21 November 2013

PLANETLIFE

AUSTRALIA WORST CARBON EMITTER PER CAPITA AMOUNG MAJOR WESTERN NATIONS
Australia is failing to reduce carbon emissions at a rate comparable to the US or the European Union, scientists have warned, with global emissions set to hit a record 36bn tonnes in 2013. The Global Carbon Project, which draws data from climate researchers in 10 countries, found there had been stuttering progress by countries, including Australia, in reducing emissions to a level that would lessen the chances of dangerous climate change. An unprecedented 36bn tonnes of CO2 is set to be pumped into the atmosphere this year, 61% higher than 1990. The annual growth in emissions is on course for 2.1%, similar to the 2.2% increase in 2012. While this increase is below the average 3.1% annual rise seen since 2000, emissions need to fall substantially and rapidly if the world is to keep to an agreed target of below two d e g re e s w a r m i n g o n p re industrial levels, according to the British scientist Corinne Le Quere, lead author of the carbon project report. Australia is faring relatively poorly in this regard, the projects data reveals. The country emitted 371m tonnes of CO2 in 2012 consistent with the levels seen over the past decade. For more on this story: www.theguardian.com.

Japanese Nuclear Plant Crisis

Earthquakes & Volcano Activity Around the Globe

Emergency Management Lets Plan Together

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PLANETLIFE 21 November 2013

FUKUSHIMA DECOMMISSIONING SLIP-UP COULD TRIGGER MONUMENTAL CHAIN REACTION, EXPERT WARNS
Australian Broadcast Corporation, 31st October 2013

One slip-up in the latest step to decommission Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant could trigger a "monumental" chain reaction, experts warn. Within days, Fukushima nuclear plant operators will begin what is being described as the most dangerous phase of the decommissioning process so far. In an operation never before attempted, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) will start removing 1,331 highly radioactive used fuel assemblies from a deep pool which sits high above the ground in a shattered reactor building. The Fukushima nuclear plant's reactors were sent into meltdown by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011 in the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. Experts around the world have warned ever since that the fuel pool is in a precarious state - vulnerable to collapsing in another big earthquake. Yale University professor Charles Perrow wrote about the number 4 fuel pool this year in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. He said one pool contains 10 times the amount of radioactive caesium present in the Chernobyl disaster and warned one slip-up with the removal could trigger a chain reaction. "This has me very scared," he told the ABC. "Tokyo would have to be evacuated because [the] caesium and other poisons that are there will spread very rapidly. "Even if the wind is blowing in the other way, it's going to be monumental." TEPCO says it's prepared for delicate operation It has taken TEPCO more than two-and-a-half years to clear away debris and get the number 4 reactor ready for the delicate operation.

TEPCO's Yoshimi Hitosugi insisted the company's engineers were prepared. "We are going to transfer the fuel into containers while it's under water," Mr Hitosugi told the ABC through a translator. "Then we'll use a crane to remove the containers and take them to a new pool." Even Japan's nuclear watchdog is urging TEPCO to exercise the utmost caution. Earlier this week the Nuclear Regulation Authority chief told TEPCO's president to proceed very carefully, warning that if TEPCO hits a problem, the risks will grow. Mr Hitosugi said TEPCO engineers had reinforced the shattered building, propped up the fuel pool, and installed a new crane. He said there was nothing to worry about.! "We believe it's not dangerous," Mr Hitosugi said. "The reactor building is structurally sound. "We don't believe there'll be any accident." The operation is a test of TEPCO's technical prowess ahead of what will be an even more challenging task in the years to come - removing the piles of nuclear fuel at the bottom of reactors 1, 2, and 3.

PLANETLIFE 21 November 2013

SAUDI ARABIA: FLOOD TOLL RISES TO SEVEN

The Tehran Times, 21 November, 2013

Flash oods sparked by torrential rain in largely desert Saudi Arabia have killed seven people over the past three days, the civil defense authority said on Wednesday. ! Five other people are still missing after parts of the capital Riyadh and the northeastern city of Arar were inundated, authority spokesman Colonel Abdullah al-Harithi told the ofcial SPA news agency. ! The storms that have accompanied the downpours have brought down power lines, sparking outages in parts of north Riyadh. ! Schools and universities in the capital have been closed since Sunday. ! Flooding of underpasses on major thoroughfares has sparked trafc chaos for Riyadh's more than ve million residents. ! In May last year, around 20 people were killed in ooding sparked by the kingdom's heaviest rainfall in 25 years.

CYCLONE CLEOPATRA: ITALY DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY AFTER 18 KILLED IN SARDINIA

Australian Broadcast Corporation, 21st November 2013

A state of emergency has been declared after at least 18 people were killed by a cyclone on the Italian island of Sardinia. The north of Sardinia took the brunt of Cyclone Cleopatra, with 450 millimetres of rain falling in 90 minutes. In the worst storm in decades, rivers burst their banks, cars were swept away and bridges collapsed in the towns of Olbia and near Nuoro. Among the dead is a family of four who were in their ground oor apartment when the ood waters came through. A police ofcer died when a bridge collapsed as he was escorting an ambulance over it. A number of people are still unaccounted for, while hundreds have been forced from their homes. The Red Cross has set up temporary accommodation in sports halls and other centres. "This is a national tragedy," prime minister Enrico Letta said. For more on this story visit www.abc.net.au

PLANETLIFE 21 November 2013

EARTHQUAKES AROUND THE GLOBE THIS WEEK

5.2 NAMIE, FUKUSHIMA JAPAN 5.2 PACIFIC-ANTARCTIC RIDGE 5.0 NIAS REGION, INDONESIA 6.1 HALMAHERA, INDONESIA 6.0 PAGAN REG., N. MARIANA 6.0 STATE OF YAP, MICRONESIA 5.0 STATE OF YAP, MICRONESIA 5.2 SCOTIA SEA 5.0 SCOTIA SEA 5.6 ASCENSION ISLAND REGION 5.1 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS 5.0 SCOTIA SEA 5.3 SCOTIA SEA 5.4 SCOTIA SEA 5.0 SCOTIA SEA 5.2 SCOTIA SEA 5.2 SCOTIA SEA 7.8 SCOTIA SEA 5.6 OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA 5.4 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 5.0 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 5.0 OFF EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN 5.3 VOLCANO ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION 5.1 SCOTIA SEA (south of Chile) 5.2 SCOTIA SEA 5.3 SCOTIA SEA 5.0 SCOTIA SEA 5.2 SCOTIA SEA 5.1 SCOTIA SEA 6.9 SCOTIA SEA

VOLCANO: DOUBLE ERUPTIONS IN INDONESIA

Two volcanoes are erupting in Indonesia, prompting warnings for ights and evacuation preparations. M o u n t S i n a bu n g i n N o r t h Sumatra province unleashed volcanic ash as high as 8,000 metres, the highest of its eruptions in recent days, said government volcano expert Surono. The 2,600-metre-high mountain h as s p o rad i c ally eru p ted s i n c e September after being dormant for three years. Ofcials raised the alert status of Sinabung to the second-highest level after an eruption early this month, prompting evacuation of more than 6,000 villagers living near its slopes. Its activities have continued since then, sometimes unleashing lava down the slopes. "It was the strongest eruption in the recent days," said Surono, who like many Indonesians uses a single name. Tr a n s p o r t a t i o n M i n i s t r y spokesman Bambang Ervan said his ofce has issued a notice for all airlines to avoid routes near the mountain.

Residents in Medan, the provincial capital about 50 kilometres northeastward, could see black smokes billowing from Sinabung. Hours earlier, Mount Merapi, Indonesia most volatile volcano in Central Java, spewed volcanic ash about 2,000 metres ! into the sky, causing ash to fall in several towns. National Disaster Management spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said about 600 families have gathered for a possible evacuation. Merapi, which is in Yogyakarta province, killed more than 300 people and caused the evacuation of 20,000 villagers when it burst back to life in late 2010. Indonesia which is located on the so-called Pacic Ring of Fire, has 129 active volcanoes, making it prone to seismic upheaval. For more: Stuff.co.nz

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ANIMALLIFE FACTORY FARMING

By Animals Australia

from a network of smaller-scale diversied farms to mass factory farms. An increasing demand for cheap meat and eggs has seen animals crammed into smaller and smaller spaces. As producers cut costs to turn a bigger prot, animals have paid the price, with those facilities becoming more like factories than the traditional concept of a farm. Factory farming is the number one cause of animal cruelty in the world today. It involves treating animals as if they were machines designed only to produce, and values production and prot over all other aspects of farming. In fact, in factory farms, the only measure of animal welfare considered valid is how much the animals can produce; whether it is meat, milk or eggs. The lived experience or quality of life of factory far med animals is deemed to be of no consequence. Factory farming is highly dependent on large quantities of limited resources such as grain-based feed, water, energy and medication. This type of food production is inherently unsustainable because of its negative impacts on animals, people and the planet. FACTORY FARMED ANIMALS ARE PROVIDED WITH FOOD, WATER, AND SHELTER. ISNT THAT ENOUGH?

Imagine being conned to a lift; all day, every day, until you die. Even if you were given sufcient food and water, this alone would not be enough to make that kind of life worth living. It is recognised internationally that good animal welfare is determined by an animal's state of well-being which includes not only an animal's physiological state, but also his or her mental state. Animals are conscious feeling beings, and many of the things that matter to us also matter to them: relationships, physical sensations and freedom. Factory farmed animals are raised intensively in articial environments; usually indoors and in huge numbers. They are prevented from demonstrating their natural behaviours and their WHY DOES FACTORY FARMING bodies are altered and sometimes mutilated to EXIST? make them t into the production system. To this end many will endure painful surgical procedures Factory farming exists because it has been such as tooth cutting, tail docking, beak trimming deliberately hidden from the eyes of the and castration, all without pain relief. community. Over the past 50 years, the industrialisation of our food system has led us To read more: www.animalsaustralia.org

PLANETLIFE 21 November 2013

SPACELIFE
INCOMING COMET ISON HEADING FOR CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH SUN
orbit, raising the prospect of a truly cosmic spectacle as it approached the sun. That is because heat from the sun causes ice in a comet's body to vaporise, creating bright, distinctive tails and fuzzy looking, glowing bodies. Depending on how much ice a comet contains, the closer it comes to the sun, the brighter it shines. Over the weekend, amateur astronomers began posting the rst pictures of the comet on the internet that were taken with just binoculars or small telescopes. "I nally saw Comet ISON for the rst time using small binoculars!" pilot Brian Whittaker wrote on the SpaceWeather.com website. "It was faint, but is predicted to brighten and move each day! Exciting!" Comets are believed to be frozen remains left over from the formation of the solar system about 4.5 billion years ago. The group of comets ISON is from is located in the Oort Cloud, a reservoir of icy bodies beyond Neptune's orbit. Occasionally, an object is gravitationally bumped out of the cloud and into a ight path that brings it into the inner solar system. Computer models show ISON is a rsttime visitor. T h e c o m e t i s m ov i n g t h ro u g h t h e constellation Virgo low in the eastern sky before dawn, astronomer Tony Phillips wrote on SpaceWeather.com. To read more: www.smh.com.au

Sydney Morning Herald, 12th November 2013

A comet is heading for a close encounter with the sun later this month, and if it is not vaporised or torn apart, it should be visible to the naked eye in December. Comet ISON is expected to pass just about 1 million kilometres from the sun's surface on November 28. Scientists are not sure how ISON will hold up. As it blasts around the sun,! travelling! at 377 kilometres-per-second, the comet will be heated to about 2760 degrees, hot enough to vaporise not just ice in the comet's body, but also rock and metal. If the heat does not kill ISON, the sun's gravity may rip it apart. But recent calculations show ISON will survive, scientists said. The comet was discovered in September 2012 by two amateur astronomers using Russia's International Scientic Optical Network, or ISON, for which the comet is named. It was extraordinarily bright at the time, considering its great distance beyond Jupiter's

UFO SIGHTINGS AROUND THE GLOBE THIS WEEK

Date of Sighting: November 21, 2013 Location of Sighting: Xinyi Township, China Date of Sighting: November 19, 2013 Location of Sighting: Earths Orbit at ISS Date of Sighting: November 17, 2013 Location of Sighting:!Noblesville, Indiana, USA Date of sighting: November 12, 2013 Location of Sighting: Volos, Greece Date of Sighting: November 17, 2013 Location of Sighting: Denver, Colorado, USA Date of Sighting: November 11, 2013 Location of Sighting: Earths Sun! To read more: ufosightingsdaily.com

21 November 2013

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