The Pacific has too much pollution and it needs to be cleaned up. More unnecessary mining of the ocean will not result in good outcomes.
October 4, 2016
By RP Siegel
Some rather disturbing news (click here) came out this weekend about the impact of the nuclear catastrophe at Fukushima. While the incident took place five years ago and is no longer in the news, that does not mean it has been resolved. A recent report claims radioactive contamination from the accident has now spread across the entire Pacific Ocean, the massive body of water that covers nearly a third of Earth’s surface. Scientists now say the Pacific is at least five to 10 times more radioactive than it was when the U.S. began testing nuclear weapons there. Western Canada experienced levels of radioactive iodine-131 that were 300 times higher than normal background levels since the accident. Pacific herring have been found bleeding from their mouths, gills and eyes.
As the contamination made its way across the water, Oregon tuna were found in 2013 with radiation levels triple their previous levels. Starfish began dying off. The following year, California beaches recorded radiation levels that had increased by 500 percent.
As bad as that sounds, it gets worse. Remember the Deepwater Horizon oil spill? The broken pipe from the well gushed out roughly 2.4 million gallons of toxic crude into the Gulf of Mexico each day, posing a potentially lethal threat to the Gulf itself. There was a profound sense of relief around the world when the well was finally capped after 87 days.
But five years after the meltdown, radioactive waste is still pouring forth from the ruins of the Fukushima plant. Not just a little, but rather an estimated 300 tons of radioactive waste continues to spew into the ocean every day....
There are other alternatives. We don't need to be in the Pacific more than our allies expect. We don't have to destablize China and/or Russia's economy. Russia is isolating itself. There is reason to believe China is as well. My question is why are they isolating themselves. I assume their ambassadors are still in place.
Pioneering new insights (click here) into why high concentrations of some of the most rare and desirable natural elements - vital for the production of vital environmental, digital and security technologies - have been revealed.
Pivotal new collaborative research, led by the world-famous Camborne School of Mines, based at the University of Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall (click here), provides a ground-breaking explanation of why remarkably high levels of these crucial earth elements are found at the Songwe Hill Rare Earth Project in Malawi, Southeast Africa.
The research team insisted that the new findings could pave the way for mining companies to significantly increase the likelihood of enhancing the global security of the supply of critical, yet rare, earth elements.
The innovative findings are published in the respected journal Ore Geology Reviews.
At present, many of the 15 naturally occurring rare earth elements are essential components in the vast majority of green and digital technology production and advances.
These include neodymium, a 'light rare earth' element vital for the production of permanent magnets in electric cars, wind turbines and smartphones; and 'heavy rare earth' elements such as dysprosium, europium and terbium which are used in lighting, anti-fraud and safety technologies....
It is time to do the right thing. We have to encourage the real and necessary use of Earth's resources.
