Another thermometer at Fukushima No. 2 reactor apparently not working

Tokyo Electric Power Co. indicated Sunday another thermometer may be malfunctioning at the bottom of the No. 2 reactor vessel at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex as the plant operator observed abnormal temperature readings the previous day. The thermometer was deemed unavailable for use when it showed an abnormally high electrical resistance level […]

A Visual Tour of the Fuel Pools of Fukushima

Do You Know What the Fuel Pools Actually Look Like? You already know that Fukushima’s fuel pool number 4 may be the single greatest threat, but that pool number 3 is very dangerous as well. You’ve heard that unit 3′s fuel pool contains less radioactive material than unit 4 … but still a tremendous amount […]

Robert Zubrin makes the case against Population Control

Around the world, the population control movement has resulted in billions of lost or ruined lives. We cannot stop at merely rebutting the pseudoscience and recounting the crimes of the population controllers. We must also expose and confront the underlying antihumanist ideology. If the idea is accepted that the world’s resources are fixed with only […]

Interview with professor Will Verstraete on “The Limits to Growth”

Lou Del Bello, who keeps the blog of ASPO-Italy, interviews professor Will Verstraete of Gent University, Belgium. Recorded at the Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology meeting held in Bologna, Italy, on April 10-12 2012 (subtitles also in Italian – courtesy of Massimiliano Rupalti)

Population growth isn’t really our problem

In the course of preparing for a panel here at the Conference on World Affairs, I ran across a 2009 editorial by environmental journalist Fred Pearce, in which he explains why current global population trends aren’t as horrific as they’re often made out to be. I thought you should read it. Global population is going […]

Getting the Market to Tell the Truth

Moving the global economy off its current decline-and-collapse path depends on reaching four goals: stabilizing climate, stabilizing population, eradicating poverty, and restoring the economy’s natural support systems. These goals—comprising what the Earth Policy Institute calls “Plan B” to save civilization—are mutually dependent. All are essential to feeding the world’s people. It is unlikely that we […]

Radioactive particles from Japan detected in California

Radioactive particles released in the nuclear reactor meltdown in Fukushima, Japan, following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami were detected in giant kelp along the California coast, according to a recently published study. Radioactive iodine was found in samples collected from beds of kelp in locations along the coast from Laguna Beach to as far […]

The Return of The Limits to Growth

40 years after, “The Limits to Growth” is back in the news. Sooner or later, someone had to notice that the economic crisis that we are seeing all around us is something that eerily reminds the “base case” scenario of the old Limits study of 1972. Someone did, eventually. Here is a comment of mine […]

Overpopulation: The Facts and Solutions

There are currently about 7 billion people in the world…and that number continues to rise. Overpopulation can be caused by a number of factors, including an increase in births, a decline in mortality rates, an increase in immigration, and/or an unsustainable habitat (in this case Earth) and depletion of resources. Why is overpopulation an issue? […]

The Earth Is Full

For 50 years the environmental movement has unsuccessfully argued that we should save the planet for moral reasons, that there were more important things than money. Ironically, it now seems it will be money — through the economic impact of climate change and resource constraint — that will motivate the sweeping changes necessary to avert […]

It’s Not Over: Government Plans for the Worst: Forced Evacuation of Tokyo

There is a report that the Japanese government has made it illegal for Japanese to purchase Geiger Counters for personal use claiming they are made in the U.S. and are inaccurate. If true, this certainly suggests the government wants to hide something—like radiation going off the charts in Tokyo. A new commentary by Mac Salvo says that […]

The Largest Short-Term Threat to Humanity: The Fuel Pools of Fukushima

We noted days after the Japanese earthquake that the biggest threat was from the spent fuel rods in the fuel pool at Fukushima unit number 4, and not from the reactors themselves. See this and this. We noted in February: Scientists say that there is a 70% chance of a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hitting Fukushima […]

A Community’s Hopes for Self-Sufficiency

irst Nations people have harvested seaweed, oysters and dandelions for centuries. They catalog these three species as sources of food and medicine. As I climb across an intrusive coastal granite outcrop off the Coast Trail on Vancouver Island’s southernmost tip, across the water from the T’Sou-ke Nation reserve, my focus today is to learn more […]

Radioactive Water Leaks From Fukushima Into Pacific Ocean

About 12 tonnes of water contaminated with radiation has leaked from Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. Plant operator TEPCO believes most of the water flowed into the Pacific Ocean. It says the contaminated water leaked from a treatment pipe. The water contained radioactive strontium which tends to accumulate in bones and can cause leukaemia. It […]

“Global economic collapse… by 2030” because of overpopulation, study says

I hate “downer” stories like these, they’re depressing. But they keep stacking up in my browser tabs, and I feel it’s my duty to (a) release tabs so others can use them, and (b) at least tell you this stuff is going on. After all, it is a news blog. Bottom line — You’re gonna […]

World population to reach 9.3bn by 2050

The world population of seven billion will increase to 9.3 billion by 2050, with most of the growth in big cities in Africa and Asia, the UN has projected. The population division of the UN’s Economic and Social Affairs department said the planet’s urban population, now at 2.6 billion, will increase to 6.3 billion of […]

Son of Frackenstein

In a few short years the term “fracking” went from obscurity, mostly mistaken for an obscenity, to a household word, now often associated with flammable tap water. The technology is not new, but the market conditions that make such reckless forays deep into the earth’s crust profitable, are new. Welcome to the post peak oil […]

Radiation Inside Fukushima Reactor So High That New Machines Must Be Designed to Monitor It

Via: Washington Post: One of Japan’s crippled nuclear reactors still has fatally high radiation levels and hardly any water to cool it, according to an internal examination Tuesday that renews doubts about the plant’s stability. A tool equipped with a tiny video camera, a thermometer, a dosimeter and a water gauge was used to assess […]

True sustainability solutions

We live in a world with very limited solutions to our sustainability problems. I often hear the view, “If we would just get off fossil fuels, then our society would be sustainable.” Or, “If the price of oil would just go high enough, then renewables would become economic, and our economy would be sustainable.” Unfortunately, […]

Water scarcity is the new global warming

Greg Koch, who spoke at the Financial Times sustainability conference in New York City on Thursday, issued dire warnings and a call to arms for investors and corporations around the world along with governments. And he wasn’t alone. Robert Hormats, Undersecretary of State for Economics, Energy and the Environment says disputes or outright water wars […]

Climate change, poverty, population shifts will compound disaster damage

Global warming is leading to such severe storms, droughts and heat waves that nations should prepare for an unprecedented onslaught of deadly and costly weather disasters, an international panel of climate scientists said in a report issued Wednesday. The greatest threat from extreme weather is to highly populated, poor regions of the world, the report […]

The Myth of Peak Oil

Each time there is a short-term shortage of oil or the price begins to rise, there is talk of running out of affordable oil, an idea captured by the concept of Peak Oil. Peak Oil is the theoretical point when the maximum rate of oil production is reached and after that time enters into a […]

Hot, crowded, and running out of fuel: Earth of 2050 a scary place

A new report published by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development paints a grim picture of the world in 2050 based on current global trends. It predicts a world population of 9.2 billion people, generating a global GDP four times the size of today’s, requiring 80 percent more energy. And with a worldwide energy […]

Oil rig leaks, causing explosive natural gas cloud above North Sea

The clean-up process may last for months. Total, France’s largest oil company, is following in the footsteps of BP with its own gas leak, although experts say this more recent environmental disaster isn’t nearly as damaging. Today Total announced that explosive natural gas is leaking from its Elgin North Sea platform. The leak is occurring […]

Tokyo Soil Samples Would Be Considered Nuclear Waste In The US

While traveling in Japan several weeks ago, Fairewinds’ Arnie Gundersen took soil samples in Tokyo public parks, playgrounds, and rooftop gardens. All the samples would be considered nuclear waste if found here in the US. This level of contamination is currently being discovered throughout Japan. At the US NRC Regulatory Information Conference in Washington, DC […]

Negative Population Growth Marks 40th Anniversary

Negative Population Growth (NPG) President Donald Mann has heralded the group’s 40th Anniversary this spring with a call for all Americans to pressure their elected leaders to slow and halt the nation’s fast-rising population numbers before they spin out of control and cause massive economic, social and environmental problems. Mann, the founding president of the […]

Phosphorus: A looming disaster?

Like oil and clean water, phosphorus supplies could run out, leading to famine and war, scientists warn The sun was about to set when Robert L. Shirley drove his beige pickup onto the Pamlico River ferry. He was joined by fellow Potash Corp. employees who had just finished the day shift mining what scientists say […]

World Government Will Be Needed to Stave Off Climate Catastrophe

Almost six years ago, I was the editor of a single-topic issue on energy for Scientific American that included an article by Princeton University’s Robert Socolow that set out a well-reasoned plan for how to keep atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations below a planet-livable threshold of 560 ppm. The issue came replete with technical solutions that […]

No water, no food

Water is a basic necessity of life, yet it remains inaccessible for a large part of the world’s population. At present, almost one fifth of the global population (about 1.2 billion people) live in areas which are water scarce and a quarter live in developing countries that face water shortages. Globally the situation is getting […]

Act before 7 billion crowd urban areas

More than six billion men, women and children will inhabit urban areas around the world in 2050 when the global population would have surged to nine billion, putting stress on the natural resources that supply energy and food. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), over a quarter of population in 30 […]

« Previous Page — Next Page »

LATEST NEWS HEADLINES

• Why the IEA is Wrong About Peak Oil Demand
• Did we inadvertently speed global warming?  
• Venezuela’s Oil Monopoly Eases
• Why Germany is Choosing Natural Gas Over Nuclear Power
• U.S. coal-fired electricity generation decreased in 2022 and 2023

• America Cracks Down on Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Facilities
• Meet America’s Newest Oil Trader Extraordinaire: Joe Biden
• Is It Time To Refill America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
• Oil prices set to end year 10% lower as demand concerns snap winning streak
• What’s Driving America’s New Oil and Gas Boom?
• China’s peak oil demand bombshell eviscerates Danielle Smith’s energy strategy