https://www.skepticalscience.com/Heartland-Institute-misinformation-campaign-schools.html
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21 April 2017 by John Cook
Last month, the Heartland Institute sent a climate denial booklet to 25,000 teachers around the US. In Episode 8 of the Evidence Squared podcast, we look at the why and how of this book. What is the chief motivation for the book’s misinformation and what are the techniques they employ to cast doubt on climate science?
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April 24, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
spinbuster, USA |
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Kelly: Trump will face nuclear North Korea in this term http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/330107-kelly-trump-will-deal-with-nuclear-north-korea-before-his-second-term BY MALLORY SHELBOURNE – 04/23/17 Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said Sunday that President Trump will face a nuclear-armed North Korea with missiles that could reach the United States in this term.
“I think Mr. Trump will be dealing with this in real terms before he starts his second term,” Kelly told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Kelly refused to answer host Dana Bash’s question over whether or not the U.S. military could shoot down a missile from North Korea, telling Bash that the information is classified. Kelly did say the United States will be “at grave risk” when a North Korean missile can reach its shores.
“The instant that happens, this country is at grave risk,” said Kelly.
North Korea earlier this month failed to launch a ballistic missile on its east coast. The launch came amidst mounting tensions between the U.S. and North Korea, as the Trump administration continues talks with China over how to curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
April 24, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
North Korea, weapons and war |
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Sec. John Kelly: Terrorism on US Planes Keeps Me ‘Awake at Night, http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/john-kelly-terrorism-us-planes-keeps-me-awake/2017/04/23/id/785878/, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said Sunday a terrorist plot against American planes “keeps me literally awake at night,” calling the threat “something that is very real.”
In an interview on CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” Kelly said a successful strike at a U.S. plane would kill “hundreds and hundreds of people in one fell swoop.” “The … thing that keeps me literally awake at night is the threat against aviation,” he said. “We know that would be the Super Bowl for the terrorists to knock down an air plane in flight, particularly if it was full of Americans.
“There are a number of plots that we’re watching very, very closely— very sophisticated, very threatening, and the number-one thing in my mind is to protect the American people,” he added, calling the “aviation threat… something that is very real.”
On the issue of North Korea’s threat to the nation, Kelly said “as long as they’re on the other side of the world without a missile and a nuclear weapon to deliver against the United States, they’re not much threat right now— except in the world of cyber. They’re pretty aggressive when they want to be in cyber,.”
“The instant they get a missile that can reach the United States, and they have a weaponized atomic device, nuclear device on it, we’re at grave risk as a nation,” he warned.
April 24, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
safety, USA |
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Jeremy Corbyn does not guarantee the Labour manifesto will back Trident nuclear weapons
Jeremy Corbyn was grilled on pushing the “nuclear button” and killing the leader of ISIS in his first big TV interview of the general election campaign, Mirror, BYDAN BLOOM 23 APR 2017
Jeremy Corbyn has thrown Labour’s controversial support for Britain’s nuclear weapons programme Trident into question by failing to guarantee it will be in the party’s manifesto.
The Labour leader swerved the question in a TV interview today by saying the document was still being drawn up.
Mr Corbyn is a lifelong anti-nuclear campaigner but Labour policy supports the renewal of
Trident – for which the government has set aside £41bn and campaigners say will cost £205bn.
That has caused ructions in the 18 months since he became Labour leader and the party split three ways on whether to back renewal last year. In a testy interview Mr Corbyn also did not guarantee he would push the so-called “nuclear button” to launch a pre-emptive strike.
And he did not guarantee he would authorise a strike to kill ISIS’ leader, instead saying any killing must support a “political solution”.
Pressed on whether killing ISIS’s leader would help that solution, Mr Corbyn said: “I think the leader of ISIS not being around would be helpful and I’m no supporter or defender in any way whatsoever of ISIS.”
But he added the bombing campaign had killed innocent civilians.
Labour later attempted to clarify Mr Corbyn’s remarks in a statement saying: “The decision to renew Trident has been taken and Labour supports that.”
Mr Corbyn clashed with the BBC’s Andrew Marr in his first major broadcast interview of the 2017 general election campaign……..http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/jeremy-corbyn-not-guarantee-labour-10278663
April 24, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
politics, UK |
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“We consider it a major victory,” said Karen Hadden of the Sustainable Energy & Economic Development Coalition, an environmental advocacy group that has opposed Waste Control Specialists’ expansion plans.
While the company’s questionable finances were a factor in its request, Hadden suggested that mounting public opposition might also have played a role.
West Texas nuclear waste project on hold — for now Dallas-based Waste Control
Specialists has asked the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to temporarily suspend a review of its application to store tens of thousands of metric tons of spent nuclear fuel at its West Texas dump. The Texas Tribune BY JIM MALEWITZ AND KIAH COLLIER APRIL 19, 2017 A proposal to bring the nation’s spent nuclear fuel to West Texas appears to be on the ropes.
Waste Control Specialists, which currently stores low-level radioactive waste in Andrews County, has asked the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to temporarily suspend a review of its application to store tens of thousands of metric tons of spent nuclear fuel currently scattered at reactor sites throughout the country. The Dallas-based company pitched the massive expansion as a solution to a problem that has bedeviled policymakers for decades.
The reason for the requested freeze? The company, which runs the state’s only radioactive waste dump, is bleeding cash and is struggling to find the estimated $7.5 million needed to continue the licensing process. Waste Control Specialists “is faced with a magnitude of financial burdens that currently make pursuit of licensing unsupportable,” Rod Baltzer, the company’s president and CEO, said in a letter to the federal commission dated Tuesday.
The review’s price tag caught the company off guard, Baltzer wrote.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission confirmed Wednesday that it would freeze the review.
“Managers are working with the staff to close out their work to prepare for a future resumption, and to reassign them to other casework,” said Maureen Conley, a commission spokeswoman.
The request comes as EnergySolutions, a Salt Lake-city based waste company, is trying to buy Waste Control Specialists. The U.S. Department of Justice is suing to block the merger, arguing it would essentially create a monopoly on radioactive waste disposal.
“WCS expects to go forward with this project at the earliest possible opportunity after completion of the sale,” Baltzer said in a statement.
Experts call this week’s request a setback for a project that the company initially suggested it would start constructing by 2019; opponents of the plan declared the request a win for their side.
“We consider it a major victory,” said Karen Hadden of the Sustainable Energy & Economic Development Coalition, an environmental advocacy group that has opposed Waste Control Specialists’ expansion plans.
While the company’s questionable finances were a factor in its request, Hadden suggested that mounting public opposition might also have played a role. In February, Bexar County commissioners unanimously approved a resolution opposing shipment of high-level nuclear waste through the San Antonio area on its way to the site. Midland-area residents have urged local officials there to back a similar resolution.
And several longtime Andrews residents spoke out against the project in February during a public hearing held by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
“I think WCS is becoming aware that this is a bigger battle than they anticipated,” said Hadden…..
Waste Control Specialists has been the only company in the country officially seeking to build a temporary storage facility while the federal government grapples with finding a permanent disposal site. But this month, a New Mexico group submitted an application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build a temporary storage facility, just across the state line from Andrews.
In a 2014 letter to his then-fellow state leaders, Rick Perry — who championed the WCS expansion as Texas governor — cited that competition as reason to move ahead with the project. He now heads the U.S. Department of Energy, which plays a major role in advancing and implementing policy on nuclear waste. https://www.texastribune.org/2017/04/19/west-texas-nuclear-waste-project-hold-now/
April 24, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
USA, wastes |
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Bill McKibben New York Times, 23 Apr 17
President Trump is in charge at a critical moment for keeping climate change in check. We may never recover. President Trump’s environmental onslaught will have immediate, dangerous effects. (subscribers only)
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/t/-6735592669933143349
April 24, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
general |
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Nuclear ‘bailout’ debate heats up, http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/nuclear-bailout-debate-heats-up-1.2184204 BY ROBERT SWIFT, HARRISBURG BUREAU CHIEF, 23 APR 17, HARRISBURG —Nuclear energy is emerging as a live issue at the statehouse in a way not seen since the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in March 1979 — nearly 40 years ago.
The formation of a very diverse coalition to oppose any nuclear “bailouts” following the creation by lawmakers last month of a pro-Nuclear Energy caucus sets the stage for a potential clash over the future of nuclear plants. The nuclear industry has faced plant shutdowns across the nation and problems selling its electricity at competitive rates, with competition from cheaper natural gas in recent years.
New York State has approved a surcharge on customers’ electric bills to provide a subsidy to keep plants open. Other bailout proposals would inflate electricity prices to help the industry.
No actual proposals have surfaced in Harrisburg to have electricity customers pay surcharges to help keep Pennsylvania’s five nuclear plants open. The legislative caucus said its top priority is preserving the jobs of nuclear plant workers, including 1,000 employees at the Susquehanna power plant in Salem Twp. owned by Talen Energy.
But Citizens Against Nuclear Bailouts isn’t waiting for a bill to appear. This coalition of consumer groups, business groups and other power generators wants to stop a bailout in its tracks. Surcharges would hit senior citizens and working families, coalition members said. A bailout would fly in the face of Pennsylvania’s decision to deregulate its electric market nearly 20 years ago, they added.
The statement by the Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association is interesting:
“Like every other industry, nuclear power providers should be free to compete for customers in the electricity market, but they shouldn’t benefit from a taxpayer or ratepayer bailout,” said PMA President David Taylor
April 24, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
politics, USA |
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Dorking narrowly avoided ‘nuclear bomb drop’ fiasco, http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-surrey-39684216, 23 Apr 17, Scientists working on the UK’s first atom bomb narrowly avoided a fiasco when they nearly dropped a five tonne replica on Dorking, it has emerged.
The dummy device was being flown to Orford Ness, a top secret military test site in Suffolk, in the early 1950s.It came loose in the bomb bay while over the Surrey town, about 20 miles from London, but the bomb doors held.An engineer who worked on the device said it was then dropped in the Thames estuary, where it remains to this day.
Fortunately, the device contained no explosives or nuclear material.
The revelation is made in a BBC Four documentary, Britain’s Nuclear Bomb: The Inside Story. Reg Milne, of the Royal Aircraft Establishment, told the programme: “One flight to Orford Ness, a bomb came loose over Dorking. It fell off its hook. “Luckily the bomb doors were strong enough to hold it.” He revealed: “The pilot took the aircraft over the Thames estuary, opened the bomb doors, and the bomb fell out.” He said the huge splash that resulted nearly drowned a couple of sailors nearby.
“They never found it – it’s still in the Thames somewhere,” he added.
The programme features interviews with military veterans and scientists who took part in the atomic bomb programme, some speaking for the first time, plus newly released footage of the British atomic bomb tests.
At the time, with the UK excluded from the US nuclear programme, scientists were scrambling to make a British bomb and seemingly cutting a few corners in the process. According to the programme, highly radioactive plutonium was also frequently transported in a lead-lined box by car from the research reactor in Cumbria to a testing site in south London.
On one occasion, the vehicle broke down and the driver had to knock doors to get help. As a result, the dangerous material allegedly spent several hours in the boot of a Vauxhall stranded in a pub car park. Britain’s Nuclear Bomb: The Inside Story will be broadcast on BBC Four on 3 May.
April 24, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
history, UK |
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Hitachi set for talks with business secretary Greg Clark over Welsh nuclear plant, http://www.cityam.com/263354/hitachi-set-talks-business-secretary-greg-clark-over-welsh Mark Sands City A.M’s political reporter, 23 Apr `17 . Bosses at Japanese energy giant Hitachi are due to meet business secretary Greg Clark for talks just weeks after the firm applied for approval to build its Wylfa nuclear project in Anglesey.
Hitachi chairman Hiroaki Nakanishi will meet with Clark this week as government planning continues over the creation of a fleet of new nuclear projects in the UK.
Horizon, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, plans to build and operate two nuclear reactors at Wylfa, capable of generating enough to power around 10 million homes by the mid 2020s.
The application to build the Wylfa reactors earlier this month was the first since 2011, and has been predicted to take around 19 months.
April 24, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
business and costs, UK |
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Ex-CIA operative Valerie Plame talks nuclear, cyber threats at CMU, Pittsburgh Post Gazette April 22, 2017, by Courtney Linder It’s two and a half minutes to midnight,” said Valerie Plame, a former covert operative for the Central Intelligence Agency. “The clock says we’re closer to human extinction than ever since 1953.”
Ms. Plame, who worked to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons, referred to the Science and Security Board’s “Doomsday Clock” in her keynote speech at Carnegie Mellon University on Friday, prefacing a panel on inclusivity in STEM — or science, technology, engineering and math — for students and faculty.
In her hour-long discussion of nuclear threats and cybersecurity, Ms. Plame kept the conversation solutions-oriented, rather than dwelling on the high-profile “Plamegate” scandal that ended her espionage career……..
Ms. Plame didn’t hesitate to criticize those who don’t fully grasp the power of nuclear armaments.
“It’s very clear [President Donald Trump] doesn’t understand much about the nuclear threat,” she said, citing his first television interview as president. He told ABC’s David Muir that having access to the nuclear codes was “very, very, very scary.”
“The fundamental problem is not that Trump has access to the nuclear launch codes, but that they exist at all,” she said. Ms. Plame offered that Mr. Trump could “be the very person to move us toward nuclear disarmament,” prescribing a diet that includes a “no first use” policy, which pledges a country won’t use nuclear arms unless first attacked by an adversary that is using them.
But the only true answer is abolition of nuclear weapons, she said.
In the same vein, she called for deterrence of cyberattacks and influence operations, noting the Democratic National Committee email leak last year. The U.S. needs to work harder to protect its citizens from cyberattacks, she said, deterring use of domestic cyberwarfare, not just abroad.
“To my knowledge, no one has died from a cyberattack … but there is a gray area between peace and war,” she said.
Despite being publicly outed from her own position, she asked that the best and brightest at CMU consider working in public service.
“I believe in much more diplomacy, not less,” Ms. Plame said. “We are living in unprecedented times.” http://www.post-gazette.com/business/2017/04/22/valerie-plame-plamegate-explained-controversy-movie/stories/201704220042
April 24, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
general |
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For the first time on record, human-caused climate change has rerouted an entire river, WP By Chris Mooney April 17 A team of scientists on Monday documented what they’re describing as the first case of large-scale river reorganization as a result of human-caused climate change.
They found that in mid-2016, the retreat of a very large glacier in Canada’s Yukon territory led to the rerouting of its vast stream of meltwater from one river system to another — cutting down flow to the Yukon’s largest lake, and channeling freshwater to the Pacific Ocean south of Alaska, rather than to the Bering Sea.
The researchers dubbed the reorganization an act of “rapid river piracy,” saying that such events had often occurred in the Earth’s geologic past, but never before, to their knowledge, as a sudden present-day event. They also called it “geologically instantaneous.”
“The river wasn’t what we had seen a few years ago. It was a faded version of its former self,” lead study author Daniel Shugar of the University of Washington at Tacoma said of the Slims River, which lost much of its flow because of the glacial change. “It was barely flowing at all. Literally, every day, we could see the water level dropping, we could see sandbars popping out in the river.”
The study was published in Nature Geoscience. Shugar conducted the study with researchers from six Canadian and U.S. universities.
The study found that the choking of the Slims River in turn deprived Kluane Lake, the largest body of water in the Yukon Territory. The lake level was at a record low in August, and two small communities that live on the lake may now have to adjust to the lower water levels…….https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/04/17/for-the-first-time-on-record-human-caused-climate-change-has-rerouted-an-entire-river/?utm_term=.8504cbe15d03
April 24, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
Canada, climate change |
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Mining Awareness +
April 22nd was officially Earth Day. Everyday needs to be Earth Day.
NASA Earth-Rise Christmas Eve 1968
The human population of the earth has more than doubled since the Earth-Rise picture was taken in 1968, making caretaking of the earth more urgent.
Schedelsche Weltchronik or Nuremberg Chronicle Date 1493
Here in an old, old tradition from thousands of years ago, written almost 2,000 years ago, one sees much biological truth. The human body reflects the earth and water itself. If you poison the earth and the water with lethal radionuclides, humans and other life takes up these man-made radionuclides:
Genesis 2:6 “But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” In this context, nuclear…
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April 23, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
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geoharvey
Opinion:
¶ “This Earth Day, 100 percent clean energy is 100 percent possible” • More than 25 US cities, 12 countries, and at least 89 companies have all committed to transition to 100% renewable energy. It is time to recognize that with the right mix of clean energy technologies and solutions, 100% renewable is 100% possible. [Environmental Defense Fund]
100% clean energy
¶ “Out of sight, out of mind: The energy department website shifts focus to the economy” • The US DOE’s pages on bioenergy and wind energy as well as transportation have both reduced their mentions of greenhouse gas emissions and reducing fossil fuel use in favor of language more geared toward jobs and energy independence. [Salon]
Science and Technology:
¶ And another vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft takes to the sky, this time it was the first successful test flight of the Lilium…
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April 23, 2017
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Radiation Free Lakeland
The following is kindly reposted from the facebook page of Bob Alvarez
“Dr. Alice M. Stewart, a dear family friend, at our home in the late 1970’s.
Her findings, first published in 1955, suggesting that a single x-ray of the fetus could lead to childhood cancer provided the first human evidence that there was no safe dose of ionizing radiation. Although the British nuclear establishment, led by Richard Doll, blocked her promotion at Oxford University and prevented British government funding, the US food and Drug Administration (FDA) supported her research for several years. In the 1970’s, the FDA advised doctors against exposing pregnant women to x-rays.
By then Alice had built a massive set of data known as the Oxford Survey of Childhood Cancers (20,000 cases and matching controls from all children born in Britain following WWII). It took decades before fetal x-rays were effectively banned by the medical profession…
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April 23, 2017
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Mining Awareness +
Norwegian NGO Bellona reports:
“Another Russian non-profit tarred as a foreign agent for little more than existing. In a continuing crusade against environmental groups, Russia’s Justice Ministry on Thursday named the Murmansk area Kola Ecological Center as its 158th ‘foreign agent,’posing the threat of fines and closure to the organization.” Published on April 21, 2017 by Anna Kireeva, Charles Digges
Excerpted from the article:
“The group didn’t receive any foreign grants in 2016, so after a planned audit, the ministry decided instead to target the organization’s activities for the previous year, during which it received some cash from abroad, its former director, Yury Ivanov, told Bellona… the group offered up a critique of plans by officials at the Kola Nuclear Power Plant, which is also in the Murmansk Region, to extend the run time of its elderly number 4 reactor to 2044, for a total of…
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April 23, 2017
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nuclear-news 