Toxic Waste // Current

Following The Trail Of Toxic E-Waste - 60 Minutes

60 Minutes is going to take you to one of the most toxic places on Earth - a place government officials and gangsters don't... more

khaosworks
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5 responses

9 days ago

Trapped in black tar: How the oil sands made Canada a suburb of Fort McMurray

Sometimes I feel like I'm living in Russia or Nigeria, I swear to god." Andrew Nikiforuk is on stage at the Capilano Performing Arts Theatre, reflecting on life in Alberta as an outspoken critic of the tar sands. Yet one of the most decorated magazine writers in the country spared little as he carved up the captains of industry and politicians behind Alberta's massive oil boom, in front of about 200 people on Oct. 26.

Drawing on his new book, Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of the Continent, Nikiforuk forcefully outlined a very ugly business. He described the tar sands development as the largest capital project in the world, at $200 billion since 1996 when the associated pipelines and refineries are rolled in.

Then he set out the stakes. The development of the world's dirtiest oil has made Canada the biggest supplier of the United States' massive energy needs for the last seven years. "While we were having our donuts at Tim Hortons, we were becoming what Stephen Harper calls an 'emerging energy superpower.' "

Nikiforuk also set out the consequences. Not just the environmental ones -- we'll get to those. The political ones. "We are now a petro-state," Nikiforuk declared, with a wildly fluctuating petro dollar, noting that in Nigeria, Venezuela and Russia the consequences are not too subtle. "In Alberta, it's a little more subtle."

The implications of all that oil lucre sloshing loosely about in politics and society are rather profound, Nikiforuk argued, noting that the only real democracies in the Middle East are the countries without any oil. In British Columbia, he says, our complicity is being bought with the tar sands' dirty money. Toxic sour-gas wells that feed the tar sands' own enormous energy demands are putting $2 billion a year in the B.C. government's coffers. The feds are getting $5 billion to $6 billion a year in tar sands-related corporate tax revenue, Nikiforuk estimates. "They've used it to lower your taxes."

He quoted Thomas Friedman's twist on preacher Jonathan Mayhew's famous 1750 dictum: "There is no representation without taxation." In other words, if oil companies are the ones improving governments' accounts, then governments will do the oil companies' bidding, not ours.

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A 2008 industry-funded study suggested that the "steam-assisted gravity drainage" projects (as opposed to the open-pit mines) could extirpate caribou, bear, moose and fish from between one and three million acres. Water in the Athabaska region is in decline by 30 percent since the 1960s, Nikiforuk said. The process of extracting oil from the sand requires vast quantities of water, and produces enormous volumes of toxic waste. Nikiforuk said a dozen tailings ponds cover 50 square kilometers, held back by sand dams that rival the Three Gorges dam in size. "They're all leaking."

Nikiforuk asserts that efforts to monitor the effect on the Athabaska watershed, part of the third-largest river system in the world, is pathetic. In 2004, Nikiforuk said, federal scientists declared that the monitoring program "was designed to find nothing."

"This is Third World," Nikiforuk observes. "It's really disturbing that this would happen in a country like Canada."

http://thetyee.ca/Books/2008/11/06/BlackTar/
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It boils down to this: Canada is now America's drug dealer and making a good profit from it ( the government that is) at the expense of our climate balance, human health, and biodiversity. There is no more stark an example of human greed and political audacity than this. As this speaker asks: how could this happen in a country like Canada? So the next question then is: what will the Obama policy be on tar sands? And if it is continued, how does that make any plan to bring "green jobs" here sustainable with this kind of environmental devastation continuing to be allowed by this government with them profiting from it? This must stop. This country needs an intervention!Sometimes I feel like I'm living in Russia or Nigeria, I swear to god." Andrew Nikiforuk is on stage at the Capilano... more

JanforGore
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12 responses

10 days ago

Both candidates tout 'clean coal'- but it doesn't exist!

Holy crap. Is the onslaught of clean coal's internet ads driving anyone else nuts? You can't open a news website without... more

JanforGore
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22 responses

22 days ago

Mongolia mining boom destroying rivers, nomadic lives

A mining boom in Mongolia is threatening to devastate the country's rivers and is forcing nomadic herders to abandon their... more

JanforGore
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8 responses

25 days ago

Men jailed over Ivorian toxic waste

Two men have been jailed in the Ivory Coast over the dumping of toxic waste, which killed 17 people and made thousands ill. In... more

goldenways
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8 responses

27 days ago

Dutch Dump Waste in Third World

A court in Ivory Coast has sentenced two people to 20 years and five years in jail for dumping hundreds of tonnes of toxic waste... more

logicpocket
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0 responses

27 days ago

Science teacher swims to protect world's oceans

Next spring, Marblehead resident Christopher Swain will dive into the Atlantic Ocean in Boston and begin an 800-mile swim to... more

JanforGore
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14 responses

28 days ago

Environmental exploitation of the Navajo nation

'Mother Earth, I am your child.' The environmental exploitation of the lands of the Southwest and the Navajo nation is a... more

JanforGore
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12 responses

1 month ago

Europe fumes over Wall Street meltdown

William Engdahl: Europe furious that AAA US bonds turned out to be toxic waste - see end of US era. Part 2 of 2 The economic... more

Vierotchka
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18 responses

1 month ago

Heavy metal-eating "superworms" unearthed in UK

Newly evolved "superworms" that feast on toxic waste could help cleanse polluted industrial land, a new study says. ... more

bshipp
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32 responses

1 month ago

Dept. of Interior defies Congressional ban on uranium mining in Grand Canyon

The Center for Biological Diversity, Grand Canyon Trust and Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter on Monday filed suit against Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne for authorizing uranium exploration near Grand Canyon National Park in defiance of a congressional resolution prohibiting such activities across 1 million acres of public lands in watersheds surrounding the Park.

On June 25th the U.S. House of Representative's Committee on Natural Resources voted 20-2 in favor of a resolution that requires the Secretary to withdraw public lands surrounding Grand Canyon from new uranium claims and exploration. The Secretary, acting through the Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management, has defied the resolution and continued to initiate and authorize new uranium exploration within the withdrawal area north of Grand Canyon. The suit claims that in so doing, the Secretary violated the Federal Land Management and Policy Act, National Environmental Policy Act and other laws.

The Secretary has defied laws and Congress to continue uranium development that threatens the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River, said Taylor McKinnon, public lands program director for the Center for Biological Diversity. Short of putting the Secretary before a judge, nothing not laws, not Congress, and not the Grand Canyon itself will impede the Bush administration's accommodation of industry on our public lands.

Recent spikes in the price of uranium have caused thousands new uranium claims, dozens of exploratory drilling projects, and movement to open several uranium mines on public lands immediately north and south of Grand Canyon. Concerns about surface- and ground-water contamination of Grand Canyon National Park and the Colorado River have been expressed by Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano; the Los Angeles Water District; the Southern Nevada Water Authority; the Arizona Game and Fish Department; the Navajo, Hopi, Havasupai, Hualapai and Kaibab Paiute nations; and Coconino County.

Congressmen Nick Rahall, Ral Grijalva, and other members of the Committee on Natural Resources recognized the immediate threat that uranium mining posed to Colorado River watersheds and took the lead in demanding bold, emergency action, said Roger Clark with the Grand Canyon Trust. "It's unacceptable to allow this Administration to abuse their power by ignoring the resolution and putting the Grand Canyon, our nation's most beloved national park, at risk."

Emergency withdrawals have been enacted four times prior to this, most recently in 1981 and 1983 by the late Arizona Congressman Mo Udall and the House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee to halt public lands mineral- and energy-leasing programs pursued by Interior Secretary James Watt.

Grand Canyon is a national treasure and something we should protect not just for today, but for future generations, said Sandy Bahr, chapter director for the Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter. It is irresponsible for this administration to sacrifice this area, threaten the Park, and risk the water supply for millions of people, all for a few narrow special interests.
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Why can't we stop these people from violating the law!?The Center for Biological Diversity, Grand Canyon Trust and Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter on Monday filed suit against... more

JanforGore
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13 responses

1 month ago

12 on trail for mass poisoning in Ivory Coast

Twelve people have gone on trial in Ivory Coast accused of dumping toxic waste blamed for 17 deaths and led 100,000 to seek... more

GrandKnow2
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0 responses

1 month ago

Palin Dumps 2 billion Gallons of Toxic Waste into Cook Inlet

What do we know about Palin? Not much according to the Media. We do know Governor Palin is the Public Member for the Alaska Oil... more

wanamoka
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4 responses

2 months ago

Robert Redford hopes coal movie inspires citizen groups

Robert Redford was so struck by a story of Texas mayors, ranchers and other citizens who stood up against plans for a batch of new... more

JanforGore
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19 responses

2 months ago

Displaced village exposed to Uranium in Jadugoda, India

Pipes carrying uranium tailings in the eastern state of Jharkhand, India, burst on the 16th of August, “spewing the village... more

goldenways
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2 responses

3 months ago

Goodbye Grand Canyon if uranium mining gets go ahead?

More insanity of humanity: " Mining companies stake claims on federal land adjoining the park, while opponents say... more

SeaJade
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27 responses

3 months ago

The looming nuclear nightmare in the backwoods of North Carolina

Looking for weapons of mass destruction? Try the backwoods of North Carolina. The site is easy to find. You don't need infrared telemetry, informants, or a global positioning satellite. Just follow the railroad tracks deep into the heart of the triangle area to the gleaming cooling tower of the Shearon Harris nuclear plant, which rises like a concrete beacon out of the forest.

It may not look like much-a run-of-the-mill nuke, but inside the confines of the steel fence that rings the plant, resides one of the most lethal patches of ground in North America. Shearon Harris is not just a nuclear power-generating station, but a repository for highly radioactive spent fuel rods from two other nuclear plants owned by Progress Energy.

Those railroad tracks? They're for hauling nuclear waste. The spent fuel rods are carted by rail from the Brunswick and Robinson nuclear reactors to Shearon Harris, where they are stored in four densely packed pools, filled with circulating cold water to keep the waste from heating up. The pools are interconnected and enclosed within one building. That building is attached to the reactor itself. Together, they form the largest radioactive waste storage pools in the country.

All this makes Shearon Harris a very inviting target for would-be terrorists. In fact, the Department of Homeland Security has fingered Shearon Harris as one of the most vulnerable terrorist targets in the nation.

Potential atomic terrorists don't have to steal plutonium, take a crash course in physics, or concoct a bomb to manufacture a radiological nightmare scenario in the heart of the Carolinas. All they have to do is penetrate the security fence of a lightly guarded commercial reactor and find a way to ignite the pools of high-level radioactive waste. The easiest method is to disrupt the circulation of the water system that keeps the pools cool.

The resulting fire would be virtually unquenchable. Moreover, because the water system that feeds the waste pools is also connected to the Shearon Harris reactor, a pool fire could also trigger a nuclear meltdown. And so it goes.

An uncontrolled pool fire and meltdown at Shearon Harris would put more than two million residents of this rapidly growing section of North Carolina in extreme peril. A recent study by the Brookhaven Labs, not known to overstate nuclear risks, estimates that a pool fire could cause 140,000 cancers, contaminate thousands of square miles of land, and cause over $500 billion in off-site property damage.

Looking for weapons of mass destruction? Try the backwoods of North Carolina. The site is easy to find. You don't need... more

JanforGore
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54 responses

3 months ago

She's talking about Monsanto, but it's not talking to her

Monsanto doesn't want anything to do with French investigative journalist Marie-Monique Robin. The American biotechnology... more

JanforGore
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18 responses

4 months ago

Appalachian residents have found the antidote to coal: Wind

If Senator Barack Obama ever needs a living symbol of change we can believe in, and a hopeful way to transcend the dirty politics of our failed energy policies, he should go and see the future of renewable energy in the Coal River Valley in West Virginia.

Yes, renewable energy in Appalachia.

Something historic is taking place in West Virginia this summer. Faced with an impending proposal to stripmine over 6,600 acres -- nearly 10 square miles -- in the Coal River Valley, including one of the last great mountains in that range, an extraordinary movement of local residents and coal mining families have come up with a counter proposal for an even more effective wind farm.

Mother Jones, the miners' angel, once declared: "Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living."

Having witnessed the destruction of over 470 mountains and their adjacent communities in Appalachia, the Coal River Valley citizens are doing just that. On the frontlines of one of the most tragic environmental and human rights scandals in modern American history, the community-wide Coal River wind advocates have devised a blueprint to get beyond the divisive regional politics and break the stranglehold of King Coal on the central Appalachian economies.

The Coal River Wind Project is the first bottom-up community-based full scale assessment to directly counter the nightmare of mountaintop removal with a renewable energy and economy alternative prior to the actual mining.

We have a choice. It is not simply coal or no coal. Jobs or no jobs. The issue is how do we create jobs and clean energy forever, and begin the transition in Appalachia and America away from dirty coal.
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This is so wonderful. To see residents standing up to big coal to truly bring jobs and health to the Appalachians. Wind is the alternate energy source for this area, and I stand with them in getting this done. And if Barack Obama does care for change, he will stop touting "clean coal" and stand by these residents and their initiative to bring real clean energy and jobs to this part of the country that has been so devastated by the toxic legacy coal has left in its wake.If Senator Barack Obama ever needs a living symbol of change we can believe in, and a hopeful way to transcend the dirty politics... more

JanforGore
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44 responses

4 months ago

Don't Fall For Nuclear Power

While the presidential hopefuls trade barbs and accuse each other of flip- flopping, they agree with President Bush on their enthusiastic support for nuclear power.

Sen. John McCain has called for 100 new nuclear power plants. Sen. Barack Obama, in a July 2007 Democratic debate, answered a pro-nuclear power audience member, "I actually think that we should explore nuclear power as part of the energy mix."

Among Obama's top contributors are executives of Exelon Corp., a leading nuclear power operator in the nation. Just last week, Exelon released a new plan called "Exelon 2020: A Low-Carbon Roadmap." The nuclear power industry sees global warming as a golden opportunity to sell its insanely expensive and dangerous power plants.

But nuclear power is not a solution to climate change — rather, it causes problems. Amory Lovins is the co-founder and chief scientist of Rocky Mountain Institute in Colorado. He makes simple, powerful points against nuclear: "The nuclear revival that we often hear about is not actually happening. It is a very carefully fabricated illusion ... there are no buyers. Wall Street is not putting a penny of private capital into the industry, despite 100-plus percent subsidies." He adds: "Basically, we can have as many nuclear plants as Congress can force the taxpayers to pay for. But you won't get any in a market economy."

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The presidential hopefuls are wrong on nuclear power. Wind, solar and microgeneration (generating electricity and heat at the same time, in smaller plants), on the other hand, are taking off globally, gaining billions of dollars in private investments. Lovins summarizes: "One of the big reasons we have an oil problem and a climate problem today is we spent our money on the wrong stuff. If we had spent it on efficiency and renewables, those problems would've gone away, and we would've made trillions of dollars' profit on the deal because it's so much cheaper to save energy than to supply it." The answer is blowing in the wind.
While the presidential hopefuls trade barbs and accuse each other of flip- flopping, they agree with President Bush on their... more