Eco-Updates Part 2: Fukushima: Hot Spots Near the Japanese Plant; Cesium-134 Off the California Coast

Posted by Amanda Painter

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Today’s second Eco-update on Planet Waves focuses on the latest from Fukushima: indications that local authorities in Japan have downplayed individual radiation hot spots by averaging readings; and a crowd-sourced ocean monitoring program has detected Fukushima radiation in low levels off the West Coast of the U.S.

Eco-updates Part 1: Migratory Mammal Initiative in Asia; Pesticide Use Linked to Depression; Canadian Woman Allowed to Sue for Fracking Damage

Posted by Amanda Painter

Asia’s large migratory mammals, including Mongolian gazelles, will be protected under a new initiative by the Convention on Migratory Species. Photo by Kirk Olson/WCS

In today’s first environmental news post on Planet Waves, large migratory mammals in Central Asia stand to benefit from an initiative to protect wildlife in the region from increasing development threats; a recent study suggests that farmers using certain pesticides are at greater risk of depression and suicide; and a resident of Alberta, Canada, wins the right to sue her provincial government over damage done to her water and property by a fracking company.

TEPCO Claims Removal of Fukushima Unit 4 Spent Fuel

Posted by Planet Waves

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Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, has successfully removed all 1,331 spent fuel assemblies from the badly damaged fuel pool in the Unit 4 reactor, Reuters reported Nov. 5. Planet Waves first reported on this undertaking in the November 2013 article Notes From Downwind; this latest development may be one of the more positive manifestations of Mars in the Uranus-Pluto square.

Recovery and Discovery

Posted by Amanda Painter

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In this week’s environmental newsletter from Planet Waves, we start out with some good news in the animal world: the recovery of Galapagos tortoises on Espanola, and the discovery of a distinct species of leopard frog along the Atlantic coast of the U.S. This issue also covers: the destabilization of the Amazon’s climate-balancing abilities; a nuclear fuel chemical leak in Illinois; health effects of depleted uranium weapons in Iraq categorized as genocide; Sen. Jon Tester getting the Governmental Accountability Office to review the USDA and FDA’s recent approval of new GMO crops — and more.

Food for Thought

Posted by Amanda Painter

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In this week’s issue of Planet Waves’ environmental newsletter, we cover: the surge of web-based services and mobile-phone apps designed to divert unwanted food to those in need; recent testing of fish in Oregon for levels of toxin above ‘safe consumption’ limits; discover of GMO soy in two brands of baby formula; two lawsuits launched against the EPA’s approval of Dow’s Enlist Duo herbicide; and the day U.K. wind power outpaced nuclear.

The (Mostly) Good News Issue

Posted by Amanda Painter

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This week’s issue of Planet Waves’ environmental newsletter focuses primarily on environmental advances: the success of trans-border forested corridors for tigers moving between India and Nepal; the empowerment and training of Mongolian herders to use ‘camera traps’ to collect snow leopard data; rebounding vulture populations in India; China halting logging in a wide swath of state-owned forests; and the success of community-based sustainable agriculture in Burkina Faso. The fly in the ointment? The EPA’s approval of Dow’s new herbicide containing an Agent Orange ingredient and glyphosate.

Depend on a Healthy Environment, Not on What Hurts It

Posted by Amanda Painter

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In this week’s edition of Monsanto Eco, our environmental newsletter, we cover such topics as the designation of the yellow-billed cuckoo as a threatened species — and the impact on a region of Arizona with a troubled ecological past; a newly discovered methane hotspot in the southwestern US; contamination of Central California wells by fracking chemicals; the effects of Typhoon Phanfone on the disabled Fukushima plant in Japan; new data on ocean temperatures due to global warming; and a couple instances of animals seemingly taking environmental matters into their own hands.