Documentary on Fukushima town screened at Berlin film festival

BERLIN, 13 February 2012 (Kyodo) – A documentary film featuring residents forced to evacuate their town, home to the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, was screened Sunday at the Berlin International Film Festival. “I hope nobody in the world will have such an experience like ours again,” Katsutaka Idogawa, mayor of Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, […]

Video: Cleanup at New Zealand shipwreck

By Arlene Paredes8 February 2012 The ill-fated MV Rena, which brought to New Zealand its worst maritime disaster, has so far cost $130 million, and $28 million of this amount has come from taxpayers, the Bay of Plenty Times reported. However, another episode of bad weather has disrupted the operations to fully assess the damage […]

In Fukushima, a confused nuclear cleanup – ‘It’s a scam’

By HIROKO TABUCHI10 February 2012 IITATE, Japan – As 500 workers in hazmat suits and respirator masks fanned out to decontaminate this village 20 miles from the ravaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors, their confusion was apparent. “Dig five centimeters or 10 centimeters deep here?” a site supervisor asked his colleagues, pointing to a patch of […]

Graph of the Day: Yale Environmental Performance Index for 132 Countries, 2000-2010

The 2012 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) and Pilot Trend EPI (Trend EPI) rank 132 countries on 22 performance indicators in ten policy categories and two overarching objectives that reflect facets of Environmental Health and Ecosystem Vitality. These indicators provide a gauge of how close countries are to environmental policy goals. The EPI’s proximity-to-target methodology facilitates […]

Image of the Day: Satellite View of Shell Deepwater Oil Spill Off Nigeria coast, 21 December 2011

By Sara Scoville-Weaver 21 December 2011 Royal Dutch Shell’s Nigerian drilling operations in the highly productive Bonga Field were officially brought to a halt yesterday after “less than 40,000 barrels of oil” (1.7 million gallons) were reportedly leaked during a transfer of crude to a tanker. We’ve just processed a radar satellite image taken this […]

California protects vanishing frogs under state Endangered Species Act

Contact: Jeff Miller, (415) 669-73572 February 2012 SACRAMENTO, California – The California Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously today to designate two species of native frogs inhabiting high-elevation lakes in the Sierra Nevada and Southern California mountain ranges as threatened and endangered species under the state’s Endangered Species Act. More than 75 percent of the […]

Chevron rig fire off Nigeria polluting coastal water sources

Yenagoa, Nigeria (IRIN) – Nigeria’s Bayelsa State government said yesterday it would speed up the release of money over the next two weeks to help hundreds of thousands of villagers affected by a Chevron off-shore oil spill in January. The affected areas are Kolo Ama I and II, Akasa, Sanagana, Fish Town, Fropa, Ekeni, Ezetu […]

Video: Debris from Japan tsunami washing up onto Washington shores – ‘Unprecedented in recorded history; a debris field the size of California’

By Eric Johnson8 February 2012 SEATTLE – Debris from last year’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan is already washing up on Washington beaches, and much more is expected. Oceanographer Dr. Curtis Ebbsmeyer said chunks of wood and plastic and other pieces of flotsam from the tsunami will continue to show up on local beaches for […]

Graph of the Day: Map of All Mercury Emissions from U.S. Coal-fired Power Plants, November 2011

By Sue Sturgis2 November 2011 Rank of coal-fired power plants among America’s biggest sources of air pollution: 1 Of the five leading causes of death in the United States, number to which coal plant pollution contributes: 4 Number of U.S. water bodies impaired by mercury, a particularly toxic component of coal plant pollution: 3,781 Of […]

Extremely high levels of radioactive cesium found in earthworm castings from Fukushima soil

By arevamirpal::laprimavera 7 February 2012 There was a piece of news about 20,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium found in earthworms collected in Kawauchi-mura, Fukushima Prefecture (20 kilometers from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant) in Mainichi Shinbun (2/6/2012). The article says the researchers at the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, a government institution, found radioactive […]

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