- As best we know it, the shocking truth is that preventable
disasters keep proliferating life destroying contamination globally. Yet
news about them is suppressed, so few people everywhere are unaware how
calamitously they're being harmed.
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- As a result, distinguished environmental researcher,
Dr. Ilya Perlingieri, now warns to stay out of rain because it's likely
radioactive. So is drinking water, food and air with unknown levels because
governments like America and Japan won't say.
-
- However, Norwegian Institute for Air Research static
and dynamic maps show radiation contamination across the Northern Hemisphere
with estimates of potential releases, increasing daily. Access them through
the following link:
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- http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24411
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- Also, Radiation Network.com gives levels across America,
accessed through the following link:
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- http://www.radiationnetwork.com/
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- Minimally, the danger is extreme and worsening as Fukushima
releases are expected to continue for months, perhaps years.
-
- Reporting what little is known about Japan, Kyodo News
headlined an April 21 article, "Radioactive leaks into sea were 20,000
times above limit: TEPCO," saying:
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- In early April, "an estimated 5,000 terabecquerels
of radioactive substances," amounting to 520 tons were released over
a six-day period alone. However, leakage began on March 11 and continues
daily in unreported amounts. One terabecquerel = one trillion becquerels.
Already, contamination levels are disastrous.
-
- On April 20, Natural News writer Mark Sircus headlined,
"Nuclear weather worsens," saying:
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- Daily news reports get worse. "Today it was that
robots (indicate) radiation is so hot inside (Fukushima facilities) that
workers will have a hard to impossible time (being) in certain areas,"
perhaps for an interminable period.
-
- Moreover, radiation levels are rising "across the
board and across continents."
-
- On Democracy Now April 19, nuclear expect Arnie Gundersen
said:
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- Fukushima "(r)adiation is leaking every day now,
both liquid into the ocean and also airborne. When you see those clouds
of smoke coming out of the unit, that's not (ordinary) steam, that's radioactive
steam. So, they're releasing radioactivity as an airborne, and also, probably
more important right now is Unit 2. The reactor has a hole in it, and the
containment has a hole in it. So they're pouring water in the top, and
it's running out of the bottom. And that's what's causing all of the enormous
amount of high-level radioactive waste" they can't stop.
-
- David Rainoshek had a different view headlined, "We
Are All Fukushima: An Integral Perspective on the Meanings and Promises
of Disaster," accessed through the following link:
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- http://www.naturalnews.com/downloads/We-Are-All-Fukushima.pdf
-
- Despite an unprecedented worsening disaster, government
and industry officials say "we should not be concerned." However,
according to Dr. John Price, former member of Britain's National Nuclear
Corporation Safety Policy Unit:
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- "(R)adiation leaks will continue....(It will) be
50 to 100 years before nuclear fuelrods have cooled enough to be removed,"
but thousands of them have already fully or partially melted.
-
- From another perspective, Fukushima is both disaster
and opportunity to finally free societies of nuclear technology because
it destroys life - perhaps entirely eventually unless totally abandoned.
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- For the past month in Japan, unreported anti-nuclear
lectures, petitions, weekend protests, and other public initiatives have
rallied under slogans like "nuke free," "Oppose nuclear
power," and "Sayonara nuclear power." Despite public anger,
however, especially in northern Japan, efforts far beyond protests are
needed across many countries to demand what's no longer acceptable - a
ticking time bomb destroyer of worlds.
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- Fossil fuels, including oil, pose other dangers, heightening
the urgency to replace them as well, especially with available safe, clean,
renewable alternatives if fully implemented. On March 29, nuclear expert
Karl Grossman's article headlined, "Renewables Are More Than Ready,"
explaining that:
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- Alternatives like wind, water, solar, and geothermal
can easily replace destructive oil, gas, coal and nuclear, and save planet
earth in the process. What's needed is mass global activism to force politicians
to do what they never will otherwise.
-
- Fukushima and America's Gulf heighten the urgency. April
20 marked the anniversary of last year's BP initial then larger explosion,
igniting Deepwater Horizon's oil drilling platform that burned for more
than a day before sinking and releasing thousands of barrels of oil daily
into surrounding waters for months. Transocean Ltd. owned and operated
the platform under contract to BP Exploration and Production Inc., a division
of oil giant BP.
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- The disaster killed 11 workers, injured another 17, and
caused America's greatest ever environmental crime, its effects ongoing
disastrously for millions of Gulf residents. More on that below.
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- An earlier article, the first of many, explained BP's
history of violations, Public Citizen's Tyson Slocum saying last May 5
that it has "the worst safety and environmental record of any oil
company operating in America." BP, in fact, is a serial scofflaw,
the worst of Big Oil's bad bunch.
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- Nonetheless, it's earned billions while assessed pocket
change fines, penalties and settlements for a company its size. Despite
its history of repeated violations, it's allowed to conduct business as
usual because effective crackdowns aren't imposed in an environment of
regulatory laxity.
-
- In fact, nothing to date has changed because government
complicity lets the most hazardous practices continue, mindless of public
safety and health, as well as environmental sanity, protecting what's too
precious to destroy. But it's happening in real time in public view.
-
- Another previous article explained Dr. Tom Termotto's
report titled, "The Gulf of Mexico is Dying." Based on seven
months of research and analysis, he produced a compelling body of evidence,
including photo-documentaries, portraying the Gulf's true state - what
BP, Washington, and major media reports to this day suppress.
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- In fact, Termotto said:
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- "BP('s) narrative is nothing but a corporate-created
illusion - a web of fabrication spun in collaboration with the US Federal
Government and (complicit) Mainstream Media. Big Oil, as well as the Military-Industrial
Complex, have aided and abetted this whole scheme and info blackout because
the very future of the Oil & Gas Industry is at stake, as is the future
of the US empire," dependent on vast amounts of energy, mainly oil,
and will take any risks to get it.
-
- Ongoing today, visual evidence shows "numerous leaks
and seeps throughout the seafloor surface (suggesting) sub-seafloor geological
formations in great turmoil and undergoing unprecedented flux."
-
- Moreover, once oil penetrates shallow fault areas, an
uncontrollable situation exists, information again suppressed because revealing
it might jeopardize future oil and gas exploration. As a result, coverup
protects it, no matter the extreme geological, environmental and human
hazards.
-
- Not only is America's Gulf dying, but all planetary waters
are interconnected and potentially at risk, meaning the entire global ecosystem
and humanity are endangered, as well as animal and vegetable life. However,
not only do regulatory-free hazardous practices continue, but no one's
been held accountable for America's greatest ever environmental crime because
on-the-take politicians conspire to prevent it.
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- America's Gulf - the Daily Human and Environmental Toll
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- On April 20, New York Times writer Campbell Robertson
headlined, "Beyond the Oil Spill, the Tragedy of an Ailing Gulf,"
saying:
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- A year later, "southern Louisiana sinks steadily
into the sea," with scant mention of the enormity of destruction to
the entire Gulf, its coastal wetlands, the catastrophic loss of sea life,
as well as millions of grievously harmed residents, getting sick and not
compensated for illnesses and lost livelihoods.
-
- Spending weeks in the region, investigative journalist
Dahr Jamail compiled compelling evidence of "the biggest chemical
poisoning crisis in US history." On April 16, his article headlined,
"BP anniversary: Toxicity, suffering and death," saying:
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- ".....(M)arine and wildlife biologists, toxicologists,
and medical doctors have described the impact of the disaster upon the
environment and human health as 'catastrophic,' and (explain) this is only
the beginning of (a likely) environmental and human health crisis"
to continue for decades, affecting millions of regional residents, the
environment, and sea life.
-
- Yet in February, Obama officials ordered marine scientists
documenting dolphin mortality "to keep their findings confidential."
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- "Dolphins and sea turtles (are) canaries in the
coal mine in the Gulf since they (top) the food chain and directly reflect"
their entire ecosystem's health. Obtained evidence suggests a worsening
prognosis, documented by enormous, continuing fish kills as well as hazardous
contamination making nothing in Gulf waters safe to eat. and coastal areas
hazardous for residents.
-
- Jamail interviewed Louisiana-based Dr. Mike Robicheux,
expressing alarm over conditions and lack of government response. Treating
scores of new patients with Gulf related illnesses, he unsuccessfully appealed
to the US Centers for Disease Control for help, saying:
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- They stonewalled him. "The medical community has
shut this down....This is the biggest public health crisis from a chemical
poisoning in the history of this country. We are going to have thousands
of people who are extremely sick, and if they aren't (properly) treated,"
many will die.
-
- Yet Washington and state authorities don't give a damn,
anymore than about the hazardous radiation contaminating large parts of
the country. Combined, Fukusima and Gulf poisons may kill unimaginable
numbers from preventable carcinogenic illnesses in America alone.
-
- Only years from now we'll know how many and the entire
ecosystem toll. However, it won't compensate for enormous pain and suffering
in the meantime or for official complicity in letting hazardous practices
continue, as well as subsidizing dangerous technologies instead of mandating
safe alternatives.
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- A Final Comment
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- In mid-February, marine biologist/toxicologist Dr. Riki
Ott said extremely toxic Corexit dispersants and genetically engineered
bacteria are still used illegally in the Gulf, contrary to BP and EPA reports,
exacerbating the disaster's enormity.
-
- Moreover, on March 19, several reports, including from
Florida Oil Spill Law.com headlined "New huge spill near Deepwater
Horizon, at MC 243 (the Mississippi Canyon System) - Slick is 100 miles
long, skimming started days ago."
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- On March 20, the Coast Guard confirmed it. The Louisiana
Times-Picayune called it "potentially massive," about 20 miles
north of the Deepwater Horizon explosion. In fact, large and smaller spills
happen regularly in Gulf and other waters globally, adding to contamination
levels too hazardous any longer to tolerate when safe alternatives are
so readily available.
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- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com
and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the
Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays
at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs
are archived for easy listening.
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- http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/
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