San Francisco – pay a little more for 100% renewable energy?
San Francisco’s 100% renewable energy plan, Smart Planet, By Tyler Falk | September 20, 2012, San Francisco is one step closer to offering residents the option to switch to 100 percent renewable energy after the city’s Board of Supervisors voted 8-3 in favor of the program that would lead to significant cuts in carbon emissions.
CleanPowerSF , a $19.5 million program run by Shell Energy North America, will automatically opt-in half of San Francisco residents and then give them the option to opt-out. It’s a roundabout way of giving people choice, but the five-year program will need 90,000 of 375,000 residents to make the switch to make the program worthwhile.
If the city is successful at getting residents to buy into the program (and stick with it) CleanPowerSF could do more than previous efforts to reduce carbon emissions. According to the city, it would see a cut 10 times greater than the amount the city has already cut.
The program will also provide competition to Pacific Gas and Electric Company, which currently operates utilities in San Francisco. The city is able to do this because of a 2002 state law that allows municipalities to choose their electricity provider. A community-choice aggregation system, as it’s called, is also available in Marion, County California.
But choice and carbon emissions reductions will come at a price. Residents who stay in the program will see their utility bill rise by $9 a month while the commercial increase will be about $18 a month. If customers decide that’s too much then San Francisco could owe Shell as much as $15 million. If residents are willing to pay more for green power, the city will profit and use the money to build city-owned renewable energy facilities.
It’s a risk the city seems willing to take….. http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/san-franciscos-100-renewable-energy-plan/658
Radioactive air, water, marine life, debris from Fukushima to USA West Coast
reports of radioactive air, water, marine life, and weather reaching the US Pacific Coast in such significant quantities
Impact to US West Coast from Fukushima disaster likely larger than anticipated, several reports indicate, Bellona 21 Sept 12, Part of: Nuclear meltdown in Japan The massive release of anthropogenic – or non-naturally occurring radionuclides such as cesium 137 and cesium 134 – by the meltdowns and explosions that rocked Fukushima Daiichi occurred in the five days following the beginning of the accident, according to a new report. www.greenpeace.org
Non-naturally occurring radionuclides from the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant’s triple meltdown last year radioactively contaminated the entire northern hemisphere within days and the US west coast bore a significant brunt of so called hot particles, an independent scientific paper released yesterday claims. Charles Digges, 19/09-2012
US government environmental monitoring agencies have either declared as safe, refused to comment on, or – say several independent researchers – vastly understated what impacts, if any, this could have for America’s western coastal population. Significant omissions in data reporting and hobbling of radioactive monitoring systems, say many, make it seem unlikely that hard government facts will be forthcoming to support evidence presented by independent researchers. Continue reading
Sea ice at record low – climate change nears crisis point
What the scientific community understands is that Arctic ice is melting at an accelerated rate — and that humans play a role in these changes.
includes VIDEO Arctic Sea Ice Levels Hit Record Low, Scientists Say We’re ‘Running Out Of Time’, HUFFINGTON POST Joanna 
Zelman James Gerken
09/19/2012 As Arctic sea ice levels hit a new record low this month, scientists and activists gathered to discuss how to bridge the gap between scientific facts and the public’s limited understanding that we are, in their words, “really running out of time.”
The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) released preliminary findings Wednesday suggesting that on Sept. 16, Arctic ice covered just 1.32 million square miles — the lowest extent ever recorded. This minimum is 49 percent below the 1979 average, when satellite records began. Continue reading
Significant increase in ionising radiation around Tokyo
Japan Scientists: Radiation dose has been “significantly increased” around Tokyo metropolitan area after Fukushima http://enenews.com/japan-scientists-radiation-dose-has-been-significantly-increased-around-tokyo-metropolitan-area-after-fukushima
September 19th, 2012
By ENENews Title: MEASURES AGAINST INCREASED ENVIRONMENTAL RADIATION DOSE BY THE TEPCO FUKUSHIMA DAI-ICHI NPP ACCIDENT IN SOME LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN THE TOKYO METROPOLITAN AREA
Source: Radiation Protection Dosimetry (Oxford Journals)
Author: Iimoto T, Fujii H, Oda S, Nakamura T, Hayashi R, Kuroda R, Furusawa M, Umekage T, Ohkubo Y.
Date: 2012 Aug 26
Abstract The accident of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant of Tokyo Electric Power Cooperation (TEPCO) after the great east Japan earthquake (11 March 2011) elevated the background level of environmental radiation in Eastern Japan.
Around the Tokyo metropolitan area, especially around Kashiwa and Nagareyama cities, the ambient dose equivalent rate has been significantly increased after the accident. Responding to strong requests from citizens, the local governments started to monitor the ambient dose equivalent rate precisely and officially, about 3 months after the accident had occurred. The two cities in cooperation with each other also organised a local forum supported by three radiation specialists.
In this article, the activities of the local governments are introduced, with main focus on radiation monitoring and measurements. Topics are standardisation of environmental radiation measurements for ambient dose rate, dose mapping activity, investigation of foodstuff and drinking water, lending survey meters to citizens, etc. Based on the data and facts mainly gained by radiation monitoring, risk management and relating activity have been organised. ‘Small consultation meetings in kindergartens’, ‘health consultation service for citizens’, ‘education meeting on radiation protection for teachers, medical staffs, local government staffs, and leaders of active volunteer parties’ and ‘decontamination activity’, etc. are present key activities of the risk management and restoration around the Tokyo metropolitan area.
Japan’s Nuclear Dilemma
Nuclear or not to nuclear: Japan struggles with the question Guardian By Mark Halper | September 20, 2012, they say a week is a long time in politics. Make that 5 days.
That’s how long it took the Japanese government to back off its statement last Friday that it would completely phase out nuclear power by 2040.
“We are going to begin an extremely difficult challenge,” declared Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in announcing the plan as reported by The Guardian newspaper on Sept. 14 . ”No matter how diffiicult it is, we can no longer put it off.”
Well, it seems there’s extremely difficult, and then there’s really, really extremely difficult. By yesterday, the language from Tokyo had transformed from bold determination into sheepish second thoughts. “Japan has effectively abandoned a commitment to end its reliance on nuclear power by 2040,” The Guardian wrote . The about face came as Japan’s Cabinet “gave only a vague endorsement” of a report that provided the basis for last Friday’s no-more-nukes declaration.
The report had called for renewable energy like wind and solar to comprise 30 percent of the country’s energy mix – the same proportion that nuclear had contributed prior to shut downs following the Fukushima meltdowns last year, and an eightfold increase from 2010 renewables levels. The plan also relied on sustainable fossil fuel technologies, professing that, “We will launch all possible policy measures to achieve a nuclear-free society by the 2030s.”
But as The Guardian noted, the Cabinet’s tepid endorsement yesterday “dropped any mention of plans to complete the phase-out some time in the 2030s.”….. The prevarication reflects strong public opposition to nuclear, versus pressure from business and industry which says that the shut down will drive up energy costs and force companies to relocate operations to foreign countries….. http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/nuclear-or-not-to-nuclear-japan-struggles-with-the-question/635
Angry crowd shouts at Japan’s Prime Minister
Video: “Frankly, things like this have never ever happened in Japan before — Ordinary people shouting down leadership of country” http://enenews.com/watch-frankly-like-never-happened-japan-before-ordinary-people-shouting-down-leadership-country-video
September 20th, 20 Title: Angry Crowd Shout “GO HOME! GO HOME!” to PM Noda and Leadership Candidates in Shinjuku, Tokyo
Source: EXSKF
Date: Sept 19, 2012
Frankly, things like this have never ever happened in Japan before – ordinary people shouting down the leadership of the country.
“帰れ、帰れ！ 解散しろ！” Go home, go home! Dissolve the Diet and hold election! People shouted at the DPJ leadership candidates speaking atop the van, on September 19, 2012 on the street corner in Shinjuku, Tokyo.
According to people who watched the snippet in the evening news in Japan, the television stations all filtered out the angry crowd.
Atmosphere of gloom about the future of the uranium industry
[Cameco] now finds itself selling some of its output below the cost of production.
China continues to review approvals for new reactors amid concerns about safety
Uranium outlook bleak, Rebound two years off estimates BLOOMBERG NEWS SEPTEMBER 20, 2012 Uranium’s rebound from the Fukushima nuclear accident may take one or two years longer than analysts estimated, prolonging the languishing recovery of Cameco, whose stock price has lost half its value since the March 2011 tragedy.
Just a month before the tsunami struck, shares were trading at $42.39. Wednesday they closed at $21.01.
The price of uranium for immediate delivery declined to $47 a pound as of Sept. 17, its lowest in two years, according to Ux Consulting, a Roswell, Ga.-based uranium information provider.
BHP Billiton Ltd. and Paladin Energy Ltd. have slowed or deferred development this year of some projects to produce the raw material in nuclear reactor fuel…… Continue reading
Europe’s increase in Downs syndrome births due to Chernobyl radiation
Evidence for an increase in trisomy 21 (Down syndrome) in Europe after the Chernobyl reactor accident.http://push-zb.helmholtz-muenchen.de/frontdoor.php?source_opus=7180&la=de Genet. Epidemiol. 36, 48-55 (2012) The objective of this study is to investigate the prevalence of Down syndrome (DS) associated with Chernobyl fallout.
Maternal age-adjusted DS data and corresponding live birth data from the following seven European countries or regions were analyzed: Bavaria and West Berlin in Germany, Belarus, Hungary, the Lothian Region of Scotland, North West England, and Sweden from 1981 to 1992.
To assess the underlying time trends in the DS occurrence, and to investigate whether there have been significant changes in the trend functions after Chernobyl, we applied logistic regression allowing for peaks and jumps from January 1987 onward.
The majority of the trisomy 21 cases of the previously reported, highly significant January 1987 clusters in Belarus and West Berlin were conceived when the radioactive clouds with significant amounts of radionuclides with short physical
half-lives, especially (131) iodine, passed over these regions. Apart from this, we also observed a significant longer lasting effect in both areas.
Moreover, evidence for long-term changes in the DS prevalence in several other European regions is presented and
explained by exposure, especially to (137) Cs. In many areas, (137) Cs uptake reached its maximum one year after the Chernobyl accident. Thus, the highest increase in trisomy 21 should be observed in 1987/1988, which is indeed the case.
Based on the fact that maternal meiosis is an error prone process, the assumption of a causal relationship between low-dose irradiation and nondisjunction is the most likely explanation for the observed increase in DS after the Chernobyl reactor accident.
Nuclear tests’ radiation caused fewer girl births, world wide
The 1960s and ’70s increase is attributed in the study to the global dispersal of radioactive atoms from atmospheric atomic bomb tests. The tests lofted radioactive atoms high into the atmosphere, where air currents caught the atoms and then dispersed them around the planet.
The new study is “the most convincing documentation” to date that radiation can lead to sex bias in humans, according to geneticist Karl Sperling of the Institute of Medical Genetics and Human Genetics in Berlin.
The findings challenge the conventional belief that exposure to nuclear radiation has no, or negligible, genetic effects in humans,
Millions Fewer Girls Born Due to Nuclear Radiation? “Unexpected” findings suggest bomb tests, plant accidents boosted male births Ker Than National Geographic News June 2, 2011 Nuclear radiation from bomb tests and power plant accidents causes slightly more boys than girls to be born, a new study suggests. While effects were seen to be regional for incidents on the ground, like Chernobyl, atmospheric blasts were found to affect birth rates on a global scale. Continue reading
Caesium-137 – toxic decay products underground,a Chernobyl hazard
Chernobyl zone in Belarus reduced, Charter 97 Mirror, “……….Meanwhile, according to the head of Kyiv coordination and analytical centre of Ecology and Health, Professor Yury Bandazheuski,
in case a radioactive counter do not trace radiocaesium on the surface of the ground, it simply means that radioactive elements had migrated into the earth stratum and are at the level of the root system. The expert says that transformation of radioactive elements into the ones more dangerous for human health occurs.
For instance, Caesium-137 decays into barium, and barium is very toxic for a human being. People at “conditionally clean” territories get it with plants and animals’ meat.
http://charter97.mirror.tengu.ch/en/news/2010/8/3/31033/index.html
EDF attacks France’s plans to shut down Fessenheim nuclear power station
EDF nuclear execs protest Fessenheim closure plan PARIS, Sept 20 Sep 20, 2012 (Reuters) – EDF’s nuclear plant managers have assailed government plans to close the state-controlled company’s Fessenheim nuclear power station in a letter of support to the facility’s workers, French media reported…
. The facility, which went into service in 1977, is France’s oldest nuclear power plant and has been a frequent focus of safety concerns since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan that triggered the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Last week, environmental groups called for its early closure after a steam leak at the plant triggered a brief fire alert.
Ratepayers to pay over 10 years for Fort Calhoun nuclear plant repairs
Neb. utility pays nuclear rehab cost over 10 years http://fremonttribune.com/news/state-and-regional/neb-utility-pays-nuclear-rehab-cost-over-years/article_b49cd0e8-f4bc-5120-a170-2d7ea5ba652b.html 20 Sept 12, The Nebraska utility that owns the troubled Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant has decided to spread out the cost of repairs at the plant over 10 years to lessen the immediate impact on rates. Continue reading
9th Circuit Hears Health Care Plea from Islanders Affected by Nuclear Bomb Testing (CN) Opposing Views, by Courthouse News Sep 20, 2012 – An attorney for the the disease-prone residents of pacific island nations where the United States once tested nuclear bombs decried discrimination before the 9th Circuit. Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau each were used by the U.S. military to test its developing nuclear arsenal in the 1940s and 1950s. Many residents claim that resulting health issues have lingered through the generations.
These countries have enjoyed a Compact of Free Association (COFA) with the United States since 1986, a relationship that allows their natives to live in Hawaii and other states as nonimmigrants, eligible for government assistance, including Medicaid.
In 1996, however, the Welfare Reform Act cut off Medicaid benefits for the islanders. States had the option to keep providing health care under their own programs, but Hawaii stopped giving COFA residents the benefits to which they were previously entitled in 2010.
That year marked the start of the Basic Health Hawaii (BHH) program, to which it switched most of the COFA residents. The move cut the care provided to the islanders quite severely, limiting patients to no more than 10 days of hospital care per year, 12 outpatient visits per year, six mental health visits and a maximum of four medication prescriptions per month.
A group of islanders, many of whom have persistent and serious health conditions, filed a class action against the state, alleging that the cut in benefits violated the equal-protection clause of the U.S. Constitution and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Finding that Hawaii had “failed to identify any particular state interest that is advanced by their decision to exclude COFA Residents from the old programs,” U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright granted an injunction and ordered Hawaii to reinstate the former benefits. Hawaii appealed to the 9th Circuit, a three-judge panel of which heard oral arguments in the case on Tuesday in San Francisco. …. http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/9th-circuit-hears-health-care-plea-islanders
Limiting information might help governments, but does not serve the public good
When disaster strikes, let information slip through the net Canberra Times September 20, 2012 Nigel Snoad, “…..Google’s search data show almost anywhere in the world, when a disaster strikes, people head online for information – warning alerts, recommended actions, evacuation routes, the state of essential utilities, social services, shelter and access to food.
Tragically, this information isn’t always there. This can be for a variety of reasons: sometimes the information simply isn’t online, or it is in a format that is hard to share on the internet or view on mobile. Official sources such as government websites can buckle under a surge in traffic…..
There’s almost no justification for authorities withholding information. At a recent
disaster-information conference in the Japanese city of Sendai, participants – from non government organisations to government agencies – unanimously agreed that limiting information does not help calm people.
That consensus followed criticism of authorities for sitting on the release of nuclear contamination data for more than month because it was considered “not reliable enough” for the public, yet good enough to share with international agencies.
In an information vacuum, social media such as Twitter registers problems minutes after they occur; the information is soon in the hands of people who need help, as well as in the hands of people who want to help. Our rule of thumb is that the more information is
shared, the better it gets. Limits on information cause anxiety…..
It’s cliche to say collaboration helps us survive a crisis. What that means today is that information isn’t worth anything unless people are taking that information, adapting it, consulting it and getting it to the people who need it. http://www.canberratimes.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/when-disaster-strikes-let-information-slip-through-the-net-20120919-266wd.html#ixzz272XFqfzY
Success for nuclear lobby, as Japan backs down on phasing out nuclear power
Japan, Under Pressure, Backs Off Goal to Phase Out Nuclear Power by 2040 NYT, By HIROKO TABUCHI 19 Sept 12 TOKYO — In an abrupt turnabout, the Japanese government on Wednesday stopped short of formally adopting the momentous goal it announced just last week — to phase out nuclear power by 2040 — after the plan drew intense opposition from business groups and communities whose economies depend on local nuclear power plants
The cabinet of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said it would “take into consideration” the 2040 goal, but formally endorsed only a vague promise to “engage in debate with local governments and international society and to gain public understanding” in deciding Japan ’s economic future in the wake of the 2011 nuclear disaster at Fukushima. Energy policy will be developed “with flexibility, based on tireless verification and re-examination,” the cabinet’s resolution read.
A day earlier, the chairmen of Japan’s most prominent business associations, including the influential Keidanren group, called a rare joint news conference to demand that Mr. Noda abandon the 2040 goal. On Wednesday, they praised the cabinet’s decision. Continue reading
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Protect Sazan Island from the Trump family! https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/protect_sazan_island_from_the_trump_family_loc/?bqFCVab&v=174511&cl=22707147157&_checksum=5e9dde668860e8231c33699735e16a1fbf22ab2cb01da50c999fe8732b9775ef&utm_source=email&utm_medium=blast_email&utm_campaign=174511
Cuba Is Not a Failed State – It Is a Besieged State
PETITION: “Global Appeal to Endorse Palestinian Right of Return of Refugees”
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