Category: Threats

Posted on

Berto Jongman: Fukushima, Chernobyl, and the Frog in Boiling Water — An Anthropological Perspective on the Deceived, the Forgotten, & the Dying

03 Economy, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commerce, Earth Intelligence, Government
Berto Jongman
Berto Jongman

Fukushima isn’t Chernobyl?  Don't Be So Sure

by SARAH D. PHILLIPS

CounterPunch,  Weekend Edition March 15-17, 2013

The March 11, 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami caused the deaths of approximately 16,000 persons, left more than 6,000 injured and 2,713 missing, destroyed or partially damaged nearly one million buildings, and produced at least $14.5 billion in damages. The earthquake also caused a triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Japan’s eastern coast. After reading the first news reports about what the Japanese call “3.11,” I immediately drew associations between the accident in Fukushima and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986 in what was then the Soviet Union. This was only natural, since studying the cultural fallout of Chernobyl has been part of my life’s work as an anthropologist for the past 17 years. Knowing rather little about Japan at the time, I relied on some fuzzy stereotypes about Japanese technological expertise and penchant for tight organization and waited expectantly for rectification efforts to unfold as a model of best practices. I positioned the problem-riddled Chernobyl clean-up, evacuation, and reparation efforts as a foil, assuming that Japan would, in contrast, unroll a state-of-the-art nuclear disaster response for the modern age. After all, surely a country like Japan that relies so heavily on nuclear-generated power has developed thorough, well-rehearsed, and tested responses to any potential nuclear emergency? Thus, I expected the inevitable comparisons between the world’s two worst nuclear accidents to yield more contrasts than parallels.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: Fukushima, Chernobyl, and the Frog in Boiling Water — An Anthropological Perspective on the Deceived, the Forgotten, & the Dying”

Posted on

SchwartzReport: Climate Change Turning Far North Green

03 Environmental Degradation

schwartz reportHere is what is coming. Where is the leadership to address this?

Researchers: Climate change is turning Earth’s northern latitudes green

Researchers caution that plant growth in the north may not stay on its current trajectory because an amplified greenhouse effect will increase the frequency of forest fires, droughts and pest infestations.

Reporting in the journal Nature Climate Change, an international team of researchers writes that the northern latitudes have experienced a significant reduction in temperature and vegetation seasonality. They contend that vegetation growth at Earth’s northern latitudes is starting to look a lot like the green latitudes to the south. The study’s findings are based on a 30-year record of land surface and satellite data sets.

The researchers looked at the relationship between changes in surface temperature and vegetation growth from 45 degrees north latitude to the Arctic Ocean. The study’s findings reveal that temperature and vegetation growth at northern latitudes now appear like those found 4 degrees to 6 degrees of latitude farther south as recently as 1982.

Lead co-author Liang Xu, a Boston University doctoral student, says that increased warming in the northern latitudes above the Canada-USA border is lowering temperature seasonality because the colder seasons are warming faster than the summer.

Read full article.

Posted on

Chuck Spinny: Turkey Says Zionism is Fascism

06 Genocide, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, Cultural Intelligence
Chuck Spinney
Chuck Spinney

My experience in Turkey based on two years there is entirely consistent with Giraldi's point of view.

Talking Turkey About Zionism

by

AntiWar.com, March 07, 2013

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is in trouble again with Washington and Tel Aviv because he dared to equate Zionism with fascism and anti-Semitism as an ideology or political movement that has brought oppression. Erdogan was speaking at a United Nations sponsored Alliance of Civilizations conference in Vienna dealing with instilling tolerance. He spoke in Turkish, but his words as translated into English were, “It is necessary that we must consider – just like Zionism or anti-Semitism or fascism – Islamophobia is a crime against humanity.” Erdogan was immediately pounced upon by the usual suspects and new American Secretary of State John Kerry was also quick to pull the trigger by saying, “We not only disagree with it. We found it objectionable.” He also stated that the comments did not help the Israel-Palestine peace process. That there is no peace process due to Israel’s unwillingness to countenance an actual Palestinian state with genuine sovereignty is apparently irrelevant, but then again it has been irrelevant to American policymakers ever since 1967, when the Israelis first occupied the remaining land that they had not already taken in the aftermath of the 1947 partition of Palestine.

Continue reading “Chuck Spinny: Turkey Says Zionism is Fascism”

Posted on

Berto Jongman: Col James Steele, USA — Death Squads & Torture from El Salvador to Iraq — One of the “Boys” with Back Door Access to Rumsfeld

07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, Government, Military
Berto Jongman
Berto Jongman

James Steele: America's mystery man in Iraq – video (51:08)

The Guardian, Wednesday 6 March 2013

A 15-month investigation by the Guardian and BBC Arabic reveals how retired US colonel James Steele, a veteran of American proxy wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua, played a key role in training and overseeing US-funded special police commandos who ran a network of torture centres in Iraq. Another special forces veteran, Colonel James Coffman, worked with Steele and reported directly to General David Petraeus, who had been sent into Iraq to organise the Iraqi security services

• Watch a five-minute edited version of this film narrated by Dearbhla Molloy

• Watch the full video (“he lacks human feeling”  — “the ugliest sorts of torutre (in secret prisons)”

• Revealed: Pentagon's link to Iraqi torture centres

• Revealed: Pentagon's link to Iraqi torture centres

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: Col James Steele, USA — Death Squads & Torture from El Salvador to Iraq — One of the “Boys” with Back Door Access to Rumsfeld”

Posted on

Berto Jongman: North Korea Worst Case Scenario

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards
Berto Jongman
Berto Jongman

It is a Sorcha Faal [known fabriactor David Booth] story but some of the news items on which it is based indicate a very tense situation in which unwanted escalation could result from misinterpretation. This kind of stories can contribute to misinterpretation which can be very dangerous.

March 8, 2013

North Korean Atomic Bomb Subs Cause Global Panic

By: Sorcha Faal

nk subA grim Ministry of Defense (MOD) “URGENT ACTION” bulletin to all Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) is warning these nuclear units to prepare for “Dead Hand” operations over growing fears that at least 5 atomic-bomb equipped North Korean submarines have “successfully evaded” US Naval Forces and are preparing to strike targets in South Korea, Japan and North America.

According to this MOD bulletin, North Korea conducted its third underground nuclear test in seven years on 12 February after which Russian defense analysts noted a series of “highly suspicious” transfers of  “unknown materials” from the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Facility to the Mayang Do Naval Base where shortly thereafter at least 10 Yono-class miniature submarines [photo 2nd left] departed and are feared to have aboard them atomic bombs.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: North Korea Worst Case Scenario”

noble gold