While media attention has largely drifted away from the 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in the years since the disaster, a recent and disturbing development has once again made Fukushima difficult if not impossible to ignore.
On Feb. 2, Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, quietly released a statement regarding the discovery of a hole measuring 2 meters in diameter within the metal grating at the bottom of the containment vessel in the plant’s No. 2 reactor.
Though news of this hole is indeed concerning, even more shocking was the associated jump in radiation detected in the area. According to estimates taken at the time of the hole’s discovery, radiation inside the reactor was found to have reached 530 sieverts per hour, a massive increase compared to the 73 sieverts per hour recorded after the disaster. To put these figures in perspective, NASA’s maximum amount of radiation exposure permitted for astronauts over their entire lifetime is 1 sievert.
The future of agriculture is here with what’s being called a Smart Floating Farm, designed by Forward Thinking Architecture, that could produce 8,000 tons of vegetables annually. The concept was selected as one of the Winners of the Sustainable Entrepreneurship Award 2016 (SEA) in the category of Lifestyle and Culture.
The modular floating farms are not a reality yet but the concept behind it is sustainable and highly necessary with the rapidly growing human population and the equally declining access to natural resources.
As the move away from traditional farming on land, there have been a number of farm concepts, such as vertical hydroponic gardening, that have taken off in urban settings to create a more sustainable future. The Smart Floating Farm (SFF) is joining the ranks in replacing land farms and its high crop yield could make it a serious contender for what comes next in food production.
Animals are wonderful creatures who are often smarter than humans believe them to be. No matter what species it is, most creatures have done something that’s amazed researchers or regular witnesses, including going to humans for help with problems they know they can’t solve.
That’s exactly what a giant manta ray off the coast of Costa Rica did after she was caught in a fishing net that was cutting into her skin. Divers that were exploring the surrounding waters were amazed when they saw the manta ray in the distance coming towards them but were shocked that she made a beeline towards them without diverting off-course.
By: Tyler Durden / ZeroHedge During a lively discussion centered on fears that President Trump is “trying to undermine the media,”MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski let slip the awesome unspoken truth that the media’s “job” is to “actually control exactly what people think.”
SCARBOROUGH: “Exactly. That is exactly what I hear. What Yamiche said is what I hear from all the Trump supporters that I talk to who were Trump voters and are still Trump supporters. They go, ‘Yeah you guys are going crazy. He’s doing — what are you so surprised about? He is doing exactly what he said he is going to do.’”
Nature has proven to be quite amazing and resilient, and many plant, animal, and insect species have been around much longer than humans, though they have evolved over time. Just as the bodies of humans and animals change over time to accommodate a changing world and to give creatures a better advantage over the challenges they face, plants do the same in their own way.
One such plant is the Cashapona palm, a tree native to Central and South America in the rainforests. The palm is often referred to as the “Walking Palm” because of its unique leg-like roots that appear to be walking when observed over time.
Unlike most trees, the roots of the Walking Palm protrude from the trunk above ground and are thick and visible. They are called stilted roots because of the way they “stand” and they have a special ability to move towards the sunlight.
“Reviewing the historical governmental actions impacting the living and health conditions of Flint residents… was sobering and left a deep impression. We must come to terms with the ongoing effects of “systemic racism” that repeatedly led to disparate racial outcomes… This can no longer be ignored”.
Aid agencies report that 40% of the country's citizens require "urgent help," and warn that millions are at risk of dying within the next six months.
On Tuesday, UN-based organizations the World Food Programme, UNICEF, and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) issued a famine declaration at a news conference in Juba, South Sudan. Reportedly, people are already dying of hunger and another 1 million people are on the brink of famine. The crisis has affected almost 5 million people, more than 40% of the country’s population.
In effect, the area is in urgent need of help, say the aid agencies. According to Joyce Luma of the World Food Programme, the famine in Sudan is largely “man-made” and is an effect of political turmoil that has engulfed the country since 2013. Serge Tissot of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations commented:
“Our worst fears have been realized. Many families have exhausted every means they have to survive.”
The $1 trillion War on Drugs launched by President Nixon in 1971 created the Mexican drug cartels, now legalizing weed is killing them.
By: Nick Bernabe / AntiMedia The Mexican drug cartels are finally meeting their match as a wave of cannabis legalization efforts drastically reshapes the drug trafficking landscape in the United States. It turns out that as states legalize cannabis use and cultivation, the volume of weed brought across the border by Mexican drug cartels dramatically decreases — and is putting a dent in their cash flow.
President Trump has claimed that the US drug industry is "disastrous".
Following Trump’s public criticism against Big Pharma, the industry has since lost $25 billion. After President Trump criticized the industry in an interview with the Washington Post, where he described the drug industry as “disastrous”, $25 billion was lost within the space of the 20 minutes that followed, according to recent reports. Speculations have been made that if he continues to speak out against Big Pharma, then it could jeopardize the industry’s standing within the American economy, together with commercial markets both with the US and across the world.
Brazil joins the growing number of countries rejecting GMO imports from the United States. In the last decade, bio-technology and gene modification in large-scale agriculture has become a controversy driving a wedge into the industry. In 2015, 19 European nations had declared a ban on GM crops, citing political, health and environmental concerns.
