Evolving Coverage of Missouri River Flooding, Fort Calhoun and Cooper Nuclear Power Plant Situations

CollapseNet is doing an excellent job at bringing up-to-date coverage of the flooding of the Missouri river.

I will post today's coverage, but will not post any more on this unless there is a major development.

For ongoing coverage go to: http://www.collapsenet.com/free-resources/collapsenet-public-access/item/1078-evolving-coverage-of-missouri-river-flooding-fort-calhoun-and-cooper-nuclear-power-plant-situations

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The Collapsenet staff is monitoring the Midwest storms, Missouri River flooding and Ft. Calhoun & Cooper Nuclear Power Plant situations very closely. Please check back regularly for updates:

EVOLVING COVERAGE... LAST UPDATED 6/23/11, 1430 PST:

Though more mainstream sources are mentioning the situation, none are on site or provide new information. This obvious obstruction of the truth leaves 300 million Americans who could be affected by this situation in the dark.

In short, we know what we have known all along:

1. The rising Missouri River is dangerously close to flooding the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant

2. Government agencies and large corporations are highly prone to lying and obscuring the truth when it suits their purposes

The following information for today includes a local news story featuring the Ft. Calhoun Nuclear Plant Chief, reports from the National Weather Service and US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as well as in-depth analysis from the Collapsenet staff using the information we currently have on hand.

Flooded Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station Chief Officer Says Flood Danger Rumors Untrue

RT: The Big Media Blackout on Nuclear Safety and Fort Calhoun Flooding

This is really good!  The Alyona Show on RT challenges the corporate media on their lack of coverage of corruption in the nuclear industry and suppression of of what is happening at Fort Calhoun.

West plans to release emergency oil to halt rising petrol and energy prices

Paris-based International Energy Agency sanctions 60m barrels to counter shortages but Opec condemns 'political' intervention

This action is a desperate attempt to keep business-as-usual for a little while longer, somewhat equivalent to the massive bail-outs and quantitative easing we have been seeing in the US.  A radical idea - why not keep the strategic oil reserve for a real emergency - like when the pumps actually run dry?

This article is from today's Guardian

The west has fired a warning shot across the bows of Opec by releasing 60m barrels of "emergency" oil supplies on to the market in an attempt to halt soaring petrol and other energy costs damaging the global economy.

Crude prices slumped by $6 a barrel after the International Energy Agency, whose 28 members include Britain and America, unveiled plans to release 2m barrels a day for a month from its emergency reserves to counter shortages created by the conflict in Libya.

Delegates from Opec countries immediately accused the Paris-based IEA of "unjustified interference" in global energy markets and said the organisation was "playing politics" with oil.

The move, plus new signs of weakness in the world economy, saw early success, with the cost of Brent crude spinning down to $108 compared with a high of $127 in April.

Stock markets in London and New York, also fell sharply, with the FTSE 100 down 1.6% at 5683. The gloom was increased by signs that the American economic recovery is slowing amid continued uncertainty over the Greek debt crisis.

Paul Watters, a spokesman for the AA, which has campaigned for lower petrol prices as the cost of a litre has risen close to £1.50, said: "Although a dramatic fall in the price of oil throws a lifeline to drivers barely able to afford current pump prices, past experience makes it unlikely that they will see an equally dramatic drop in the price of fuel in the short-term."

It is only the third time in the 37-year history of the IEA that oil has been released in this way and follows repeated calls on Opec to turn on the taps and bring down the price of oil. The agency also acted after swings following the first Gulf war in 1990-91 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The US has pledged to provide half the 60m barrels, reflecting frustration in western governments over high petrol and heating bills pushing up inflation and undermining global economic recovery.

Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the IEA, who pleaded last weekend with Russia and Opec to act to curb prices, said that using the strategic reserves was meant to complement promises made by Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries to meet shortages caused by the war in Libya. "I expect this action will contribute to well-supplied markets and to ensuring a soft landing for the world economy."Opec producers this month failed to reach agreement on increasing output, although Saudi Arabia, the single biggest exporter, later pledged to help out.

Saudi Arabia, a US ally, was expecting to win an increase in production quotas at the Opec summit in Vienna but faced combined opposition from tradional hawks such as Iran and Venezuela, along with new ones such as Iraq.

Some Opec delegates from Iran and two Gulf states said the IEA's release of emergency stocks was wrong. "I don't know how to justify this interference in the market," a delegate from Iran, which currently holds the Opec presidency, told the Reuters new agency on condition of anonymity. Opec delegates from Gulf which had backed the Saudi proposal for higher output, also took issue with the IEA's action. states said"The oil price hasn't shot up to $150. There is no reason to do this. The market is not short of supply. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have been raising production, but there have not been many buyers. The IEA is just playing politics with the US," added one Gulf delegate.

Opec member Libya had been exporting about 1.2m barrels a day before the civil war brought the oil industry to a standstill, causing price increases in a market already heated due to higher than expected demand.

Total oil stocks in IEA member countries amount to over 4.1bn barrels. Nearly 1.6bn barrels of this are public stocks held exclusively for emergency purposes.

The IEA was established in the wake of the 1973 oil price crisis to represent the interests of oil consuming nations. But it has increasingly tried to forge closer links with producing nations and last weekend asked Russia to consider joining its ranks.

But while motorists in Britain have been facing record pump prices and household heating costs have risen because gas prices are tied to oil, Carl Larry at the Blue Ocean commodity brokerage in New York said crude values might not fall much further. "This is an economic stimulus ... in oil dollars," he said. "On the other hand I think we have confirmed the bottom of the oil market here at $109 for Brent."

Tough times for the US economy

More background on the US economy and the Greek crisis from Russia Today

While the Greek crisis is threatening the European economy, some

see a pessimistic future for the US economy as well. Federal Reserve

Chairman Ben Bernanke is also among those who aren't so optimistic. Is

everything as black as it is painted to be? Michael T Snyder of the

www.theeconomiccollapseblog.com explains.

'Prophets of Doom'

Last year the Discovery Channel made a documentary, Prophets of Doom which featured amongst others James Howard Kunstler and Michael Ruppert. What all the people had in common was that they all agreed that the American Empire is collapsing.

The movie can be seen here.

IMF and Greenspan predict gloom for US economy

The main thing about this article is not what is being said but who is saying it.  Alan Greenspan as head of the Federal Reserve was probably the one person who could be held responsible for the worst excesses prior to the 2008 collapse.

Source;  Russia Today, 17 June, 2011

In the International Monetary Fund’s latest assessment of the US economy, the IMF warns America that it is “playing with fire” unless it makes some immediate changes.

In April the IMF predicted that the US gross domestic product would grow only a meager 2.8 percent in 2011. Now only two months later, the global lender forecasts that growth will be more along the lines of 2.5 percent. They also estimate that growth in 2012 will only come at around 2.7 percent, compared to the 2.9 prediction they issued earlier this year.

Reuters reports that Jose Vinals of the IMF’s monetary and capital markets department says that "We have now entered very clearly into a new phase of the (global) crisis, which is, I would say, the political phase of the crisis.”

The United States, says Vinals, is one of four countries that has “the biggest homework” to do if they want to restore their public finances to “a reasonable situation” in terms of debt levels. Also in trouble: Greece, Ireland and Japan.

"You cannot afford to have a world economy where these important decisions are postponed because you're really playing with fire,” says Vinals.

The IMF isn’t the only one predicting doom and gloom for the global economy. Speaking to Charlie Rose this week, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan says that a default by Greece is “almost certain” to drive the US back into a recession.

“The chances of Greece not defaulting are very small,” says Greenspan.

Those chances, he adds, are “so high that you almost have to say there’s no way out.” If that default happens, which Greenspan seems almost certain it will, he says some US banks will be “up against the wall.”

The nuclear disaster that struck Japan earlier this year is also one of the “negative surprises” that the IMF says led to disappointing figures in the worldwide economy.

IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard adds that the little amount of growth it expects in US will not be enough to bring the unemployment rate down from 9.1 percent. That current statistic is more than double what it was in 2006.

The “political stalemate” over the deficit issue is also impeding the nation’s economy from thriving, says the IMF. Lawmakers are less than six weeks away from the August 2 deadline when the Treasury Department says the US will have exhausted its borrowing authority.

The $14.3 trillion debt, says Greenspan, is “horrendously dangerous.”

Although the IMF predict that the GDP will grow — albeit at a staggering speed — Greenspan doubts lawmakers will fix the debt crisis within the next year.

Others are even more certain that these scenarios are more than just hypothetical. Mark Spitznagel is betting his hedge fund Universa on the impending collapse. Business Insider editor Courtney Comstock reveals that Spitznagel predicts that the S&P will fall 40 percent and is so certain that he’s putting his money on it — all $6 billion.

12 Things That The Mainstream Media Is Being Strangely Quiet About Right Now

One of the reasons I set up this blog site was to scour those sources I have to hand for stories that affect us all and are being largely ignored by the corporate media.  Even though these stories come from what might be 'reliable' sources it has become clearer that those stories which are truly alarming are generally downplayed or ignored by the media - but somehow the news does get through - but you have to look for it.


Two major examples of this recently have been the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant and, in the last few days the flooding of the nuclear reactor at fort Calhoun, Omaha, Nebraska.  To that I would also add news about Peak Oil, especially recent statements by the IEA.


Instead, a lot of media coverage is essentially propaganda designed to lull us into a state of complacency, to give the impression that things are not as bad as one might think if one had full access to the facts - or simply social engineering like the article about huge debts adding to young people's self-esteem.


One item on radio made my blood boil: it was the Medical Association saying that parents giving children vitamins, herbs or probiotics could be dangerous (sic).


When I came across the following article I decided to put it up even if some of the things it mention are outside my usual areas of concern - and the veracity of some of the sources they give could be open to question. 

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As the mainstream media continues to be obsessed with Anthony Weiner and his bizarre adventures on Twitter, much more serious events are happening around the world that are getting very little attention.  In America today, if the mainstream media does not cover something it is almost as if it never happened. Right now, the worst nuclear disaster in human history continues to unfold in Japan , U.S. nuclear facilities are being threatened by flood waters, the U.S. military is bombing Yemen, gigantic cracks in the earth are appearing all over the globe and the largest wildfire in Arizona history is causing immense devastation.  But Anthony Weiner, Bristol Palin and Miss USA are what the mainstream media want to tell us about and most Americans are buying it.

In times like these, it is more important than ever to think for ourselves.  The corporate-owned mainstream media is not interested in looking out for us.  Rather, they are going to tell us whatever fits with the agenda that their owners are pushing.

That is why more Americans than ever are turning to the alternative media.  Americans are hungry for the truth, and they know that the amount of truth that they get from the mainstream media continues to decline.

The following are 12 things that the mainstream media is being strangely quiet about right now....

#1 The crisis at the Fort Calhoun nuclear facility in Nebraska has received almost no attention in the national mainstream media.

Back on June 7th, there was a fire at Fort Calhoun.  The official story is that the fire was in an electrical switchgear room at the plant.  The facility lost power to a pump that cools the spent fuel pool for approximately 90 minutes.  According to the Omaha Public Power District, the fire was quickly extinguished and no radioactive material was released.

The following sequence of events is directly from the Omaha Public Power District website....
• There was no such imminent danger with the Fort Calhoun Station spent-fuel pool.
• Due to a fire in an electrical switchgear room at FCS on the morning of June 7, the plant temporarily lost power to a pump that cools the spent-fuel pool.
• The fire-suppression system in that switchgear room operated as designed, extinguishing the fire quickly.
• FCS plant operators switched the spent-fuel pool cooling system to an installed backup pump about 90 minutes after the loss of power.
• During the interruption of cooling, temperature of the pool increased a few degrees, but the pool was never in danger of boiling.
• Due to this situation, FCS declared an Alert at about 9:40 a.m. on June 7.
• An alert is the second-least-serious of four emergency classifications established by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
• At about 1:15 p.m. on June 7, FCS operators declared they had taken all appropriate measures to safely return to the previously declared Notification of Unusual Event emergency classification. (See first item above.)

But the crisis at Fort Calhoun is not over.  Right now, the nuclear facility at Fort Calhoun is essentially an island. It is surrounded by rising flood waters from the Missouri River.

Officials claim that there is no danger and that they are prepared for the river to rise another ten feet.

The Cooper Nuclear Station in Brownville, Nebraska is also being threatened by rising flood waters.  A "Notification of Unusual Event" was declared at Cooper Nuclear Station this morning at 4:02.  This notification was issued because the Missouri River's water level reached 42.5 feet.
Right now the facility is operating normally and officials don't expect a crisis.

But considering what has been going on at Fukushima, it would be nice if we could have gotten a lot more coverage of these events by the mainstream media.

#2 Most Americans are aware that the U.S. is involved in wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.  However, the truth is that the U.S. military is also regularly bombing Yemen and parts of Pakistan.  If you count the countries where the U.S. has special forces and/or covert operatives on the ground, the U.S. is probably "active" in more countries in the Middle East than it is not.  Now there are even persistent rumors that U.S. ground units are being prepared to go into Libya.  Are we watching the early stages of World War 3 unfold before our eyes in slow motion?

#3 The crisis at Fukushima continues to get worse.  Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president, recently made the following statement about the Fukushima disaster....
"Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind"

TEPCO has finally admitted that this disaster has released more radioactive material into the environment than Chernobyl did.  That makes Fukushima the worst nuclear disaster of all time, and it is far from over.
Massive amounts of water is being poured into the spent fuel pools in order to keep them cool.  This is creating "hundreds of thousands of tons of highly radioactive sea water" that has got to go somewhere.  Inevitably much of it will get into the ground and into the sea.

Arnold Gundersen says that the scope of this problem is almost unimaginable....
"TEPCO announced they had a melt through. A melt down is when the fuel collapses to the bottom of the reactor, and a melt through means it has melted through some layers. That blob is incredibly radioactive, and now you have water on top of it. The water picks up enormous amounts of radiation, so you add more water and you are generating hundreds of thousands of tons of highly radioactive water."

The mainstream media is not paying as much attention to Fukushima these days, but that doesn't mean that it is not a major league nightmare.

Elevated levels of radiation are being reported by Japanese bloggers all over eastern Japan.  There are reports of sick children all over the region.  One adviser to the government of Japan says that an area approximately 17 times the size of Manhattan is probably going to be uninhabitable.

Of course the mainstream media has been telling us all along that Fukushima is nothing to be too concerned about and that authorities in Japan have everything under control.

If the mainstream media is not going to tell us the truth, how are they going to continue to have credibility?

#4 Members of Congress continue to mention Christians as a threat to national security.  For example, during a recent Congressional hearing U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee warned that "Christian militants" might try to "bring down the country" and that such groups need to be investigated.

#5 China's eastern province of Zhejiang has experienced that worst flooding that it has seen in 55 years.  2 million people have already been forced to leave their homes.  China has already been having huge problems with their crops over the past few years and this is only going to make things worse.

#6 Thanks to the Dodd-Frank Act, over the counter trading of gold and silver is going to be illegal starting on July 15th.  Or at least that is what some companies apparently now believe.  The following is an excerpt from an email that Forex.com recently sent out to their customers....

Important Account Notice Re: Metals Trading


We wanted to make you aware of some upcoming changes to FOREX.com’s product offering. As a result of the Dodd-Frank Act enacted by US Congress, a new regulation prohibiting US residents from trading over the counter precious metals, including gold and silver, will go into effect on Friday, July 15, 2011.


In conjunction with this new regulation, FOREX.com must discontinue metals trading for US residents on Friday, July 15, 2011 at the close of trading at 5pm ET. As a result, all open metals positions must be closed by July 15, 2011 at 5pm ET.


We encourage you to wind down your trading activity in these products over the next month in anticipation of the new rule, as any open XAU or XAG positions that remain open prior to July 15, 2011 at approximately 5:00 pm ET will be automatically liquidated.
We sincerely regret any inconvenience complying with the new U.S. regulation may cause you. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact our customer service team.
Sincerely,


The Team at FOREX.com

Apparently, Section 742(a) of the Dodd-Frank Act prohibits anyone "from entering into, or offering to enter into, a transaction in any commodity with a person that is not an eligible contract participant or an eligible commercial entity, on a leveraged or margined basis."

So what impact is this going to have on the gold and silver markets?

Nobody is quite sure yet.

#7 All over the world, huge cracks are appearing for no discernible reason.  For example, a massive crack that is approximately 3 kilometers long recent appeared in southern Peru.  Also, a 500 foot long crack suddenly appeared recently in the state of Michigan.  When you also throw in all of the gigantic sinkholes that have been opening all over the world, it is easy to conclude that the planet is becoming very unstable.

#8 According to U.S. Forest Service officials, the largest wildfire in Arizona state history has now covered more than 500,000 acres.  But based on the coverage it is being given by the mainstream media you would think that it is a non-event.

#9 There are reports that North Korea has tested a "super EMP weapon" which would be capable of taking out most of the U.S. power grid in a single shot.  The North Koreans are apparently about to conduct another nuclear test and that has some Obama administration officials very concerned.

#10 All over the United States, "active shooter drills" are being conducted in our public schools.  Often, most of the students are not told that these drills are fake.  Instead, students often go through hours of terror as they think a hostage situation or a shooting spree is really taking place.

#11 NASA has just launched a "major" preparedness initiative for all NASA personnel.  The following is an excerpt about this plan from NASA's own website....

A major initiative has been placed on Family/Personal Preparedness for all NASA personnel. The NASA Family/Personal Preparedness Program is designed to provide awareness, resources, and tools to the NASA Family (civil servants and contractors) to prepare for an emergency situation. The most important assets in the successful completion of NASA’s mission are our employees’ and their families. We are taking the steps to prepare our workforce, but it is your personal obligation to prepare yourself and your families for emergencies.

#12 Over the past week over 40 temporary "no fly zones" have been declared by the FAA.  This is very highly unusual.  Nobody seems to know exactly why this is happening.

So what do all of these things mean?

It would be nice if the mainstream media would examine some of these important issues more closely and do some honest reporting on them.

Shanghai to ration electricity due to power shortage

This is just one of many stories coming out of China that tells of terrible drought that has caused shortages of electricity. The droughts have caused China's demand for diesel to increase.
There has also been devastating flooding in recent days.

Like Japan, if there is a shortage of electricity there is a negative effect on industial output.

"Offices and shopping malls in the Chinese city of Shanghai will be urged to close their doors on the hottest days of the year this summer.


The power rationing is necessary due to the country's shortage of electricity.


The electricity grid serving China's financial hub does not have the capacity to meet peak demand the authorities say.


China has been coping with power shortages since March, because of coal supply problems and a drought.


When the mercury in the thermometer hits 37C (98.5F) - not that unusual in summer here in Shanghai - power rationing will get under way.


Some 24,000 businesses - mainly factories and other industrial plants - will face mandatory power cuts.
But this year, in what the Chinese newspapers are describing as an unprecedented move, 3,000 non-industrial businesses - mainly shopping malls and office blocks - will be asked to close their doors too.


When power is running out, households are the priority for the authorities here.


The shops and offices will not be forced to close but they will be encouraged to do so.


So far the reaction from those likely to be affected has not been that positive.


The problem is that coal prices surged earlier in the year, making generating electricity less profitable.


About 80% of the power produced for the electricity grid in China comes from coal-fired power stations.


A drought here has also cut the amount of power available from hydro-electric facilities as water levels in reservoirs have fallen.


The heavy rain of recent days that has caused severe flooding in some parts of the country is reported to have restored water levels at some of those plants, easing the situation somewhat but not solving the problem.


It is thought likely there will be power shortages in at least 10 provinces as demand surges on the hottest days this summer."


BBC news

Want better self-esteem? Saddle yourself with mountains of credit card debt, new study claims

There is, I suppose always room for amazement at just how insane the world is becoming - or am I just out of touch?

This article, from Britain’s  Daily Mail seems to be frowning at the old wisdom that I was brought up with, “neither a borrower nor a lender be” - the idea that one works and saves for what one needs in life.

Now, it seems that the system needs more (and more) debt because, as we know that is the way money is created.

Have a  look and then tell me if those of you with large student loans or credit card debt feel empowered by the experience.

Want better self-esteem? Saddle yourself with mountains of credit card debt, new study claims

By LEE MORAN

Daily Mail, 6 June

Being crushed under a mountain of debt is typically frowned upon.

Not being able to pay for goods outright, and then being hit by extortionate interest rates which spiral out of control, is the stuff of financial nightmares.

But new research has suggested this could actually be a dream scenario for many young adults.

It claims those saddling themselves with credit card debt will feel empowered and have better self-esteem.

'Debt can be a good thing for young people – it can help them achieve goals that they couldn't otherwise, like a college education,' said Ohio State University assistant sociology professor Rachel Dwyer.

If you want to see the entire article you can see it here.

Max and Tracy, in their latest Keiser Report comment on this, as well as latest developments in Greece.

Evolving coverage of Missouri floods at nuclear plant

CollapseNet is doing a great job of keeping people up-to-date with what is happening with the Missouri river floods.

More information here.

and this report from Thom Hartmann on Russia Today

Here is an amateur video showing the extent of the flooding while landing at Omaha, Nebraska





In the meantime this story has been coming out - that radioactive tritium is leaking from a majority of nuclear sites in the United States,

RT: Fort Calhoun the new Fukushima?

Here is more on the fort Calhoun saga, from Russia Today.

First the comment from CollapseNet.

"If you search for "Fort Calhoun" on CNN.com, only one minor story from June 8th comes up.  The lack of coverage is shocking when one is aware that the plant is expected to be flooded for at least a month, those flood waters are still rising, and there has been a No Fly Zone in the area for over a week.

RT is the only major network currently offering credible coverage and analysis".

For balance here is a story with a more 'conventional' slant.  It was one of the few references to the flooding and the nuclear plant.

Keiser Report: Economic Melt-through

Referring to reports of a melt-through at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, Max and Stacy make the comparison with what is happening in the economy.

Can be watched here:

Obama has ordered “total and complete”news blackout on crippled nuke plant ingn Nebraska

There was an alert put out on CollapseNet last night that floods in the state of Nebraska were threatening a nuclear power plant at Fort Calhoun.

CODE RED - More Than 60 Buses on Standby to Haul People...Where.

Since then this report has come through indicating that the Obama administration has ordered a complete news blackout on the crippled power plant.

A shocking report prepared by Russia’s Federal Atomic Energy Agency (FAAE) on information provided to them by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) states that the Obama regime has ordered a “total and complete” news blackout relating to any information regarding the near catastrophic meltdown of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant located in Nebraska.

According to this report, the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant suffered a “catastrophic loss of cooling” to one of its idle spent fuel rod pools on 7 June after this plant was deluged with water caused by the historic flooding of the Missouri River which resulted in a fire causing the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) to issue a “no-fly ban” over the area.

Located about 20 minutes outside downtown Omaha, the largest city in Nebraska, the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant is owned by Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) who on their website denies their plant is at a “Level 4” emergency by stating: “This terminology is not accurate, and is not how emergencies at nuclear power plants are classified.”

Russian atomic scientists in this FAAE report, however, say that this OPPD statement is an “outright falsehood” as all nuclear plants in the world operate under the guidelines of the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) which clearly states the “events” occurring at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant do, indeed, put it in the “Level 4” emergency category of an “accident with local consequences” thus making this one of the worst nuclear accidents in US history.

Though this report confirms independent readings in the United States of “negligible release of nuclear gasses” related to this accident it warns that by the Obama regimes censoring of this event for “political purposes” it risks a “serious blowback” from the American public should they gain knowledge of this being hidden from them.

Interesting to note about this event was the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chief, Gregory B. Jaczko, blasting the Obama regime just days before the near meltdown of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant by declaring that “the policy of not enforcing most fire code violations at dozens of nuclear plants is “unacceptable” and has tied the hands of NRC inspectors.”

The full- length article is available here.

More excellent background - Arnie Gunderson of Fairewinds interviewed by Robert Knight of Pacifica radio on 14 June.

Crises of capitalism - animation

I found this presentation by sociologist David Harvey of the latest crisis pretty convincing so want to share it.

View here

Dmitry Orlov 's speech at Green Life Eco Fest

Here is the speech that Dmitry Orlov gave at the recent Green Life Eco Fest in California

Green Life Eco Fest - March 22, 2011 from Dmitry Orlov on Vimeo.

Scientific American: Europe Braces for Serious Crop Losses and Blackouts

Scientific American

Record dry spring could drive up wheat prices, and lack of water may force nuclear reactors to shut down

LONDON -- One of the driest spring seasons on record in northern Europe has sucked soils dry and sharply reduced river levels to the point that governments are starting to fear crop losses and France, in particular, is bracing for blackouts as its river-cooled nculear power plants may be forced to shut down.

French Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire warned this week that the warmest and driest spring in half a century could slash wheat yields and might even push up world prices despite the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's predicting a bumper global crop due to greater plantings.

France has pledged hundreds of millions of euros in aid to its drought-stricken livestock farmers, who have watched feed supplies dwindle and prices rise.  Water restrictions are in place in more than half of the country's administrative regions or departments.

"The situation is serious for French farmers. We wanted to act swiftly and on a large scale," Le Maire told reporters last week.

And the French government has set up a committee to keep an eye on the country's electricity supply situation and monitor river levels, as 44 of the 58 nuclear reactors that supply 80 percent of France's electricity are cooled by river water.

The problem appears to be not that the reactors might overheat because of the lack of water but that the depleted rivers might overheat, creating ecological havoc, when the water returns to them after cooling the reactors.

The abnormally low rainfall and high temperatures -- similar in northern Europe to the major drought of 1976, but actually worse in France -- have also hit hydroelectric power availability and output in France.

Rainfall down 40-80%

The Geneva-based World Meteorological Organization said last week that between February and May of this year, rainfall over Europe as a whole ranged from 40 to 80 percent of the long-term average from 1951 to 2000, and in many parts of western and central Europe it was even below 40 percent.

Between March and May, the outcome was even lower, with France, Germany and southeastern England the worst hit.

The preceding winter 2010-2011 was very dry in western Europe, causing very low soil moisture in March and April. This, coupled with the warmer-than-average temperatures, put major water stress on plants, and in particular, agricultural crops.Up to now, 2011 has been one of the 10 driest years in Switzerland since 1864, while in France, January to April was the driest period since 1975. In Germany, April this year was one of the 10 driest Aprils since 1881, WMO said. Springtime in Germany, it added, was the driest March-to-May period since 1893.

"This aggravated the water deficits compared to average seasonal conditions. Agriculture was highly affected in western and central Europe; the growth of crops lagged much behind usual conditions," WMO said.

Germany, which produces some 25 percent of the European Union's oilseed rape -- a major source of oil and animal feed as well as biodiesel -- expects to see the drought slash output by more than 20 percent.

German river levels lowest in a century

Some three-quarters of oilseed rape goes into the country's biodiesel industry -- the biggest in the 27-nation bloc -- leaving it critically short of feedstock and either forcing imports or cutting production, with a consequent knock-on effect on the country's and the European Union's efforts to cut climate-changing carbon emissions.

And while there has been some rainfall recently, helping raise water levels on the river Rhine -- which acts in effect as a major north-south watery superhighway for all manner of goods, including food, manufactured products, chemicals and fuels to and from Europe -- WMO said water levels in most German rivers were the lowest at this time of year for about a century.

The lack of water made the region's forests super-dry, triggering wildfires in parts of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. In Germany, with vast tracts of forest, the Forest Fire Danger Index hit its highest possible level.

WMO said the abnormal weather was caused by a persistent ridge of high pressure over western and central Europe, blocking more normal patterns of rainfall and temperature. "This situation is climatologically a very stable constellation, but it has persisted for an unusually long time," WMO said.

A parched breadbasket

In the United Kingdom, where the parched southeast -- the country's breadbasket -- has received some welcome rain in the past week or two, it has been nowhere near enough to correct the water deficit after the driest March since 1953.

"The recent rain has made very little difference -- if any at all -- agriculturally, simply because when the ground gets as dry as it has been, when you do get some rain it simply runs straight off what in effect is like a concrete surface," said Met Office spokesman Barry Gromett.

"While it will eventually find its way into some sort of reservoir ... I wouldn't have thought it was significant really in terms of water resource. When you get to a certain state, you have to look to redress the balance. When you have been so far below average, it is sensible to assume that you have to make similar sorts of gains above average for similar periods of time," he told ClimateWire.

On Friday, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs declared East Anglia to be in drought and said large parts of Wales, the Midlands and southwest and southeast England were on the brink of drought. It has convened a summit of farmers, water authorities, municipal bodies and environment agencies to draw up plans of action.

At the same time, water authorities in London urged people to conserve water, while in the Midlands, people were warned they could face usage restrictions such as lawn watering bans.

Time to pitch your tent ... in New York City? US touts urban camping plan.

US plan to create 'great urban parks' set to begin in New York City, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Monday. It's part of Obama's bid to reconnect young people with the great outdoors.

"This March 11 photo shows a National Park Service hangar emblazoned with the name Floyd Bennett Field glowing orange at sunset at New York City’s little-used airport in Brooklyn, N.Y. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Monday, June 13, that the National Park Service will develop the nation's largest urbancampground at Floyd Bennett Field, which was once used by Amelia Earhart and Howard Hughes." Christian Science Monitor

Chris Hawley/AP/File

The rest of the article is available here.

You may want to ask why the New York government and Obama administration might suddenly be taking an interest in introducing Americans to the 'great outdoor' - albeit with a view of NYC.  Could it be that they are expecting New Yorkers to be forced to resort to living in tents when things take a major turn for the worse?

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Civil unrest is global now and spreading

This week has seen an increase in social violence around the world, from China to North Africa and the Middle East and also various parts of Europe.

As things have started to unravel in Greece there have been major disturbances in Greece as austerities bite and the government seeks yet another bailout.  Here is a backgrounder from Russia Today

As well as troubles in China with droughts turning to floods, and severe shortages of electricity there have been major disturbances, especially in Eastern China.

As can be seen from this clip the demonstrations in Yemen have been massive.

This is a report on social disturbances and demonstrations throughout the world during just one week.

It is from the Corbett report
.

Can also be viewed here.

The Bilderberger group meets in Switzerland

The Bilderberger Group met earlier this month in St Moritz, Switzerland.  It is a top-secret group of bankers, politicians, monarchs and heads of state that meets informally and with media black-out and is said to determine policy directions of countries in Europe and North America.

This secrecy and media backout has always attracted a lot of conspiracy theories.

These two items from Russia Today discuss the nature of the meetings.

The Guardian has also discussed the gathering.