Burning 9-story-high landfill covers Mumbai with toxic fumes

Social media has been flooded with apocalyptic pictures of the Indian city of Mumbai after a massive toxic fire broke out at a nine-story-high local dumping ground. For the second week, fumes have covered buildings and forced motorists to drive in thick smog.

The fire started at Deonar dumping ground in Mumbai on January 27. Since then, local residents have been complaining of eye irritation, breathlessness and coughing.

"My elder child, who is in class 3, has been feeling nauseous every morning for the past four days, owing to the heavy smog. He has a bad cough and has missed school," Mumbai resident Gunjal Chattree told the Hindustan Times.

Vikram Vishwanath, who lives close to Deonar, has stopped sending his son to school.

"My six-year-old has been having a lot of trouble breathing since the fire broke out at the dumping ground. We took him to an ENT specialist and he is on medication," he said.

Dr Satish Kaushik, a practicing consultant family physician, said in the last few days he has seen "close to a 50% increase in the number cases related to respiratory problems."

"People are complaining of cough, cold headaches and chest burn," he said.

On the sixth day after the fire started, local residents staged a protest as the air quality worsened in the affected neighborhoods.

More than 500 citizens wearing pollution masks and black clothes demanded answers from the government. They asked why the blaze had started and why the authorities were not able to handle the situation.

The inferno is so big that it was clearly recorded by NASA - which has released pictures of the blaze. {Top Photo}

The Deonar dumping ground "receives more than 3,700 metric tons (8.1 million pounds) of trash per day, about one-third of the city's waste. With piles of trash that rise up to 30 meters (100 feet) tall—the equivalent of a nine-story building—the landfill has literally become a mountain of trash," according to NASA.


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Radioactive Water From Fukushima Is Leaking Into the Pacific

"Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind," Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president, told Truthout shortly after a 9.0 earthquake in Japan caused a tsunami that destroyed the cooling system of Tokyo Electric Power Company's (TEPCO) nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan.
While this statement might sound overdramatic, Gundersen may be right.
Several nuclear reactor meltdowns in the plant, which at the time forced the mandatory evacuations of thousands of people living within a 15-mile radius of the damaged power plant, persist, and experts like Gundersen continue to warn that this problem is not going to go away.

"The fuels are now a molten blob at the bottom of the reactor."

The March 11, 2011, 9.0 earthquake that destroyed the cooling systems at TEPCO led to hydrogen explosions and reactor meltdowns, and has left exposed highly radioactive materials that Gunderson says are the root of the problem. For now, there is no solution in sight.
"Fukushima has three nuclear reactors exposed and four fuel cores exposed," Gundersen said. "You probably have the equivalent of 20 nuclear reactor cores because of the fuel cores, and they are all in desperate need of being cooled, and there is no means to cool them effectively."
This persistent problem reared its head yet again in December 2015, when TEPCO was forced to deal with a massive amount of highly radioactive water generated by having to cool the reactors and exposed fuel cores Gundersen mentioned.
TEPCO must now transfer between 200 and 300 tons of groundwater into highly contaminated reactor buildings, having been unable to devise an effective plan for keeping the groundwater from continuing to flow under the plant.
To see more stories like this, visit "Planet or Profit?"
"The problem is how to keep it cool," Gundersen explained. "They are pouring in water and the question is what are they going to do with the waste that comes out of that system, because it is going to contain plutonium and uranium. Where do you put the water?"
The company has repeatedly come under fire for periodically dumping large amounts of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean.
Even though the plant has not been online since it was largely destroyed in 2011, fission products such as uranium continue to generate heat, and therefore require cooling.
"The fuels are now a molten blob at the bottom of the reactor," Gundersen said.
Shortly after the plant was damaged, TEPCO announced that they had experienced a "melt through," which means a melted reactor core had melted through some layers beneath it.

"Most of the time TEPCO seems to be firefighting, discovering leaks here and unexpectedly high levels of radiation there."

That left several highly radioactive blobs that now have water on top of them, hence causing the water to become extremely radioactive. This process of cooling the cores has now generated hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of tons of highly radioactive water that then must be dealt with somehow.
Dr. M.V. Ramana, a physicist and lecturer at Princeton University's Program on Science and Global Security and the Nuclear Futures Lab, says the problem is the lack of a real long-term plan for addressing the issue.
"Most of the time TEPCO seems to be firefighting, discovering leaks here and unexpectedly high levels of radiation there," Ramana told Truthout. "In part, this is because TEPCO's plans do not account for the many possibilities of failure and putting in place backup safety systems."
Dr. Helen Caldicott, an author and anti-nuclear advocate who has established several foundations that oppose the use of nuclear power and weapons and depleted uranium munitions, told Truthout that the situation in Fukushima is "very serious indeed."
"There is no way to prevent the radioactive water [from] reaching the western shores of the North American continent and then circulating around the rest of the Pacific Ocean," Caldicott said. "At the moment, it seems like this is going to occur for the rest of time."
Massive Releases of Radiation
A declassified report from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission written immediately after the disaster began states that massive amounts of radiation from the plant were released into the atmosphere early on.
The report states: "25% of the total fuel in unit 2 released to the atmosphere ... 50% of the total spent fuel from unit 3 was released to the atmosphere, and ... 100% of the total spent fuel was released to the atmosphere from unit 4."
Meanwhile, in December 2015, Japan's NHK news agency reported alarmingly high spikes in radiation levels underneath the Fukushima plant.

"There are no safe levels of radiation for biological systems."

TEPCO detected levels of radioactive cesium (a material which has a half-life of 30 years) in water samples that were 4,000 times higher than data taken the same month one year earlier. The samples also contained levels of a beta-ray-emitting radioactive substance that were 4,100 times higher than they were from the same period a year earlier.
As Caldicott warned, radiation from Fukushima along the US West Coast is expected to continue to worsen.
According to a 2013 study by the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center in Norway, the first radioactive oceanic plume released by Fukushima is likely to hit the US's West Coast in force in 2017, with levels expected to peak in 2018. According to the report, the majority of the radioactive material from the disaster is expected to stay concentrated along the West Coast through at least 2026.
Even though that plume hasn't yet hit, the spread of radiation has already been substantial. Professor Michio Aoyama of Japan's Fukushima University Institute of Environmental Radioactivity believes the amount of radiation that has now reached North America is probably nearly as much as was spread over Japan during the initial disaster.
A recent Woods Hole study shows a 50 percent increase in radiation levels 1,600 miles west of San Francisco, but states that the levels are still far below what the US government considers dangerous.
However, Caldicott takes issue with what the United States considers a "safe" level of radiation exposure.
"There are no safe levels of radiation for biological systems," she said. "That terminology is used by the nuclear industry to cover their inevitable radioactive releases."
Solution?
Ramana believes it could still take decades before the plant's radiation leaks are even contained.
"I think this is going to take a couple of decades," he said. "We are still in the early years; it hasn't even been five years since the disaster started. It has been 30 years since Chernobyl and remediation of that site is still [a] work in progress."

"March 2011 was just the beginning of the disaster, which is still unfolding."

Disconcertingly, Ramana does not believe there is a "true solution" to the crisis. When asked how TEPCO and the Japanese government are likely to handle the crisis, he said, "What we will get is TEPCO and other Japanese authorities muddling through this completely unprecedented situation."
Ramana pointed out many reasons why he believes people should pay attention to what is happening in Fukushima, and started by correcting the belief that the disaster "occurred" and is now over.
"March 2011 was just the beginning of the disaster, which is still unfolding," he said. "As something that is unfolding, one should be concerned about how the situation is being managed."
He added that since this is an ongoing crisis, people need to remember how challenging it is to deal with a nuclear accident, and that this should cause people to be skeptical of "safe" nuclear power more broadly.
"TEPCO's actions should serve as evidence that organizations that seek to profit from running a nuclear plant are not always the best ones to manage accidents or cleanup," Ramana said. "Likewise, its actions prior to the accident, wherein it made decisions that maximize its short-term profits while not making decisions that would have promoted safer operations (or shutting down the reactor), are emblematic of a number of other utilities, all of whom have conflicting priorities. That TEPCO is the organization that experienced such a major accident while others have escaped, at least so far, is at least in part a matter of luck."
Gundersen told Truthout he had seen data that revealed radioactive hot spots further away from Fukushima than the radiation from Chernobyl had reached after that disaster.
"And the amount of radiation in many of them was the amount that caused areas to be declared no man's land for Chernobyl," he said. "You can't clean all this up. We still have radioactive wild boar in Germany, 35 years after Chernobyl."
Radioactive water from the Fukushima disaster continues to be released into the Pacific, and spread around the globe.
Of this, Caldicott warned, "There is a system of biological magnification by orders of magnitude at each step of the food chain: algae, crustaceans, little fish, big fish." That means that the radiation's impact on the planet's ecology expands the further it moves up and across the food chain.
Meanwhile in the United States, the nuclear industry continues apace.

"With Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, and now with Fukushima, you can pinpoint the exact day and time they started, but they never end."

Nuclear operator Exelon Corporation was among Barack Obama's biggest campaign donors, and is one of the largest employers in Illinois where Obama was a US senator. Exelon donated more than $269,000 to his political campaigns, and Obama appointed Exelon CEO John Rowe to his Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future.
Yet the Fukushima disaster, which, as Ramana points out, is just beginning, stands as a reminder of the dire consequences of continuing to allow the nuclear industry to grow. This reminder will remain with us indefinitely.
"With Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, and now with Fukushima, you can pinpoint the exact day and time they started," Gundersen said, "but they never end."
In Japan, US citizens living there who were located within a 50-mile radius of the Fukushima plant were required to evacuate. Within the United States, more than 120 million people live within a 50-mile evacuation zone of a nuclear plant.
Meanwhile, officials from TEPCO have admitted they are not sure when their company might be able to solve its multitude of problems, and begin to reduce the amount of contaminated water at the plant. When it comes to the nuclear industry, it seems, it is always difficult to determine when a disaster will end - or if it will end at all.

Image Above:  The Ikata Nuclear Power Plant, which was idled after the 2011 disaster in Fukushima, in the Ehime prefecture of Japan, January 23, 2014. (Photo: Ko Sasaki / The New York Times)

Truth Out

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Toxic sludge in contaminated Colorado river reaches New Mexico

Toxic waste, including arsenic and lead, which seeped into a river in southwest Colorado, has now crossed the state border into New Mexico. More than 550 gallons per minute are entering the water flow system according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which caused the spill.

The agency says it should have the results of samples undergoing lab testing soon, so they can find out just how contaminated the river has become. Aside from lead and arsenic, federal officials say the spill also contains, cadmium, aluminum, copper and calcium.




High levels of arsenic can cause blindness, paralysis and cancer, while lead poisoning can create muscle and vision problems in adults and can be fatal for children.
"We're busting our tails to get that out," Environmental Protection Agency Regional Director Shaun McGrath said, as cited by AP. "We know the importance to people to have this information."
READ MORE: EPA spills 1 mln gallons mine waste, turns river in Colorado orange

The bright orange toxic sludge, which entered the Animas River in Colorado, has now crossed the state border into New Mexico and reached the city of Aztec on Friday night. Local communities in both states are not happy and have blasted the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for being slow in warning residents after the spill took place.
"There's not a lot we can do. We can keep people away (from the river) and keep testing. We still don't know how bad it is," San Juan County Emergency Management Director Don Cooper said, according to AP.

Officials in the cities of Aztec and Farmington say they have shut down the river’s access to water treatment plants, adding that the communities had a 90-day supply of water.
The Animas flows into the San Juan River in New Mexico, and the San Juan flows into Utah, where it joins the Colorado River in Lake Powell. There are also reports that the contaminated water is heading towards Utah.

                         Durango, Colorado: EPA's Animas River mine disaster. Before & after

The EPA says they have finished building two containment ponds, which are aimed at treating the toxic sludge in the river. However, this is very much a short-term plan, while the long-term issue of cleaning up the spill will take some time according to McGrath.
“The sediment, the metals that are in that sediment are going to settle out to the stream bottom," he said. "As we have storm surges, as we have flooding events, that sediment can and likely will get kicked back up into the water. We're going to have to do ongoing monitoring," McGrath added.

It is estimated that over one million gallons of toxic waste has already found its way into the river. The spill was caused after the EPA was investigating the abandoned Gold King Mine on Wednesday together with the state Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety. They accidentally breached a debris dam that had formed inside the mine and this triggered the release of the waste into Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas River in San Juan County.

 A look at the bottom of the Animas River on Saturday sure looks allot different than it did a few days ago.

Ironically, the initial goal was to find a safe way to pump out the wastewater from the mine, which was abandoned in 1923 and treat it, EPA spokeswoman Lisa McClain-Vanderpool said.

RT

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Fukushima Disaster: SIGNIFICANT Concern On The Safety Of The Population And Environment WORLDWIDE”!

March 7, 2015 – EARTH – In the Fukushima Disaster Zone with UCLA researchers, Mar 3, 2015: Four years after Fukushima disaster, some areas remain untouched, clocks recording the exact time that the tsunami swept through. Access is highly restricted but two UCLA researchers were recently given permission to document the disaster zone. — at 3:45 in — “With this study I think that’s what we’re trying to explore — is that once a nuclear catastrophe strikes, it’s not only affecting that local area, but also worldwide.”

Atmospheric dispersion of Iodine-131 released after the Fukushima event, by Giuseppe A. Marzo, ENEA (Italian National agency for new technologies, Energy and sustainable economic development), 2014: From March 12, 2011, a significant amount of radioactive material… discharged into the atmosphere… Total emission of 131I has been estimated in [128**petabecquerels (PBq)], while 133Xe, and 137Cs total emissions have been estimated in [15,300 PBq and 36.6 PBq], respectively. In this work the global atmospheric dispersion of 131I released by the Fukushima accident is carried out, focusing on this specific radionuclide due to its radiological relevance in terms of consequences on the human health…

The image above summarizes the simulation results. It illustrates the radioactivity concentration due to 131I released into the atmosphere at specific times and integrated over the total atmospheric column. Immediately after the initial release on March 12, the plume moved eastward reaching the United States west coast on [March 15 at 10:00p PST]… In early April the plume extended over the entire northern hemisphere… A significant accidental event occurred at the Fukushima NPPs… volatile radionuclides such as 131I were transported away from the source posing significant concern on the safety of the population and the environment worldwide… the atmospheric dispersion of 131I [was] covering the entire northern hemisphere by early April…

**According to a document released by TEPCO, “Our result shows a higher I-131 amount (500PBq) compared to the result obtained from a thirdparty organization (120-200PBq).”

WATCH: Fukushima Four Years Later – In The Disaster Zone.

The Celestial Convergence

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Fukishima Fall-Out Fears Intensify

A beach in San Francisco contains five times the safe levels of radiation fueling concerns that Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant’s crisis is impacting areas across the country.
It comes just days after radiation readings were found to be double the normal amount in Missouri’s recent snowfall.
According to YouTube user, DutchSinse, who posted a video of him taking the Geiger readings in St Louis, the findings mean that ‘small particles of radioactive material are indeed coming down in the precipitation. Past tests show around 30CPM in the same spot on a nice day with no precipitation’.
He said snowstorms in 2012 also showed alert level radiation readings.
The San Francisco findings prompted federal officials to launch an investigation, according to Infowars.com.
Health officials in San Mateo County confirmed the spike – which was reaching over 150 micro-REM per hour – but said they were ‘befuddled’ about what had caused it.
A video shows a man measuring radiation readings at different spots on the beach south of Pillar Point Harbor.
Background radiation in the areas immediately surrounding the beach are normal, but once the man approaches the water itself, the radiation spikes to at least 500 per cent safe levels and the Geiger counter’s alarm goes off.
The man behind the video claims that on his previous visit to the same beach, radiation readings were 13 times the safe level.

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Four tons of radioactive water spilled at Fukushima nuclear plant

The operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant said Tuesday workers had spilled four tonnes of radioactive water, likely contaminating the soil and possibly groundwater.
Workers were pumping rain water that was trapped in a concrete gutter into an empty 12-tonne tank that sat on open soil, said a spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO).
“Work crew started operating the pump around 10:38 am. At 11:50 am, they found water was spilling from the manhole on top of the tank,” the spokesman said.
TEPCO has estimated roughly four tonnes of collected rain water might have escaped. The extent of contamination was unclear, the spokesman added, although it was not thought to be highly polluted.
“The water itself was rain water. But it was from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and could contain radioactive materials,” he said, adding: “The water seeped into the ground”.
TEPCO has long struggled to control waste water at the plant.
The company poured thousands of tonnes of water onto runaway reactors to keep them cool, and continues to douse them.
TEPCO has so far disclosed no clear plan for disposing of the huge amounts of stored polluted water, which is stored at hundreds of tanks at the plant.
Some tanks have leaked highly radioactive waste water, which might have washed to sea.

The Raw Story

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Masses of plastic particles found in Great Lakes

A chemist with State University of New York at Fredonia and one of the project leaders, works aboard a research vessel on Lake Erie with a device that skims the water surface collecting plastic samples in finely meshed netting.

 (Photo: AP via 5gyres.org)

Researchers say that the Great Lakes, long affected by toxic algae, parasites and invasive species, are now faced with their another potential ecological threat: plastic

TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan (AP) — Already ravaged by toxic algae, invasive mussels and industrial pollution, North America's Great Lakes now confront another potential threat that few had even imagined until recently: untold millions of plastic litter bits, some visible only through a microscope. 

Scientists who have studied gigantic masses of floating plastic in the world's oceans are now reporting similar discoveries in the lakes that make up nearly one-fifth of the world's fresh water. They retrieved the particles from Lakes Superior, Huron and Erie last year. This summer, they're widening the search to Lakes Michigan and Ontario, skimming the surface with finely meshed netting dragged behind sailing vessels.

"If you're out boating in the Great Lakes, you're not going to see large islands of plastic," said Sherri Mason, a chemist with State University of New York at Fredonia and one of the project leaders. "But all these bits of plastic are out there."

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Research ship finds the world's oceans are 'plasticized'

On its second leg from Tokyo to Maui, the AMRF/5 Gyres expedition expects to encounter debris from the Japanese tsunami.

A marine expedition of environmentalists has confirmed the bad news it feared -- the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" extends even further than previously known.

Organized by two non-profit groups -- the Algalita Marine Research Foundation and the 5 Gyres Institute -- the expedition is sailing from the Marshall Islands to Japan through a "synthetic soup" of plastic in the North Pacific Ocean on a 72-feet yacht called the Sea Dragon, provided by Pangaea Exploration.

The area is part of one of the ocean's five tropical gyres -- regions where bodies of water converge, with currents delivering high concentrations of plastic debris. The Sea Dragon is visiting the previously unexplored western half of the North Pacific gyre -- situated below the 35th parallel, and home to a massive expanse of plastic particles known as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" -- to look for plastic pollution and study its effect on marine life.

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Japan tsunami debris may be impacting U.S. food supply

Debris coming ashore in the U.S. after the tsunami in Japan is destroying one of the most spectacular coastlines in this country, creating the world’s dirtiest beach in the big island in Hawaii. On Kamilo Beach on Hawaii’s Big Island, disturbing research demonstrates plastic debris is being ingested by wildlife at an alarming rate. NBC’s Miguel Almaguer reports.



NBC News Video

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MIDWAY: Message from the Gyre

The MIDWAY film project is a powerful visual journey into the heart of an astonishingly symbolic environmental tragedy. On one of the remotest islands on our planet, tens of thousands of baby albatrosses lie dead on the ground, their bodies filled with plastic from the Pacific Garbage Patch. Returning to the island over several years, our team is witnessing the cycles of life and death of these birds as a multi-layered metaphor for our times. With photographer Chris Jordan as our guide, we walk through the fire of horror and grief, facing the immensity of this tragedy—and our own complicity—head on. And in this process, we find an unexpected route to a transformational experience of beauty, acceptance, and understanding.

We frame our story in the vividly gorgeous language of state-of-the-art high-definition digital cinematography, surrounded by millions of live birds in one of the world’s most beautiful natural sanctuaries. The viewer will experience stunning juxtapositions of beauty and horror, destruction and renewal, grief and joy, birth and death, coming out the other side with their heart broken open and their worldview shifted. Stepping outside the stylistic templates of traditional environmental or documentary films, MIDWAY will take viewers on a guided tour into the depths of their own spirits, delivering a profound message of reverence and love that is already reaching an audience of tens of millions of people around the world.

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50 Tons of Litter Pulled from Pacific

NOAA divers cut a Hawaiian green sea turtle free from a derelict fishing net during a recent June/July 2012 mission to collect marine debris in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
CREDIT: NOAA

Scientists loaded their ship to the max this month off the coast of Hawaii, but their bounty wasn't fish or coral or any other scientific specimen. It was garbage.
The crew of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ship Oscar Elton Sette pulled 50 metric tons of marine debris out of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument off the northwestern Hawaiian Islands last month, part of an ongoing mission since 1996 to clean up the shallow coral reef environment.

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Tokyo city starts radiation tests on food in shops

Tokyo government is measuring radiation on vegetables and other fresh food (AFP/File, Yoshikazu Tsuno)

TOKYO — Tokyo city government on Tuesday began radiation tests on samples of food bought in shops to reassure residents amid a contamination scare after a major nuclear accident in northeast Japan. It is rare that authorities check on products at the point of sale and the the inspection includes processed food as well as fresh produce. The metropolitan government is measuring radiation on vegetables and other fresh food to complement pre-shipment tests at places of production. "We are conducting tests on the food residents are actually buying at supermarkets and other retail stores," an official in charge of the food monitoring said, adding some Tokyo residents had requested the tests. The city plans to conduct tests on 20-30 items a week, he said. "Our tests are designed to complement checks that have been conducted" by the central and local governments, the Tokyo official said. The city will post tests results on its website every week starting Wednesday. Food items found to have radiation levels above restriction levels will be banned. A massive tsunami triggered by a 9.0 earthquake on March 11 crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which has since spewed radiation into the air, soil and sea. Japan has temporarily banned shipments of a range of foodstuffs including beef, green vegetables, milk and dairy products, small fish, mushrooms and green tea from some areas of the country after contamination was found.

News Source: AFP

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Radiation Detected In Drinking Water In 13 More US Cities,

Radiation from Japan has been detected in drinking water in 13 more American cities, and cesium-137 has been found in American milk—in Montpelier, Vermont—for the first time since the Japan nuclear disaster began, according to data released by the Environmental Protection Agency late Friday.
Milk samples from Phoenix and Los Angeles contained iodine-131 at levels roughly equal to the maximum contaminant level permitted by EPA, the data shows. The Phoenix sample contained 3.2 picoCuries per liter of iodine-131. The Los Angeles sample contained 2.9. The EPA maximum contaminant level is 3.0, but this is a conservative standard designed to minimize exposure over a lifetime, so EPA does not consider these levels to pose a health threat.
The cesium-137 found in milk in Vermont is the first cesium detected in milk since the Fukushima-Daichi nuclear accident occurred last month. The sample contained 1.9 picoCuries per liter of cesium-137, which falls under the same 3.0 standard.

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Hungary toxic sludge could cause long-term environmental damage

Workers with red-stained hands covered this town and others in southwest Hungary on Wednesday, cleaning the toxic sludge that remains from the wave of red mud that poured out of a nearby alumina refinery's reservoir Monday.
The heavy rains, which pushed the dam at one of the Ajkai Aluminia Refinery's 10 containment pools beyond its limits, have subsided. Now, clean-up crews are trying to limit the damage from the 35 million cubic feet of spilled toxic muck, which is the byproduct of the alumina refining process, that has left a thick, rust-red icing for miles around.
Officials worry that the highly caustic spill, which has already been blamed for four deaths and scores of injuries, will contaminate drinking water supplies, rivers, crops, and ecosystems throughout southwest Hungary. Officials are also searching for at least three people who remain missing.

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New garbage patch discovered in Indian Ocean

Scientists recently announced the existence of a garbage patch in the Indian Ocean -- the third major collection of plastic garbage discovered in the world's oceans. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, located in the North Pacific Ocean gyre, is well known. And more recently scientists confirmed the existence of a second garbage patch in the North Atlantic gyre.  Photo: Map of the five ocean gyres (Image: NOAA)

Marcus Eriksen, cofounder of 5 Gyres Institute, reports that all of the 12 water samples collected in the 3,000 miles between Perth, Australia, and Port Louis, Mauritius (an island due East of Madagascar), contain plastic.

"We did find another large concentration of plastic debris," says the marine scientist who cofounded 5 Gyres Institute with his wife, Anna Cummins, to research plastic pollution in the world's oceans. The team works in collaboration with Algalita Marine Research Foundation and Pangaea Explorations.

The five large subtropical gyres (powerful rotating ocean currents) are located in the North Pacific, South Pacific, North Atlantic, South Atlantic, and Indian oceans. Once plastic makes its way into the ocean (through sewers, streams, rivers, or from the coast), it is ultimately swept up and trapped in these gyres and forms a swirling soup of garbage.

This Indian Ocean garbage patch discovery means there are now three confirmed ocean zones of plastic pollution, and Eriksen and Cummins expect to find others in the South Pacific and South Atlantic gyres also. The 5 Gyres Institute, a team of scientists and educators, will lead eight expeditions to explore the South Atlantic (starting later this summer) and South Pacific (scheduled for next spring).

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Warnings of Long-Term Damage After Russian Oil Spill

An Environmental Catastrophe
Image: A crew member from the stranded Russian cargo vessel Vera Voloshina is evacuated by line Sunday by the Ukrainian rescue service on the coast near Sudak, Ukraine. More Photos >

MOSCOW, Nov. 12 — An environmental disaster began to unfold in southern Russia on Monday as tens of thousands of oil-slicked seabirds and globules of heavy oil dotted the shoreline, a day after at least 11 ships, including a small oil tanker, sank or broke apart in a fierce storm, Russian officials said.

A local official, Alexander Tkachyov, governor of the Krasnodar region, said 30,000 seabirds were covered with oil and would probably die, Interfax said. The World Wide Fund for Nature, a conservation group, said the heavy fuel oil also settled onto the seabed, surely destroying marine habitat and killing fish.

The tanker, Volganeft-139, split apart as it was pounded by 18-foot waves in the Kerch Strait which links the Sea of Azov with the Black Sea, a strategic pathway for oil exported by tanker from Russia and the Caspian basin to Europe. Its 13 crew members were rescued, but 1,300 tons of heavy, viscous oil — the equivalent of 560,000 gallons — were discharged into the sea.

Image: Huge waves in the Kerch Strait split a Russian tanker. More Photos »

MP3 Podcast: The Story of this disaster available at the Earth Frenzy Radio Blog

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Peru Meteor: State Of Emergency Could be Declared

Breaking Earth News Alert
Peru
Meteor Crash





Authorities are considering placing the town of Carancas, Puno, Peru in a state of emergency

(LIP-ir) -- Puno, Peru's Regional Health Directorate reported yesterday that doctors and nurses found it necessary to establish auxiliary medical tents near the health center in Carancas.

The medical tents were established so as to aid the rising number of people reporting to be sick after a meteorite landed in the area on Saturday afternoon.

According to Peru's La Republica newspaper, due to the high number of illnesses, district authorities are considering placing the town of Carancas, Puno, Peru in a state of emergency. It has been reported that at least 600 people have been affected by the meteorite.


RELATED NEWS

Peruvian Meteorite Causes Mystery Plague

(LaRepublica) "Peru's Government News Agency reported yesterday that at least seven police officers were affected after they collected samples from the landing site of what is thought to be meteorite.

It was reported that a glowing object fell from the sky and crashed in the town of Carancas, located in the Region of Puno, Peru.

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Japan closes nuclear plant damaged by earthquake

Japan
Latest Photos

July, 2007

TOKYO: The Japanese authorities on Tuesday shut down a nuclear power plant after a radiation leak and other damage from an earthquake in the nation's northwest raised new concerns about the safety of Japan's nuclear industry.

Tokyo Electric Power, which operates the nuclear plant near the city of Kashiwazaki, said it had found more than 50 problems had been caused by the earthquake Monday. Most were minor, but the most serious involved 100 drums of radioactive waste that fell over. The lids on some of them opened, the company said, and the contents spilled out.

The earthquake, the first of two that struck Japan on Monday - one with the same intensity rattled the sea off Kyoto - also caused a small fire at the plant and the leakage of 317 gallons of water containing trace levels of radioactive materials into the Sea of Japan, the company said.

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