Newsletter XXXVII 2023
September 10 to 16
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Nuclear Power Accidents
This PDF file contains a list of known incidents from the various areas of the civil and military nuclear industry. Some of this information only came to the public in a roundabout way...
Excerpt for this month:
September 1, 1982 (INES 5) Chernobyl, USSR
September 3, 2017 (6. Atomic Bomb Test) Punggye-ri, PRK
September 5, 2008 (INES ? Class.?) Ascó, ESP
September 9, 2016 (5. Atomic Bomb Test) Punggye-ri, PRK
September 11, 1979 (INES 4 NAMS 3,4) nuclear factory Sellafield, GBR
September 11, 1957 (INES 5 NAMS 2,3) nuclear factory Rocky Flats, USA
September 13, 1987 (INES 5) Goiânia, BRA
September 18, 1980 (Rocket fuel explosion) Damascus, USA
September 22, 1980 (INES 3 NAMS 1,6) nuclear factory Sellafield, GBR
September 23, 1983 (INES 4) nuclear center Constituentes, ARG
September 24, 1977 (INES 3) Davis Besse, USA
September 26, 2013 (INES 2) Institute of Energy Caps, NLD
September 26, 1973 (INES 4 NAMS 2) nuclear factory Sellafield, GBR
September 29, 1957 (INES 6 NAMS 7,3) nuclear factory Mayak, USSR
September 30, 1999 (INES 4) nuclear factory Tokaimura, JPN
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We are looking for current information. If you can help, please send a message to: nuclear-world@reaktorpleite.de
16 September
Greenwashing | Certificates | Pesticides
Pesticide flights without warning
How sustainable are our bananas?
Green seals promise sustainable and fairly produced bananas - for a clear conscience. Research shows: The certificates are doubtful.
Fresh bananas from Latin America - they are right at the front of the display in the supermarket. There are stickers on it that promise a better product for people and nature. Like the green frog - the Rainforest Alliance seal. It promises, among other things, less pesticide use and good working conditions.
But research by the ZDF format “Die Spur” in Ecuador and Costa Rica shows that the seal often does not keep its promise. Standards are low, controls lax. They can easily undermine certified plantations...
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California sues against Oil companies weighing Deception
Accusation of misleading
California is suing world's largest oil companies over climate change
The US state of California is taking action against “the major polluters” ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, ConocoPhilips, Chevron and the American Petroleum Institute industry association. The statement of claim consists of 135 pages.
The US state of California is suing five of the world's largest oil companies. It's about environmental damage and the accusation of misleading. California filed suit against ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, ConocoPhilips and Chevron, as well as the American Petroleum Institute, an industry association, according to court documents.
The state accuses them of “actively spreading false information” about the risks associated with the use of fossil fuels. "For more than 50 years, the oil giants have lied to us and concealed the fact that they have long known how dangerous the fossil fuels they produce are to our planet," said California Governor Gavin Newsom. California now wants to “hold major polluters accountable”...
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AfD | CDU | Merzthutjanix
Right scramble
Union and AfD
Even lying phrases develop a life of their own. The fact that Friedrich Merz spoke at the end of 2021 about his party maintaining a “firewall against the AfD” is now blowing up in the face of the Union as it tries to maneuver politically. What happened on Thursday in the Thuringian state parliament was such a calculated maneuver. And unlike in February 2020 during the Kemmerich election, this time the operation took place with the full backing of the federal party: liberal wingmen of the CDU such as deputy federal chairwoman Karin Prien also joined the Thuringian party friends. She also obviously thinks the little trip further to the right is necessary.
Why is that? The Union is struggling unsuccessfully and visibly at a loss with the serious problem that it is hardly benefiting from the crisis of the traffic light government. The old pendulum of federal politics - what the "red-green" camp loses in support, the CDU and CSU (and vice versa) gain - no longer works...
15 September
Civil servant revealed data of a journalist to right-wing extremist
Breach of data protection:
Betrayed by an official to neo-Nazis
The address of an author from ZEIT ONLINE is blocked by the registration office for his protection. She was still able to get a neo-Nazi. Consequences? Hardly so far
It all started with the article Propaganda on the Parking Deck, published in ZEIT ONLINE's fault reporter on January 13, 2021. In it, the author Timo Büchner describes an action by the right-wing extremist group Junge Revolution that took place in a parking garage near Heilbronn in Baden-Württemberg had put up a banner with a racist slogan and distributed a video of it.
For right-wing extremist reporters like Büchner, such cases are everyday business. But this had serious consequences. Due to a data protection breach at customs, at least one right-wing extremist became aware of Büchner's private address. A situation that can be dangerous for journalists. And which could easily happen again if such an incident has few consequences – as in this case.
Büchner has been active as a reporter on right-wing extremists for years, especially in southwest Germany. He has also been publishing in the fault reporter for a long time. The job is not without danger: Colleagues have experienced death threats being written on their front doors, cars being set on fire, and even their own parents being threatened by right-wing extremists. The scene dominates the game of intimidation...
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Fridays for Future | Climate strike | Protest
Demonstration for climate protection
“Fridays for Future” attracts several thousand people to the streets in Berlin
“Fridays for Future” had called for a “climate strike” in numerous countries on Friday. 250 rallies were registered in Germany. The largest protest event took place in Berlin.
Thousands of climate activists marched through downtown Berlin on Friday during a protest march organized by “Fridays for Future”. The police said there were around 12.500 participants, the organizers counted 24.000 demonstrators. From the Brandenburg Gate, people marched through Berlin's government district. They backed up their call for tougher action on climate change...
Professional use of words. Who lures whom? Seducers and criminals lure the unsuspecting into a trap. At best, the written word tempts the reader to think for themselves what the intention of using that very word might have been? Fridays = seducers and protesters = clueless?
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right-wing extremists | death threats | Extinction rebellion
Right-wing radicals threaten activists:
Nazis against Fridays
Climate activists are increasingly receiving death threats from neo-Nazis. They used to be called “ticks” by the right-wingers, and today they are called “Greens”.
BERLIN taz | The danger of radicalization of the climate movement has been evoked a lot. But Fridays for Future are still dutifully registered and take to the streets, Ende Gelände sticks to non-violent actions and the Last Generation may be radically self-sacrificing or annoying, but not dangerous - and certainly not a “climate RAF”. Politically motivated investigations into the formation of a criminal organization do not change this.
Rather, experts interpret precisely those investigations by the Bavarian and Brandenburg public prosecutors as an expression of a radicalized social mood against climate activists. The wind blowing against them has become harsher, on the net and on the streets. Tino Pfaff, Weimar co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, recently made public on social media how radical and dangerous this can be.
At the end of August, he received death threats on his cell phone: “We insist on torturing you and then killing you,” it says. The taz says Pfaff: “The perpetrator refers to my climate activism and demands that I stop it.”
There were also calls with voice distortion. The author of the threats himself was close to the NPD, and his activities in networks that adhere to the anti-Semitic conspiracy ideology of a New World Order could be traced. Pfaff is now considered a person at risk by the authorities...
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Glyphosate | Monsanto | Weedkiller
nature and environment
End of glyphosate in the EU?
Glyphosate is the best-selling plant poison worldwide. It kills plants and is probably carcinogenic to humans, according to the WHO. Now the approval in the EU is ending, the manufacturers want to prevent that.
In the EU, the approval for glyphosate ends in December 2023. The EU member states are currently debating whether to extend the approval and want to vote on it in the responsible Committee for Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (SCoPAFF) in mid-October. The German Ministry of Agriculture is critical of renewed approval and describes it as “not justified”.
What is Glyphosate?
Glyphosate was distributed by Monsanto starting in 1974. The US chemical company mixed the organic phosphorus compound with other substances and sold the plant poison as a weed killer under the name Roundup.
Many farmers spray their fields with it, and all the green parts of the plants then die
and then they start sowing. This method disrupts the growth of wild herbs and crops grow better without this competition.
Pesticides containing glyphosate are now produced by several dozen chemical companies worldwide. The German Bayer AG took over Monsanto in 2018 and has "a leading position" in the global rankings, Bayer spokesman Utz Klages tells DW...
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Great Britain | Fossil lobby | gas industry
Leak: Anti-heat pump campaign in UK financed by gas lobby
The media culture war over the heating law and the heating transition continues, not only in Germany, but also in many countries. A targeted disinformation campaign by the gas lobby in Great Britain was recently uncovered. Over the last two years, the lobbying organization Energy and Utilities Alliance (EUA), an association of 300 companies related to the gas industry, has paid a marketing company to specifically create sentiment against heat pumps in order to influence public perception. A leaked document shows how the fossil lobby wanted to manipulate the public.
The marketing campaign and everything that resulted from it, all mentions and any further coverage of the content combined, accounted for two-thirds of the negative coverage of heat pumps in the UK. In other words: Almost everything that has been negatively reported about heat pumps is part of a paid campaign...
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United States | Fossil | Pipeline
Environmental Protection
Last chance against the oil company
Dakota Access pipeline in the USA: fight in a crucial phase. Objections to reports can be submitted
The indigenous peoples of North America continue to fight against the oil and gas industry and to protect life on earth. There is currently renewed pressure on the US government to shut down the hotly contested Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). Their construction sparked a collective uprising on the land of the Standing Rock Sioux in the US state of North Dakota in 2016, which was supported by international environmental and human rights groups.
In a statement on the current situation that has been distributed via video since the weekend, Janet Alkire, chairwoman of the Standing Rock Sioux, explains: "The fight is not over yet - the fight for our water, the unborn and for Mother Earth!" Those against the declared will and After years of protest by those affected, the pipeline that was routed across their territory represents "a continuous trespass against the Standing Rock Sioux." Every day there is a danger that an accident will "poison our most valuable water source, the Missouri River," warns Alkire...
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Fridays for Future | Climate strike
Climate strike: How the elites have been fighting Generation Alarm for five years
In 2018, Greta Thunberg held up the sign with “Skolstrejk för Klimatet”. What followed was a historic wrestling match. Why disruptive actions don't harm climate protection, but help.
Let's remember the years 2018 and 2019: Extreme temperatures in Germany too, hardly any precipitation, drought. Above all, the old and sick, nature and many farmers suffer from the heat and drought. The effects of the climate crisis are clearly visible to everyone.
At the same time, movements are protesting in the coal mines in the Rhineland and Lusatia. In view of the crisis, they are calling for a quick exit from the use of coal and a switch to wind and solar. The police used violence against the peaceful protesters, using pepper spray, kicks and punches.
Some activists are later sentenced to pay millions in damages, others have to go to prison for months for their civil disobedience. In the Bild newspaper, RWE boss Rolf Martin Schmitz calls them "eco-terrorists", the Süddeutsche Zeitung lumps the demonstrators together with "Reich citizens, right-wing radicals and other lawbreakers"...
14 September
poison | heavy metal | Recycling
Invisible danger
How lead poisons children in the Global South
It can be found in spices, ceramics, toys: lead is widely used, especially in poorer countries. But the heavy metal is extremely harmful. And the little ones suffer the most.
Saim is a boy from Mirzapur, a small town in Bangladesh. He used to be a good student, says his mother Shaila Akhtar - until an illegal battery recycling factory set up shop in the town. “It always stank,” she reports, and sometimes the family could hardly breathe. “Little by little he forgot more and more,” she says about her son. It was only later that she came up with the idea that it could be due to the lead released through recycling. The residents of Mirzapur were exposed to the heavy metal for years. Since then, many children have suffered from lead poisoning. Also Saim, who is in one Movie the aid organization Pure Earth can be seen. When he is asked which class he is in, he cannot remember.
Caused by an invisible danger, lead poisoning is hardly noticeable at first. But anyone who ingests lead over a longer period of time risks long-term damage to the entire body. The metal is particularly dangerous for children. Unicef estimated in a 2020 report that 815 million children worldwide have significantly too high lead concentrations in their blood, most of them in the Global South...
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AfD | CDU | Merzthutjanix
Coordination with the AfD in Thuringia
“Historic failure of the CDU”
In Thuringia, the opposition is pushing through a tax cut with votes from the AfD. The managing director of the SPD parliamentary group is horrified. The Greens and the Left are making serious accusations against CDU leader Merz.
In Thuringia, the CDU, together with the FDP and the AfD, pushed through a reduction in the real estate transfer tax from the opposition. Now there is criticism because the CDU voted together with the AfD. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Thuringia classifies them as proven right-wing extremists...
Will be the fine gentleman Höckler Accept the CDU's application to become a junior partner in a right-wing coalition?
No, first he will go to prison for a few months in 2024 for his fascist slogans and - because of the stricter prison conditions - he only has one that is over a hundred years old Remington portable typewriter...
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Last Generation | Climate Crisis
Against climate strike:
Disruption for Future!
The Fridays climate strike is just wasting resources, they have failed. FFF need the tactics of Ende Gelände and Last Generation.
What we in the climate movement don't like to admit to ourselves: We are also becoming more and more part of the repression society that is constantly busy pushing the climate crisis and the blame for it away from us. The fact that Fridays for Future is seriously calling for a “global climate strike” for the 13th time is symptomatic of this...
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Fridays for Future | Climate strike
Pro climate strike:
The Fridays do it right
The FFF successes show that more climate policy requires pressure and creativity. The last generation crowbar method only splits.
Fridays are more necessary than ever. There is no question: a revolution is needed to limit the global climate crisis to any extent. Better: Many revolutions. For fossil-free buildings, for net-zero traffic, for 100 percent green electricity, for a clean industry and for natural agriculture. The German share in the necessary global halving of emissions must be large and grow...
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Health risk:
83 percent of Germans are exposed to the chemical BPA too often
Bisphenol A is found in countless everyday products, such as canned food. According to a study, almost all Europeans have alarmingly high levels of the chemical in their bodies.
83 percent of the German population is exposed to the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in quantities that are considered a health risk. This emerges from data that the European Environment Agency (EEA) has now presented. An EU study showed that in three of the eleven countries examined, all participants had BPA levels above the limit value that is considered safe. These are France, Portugal and Luxembourg.
Bisphenol A is a synthetic chemical found in many plastic products - including reusable water bottles, toys, thermal paper and the inner lining of food cans. According to the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), BPA is also found in smartphones and DVDs. People mainly absorb the substance through food, but air, dust or water are also possible sources.
According to the EEA, the burden on the population is well above acceptable safety levels. This poses a potential health risk for millions of people, the agency said. Even in small amounts, the chemical can weaken the immune system, and it can also lead to reduced fertility and allergic skin reactions...
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community-led approach | resilience | biosphere
Six out of nine planetary boundaries crossed
Update shows further deterioration in the condition of essential Earth systems
Our planet's resilience is dwindling: six out of nine limits of planetary resilience have been exceeded - two more than in 2015, a new balance sheet reveals. The planetary limits have therefore been exceeded in terms of global warming, the biosphere, deforestation, nitrogen cycles, pollutants and fresh water. The pressure on these earth systems and cycles is also growing more and more. The researchers warn in “Science Advances” that there is a risk of serious and sometimes irreversible changes to the planetary systems.
The Earth system is robust, but its resilience has limits. If these are exceeded, processes and cycles settle into a new equilibrium - with serious consequences for people and the environment. Scientists first defined where these limits of resilience lie in 2009. According to an initial survey in 2015, four of the nine planetary boundaries had already been exceeded, including climate change, biodiversity, land use and the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles.
Now Katherine Richardson from the University of Copenhagen and her team have once again checked the status of the nine planetary systems. At the same time, they succeeded in quantifying more precisely the planetary boundaries for the entry of pollutants and plastics, aerosol pollution in the atmosphere and fresh water that had not yet been determined or were determined too imprecisely. As a further innovation, a new control variable for the integrity of the biosphere was introduced.
The review of the state of the earth found: Six of the nine planetary boundaries have now been exceeded - climate, biosphere, deforestation, pollutants, nitrogen cycles and freshwater...
13 September
Uranium transport | Lingen fuel element factory | Rosatom
Uranium transport to Lingen approved:
Russian uranium remains welcome
According to opponents of nuclear power, 40 new uranium deliveries to the Lingen fuel element factory were approved. They come from the Russian company Rosatom.
LINGEN/HAMBURG epd | According to opponents of nuclear power, German authorities have approved 40 more uranium shipments from Russia to the fuel element factory in Lingen, Emsland. The first of these deliveries arrived last week, the anti-nuclear organization “broadcast” and the “nuclear power opponents in Emsland” alliance announced on Wednesday. The transports were approved by the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (Base) with the approval of the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA). The base provides information on the Internet about transport permits issued for nuclear material...
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Latin America | Human right | Global Witness
In the past year :
NGO: 177 environmentalists killed worldwide
Dangerous fight for nature conservation: According to the NGO Global Witness, 177 activists were killed last year, most of them in Latin America. Particularly at risk: indigenous people.
Almost every other day, an environmentalist pays with his life for his commitment to clean rivers and intact forests: Last year, 177 conservationists were killed worldwide, as the non-governmental organization Global Witness announced on Wednesday when presenting its annual report...
"The world's governments must urgently stop the senseless killing of those who defend our planet by protecting the ecosystems that play a critical role in addressing the climate crisis."
[...] Global Witness called on the governments of the affected countries to consistently implement existing laws and ensure the safety of environmental activists. Above all, the right of indigenous communities to their traditional habitat and culture must be better protected, the recommendations said.
On the other hand, companies must ensure that there are no human rights violations at the edge of their supply chains.
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Contaminated war: Will Ukrainians be left alone with toxic uranium ammunition?
USA also wants to supply DU projectiles to Kiev. A destroyed British tank with uranium ammunition shows that Ukrainians are not being protected from contamination. Are these war crimes?
The United States has now publicly announced that it will supply Ukraine with depleted uranium (DU) ammunition to deter the Russian military's offensive, which Moscow strongly condemns.
The planned transfer, part of a $XNUMX billion U.S. aid package for Kiev unveiled last week, has also raised questions about the potential impact of depleted uranium on civilians in Ukraine.
[...] At the same time, John Laforge, co-director of Nukewatch, warns of the consequences of the use of weapons in Ukraine:
If these projectiles are used in the Ukraine war, the soil, water, agricultural crops and livestock of the contested area are likely to be contaminated with uranium and other radioactive materials contained in the armor-piercing ammunition. When DU penetrates the shell of a tank, it becomes an aerosol of dust or gaseous particles that can be inhaled and carried long distances on the wind.
The USA follows Great Britain with its announcement. The country had already supplied Ukraine with DU bullets at the beginning of the year. Farhan Haq, spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, condemned the decision...
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September 13, 1987 (INES 5) Goiânia, BRA
AtomkraftwerkePlag
Scrap metal scrapyard in Goiânia, BRA
In the fall of 1987, just one year after Chernobyl, a nuclear disaster occurred in the central Brazilian city of Goiânia. It makes it clear that radioactive substances stored in medical centers can pose similar risks to commercial and military nuclear reactors that are out of control.
The starting point of the disaster was the ruins of the Instituto Goiâno de Radioterapia, a disused radiotherapy center that had not been demolished. The government had failed to remove radioactive materials from the site and the former operator had left equipment there...
Wikipedia
occurred from September 13, 1987 in the Brazilian city of Goiânia. During a break-in at a disused clinic, a medical radiotherapy device was stolen and the radioactive material it contained was distributed by the thieves among friends and acquaintances. Hundreds of people were contaminated with radioactivity, some of them severely, four people are known to have died within a few weeks and other deaths are linked to the accident. Parts of the city are still contaminated with radioactivity to this day. The accident was classified by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as the world's largest radiological accident to date due to its level of contamination and was rated at level 5 (out of 7) on the International Nuclear Event Rating Scale (INES)...
12 September
Libya | Heavy rain | Weather disaster
Weather disaster in Libya:
Half the city washed into the sea
Thousands dead, ten thousand missing: the flood disaster in Libya is hitting the country all the more because it has been torn by conflict for twelve years.
MARRAKESH taz | On foot they make their way through streets destroyed by floodwaters: soldiers, medics and volunteers looking for survivors. They can be seen in videos from the eastern Libyan city of Darna that Libyan rescue workers have published. The images make the disasters and conflicts in war-torn Libya of the past twelve years appear almost harmless.
Because the telephone and electricity were out, the extent of the inferno was only slowly becoming known to the world. One thing is already certain: thousands of people have died as a result of the floods in eastern Libya. On Tuesday, rescue workers reported more than 2.300 deaths and around 7.000 injuries in the port city of Darna alone.
More than 5.000 people are still missing, said a spokesman for the Libyan emergency and rescue services. Late on Tuesday afternoon, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry said that a total of around 5200 people had died. 10.000 people are missing.
On Sunday, after heavy rain, water coming from the mountains flooded the port city of Darna, which is located directly on the Mediterranean coast, and found its way into the sea. Half the city was literally swept away. It is the heaviest rainfall ever recorded in the country...
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Climate Crisis | Forest fires | Flooding
6 climate graphics that show how extreme it is now
The climate crisis is here and we are already feeling the consequences today: forest fires in southern Europe, heatwave after heatwave. The summer of 2023 will actually be by far the hottest since records began in 1940. In addition, there are more and more extreme weather situations that we have to learn to deal with - because there will still be a few of them to come. Nevertheless, paid or ideological voices keep coming forward to deny exactly that. So that more people don't fall for their propaganda: Here are 6 graphics with climate diagrams that cannot be denied. And they show how abnormal the climate has become.
FULL RIDE AHEAD
Climate change doesn't just mean that it's getting a little warmer and summers are getting longer. The consequences are gigantic for all of us. You could compare it to an eternally long freight train that increasingly gains speed and more and more wagons are docked to it before it slams into a wall with full force. The longer we wait to slow down, the more dangerous and painful the impact will be for all of us...
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IAEA | Nuclear lobby | Insolvent
Grossi warns that the IAEA will run out of money within a few weeks
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) member states now owe more than €200 million ($214 million), and Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi has warned that if payments are not made, "we will run out of money in a month will... I won't be able to pay the salaries or the lighting... we will come to a standstill".
Before delving into the content of his statement to the IAEA panel, in which he discussed, among other things, the ongoing work in Ukraine and Fukushima as well as the new Atoms4Food initiative, Grossi said he had to start with the urgent financial situation because he I find it "contradictory" that "we are talking about so many important things while I don't know whether I will be able to open the shop in a month"...
Translated with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
11 September
Libya | Flooding | disaster area
Disaster areas in the east of the country
Thousands feared dead after storms and floods in Libya
Storm “Daniel” has hit Libya. Now the civil war country is expecting many victims. A head of government fears more than 2000 deaths.
After violent storms in Libya, the government is expecting thousands of deaths in the east of the country. The head of one of the rival governments in the civil war country, Osama Hammad, told the Al-Massar television channel on Monday that more than 2000 people were feared dead. Thousands more people in the country with almost seven million inhabitants are missing. There was initially no independent information on fatalities.
Storm “Daniel” hit Libya on Sunday. According to the Reuters news agency, the Libyan Presidential Council is now asking for international help and has declared affected regions in the east of the country a "disaster area"...
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Glyphosate | carcinogenic | Monsanto
Critical study on pesticide:
Glyphosate causes stress again
The best-selling pesticide glyphosate causes “oxidative stress,” say three scientists. This cell damage can lead to cancer.
BERLIN taz | Environmentalists accuse the EU authorities of wrongly dismissing evidence of a cancer risk from the pesticide glyphosate. “A new scientific study shows that the EU chemicals authority Echa ignored important findings on carcinogenicity and neglected the evidence that glyphosate causes oxidative stress,” the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) organization said on Monday. Oxidative stress is a “recognized mechanism that can lead to cancer.” The process refers to damage to cells by highly reactive oxygen molecules, which can be produced by chemicals such as glyphosate, among others, said taz Peter Clausing, toxicologist and co-author of the study.
Glyphosate is the world's best-selling pesticide ingredient. The International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization (WHO) rated it as “probably carcinogenic” in 2015 – rats and mice fed glyphosate had developed tumors. In the USA, several courts then sentenced one of the manufacturers, the German Bayer AG, to pay high damages to plaintiffs who attributed their cancer to the drug. Bayer, on the other hand, cites various regulatory authorities that classify glyphosate as safe. The poison kills almost all non-genetically modified plants and thus also food for birds and insects. That's why environmentalists see it as a threat to biodiversity. The EU member states want to decide in mid-October whether the glyphosate approval, which expires on December 15th, should be renewed...
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United States | Lithium | Thacker Pass, Nevada
USA discovers world's largest lithium deposit in a volcanic crater
Lithium is a crucial factor in the production of electric car batteries. Now the USA has apparently accidentally stumbled upon a possibly gigantic deposit of the metal.
If this discovery proves true, the USA will have a huge raw material advantage in the race for resources for the future of electromobility. A new study published in the journal Science Advances suggests that the McDermitt Caldera, a volcanic crater on the Nevada-Oregon border, could hold 20 to 40 million tons of lithium. This estimate even exceeds the amount of lithium in Bolivia's salt flats, which contain about 23 million tons.
The caldera was formed around 16,4 million years ago by a massive magma eruption. Over time, a lake formed in the crater, in which a large layer of lithium-containing sediment was deposited, which is now 182 meters thick.
Renewed volcanic activity brought additional lithium into the existing sediment and enriched it further. This created a lithium-rich clay called illite. Illite is not only rich in metal, but also easier to separate from other substances and can therefore be broken down more easily...
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September 11, 1979 (INES 4 NAMS 3,4) nuclear factory Sellafield, GBR
242 TBq of plutonium were released when radioactive waste water was transported to building B130. (Cost approx. US$87 million)
Slowly but surely, all relevant information about disruptions in the nuclear industry is becoming available from Wikipedia away!
Wikipedia
The complex became known due to a catastrophic fire in 1957 and frequent nuclear accidents and was therefore renamed Sellafield. Until the mid-1980s, large quantities of nuclear waste generated during daily operations were discharged into the Irish Sea in liquid form via a pipeline...
Radiological releases
Between 1950 and 2000, there were 21 serious incidents or accidents involving off-site radiological releases that warranted classification on the International Nuclear Event Scale, one at Level 5, five at Level 4 and fifteen at Level 3. In addition, there were Intentional releases of plutonium and irradiated uranium oxide particles into the atmosphere over long periods of time known in the 1950s and 1960s...
Translated with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
AtomkraftwerkePlag
Sellafield (formerly_Windscale), United Kingdom
There are comparable nuclear factories all over the world:
Uranium enrichment and reprocessing - facilities and sites
During reprocessing, the inventory of spent fuel elements can be separated from one another in a complex chemical process (PUREX). Separated uranium and plutonium can then be reused. As far as the theory...
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September 11, 1957 (INES 5 NAMS 2,3) nuclear factory Rocky Flats, USA
A fire destroyed a plutonium processing plant. About 7800 TBq of radioactivity was released. (Cost approx. US$8189 million)
Wikipedia
Spontaneous ignition of plutonium occurred in a container containing 600 tons of flammable material. The fire burned 2 tons of the material and released plutonium oxide. By taking soil samples around the facility, it was determined that the area was contaminated with plutonium. Since the operators of the plant refused to initiate investigations, the samples were taken as part of an unofficial investigation...
Youtube
Uranium economy: Facilities for processing uranium
Reprocessing plants turn a few tons of nuclear waste into many tons of nuclear waste
All uranium and plutonium factories produce radioactive nuclear waste: Uranium processing, enrichment and reprocessing plants, whether in Hanford, La Hague, Sellafield, Mayak, Tokaimura or wherever in the world, all have the same problem: with every processing step More and more extremely toxic and highly radioactive waste is being produced...
10 September
Chile | military coup | Kissinger
50 years of the coup in Chile:
The other 11/XNUMX
On September 11, 1973, Chile's military overthrew the elected left-wing government. Torture and murder followed - and a radical restructuring of society.
The land was a hope. After the failed Hungarian uprising of 1956 and the Prague Spring, which was ended by Warsaw Pact troops in 1968, it seemed that democratic socialism would have a new chance in Chile.
Six parties came together to form the Unidad Popular ("Popular Unity") for the presidential elections in Chile in 1970 and agreed on the doctor Salvador Allende as their candidate: Allende's Socialist Party, the Communist, the Radical and the Social Democratic Party as well as two left-wing splits from the Christian Democratic Party .
In the election, Allende only received a relative majority over the conservative candidate Jorge Alessandri, but he prevailed in the congressional runoff thanks to the support of the Christian Democrats. There was no shortage of enemies from the start. Henry Kissinger, National Security Advisor and US Secretary of State from September 1973, and the CIA did everything they could to prevent Allende's election and, when that failed, to overthrow him...
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NSU investigative committee | fascist | Bavaria
How the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation is throwing smoke and mirrors about the NSU with the help of the Antifa.
Public service refusal to work: The prevailing narrative of the three-perpetrator cell, an unidentifiable environment and somehow passive security authorities is not to be touched.
When in July 2023, after just one year, the Bavarian NSU Investigative Committee No. 2 came to an end, Bayerischer Rundfunk also took stock, although it had not exactly reported regularly on the state parliamentary committee and its work. The BR calls the results of the investigative committee “devastating” and completely ignores some of its exciting new findings. He also does not differentiate between those in the committee who are blocking the government factions and those who are willing to provide information. The resistance of the security authorities to the committee is only formally criticized by the BR. Finally, the broadcaster also leaves out the negative role of the media, which largely ignored this committee. Otherwise he would have had to criticize himself.
[...] Finally, the committee also had opponents within its own ranks. No questions, no file work, tampering, parliamentary protection of the security authorities, especially by the CSU, Free Voters, but also AfD.
Then, when the final report was presented, this behavior culminated in a kind of expropriation of the committee chairman Toni Schuberl (Greens), whose job it was to draft the committee report. The committee majority of the CSU, FW and, with the help of the AfD, suddenly made their own report the main report. The Schuberl report, 800 pages long, was confiscated and disappeared into Parliament's poison cabinet.
[...] But Bayerischer Rundfunk hardly reported any of this. Why? Because it could fit a different NSU narrative? Acts that were reprisals or contract killings? Perpetrators who can also be found in the Nuremberg and Munich scenes? And in times of programmatic proximity to the government, he may be bothered by a statement like that of committee chairman Schuberl: “Undercover agents from the various constitutional protection offices in Germany have used state money, sometimes on state orders, to create right-wing extremist structures that would not have existed without them. The NSU also emerged partly from these structures."...
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(Post)colonialism in Namibia: From concentration camps to green hydrogen
The Federal Republic has an energy problem following the loss of Russian gas supplies and the challenges of climate change. Progress in the ecological transformation is slow because the government, business, right-wing parties and parts of the population refuse to tackle the problem consistently and fear loss of prosperity and restrictions on consumption. For some, the idea is to place the brunt of the consequences of future energy supplies on others in order to carry on as before. Luckily, there is still a former colony: “German Southwest”, now Namibia. What was it like back then and what will it possibly be like tomorrow? Are there similarities or certain parallels?
The major merchant Adolf Lüderitz, who was born into a wealthy Bremen family in 1834, initially had little luck in increasing his wealth in the slave-owning southern states of the USA. A revolution in neighboring Mexico even thwarted his plans. After further unsuccessful attempts, he tried to acquire land in South West Africa in 1882 in order to look for mineral resources.
Mile dizziness
In 1883 he concluded a contract with the traditional leader of the Nama tribe, Kaptein Josef Frederiks II, in which he was given five miles of land around Angra Pequena (today's Lüderitz) for 100 pounds in gold and 200 rifles. Josef Frederiks assumed that the assessment would be based on an English mile of 1,6 kilometers. Lüderitz, however, preferred the Prussian mile with a length of 7,5 kilometers. The Nama chief was duped. Lüderitz repeated the same underhanded approach shortly afterwards with another purchase 20 miles inland. On Wikipedia you can read about this deceptive maneuver: "The questionable contractual basis for the acquisitions, commonly called 'Mile fraud', earned Lüderitz the nickname Lienfritz early on"...
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Fossil energy sources receive Subsidies for even more CO2 emissions
Scandal: 70 billion euros of tax money for fossil instead of renewable energies
German government funding is higher per tonne of CO2 than the emissions trading price, while renewables usually get nothing. Huge sums of money are also being spent on coal, gas and oil globally. That has to change quickly.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), subsidies for fossil fuels in Germany are still unbearably high at 1,9 percent of economic output. This corresponds to 70 billion euros per year, as the German Institute for Economics (DIW) recently described in an article.
This means that each of the 2022 million tons of CO746 emitted in Germany in 2 was subsidized with almost 100 euros. On average, emissions trading prices in 2022 were only 80 euros per ton.
How is climate protection ever supposed to work if the subsidies are higher than the costs for the CO2 emission certificates?
You don't hear anything about this from the FDP, which says it is always committed to reducing state subsidies. The responsible Finance Minister Lindner, who is struggling to keep the new debt in the 2023 federal budget under control, has not yet made any suggestions as to how government spending could be curbed by reducing climate-damaging fossil fuel subsidies...
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Morocco | Earthquake | disaster area
Death toll after earthquake in Morocco rises to more than 2.000
At least 2.059 other people were injured. According to the WHO, more than 300.000 people are affected by the disaster. King Mohammed VI ordered three days of national mourning
Rabat/Marrakesh - After the severe earthquake in Morocco, people in the disaster areas spent the second night in uncertainty and mourning the victims. According to the authorities, the number of deaths has now risen to 2.012. At least 2.059 other people were injured, more than half of them seriously, as Moroccan media reported on Sunday night, citing the Interior Ministry. King Mohammed VI ordered three days of national mourning.
Despite numerous offers of help from all over the world, the country's government has not yet officially requested any support. This step is necessary before foreign rescue workers can be deployed. Nevertheless, emergency services from aid organizations are ready for a possible flight to the disaster area...
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Current news+
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Electricity price | Subsidies | Climate Crisis
How Germany is ruining the climate with billions in gifts to industry
Energy and climate – compact: billions in aid to industry. Climate protection and social issues come second. Is this forward-looking? A comment.
The conditions can be frightening. Not just the war in Ukraine and its escalation, which the local government has willingly accepted, leading to nuclear war and nuclear winter with potentially up to five billion deaths, or the confrontation with China, which the West wants to deny its proper place in the global community.
What is particularly important is the consistent ignoring of all scientific warnings about the unfolding climate crisis and the persistent adherence to technologies that have long been recognized as harmful, while at the same time dealing with the protests against this future-forgetful policy, which is also largely driven by a supposed environmental party, in an increasingly repressive manner.
We have often reported here on Telepolis in recent months about the expensive and climate-damaging fracking gas from the USA, which is now available through liquid gas terminals without regard to the environment and fisheries. Or about the diesel fraud scandal and the German auto industry's unwillingness to let its engineers work on future-oriented innovations instead of cheating software.
The continued overexploitation of brown coal, to which wind turbines fell victim in the Rhineland at the end of August, was also repeatedly the subject of our reporting.
The latest idea from the cabinet of madness is the proposal by Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP), the man who keeps the state's coffers tightly tied when it comes to basic child welfare, to give tax advantages to so-called e-fuels.
As reported, the minister is considering exempting car owners who only use fuel synthesized with (a lot of) electricity from vehicle tax. In terms of energy, it's pure madness because of the low efficiency of the conversion processes.
Greenpeace: 16 billion for climate-damaging industry
But that would just increase the continued reward of climate destruction that comes with the demonization and mistreatment of climate activists. Just last week, the environmental protection organization Greenpeace calculated that the tax authorities subsidize climate-damaging processes in industry with over 16 billion euros per year.
Large corporations such as BASF, Linde Gas and ThyssenKrupp would benefit the most. These companies would receive 60 million euros in relief from electricity tax alone.
In total, almost 3,8 billion euros would be spent on electricity price subsidies for industry, which favor fossil fuels. The biggest chunk, however, is over ten billion euros in relief within the framework of European emissions trading.
The majority of the climate-damaging subsidies analyzed flow to a few large companies that work in particularly energy-intensive sectors, namely iron and steel, metals, chemicals, cement, paper and refineries.
“Gifts of billions to the industry for cheaper fossil energy make it more expensive and block the climate-friendly transformation of the economy,” comments Bastian Neuwirth, who works as a climate and energy expert at Greenpeace. And mind you, even though the federal government has repeatedly spoken out in favor of ending subsidies for the fossil fuel industries at G20 and G7 meetings in recent years.
You obviously don't want to just lead by example. The economic interests of the old, climate-damaging industries and their influence on politics are too strong for that. Business in the luxury segment of the automotive industry is too good, or electricity trading and the operation of coal and gas power plants are too lucrative.
But one thing is certain: others will pay for the consequences of these policies and these transactions. People who cannot protect themselves from high food prices and storm disasters, future generations.
While the profits are distributed privately, the damages are – as always – socialized. That's how it is in the Western community of values, for which some would like to send others to war. (Wolfgang Pomrehn)
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Background knowledge
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The map of the nuclear world
Those responsible for the crises are being pampered...
The internal search for
Electricity price | Subsidies | Climate Crisis
brought the following results, among others:
May 9, 2023 - Habeck is planning new subsidies for industrial electricity
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November 2, 2022 - Germany is diligently promoting fossil energies abroad
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August 29, 2022 - Fossil fuel subsidies almost doubled in 2021
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October 29, 2021 - UBA denounces environmentally harmful subsidies in the billions
YouTube
Subsidies climate crisis
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Subventionen Klimakrise
Videos:
Greenpeace Germany - September 1, 2023 - 2:14
Billions in fossil state aid are slowing down climate protection in industry
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EJF - June 22, 2022 - 1:10
Billions for the destruction of our earth: Let's become independent of coal, oil and gas!
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extra 3, NDR - April 1, 2021 - 8:01
Climate policy in Germany: Low environmental taxes and harmful subsidies
Playlist - radioactivity worldwide ...
This playlist contains over 150 videos on the topic
The search engine Ecosia is planting trees!
Electricity price subsidies climate crisis
https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=Strompreis%20Subventionen%20Klimakrise
Federal Agency for Civic Education
What does justice mean in the context of the climate crisis? This is both politically and ethically controversial. The debate as to who should bear how much responsibility for the climate crisis plays a central role.
[...] While European and US governments are financially able to cushion the loss of income for their farmers as droughts become more frequent and to import food for their own populations, rising world market prices for raw materials are, among other things, contributing to famine in West Africa and the Sahel region...
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Greenpeace
Reducing climate-damaging subsidies can reduce the burden on the federal budget by 46 billion euros annually and massively save CO2 emissions. This is what a new study shows.
A ranking examines the phase-out of ten particularly climate-damaging subsidies in Germany and sorts them according to where the most tax money and CO2 can be saved. The following subsidies have proven to be particularly effective for climate protection and budget restructuring in decreasing order:
- the abolition of the tax exemption for kerosene,
- the reduction of electricity price exceptions for industry
- and the exit from tax relief for electricity generation.
Mathematically, the federal government alone could save around 73 million tons of CO2 and 18 billion euros in tax money annually. In the middle of the ranking are:
- the distance allowance,
- the VAT exemption for international flights,
- the reduced VAT rate on animal products
- as well as the diesel privilege
Greenpeace had already published its own study on the latter at the beginning of 2020. Also in the top 10, the subsidies that are particularly harmful to the climate are in the lower range
- the company car privilege,
- Energy tax breaks for industry
- as well as tax breaks for agricultural diesel
However, this does not mean that reform is not still necessary. Here the climate potential is only slightly lower, but still significant. “Giving out more extra money for climate-damaging businesses is completely out of time. Each of these climate-damaging subsidies must be ended as quickly as possible,” says Neuwirth...
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Wikipedia
The climate crisis is a term for the ecological, political and social crisis related to global warming. Similar to climate catastrophe, it is increasingly being used in public discourse instead of more harmless-sounding terms such as climate change to illustrate the seriousness of global warming. It is also sometimes used in scientific literature...
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Newsletter XXXVI 2023 - September 3th to 9th
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