By Rady Ananda

Thyroid cancer cases have more than doubled since 1997 in the United States, while deadly industrial practices that contaminate groundwater with radiation and other carcinogens are also rising.

New information released by the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) estimates that 56,460 people will develop thyroid cancer in 2012 and 1,780 will die from it.

That’s up from 16,000 thyroid cancer cases in 1997 – a whopping 253% increase in fifteen years, while the US population went up only 18%

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TMI also can’t explain why the thyroid cancer rate for the four counties flanking Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant in New York was 66% above the national rate in 2001-2005.

Other, more subtle sources may also be contributing to hiked thyroid cancer rates, like leaking nuclear power plants and hydraulic fracturing, both of which contaminate air, soil and groundwater with radiation and other nasty chemicals

Full Article at http://www.activistpost.com/2012/01/thyroid-cancer-fracking-and-nuclear.html

The day after the Obama administration rejected a proposal for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline — a move widely, if cautiously, applauded by environmental groups and advocates of renewable energy — a new report highlights the destructive impact of fossil fuel consumption in the United States. The report, called Fueling Extinction: How Dirty Energy Drives Wildlife to the Brink, highlights the top 10 US species whose survival is most threatened by the development, extraction, transportation, and consumption of fossil fuels.

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The animals (and one plant) highlighted by the group range from the relatively unknown and small Tan Riffleshell, a freshwater mussel found in only five rivers in the eastern US, to the large and majestic Bowhead Whale, believed to be among the oldest mammals on earth and the only whale that lives exclusively in arctic waters.  The other eight species examined in the report include: the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard, the Graham’s Penstemon (a wildflower), the Greater Sage Grouse, the Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle, the Kentucky Arrow Darter, the Spectacled Eider, the Whooping Crane, and the Wyoming Pocket Gopher. Receiving the ‘activist’s choice award’ from the voting members was the Polar Bear, chosen because it was “the species they were most concerned about.”

Full Article at http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/19-2

Full Article at http://www.trueactivist.com/gab_gallery/a-time-lapse-map-of-every-nuclear-explosion-since-1945/#comment-17881

A Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945

The first posting is from an article about what barriers people have towards this.

The second posting are Guidelines for Preparing from the Great Waves of Change Website.

The third posting is a Revelation given to Marshall Vian Summers entitled “Preparing for the Great Waves of Change”.

First Post

Full Article at http://www.pakalertpress.com/2012/01/05/7-reasons-people-refuse-to-prepare-for-disaster/

7 Reasons People Refuse to Prepare for Disaster

By Gaye Levy

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Listed below are some common excuses for not preparing.

It is what it is. If my time is up, so be it.

The problem with this is that if there is a disaster of any type, there is a strong likelihood you will survive. And if you are going to survive, you might as well be safe with food, water, first aid and a way to defend yourself and your property.

Bottom line: Just because a disaster occurs does not mean it is time for your to “go”. You will likely live through it, so why not live through it safely and with adequate supplies and gear to sustain and protect yourself.

Planning for a disaster will be a jinx and if I do it, it will happen.

Now this is silly, especially when it comes to natural disasters.

For the most part, hurricanes, earthquakes, winter storms and volcanic eruptions happen on their own schedule. There is nothing you can do to prevent them so why not be ready? Not only that, but people who have prepared and who have taken steps to plan ahead often come through the experience feeling like it was not such a big disaster after all.

Bottom line: It is the people who fail to plan and prepare that are caught by surprise and are least able to cope when the inevitable disaster occurs.

<snip>

Full Article at http://www.pakalertpress.com/2012/01/05/7-reasons-people-refuse-to-prepare-for-disaster/

Second Post

Full Article at http://www.greatwavesofchange.org/writings/guidelines-great-waves.php

Recommendations for Living in a Great Waves World

Presented here are recommendations to assist you in beginning to prepare for the Great Waves of change. Since each person’s life, circumstances and higher purpose are unique, there is no set of recommendations that can speak to every circumstance and need. Yet these recommendations will be important in helping you to focus your activities and in supporting you on your path of preparation. Please note that these are recommendations, not rules. Use them and adapt them to your circumstances. They are given here to assist you in bringing balance, strength and direction to your life.

Preparing Your Outer Life

Conserve energy as much as possible. Reduce your energy consumption by 25-50% or more to help save your community and the world from depletion and ruin.

Maintain a supply of food, water and medicine to prepare for difficulties ahead—at least a supply for 90 days. If your living space is limited, store whatever amount of supplies that you can.

Build an emergency cash fund, if possible, to sustain you during economic disruptions or job loss. In light of the Great Waves, take a more active role in managing, directing and building your financial resources.

Consider the availability of medical services in your area and how they may or may not function in a disaster or in a prolonged emergency. For those with chronic medical conditions, keep an adequate supply of prescription medicine on hand.

<snip- There are 12 more in this section>

Preparing Your Inner Life

Take quiet time each day to consider the wisdom of your thoughts and actions and to become aware of any insights you have had. Keep a journal of these insights and review them frequently.

Adopt a simple meditation practice to relieve stress and to connect to Knowledge, the deeper intelligence within you. The study in Steps to Knowledge provides a pathway for doing this.

Have few opinions. Make no opinions about any problem unless you have spent considerable time studying the problem and its many conceived interpretations and solutions. Ask yourself if you are really certain about something or are only guessing.

Stop complaining. Do not waste your precious time and energy complaining about something if you are not prepared to take action regarding it. Instead use your time and energy, your thoughts and resources, to prepare yourself, to prepare others and to strengthen your connection to Knowledge.

<snip-There are 12 more in this section>

Full Article at http://www.greatwavesofchange.org/writings/guidelines-great-waves.php

Third Post

Preparing for the Great Waves of Change

Full Article and audio at http://newmessage.org/ee/index.php/special-teachings/preparing-for-the-great-waves-of-change

Can Fracking Cause Quakes?

By Eric Niiler

THE GIST

• Geologists have made direct links between recent earthquakes and fracking.
• As the industry continues to expand, more earthquakes are expected.
• Injection wells, which take away waste fluids from fracking operations, act as jacks which can split faults.

Recent earthquakes in Ohio and Oklahoma have been directly linked to deep wells used to dispose of liquid wastes for hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” of natural gas, according to geological experts.

Full Article at http://news.discovery.com/earth/fracking-earthquakes-gas-120106.html

Full Article at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/july-dec11/weather_12-28.html

From snowstorms to floods and tornadoes, severe weather wreaked havoc across the United States this year, with 2011 marking far more extreme weather events than a typical year. Hari Sreenivasan discusses the science behind this year of extreme weather with NOAA’s Kathryn Sullivan and Weather Underground’s Jeff Masters.

Full Article at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/july-dec11/weather_12-28.html

Full Article at http://rt.com/news/world-government-conspiracy-therory-657/

’2012: What’s in Store…’

By Adrian Salbuchi

Macro-managing planet Earth is no easy matter. It requires strategic and tactical planning by a vast think-tank network allied to major elite universities whereby armies of academics, operators, lobbyists, media players and government officers interface, all abundantly financed by the global corporate and banking superstructure.

They do this holistically, knowing that they operate on different stages moving at very different speeds:

• Financial Triggers move at lightning speed thanks to electronic  information technology that can make or break markets, currencies and  entire countries in just hours or days;
• Economic Triggers move slower: manufacturing cars, aircraft, food, clothes, building plants and houses takes months;
• Political Triggers tied to the “democratic system” put politicians in power for several years;
• Cultural Triggers require entire generations to implement; this is where PsyWar has reached unprecedented “heights”.

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2) Economic Crises.  Today, “Destructive Extreme Capitalism” is collapsing national and regional economies, reformatting them into international slave-labour Gulag-like entities that Joseph Stalin would envy.   Our woes lie not with the world’s real economy (mostly intact), but with the fake world of finance, banks, and speculation;

3) Social Upheavals.  Meltdowns in Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Iceland and – soon to come – Italy, Spain and others, trigger violent social uprisings, even in the US and UK;

Full Article at http://rt.com/news/world-government-conspiracy-therory-657/

Full Article at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-387

By 2100, global climate change will  modify plant communities covering almost half of Earth’s land surface and will drive  the conversion of nearly 40 percent of land-based ecosystems from one major  ecological community type – such as forest, grassland or tundra – toward  another, according to a new NASA and university computer modeling study.
Researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the  California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., investigated how  Earth’s plant life is likely to react over the next three centuries as Earth’s  climate changes in response to rising levels of human-produced greenhouse  gases. Study results are published in the journal Climatic Change.
The model projections paint a portrait of increasing  ecological change and stress in Earth’s biosphere, with many plant and animal  species facing increasing competition for survival, as well as significant  species turnover, as some species invade areas occupied by other species. Most  of Earth’s land that is not covered by ice or desert is projected to undergo at  least a 30 percent change in plant cover – changes that will require humans and  animals to adapt and often relocate.
In addition to altering plant communities, the study  predicts climate change will disrupt the ecological balance between  interdependent and often endangered plant and animal species, reduce  biodiversity and adversely affect Earth’s water, energy, carbon and other  element cycles.

Full Article at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-387

The ranges of species will have to change dramatically as a result of climate change between now and 2100 because the climate will change more than 100 times faster than the rate at which species can adapt, according to a newly published study by Indiana University researchers.

The study, which focuses on North American rattlesnakes, finds that the rate of future change in suitable habitat will be two to three orders of magnitude greater than the average change over the past 300 millennia, a time that included three major glacial cycles and significant variation in climate and temperature.

“We find that, over the next 90 years, at best these species’ ranges will change more than 100 times faster than they have during the past 320,000 years,” said Michelle Lawing, lead author of the paper and a doctoral candidate in geological sciences and biology at IU Bloomington. “This rate of change is unlike anything these species have experienced, probably since their formation.”

Full Article at http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/20515.html

UPDATE-Dec 11, 2011

Nations agree on landmark deal to fight climate change, aid poor countries

Full Article at http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/10/9357845-nations-agree-on-landmark-deal-to-fight-climate-change-aid-poor-countries

A U.N. climate conference reached a hard-fought agreement early Sunday on a complex and far-reaching program meant to set a new course for the global fight against climate change for the coming decades.

The 194-party conference agreed to start negotiations on a new accord that would put all countries under the same legal regime enforcing commitments to control greenhouse gases. It would take effect by 2020 at the latest.

The deal also set up the bodies that will collect, govern and distribute tens of billions of dollars a year to poor countries to help them adapt to changing climate conditions and to move toward low-carbon economic growth.

Full Article at http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/10/9357845-nations-agree-on-landmark-deal-to-fight-climate-change-aid-poor-countries

Previous Links

Ministers battle to save UN climate talks

Full Article at http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/10/9350157-ministers-battle-to-save-un-climate-talks

DURBAN — Ministers fought to save U.N. climate talks from collapse on Saturday, searching to narrow differences between rich and poor nations over how quickly to fight global warming.

Ministerial negotiations in the South African port city of Durban dragged into Saturday afternoon but with many delegates due to head home, there was a strong chance real decisions would be put off until next year.

That would be a major setback for host South Africa and raise the prospect that the Kyoto Protocol, the only global pact that enforces carbon cuts, could expire at the end of next year with no successor treaty in place.

Behind the haggling over technical details, the talks boil down to a tussle between the United States, which wants all polluters to be held to the same legal standard on emissions cuts, and China and India which want to ensure their fast growing economies are not shackled.

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Full Article at http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/10/9350157-ministers-battle-to-save-un-climate-talks

2nd Article

UN climate change summit struggles to secure agreement

Full Article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/dec/10/un-climate-change-summit-durban

By John Vidal and Fiona Harvey in Durban

Talks to strike a historic new global climate deal were continuing last night, but  it looked increasingly uncertain that the 194 countries would produce a deal in the final few hours.

As exhausted ministers struggled to find language acceptable to all in one of the most complex deals ever attempted by the United Nations, the prospect of a deal that would commit both and rich and poor nations to cut climate emissions see-sawed as countries made dramatic interventions.

<snip>

Despite the broad backing of more than 120 countries, including major developing economies such as Brazil, South Africa and Argentina, plus the US and Japan, the EU has found it hard to push through its ambitious “roadmap” that would establish an overarching, legal agreement committing all countries to emission cuts.

<snip>

“Whatever the outcome, it is clear that an agreement struck here will not, on its own, ensure the level of action necessary to stay below two degrees of warming,” said Tim Gore, policy adviser for Oxfam. “Governments must really get to grips with the climate crisis.”

Full Article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/dec/10/un-climate-change-summit-durban