Robert Hunziker – November 1, 2020

For nearly a decade the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant has been streaming radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean. As it happens, TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Co.) struggles to control it. Yet, the bulk of the radioactive water is stored in more than 1,000 water tanks.

Assuredly, Japan’s government has made an informal decision to dump Fukushima Daiichi’s radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean. A formal announcement could come as early as this year. Currently, 1.2 million tonnes of radioactive water is stored.

The problem: TEPCO is running out of storage space.

Government of Japan’s solution: Dump it into the Pacific Ocean.

Third-party expert solutions: Build more storage tanks.

Environmental groups insist there is no reason why additional storage tanks cannot be constructed outside the perimeter of the plant. They accuse the government of seeking the cheapest and quickest solution to the problem. All along, authorities have promised the site will be safe in 40 years. Really, only 40 years!

According to IAEA’s Director General Grossi, who visited Fukushima in February 2020, dumping radioactive water that is mainly contaminated with tritium meets global standards of practice. (Source: Michael Jacob in Tokyo, What! Is Japan Really Planning to Dump Radioactive Water From Fukushima Into the Ocean? Sweden-Science-Innovation, June 10, 2020)

https://www.counterpunch.org

Julie Celestial – November 6, 2020

Super Typhoon “Goni” (locally named Rolly) has left at least 20 fatalities and about 230 million dollars (11 billion pesos) worth of damage in the Philippines, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) reported Thursday, November 5, 2020. Up to 1.2 million people or 300 000 families have been affected in Regions II, III, and V; CALABARZON, MIMAROPA, and NCR. It made landfall over Bato, Catanduanes, and Tiwi, Albay, on October 31, with maximum sustained winds of 225 km/h (140 mph) and gusts to 280 km/h (174 mph), making it the world’s most powerful storm of the year and the country’s strongest landfalling tropical cyclone on record.

Following its first landfall over Catanduanes, Goni brought severe flooding to wide swaths of the Bicol region, as well as lahar flow from the nearby Mayon volcano.

Goni cut a path of destruction as it smashed infrastructure, toppled trees, and caused mudslides.

At least 20 fatalities were reported, mostly from Bicol, while three others remain missing. At least 165 people sustained injuries in the storm’s onslaught.

In Camarines Sur, widespread power outages occurred as strong winds lashed the region. Flash floods overwhelmed local villages, while roads were blocked by debris from lahar flow from Mayon volcano.

Hundreds of houses were submerged, with the famous tourist destination Cagsawa Ruins heavily inundated and engulfed with mud. Significant damage was reported to Naga Airport and Legazpi Airport, along with the loss of contact with Virac Airport.

“We have experienced terrible wind speeds, lashing rains, and devastating flooding,” said Oxfam Philippines’ Country Director Lot Felizco.

“Goni knocked out mobile phone service, power lines, uprooted trees, and caused damage to critical infrastructure, including hospitals and markets. Homes made of light materials, particularly those near Mayon Volcano, were engulfed in floodwater and volcanic mudflows.”

https://watchers.news

ZEYNEP BILGINSOY and ELENA BECATOROS – October 30, 2020

ISTANBUL (AP) — A strong earthquake struck Friday in the Aegean Sea between the Turkish coast and the Greek island of Samos, killing at least 19 people and injuring over 700 amid collapsed buildings and flooding, officials said.

A small tsunami struck the Seferihisar district south of Izmir, the city in western Turkey that was the worst affected by the quake, said Haluk Ozener, director of the Istanbul-based Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute.

At least 17 people were killed in Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest city, including one who drowned, and 709 were injured, according to Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, or AFAD.

Among the dead were the wife and two children of the secretary-general of the Turkish Medical Association’s Izmir branch, the group said.

On Samos, two teenagers died after being struck by a wall that collapsed. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis tweeted condolences, saying “Words are too poor to describe what one feels before the loss of children.”

At least 19 people were injured on the island, with two, including a 14-year-old, being airlifted to Athens and seven hospitalized on the island, health authorities said.

https://apnews.com

Newsmax – October 23, 2020

Wild weather is wreaking havoc on crops around the world, sending their prices skyrocketing.

On wheat farms in the U.S. and Russia, it’s a drought that’s ruining harvests. The soybean fields of Brazil are bone dry too, touched by little more than the occasional shower. In Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia, the problem is the exact opposite. Torrential downpours are causing flooding in rice fields and stands of oil palm trees.

The sudden emergence of these supply strains is a big blow to a global economy that has been struggling to regain its footing after the shock of the Covid-19 lockdowns. As prices soar on everything from sugar to cooking oil, millions of working-class families that had already been forced to scale back food purchases in the pandemic are being thrust deeper into financial distress.

What’s more, these increases threaten to push up broader inflation indexes in some countries and could make it harder for central bankers to keep providing monetary stimulus to shore up growth.

The Bloomberg Agriculture Spot Index, a gauge of nine crop prices, has risen 28% since late April to its highest level in more than four years. Wheat earlier this week was the most expensive since 2014.

“The fundamentals have changed dramatically since May,” said Don Roose, president of brokerage U.S. Commodities in Iowa. “The weather is bubbling to the top, and we have demand chugging in a bull market.”

The fallout from the pandemic means that the United Nations was already warning of a worst-case scenario in which about a tenth of the world’s population would go hungry this year. Things could become more dire if grocery costs keep rising and even more people can’t afford to eat.

https://www.newsmax.com

Alan Macleod – October 14, 2020

More than 55 million people in seven countries are in desperate need of COVID-19-related famine relief. That is according to a new report from international charity Oxfam, entitled “Later will be too late.” The report details how 55.5 million people in seven countries — Yemen, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Somalia — are living in severe-to-extreme levels of food insecurity or even famine conditions, thanks largely to the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

In March, the United Nations called for $10.3 billion in emergency funding to deal with the worldwide humanitarian impact the pandemic was expected to bring. Unfortunately, it has received barely a quarter of what it has asked for from donors. Every sector, including gender-based violence (58 percent funded), protection (27 percent), health (27 percent), and water, sanitation and hygiene (17 percent) are chronically under-funded. But the worst underwritten parts of its coronavirus response plan are food security (11 percent) and nutrition (3 percent). Indeed, in 5 of the 7 countries noted, the UN has received nothing at all to deal with the crisis. Oxfam called the international community’s response “dangerously inadequate.”

“The Committee for World Food Security must raise the alarm at the UN that famine is imminent on its watch and not enough is yet being done to stop it. We need a fairer and more sustainable food system that supports small scale producers. Years of neglect mean that millions upon millions of people remain unnecessarily vulnerable to shocks like COVID, climate change and conflict,” said Oxfam’s International interim Executive Director, Chema Vera.

Official estimates suggest that around 1.1 million people have died from COVID-19 globally since its emergence in China late last year. While the United States has seen the most cases and deaths overall, it is now countries in the global south that are the most intense hotbeds of the virus, with Brazil, Mexico, and India right behind the U.S. There are currently over 800,000 active cases in India alone.

https://www.mintpressnews.com

REBECCA SANTANA and STACEY PLAISANCE – October 9, 2020

LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) — Residents in south Louisiana braced to relive a nightmare Friday as bands of rain from approaching Hurricane Delta began soaking the same area of the state that was badly battered by a deadly hurricane six weeks ago.

The streets were largely vacant in the city of Lake Charles, where Hurricane Laura destroyed buildings in late August. Blue-tarped roofs stretched as far as the eye could see, and rain pooled around piles of moldy mattresses, sawed-up trees and other leftover debris that officials worried could cause more damage or deaths when Delta hits.

The first tropical storm force winds brushed the Louisiana coast Friday morning. At midday, the storm was 80 miles south-southwest of the coastal community of Cameron. Blustery winds ahead of the storm’s arrival began picking up at midday along with the rain.

“We just got lights back on like two weeks ago and then evacuating again? It’s extremely hard,” said Roslyn Kennedy. She was among a handful of evacuees at the Burton Coliseum in Lake Charles, waiting to be transported, again, to safer destinations.

Forecasters said the 25th named storm of an unprecedented Atlantic hurricane season would likely crash ashore Friday evening somewhere on southwest Louisiana’s coast. Hurricane warnings stretched from High Island, Texas, to Morgan City, Louisiana.

The question was how powerful Delta would be by the time it makes landfall. In its latest update Friday afternoon, the National Hurricane Center said Delta had continued to weaken and become a strong Category 2 storm with winds of 110 mph (175 kph). Earlier Friday, it had sustained winds of 115 mph (185 kph) .

Forecasters have said they expect the weakening trend to continue until Delta makes landfall along the U.S. Gulf Coast, but they cautioned that it remained a dangerous storm.

https://apnews.com

Teo Blašković – October 1, 2020

An intense earthquake swarm started near Salton Sea, California on September 30, 2020, with 421 earthquakes detected by 07:00 UTC on October 1.

• The swarm is centered just southeast of Salton Sea, near Westmorland in Imperial Valley, in an area with a history of intense swarms. The most notable earthquakes in the region include M5.8 in 1981 and M5.4 in 2012.
• During this earthquake swarm, the probability of larger earthquakes in this region is significantly greater than usual, the USGS said.
• The swarm is taking place in Brawley Seismic Zone, a network of small faults that connect the San Andreas and Imperial faults.

The USGS registered a total of 440 earthquakes from 10:06 UTC on September 30 to 07:33 UTC on October 1, 2020, with the largest M4.9 at 00:31 UTC on October 1, followed by M4.5, M4.4, M4.2, and two M4.1.

“This earthquake [M4.9] and the associated swarm are located in an area of diffuse seismic activity between the San Andreas fault in the north and the Imperial fault to the south,” USGS seismologists said in a statement.

“This area has also seen swarms in the past – notably the 1981 Westmorland swarm, which included a M5.8 earthquake, and the 2012 Brawley swarm, which included a M5.4 earthquake. Past swarms in this region have remained active for 1 to 20 days, with an average duration of about a week. The current swarm is occurring about 40 kilometers (25 miles) to the south of the swarm that occurred near Bombay Beach in August 2020.”

According to the USGS, there is approximately a 3 in 10 000 chance of a magnitude 7+ earthquake in the vicinity of this swarm in a typical week.

“[This is] one of the largest swarms we have had in the Imperial Valley,” seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones said.

https://watchers.news

KIRO 7 – September 23, 2020

PULLMAN, Wash. — Researchers at Washington State University say they have predicted how and where the Asian giant hornet – also dubbed the “murder hornet” — could spread and find ideal places to live in the US and across the world.

The team found that if the hornet gets a foothold in Washington state, it could spread down much of the West Coast.

The hornet could also find habitat throughout the eastern seaboard and parts of Africa, Australia, Europe and South America if humans accidentally transport it.

Researchers say the predictions emphasize how important it is to stop the large hornets in Washington before they spread.

Scientists from the state Department of Agriculture and WSU entomologists examined hundreds of records from the hornet’s native range in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, then used a set of ecological models and climate information to predict where it could likely live across six continents.

“We’re making an educated guess on how fast and far these insects can move, their rate of success in establishing a nest, and offering different scenarios, from least bad to worst. No one has done this before for this species,” said WSU entomologist Javier Illan.

Experts say the Asian giant hornet is a significant threat to Western honey bees. In late summer and fall, hornet colonies attack beehives, destroying entire colonies.

The hornets are most likely to thrive in places with warm summers, mild winters and a lot of rain. High heat will kill them, so their best habitats are in areas with a high temperature of 102 degrees.

Giant hornets could live along much of the US west and east coasts, adjacent parts of Canada, much of Europe, northwestern and southeastern South America, central Africa, eastern Australia and most parts of New Zealand, WSU said in a news release.

https://www.kiro7.com

Gianrigo Marletta, with Leila Macor – September 17, 2020

Shellshocked residents were cleaning up on Thursday after Hurricane Sally left a trail of destruction in US coastal towns stretching from Alabama to the top of the Florida panhandle.

Sally, which made landfall Wednesday as a Category 2 hurricane, turned streets into rivers, toppled trees and downed power lines.

“Our house had windows blow out,” Matt Wilson of Orange Beach, Alabama, one of the worst hit towns, told WPMI TV. “The whole house was shaking like a boat on the water.

“It was scary, man, it really was.”

Lieutenant Trent Johnson of the Orange Beach Police Department told AFP there had been one death in the city.

More than 400,000 homes and businesses in Alabama and Florida were still without power on Thursday, according to the tracking site poweroutage.us.

Some of the worst reported flooding occurred in the city of Pensacola, Florida, which has a population of around 52,000.

Downtown streets resembled lakes at the height of the storm with cars submerged to the tops of their wheels and ferocious winds whipping up whitecaps.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was to visit Pensacola on Thursday to survey the damage, which included a missing section of a major new bridge across Pensacola Bay.

A 7:00 pm to 6:00 am curfew was imposed in Pensacola and surrounding counties.

Wilson, the Orange Beach resident, said his house had suffered severe damage and his family fled their home at the height of the storm.

“Everything on the ground floor is gone,” he told WPMI. “We ended up leaving the house during the eye of the storm… and waded through about five foot of water to our neighbor’s house arm in arm.”

https://www.spacedaily.com

Newsmax – September 11, 2020

Around half a million people in Oregon, or 10% of the state’s population, were ordered to evacuate on Friday and residents of its largest city, Portland, were told to be ready to go as extreme wind-driven wildfires scorched U.S. West Coast states, causing at least 24 deaths.

About 100 wildfires have burned an area nearly as large as the state of New Jersey across the U.S. West, creating smoke that gave California, Oregon and Washington state the worst air quality levels in the world.

Oregon bore the brunt of the destruction, with search teams still unable to enter areas where fires burned through multiple small communities in the Cascade mountains.

Molalla, a community about 25 miles (40 km) south of downtown Portland, was an ash-covered ghost town after its more than 9,000 residents were told to evacuate, only 30 refusing to leave, the city’s fire department said.

The logging town was on the front line of a vast evacuation zone stretching north to within three miles (4.8 km) of downtown Portland, with Clackamas County police setting a 10 p.m. PT (0500 on Saturday GMT) curfew to deter “possible increased criminal activity.”

About 10 percent of the state’s population faced red “GO!” warnings to leave homes immediately, while hundreds of thousands more were under yellow “BE SET” warnings, to leave at a moment’s notice, or green “BE READY” alerts.

Towns southeast of Portland were at the mercy of wind direction and strength after two of Oregon’s largest wildfires merged into one.

https://www.newsmax.com