a connecting trench and dumped in a mix of sawdust, newsprint, and absorbent polymers in an attempt to glue the leak shut. That didnt work either, noted the International Atomic Energy Agency in a Monday update on Fukushimas status: Leaking has not stopped. - Workers Use ‘Liquid Glass’ In Bid To Stop Toxic Leak At Japanese Plant (Wall St. Journal)
- Radiation fallout from Fukushima plant will take “months” to stop. (Asahi Shimbun)
- Japan Sets New Radiation Safety Level For Seafood (AP)
- New Atomic Risk Strategy Needed After Fukushima (Reuters)
- Worker safety takes back seat in dealing with nuclear crisis (Asahi Daily)
- Peace of Mind, Livelihood Gone as Japanese City Withers in Shadow of Nuclear Plant (Washington Post)
- Countries Begin Radiation Checks on Ships That Have Visited Japan (NY Times)
- Water Barriers Mulled (Belatedy) at Leaking Nuclear Complex (NYT Dot Earth)
- Analysis: Japan’s nuclear nightmare set to run and run (Reuters):
Workers struggling to prevent more radiation from escaping Japan’s crippled nuclear plant face a hellish scenario — with every attempt to get it under control seemingly creating life-threatening problems. Unfortunately they are going to have to get used to it.
A final resolution of the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power station will likely take decades and experts say there could be many further setbacks and frightening moments to come. The cost in terms of money or the health of the workers is almost impossible to assess at this stage.
- Renewable energy a pillar in Japan reconstruction vision: Edano (Reuters):
Renewable energy will play an important role in Japan’s reconstruction, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said on Tuesday as the country struggled to bring a damaged nuclear power plant under control.
“When considering the damage from this accident, there is no doubt we are moving toward making renewable energy sources a pillar,” Edano told reporters.
- The IMPACT on U.S. Nuclear Policy & Industry:
- US nuclear reactors required to cope with blackouts lasting a maximum 4 or 8 hours (AP)
- NY Demands Fire Safety Enforcement at Indian Point Reactors (Environmental News Service):
The Indian Point nuclear power plant is currently in violation of fire safety regulations and is seeking more than 100 exemptions from those regulations, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Monday.
- At U.S. Nuclear Sites, Preparing for the Unlikely (NY Times):
American nuclear safety regulators, using a complex mathematical technique, determined that the simultaneous failure of both emergency shutdown systems that are designed to prevent a core meltdown was so unlikely that it would happen once every 17,000 years. But 20 years ago, it happened twice in four days at a pair of nuclear reactors in southern New Jersey.
…
In the United States, 93 of the 104 operating reactors have batteries capable of providing power for four hours; the other 11 have eight-hour batteries. Fukushima had eight-hour batteries. It wasn’t enough.
…
the Dresden nuclear facility in Morris, Ill., and the nearby Quad Cities plant in Cordova, both of which are north of the New Madrid seismic zone. The area registered quakes estimated to have exceeded 7.0 in magnitude in 1811 and 1812, and is known for somewhat more regular temblors of lesser intensity. - Critics question safety at San Onofre: It is designed to handle a 7.0 earthquake and is buffered from a tsunami by a barrier capable of stopping a 25-foot wave. Regulations for its construction were written with the disaster at Three Mile Island in mind. (San Diego Press Enterprise)
- What are the odds? US nuke plants ranked by quake risk (MSNBC):
So much for San Andreas: Reactors in East, Midwest, South have highest chance of damage
- VIDEO: Before Japan disaster, GOP mocked concerns about nuclear safety (MediaMatters.org)
- Taxpayer Meltdown?: Taxpayers, Not Utilities, Liable for Most of the Bill (National Journal)
- Cost, not Japan crisis, should scrub nuclear power (Grist)
‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’ (Stuff we didn’t have time for in today’s audio report)…
- Deniers’ Review Supports Scientific Consensus on Global Warming – Right Wing Sad (Little Green Footballs):
A team of UC Berkeley physicists and statisticians led by global warming denier Richard Muller launched a project recently to analyze the scientific data on temperature trends. They were apparently fairly certain they’d find evidence to prove that climate change is not happening.
Imagine my surprise to discover that the initial results of their project fully support the scientific consenus.
Actually, I’m not the least bit surprised by the findings. But I am surprised that Muller and his team, financed by far right oil billionaires Charles and David Koch, are being honest about it.
- Why Sustainability Is Winning Over CEOs: (BusinessWeek):
Long a cause célèbre of the eco crowd, sustainable business practices are yielding big savings at companies like PepsiCo and Wal-Mart.
…
Recent volatile price swings in plastic packaging, fuel, cotton, food ingredients such as corn, and a host of other raw materials have added urgency to businesses’ efforts to shave costs to keep prices competitive and protect margins. - With Charts!: The coal power industry’s willfully deceptive picture of EPA rules (David Roberts, Grist):
OMG! It’s a mad carnival funhouse of regulatory perplexment and befuddletation! Surely no industry of mere profit-seeking mortals could be expected to navigate it.
Or not. John Larsen at the World Resources Institute picked through the image and took out a few things that might be misleading, like, say, rules already remanded or vacated by court decisions…
…
The benefits dwarf the costs to industry. Every time. - Coal plants don’t create the jobs they promise, study finds (David Roberts, Grist):
Ochs researchers dove in and took a close look at economic conditions before, during, and after six coal plant construction projects, along with the promises that were made and deals struck in advance.
Their results suggest that the promise of jobs was oversold. Overall, “for every one hundred new construction jobs promised, just over half — 56 percent — were actually realized.”
- Saving bats could prevent huge U.S. farming losses (Scientific American):
America’s bats are dying in their hundreds of thousands due to a mysterious illness called white-nose syndrome, and efforts to save them could prevent billions of dollars in agricultural losses, scientists say.
- Fracking hell: Future of Pennsylvania is dystopian wasteland studded with natural gas wells (Grist)
- Water Utilities Failed To Alert Public to Likely Carcinogen (Greenwire):
U.S. water utilities have known about the prevalence of a likely carcinogen in water sources for seven years and have failed to share that information with the public, according to an advocacy group, which released today a 2004 industry study of hexavalent chromium.
- Air At Many Quebec Worksites Contains High Levels of Asbestos: Study (Canadian Press):
A new report is suggesting the air at many Quebec construction sites contains levels of asbestos at or above provincial norms, raising fresh questions about whether the substance can be handled safely in Canada.- Right-wing Group Writes Anti-EPA Bills For State Legislatures (ClimateWire):
A Virginia state lawmaker caused a stir in February when he admitted that his resolution declaring U.S. EPA’s effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions a ‘regulatory train wreck’ was written by the coal industry.- Almost Two Dozen Members Of Congress Get Farm Subsidies (Huffington Post Green)
- As Taxpayers Pad Big Oil’s Soaring Profits, Landry Praises Excessive CEO Compensation As ‘The American Dream’ (Think Progress)
- House Skeptic Fest Kind of a Let Down for Deniers (Kate Sheppard, Mother Jones) [emphasis added]:
It’s worth noting that the majority of the witnesses they called on yesterday weren’t actually climate scientists.
…
The most interesting thing to me, though, is that when asked directly, not one of the actual scientists disputed the fact that the planet is warming and that greenhouse gases are a notable factor. Even Christy said in the hearing that yes, greenhouse gas emissions “do exert a warming influence on the planet.”- David Orr on confronting climate collapse (Climate Progress):
Happy talk” was not the approach taken by Lincoln confronting slavery, or by Franklin Roosevelt facing the grim realities after Pearl Harbor. Nor was it Winston Churchill’s message to the British people at the height of the London blitz. Instead, in these and similar cases transformative leaders told the truth honestly, with conviction and eloquence.- Paul Krugman: The Truth, Still Inconvenient (NY Times – free via blogs):
So the joke begins like this: An economist, a lawyer and a professor of marketing walk into a room. What’s the punch line? They were three of the five “expert witnesses” Republicans called for last week’s Congressional hearing on climate science.
…
But it’s terrifying to realize that this kind of cynical careerism “” for that’s what it is “” has probably ensured that we won’t do anything about climate change until catastrophe is already upon us.So on second thought, I was wrong when I said that the joke was on the G.O.P.; actually, the joke is on the human race.
- Grist: ‘Science Bites Climate Skeptics in the Ass on the House Floor’ (The Brad Blog)
Reader Comments on
‘Green News Report’ – April 5, 2011
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- Air At Many Quebec Worksites Contains High Levels of Asbestos: Study (Canadian Press):
Does anyone else think it strange that the “Libyan rebels” driving rusted out Toyota pickups who were on the run recently are now shipping oil to the world?