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Category: water

  • In The Centre Of Global Warming

    May 15 this year came as a timely warning that India is in the center of the global warming crisis. On this day the maximum temperature crossed the 47 degrees Celsius limit in about 20 cities, mostly in northwest and central parts of the country. These cities also figured in the table of the hottest cities at world level on this day.

    Most of these cities and the surrounding countryside have been figuring prominently also in the longer heat waves which have been experienced since early April.

    Six of these cities are located in the Thar desert or the area close to it. These include Jaisalmer, Phalodi, Pilani, Churu, Bikaner and Ganganagar.

    Four other cities are concentrated in a region of 13 districts known as Bundelkhand in Central India which saw temperature reaching 49 degrees C in Banda.

    The post In The Centre Of Global Warming appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Welcome to Selsey, a community that welcomed back the marsh.

    As climate-fueled floods and droughts wreak havoc around the world, a hard truth is emerging: sooner or later, water always wins. But these devastating water extremes are not just due to climate change. They are made much worse by our poor development choices aimed at controlling water. The following excerpt is from the book >Water Always Wins, in which Hakai contributor Erica Gies follows innovators in what she calls the Slow Water movement who are instead asking a revolutionary question: what does water want?

    What water wants is to reclaim its slow phases—wetlands, floodplains, mangrove forests—that we’ve erased with development. The Slow Water movement has parallels to Slow Food, drawing attention to water’s relationships with rocks, microbes, beavers, humans, and how our actions affect them. Projects work with local geology, life, climate, and cultures rather than trying to control them.

    The post Welcome to Selsey, a community that welcomed back the marsh. appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • FijiFirst not fit to run country over ‘dry taps – no lights’, says Rabuka

    By Felix Chaudhary in Suva

    People’s Alliance party leader Sitiveni Rabuka says the FijiFirst government is not fit to run the country because it cannot efficiently provide two basic necessities — electricity and water.

    In a statement issued yesterday, he said the continuing crises of dry taps and regular power cuts was “good reason for voting the FijiFirst government out of office”.

    “The inability of the Minister of the Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, and the Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama to keep the lights on and the water flowing through the taps is an indictment of their leadership,” Rabuka said.

    “In addition to their other failures, they clearly cannot efficiently provide these two basic necessities for living. They are therefore not fit to remain in office.”

    The former prime minister also claimed electricity supply disruptions, leaking mains, dirty water and empty taps were part of the daily routine for hundreds of thousands of citizens.

    “Disruptions occur in many areas causing turmoil and stress in homes, workplaces and public facilities such as hospitals,” he said.

    “On more than one occasion in recent times, all of Viti Levu has lost its electricity — some places have suffered up to four power cuts in one day.

    “The CWM Hospital, the country’s largest, has previously been left without water. You can imagine what a nightmare that was for hundreds of patients, visitors and staff.

    “There has never been an apology from Mr Bainimarama or Mr Sayed-Khaiyum for not getting their water and power act together.”

    Felix Chaudhary is a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • More Than 75% Of The World Could Face Drought By 2050, UN Report Warns

    The climate crisis is making droughts more frequent and longer-lasting, a new UN report has announced.

    The report, Drought in Numbers, 2022, was released Wednesday in honor of Drought Day at the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)’s 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) taking place in Abijan, Côte d’Ivoire from May 9 to 20.

    “The facts and figures of this publication all point in the same direction: an upward trajectory in the duration of droughts and the severity of impacts, not only affecting human societies but also the ecological systems upon which the survival of all life depends, including that of our own species.” UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw said in a press release.

    The post More Than 75% Of The World Could Face Drought By 2050, UN Report Warns appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • World Drought Gets Worse, Cities Ration

    The planet is wheezing, coughing and sputtering because of vicious attacks by worldwide droughts aided and abetted by global warming at only 1.2C above baseline. Some major metropolises are rationing water.

    What’ll happen at 1.5C?

    It’s not as if droughts are not a normal feature of the climate system. They are, but the problem nowadays is highlighted by reports from NASA and NOAA stating that earth is trapping nearly twice as much heat is it did in 2005 described as an “unprecedented increase amid the climate crisis.” This trend is described as “quite alarming.”

    The planet trapping heat at double the rate of only 17 years ago is off-the-charts bad news and reason enough for the world’s leaders to go all-in on global warming preventive measures, and then hope and pray that it’s not too late.

    Throughout Earth’s history drought has been a normal feature of climate change, but that’s the past. Droughts are no longer normal features. They are much, much more severe and longer lasting, for example, America’s drought in the West is ongoing for 20 years, the worst in 1,200 years, and it’s taken Lake Mead water levels down to 1937 when it first started filling up.

    On a worldwide basis, drought’s impact on water reservoirs on every continent is chilling. Agricultural yields are suffering.

    Undoubtedly, the utter failure by the world’s political leaders to respect 30-50 years of public warnings by scientists to “get off fossil fuels ASAP” is coming home to roost. When will the general public fight back and throw out climate change denial politicians along with their motley shrilly charlatans?

    Along those lines, in an historic judgment, a Belgian court ruled that Belgium’s climate failures violate human rights, stating that public authorities broke promises to tackle the climate issue. 58,000 citizens served as co-plaintiffs in the case. To wit: “By not taking all ‘necessary measures’ to prevent the ‘detrimental’ effects of climate change, the court said, Belgian authorities had breached the right to life (Article 2) and the right to respect for private and family life (Article 8).”1

    A major study of soil moisture drought in Europe during the period from 1766 to 2020 led to the conclusion that recent drought events brought the “most intense drought conditions for Europe in 250 years: “We conclude that Europe should prepare adaptation and mitigation plans for future events whose intensity may be comparable to the previous event, but whose duration (and partly their spatial extent) will be much greater than any event observed in the last 250 years.” 2

    An international team, led by the University of Cambridge… found that after a long-term drying trend, European drought conditions since 2015 suddenly intensified, beyond anything in the past two thousand (2,000) years.

    Eastern Europe is feeling the impact of serious drought. A report from the Atlantic Council in 2021 “emphasized the impacts of drought on Ukraine’s grain exports, noting that they had ‘fallen sharply year-on-year during the current season due to smaller harvests caused by severe drought conditions.’ When an agricultural power as important as Ukraine suddenly starts producing and exporting much less food, it is a recipe for social dislocation, human suffering, and political unrest, both inside the country and beyond.”  3

    According to the European Commission: “A severe drought has been affecting northern Italy and the Po River basin in particular.” 4  In Northern Italy, most of the reservoirs are below the minimum historical values… stored energy as of March 2022 is 27.5% less than the 8-year minimum. Both agricultural yield and costs for power are negatively impacted. That -27.5% is 27.5% below the 8-yr minimum!

    In the US, according to the Palmer Drought index, severe-to-extreme drought is affecting 38% of the contiguous US as of March 2022. That’s almost as bad as it ever gets. More than 50% of the country registers as moderate-to-extreme. As a result, the US Bureau of Reclamation is scrambling to retain/add/cheat/steal enough water for America’s two largest reservoirs Lake Powell and Lake Mead to keep hydropower supplying electrical power to 5M and water to 40M. Rationing to some of seven SW states has already started. Is that the eye-opener of all eye-openers? Answer: Yes.

    Historic drought has literally changed the landscape in parts of South America: “Until 2020, there was plenty of water, swamps, stagnant lakes and lagoons in Argentina’s Ibera Wetlands, one of the largest such ecosystems in the world. But an historic drought of the Parana River dried much of it out; its waters are in the lowest level since 1944. Since January it has been the stage of raging fires.” 5

    Chile is experiencing such a horrendous record-breaking drought (13 years) that the capital city Santiago, population 6M, is rationing water. The city will experience rotating water cut-offs of up to 24 hours at a time in a four-tier alert system with public service announcements so residents can prepare for no water. “This is the first time in history that Santiago has a water rationing plan due to the severity of climate change, It’s important for citizens to understand that climate change is here to stay. It’s not just global, it’s local,” according to Claudio Orrego, governor of the Santiago metropolitan region.6

    In SE Asia the Mekong River serves as the waterway for the livelihood of 65M people. This is the fourth year of drought. According to the Ministry of Water Resources river conditions are the worst in 60 years.  For example, in Cambodia water capacity for crop irrigation is at only 20%. Upstream dams in China and Laos also negatively add to the impact of severe drought conditions.

    In China the port city of Guangzhou (pop 15M) and Shenzhen (pop 12.5M), which links HK to mainland China, have put residents on notice to cut (reduce) water consumption between January and October of 2022, as the main water source, the East River (down 50%) experiences the most severe drought in decades.7

    In Africa, a brutal drought in Ethiopia and Kenya has caused three million livestock dead and 30% of household herds have died in Somalia. According to the UN, the worsening drought in the Horn of Africa puts 20M people at risk. Rampant migration follows in the footsteps of severe drought, e.g., Central America’s Dry Corridor.

    As nation/states fail to adequately address the global warming issue with Plan A, which is attacking the source, or cutting fossil fuel emissions, it becomes increasingly urgent to go to Plan B, which is adapting to the unforgiving climate system exhaust (cough-cough) of a failed Plan A.

    In 2021, the Netherlands hosted the first-ever Climate Adaptation Summit (CAS 2021), highlighting adaptation measures as crucial for minimizing extreme weather events and improving water security.

    The facts surrounding the current status of CO2 emissions (at all-time highs over the past millennium) and plans for expansion by the fossil fuel industry over the course of this decade; i.e., China and India building new coal plants like crazy and oil companies planning to spend billions for new oil and gas expansion, dictate that adaptation to an unpredictably challenging destructive climate system is an absolute necessity because global warming ain’t gonna get fixed.

    It is noteworthy that Dr. James Hansen’s (Columbia University) most recent monthly temperature update states:

    Note monthly temperature anomalies on land now commonly exceed +2°C (+3.6°F), with the Arctic anomaly often exceeding +5°C (+9°F).

    The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forewarned that +2°C is the upper limit where the climate system starts to get real crazy; however, at today’s overall planet temperature of +1.2°C above baseline trouble is already evident, e.g., the worst droughts in centuries found on every continent with some major cities either rationing water or suggesting voluntary cutbacks. And, oh yeah, food prices are just starting to skyrocket.

    Frankly, human ingenuity must take over on local and regional bases to work towards “adaptation to a rambunctiously changing climate,” and, of course, lots of luck. Interestingly, some of America’s biggest western cities have learned to adapt to severe drought, as discussed in some detail in the article: 8

    1. “Drought: The New Global Calamity?” The Kashmir Monitor, June 30, 2021.
    2. “The 2018-2020 Multi-Year Drought Sets a New Benchmark in Europe”, American Geophysical Union, 15 March 2022.
    3. “Extreme Drought Is Crashing Food Production Whether Russia Invades or Not”, The Nation, February. 17, 2022.
    4. “Drought in Northern Italy”, March 2022: GDO Analytical Report, European Commission.
    5. “Climate Change Brings Extreme, Early Impact to South America”, phys.org, March 1, 2022.
    6. “Chile Announces Unprecedented Plan to Ration Water As Drought Enters 13th Year”, The Guardian, April 11, 2022.
    7. “China’s Southern Megacities Warn of Water Shortages During East River Drought”, Reuters, December 8, 2021.
    8. “Adapting to Drought,” Dissident Voice, May 3, 2022.
    The post World Drought Gets Worse, Cities Ration first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Adapting to Drought

    America’s western metropolises are thriving in the midst of the fiercest drought in over 1,000 years.

    Not all climate change/global warming news is negative. Positive pushback to global warming is real and happening right under our collective noses.

    Still, climate scientists wring their hands in despair over the failure of the corporate-controlled world to come to grips with climate change’s biggest bugaboo, which is too much fossil fuel emitting too much CO2 creating too much warmth that eventually brings on excessive heat. Ergo! Ecosystems fail! Droughts accelerate!

    For decades now, scientists have been warning about the danger of too much fossil fuel causing climate system failure, like wet-bulb temperature-related deaths within 6 hrs. @ 95°F/90%H (India?), crop failures, rising sea levels, and scorching droughts. The broken promises of nation/states to “fix it” almost always turn to dust or result in too little, too late.

    Yet, Hooray! Human ingenuity is alive and well. Adapting to record-setting drought in the United States is happening, especially in desert cities in America’s arid West, living proof that adaptation to a broken climate system is possible and likely for decades to come. The level of success is reason enough for some amount of cheer and good feelings. America’s western cities are taking on the worst drought in centuries and winning!

    But, before looking behind the scenes of heroic efforts by some of America’s biggest cities, it is crucial to look at an all-points bulletin issued by the Bureau of Reclamation about critically low water levels at Lake Powell and at Lake Mead, which are responsible for hydroelectric power for millions and drinking water for 40M people in the West. Water levels at these two crucial reservoirs are dangerously low, calling for extreme measures years earlier than planned.

    The Bureau had to pull off some gimmickry (hydrological accounting) for Lake Powell to continue providing hydroelectric power to millions of homes. Otherwise, the power was destined to end as water levels fall below intakes. Water levels at Lake Powell are at all-time lows. The Bureau of Reclamation, in order to keep both hydropower and drinking water for millions, had to employ gimmickry whilst “holding the hands” of seven (7) states that receive their water downstream from the Colorado River to Lake Powell and onto Lake Mead, which is also at all-time record lows going back to 1937 when Lake Mead first started filling up. This is heartbreaking evidence of the devastating drought throughout the West, which refuses to let up.

    The Bureau’s gimmickry includes plans for Lake Mead to give up some water intake from Lake Powell to keep the hydropower on for millions of homes. The Bureau, in turn, is robbing water (162B gallons) from a recreational reservoir, Flaming Gorge Reservoir (Wyoming and Utah), to be sent to Lake Powell. This somewhat complicated transaction keeps the lights on for millions, although, Lake Mead loses 480,000 acre-feet of water that Lake Powell normally sends its way. In the end, it’s hoped that spring snow runoff will compensate for the loss to Lake Mead.

    The maneuvers by the Bureau include contingency plans that trigger mandatory water reductions for western states such as Arizona (-30%). As a result, farmers in the Phoenix area will have to fallow cotton and alfalfa fields. Most importantly, the accounting gimmick will allow the Bureau to avoid declaring a Tier 2b shortage as it artificially assumes (cooking the books) that Lake Mead did receive water from Lake Powell that it did not receive. As it happens, the Western states are already at Tier 1 shortages whereas a Tier 2b shortage would involve draconian cuts.

    The short take on this convoluted affair is that America’s West is running out of adequate water supply in large measure because of an unrelenting drought that has all of the characteristics of a mega-drought. A megadrought is defined as a period of extreme dryness that lasts for decades. During a megadrought wet years do appear but quickly return to severe dryness. The current drought in America’s West has lasted for 20 years.

    Along the way the big metropolitan regions have learned how to capitalize on those intermittent wet years in addition to smart measures to conserve and create more potable water. In remarkable fashion, they have learned to cope and are fighting back against the worst drought in recorded history, building adequate supplies of water, and in some cases, more than enough water, as the world surrounding these megalopolises containing millions of people turns brutally dangerously hot and dry. This exemplifies human initiative and ingenuity at work, and it promises to extend quality life in the desert West beyond the challenges of the worst drought in 1,200 years. It is something to behold.

    San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Albuquerque in the face of the worst drought since William the Conquer (1028-1087) hit the shores of England are already working around the issue of federal cuts in Colorado River water, the first cuts in history.

    The San Diego Water Authority recently did a water supply stress test that showed it is “water good” until 2045, and probably beyond. Similar results are happening in Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Albuquerque, all nestled within a drought apocalypse, but managing to create adequate supply of water to continue growing into the surrounding desert countryside. It’s a miracle of ingenuity, foresight, and dedication. It’s all about sourcing and conserving water.

    YaleEnvironment360, an indispensible source for best coverage of the environment, recently published an article by Jim Robbins: “A Quiet Revolution: Southwest Cities Learn to Thrive Amid Drought”, YaleEnvironment360, April 24, 2022, stating:  “From replacing water-guzzling lawns with native vegetation, to low-flow plumbing fixtures, to water recycling and desalination, to the shift of agricultural water to cities, governments in arid western regions are pursuing an all-of-the-above strategy.”

    The upshot is that water conservation is one of the keys to successfully encountering droughts. For example, San Diego water usage dropped from 81.5 billion gallons in 2007 to 57 billion gallons in 2020 because of conservation measures.

    Moreover, nine (9) desert cities in the Colorado River Basin complex lowered water demand by 19% to 48% from years 2000 to 2015. These are testimonials to the value of conservation measures.

    According to YaleEnvironment360:

    San Diego has pursued a multi-pronged approach. The city now requires an array of water-saving technology in new homes, such as low-flow toilets and showerheads. Perhaps the single biggest piece of the conservation solution is paying homeowners to tear out yards full of Kentucky bluegrass and replace them with far more water-efficient landscaping. The city-run program pays up to $4 a square foot for as much as 5,000 square feet, and so far has replaced 42 million square feet of water-thirsty lawns.

    Per capital water usage for the San Diego County Water Authority has dropped from 235 gallons per day per capita in 1990 to 135 gallons per day now. That is an impressive change. Furthermore, the city captures 90% of rainwater runoff for additional supply to 24 reservoirs where it is treated to drinking water standards.

    Oceanside, California, near San Diego, just opened a “toilet to tap” recycling facility that creates 3 million gallons per day or 20% of the city needs. Similarly, San Diego is working on a project for 40% of city water needs by recycling “toilet to tap.” San Diego is also home to North America’s largest desalination plant.

    The metropolis of Phoenix took the number of single-family homes with lush landscaping from 80% in the 1970s down to 10% in 2022 as desert heat-tolerant plants replaced water-guzzling grass.

    Los Angeles is beating the drought challenge with heavy investments in water storage, rainwater capture and reclamation with a goal of self-sufficiency of 70% of city water needs from local sources by 2035. LA mayor Eric Garcetti claims: “We’re going to have plenty of water.” 1  According to Felicia Marcus, former chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board, who is now a visiting fellow at Stanford University: “The LA area is going to be the epicenter of climate adaptation in urban water in the world. ”2

    Work is already underway in LA with massive upgrades to wastewater treatment plants for potable water, spending $4.3B for the city’s Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant. LA will source 35% of the city’s water from recycling versus 2% today. Additionally, some of the world’s largest groundwater treatment facilities are under construction in the San Fernando Valley.

    LA is currently expanding catch basins and inlets that recharge aquifers, and it is planning to double rainwater capture capacity over the next 15 years. That’s water that previously flowed directly into the ocean.

    Conservation measures for LA started in the 1970s. Today, LA uses less water per capita than it did 50 years ago despite a population increase of one million. Water usage per capita has declined by more than 40%.

    The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has a record 3.2 million acre feet of water in reservoirs, thanks to the foresight to overbuild storage reservoirs combined with conservation measures, all the while working against the impact of the worst drought in over 1,000 years.

    The state of California is moving to small-scale recycling. For example, in San Francisco, every commercial building over 100,000 sq. ft. has to use on-site recycling systems.  Additionally, home water recycling units are coming soon, prompting some water aficionados to speculate that water utilities could end up with stranded assets or extra capacity.

    Optimism about future stable growth in America’s West is directly tied to adapting to the rigors of a megadrought: “We know it’s a desert and we plan accordingly,’ said Arizona’s Kathryn Sorenson (Kyl Center for Water Policy). ‘Phoenix can survive dead pool’ — the term for a nearly empty Lake Mead — for generations. We have groundwater; we have done a good job of conservation and diversifying our portfolios. Desert cities are the oldest cities, and we will withstand the test of time.” 3

    1. Eckhouse and Bliss, “Los Angeles Is Building a Future Where Water Won’t Run Out”, Bloomberg, January 31, 2022.
    2. Ibid.
    3. YaleEnvironment360.
    The post Adapting to Drought first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Palestine Needs Immediate Attention to Stave off Major Food Crisis

    A friend, a young journalist in Gaza, Mohammed Rafik Mhawesh, told me that food prices in the besieged Strip have skyrocketed in recent weeks and that many already impoverished families are struggling to put food on the table.

    “Food prices are dramatically surging,” he said, “particularly since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war.” Essential food prices, like wheat and meat, have nearly doubled. The price of a chicken, for example, which was only accessible to a small segment of Gaza’s population, has increased from 20 shekels (approx. $6) to 45 (approx. $14).

    These price hikes may seem manageable in some parts of the world but in an already impoverished place, which has been under a hermetic Israeli military siege for 15 years, a humanitarian crisis of great proportions is certainly forthcoming.

    In fact, this was also the warning of the international charity group Oxfam, which on April 11 reported that food prices throughout Palestine jumped by 25% but, more alarmingly, wheat flour reserves in the Occupied Territories could be “exhausted within three weeks”.

    The impact of the Russia-Ukraine war has been felt in every part of the world, some places more than others. African and Middle Eastern countries, which have been battling pre-existing problems of poverty, hunger and unemployment, are most affected. However, Palestine is a whole different story. It is an occupied country that is almost entirely reliant on the action of an occupying power, Israel, which refuses to adhere to international and humanitarian laws.

    For Palestinians the issue is complex, yet almost every aspect of it is somehow linked to Israel.

    Gaza has been under an Israeli economic blockade for many years, and food that Israel allows to the Strip is rationed and manipulated by Israel as an act of collective punishment. In its report on Israeli apartheid published last February, Amnesty International detailed Israeli restrictions on Palestinian food and gas supplies. According to the rights group, Israel uses “mathematical formulas to determine how much food to allow into Gaza”, limiting supplies to what Tel Aviv deems “essential for the survival of the civilian population”.

    Aside from many infrastructure issues resulting from the siege – lack of clean water, electricity, farming equipment, etc. – Gaza has also lost much of its arable land to the Israeli military zone established across border areas throughout the Strip.

    The West Bank is not much better off. Most Palestinians in the Occupied Territories are feeling the growing burden – the Israeli occupation, compounded with the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and structural weaknesses within the Palestinian Authority, rife with corruption and mismanagement.

    The PA imports 95% of its wheat, Oxfam says, and owns no storage facilities whatsoever. All of such imports are transported via Israel, which controls all of Palestine’s access to the outside world. Since Israel itself imports nearly half of its grains and cereals from Ukraine, Palestinians are, therefore, hostage to this very mechanism.

    Israel, however, has been amassing food and is largely energy independent, while Palestinians are struggling at all levels. While the PA should shoulder part of the blame for investing in its ‘security’ apparatus at the expense of food security, Israel holds most of the keys to Palestinian survival.

    With hundreds of Israeli military checkpoints dotting the occupied West Bank, cutting off communities from one another and farmers from agricultural land, sustainable agriculture in Palestine is nearly impossible.

    Two major issues complicate an already difficult picture: one, the hundreds of kilometers long so-called ‘Separation Wall’, which actually does not ‘separate’ between Israelis and Palestinians but, instead, unlawfully deprives Palestinians from large tracts of their land, mostly farming areas; and two, the outright robbery of Palestinian water from the West Bank’s acquifers.  While many Palestinian communities struggle to find drinking water in the summer, Israel never experiences any water shortage throughout the year.

    So-called Area C, which constitutes nearly 60% of the total size of the West Bank, is under complete Israeli military control. Though sparsely populated in comparison, it contains most of the region’s agricultural land, especially areas located in the very fertile Jordan Valley. Though Israel has postponed, under international pressure, its official annexation of Area C, the area is practically annexed, and Palestinians are slowly being driven out and replaced by a growing population of illegal Israeli Jewish settlers.

    The rapidly rising food prices are hurting the very farmers and herders who are responsible for filling the massive gaps caused by the global food insecurity as a result of war. According to Oxfam, the cost of animal feed is up by 60% in the West Bank, which adds to the “existing burden” faced by herders, including “worsening violent attacks by Israeli settlers” and “forced displacement”, as in ethnic cleansing resulting from Israeli annexation policies.

    Though it may bring partial relief, even a halt to the Russia-Ukraine war will not end Palestine’s food insecurity, as this issue is instigated and prolonged by specific Israeli policies. In the case of Gaza, the crisis is, in fact, fully manufactured by Israel with specific political designs in mind. The infamous comments by former Israeli government advisor, Dov Weisglass in 2006, explaining Israel’s motives behind the siege on Gaza, remain the guiding principle of Israel’s attitude towards the Strip. “The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger,” he said.

    Palestine needs immediate attention to stave off a major food crisis. Gaza’s pre-existing extreme poverty and high unemployment leaves it with no margins whatsoever to accommodate any more calamities. However, anything done now can only be a short-term fix. A serious conversation involving Palestinians, Arab countries, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and other parties must take place to discuss and resolve Palestine’s food insecurity. For Palestinians, this is the real existential threat.

    The post Palestine Needs Immediate Attention to Stave off Major Food Crisis first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • “It’s Not a Drought, It’s Looting”: Water Rights Activists Organize in Mexico

    Mexico is heading into the worst months of its dry season. Fifteen of 32 states are experiencing extremely high stress on water resources, as use surpasses the amount available.

    Water rights activists use the term “Day Zero” for the date when a region will lack sufficient water to meet basic needs. Much of Mexico is close to this point, with Monterrey and Nuevo Leon only having two months of water reserves, and Mexico City two years. For comparison’s sake, England has been described as being in the “jaws of death” because its Day Zero is 25 years away.

    Activists with the Indigenous Caravan for Water and Life argue that it is multinational corporations, often with governmental support, that are responsible for causing climate change, environmental damage and water shortages — rather than the regular dry season.

    “It’s not a drought, it’s looting” has been one of the main chants of the month-long caravan which kicked off in Puebla on March 22, and will run until April 24.

    The caravan, one of the biggest demonstrations in recent years of Indigenous people’s defense of the environment, will cover nine states and visit Indigenous communities across Mexico each day for 34 days. These communities are standing up for their environmental rights and autonomy. Most are confronting megaprojects, where manufacturing, mining, extractive and commercial companies — often from the U.S. or Europe – have built massive amounts of infrastructure, such as hydroelectric plants and gas pipelines, to plunder the communities of their water and energy resources.

    In Puebla state alone, hundreds of corporations have licenses to build or maintain such infrastructure, which many local residents refer to as “death projects” because they threaten the existence of nearby communities. The hydroelectric plants that are built to provide mines with energy deprive nearby farmers of water. There are fracking zones and gas pipelines, and most supportive infrastructure is also privately owned, with corporate interests at heart and no community consultation. Areas with the highest concentration of such projects, such as Serdán and northern Puebla state, also have the highest levels of organized crime.

    Mexico has the highest amount of carbon emissions from electricity of any country in Latin America. In Cuautlancingo, Puebla, for example, where Volkswagen and the industrial park, Finsa, is located, at least 80 percent of electricity use is industrial. Companies like Volkswagen, Ternium, Heineken and Dr. Pepper are also among the main users of water in Puebla state.

    Indigenous people are participating in a month-long caravan, traveling around the country and marching and meeting in multiple towns and cities a day, in order to denounce environmental destruction by transnationals.
    Indigenous people are participating in a month-long caravan, traveling around the country and marching and meeting in multiple towns and cities a day, in order to denounce environmental destruction by transnationals.
    Representative of the National Indigenous Council, Marichuy.
    Representative of the National Indigenous Council, Marichuy.
    A meeting of local communities and the caravan in Ahuacatlán on March 26.
    A meeting of local communities and the caravan in Ahuacatlán on March 26.

    These mega projects disproportionately affect Indigenous people, said María de Jesús Patricio, widely known as Marichuy, who is a spokesperson for the National Indigenous Council (CNI) and the first female Indigenous presidential hopeful in the country.

    From the way Indigenous people farm, to the deterioration of their lands, to the stealing and contamination of their water, the mega projects affect “what they eat, and therefore their health. They are modifying the environment, polluting the … rivers, and modifying farming cycles. And they cause internal divisions in the communities, by winning over some members with donations and telling them that the mega projects will bring employment,” Marichuy told Truthout from a bus during the caravan.

    Mega projects also often involve displacing entire Indigenous communities, and the loss of important natural, cultural or religious sites. Across Mexico, some 4,200 dam construction projects have forced 185,000 people, mostly poor or original peoples, to leave their homes.

    The violence against the land is reflected in the violence against people defending it. Last year, 25 such activists were murdered, with 238 total violent attacks recorded — making it the most violent year since 2014, when the Mexican Center for Environmental Rights (CEMDA) began keeping a tally.

    Uniting Isolated Struggles

    The caravan around Mexico is showing people that “our problems are similar … communities are seeking ways to walk together and denounce all the different types of plundering,” Marichuy said.

    For the launch, the caravan held a press conference and marched outside Bonafont, a water bottling plant that is owned by Danone. Local Nahua peoples had taken over the plant last year, but were evicted by the military in February.

    The bottling plant is now guarded by security forces in full battle gear, with a wall of 20-liter water bottles and two steel fences to prevent Indigenous locals from returning. The group’s march past the plant was brief. Otomis, who had joined the caravan from Mexico City, shouted, “Water is not for sale. No more armed forces in our towns.”

    The next day, the caravan traveled to San Miguel Xoxtla, a nearby region that European steel company Ternium is turning to dust.

    “The small farmers in the area denounced the pollution of air, land and water by the company. Its toxic waste and ashes are spewed out over the land. The wind hits you in the face and it smells very bad. The company consumes millions of liters of water — we don’t know how much exactly because there’s no transparency,” Armando Gomez, an Otomi member of the caravan, told Truthout. He said they also visited other towns and struggles nearby, and described how his clothing and shoes were full of dust because the area, which was previously fertile land, is so dry now.

    Ternium’s excessive use of water is leaving locals without, and the runoff from its manufacturing processes is polluting a canal and one of the three main wells in Xoxtla that supplies water to people’s homes. The canal also passes through locals’ corn, bean and zucchini farms, contaminating their crops. Residents have denounced an increase in cancer cases and deaths since Ternium (then Hylsa) began operating. Last year, for the first time during the rainy season, the nearby Prieto River was completely dry, thanks to water use by Ternium.

    After a march in Puebla city to protest outside the state parliament, as well as visits to other communities in the state, such as San Isidro Huilotepec, where locals are trying to stop a gas pipeline, the caravan headed to Ahuacatlan in the Sierra Norte mountains on March 27.

    There, Totonaco and Nahua people, along with other Mexicans, celebrated what they called “partial victories.” They have managed to stop a mega project which involved building a hydroelectric dam for a Walmart, Suburbia, and other shops that would have left them without water for their crops. Communities in the region have also been organizing for years to shut down open-pit gold mines owned by Canadian company, Almaden Minerals, and another which is part of the Espejeras project. The mines have destroyed thousands of hectares of forest and contaminated domestic water with cyanide used to separate gold from other minerals. Fifty towns also face water shortages due to hydroelectric dams redirecting water to the gold mines.

    At the event, activists read out a statement, affirming, “In February and March, after seven years (of resistance), the courts canceled five mining concessions in Ixtacamaxtitlán, Cuetzalan, Tlatlauquitepec and Yaonáhuac.”

    A few days later, while in Chilapa, Guerrero, the caravan denounced the organized criminal group, Los Ardillos, for deploying 50 vans and 20 motorcycles in the path of the Indigenous activists. Media and human rights groups were on high alert, and the caravan was on guard all night. Community police accompanied the caravan until it arrived in Mexico City to continue its journey.

    Activities as part of the caravan’s visit to Ahuacatlán on March 26.
    Activities as part of the caravan’s visit to Ahuacatlán on March 26.
    The Indigenous-occupied, former INPI building
    The Indigenous-occupied, former INPI building.
    Security forces guard the entrance to the plant that had been run by Indigenous people, as they march past on March 22.
    Security forces guard the entrance to the plant that had been run by Indigenous people, as they march past on March 22.

    There, the caravan held a public meeting in the House of the People and Indigenous Communities — a five-story building formally used by the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI), a federal agency. On October 12, 2020, Otomí people in Mexico City took over the building, and have been running it ever since. They argued that the INPI betrays Indigenous people, and that the institute is indifferent to their needs. For instance, over 100 Otomis have spent years trying to meet the bureaucratic requirements of the INPI and other government agencies in order to claim some abandoned buildings to live in. In the meantime, they had been living in the street. When the pandemic began, the INPI threw out three years of permits and requests, forcing the Otomis to start again. They say the INPI uses their symbols and art, such as the Otomi dolls, while refusing to defend their rights.

    In Mexico City, mining, food, entertainment, and other companies consume 850 times more water than households on average, and are a major contributor to water shortages. On April 7, the caravan visited Xochimilco, in the south of the city, where Indigenous people used to farm using a chinampa system, which consists of built-up islands among the huge lakes and canals. For the last century, that water has been sent to Mexico City, leaving local farmers and residents without.

    “The canals are drying up; natural water has been replaced with low-quality treated water; the fish we used to eat are gone. We haven’t benefited in any way from supplying the city with water, and we’ve never been consulted. As original peoples, we have to defend our land, our resources, and our self-determination,” Silvia Cabello Molina, a local autonomous council representative, told Truthout.

    Xochimilco was an abundant region of lakes and flower and vegetable growing.
    Xochimilco was an abundant region of lakes and flower and vegetable growing.
    Silvia Cabello Molina, a local autonomous council representative, speaking at a meeting in Xochimilco, as part of the caravan.
    Silvia Cabello Molina, a local autonomous council representative, speaking at a meeting in Xochimilco, as part of the caravan.

    From Coca-Cola’s illegal water extraction in Apizaco, to privatized water in Puerto de Veracruz, the map of struggles that the caravan has visited and will visit is a detailed one.

    The caravan “is a message that (original) peoples are bringing to other peoples and communities, suburbs, organizations. As they go, they bring the message that it is important to struggle, to organize in order to defend water, and life … and that together, it’s possible to stop all this,” Marichuy said. “If communities can’t strengthen their self-determination and autonomy, they leave a space for the mega projects to continue their destruction.”

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • $50 Million In Public Money Wasted On Private-Equity Potash Venture

    When Governor Whitmer signed the bipartisan Building Michigan Together Plan, she chose to allow a $50 million subsidy to Michigan Potash Company to remain in the bill. MCWC and other concerned groups and citizens learned about this gift to a poorly conceived start-up project only days before the bill came out of the legislature for signature. We have been investigating and opposing this unnecessary and potentially destructive scheme for the last 6 years. Clearly neither the legislature nor the Governor took the time to investigate this venture before slipping it into the otherwise decent infrastructure bill.

    The people of Michigan deserve a better deal.

    The post $50 Million In Public Money Wasted On Private-Equity Potash Venture appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Gaza’s Forthcoming Crisis Might Be Worse than Anything We Have Ever Seen

    “The water is back,” one family member would announce in a mix of excitement and panic, often very late at night. The moment such an announcement was made, my whole family would start running in all directions to fill every tank, container or bottle that could possibly be filled. Quite often, the water would last for a few minutes, leaving us with a collective sense of defeat, worrying about the very possibility of surviving.

    This was our life under Israeli military occupation in Gaza. The tactic of holding Palestinians hostage to Israel’s water charity was so widespread during the First Palestinian Intifada, or upirising, to the extent that denying water supplies to targeted refugee camps, villages, towns or whole regions was the first measure taken to subdue the rebellious population. This was often followed by military raids, mass arrests and deadly violence; but it almost always began with cutting Palestinians off from their water supplies.

    Israel’s water war on the Palestinians has changed since those early days, especially as the Climate Change crisis has accelerated Israel’s need to prepare for grim future possibilities. Of course, this largely happens at the expense of the occupied Palestinians. In the West Bank, the Israeli government continues to usurp Palestinian water resources from the region’s main aquifers – the Mountain Aquifer and the Coastal Aquifer. Frustratingly, Israel’s main water company, Mekorot, sells stolen Palestinian water to Palestinian villages and towns, especially in the northern West Bank region, at exhorbitant prices.

    Aside from the ongoing profiteering from water theft, Israel continues to use water as a form of collective punishment in the West Bank, while quite often denying Palestinians, especially in Area C, the right to dig new wells to circumvent Israel’s water monopoly.

    According to Amnesty International, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank consume, on average, 73 liters of water a day, per person. Compare this to an Israeli citizen, who consumes approximately 240 liters of water a day, and, even worse, to an illegal Israeli Jewish settler, who consumes over 300 liters per day. The Palestinian share of water is not only far below the average consumed by Israelis, but is even below the recommended daily minimum of 100 liters per capita as designated by the World Health Organization (WHO).

    As difficult as the situation for West Bank Palestinians is, in Gaza the humanitarian catastrophe is already in effect. On the occasion of the World Water Day on March 22, Gaza’s Water and Environmental Quality Authority warned of a ‘massive crisis’ should Gaza’s water supplies continue to deplete at the current dangerous rate. The Authority’s spokesman, Mazen al-Banna, told reporters that 98 percent of Gaza’s water supplies are not fit for human consumption.

    The consequences of this terrifying statistic are well known to Palestinians and, in fact, to the international community as well. Last October, Muhammed Shehada of the Euro-Med Monitor, told the 48th UN Human Rights Council session that about one-quarter of all diseases in Gaza are caused by water pollution, and that an estimated twelve percent of deaths among Gaza’s children are “linked to intestinal infections related to contaminated water.”

    But how did Gaza get to this point?

    On May 25, four days after the end of the latest Israeli war on Gaza, the charity Oxfam announced that 400,000 people in besieged Gaza have had no access to regular water supplies. The reason is that Israeli military campaigns always begin with the targeting of Palestinian electric grids, water services and other vital public facilities. According to Oxfam, “11 days of bombardment … severely impacted the three main desalination plants in Gaza city.”

    It is important to keep in mind that the water crisis in Gaza has been ongoing for years, and every aspect of this protracted crisis is linked to Israel. With damaged or ailing infrastructure, much of Gaza’s water contains dangerously high salinity levels, or is extremely polluted by sewage and other reasons.

    Even before Israel redeployed its forces out of Gaza in 2005 to impose a siege on the Strip’s population from land, sea and air, Gaza had a water crisis. Gaza’s coastal aquifer was entirely controlled by the Israeli military administration, which diverted quality water to the few thousand Jewish settlers, while occasionally allocating high saline water to the then 1.5 million Palestinian people, granted that Palestinians did not protest or resist the Israeli occupation in any way.

    Nearly 17 years later, Gaza’s population has grown to 2.1 millions, and Gaza’s already struggling aquifer is in a far worse shape. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that water from Gaza’s aquifer is depleting due to “over-extraction (because) people have no other choice”.

    “Worse, pollution and an influx of seawater mean that only four percent of the aquifer water is fit to drink. The rest must be purified and desalinated to make it drinkable,” UNICEF added. In other words, Gaza’s problem is not the lack of access to existing freshwater reserves as the latter simply do not exist or are rapidly depleting, but the lack of technology and fuel that would give Palestinians in Gaza the ability to make their water nominally drinkable. Even that is not a long term solution.

    Israel is doing its utmost to destroy any Palestinian chances at recovery from this ongoing crisis. More, it seems that Tel Aviv is only invested in making the situation worse to jeopardize Palestinian chances of survival. For example, last year, Palestinians accused Israel of deliberately flooding thousands of Palestinian dunums in Gaza when it vented its southern dams, which Israel uses to collect rain water. The almost yearly ritual by Israel continues to devastate Gaza’s ever shrinking farming areas, the backbone of Palestinian survival under Israel’s hermetic siege.

    The international community often pays attention to Gaza during times of Israeli wars; and even then, the attention is mostly negative, where Palestinians are usually accused of provoking Israel’s supposed defensive wars. The truth is that even when Israel’s military campaigns end, Tel Aviv continues to wage war on the Strip’s inhabitants.

    Though militarily powerful, Israel claims that it is facing an ‘existential threat’ in the Middle East. In actuality, it is the Palestinian existence that is in real jeopardy. When almost all of Gaza’s water is not fit for human consumption because of a deliberate Israeli strategy, one can understand why Palestinians continue to fight back as if their lives are dependent on it; because they are.

    The post Gaza’s Forthcoming Crisis Might Be Worse than Anything We Have Ever Seen first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • $1.1 Billion And Counting For Navy’s Obstinance In Shutting Down Fuel Tanks

    Total Congressional funding for all aspects of the Navy’s Red Hill water contamination debacle is now over $1.1 billion according to Hawai’i Congressional representative Ed Case and billions more are needed to complete clean-up, defueling and closing of the massive leaking Red Hill jet fuel storage facility. 

    In a news release on March 9, 2022, Rep. Case said, “These funds ($700 million)  are in addition to the $403 million in emergency funding we obtained in another bill we passed just weeks ago, bringing Congress’ total funding for all aspects of Red Hill in the current fiscal year alone to over $1.1 billion.  But billions more will be required to complete all aspects of the cleanup, stabilization, defueling and closing of Red Hill and the relocation of its fuel and build fuel storage capacity elsewhere.”

    The post $1.1 Billion And Counting For Navy’s Obstinance In Shutting Down Fuel Tanks appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Celebrating World Water Day by Calling for Respect for Our Environment and Indigenous Communities

    photo by Caroline LaPorte, Anishinaabe, Descendant and Associate Judge, Little River Band of Ottawa Indians; Director, Indigenous Safe Housing Center, NIWRC By Cameron Ewing (Legal Intern), Samantha Johnson (Legal Intern), Braelyn Saumure (Student Fellow), and Tamar Ezer (Acting Director), Human…

    This post was originally published on Human Rights at Home Blog.

  • Ecosocialist Bookshelf: Oceans, legal rights, and industrial agriculture

    Climate & Capitalism editor Ian Angus presents five new books for reds and greens.

    This post was originally published on Green Left.

  • Mexican Forces Evict Indigenous Activists Who Took Over Water Bottling Plant

    The Mexican National Guard and other security forces guard the entrance to the plant that had been run by Indigenous people on February 15, 2022, in Puebla, Mexico.

    Around 300 Mexican National Guards and state security forces violently evicted Indigenous environmental activists from their community center in Puebla this week, on the morning of February 15.

    The community center had been a foreign-owned water bottling plant for decades, until Indigenous Nahua people in the area took it over 11 months ago. The incident is being understood by many as a demonstration that the Mexican government puts big business first.

    On Sunday, just two days before the security forces seized the space, which the activists had renamed Altepelmecalli (meaning “House of the People”), the Indigenous organizers had begun plans to request that the space be expropriated from its former owner — Bonafont, a water company owned by the multinational corporation Danone.

    A security official guards the seized installations that had been run by Indigenous people.
    A security official guards the seized installations that had been run by Indigenous people.

    But at 1:20 am, under the cover of darkness, the security forces arrived, blocked the road in front of the factory, entered by force, threatened those inside then removed them, and tore down the protest camp and kitchen and dining area that was set up out the front, according to the activists.

    Twenty Indigenous Nahua communities make up the United People of the Cholulteca Region movement, which had reclaimed the former water bottling plant in order to use it for community projects. They told the press on Tuesday that the military seizure of the area was a breach of Indigenous self-determination, which is enshrined in the Mexican Constitution.

    Danone is a multinational food giant headquartered in Paris. Its annual revenue is around $30 billion per year. Bonafont, one of Danone’s brands, had been illegally and excessively extracting local water in the Indigenous region of Puebla state, in order to bottle it and sell it for a profit. The United People initially closed the Bonafont plant in March 2021, in order to stop the water extraction, then took the plant over and ran it as a community space with various agro-ecological and social projects.

    There are thousands of water-bottling and purification plants in Mexico, and Danone, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are the main beneficiaries of the market, with 82 percent of it. Here in Puebla, Nestlé Water and the U.S. company Keurig Dr Pepper also bottle water, with Nestlé helping itself to spring water of nearby volcanoes. The companies pay around 2,600 pesos ($127) per year for each water extraction concession and make 494 times what they spend when they sell bottled water, while locals don’t benefit at all.

    Indigenous activists take over the Bonafont water bottling plant in August 2021.
    Indigenous activists take over the Bonafont water bottling plant in August 2021.

    The Cholulteca region has a high rate of poverty, with most people working as farmers or for factories and industrial plants. Over the last few decades, foreign and local companies have industrialized the area, taking advantage of cheap labor and resources like water. A major Volkswagen plant is around 10 kilometers away and has caused environmental damage with hail cannons. Local farmers say that the technology, which uses sonic blasts to alter weather patterns, have devastated hundreds of hectares of crops.

    Last year, the region made international news when a massive sinkhole opened up down the road from the former Bonafont plant. “Academics worked with us and made it clear that the sinkhole was a result of the plundering of water by these companies,” Bertha, an activist with the United People, told Truthout.

    The sinkhole demonstrated “what [Indigenous] people had been saying for years, that the extraction of water and the pollution of our rivers, air and territory in general, was leading to a really severe situation,” Campeche, another activist with the United People, told Truthout. (Both Bertha and Campeche requested only their first names be used in order to protect them from retaliation.)

    The Politics of Water

    After the events of Tuesday morning, the Puebla state governor claimed the military takeover was the result of a warrant from the federal Judiciary of Mexico, and he called for dialogue between the activists, Bonafont, and the state and federal governments. The United People, however, had invited him, other authorities and the company to dialogue on various occasions, but no one ever showed up, according to activists.

    In a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, United People accused Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, of coordinating with state and municipal governments to defend Bonafont and Danone and to “strip the people of their water.”

    United People of the Cholulteca Region hold a press conference in the rain on February 15, 2022, after they were violently evicted from their community center earlier that day.
    United People of the Cholulteca Region hold a press conference in the rain on February 15, 2022, after they were violently evicted from their community center earlier that day.

    Such coordination was evident, they said, in the way the national guard, state and local police forces worked together to evict them from Altepelmecalli.

    “This shows that the state serves private interests and the armed forces only exist to repress organized people,” United People said.

    They pointed to the repression of other movements in Indigenous regions of Istmo de Tehuantepec, Ayotzinapa, Mactumatz, and Nahuatzen this week alone, and the murder of a fellow activist, Francisco Vázquez, a few days ago in Morelos.

    “What this shows is that we are in a global war for water, which is against the people and all of humanity,” United People stated.

    Life as a Cause

    A chicken and sheep in part of the former Bonafont plant, with old Bonafont water bottles used as fencing.
    A chicken and sheep in part of the former Bonafont plant, with old Bonafont water bottles used as fencing.

    When Truthout talked to Bertha just a few days before the military seizure of the space, she said, “We’ve changed a place of destruction into a place of life. We have farm animals here, meetings, cultural events, national forums. We provide health care and workshops, and have productive projects so we can be self-sustaining.”

    The space also had a media center equipped for community television broadcasting, and a women’s rights organizing area. So far, the activists say they don’t know what the security forces have done with all their animals, tools, computers, cameras and library of books.

    “We closed the company … so they couldn’t steal one more drop of water from us…. As Nahua people, we have been building our own way of life for a very long time,” Campeche explained. He said the arrival of foreign companies and other factors had made that difficult, so it was significant when 20 different communities came together to shut Bonafont down.

    “In assemblies, people said that what they needed was a place for health care, education and trade-based workshops, so that’s what we did with the old Bonafont plant,” he said.

    “Our aim was that this space, where there had been plundering of resources and exploitation of workers … be transformed into a collective space where life is built and created … It’s been 11 months and we have faced some challenges, but we have addressed them as a community,” Campeche concluded.

    On Tuesday, Bertha told Truthout, “We’re going to keep going, keep organizing. Maybe not in that physical space, but we’ll keep everything that we achieved alive.”

    At their press conference, the United People declared that they were willing to reclaim what belonged to them, “as we have had to do throughout history.”

    “They think that by seizing Altepelmecalli, they will beat us. But we, the Nahua people of the Cholulteca region, tell them that we won’t give up, we will continue to defend our water and life,” the activists stated.

    They called for local and global protests outside Mexican embassies and Danone buildings, and declared they would wage a “permanent campaign of mobilization, boycott and sabotage against Bonafont” and Danone.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • World’s Rivers Awash in Pharmaceuticals, Historic Study Reveals

    Fishermen catch fish along the Mekong River on the outskirts of Vientiane, Laos, on October 2, 2021.

    Underscoring the value of collaboration, experts from around the world on Monday unveiled what they described as the first “truly global study” of pharmaceutical drugs contaminating rivers, which has “deleterious effects on ecological and human health.”

    The historic analysis, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, involved 127 authors from 86 institutions. They examined surface water samples from 1,052 sites in 104 countries — including 36 that had never been monitored before — across all continents for 61 different active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).

    Sample sites ranged from an Indigenous community in Venezuela where modern medicine is not used to highly populated urban areas such as Delhi, London, and New York City. Researchers also gathered samples from regions with political instability, including Baghdad, Nablus in the Palestinian West Bank, and Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé.

    The United States was the “most extensively studied” nation, with samples collected at 81 locations along 29 rivers across Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Missouri, Nevada, New York, and Texas. Samples were also taken in every European Union member state except Malta, which the paper explains “was not included due to the country’s lack of rivers.”

    The paper notes that all four contaminants detected on every continent — caffeine, nicotine, acetaminophen or paracetamol, and cotinine — are “considered either lifestyle compounds or over-the-counter APIs.” Another 14 APIs, including various antidepressants and antihistamines, were found on all continents except Antarctica.

    “Concentrations of at least one API at 25.7% of the sampling sites were greater than concentrations considered safe for aquatic organisms, or which are of concern in terms of selection for antimicrobial resistance,” the study states. “Therefore, pharmaceutical pollution poses a global threat to environmental and human health, as well as to delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.”

    The Guardian’s Damian Carrington reported that “the APIs end up in rivers after being taken by people and livestock and then excreted into the sewer system or directly into the environment, though some may also leak from pharmaceutical factories.”

    Lead author John Wilkinson of the University of York told Carrington that “the World Health Organization and U.N. and other organizations say antimicrobial resistance is the single greatest threat to humanity — it’s a next pandemic.”

    “In 19% of all of the sites we monitored, the concentrations of [antibiotics] exceeded the levels that we’d expect to encourage bacteria to develop resistance,” he said.

    With the exceptions of Iceland and the Yanomami Village in Venezuela, “at least one API was detected in all of our study campaigns,” the paper reveals. The highest concentrations were documented in Lahore, Pakistan; La Paz, Bolivia; and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

    Overall, the most polluted samples came from African and Asian countries, the experts found. The most contaminated samples from Europe, North America, and Oceania were from Madrid, Spain; San Jose, Costa Rica; and Adelaide, Australia, respectively.

    “While the majority of previous studies have monitored active pharmaceutical ingredients in rivers, these studies have often excluded many countries, have measured only a select few pharmaceuticals, and used different analytical methods,” co-author Anna Sobek of Stockholm University said in a statement. “This means that it is difficult to make direct comparisons between studies and, hence, assess the scale of pharmaceutical pollution across the globe.”

    Though she emphasized that the study confirms the issue is global in nature, Sobek noted that “in general, the rivers with the highest level of pharmaceutical pollution were found in low- to medium-income countries where there are no adequate water treatment facilities and where high emissions from the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals are found.”

    “The findings of this study remind us that the medicines we buy in pharmacies can have a big impact on the environment of the countries they are manufactured in,” Sobek said.

    “Since we clearly show that access to sewage treatment facilities significantly improves water quality,” she added, “I hope the study will lead to projects that support and expand sewage treatment where it is needed the most.”

    Wilkinson told Carrington that “we know good sewage connectivity and wastewater treatment is the key to minimizing, though not necessarily eliminating, pharmaceutical concentrations,” but it “is extremely expensive as there’s a lot of infrastructure involved.”

    In a statement, Wilkinson said the research project “is an excellent example of how the global scientific community can come together to tackle large-scale environmental issues.”

    The paper highlights that the authors’ approach “could be applied to other APIs and other classes of pollutants, such as personal care products, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, pesticides, and metals,” as well as “expanded to other environmental media, such as sediments, soils, and biota.”

    “As we move toward 2030, the new paradigm in environmental monitoring must involve a global, inclusive, and interconnected effort,” the study concludes. “Only through global collaboration will we be able to generate the monitoring data required to make informed decisions on mitigation approaches required to reduce the environmental impacts of chemicals.”

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Court Allows Nestle/Blue Triton To Dodge Justice

    Ever since Nestle applied for the permit to increase pumping at the White Pine Springs well (PW 101)in Evart for its bottling operation in Stanwood in 2016, Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation has been contesting this outrageous water grab. We have argued in public forums, educated across the state about the injustices this grab represents to the people and ecosystems of Michigan, and worked with organizations and citizens who submitted thousands of comments opposing the more than 200,000 gallons a day increase. Failure of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) to deny this increase has left two former trout streams badly damaged. We have had a few victories along the way, but without strict enforcement by EGLE, the damage will continue.

    The post Court Allows Nestle/Blue Triton To Dodge Justice appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • ‘The People of Flint Are Still Suffering’

     

     

    Janine Jackson interviewed Status Coup News‘ Jordan Chariton about the Flint, Michigan, water crisis for the January 21, 2022, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

          CounterSpin220121Chariton.mp3

     

    CounterSpin: Flint ‘Really Comes Down to People Not Being Listened To’

    CounterSpin (1/22/21)

    Janine Jackson: In an op-ed for The Hill a year ago, Michigan Rep. Dan Kildee called the 2014 decision to switch the source of Flint, Michigan’s drinking water “one of the greatest environmental injustices in our lifetimes.”

    That may be true, but the environment didn’t do it. The Flint crisis was and is a crisis of democracy. Decision-making had been taken out of the hands of Flint’s elected officials and given to an emergency manager tasked with reining in costs, a process that seems to be used disproportionately in communities of color—taking decisions out of community hands, but leaving them to deal with their fallout.

    The Flint story reflects malfeasance, austerity politics, and punishing indifference to the lives of Black and brown people, as well as the limits of news media’s attention span. Evidence suggests most big media have either swallowed the pollyanna line that the Flint water crisis is over and justice served, or else the nihilist line that Flint was really no worse than lots of other places, so what are you going to do?

    But some journalists have not stopped seeing the ongoing community harms resulting from decisions carried out by real people, with names and addresses, as worthy of pursuit. We’re joined now by Jordan Chariton, investigative reporter and the CEO of independent news network Status Coup News. He joins us now by phone. Welcome to CounterSpin, Jordan Chariton.

    Jordan Chariton: Hey, thanks for having me.

    JJ: The story has some twists and turns and a lot of players, individual and institutional. Folks can listen to previous interviews to get some of the early issues. But I’d like to ask you to bring us up to date. What are the latest developments in efforts to hold officials accountable, for what was not an accident but a crime, and one with real and ongoing effects?

    Status Coup News: Misdemeanor Charge

    Status Coup News (1/15/21)

    JC: Yeah, so, unfortunately, the latest efforts seem to be inadequate, based on my reporting. But the current attorney general of Michigan, Dana Nessel, and her prosecution team, which basically is the second Flint investigation in eight years—there was an original investigation team launched under the previous Michigan attorney general, they investigated from 2016 through 2018, and then when the current attorney general, Nessel, came in, she basically fired that team and restarted the whole investigation.

    That new investigation charged Governor Snyder last year with a misdemeanor for his role in the water crisis. My reporting over the years has indicated there was a whole lot more there than a misdemeanor. And my reporting actually showed that the original Flint water investigators, who were fired by the current attorney general, they were actually building a case against the governor for involuntary manslaughter. So they were going much more aggressively against the governor than the current prosecution team ended up doing; they only charged him with a misdemeanor.

    There’s been some other charges against state and city officials. Nothing has gone to trial yet. Currently former Gov. Rick Snyder and other defendants are trying to get the charges tossed, basically claiming that the prosecution team made errors in how they collected and distributed evidence.

    So right now it’s kind of stuck in delays and, big picture, we’re now headed into year eight in April. No one has been convicted. No one is in jail. The people of Flint are still suffering. Residents are getting sicker and sicker as the years go on. I think that’s something people don’t realize, the effects of heavy metal poisoning, it gets worse as the years go on. So residents I speak with are developing cancers that they had no family history for, liver issues, kidney issues, bone issues, autoimmune issues. And, of course, the children: learning disabilities, behavioral problems, all sorts of things.

    So it’s still very much a crisis and, in my view, the media has totally abandoned this and abdicated their responsibility to cover it and treat it as an ongoing crisis.

    JJ: Yeah, let me just start from there, because it seems to me that the media didn’t just stop covering Flint, they kind of declared it over, you know? They kind of said, it’s fixed. You’ve been working with Detroit Metro Times, with the Intercept, and since the start, it seems like local media have done more and done better and done deeper than big media. But in big national media, it’s almost not like it’s over, it’s like, oh no, no, it worked out, you know? And that couldn’t be more wrong, you’re saying.

    Jordan Chariton of Status Coup News

    Jordan Chariton: “The media…basically regurgitated falsified data that was being said to them by the very state government that presided over the poisoning.”

    JC: Yeah. If I write the book one day, the media will be a big part of it, because honestly, they’re as complicit in the cover-up as the politicians at this point. Actually, if I roll back to 2018, the media at that point was just basically regurgitating the data that then-Governor Snyder and his team were putting out there, data that showed the lead levels were dramatically falling, and that the levels were now “meeting EPA regulations.”

    But I was hearing from residents and sources that they basically manipulated the testing and the data. So I did something radical these days for a journalist, and I went to Flint and I just started knocking on doors. And myself and, at the time, my previous reporting partner, we knocked on nearly 500 doors in the summer and fall of 2018. And what we discovered was that the state of Michigan’s environmental department was literally running residents’ water right before taking lead and copper samples. Like just a few minutes before taking the samples, they were running the water, which is against EPA regulations. So voilà, they were getting low lead levels, because they were basically flushing away potential lead.

    I was actually working on that story for Newsweek, trying to get it in a bigger national outlet with the hope of it getting traction. Newsweek literally killed the story the week it was supposed to be published, claiming we didn’t have enough data, even though we had dozens and dozens of residents on the record that state officials had run their water before testing, or told them to run their water before testing. So we ended up self-publishing it, but even in 2018, it was very clear that the way they were testing was completely wrong, and borderline just cooking the data.

    So when you see stories from Reuters and elsewhere that 3,000 other cities have higher lead levels than Flint, I was screaming, well, we don’t really know what the real lead levels are in Flint, because there was no integrity in the testing. Erin Brockovich, actually, when our story came out, said, this is a crime. It’s falsifying lead and copper samples. That’s a crime and the testing should be tossed out.

    Guardian: Revealed: the Flint water poisoning charges that never came to light

    Guardian (1/17/22)

    So since then, the testing has still been inadequate. They’re not even testing as many homes as they should be in Flint, and they haven’t even changed all of the busted pipes. So how can you say the water is safe if eight years later they haven’t even replaced all the pipes? They haven’t touched the pipes inside their homes, which were already damaged. So this is your classic example of, the media got caught up in the five-year Trump circus. A lot of other stories fell through the cracks, and the media, national and local, just basically regurgitated falsified data that was being said to them by the very state government that presided over the poisoning.

    And to tell you the truth, the current Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, and the current Democratic attorney general haven’t really done much better. There’s really been this push to declare it over, to claim that it’s not an issue with the water anymore. The water’s fine. Now it’s just about rebuilding trust.

    Well, I was just in Flint over the summer. I could tell you, I spoke with residents who showed me rashes they are still getting from that water, hair loss, they’re still losing hair when they shower, residents describing their eyes burning in the shower. Anecdotally, I have sat in homes within the last year where the water stinks.

    So it’s very easy for media in New York, DC, on the West Coast to basically regurgitate what they’re fed by the government. But it’s a lot harder, and more expensive by the way, to actually go there with your own eyes, and talk to residents to find out, yeah, this is more of a narrative. This isn’t actually reality, that it’s solved.

    JJ: Let me just say, finally, maybe I know the answer. President Biden said just recently:

    I want you to know I see you, I hear you, we understand, and I’ve seen and we’ve understood the damage done in places like Flint, Michigan, and Jackson, Mississippi. So we’ve already announced over $7 billion in clean water funding to states so they can fix and upgrade their aging water systems and sewer systems.

    What’s your response to that kind of official declaration vis-à-vis human beings in Flint, Michigan?

    Truthdig: Fraudulence in Flint: How Suspect Science Helped Declare the Water Crisis Over

    Truthdig (5/27/18)

    JC: First of all, it’s a nice slogan to say the infrastructure deal is going to deliver clean water and replace all pipes. The actual money earmarked to replace lead pipes is not enough to replace all lead pipes in the country. So that’s number one.

    Number two, there’s a misnomer that the only issue with water is lead. That’s not the only issue contaminating our water. There’s a lot of other contaminants in our water. And a lot of those contaminants are coming from corporate and industrial pollution. So this was more of a marketing slogan and a messaging thing by Biden and Democrats. Replacing some lead lines is, of course, better than nothing, but that’s not going to completely fix the problem.

    And when you look at Flint, specifically, why is it that Flint, Michigan, majority Black, those residents don’t have Medicare for All for being poisoned by their government? So when you look up to Libby, Montana, those residents, 96% white, they have universal healthcare because of an asbestos disaster that happened over a decade there where a lot of people died. They got universal healthcare in Libby, Montana. Your listeners should look that up.

    People of Flint don’t have universal healthcare. They got a short-term expansion of Medicaid, and that’s pretty much over now. I talked to residents who are nearly going bankrupt because of the bills they have for environmental doctors. Because for heavy metal poisoning, a normal internist is not enough. You really need specific, specialized doctors.

    So the people of Flint, there’s been a lot of woke language, and we hear you and we’re going to do everything for you. But if you talk to the people of Flint, they are still screaming for help.

    And, real quickly, this is also a major problem for local media. I’ve broken at least four pretty significant stories on the Flint water coverup over the last two years. The Flint Journal has not covered any of it. The Detroit Free Press has not covered any of it. The Detroit News has not covered any of it. And I literally have spoken with people from those outlets who have told me point blank, yeah, there’s pressure from the top just to kind of not cover that anymore. So I have no idea why, but this is a national media failure, but it’s also a local media failure, because the local media in Michigan has essentially continued this narrative that the water is fine now, and let’s move on.

    JJ: We’ve been speaking with Jordan Chariton, reporter and CEO at the independent news network Status Coup News. Thank you so much, Jordan Chariton, for joining us this week on CounterSpin.

    JC: Thank you.

     

    The post ‘The People of Flint Are Still Suffering’ appeared first on FAIR.

    This post was originally published on FAIR.

  • Covid-19 cases confirmed aboard HMAS Adelaide bound for Tonga

    RNZ News

    Twenty-three people onboard an Australian Navy vessel enroute to help with the recovery effort in Tonga have tested positive for covid-19.

    In a statement, the Australian Department of Defence said the positive covid cases, and their close contacts, are being isolated onboard the vessel which has a 40-bed hospital with operating theatres and a critical care ward.

    The Department of Defence is adamant the cases will not stop the Adelaide’s mission with the vessel expected to arrive off the coast of Tonga in the early hours of tomorrow morning.

    It said it was confident it could deliver the much needed supplies on board to local authorities in Tonga without transmitting the virus.

    Tonga is one of the few remaining covid-19 free countries in the world and the government has made it very clear its priority is keeping things that way.

    Air New Zealand to deliver relief supplies
    An Air New Zealand flight is scheduled to take supplies to Tonga tomorrow to help with the recovery from the recent volcanic eruption and tsunami.

    Chief pilot Captain David Morgan said 18 tonnes of cargo — including fresh water, medical supplies, garments, bedding, and urgent machine and automotive parts — will be onboard.

    The flight is scheduled to take off from Auckland at 8am.

    The same plane will then turn around and depart from Tonga at 12.20pm tomorrow, bringing back passengers and cargo to Auckland.

    Tongan diaspora in NZ working overtime to ship supplies home
    The Aotearoa Tonga Relief Committee plans on packing 13 shipping containers by midnight tonight so that they could be shipped to Tonga tomorrow.

    Co-chair Jenny Salesa said more volunteers were needed at the Mount Smart Stadium donation centre as hundreds of drums still needed to be packed.

    She said people had been so generous and more shipping containers were still needed.

    Twenty-five containers are scheduled to be sent to Tonga tomorrow if they are all packed in time.

    The Aotearoa Tonga Relief Committee is coordinating shipping containers at Auckland's Mt Smart Stadium to be filled with donations, including emergency supplies from family in New Zealand to relatives in Tonga.
    The Aotearoa Tonga Relief Committee is coordinating shipping containers at Auckland’s Mount Smart Stadium for relatives in Tonga. Image: Photo: Lydia Lewis/RNZ Pacific

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Jordan Chariton on Flint Water Crisis, Maurice Carney on Lumumba Assassination

     

    Tainted water from Flint, Michigan

    Flint, Michigan

    This week on CounterSpin: Search corporate news media for recent stories on the water crisis in Flint, Michigan—in which some of the city’s overwhelmingly Black residents were paying upwards of $300 a month for water they couldn’t drink, based on an infrastructure decision on the water’s source that their elected officials had no say in—and you’ll find a few stories on how yes, lead-leaching pipes endangered people’s health…but there’s been a multi-million dollar settlement, and a presidential commitment to address lead in water, so maybe it’s all over but the shouting.

    CNN hosted a Republican Michigan congressmember who explained that Flint was under an unelected austerity-minded emergency manager because their “city had essentially collapsed. They had no strong functioning government and the state had to step in and there was an error in shifting water sources.” That sounds lamentable, but not really blameworthy. So how do you square that “sorry but let’s move forward” line with the information that investigators looking into the crisis found that the cell phones of key health officials and other players, like then-Gov. Rick Snyder’s press secretary, had been wiped of messages for the key period?

    While corporate media have largely let Flint go, the story isn’t over, nor has justice been served. We’ll hear from a reporter still on the case: Jordan Chariton, from independent news network Status Coup News.

          CounterSpin220121Chariton.mp3

     

    Patrice Lumumba

    Patrice Lumumba

    Also on the show: You don’t need to put your ear to the ground to hear US news media drumbeats for war of some sort with official enemies China and/or Russia. With China, part of what we’re being told to two-minute hate is their involvement on the African continent, where we’re to understand they are nefariously trapping countries in debt—unlike the US involvement in the region, which has been about bringing joy and love and hope.

    Just because a playbook is old doesn’t mean it won’t be used again and again. The vision relies on amnesia and ignorance of what the US has done and is doing in Sub-Saharan Africa—a topic that, if news media wanted to explore it, they had a great chance this past week, with the 60th anniversary of the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the first elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Why was Lumumba killed? And what’s the living legacy of that undercovered murder? We’ll hear from Maurice Carney,  co-founder and executive director of the group Friends of the Congo.

          CounterSpin220121Carney.mp3

    The post Jordan Chariton on Flint Water Crisis, Maurice Carney on Lumumba Assassination appeared first on FAIR.

    This post was originally published on CounterSpin.

  • Safety at Tonga port being checked for arrival of more humanitarian supplies

    RNZ News

    Specialist New Zealand Defence Force staff will be checking Tonga’s shipping lanes are passable and the wharf is safe so desperately needed humanitarian supplies can get through.

    Three deaths have been confirmed after Saturday’s massive volcanic eruption. There are reports of significant injuries, but no details yet.

    UN officials said 84,000 people – more than 80 percent of Tonga’s population — had been impacted by tsunami and the ashfall that followed the eruption.

    New Zealand Defence Force Rear Admiral Jim Gilmour said there were fears for food security, with reports ash was killing crops.

    Ash and sea water have also contaminated water supplies.

    Offshore patrol vessel HMNZS Wellington, which is carrying a helicopter, technical gear, and teams, has arrived in Tongan waters.

    “They commenced clearing the outer part of the Nuku’alofa harbour and they’ll be working in towards the wharf area and terminal area,” Admiral Gilmour told RNZ Morning Report.

    Scoping shipping channels
    It will scope the shipping channels and wharves at the main port to see if they safe enough to use to drop off supplies, in time for HMNZS Aotearoa due today, which is carrying a range of stores including water, long life non-perishable foods, hygiene kits and shelter.

    “Water is among the highest priorities for Tonga, and the Aotearoa can carry 250,000 litres, and produce 70,000 litres per day through a desalination plant,” Admiral Gilmour said.

    “I feel that the most value that she’s going to provide today is bring able to discharge fresh water into water tanks for distribution around Tongatapu.”

    Admiral Gilmour said staff did not need to set foot on Tonga at all, in an effort to avoid spreading covid-19 to the currently coronavirus-free country.

    Sanitised containers will be moved by crane from the ship onto the dock or hauled by personnel in full PPE.

    They will then withdraw and Tongans will pick up the goods.

    Hundreds of people, including the Tongan Armed Forces, cleared ash off the international runway allowing a Defence Force Hercules to land yesterday afternoon.

    Water containers, shelters
    It carried the most urgently needed supplies including water containers, temporary shelters, generators, and communications equipment.

    It was expected to be on the ground for about 90 minutes before returning to New Zealand.

    The Hercules will be decontaminated today with a plan to head out again tomorrow, Gilmour said.

    Admiral Gilmour said ash that was moved off the runway was sitting nearby and in a fine powder form. Some of this was picked up in the wind.

    HMNZS Aotearoa leaves Auckland for Tonga.
    HMNZS Aotearoa is due to arrive in Tonga today with water supplies. Image: RNZ/NZDF

    A Royal Australian Air Force C-17 also landed yesterday.

    A third New Zealand Defence Force vessel, HMNZS Canterbury, is being prepared to be deployed this evening or on Saturday to arrive on Tuesday.

    It is carrying two helicopters which can be used to distribute supplies and survey Tonga’s outer islands.

    Self-sufficient force
    The Defence Force intends to be self-sufficient to not put pressure on Tonga’s food, water and fuel supply.

    It has enough stores to stay at sea for at least 30 days without any external assistance. If it stays that long plans will be made to resupply.

    “We’re very mindful of the sensitivities about covid and its transmission. I’m 100 percent confident that none of our deployed forces have covid, they’ve all been PCR tested, at least double jabbed, some, if not many triple jabbed,” Admiral Gilmour said.

    He said the NZDF respected Tonga’s decision whether or not to allow troops on the ground.

    “If Tonga decides that they would like boots on the ground and our operators will be operating ashore, then will will do that and obviously still maintain a contactless approach delivering any assistance that is required.”

    Australia’s high commissioner to Tonga Rachael Moore has described the loss of property as “catastrophic”.

    Tonga's Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni (right) joined by Australia's High Commissioner to Tonga Rachael Moore (left) to witness the arrival of the first Royal Australian Air Force C-17A Globemaster III aircraft from Australia delivering humanitarian assistance on January 20, 2022.
    Tonga’s Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni (right) joined by Australian High Commissioner to Tonga Rachael Moore to witness the arrival of the first Royal Australian Air Force C-17A Globemaster III aircraft from Australia delivering humanitarian assistance yesterday. Image: RNZ/Australian Defence Force/AFP

    “Along the western beaches there is a moonscape where once beautiful resorts and many, many homes stood,” Moore said.

    Tonga has only just begun to re-establish global contact after five days cut off from the rest of the world.

    Mobile phone company Digicel has confirmed re-establishing communications between Tonga and the rest of the world, but lines have been clogged with heavy traffic, leaving many still unable to get through to loved ones.

    Work to improve the satellite capacity and improve communications at the New Zealand High Commission in Nuku’alofa was being done Thursday evening.

    Food and water woes
    MP for Panmure-Ōtāhuhu and the co-chairperson of the Aotearoa-Tonga Relief Committee Jenny Salesa said Tongans in New Zealand were hearing from their families back home for food and bottled water.

    “We’re also told by some of our relatives that the ash from the volcano is everywhere. A lot of the ash has now hardened like cement on some of the surfaces and cleaning up is a challenging task,” she said.

    “Some of the worry is that it would also affect the crops and the traditional food sources that a lot of our Tongan people back home rely on.”

    The relief committee is asking families from the most effected islands to head to the appeal at Mt Smart Stadium today. People from the rest of Tonga are asked to come from Sunday.

    Each family being allocated a 44-gallon drum to send supplies to Tonga and eight containers have been given to the relief committee.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Anxious Tongans in NZ await volcano news from home: ‘It’s painful, you just feel hopeless’

    By Christine Rovoi, RNZ Pacific journalist

    Langi Fatanitavake’s wife and son live on one of the islands flanking Tonga’s Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai undersea volcano, but his repeated calls home since the violent eruption and tsunami have gone unanswered.

    The South Island seasonal worker last spoke to his family on Ha’apai on Saturday afternoon, shortly before destructive waves crashed into the island nation.

    Fatanitavake is growing increasingly concerned for their safety.

    “Last night and today, nothing. I called, no answer. My feeling is not good about my family,” he said.

    Fatanitavake is also worried about his sister who lives on Atata Island, about 50 km from the volcano that has covered Tonga in a layer of ash.

    “I want to know what happened to my sister,” he said.

    Fatanitavake said the 17 other Tongans he was working with on an Alexandra orchard had not heard from their families either and were anxious to receive a simple message or phone call to say they were safe.

    Repatriation flight postponed
    A repatriation flight scheduled for Thursday for workers who came to New Zealand as part of the Recognised Seasonal Employers (RSE) scheme has been postponed.

    An Auckland church congregation prays for their family in Tonga.
    An Auckland church congregation prays for their family in Tonga. Image: Lydia Lewis/RNZ Pacific

    Tongans in New Zealand have been praying for their Pacific Island families, as they endure an agonising wait for news from relatives cut off from the world.

    Timaru’s Sina Latu last heard from her sister when she broadcast her family’s escape from the tsunami live on Facebook, as ash rained down on the island of ‘Eua.

    “It was very scary, we could see the waves coming in,” she said.

    While Latu believed they were safe, she said the lack of communication was upsetting.

    “It’s painful, you just feel hopeless and very anxious,” she said.

    “I’m so worried, I haven’t really slept well. I just want one phone call, or one message, that will do me, just to say we’re fine, we’re safe.”

    Latu said she was also worried about her 80-year-old father who lives on Tongatapu, but was reassured by no official reports of injuries or deaths so far.

    An RNZAF P-3K Orion left Whenuapai air base, Auckland, to carry out assessment of the area and low-lying islands after the huge undersea Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano eruption.
    An RNZAF P-3K Orion flew from Whenuapai air base, Auckland, today to carry out assessment of the area and low-lying islands after the huge undersea Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano eruption. Image: NZ Defence Force/RNZ Pacific

    Aerial reconnaissance, water supplies
    A New Zealand Defence Force plane flew to Tonga today to assess the damage, but Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said aerial reconnaissance depended on the conditions, including the amount of suspended volcanic ash.

    Another plane took essential supplies like water late today.

    Communication links were still down, because the undersea cable that connects Tonga to the wider world appears to have been damaged.

    Invercargill’s Ofa Boyle is yet to hear from her brother and sister who live near the capital Nuku’alofa.

    She is also worried about the situation on the Ha’apai group of islands.

    “I have some extended family living around that area, in Ha’apai. It’s a big worry,” she said.

    “On the main island, the waves coming inland are not those big giant ones. That gives a bit of relief, but I’m also anxious about what it’s like in other areas like Ha’apai, near where the volcano erupted.”

    Boyle said Tongan families relied heavily on relatives overseas, who would rally around to help them.

    GNS Science said there could be more small-scale eruptions for some weeks, but they would be unlikely to trigger another big tsunami.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • NZ Air Force plane leaves for Tonga to assess volcano eruption damage

    RNZ Pacific

    Power is being restored in Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa, and the country is sending naval boats to outlying islands to assess the damage from the huge Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption and tsunami.

    A New Zealand Defence Force plane has left for Tonga to assess the damage from Saturday’s volcanic eruption and tsunami.

    The violent eight-minute eruption of the undersea volcano Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai triggered atmospheric shockwaves and a tsunami which travelled as far afield as Alaska, Japan and South America.

    The flight — which was dependant on whether the ash cloud from Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai had dissipated enough — departed from Whenuapai air base in Auckland.

    Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta said reports overnight said there had been no further ash fall, and that there was no damage to the runway in Tonga.

    “It’s just a matter of clearing the ash from the runway.

    “The flight is scheduled to leave this morning.”

    80 percent of power restored
    Mahuta said 80 percent of power had been restored in Nuku’alofa, on Tongatapu, but internet connections remained disrupted.

    Damage on Tongatapu was able to be better assessed today, and the country was sending its naval capacity to the outer islands, she said.

    The initial need was for water and water storage bladders, as well as food and medical supplies, she said, and Mahuta expected the Tongan government would be be making a more formal request for assistance.

    The New Zealand Defence Force has deployed a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 Orion aircraft to help search for two vessels in Kiribati that failed to return from separate fishing trips last week.
    An RNZAF P-3K Orion carrying out a reconnaissance flight to Tonga today. Image: NZ Defence Force

    The RNZAF P-3K Orion will carry out a reconnaissance flight over the affected area, including low-lying islands that have not been heard from.

    The Defence Force was also preparing options for naval deployments to help with the recovery.

    Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said yesterday the navy was making preparations, and either HMNZS Canterbury or HMNZS Manawanui could be deployed.

    No casualties in Ha’apai
    Labour MP Jenny Salesa, who is Tongan, last night joined a Zoom meeting with Tongan Methodist ministers, including Reverend ‘Ulufonua from Ha’apai.

    ‘Ulufonua told them there had been no casualties on the group’s main island. There was a lot of ash on the ground and quite a number of houses had been damaged.

    “One of the main things that they’re dealing with right now is the damage to the water system and the fact that not all of the people were able to protect some of the tank water that they collect from the rain,” Salesa told RNZ Morning Report.

    “There are 169 islands in all of Tonga, 36 of those are inhabited, and so we don’t have updates from any of those other islands.”

    Red Cross teams in Tonga have supplies in the country to support 1200 households, their international organisation says.

    International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Pacific head of delegation Katie Greenwood said they were able to make very brief contact with the teams in Tonga on Saturday before communication was cut.

    “Red Cross teams were supporting authorities to move people to the small available amount of higher ground around capital Nuku’alofa itself and also they are well trained to be able to support any needs that are arising on the ground,” she told Morning Report.

    Looking for contact with loved ones
    Greenwood said once communications were restored the Red Cross was looking to help connect families registration system where people indicate they are looking for contact with loved ones.

    A P-8 aircraft from Australia’s defence force is also being sent to survey critical infrastructure such as roads, ports and power lines today, if conditions permit. A statement from Australian government ministers said it was co-ordinating critical humanitarian supplies for disaster relief, and was ready to respond to further requests for assistance.

    New Zealand Acting High Commissioner in Tonga Peter Lund said Nuku’alofa resembled a moonscape.

    He said the capital was blanketed in ash, and there was a lot of damage on the waterfront and along the western coast.

    There were no confirmed reports of any deaths or serious injuries, he said.

    The ash cloud reached many kilometres into the air, and the eruption is thought to be the largest since Mt Pinatubo, in the Philippines, exploded in 1991.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Veteran Tahiti politician Flosse accuses France of causing his ‘political death’

    RNZ Pacific

    French Polynesia’s former president Gaston Flosse says he is in mourning because the French state has signed his political death by banning him from political office for five years for abusing public funds.

    Flosse made the statement after France’s highest appeal court upheld a 2020 conviction over a long-running corrupt water supply arrangement in Pirae.

    The ruling means the 90-year-old Flosse will not be able to contest this year’s French National Assembly elections and next year’s territorial election.

    As former and current mayors of the town of Pirae, Flosse and now President Edouard Fritch made the town administration pay for the water use in the upmarket Erima neighbourhood, where Flosse lived.

    Flosse had set up the scheme and Fritch allowed the abusive billing process to be continued until the practice was discovered in an audit in 2011.

    When the two were convicted in Tahiti in 2020, Flosse was declared ineligible to hold office for five years.

    Flosse questioned how the justice system worked, as he was singled out for punishment in a witch hunt while Fritch got away with just a fine.

    Why was Fritch still eligible?
    He said he wondered why Fritch was not made ineligible for two years because for years the scheme was run while Fritch was mayor.

    Flosse’s lawyer said he could not understand the intellectual mechanism used to convict Flosse over the issue.

    Losing the appeal in Paris last week, Flosse, will not be able to run for office until 2027, but he said would not give up and would continue with renewed vigour.

    Only last week, he had announced his candidacy for one of the three French Polynesian seats in the French legislature.

    In 2014, Flosse had been declared ineligible for five years after another corruption conviction and he had hoped to avert a renewed such sanction by taking the matter to Paris.

    He was forced to relinquish the presidency to his deputy Fritch, but the two politicians have since fallen out.

    Fritch has since been re-elected president and mayor of Pirae.

    In French Polynesia, about a quarter of the ruling party’s assembly members have corruption convictions, including the assembly president Gaston Tong Sang.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Tahiti’s Flosse banned from public office after latest court defeat

    RNZ Pacific

    France’s highest court has upheld a corruption conviction of French Polynesia’s former president Gaston Flosse, effectively ending his political career.

    It confirmed a 2020 appeal court ruling in Tahiti, which had deprived Flosse of his eligibility to hold public office for five years after finding him and the current president Edouard Fritch guilty of abusing public funds.

    As former and current mayors of the town of Pirae, Flosse and Fritch made the town administration pay for the water supply to the upmarket Erima neighbourhood, where Flosse lived.

    Flosse had set up the scheme and Fritch allowed the abusive billing process to be continued until the practice was discovered in an audit in 2011. In the appeal court in 2020, Flosse had been given a two-year suspended prison sentence.

    However, Fritch was allowed to stay in office, but both have been fined and have been ordered to jointly settle the water bill of US$820,000.

    When the case went to court, Fritch was a defendant and, as the mayor of Pirae, he was also a complainant because in the civil case running alongside, the town sought to be reimbursed.

    In Paris, the court did not accept Flosse’s arguments that the statute of limitations applied, and it rejected a claim that Fritch could not both be a complainant and an accused.

    Losing the appeal in Paris, Flosse, who is 90, will not be able to contest this year’s French National Assembly elections nor next year’s territorial election.

    Only last week, he had announced his candidacy for one of the three French Polynesian seats in the French legislature.

    In 2014, Flosse had been declared ineligible for five years after another corruption conviction and hoped to avert a renewed such sanction by taking the matter to Paris.

    He was forced to relinquish the presidency to his deputy Fritch, but the two politicians have since fallen out.

    Fritch has since been re-elected president and mayor of Pirae.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Fukushima Takes a Turn for the Worse

    Tokyo Electric Power Company-TEPCO- has been attempting to decommission three nuclear meltdowns in reactors No. 1 No. 2, and No. 3 for 11 years now. Over time, impossible issues grow and glow, putting one assertion after another into the anti-nuke coffers.

    The problems, issues, enormous danger, and ill timing of deconstruction of a nuclear disaster is always unexpectedly complicated by something new. That’s the nature of nuclear meltdowns, aka: China Syndrome debacles.

    As of today, TEPCO is suffering some very serious setbacks that have “impossible to deal with” written all over the issues.

    Making all matters nuclear even worse, which applies to the current mess at Fukushima’s highly toxic scenario, Gordon Edwards’ following statement becomes more and more embedded in nuclear lore: “It’s impossible to dispose of nuclear waste.” 1

    Disposing of nuclear waste is like “running in place” to complete a marathon. There’s no end in sight.

    As a quickie aside from the horrendous details of the current TEPCO debacle, news from Europe brings forth the issue of nuclear power emboldened as somehow suitable to help the EU transition to “cleaner power,” as described by EU sources. France supports the crazed nuke proposal but Germany is holding its nose. According to German Environment Minister Steffi Lemke: “Nuclear energy could lead to environmental disasters and large amounts of nuclear waste. 2   Duh!

    Minister Lemke nailed it. And, TEPCO is living proof (barely) of the unthinkable becoming thinkable and disastrous for humanity. Of course, meltdowns are never supposed to happen, but they do.

    One meltdown is like thousands of industrial accidents in succession over generations of lifetimes. What a mess to leave for children’s children’s children over several generations. They’ll hate you for this!

    In Fukushima’s case, regarding three nuclear power plants that melted all-the-way (China Syndrome), TEPCO still does not know how to handle the enormously radioactive nuclear fuel debris, or corium, sizzling hot radioactive lumps of melted fuel rods and container material in No. 1, No 2 and No.3, They’re not even 100% sure where all of the corium is and whether it’s getting into underground water resources. What a disaster that would be… what if it is already… Never mind.

    The newest wrinkle at TEPCO involves the continuous flow of water necessary to keep the destroyed reactors’ hot stuff from exposure to air, thus spreading explosively red-hot radioactivity across the countryside. That constant flow of water is an absolute necessity to prevent an explosion of all explosions, likely emptying the streets of Tokyo in a mass of screaming, kicking, and trampling event to “get out of town” ASAP, commonly known as “mass evacuation.”

    The cooling water continuously poured over the creaky dilapidated ruins itself turns radioactive, almost instantaneously, and must be processed via an Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) to remove most radioactive materials (???) housed in a 17-meter (56 feet) tall building on the grounds of the disaster zone.

    Here’s the new big danger:  as it processes radioactive contaminated water, it flushes out “slurry” of highly concentrated radioactive material that has to go somewhere. But where to put it?

    How to handle and dispose of the radioactive slurry from the ALPS is almost and, in fact, may be, an impossible quagmire. It’s a big one as the storage containers for the tainted slurry quickly degrade because of the high concentration of radioactive slurry. These storage containers of highly radioactive slurry, in turn, have to be constantly replaced as the radioactivity slurry eats away at the containers’ liners.

    Radioactive slurry is muddy and resembles a shampoo in appearance, and it contains highly radioactive Strontium readings that reach tens of millions of Becquerel’s per cubic centimeter. Whereas, according to the EPA, 148 Becquerel’s per cubic meter, not centimeter, is the safe level for human exposure. Thus, tens of millions per cubic centimeter is “off the charts” dangerous! Instant death, as one cubic meter equals one million cubic centimeters. Ahem!

    Since March 2013, TEPCO has accumulated 3,373 special vessels that hold these highly toxic radioactive slurry concentrations. But, because the integrity of the vessels deteriorates so quickly, the durability of the containers reaches a limit, meaning the vessels will need replacement by mid 2025.

    Making matters ever worse, if that is possible, the NRA has actually accused TEPCO of “underestimating the impact issue of the radioactivity on the containers linings,” claiming TEPCO improperly measured the slurry density when conducting dose evaluations. Whereas, the density level is always highest at the bottom, not the top where TEPCO did the evaluations, thus failing to measure and report the most radioactive of the slurry. Not a small error.

    As of June 2021, NRA’s own assessment of the containers concluded that 31 radioactive super hot containers had already reached the end of operating life. And, another 56 would need replacement within the next 2 years.

    Transferring slurry is a time-consuming highly dangerous horrific job, which exposes yet a second issue of unacceptable risks of radioactive substances released into the air during transfer of slurry. TEPCO expects to open and close the transfers remotely (no surprise there). But, TEPCO, as of January 2, 2022, has not yet revealed acceptable plans for dealing with the necessary transfer of slurry from weakening, almost deteriorated containers, into fresh, new containers. 3

    Meanwhile, additional batches of a massive succession of containers that must be transferred to new containers will be reaching the end of shelf life, shortly.

    Another nightmarish problem has surfaced for TEPCO. Yes, another one. In the aftermath of the 2011 blowup, TEPCO stored radioactive water in underground spaces below two buildings near reactor No.4. Bags of a mineral known as zeolite were placed to absorb cesium. Twenty-six tons (52,000 lbs.) of bags are still immersed with radiation readings of 4 Sieverts per hour, enough to kill half of all workers in the immediate vicinity within one hour. The bags need to be removed.

    TEPCO intends to robotically start removing the highly radioactive bags, starting in 2023, but does not know where the bags should be stored. Where do you store radioactive bags containing enough radioactive power to kill someone within one hour of exposure?

    Additionally (there’s more) the amount of radioactive rubble, soil, and felled trees at the plant site totals 480,000 cubic meters, as of 2021. TEPCO is setting up a special incinerator to dispose of this. Where to dispose of the incinerated waste is unknown. This is one more add-on to the horrors of what to do with radioactive material that stays hot for centuries upon centuries. Where to put it?

    Where to put it? Which is the bane of the nuclear power industry. For example, America’s nuke plants are full of huge open pools of water containing tons of spent nuclear fuel rods. If exposed to open air, spent fuel rods erupt into a sizzling zirconium fire followed by massive radiation bursts of the most toxic material known to humanity. It can upend an entire countryside and force evacuation of major cities.

    According to the widely recognized nuclear expert Paul Blanch: “Continual storage in spent fuel pools is the most unsafe thing you could do.” 4

    It’s not just Fukushima that rattles the nerves of people who understand the high risk game of nuclear power. America is loaded with nuclear power plants with open pools of water that hold highly radioactive spent fuel rods.

    What to do with it?

    1. Gordon Edwards in The Age of Nuclear Waste From Fukushima to Indian Point.
    2. “EU Plans to Label Gas and Nuclear Energy ‘Green’ Prompts Row”, BBC News, January 2, 2022.
    3. “TEPCO Slow to Respond to Growing Crisis at Fukushima Plant”, The Asahi Shimbun, January 2, 2022.
    4. “Nuclear Fuel Buried 108 Feet from the Sea”, March 19, 2021.
    The post Fukushima Takes a Turn for the Worse first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Radioactive Contamination Is Seeping Into Drinking Water Around the U.S.

    Child pours water from faucet into glass jar for drinking

    When Jeni Knack moved to Simi Valley, California, in 2018, she had no idea that her family’s new home was within 5 miles of a former nuclear and rocket testing laboratory, perched atop a plateau and rife with contamination. Radioactive cesium-137, strontium-90, plutonium-239 and tritium, along with a mix of other toxic chemicals and heavy metals, are known to have been released at the industrial site through various spills, leaks, the use of open-air burn pits and a partial nuclear meltdown.

    Once Knack learned about the Santa Susana Field Laboratory and the unusual number of childhood cancer cases in the surrounding community, she couldn’t ignore it. Her family now only drinks water from a 5-gallon (19-liter) jug delivered by Sparkletts water service. In August, she began sending her 6-year-old daughter to kindergarten with two bottles of the water and instructions to not refill them at school, which is connected to the same Golden State Water Company that serves her home.

    A federal report in 2007 acknowledged that two wells sourced by the water company were at risk of contamination from the site. “The EPA has said we’re at risk,” says Knack. And Golden State, she says, has at times used “possibly a very hefty portion of that well water.” To date, radioactivity above the natural level has not been detected in Golden State’s water.

    Concerns Across the Country

    All water contains some level of radiation; the amount and type can vary significantly. Production of nuclear weapons and energy from fissionable material is one potential source. Mining for uranium is another. Radioactive elements can be introduced into water via medical treatments, including radioactive iodine used to treat thyroid disorders. And it can be unearthed during oil and gas drilling, or any industrial activities that involve cracking into bedrock where radioactive elements naturally exist. What’s more, because of their natural presence, these elements can occasionally seep into aquifers even without being provoked.

    The nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG, a partner in this reporting project) estimates that drinking water for more than 170 million Americans in all 50 states “contains radioactive elements at levels that may increase the risk of cancer.” In their analysis of public water system data collected between 2010 and 2015, EWG focused on six radioactive contaminants, including radium, radon and uranium. They found that California has more residents affected by radiation in their drinking water than anywhere else in the U.S. Yet the state is far from alone. About 80% of Texans are served by water utilities reporting detectable levels of radium. And concerns have echoed across the country — from abandoned uranium mines on Navajo Nation lands, to lingering nuclear waste from the Manhattan Project in Missouri, to contaminants leaching from phosphate mines in Florida.

    While ingesting radioactive elements through drinking contaminated water is not the only route of human exposure, it is a major risk pathway, says Daniel Hirsch, a retired University of California, Santa Cruz, professor who has studied the Santa Susana Field Laboratory contamination. “One thing you don’t want to do is to mix radioactivity with water. It’s an easy mechanism to get it inside people,” he says. “When you drink water, you think you excrete it. But the body is made to extract things from what you ingest.”

    Strontium-90, for example, is among elements that mimic calcium. So the body is apt to concentrate the contaminant in bones, raising the risk of leukemia. Pregnant women and young kids are especially vulnerable because greater amounts of radiation are deposited in rapidly growing tissue and bones. “This is why pregnant women are never x-rayed,” says Catherine Thomasson, an independent environmental policy consultant based in Portland, Oregon. Cesium can deposit in the pancreas, heart and other tissues, she notes. There, it may continue to emit radioactivity over time, causing disease and damage.

    Scientists believe that no amount of radiation is safe. At high levels, the radiation produced by radioactive elements can trigger birth defects, impair development and cause cancer in almost any part of the body. And early life exposure means a long period of time for damage to develop.

    Health advocates express concern that the government is not doing enough to protect the public from these and other risks associated with exposure to radioactive contamination in drinking water. The legal limits set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for several types of radioactive elements in community water systems have not been updated since 1976. Further, many elements are regulated as a group rather than individually, such as radium-226 plus radium-228. And water system operators, if they are required to monitor for radioactive elements, only need to do so infrequently — say, every six or nine years for certain contaminants.

    Meanwhile, private wells generally remain unregulated with regard to the elements, which is particularly concerning because some nuclear power plants are located in rural areas where people depend on private wells. More than one out of every 10 Americans use private wells or tiny water systems that serve fewer than 15 residences.

    The Santa Susana Field Laboratory was rural when it was first put to use about 70 years ago. Today, more than 700,000 people live within 10 miles (16 kilometers). Recent wildfires have exacerbated these residents’ concerns. The 2018 Woolsey fire started on the property and burned 80% of its 2,850 acres (1,153 hectares). Over the following three months, the levels of chemical and radioactive contamination running off the site exceeded state safety standards 57 times.

    Hirsch highlights several potential avenues for drinking water contamination related to nuclear weapons or energy development. Wind can send contamination off site and deposit it into the soil, for example. Gravity can carry contaminants downhill. And rains can carry contamination via streams and rivers to infiltrate groundwater aquifers. While vegetation absorbs radioactive and chemical contaminants from the soil in which it grows, those pollutants are readily released into the environment during a fire.

    While no tests have detected concerning levels of radioactivity in Golden State’s water, advocates and scientists argue that testing for radioactive elements remains inconsistent and incomplete across the country. Federal and state regulations do not require monitoring for all potential radioactive contaminants associated with the known industrial activity on the site. For some of the regulated contaminants, water companies need only test once every several years.

    “This is not an isolated matter,” says Hirsch. “We’re sloppy with radioactive materials.”

    “We Need Stricter Regulations”

    In 2018, around the same time that fires stirred up radioactive elements in and around the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, drinking water concerns arose just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Guy Kruppa, superintendent of the Belle Vernon Municipal Authority, had been noticing major die-offs of the bacteria in his sewage treatment plant. The bugs are critical for breaking down contaminants in the sewage before it is discharged into the Monongahela River. About 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) downstream is a drinking water plant.

    Kruppa and his colleagues eventually linked the low bacteria numbers to leachate they accepted from the Westmoreland landfill. The landfill had begun taking waste from nearby fracking sites — material that included bacteria-killing salts and radioactive elements such as radium.

    The Belle Vernon Municipal Authority subsequently got a court order to force the landfill to stop sending its leachate — the liquid stuff that flows off a landfill after it rains. “We sealed off the pipe,” Kruppa says.

    Today, radiation is no longer discharging from his plant. Yet he remains concerned about where the leachate might now be going and, more broadly, about the weak regulation regarding radioactive waste that could end up in drinking water. The quarterly tests required of his sewage treatment plant, for example, do not include radium. “The old adage is, if you don’t test for it, you’re not going to find it,” adds Kruppa.

    Concerns that radioactive elements from fracking could travel into community drinking water sources have been on the rise for at least a decade. A study led by Duke University researchers and published in 2013 found “potential environmental risks of radium bioaccumulation in localized areas of shale gas wastewater disposal.” Kruppa’s actions in 2018 drove widespread media attention to the issue.

    In late July 2021, the state of Pennsylvania announced it would begin ordering landfills that accept waste from oil or gas drilling sites to test their leachate for certain radioactive materials associated with fracking. The state’s move was a “good step in the right direction,” says Amy Mall, a senior advocate with the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council, which published a report on radioactive waste from oil and gas production in July. “We do need more data. But we don’t think monitoring alone is adequate. We need stricter regulations as well.”

    The EPA drinking water standard for radium-226 plus radium-228, the two most widespread isotopes of radium, is 5 picocuries per liter (0.26 gallon). The California Office of Environmental Hazard Assessment’s public health goal, set in 2006 and the basis of EWG’s study, is far more stringent: 0.05 picocuries per liter for radium-226 and just 0.019 picocuries per liter for radium-228. “There is a legal limit for some of these contaminants, like radium and uranium,” says Sydney Evans, a science analyst with EWG. “But, of course, that’s not necessarily what’s considered safe based on the latest research.”

    “We don’t regulate for the most vulnerable,” says Arjun Makhijani, president of the nonprofit Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. He points to the first trimester in a pregnancy as among the riskiest windows of development.

    The known toxicities of radioactive contaminants, as well as technology available to test for them, have evolved significantly since standards were established in the 1970s. “We have a rule limited by the technology available 40 years ago or more. It’s just a little crazy to me,” says Evans. Hirsch points to a series of reports from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on health risks from ionizing radiation. “They just keep finding that the same unit of exposure produces more cancers than had been presumed,” he says. The most recent version, published in 2006, found the risk of cancer due to radiation exposure for some elements to be about 35% higher per unit dose than the 1990 version.

    The EPA has begun its fourth review of national primary drinking water regulations, in accordance with the Safe Drinking Water Act. The results are anticipated in 2023. While advocates hope for stricter standards, such changes would add to the difficulties many drinking water providers already face in finding the finances and technology necessary to meet those regulations.

    Seeking Solutions

    The aquifer beneath Winona, Minnesota — which supplies drinking water to residents — naturally contains radium, resulting in challenges for the city water department to minimize levels of the radioactive element.

    Recent tests of Winona’s drinking water have found levels of radium above federal standards. In response to results, in April city officials cautioned residents that low-dose exposure over many years can raise the risk of cancer. However, they did not advise people to avoid drinking the water.

    The city is now looking to ramp up their use of a product called TonkaZorb, which has proven effective in removing radium at other drinking water plants, notes Brent Bunke, who served as the city’s water superintendent during the time of the testing. The product’s active ingredient is manganese, which binds to radium. The resulting clumps are easy to sift out by the sand filter. Local coverage aptly likened it to kitty litter. Bunke notes that the city also plans to replace the filter media in their aging sand filters. Of course, all these efforts are not cheap for the city. “It’s the cost of doing business,” says Bunke.

    Winona is far from alone in their battle against ubiquitous radium. And they are unlikely to be the hardest hit. “Communities that are being impacted don’t necessarily have the means to fix it,” says Evans. “And it’s going to be a long-term, ongoing issue.” Over time, municipalities often have to drill deeper into the ground to find adequate water supply — where there tends to be even larger concentrations of radium.

    Some are looking upstream for more equitable solutions. Stanford University researchers, for example, have identified a way to predict when and where uranium is released into groundwater aquifers. Dissolved calcium and alkalinity can boost water’s ability to pick up uranium, they found. Because this tends to happen in the top 6 feet of soil, drinking water managers can make sure that water bypasses that area as it seeps into or is pumped out of the ground.

    The focus of this research has been on California’s Central Valley — an agricultural area rich in uranium. “When you start thinking about rural water systems, or you think about water that’s going to be used in agriculture, then your economic constraints become really, really great,” says Scott Fendorf, a professor of earth systems science at Stanford and coauthor on the study. “You can’t afford to do things like reverse osmosis” — a spendy form of filtration technology.

    In general, radiation can be very difficult to remove from water. Reverse osmosis can be effective for uranium. Activated carbon can cut concentrations of radon and strontium. Yet standard home or water treatment plant filters are not necessarily going to remove all radioactive contaminants. Scientists and advocates underscore the need for further prevention strategies in the form of greater monitoring and stronger regulations. The push continues across the country, as the issue plagues nearly everywhere — an unfortunate truth that Knack now knows.

    Why doesn’t her family simply move? “I’m not saying we won’t. I’m not saying we shouldn’t,” she says. “But I don’t even know where we’d go. It really looks like contaminated sites are not few, but all over the country.”

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Imminent Peril Of Drinking Water Contamination By US Navy Fuel Tanks

    In a strongly worded proposed decision and order, on December 27, 2021, David Day, the Hawai’i State Department of Health Red Hill case Hearing Officer and Deputy Attorney General announced in a 33-page proposed decision and order that the “imminent peril” caused to the drinking water by the U.S. Navy’s leaking jet fuel tanks in the island of O’ahu outweighs the military’s claims that the tanks are key to “national security.”

    On November 28, approximately 19,000 gallons of jet fuel and water leaked from the massive 20 underground fuel storage tanks at Red Hill and contaminated two wells providing  drinking water for over 93,000 persons on the U.S. Navy’s water system. Each of the fuel tanks holds 12.5 million gallons of jet fuel and the tank complex sits only 100 feet above Honolulu’s main aquifer.

    The post Imminent Peril Of Drinking Water Contamination By US Navy Fuel Tanks appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Flushing Of Dangerous Petroleum Contaminated Water From Military Housing

    Hawai’i – On Friday, December 24, I went to Aliamanu Military Reservation at Red Hill housing area which is located above the entryway into the main tunnel that leads into the  U.S. Navy’s deep, massive, leaking 80-year-old Red Hill underground jet fuel storage tanks complex.  These tanks are only 100 feet above the main aquifer of drinking water for 400,000, half the population of the island of O’ahu, Hawai’i.

    A recent leak of at least 19,000 gallons of jet fuel and water leaked from a fire suppressant pipe into two Navy operated wells that supply drinking water to over 93,000 residents in the Pearl Harbor-Hickam Air Force Base area. Built during World War II, the tank complex has 20 huge tanks, each measuring 100 feet in diameter and 250 feet high — the height of a 20-story building, or Aloha Tower, a famous landmark for tourist ships in Honolulu harbor.

    The post Flushing Of Dangerous Petroleum Contaminated Water From Military Housing appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Here’s to our Health: Well, To the Health of the Profiteers!

    “You know what I think?” she says. “That people’s memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive. Whether those memories have any actual importance or not, it doesn’t matter as far as the maintenance of life is concerned. They’re all just fuel. Advertising fillers in the newspaper, philosophy books, dirty pictures in a magazine, a bundle of ten-thousand-yen bills: when you feed ’em to the fire, they’re all just paper. The fire isn’t thinking ‘Oh, this is Kant,’ or ‘Oh, this is the Yomiuri evening edition,’ or ‘Nice tits,’ while it burns. To the fire, they’re nothing but scraps of paper. It’s the exact same thing. Important memories, not-so-important memories, totally useless memories: there’s no distinction–they’re all just fuel.”

    – Haruki Murakami, After Dark

    I’m thinking about nuclear energy, the waste, the fallout, radioactive new elements. I’m thinking about all those antibiotics, about all those rat-roach-flie-mosquito poisons. I’m thinking about the sprayed-on litany of food enhancers (sic) and the artificial colorings, and the Round-up Ready, for sure. I am thinking about opiod deaths for 18-50 year olds in USA as the number one cause of death for that demographic, at 80 K last year.

    But I am also thinking about immune-compromised folk, the gut diseases, the array of diseases of the liver, kidneys, thyroid, stomach. Really, all of those malnourished and over-nourished and oddly chemicalized humans sucking up sugar sugar sugar. All of the combinations of bad in utero bombardments; i.e., epigentics, and then all the fun once coming out of the birth canal or c-section cut. DNA collected. How many jabs at birth? Then, how many (pre-mRNA maintenance series forever) vaccinations before age 5, 8 10, 12?

    But thyroids, man, they are so compromised (in women especially) because of a variety of reasons that the entire ranch has been sold down the river. Thyroid issues here; chronic pain, brain fog, gut issues, psychological issues.

    Serious-serious chronic illnesses associated with thyroid issues. And, this chart below is cartoonish, but if you look into thyroid diseases and the effects, you will shiver. And this is a common problem, becoming bigger with poisons, background radiation, pregnancy, bad food, bad nutrition, stress, plastics in the air-blood-intestines. Oh, what a world, and, of course, AMA, CDC, NIAID, NIH, WHO, you name the outfit, they are so hobbled by their germ theory crap, all other things really killing people (and planet) are not only a drag on a broken medical system, but on their economy.

    Common symptoms of hypothroidism: depression, brain fog, fatigue, muscle cramps, cold intolerance, weight gain, dry skin

    So, that’s just one arena-terrain of issues, the thyroid. Add up the entire issues flooding our endrocrine systems, then add up the microbiome maladies, add up the weathering of humanity under inflammatory capitalism, and here we are going into 2022.

    Shoot, let’s inset doomsday #999 just to get gargantuan — the glacier down under:

    The Thwaites “Doomsday Glacier” in West Antarctica is spooking scientists. Satellite images shown at a recent meeting December 13th of the American Geophysical Union showed numerous large, diagonal cracks extending across the Thwaites’ floating ice wedge.

    This is new information, and it’s a real shocker if only because it’s happening so quickly, much sooner than expectations. It could collapse. And, it’s big, 80 miles across with up to 4,000 feet depth with a 28-mile-wide cracking ice shelf that extends over the Amundsen Sea.

    Well, Greta and COP26, and the bagpipes of Glasgow. Another fun reality TV show, is the blank mentality of mainstream and left-stream media: how stories about Omicron and about mandated vaccination boosters x 5, and the complete loss of critical thinking when attempting to challenge the narratives/motives around the shifting baselines on steriods; i.e., fully vaxxed was one (1) J & J and two (2) Moderna’s. Now? The schedule of boosters will be determined not by doctors, not by us, not by the public, us, not by the thinkers, but by them, the elites, and those oh-so-perfectly honest and heroic folks working for Big Pharma which by the way foots the bill for most media in the mainscream, and foots the bills of many university research facilities, and foots the bill for NIH, WHO, FDA, etc.

    a vaccine syringe

    This is the Atlantic Magazine, one of the elites’ best source of information. When I say elite, I mean highly college degreed folk, the woke folk, all those beautiful and wannabe beautiful people. Note, when you read these rags, and I include The Nation or even Mother Jones, you get no other perspective outside the mainstream Big Pharma Has All the Answers for SARS-CoV2. DARPA?

    For nearly a year now, the phrase fully vaccinated has carried a cachet that it never did before. Being fully vaccinated against COVID-19 is a ticket for a slate of liberties—a pass to travel without testing and skip post-exposure quarantine, per the CDC, and in many parts of the country, a license to enter restaurants, gyms, and bars. For many employees, full vaccination is now a requirement to work; for many individuals, it’s a must for any socialization at all. (source)

    I could write this entire blog just looking at the Atlantic’s story here, and how cavalier and how snobby and so tragically hip the verbiage is and the folks cited and interviewed so much on the same sheet of music, which is entirely planned. This is how these writers do their journalism — no push back, no alternative views, no outside the paradigm thinking. Here, last point I can make by pasting another paragraph:

    Countries such as Israel have already done it; Anthony Fauci has been gunning for the switch. As he told me this summer, “I bet you any amount of whatever” that three shots, spread out over several months, will ultimately be the “standard regimen for an mRNA vaccine.” Even the CDC told me this week that it “may change [the] definition in the future”—a line it’s never used with me before. For a cautious government agency, that’s kind of a gargantuan leap. A new floor for full vaccination, one that firmly requires what we’re now calling booster shots, is starting to look like a matter of when, not if.

    No other sources of medicine and immunology or virology to be consulted??? These writers are dangerous, but they always have been on all given topics — war, surveillance, finance, everything in the Complex. They have credos and pledges to not drill into capitalism. And that means, that this pig of a human, Tony Fauci, can play “I bet” shit word games about boosters that well, hmm, sort of work. Imagine that, funny Tony. And, what the fuck is happening in Israel? Please, look into that mess of vax madness there. “Israel.” How quickly the vaxxed lose immunity, which they never had.

    Hands up, or else:

    kids covid

    Kids who are exposed to COVID-19 can stay in class as long as they are tested in schools, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a news release on Friday.“Test-to-Stay is another valuable tool in a layered prevention strategy that includes promoting vaccination of eligible students and staff, requiring everyone age 2 and older wear a mask inside schools and facilities, keeping at least 3 feet of distance between students, screening testing, ventilation, handwashing, and staying home when sick,” the news release reads. The Test-to-Stay initiative was put into motion by the CDC to help “minimize absenteeism and learning loss which can occur during traditional quarantine at home.”

    Again, read the story on “Test to Stay,” and you will get no person or journalist pusing back on the policy, on the stupidity of testing, on the masking requirements, on the 3-foot distance lies, man, so-so much wrong with this picture. (Source)

    But again, it’s not the air, stupid. It’s not the water, stupid. It’s not the food, stupid. It’s not the chemicals offgassing and in every product a child first comes in contact with up until the grave, stupid. It’s coronavirus, and, it’s compliant people, labeling and creating the “Dirty You,”which in the old days (not so old) was the Dirty Jew-Japanese-Indian-Irishman-Chinaman-Gypsy-Communist-Catholic-Disabled-et al.

    I am asked about climate change, as the existential set of crises for humanity. How to stop it, how to mitigate it, how to prepare for it?

    Here, from friend, Joe, then my snarky answer —

    Paul– It’s pretty fucking obvious the government doesn’t plan to do anything except to promote more air travel, more military use of hydrocarbons, more roads for increased auto and truck travel, more planet destroying corporate agriculture and the list goes on. Besides that most people are not willing to change their lifestyles one bit. They will continue to support the things that kill the planet as they shroud themselves in selfrighteousness because they recycle and separate their food waste and put it in their compost bins made of plastic. They will pat themselves (and on each other’s) backs as they eat organic cucumbers flown in from Chile for their Super Bowl parties. Sick cognitive dissonanced bastards riding towards Hell on earth.

    +–+

    Joe — And the same tools to say stop companies from forcing low wage workers working in warehouses while tornadoes are about to hit and then once those workers are killed injured and traumatized will be the same needed to reorganize humanity for a world without ice: compassion, moral compass, communitarian guidance, systems thinking, socialism, democracy, resiliency, end of economic classes, justice, integrity, regional & multinational planning, valuing safe/ food/ air/ water/ soil, those plus redistribution of work and economic well being …. some or all of these needed to solve little things (sic) and yet we can’t tackle opioid crisis or housing crisis or industrial torture factory animal crisis.

    A world without ice without those human values above? Road Warrior and The Road and Minority Report and Soylent Green and Bladerunner all mashed up

    Seagulls stand on the Caddebostan shore, in Asian side of Istanbul, Monday, June 7, 2021, partially covered with marine mucilage, a thick, slimy substance made up of compounds released by marine organisms, in Turkey's Marmara Sea. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised Saturday to rescue the Marmara Sea from an outbreak of "sea snot" that is alarming marine biologists and environmentalists.

    Again, the loopy writing of this mainstream and influential rag, The Atlantic. “Climate Change is Going to be Gross: The thick layer of mucilage that covered the Sea of Marmara for weeks was an unsettling glimpse of climate change’s more oozy effects” by Jenna Scatena This Jenna will not interview ecosocialists or those looking at the systems of collapse. Putting one part into the system, and then looking at the system. So, all this dead algae and plankton, off-gassing, mucking up ocean floors and coming to the surface and destroying fish stocks. And yet, no one interviewed looking at how this is just a slice of the destruction pie, and that, yes, bacteria and viruses live in the muck, and, yes, they can get passed on and on and on.

    Under a Green Sky by Peter Ward

    Under a Green Sky : Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past, and What They Can Tell Us about Our Future

    Paleontologist Peter Ward’s book on mass extinctions and climate change provides a deep-time perspective that is both sobering and necessary. Under a Green Sky puts the present within a geological context while also making the climate crisis feel even more personal and pressing. Before getting that perspective in full, however, readers encounter several fetching narratives of paleontological and other scientific fieldwork across the globe. Captivating as they are, the stories are mostly used to set up later passages that aggressively dismantle an argument Ward clearly loathes: that most past mass extinctions — especially the Permian, some 250 million years ago — were caused by huge meteorite impacts. Ward takes scientists and the media to task for, in his mind, recklessly embracing impacts as the culprit du jour for nearly all prior mass extinctions, when an impact is clearly responsible for just one such die-off: the famous dinosaur-killer 65 million years ago.

    Ward presents a powerful alternative model for explaining these extinctions. In short, an increase in carbon dioxide — from volcanism (in the past) or from humans (in the present) — warms the oceans enough to change circulation patterns. When this happens, sulfur-eating microbes sometimes thrive. These bacteria produce hydrogen sulfide, which, in sufficient quantities and under certain conditions, outgasses into the air, shreds the ozone layer, and poisons other living things. The warming also causes methane ice under the seas to melt and, well, burp, adding to the nasty mix. The end comes not in a bang but a stinky whimper. (Source)

    Quoting: “Where is the “Misanthropocene” right now in relation to past extinction events? The chart below tells the tale. Notice that our current rise in GHG’s is essentially instantaneous in relation to past warmings which took place over thousands of years. As far as scientists can tell, the current warming from industrial civilization is the most rapid in geologic time. Ice core and marine sediment data in the paleoclimatology archive have revealed brief periods of rapid warming and there is no reason to believe modern man is immune to such catastrophic and abrupt climate events. In fact, we know that the Arctic is already warming twice as fast as anywhere else on the planet. Earth sensitivity to climate change is now thought to be possibly double that of previous estimates. An entirely different planet can result from just a slight change in temperature:

    Snap 2015-01-14 at 23.36.48
    We’re about halfway towards the same CO2 levels as the Paleocene Thermal Extinction, but our speed of trajectory surpasses even that of the Permian Extinction:
    wardco2big

    In 2005, Lee R. Kump and fellow scientists published a paper describing what would become known as the Kump hypothesis, implicating hydrogen sulfide (H2S) as the primary culprit in past mass extinctions. According to OSHA, “a level of H2S gas at or above 100 ppm is immediately dangerous to life and health.” Prior to Kump’s study, the working theory had been that some sort of singular, cataclysmic event such as an asteroid strike was to blame for all mass die-offs, but Kump and colleagues proposed that a global warming-induced asphyxiation via hydrogen sulfide gas (H2S) was to blame for snuffing out life under the sea, on the land, and in the air. In past mass extinctions, volcanic eruptions and thawing methane hydrates created greenhouse-gas warmings that culminated in the release of poisonous gas from oxygen-depleted oceans. Humans with their fossil fuel-eating machines are unwittingly producing the same conditions today. The Kump hypothesis (elevated CO2 with lowering O2 levels) is now regarded as the most plausible explanation for the majority of mass extinctions in earth’s history.”

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  • News on China | No. 77

    In this week’s News on China in 2 minutes: economic changes in China; increased share of the wealth pie garnered by the richest 10%; curbing groundwater exploitation; Chinese entertainment achieving international popularity.

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