It seems that scientists measuring Radiation in ocean predators like Blue fin tuna have seen an increase of almost 10 times the levels of Caesium since Fukushima started polluting the ocean and atmosphere in March 2011. What they don’t mention is the increased levels of all the other 5000+ radionuclides they have spewed forth from the doomed Japanese Nuclear Facility since the start of the ongoing disaster.

The mainstream media is seeking to play down the severity of the pollution but what they fail to mention is that it only takes 1 micron of plutonium to become embedded in the body to cause a slow and painful death. Given that Tuna are at the top of the ocean food chain and are also part of the human diet it seems inevitable that we humans are also going to consume massively increased amounts of radiation simply by having a normal diet. The only way to avoid consuming radioactive fish is to stop eating ocean caught fish stocks. While some of us in wealthy nations will be able to afford that luxury most of the world will not. Given that the majority of the world live in coastal areas and fish accounts for a large percentage of a normal healthy diet is seems that we have succeeded in poisoning ourselves and many future generations to come.

With the full life of plutonium lasting approx 400,000 years it is going to take a very long time for us to flush the affects of this past century of nuclear pollution out of our collective system. Perhaps we can find a way to extract the nastiest radioactive particles from the food before we consume it. However that would require us to only consume processed food and where is the fun in that?

Tags: Disaster, Environment, Food, Nuclear, Water by sparky
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Globally the Shale gas industry is getting a lot of press recently as a boom in the Frakking industry has temporarily increased supply of gas to the market in some countries like the USA. What the press refuse to discuss is the failed mathematics behind this supposed boom. The reality is that the shale gas boom is being driven primarily by corrupt business scams that seek to use the energy industry as a way to obtain government funds so they can place bets on the stock market.

The simple truth is that coal seam gas or “shale” gas is simply not abundant enough to make an significant impact on a global scale. All the ‘coal seam gas’ has a layer of shale above it. The coal is probably NOT the source of most of the gas, it is just trapped below the shale. Commercial gas reserves are in porous sandstone or limestone,usually with a shale cap or seal. With the majority of the shale gas composed of high amounts of Nitrogen it also requires a significant amount of energy to clean it so that it can actually be used as an energy source. Hence the majority of the Shale gas boom is energy negative meaning it takes more energy to get it to market than it provides.

What this translates to is a massive fraud leveraged against the public purse. When the bets placed with Government cash fail to generate the income that is being hoped for the companies that placed them go bankrupt and the government is left holding the tab. In the meantime the unscrupulous directors of the Frakking companies are enjoying the wealth they have obtained which is conveniently deposited in offshore bank accounts to be used for their retirement.

Of course the people who work in the Frakking business are not complaining about the money that they are earning as they dig more and more wells and pollute the environment with their toxic brew of chemicals required to complete their task. the chemical companies are also not complaining about the large amounts of product they are required to produce in order to meet the needs to the Frakking industry.

It seems the only people who are complaining are the ones who actually live where the gas fields are being exploited as they witness the wholesale environmental destruction of their region and water table. The roving crews of Frakkers are no more accountable for their destruction than the people who were employed to work on the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico are for the Gulf Oil Disaster.

As the USA descends into the mess of complete economic meltdown that is represented by the exponentially increasing cost of living and the exponentially decreasing availability of fossil fuel the only silver lining appears to be that the Frakkers will eventually run out of energy to cause so much destruction any longer. At least on some communities there is action being taken to try to stop the industry before it gets to that point.

Tags: Construction, Corruption, Disaster, e=mc2, Environment, Government, Resources, Society, Water by sparky
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With all the focus on the demise of Solyndra last year and the attempts by the mainstream media to portray the death of Concentrating Solar Power due to the decrease in price of Solar PV thanks to the increasing efficiencies of Chinese production lines, it seems that CSP has been quietly making steady progress across the globe.

With facilities coming online recently in California and the Torresol facilities in Spain coming online at the end of last year. We also see the increased activity in the UAE as they seek to shore up their internal electricity supply due to the impending demise of the oil industry.

The question that still needs to be answered is can the global community bring enough of these large and relatively low output facilities online in the coming decade to make a serious contribution to the urgent issue of replacing the loss of oil from the energy supply infrastructure.

To get an idea of the daunting task that we face the facility in the video below is only capable of producing 5MW peak. Combine that with results from Australia of the total combined output of all the wind power facilities only able to produce an average of 30-40% of full capacity and we start to get a feel for the immensity of the challenge.

Tags: Construction, e=mc2, Solar by sparky
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