Archive for the 'Environment' Category
Russia Will Use Nuclear Reactors Beyond Their Engineered Life Spans
December 14th, 2011Via: The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists: In response to the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, countries such as Germany and Switzerland are preparing to phase out aging nuclear power plants. The Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom), however, is taking a very different approach. In 2001, Rosatom began extending the operation of […]
Company Wants to Mine the Moon’s Resources and Leave Trash Behind
December 12th, 2011Via: Los Angeles Times: Most people don’t take it literally when they’re told to shoot for the moon — but thinking small isn’t Naveen Jain’s way. The 52-year-old Internet entrepreneur is a co-founder of Moon Express Inc., one of several companies in the Google Lunar X Prize competition, in which privately funded teams will try […]
Japan Expands Rice Ban
December 8th, 2011Via: Bloomberg: Japan will extend a ban on rice shipments from a third city in Fukushima prefecture after local authorities found more tainted grain, deepening food-safety concerns nine months after a nuclear disaster. The ban will likely cover the Shibukawa area of Nihonmatsu City, about 55 kilometers (34 miles) from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, […]
BP Claims Halliburton Destroyed Gulf of Mexico Spill Evidence
December 6th, 2011Via: BBC: Oil giant BP has accused oilfields services firm Halliburton of destroying damaging evidence relating to last year’s oil well blast in the Gulf of Mexico in which 11 people were killed. At a hearing in a New Orleans’ court, BP said Halliburton had “intentionally” destroyed test results on its cement product used at […]
Japan: Scientists Call for Dumping Radioactive Soil Into Sea
December 5th, 2011Via: Asahi: Scientists have proposed dumping soil contaminated by radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster into the deep sea, an idea certain to meet opposition both at home and abroad. A group led by Isao Tanihata, a professor at Osaka University’s Research Center for Nuclear Physics, and Kozi Nakai, a former professor at the Tokyo […]
That Was Fast: New Zealand Government Has Reneged on Promise to Give Public a Say on Opencast Coalmine
November 30th, 2011Thanks, National voters. For f*ck’s sake. Via: New Zealand Herald: The Government has reneged on its promise to give the public a say on whether Bathurst Resources’ Denniston opencast coalmine should go ahead, on the first working day after the election, says Forest and Bird. After the Government’s back down last year on opening national […]
Yoshimasa Sakurai: Sustainable Way of Living
November 30th, 2011This is an astonishing resource, especially for people in New Zealand. Save locally and consider printing hard copies. Via: ecohouse.co.nz
‘On a scale of China’s food safety issues, pollution-tainted rice might just be the biggest problem of all.’
November 30th, 2011Via: Global Post: Rice is responsible for feeding half the world, or more than 3.5 billion people. In other words, rice is important. A tweak to how the grain is grown, sold or eaten can send ripples through the world economy. Take Thailand, which supplies 30 percent of the world’s rice. Government subsidies there threaten […]
New Zealand: 1 Million Didn’t Bother to Vote
November 28th, 2011Update: National Almost Beaten by The Abstention Party Via: New Zealand Herald: Voter turnout in the general election was an historic low of 68.8% of eligible voters. An argument can be made that the National Party was almost beaten by The Abstention Party, which won 31.2% of the (non)-vote. Once you take into account the […]
Climategate 2.0 Emails
November 26th, 2011WattsUpWithThat Climategate 2 FOIA 2011 Searchable Database
