We’ll get right to it, first with Science:
Fukushima radiation nears California coast, judged harmless
After a two-and-a-half year ocean journey, radioactive contamination from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan has drifted to within 160 kilometers of the California coast, according to a new study. But the radiation levels are minuscule and do not pose a threat, researchers say.
Shortly after the meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in March 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Co. estimated that the facility had released a staggering 7000 trillion becquerels—a measure of emitted radiation—into of radiation into nearby seawater. Meanwhile, Japan’s Ministry of the Environment reported readings of 45.5 million becquerels per cubic meter of water, high enough to cause reproductive problems in fish.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed that the power plant’s radiation dissipated quickly as it spread from the coast, however. It arrived at this conclusion by measuring cesium-134, a kind of radiation “fingerprint” unique to Fukushima because of its relatively short 2-year half-life. By June 2011, cesium-134 was found 600 kilometers offshore from Japan producing 325 becquerels per cubic meter. Building models based on early readings, the World Health Organization and public health departments in California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska all forecast that Fukushima radiation would not pose a human health risk in North America.
From radioactive mass to radioactive ass, via Vocativ:
Climate Change Denier to Oversee U.S. Environmental Policy
James Inhofe, the Hill’s most outspoken global warming skeptic, will take over the Senate’s top environmental job
James Inhofe is about to take charge of the Senate committee that oversees U.S. environmental policy. As it happens, the Oklahoma Republican is also the Hill’s most notorious critic of climate change, dismissing global warming as a “conspiracy” and a “hoax.”
Inhofe has been denying the science behind climate research for 20 years, long before it became a fashionable cause for the Tea Party. His crusade reached its zenith (or is that nadir?) with the publication of his 2012 book, The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future, a 300-page valentine to the anti-environmental movement.
Once Inhofe inherits the Senate’s top environmental job, his judgment won’t be clouded by sober, unbiased analysis. Nor will he be influenced by uppity climatologists, 97 percent of whom believe that manmade climate change is real. In short, there’s now zero chance of addressing rising sea levels and carbon dioxide emissions before President Obama leaves office. According to The New York Times, the senator “is expected to open investigations into the EPA, call for cuts in its funding” and delay any impending regulations for “as long as possible.”
More of the same from the New York Times:
Republicans Vow to Fight E.P.A. and Approve Keystone Pipeline
The new Republican Congress is headed for a clash with the White House over two ambitious Environmental Protection Agency regulations that are the heart of President Obama’s climate change agenda.
Senator Mitch McConnell, the next majority leader, has already vowed to fight the rules, which could curb planet-warming carbon pollution but ultimately shut down coal-fired power plants in his native Kentucky. Mr. McConnell and other Republicans are, in the meantime, stepping up their demands that the president approve construction of the Keystone XL pipeline to carry petroleum from Canadian oil sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast.
At this point, Republicans do not have the votes to repeal the E.P.A. regulations, which will have far more impact on curbing carbon emissions than stopping the pipeline, but they say they will use their new powers to delay, defund and otherwise undermine them. Senator James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, a prominent skeptic of climate change and the presumed new chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, is expected to open investigations into the E.P.A., call for cuts in its funding and delay the regulations as long as possible.
Which leaves us wondering whether this is anything but a Pyrrhic gesture. From Mother Jones:
The US and China Just Announced a Huge Deal on Climate—and it’s a Gamechanger
The surprise agreement aims to double the pace of carbon pollution reduction in the United States.
In a surprise announcement Tuesday night, the world’s two biggest economies and greenhouse gas emitters, United States and China, said they will partner closely on a broad-ranging package of plans to fight climate change, including new targets to reduce carbon pollution, according to a statement from the White House.
The announcement comes after President Obama met with Chinese President Xi Jinping today in Beijing, and includes headline-grabbing commitments from both countries that are sure to breathe new life into negotiations to reach a new climate treaty in Paris next year.
According to the plan, the United States will reduce carbon emissions 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, nearly twice the existing target—without imposing new restrictions on power plants or vehicles.
From the Guardian, making a contribution:
World’s biggest mine: Inside US coal
Program notes:
Barack Obama’s pledge to cut carbon emissions has not stopped North Antelope Rochelle mine in Wyoming. In fact, production is booming – and climate change is off the agenda. The Guardian’s Suzanne Goldenberg gets a rare look inside the biggest coal mine in the world.
More fuel for the warming flames from Bloomberg:
Fossil Fuels With $550 Billion in Subsidy Hurt Renewables
Fossil fuels are reaping $550 billion a year in subsidies and holding back investment in cleaner forms of energy, the International Energy Agency said.
Oil, coal and gas received more than four times the $120 billion paid out in subsidy for renewables including wind, solar and biofuels, the Paris-based institution said today in its annual World Energy Outlook.
The findings highlight the policy shift needed to limit global warming, which the IEA said is on track to increase the world’s temperature by 3.6 degrees Celsius by the end of this century. That level would increase the risks of damaging storms, droughts and rising sea levels.
And then there’s this, via EcoWatch:
‘Keystone XL Clone’ to Pump Tar Sands Oil Starting Next Year
As Republicans get set to test their new majority in the U.S. Senate and their complete control of Congress to push through approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, a new investigative report by editor Lou Dubose at the Washington Spectator reveals that the construction of a “Keystone XL clone” pipeline with almost the same capacity is already taking place. While TransCanada continues to battle the public outcry against its Keystone XL project, another company, Enbridge, is quietly building the Alberta Clipper pipeline. Like Keystone XL, it will pumped 830,000 oil barrels (bbl) a day of tar sands bitumen crude oil from the Alberta oil fields to U.S. refineries.
“In six to eight months the Canadian tar-sands spigot opens to full capacity,” wrote Dubose. “Barring litigation or action by the State Department, Enbridge will achieve what has eluded TransCanada. And it will have done so with scant attention from the media and without the public debate generated by campaigns against the Keystone XL.”
The Spectator analyzed State Department documents, annual reports and interviews with Enbridge officials and lawyers to learn how the company pushed through a pipeline virtually identical to Keystone XL without a public process or attracting much attention. While a pipeline that crosses international borders requires presidential and State Department approval declaring that the project is “in the national interest,” the Spectator says Enbridge used a creative interpretation of an existing 1967 permit to circumvent the law and public opinion.
Which may account for this, via CBC News:
Canadian oil comparatively strong amid global crude sell-off, TD says
Lower dollar helps Canadian oil companies weather price decline of crude
Amid a global crude slowdown pushing oil prices to multi-year lows, Canadian oil companies are faring better than their overseas counterparts, TD Bank says.
In a recent report, TD economist Leslie Preston says Canadian oil companies are somewhat sheltered from plunging oil prices in part because the decline of the Canadian dollar is cushioning the blow.
Commodities like oil are priced in U.S. dollars. And even as oil prices have shed more than a quarter of their value in recent months, so too has the Canadian dollar declined a little. That’s allowed Canadian oil companies to squeeze more loonies out of the U.S. greenbacks they receive for their oil.
The Ecologist covers the inevitable:
Denton, Texas hit with lawsuits after landslide fracking victory
Denton’s 59-41 vote to ban fracking has got right up the nose of the state’s fossil fuel elite, writes Julie Dermansky. The Texas city has already been hit with two lawsuits – but it’s going to fight them all the way, with a $4 million legal fund ready and waiting.
Straight after Denton became the first Texas city to ban fracking within city limits, the city is being sued.
The Texas General Land Office and the Texas Oil and Gas Association are the first to challenge the new ordinance.
Last week Denton voters passed the fracking ban by a 59-to-41 percent margin, becoming the first Texas city to ban fracking.
And from the Jakarta Globe, one consequence:
Rising Seas Threaten Jokowi’s Maritime Plan
President Joko Widodo may have to rethink his plan to boost Indonesia’s maritime power, with experts questioning whether he is aware of the looming threat posed by rising sea levels, and whether he has considered the potential ecological impact of maritime developments.
Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, the Asia regional director of the Climate and Development Knowledge Network, reiterated on Monday the “very, very serious threat” posed by rising sea levels, due to climate change, to island nations in Asia, including the world’s largest archipelago, Indonesia.
He was citing the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which says even if the world could manage to keep rising global temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius — the ceiling that many countries have agreed on — it would still damage the environment and threaten many ecosystems and humanity, especially in island nations.
“In Indonesia’s context, even 2 degrees [Celsius] means a much larger increase [in sea levels] in some parts of the country than the global average,” Sheikh said during a discussion of the IPCC’s recently finalized Fifth Assessment Report in Yogyakarta. “A 2 degree [Celsius] rise in this century would mean that many islands and coastal areas in Indonesia will be inundated.”
After the jump, deadly detergents, down in the South Carolina dumps and passin’ deadly gas, on to the GMO front and a Big Ag European setback as Russia launches the biggest ever GMO food safety study, back to Fukushimpocalypse Now! with hot food shipped to the U.S. and a community presses nuke plant owners for a safety agreement, while a U.S. nuclear disaster leads to a $5.5 billion payout. . .
From Newswise, killer soap:
New Study Finds Laundry Detergent Pods a Serious Poisoning Risk for Children Younger than 6 Years of Age in the United States
One young child per day hospitalized in 2012 and 2013 because of pods; researchers recommend households with young children use traditional detergent instead.
Laundry detergent pods began appearing on U.S. store shelves in early 2012, and people have used them in growing numbers ever since. The small packets can be tossed into a washing machine without ever having to measure out a liquid or powder. The convenience, though, has come with risks for young children.
A new study from researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital found that from 2012 through 2013, U.S. poison control centers received reports of 17,230 children younger than 6 years of age swallowing, inhaling, or otherwise being exposed to chemicals in laundry detergent pods. That’s nearly one young child every hour. A total of 769 young children were hospitalized during that period, an average of one per day. One child died.
One and two year-olds accounted for nearly two-thirds of cases. Children that age often put items in their mouths as a way of exploring their environments. Children who put detergent pods in their mouths risk swallowing a large amount of concentrated chemicals. The vast majority of exposures in this study were due to ingestion.
“Laundry detergent pods are small, colorful, and may look like candy or juice to a young child,” said Marcel J. Casavant, MD, a co-author of the study, chief of toxicology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and medical director of the Central Ohio Poison Center. “It can take just a few seconds for children to grab them, break them open, and swallow the toxic chemicals they contain, or get the chemicals in their eyes.”
From the State in Columbia, South Carolina, down in the dumps and passin’ deadly gas:
Toxic landfill gas building up at lakeside dump
Hazardous chemical vapors are leaking through the top of an industrial waste dump along Lake Marion and are suspected of contaminating shallow groundwater near the surface of the 36-year-old site.
Nearly 20 different chemicals, some at concentrations above safe drinking water standards, have shown up in groundwater atop a plastic liner installed decades ago to protect the environment from the now abandoned waste dump near Pinewood, according to a recent consulting study.
State regulators have known about the issue for about three years, records show, but they said the contamination isn’t a threat to Lake Marion.
On to the GMO front and a Big Ag European setback from the Guardian:
MEPs vote to firm up national bans on GM crops in Europe
European Commission proposal to prevent national bans on environmental or health grounds is defeated
MEPs voted to allow national bans on genetically modified food crops for environmental reasons on Tuesday, even if the EU has already approved them for cultivation.
Under current bloc rules, GM crops can be cultivated after approval by the European Food and Safety Authority but several countries wanted stronger rights to block crops under the principle of ‘subsidiarity’, or devolution of powers to nation states. Some cited concerns over contamination from GM crops, others flagged scientific uncertainties.
A European Commission compromise proposal which would have prevented national GM bans on grounds of environmental or health concerns was amended, after securing support from just one political bloc: the European Conservatives and Reformists, whose largest member is the UK Conservative Party.
The commission’s compromise with pro-GM countries such as the UK and Spain, would have allowed countries a two-year window in which they could ban individual GM crops for reasons such as planning and agricultural objectives.
And Russian launches the biggest ever GMO food safety study, from the Guardian:
Largest international study into safety of GM food launched by Russian NGO
Thousands of rats will be fed Monsanto maize diets in a $23m, three-year ‘Factor GMO’ study into long-term health effects of GM food and associated pesticides
A Russian group working with scientists is set to launch what they call the world’s largest and most comprehensive long-term health study on a GM food.
The $25m three-year experiment will involve scientists testing thousands of rats which will be fed differing diets of a Monsanto GM maize and the world’s most widely-used herbicide which it it is engineered to be grown with.
The organisers of the Factor GMO [genetically modified organism] study, announced in London on Tuesday and due to start fully next year, say it will investigate the long-term health effects of a diet of a GM maize developed by US seed and chemical company Monsanto.
“It will answer the question: is this GM food, and associated pesticide, safe for human health?” said Elena Sharoykina, a campaigner and co-founder of the Russian national association for genetic safety (Nags), the co-ordinator of the experiment.
Back to Fukushimpocalypse Now! with hot food shipped to the U.S. from SimplyInfo:
Fukushima Contaminated Food Was Found In US Right After The Meltdowns
A presentation given at a recent American Chemical Society meeting outlined the discovery of Fukushima radioactive contamination in food soon after the disaster. Private sector testing done for food importers in the US did find contamination in some food items sent in for testing. Since this work was done with a private lab by a food company there was no mandate to make this information public.
One sample of imported fresh fish from Japan intended for sushi was found to have iodine 131. A sample of Koji powder was also found to be contaminated. The koji sample had not just iodine 131 but cobolt 60, radioactive silver, tellurium 132, cesium 134 and cesium 137. Contamination was also found in imported green tea samples and seaweed. The samples were below the US intervention level, but the intervention level isn’t a safety limit and it far higher than most consider safe.
The samples this private lab tested, they state that the import shipments found to be contaminated in these cases were sent back or destroyed. This testing shows a number of things of concern. Contaminated food was being shipped to the US. While these individual shipments from these food companies that hired this one lab for testing were not sent to market, others likely did. Companies that didn’t bother with doing their own testing or that were less principled may have sent these kinds of contaminated foods to market because they were below the FDA legal limits for sale.
Communities press nuke plant owners for a safety agreement, via NHK WORLD:
Municipalities seek Hamaoka plant safety agreement
Municipalities near Hamaoka nuclear plant in central Japan are set to demand that the plant’s operator sign a safety agreement before restarting its reactor.
The Japanese government has expanded the areas requiring nuclear disaster preparedness plans within about 30 kilometers of nuclear plants. This is in response to the Fukushima disaster in March 2011.
In the case of Hamaoka nuclear plant in Shizuoka Prefecture, 7 municipalities were added to the 4 cities that are obliged to have such plans.
The 7 municipalities, all located within 31 kilometers of the plant, decided to ask Chubu Electric Power Company to sign an agreement promising to seek their approval before key operational changes at the plant.
And to close, a high price paid, via Reuters:
Anadarko’s $5.15 billion cleanup deal approved by U.S. court
Anadarko Petroleum Corp’s agreement to pay $5.15 billion to clean up nuclear fuel and other pollution received approval from a federal judge on Monday, the final hurdle for the settlement touted by the U.S. Department of Justice as the largest-ever environmental cleanup recovery.
The agreement, reached in April, resolved a lawsuit against Anadarko and its Kerr-McGee unit from creditors of Tronox Inc, the paint materials maker that was once a unit of Kerr-McGee.
Opponents of the settlement could still appeal, but would face tough odds given its broad support among the parties in the case. Barring an appeal, money could be dispersed “within weeks,” John Hueston, a lawyer for the Tronox creditors, said in an interview on Monday.
