Tag: disaster

Dumping Fukushima’s Water into the Ocean What could possibly go wrong?

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

Super Typhoon “Goni” leaves 20 dead in Philippines, country’s strongest storm on record

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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

Scientists discover ‘devastating’ NEW genetic disease that’s killed 40% of known patients by attacking lungs and immune system

RT – November 1, 2020

The new condition, which is caused by genetic mutations, has shown a particularly high death rate, as patients were not responding to any currently available treatments, the researchers said.

The disease – ‘vacuoles, E1 enzyme, X-linked, autoinflammatory and somatic syndrome’ – has been dubbed VEXAS. It causes symptoms that include blood clots in veins, recurrent fevers, abnormalities in the lungs, and vacuoles – unusual cavity-like structures – in the myeloid cells, which play a crucial part in the human immune system.

Researchers at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) came across the disease after analyzing the genome sequences of more than 2,500 people with undiagnosed inflammatory diseases. In comparing the data, they found that 25 adult males had particular mutations in the UBA1 gene, which is believed to be the source of VEXAS.

“Instead of looking at clinical similarities, we were instead taking advantage of shared genomic similarities that could help us discover a completely new disease,” said Daniel Kastner, the scientific director of the Intramural Research Program at the National Human Genome Research Institute.

The NIH reported that the new disease “can be life-threatening,” as 40 percent of the VEXAS patients the researchers studied have died. The high death toll revealed “the devastating consequences of the severe condition,” the team stated.

Kastner told NBC News that patients with VEXAS become “really sick,” and “don’t respond to any treatments, from high doses of steroids to various chemotherapies.”

https://www.rt.com

Quake strikes Turkish coast and Greek island, killing 19

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

Floods, Drought Are Destroying Crops and Sparking Food Inflation

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

New mass deaths of sea animals discovered off Russia’s Kamchatka

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Authorities reported Monday, October 12, 2020, that a new mass die-off of marine animals has been discovered off the coast of Russia’s Kamchatka, where mysterious toxic pollution along a 40 km (25 miles) stretch recently killed 95 percent of seabed animals and caused health hazards among surfers since September.

Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov said he received reports from scientists and witnesses of dead marine creatures off the coast, following the initial discovery last week.

Divers who studied the waters reported that 95 percent of seabed creatures were found dead, including sea urchins, octopi, seals, and starfish. Greenpeace Russia called the situation an “ecological disaster,” which prompted authorities to investigate marine pollution.

“95 percent are dead,” said Ivan Usatov of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve in a meeting with other scientists and Solodov. “Some large fish, shrimps, and crabs have survived, but in very small numbers.”

Solodov noted that neighboring beaches were not affected, but the evidence showed that “the scale of the occurrence is extremely large.”

He added that the deaths were “almost certainly linked to climate change and other polluting effects we as humankind cause to the Pacific Ocean.”

“We can’t say that a local man-made object near [the port city of] Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky was the cause,” the governor said.

https://watchers.news

Historical Epidemic Making a Scary Comeback Due to a Bacterial ‘Clone’

Ricky Scaparo – October 10, 2020

(ETH) – A deadly pathogen called scarlet fever was once the leading cause of death for children across the western world and was nearly eradicated thanks to 20th-century medicine but new outbreaks of it have surfaced in the UK and North East Asia over recent years suggesting we’ve still got a long way to go

The reason we are experiencing a resurgence of this deadly pathogen still remains a mystery. However, a new study has reportedly uncovered clues in the genome of one of the bacterial strains responsible, showing just how complex the family tree of infectious diseases can be.

According to the report from Science Alert, The species behind the illness is group A strep, or Streptococcus pyogenes; which is a ball-shaped microbe that can churn out toxic compounds called superantigens, that are capable of wreaking havoc inside the body. Especially in children. Results of this in the body can cause mild symptoms such as a bad rash and be as severe as causing a toxic shock that causes organs to fail.

With the invention of antibiotics, outbreaks could easily be managed before they got out of hand. By the 1940s, the disease was well on the way out but this looks to be changing. “After 2011, the global reach of the pandemic became evident with reports of a second outbreak in the UK,

beginning in 2014, and we’ve now discovered outbreak isolates here in Australia,” says the University of Queensland molecular biologist Stephan Brouwer. “This global re-emergence of scarlet fever has caused a more than five-fold increase in disease rate and more than 600,000 cases around the world.”

https://endtimeheadlines.org

Louisiana braces to relive a nightmare with Hurricane Delta

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

Trump says he and first lady tested positive for coronavirus

JILL COLVIN and ZEKE MILLER – October 2, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said early Friday that he and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the coronavirus, a stunning announcement that plunges the country deeper into uncertainty just a month before the presidential election.

Trump, who has spent much of the year downplaying the threat of a virus that has killed more than 205,000 Americans, said he and Mrs. Trump were quarantining. The White House physician said the president is expected to continue carrying out his duties “without disruption” while recovering.

Still, Trump’s diagnosis was sure to have a destabilizing effect in Washington, raising questions about how far the virus had spread through the highest levels of the U.S. government. Hours before Trump announced he had contracted the virus, the White House said a top aide who had traveled with him during the week had tested positive.

“Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately,” Trump tweeted just before 1 a.m. “We will get through this TOGETHER!”

Trump was last seen by reporters returning to the White House on Thursday evening and did not appear visibly ill. Trump is 74 years old, putting him at higher risk of serious complications from a virus that has infected more than 7 million people nationwide.

The president’s physician said in a memo that Trump and the first lady, who is 50, “are both well at this time” and “plan to remain at home within the White House during their convalescence.”

https://apnews.com

Texas residents warned of tap water tainted with brain-eating microbe

Guardian – September 26, 2020

Texas officials have warned residents of some communities near Houston to stop using tap water because it might be tainted with a deadly brain-eating microbe.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality warned the Brazosport Water Authority late on Friday of the potential contamination of its water supply by Naegleria fowleri.

The commission issued an advisory warning people not to use tap water for any reason except to flush toilets in Lake Jackson, Freeport, Angleton, Brazoria, Richwood, Oyster Creek, Clute and Rosenberg.

Those communities are home to about 120,000 people. Also affected are the Dow Chemical works in Freeport, which has 4,200 employees, and the Clemens and Wayne Scott state prison units, which have 2,345 inmates and 655 employees.

The Brazosport Water Authority’s water source is the Brazos river.

Naegleria fowleri is a microscopic amoeba commonly found in warm freshwater and soil, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It usually infects people when contaminated water enters the body through the nose, from where it travels to the brain and can cause a rare and debilitating disease called primary amebic meningoencephalitis.

The infection is usually fatal and typically occurs when people go swimming or diving in warm freshwater places such as lakes and rivers. In very rare instances, Naegleria infections may also occur when contaminated water from other sources, such as inadequately chlorinated swimming pool water or heated and contaminated tap water, enters the nose.

https://www.theguardian.com