Pacific Rim

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Japan expected to dump over 1 MILLION TONS of radioactive Fukushima water into Pacific, fishermen fear ‘catastrophic impact’ | RT.com

The Japanese government is planning to release more than one million tons of contaminated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean, angering fishermen, local media have reported.

Japan has debated what to do with the rapidly increasing store of radioactive wastewater for years, and now the decision to release it into the ocean could be confirmed by the end of the month.

Currently, Japan houses the water in more than 1,000 tanks, but with 170 additional tons of the radioactive by-product being produced every day, storage space is quickly running out.

It is estimated that all tanks will have reached maximum capacity by the summer of 2022 and Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said on Friday that the decision was one they could “not keep delaying,” Kyodo News reported.

The water is used to cool the Fukushima nuclear reactor core, which went into meltdown after the catastrophic 2011 earthquake and tsunami that struck the plant. 

The government previously considered building more tanks to house the additional water, or attempting to evaporate the water into the atmosphere, but an advisory panel recommended releasing it into the ocean as the most efficient solution. However, the release process is not expected to begin until 2022 and is likely to take 30 years to complete.

The prospect of an ocean release has reignited concerns among local fishermen who fear it could destroy their industry.

“We are terrified that if even one fish is found to have exceeded the [radiation] safety standards after the treated water is released, people’s trust in us will plummet,” Kyodo News quoted a local fisherman as saying. 

Hiroshi Kishi, who heads a confederation of Japanese fishing cooperatives told officials last week that the release could have a “catastrophic impact” on the industry. 

Fishing was completely halted following the 2011 disaster, and despite a recent recovery, fishermen in the region continue to face international trade restrictions. South Korea, which still bans all fish imports from the region, has described the proposal as a “grave threat.” 

The initial meltdown in 2011 forced the evacuation of 150,000 people from within 20km of the plant as well as from outside areas that experienced high levels of fallout. The clean-up process is expected to take many more years to complete.

Source: RT

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Plans To Release Entire Fukushima Waste Into Ocean Confirmed By Tepco | Social Consciousness

Editor’s Note: The dumping of highly radioactive material in the Pacific Ocean from Japan’s Fukushima has been occurring for years with no plans to stop dumping or bio-remediate this massive problem for all life in our oceans. This is yet another by-product of civilization which has been ignored by government, scientists and climate-change activists.  

Tepco has confirmed it plans to release the radioactive material from the Fukushima plant into the ocean saying that the “decision has already been made”. The decision has an upset local fisherman who says the decision will kill their industry as a result of a massive loss of sea life.

Under the controversial plan, which could be a massive environmental disaster, the radioactive material tritium, which is being used to cool reactors whose cooling systems were damaged in 2011 tsunami, will now be released into the ocean.

rt.com reports: “I’m very sorry that Tepco has been prolonging making a decision,” the new chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO) Takashi Kawamura told reporters on Thursday, reported Reuters. “We could have decided much earlier, and that is Tepco’s responsibility.”

The plan still requires the approval of the Japanese government before TEPCO can proceed. Some 770,000 tons (metric) of tritium-containing water is currently stored in 580 tanks at the plant, reported the Japan Times. Toxic water at the plant is currently being treated through a processing system that can remove 62 different types of radioactive material, except tritium.

The local fishermen cooperative has hit out at the plan, saying it had not been discussed with local residents. “Releasing (tritium) into the sea will create a new wave of unfounded rumors, making our efforts all for naught,” Kanji Tachiya, head of a local fishermen cooperative, told the Japan Times.

Situated 10 meters above sea-level, three of the nuclear power plant’s six reactors’ cooling systems were crippled by flooding caused by the tsunami, making the disaster the worst since the Chernobyl catastrophe in the USSR in 1986.

The plan still requires the approval of the Japanese government before TEPCO can proceed. Related: Fukushima Radiation: The Entire Pacific Ocean Has Been Contaminated, And It’s Going To Get Worse Fukushima Radiation: Your Days of Eating Pacific Ocean Fish Are Over, Or Worse Officials Warn: Fukushima Has Now Contaminated 1/3 Of The World’s Oceans

Source: Social Consciousness

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King Dayne Aipoalani’s Story May Convince You That Hawaii Belongs To The Hawaiians | Business Insider

By Robert Johnson

The circumstances by which Hawaii was annexed by the U.S. are so sketchy that Congress felt obliged to issue an apology in 1993.

It all started 100 years earlier when a group of mostly American businessmen led a paramilitary coup to overthrow Queen Liliʻuokalani. They were passively supported by U.S. Marines who were deployed “to protect American lives and property.”

The coup resulted in a new Hawaiian government under the presidency of Sanford Dole, whose cousin would soon start the Hawaiian Pineapple Company, which became Dole Foods.

Although then-U.S. president Grover Cleveland criticized the events in Hawaii, which he had not authorized, his successor, William McKinley, had no problem annexing Hawaii in 1898.

With a history like this, it is not surprising that a Hawaiian sovereignty movement remains committed to reclaiming rights and land for native Hawaiians. While several contenders claim rights to the crown, Dayne Aipoalani of The Polynesian Kingdom of Atooi has taken the movement to regain his peoples’ rights and land in Hawaii to a whole new level.

Business Insider spent more than a week in Hawaii with Aipoalani , also known as Ali`i Nui Aleka Aipoalani. He guided us through his kingdom on two islands, explained what his plans were, and how he plans to fight Washington.

  • King Kamehameha III divided Hawaii among the monarchy’s lesser kings, chiefs, and commoners in the mid-19th century to make sure his people would always have a home in case of invasion.
  • King Kamehameha’s worst fears were confirmed decades later when a coup led by foreign businessmen and supported by the U.S. overthrew his descendant, Queen Liliuokalani, in January 1893.
  • Sanford Dole, who’d pushed for the overthrow, was put in charge of a provisional government, and Liliuokalani was imprisoned. In 1898, Hawaii was annexed by the U.S.
  • Like most Hawaiians, Dayne Gonsalves believes his homelands were taken illegally. He wants to restore Crown Lands to the monarchy under one king: himself.
  • Dayne says he is the great-great-great-grandson of King Kamehameha I and as the new Ali’i Nui, or King, of The Polynesian Kingdom of Atooi, he’s devoting his life to reclaiming the land and resources of his people.
  • To fund travel and diplomacy among islands throughout the South Pacific, Dayne relies on donations from supporters including more than 40,000 Atooi Kingdom citizens worldwide.
  • That money also helps buy U.N.-recognized drivers license and, soon, passport software and supplies. Atooi Federal Marshal Samson Kama says: “Local law enforcement is targeting us with traffic stops and arrests for false credentials. This goes against the U.N. mandate that allows us Native Rights through international law.”
  • The Atooi Kingdom also unveiled its new currency at the U.N. in May.
  • In addition, Atooi has law enforcement badges.
  • More than 100 Federal Marshals.
  • Official license plates.
  • A radio station to broadcast its message.
  • A former U.S. Navy pilot who serves as foreign ambassador.
  • And its own royal flag, which is prevalent throughout the Islands.
  • The Kingdom encompasses an array of Pacific islands, but its capital might be considered Kauai. This is where Dayne grew up and is raising his family in the largely native community of Waimea.
  • Waimea is “Ground Zero” in the fight against the largest agribusinesses in the world, which test and develop herbicides and pesticides in the area.
  • More than anything, The Atooi Kingdom wants indigenous and sustainable farms for its people.
  • Along with producing its own food, Dayne wants to clean up damage already done to the environment.
  • And provide a traditional healing clinic to all islanders, including the hundreds of homeless who live here in Oahu’s massive homeless camp.
  • The King would also place buffer zones around native schools (like this one) within 500 feet of experimental pesticide fields and genetically modified crops, where undisclosed chemicals are sprayed.
  • Waimea schools have twice been evacuated following pesticide applications at adjoining fields. Many believe the sickness among staff and students during these times are from the chemicals, though follow-up studies point a finger at the local stinkweed plant.
  • Many of the world’s largest agricultural giants moved to Kauai in the 1990s. Since then, locals have been demanding to know what chemicals are sprayed on their land, but they are still fighting through the courts for answers.
  • It’s a constant battle and it doesn’t stop there. When Business Insider was in Kauai, Dayne brought us to a sacred spot that had been bulldozed by local transportation crews.
  • Plowing under sacred sites is just one instance of ongoing land conflicts here on Hawaii between natives and local government.
  • Even at Iolani Palace, the last family home of the Hawaiian Royal Family, Dayne’s mission isn’t received with much warmth.
  • The native guide took issue with the Kingdom’s new currency. Since there are many Hawaiian Sovereignty groups claiming rights to the throne, conflict among native Hawaiians is common.
  • Even here, where the Queen was placed under house arrest, Dayne is told he can’t be video interviewed. He shows the guard his badge.
  • But the palace employee remained unimpressed.
  • It’s an ongoing and emotional struggle.
  • Dayne knows he has a long fight ahead of him. Native Hawaiians have the third-highest cancer rate in the country, extremely high rates of diabetes and incidents of infectious diseases — but there is hope.
  • Though the Atooi Nation is a recognized sovereign nation at the U.N., it is not listed as a Non-Self-Governing Territory, which is the U.N. category for countries that should be decolonized. That list includes, among others, American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
  • After a 30-year fight, French Polynesia recently made the U.N.’s Non-Self-Governing Territory list. Atooi wants to obtain the same status.
  • In the meantime native Hawaiians will carve out an existence wherever they can.
  • As bad as it is for most islanders, it’s even worse for some.

Source: Business Insider

 

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WikiLeaks publishes secret draft chapter of Trans-Pacific Partnership | The Guardian

May DayWikiLeaks has released the draft text of a chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, a multilateral free-trade treaty currently being negotiated in secret by 12 Pacific Rim nations.

The full agreement covers a number of areas, but the chapter published by WikiLeaks focuses on intellectual property rights, an area of law which has effects in areas as diverse as pharmaceuticals and civil liberties.

Negotiations for the TPP have included representatives from the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Mexico, Malaysia, Chile, Singapore, Peru, Vietnam, and Brunei, but have been conducted behind closed doors. Even members of the US Congress were only allowed to view selected portions of the documents under supervision.

“We’re really worried about a process which is so difficult for those who take an interest in these agreements to deal with. We rely on leaks like these to know what people are talking about,” says Peter Bradwell, policy director of the London-based Open Rights Group.

“Lots of people in civil society have stressed that being more transparent, and talking about the text on the table, is crucial to give treaties like this any legitimacy. We shouldn’t have to rely on leaks to start a debate about what’s in then.”

The 30,000 word intellectual property chapter contains proposals to increase the term of patents, including medical patents, beyond 20 years, and lower global standards for patentability. It also pushes for aggressive measures to prevent hackers breaking copyright protection, although that comes with some exceptions: protection can be broken in the course of “lawfully authorised activities carried out by government employees, agents, or contractors for the purpose of law enforcement, intelligence, essential security, or similar governmental purposes”.

WikiLeaks claims that the text shows America attempting to enforce its highly restrictive vision of intellectual property on the world – and on itself. “The US administration is aggressively pushing the TPP through the US legislative process on the sly,” says Julian Assange, the founder and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, who is living in the Ecuadorean embassy in London following an extradition dispute with Sweden, where he faces allegations of rape.

“If instituted,” Assange continues, “the TPP’s intellectual property regime would trample over individual rights and free expression, as well as ride roughshod over the intellectual and creative commons. If you read, write, publish, think, listen, dance, sing or invent; if you farm or consume food; if you’re ill now or might one day be ill, the TPP has you in its crosshairs.”

Just Foreign Policy, a group dedicated to reforming US foreign policy, managed to crowdfund a $70,000 (£43,700) bounty for Wikileaks if the organisation managed to leak the TPP text. “Our pledge, as individuals, is to donate this money to WikiLeaks should it leak the document we seek.” The conditions the group set have not yet been met, however, because it required the full text, not individual chapters.

Related to the TPP is a second secret trade agreement, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which ties together regulatory practices in the US and EU. George Monbiot, writing in this paper, referred to the treaty as a “monstrous assault on democracy”. Ken Clarke, the minister without portfolio, replied that it “would see our economy grow by an extra £10bn per annum”.

Campaign group Fight for the Future has already collected over 100,000 signatures in an online petition against what it calls the “extreme Internet censorship plan: contained in the TPP.

Evan Greer, campaign manager for Fight for the Future, said: “The documents revealed by WikiLeaks make it clear why the US government has worked so hard to keep the TPP negotiatons secret. While claiming to champion an open Internet, the Obama administration is quietly pushing for extreme, SOPA-like copyright policies that benefit Hollywood and giant pharmaceutical companies at the expense of our most basic rights to freedom of expression online.”

Source: Wikileaks & The Guardian