Matthew Stein - Four Hundred Chernobyls: Solar Flares, Electromagnetic Pulses and Nuclear Armageddon

There are nearly 450 nuclear reactors in the world, with hundreds more being planned or under construction. There are 104 of these reactors in the United States and 195 in Europe. Imagine what havoc it would wreak on our civilization and the planet's ecosystems if we were to suddenly witness not just one or two nuclear meltdowns, but 400 or more! How likely is it that our world might experience an event that could ultimately cause hundreds of reactors to fail and melt down at approximately the same time? I venture to say that, unless we take significant protective measures, this apocalyptic scenario is not only possible, but probable.

Consider the ongoing problems caused by three reactor core meltdowns, explosions and breached containment vessels at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi facility and the subsequent health and environmental issues. Consider the millions of innocent victims who have already died or continue to suffer from horrific radiation-related health problems ("Chernobyl AIDS," epidemic cancers, chronic fatigue, etcetera) resulting from the Chernobyl reactor explosions, fires and fallout. If just two serious nuclear disasters, spaced 25 years apart, could cause such horrendous environmental catastrophes, it is hard to imagine how we could ever hope to recover from hundreds of similar nuclear incidents occurring simultaneously across the planet. Since more than one-third of all Americans live within 50 miles of a nuclear power plant, this is a serious issue that should be given top priority.[1]

Read More:

http://truth-out.org/news/item/7301-400-chernobyls-solar-flares-electromagnetic-pulses-and-nuclear-armageddon

Robert Reich - Healthcare Jujitsu

Not surprisingly, today’s debut Supreme Court argument over the so-called “individual mandate” requiring everyone to buy health insurance revolved around epistemological niceties such as the meaning of a “tax,” and the question of whether the issue is ripe for review

Behind this judicial foreplay is the brute political fact that if the Court decides the individual mandate is an unconstitutional extension of federal authority, the entire law starts unraveling.

But with a bit of political jujitsu, the President could turn any such defeat into a victory for a single-payer healthcare system – Medicare for all.

Here’s how.

The dilemma at the heart of the new law is that it continues to depend on private health insurers, who have to make a profit or at least pay all their costs including marketing and advertising.

Read More:

http://robertreich.org/post/19972321637

Cities forecast to expand by area equal to France, Germany and Spain combined in less than 20 years

Unless development patterns change, by 2030 humanity's urban footprint will occupy an additional 1.5 million square kilometres - comparable to the combined territories of France, Germany and Spain, say experts at a major international science meeting underway in London.

UN estimates show human population growing from 7 billion today to 9 billion by 2050, translating into some 1 million more people expected on average each week for the next 38 years, with most of that increase anticipated in urban centres. And ongoing migration from rural to urban living could see world cities receive yet another 1 billion additional people. Total forecast urban population in 2050: 6.3 billion (up from 3.5 billion today).

The question isn't whether to urbanize but how, says Dr. Michail Fragkias of Arizona State University, one of nearly 3000 participants at the conference, entitled "Planet Under Pressure". Unfortunately, he adds, today's ongoing pattern of urban sprawl puts humanity at severe risk due to environmental problems. Dense cities designed for efficiency offer one of the most promising paths to sustainability, and urbanization specialists will share a wealth of knowledge available to drive solutions.

Read More:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-03/essp-cft032612.php

EPA Finds Water Safe to Drink Despite Explosive Levels of Methane and Other Toxins

In the middle of an investigation into water contamination caused by natural gas drilling, with only partial results from less than 20 percent of households being investigated, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Region 3 office issued a press release on March 15 implying that Dimock, Pa.’s water has been given a clean bill of health. In the same statement to the press, EPA admitted that several families still have arsenic and methane in their water, but the news headlines are already proclaiming that the water in Dimock is safe.

Independent testing has found that 11 Dimock families’ water is contaminated with explosive levels of methane, as well as heavy metals, radioactive material and fracking chemicals like ethylene glycol—commonly known as antifreeze. Would partial, preliminary test results convince you that Dimock’s water was safe for your children to drink?

This mismanagement of the crisis in Dimock is just one of a long list of failures to protect citizens from the hazards of gas drilling. And the circumstances of Region 3’s press release raise more questions than answers:

Read More:

http://ecowatch.org/2012/epa-finds-water-safe-to-drink-despite-explose-levels-of-methane-and-other-toxins/

'The Great Acceleration' And The State Of The Planet: Ominous Outlook

Scientists describe humanity's global impact as 'The Great Acceleration' and offer ominous outlook: An uncertain future on a much hotter world

Time is running out to minimize the risk of setting in motion irreversible and long-term climate change and other dramatic changes to Earth's life support system, according to scientists speaking at the Planet Under Pressure conference, which began in London today.

The unequivocal warning is delivered on the first day of the four-day conference opening with the latest readings of Earth's vital signs.

In subsequent days at the meeting, nearly 3,000 experts spanning the spectrum of interconnected scientific interests, will examine solutions, hurdles and ways to break down the barriers to progress. The conference is the largest gathering of experts in development and global environmental changes in advance of June's UN "Rio+20" summit in Brazil.

Read More:

http://nanopatentsandinnovations.blogspot.com/2012/03/great-acceleration-and-state-of-planet.html

Gary Weiss - The Horrors of an Ayn Rand World: Why We Must Fight for America's Soul

There is no real doubt what an Objectivist America would mean. We may not be around to see it, but it’s likely we’ll be here for its earliest manifestations. They may have already arrived.

The shape of a future Objectivist world has been a matter of public record for the past half century, since Ayn Rand, the Brandens, Alan Greenspan, and other Objectivist theoreticians began to set down their views in Objectivist newsletters. When he casually defended repeal of child labor laws in the debate with Miles Rapoport, Yaron Brook [President of the Ayn Rand Institute] was merely repeating long- established Objectivist doctrine, summarized by Leonard Peikoff as “Government is inherently negative.” It is a worldview that has been static through the decades, its tenets reiterated endlessly by Rand and her apostles:

No government except the police, courts of law, and the armed services.

No regulation of anything by any government.

Read More:

http://www.alternet.org/story/154700/the_horrors_of_an_ayn_rand_world%3A_why_we_must_fight_for_america%27s_soul

Dekker Dreyer - Do We Need a Stock Exchange?

Occupy Wall Street is now back where the movement began, and there are even more society-shaping questions in the wild then last October. Since the housing market crash decimated our country we’ve been examining our economy from the grassroots level up to far-reaching government initiatives. We’ve seen widespread protests against dubious banks and the financial instruments which have allowed them to plunder the national wealth. But one elephant is still sitting in the middle of the room... no few have been questioning if the very logic of a stock exchange is unhealthy in the long run. Conventional wisdom says stock markets are the best way in history to generate wealth. Some maintain that this wealth does not get redistributed to the public in any significant manner. Arguments against stock markets include the cost of entry and the complexity of the rules governing transactions.

To understand the dysfunctions of the stock market, we must understand what a stock market is. As early as the 1600s the concept of shared corporate interest was cemented in modern Western civilization when the dutch offered ownership stakes in the Dutch East India Company. The basis for collective ownership, however, may have been introduced to Europe as early as the Bronze Age. Sharing risk and resources among many stakeholders is a natural infusion of the most primitive principles of human cooperation. The concept of a publicly participatory stock market, however, is a much more recent invention.

Read More:

http://www.nationofchange.org/do-we-need-stock-exchange-1332680909

Ethan A. Huff - Newspaper readership collapsing as people turn to alternative news for truthful reporting

Traditional, mainstream print news appears to be on the brink of collapse as more and more people turn to independent, primarily online news sources for information. A recent report from Financial Times explains how, from almost every angle, print newspapers are taking a major hit, not only with declines in readership, but also in flailing advertising revenues.

Last year, the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism put out its The State of the News Media 2011 report which found that more Americans now get their news from online sources rather than from print sources. And even though traditional newspapers are increasingly making the migration online, they are still losing $7 in print ads for every dollar in online ads they gain.

News outlets that began online rather than in print seem to be faring just fine, on the other hand, as their advertising and other revenue sources were natively designed for the online environment to begin with. But for traditional mainstream news outlets that began in print, many of which are now owned by corporate conglomerates, the situation is dire.

Read More:

http://www.naturalnews.com/035350_newspaper_circulation_collapse.html

Matthew Rothschild - Obama’s Creepy Executive Order: Permanent War Economy

Entitled “National Defense Resources Preparedness,” [1] it authorizes the President and cabinet officials to take over crucial aspects of the national economy not only during emergencies but also in peacetime.

The order relies on a Korean War-era statute, the Defense Production Act of 1950, to further entwine the domestic industrial economy with the military. It talks of fostering “cooperation between the defense and commercial sectors.”

The stated purpose is to strengthen “the domestic industrial and technological base” so as “to ensure it is capable of responding to the national defense needs of the United States.” 

This amounts to putting the economy on permanent war footing, even when there isn’t an emergency.

For instance, the Executive Order talks of the need for the economic base “to satisfy [defense] requirements in peacetime and times of national emergency.” And cabinet officials are authorized to “issue regulations to prioritize and allocate resources . . . to promote the national defense, under both emergency and non-emergency conditions.”

Read More:

http://www.progressive.org/permanent_war_economy.html

Elizabeth Grossman - Scientists Warn of Low-Dose Risks of Chemical Exposure

Since before the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring 50 years ago, scientists have known that certain synthetic chemicals can interfere with the hormones that regulate the body’s most vital systems. Evidence of the health impacts of so-called endocrine-disrupting chemicals grew from the 1960s to the 1990s. With the 1996 publication of Our Stolen Future by Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, and J. Peterson Myers, many people heard for the first time how such exposures — from industrial pollution, pesticides, and contact with finished consumer products, such as plastics — were affecting people and wildlife. Since then public concern about these impacts has grown.

In 2009, the American Medical Association called for reduced exposure to endocrine- disrupting chemicals. Last year, eight scientific societies, representing some 40,000 researchers, urged federal regulators to incorporate the latest research on endocrine-disrupters into chemical safety testing.

Read More:

http://e360.yale.edu/feature/scientists_warn_of_low_dose_risk_of_endocrine_blocking_chemical_exposure/2507/