Wounded Earth

While I could have made the posting regarding the Fukushima Nuclear plant at any time, I wanted to get my facts right. The fact that the severity level of the accident has been raised to the equivalent of Chernobyl, unfortunately shows that I have got my fact right.

Part of the point I was making was that in this case the company and the Japanese government have down played the severity of the incident. Just as the British Government did when there was a reactor fire here in the 1950s. So it does not matter that we have democracy, but at least because of that freedom the media have been able to expose the true extent of the disaster and there was not the attempt to cover it up as happened in soviet times when Chernobyl had its meltdown.

The simple fact is that Nuclear power is just not safe, no matter what the supporters say. The only reason why Britain wanted Nuclear Power was to create the isotopes for nuclear weapons, and as a side issue its why Iran to name just one nation, should not be allowed to develop Nuclear Power. The legacy we are leaving our children is the cleaning up of deadly pollution for centuries.

The other point is it really does not matter how well the safety systems are designed, there will always be something unknown, unexpected that will happen that will prevent these plants from being safe. With Fukushima it has been a series of breakdowns of the safety systems that has made the disaster escalate. Additionally because the reactors shut themselves down when the Earth quake first struck, a sense of complacency ensured that people failed to see the problems that subsequently developed.

This is not based upon some uneducated irrational fear of anything Nuclear, there are many medical treatments and diagnostic processes that safely use Nuclear isotopes Equally when Radon peculates up from granite rocks, there are ways of reducing these risks. When a leak of nuclear Isotopes happens at a power station, it contaminates a wide area. The strange fact is that for the past ten years or so we have been told by the media that we should fear this happening if terrorists were to let off a “Dirty Bomb”, yet when this happens as the result of a “Nuclear Accident” its nothing to worry about.

We pollute the planet with gay abandon and wonder why natural systems Break Down and why it ends up costing us all a fortune to clean the mess up.

Nuclear Power was not and never has been the solution to our energy needs, nor will it ever be the solution to “Man Made Climate Change” as there will never be enough uranium around the planet to fuel the reactors if we were to replace all the fossil fuelled generation. Additionally and more importantly, Nuclear power would just add to the contamination of fresh drinking water, our most precious and at risk natural resource.

This is not a dystopian perspective, but unless we wake up to these problems now, we will wake up to a Wounded Earth.

What a legacy we are leaving our children

I, like everyone else, have watched with alarm the unfolding disaster in Japan following the Earthquake and Tidal Wave at the Nuclear Plant. However, I was left confused by the claims that were being made by the authorities regarding safety. Was it simply a case of incompetence or a cover up? Well it looks like there was and has been a decent measure of both.

Here in Britain we know about that, as we have seen a series of accidents within the Nuclear Industry from back in the 1950s and onwards where the seriousness was never fully admitted at the time. The other two serious incidents, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl were equally serious and it was only the design of the safety systems at Three Mile Island that prevented it being as devastating as Chernobyl was.

Even before this disaster in Japan, I was thinking of posting about the Nuclear Industry, especially in relations to de-carbonising the energy system. Further, here in Britain we are still feeling the effects of Chernobyl as there are still locations where the sheep farmers can not sell the lambs that are farmed because of contamination from Chernobyl. It was while researching this that I discovered that there is now published research that shows that the brains of wildlife within the exclusion zone around Chernobyl are smaller.

Before I move on to the events in Japan, the defenders of the Nuclear Industry, often say that we are all subject to some “natural” radioactivity from the environment anyway. While this is true, and a sense of proportion is needed, equally no one rational would willingly and recklessly expose themselves to life damaging pollution. So while explaining the real risks are important and keeping a sense of proportion are important, the defenders of the Nuclear Industry often play down the risks. They make it easier for governments and authorities to down play the effects of a disaster.

When I woke up to the news of the Earthquake and Tsunami my initial thoughts were with the victims. While there was also mention of the problems and “Slight Damage” at a nuclear power station, the first reports made it sound as though all the safety systems had worked. However, as we all now know, the cooling systems were knocked out. Even when it was admitted that the problems were more serious than first admitted, the media reports were saying that Buildings, the reactor and containment were all undamaged.

I knew that if, as was also being reported, the fuel was no longer covered by water, there had to be a leak of that water.

As the reactor is a hot steam design, when I tried to get answers to the questions and concerns I had from people here in the UK, my concerns were dismissed. I was told I did not know what I was talking about. But as was trying to improve my understanding, I persisted. Events actually showed that my concerns were not unfounded. As the fuel pellets are enclosed within tubes of Zirconium, these are the fuel rods, and in steam, Zirconium reacts to produce Hydrogen in an exothermic reaction, heat producing. The Hydrogen explosions showed that even with my basic knowledge my concerns were not unfounded.

In addition to this was the delays in getting the power reconnected to the cooling systems. While would have been damage from the earthquake, tsunami and hydrogen explosions only radioactivity leaks via the cooling water could explain why it took so long to reconnect the power.

As soon as the power was connected there were radiation leaks into the sea that were a million times higher than normal background levels.

The simple point is that the authorities just were not honest or open about what had really happened. Had they been, perhaps people with knowledge and experience could have helped to resolve the problems and made the reactors safer sooner.

Not that Nuclear power is ever going to be safe. Trying to look on the bright side, perhaps the public reaction will make it far harder for anyone to build new Nuclear Generation within a democracy now.

As no matter what safety systems are put onto Nuclear power, there will always be something that Nature throws at us that will knock those systems out.

Even with the current nuclear power generation sites, there will be a serious problem with decommissioning, safety and costs for generations to come. Our children will have some serious problems to deal with for the next couple of centuries.

What a legacy we are leaving our children.

The Delights of Spring

While there was a hard winter, March and spring has been a good one thus far. The last week has been delightful. I have been seeing the signs of Spring bursting out all over. From Daffodils flowering to catkins appearing and the leaves bursting from dormant trees and hedges. As I am now living in Sheep country, the lambs too.

Therefore with the combination of some great weather and my need to travel into Consett twice this week, I had the delight of seeing how spring is developing on the Dales. The journey to and from Consett is a wonderful little bus trip across the high fells of Durham making you feel that you are moving through a living painting. This is however a living and working landscape, hard upland farming country, where sheep farming is the way that the land is used and farmed. While there is also some cattle here too, the traditional hardy breeds, the winters are to hard and the wind to brisk for anything other than sheep.

That also makes it a very good habitat for upland species of birds, and Lapwings are the bird that I see most frequently. During the winter they were flocking together scratching a living on the fields and fells, but now they are pairing and nesting. As a ground nesting bird, the isolation of the location means they are left undisturbed. Hence from the bus, the road, it is possible to see them sitting on the nest.

Further, it is possible to see other birds such as Curlew, Skylarks, Red Grouse and Partridge. During the late winter I even saw a Great Grey Shrike, a first for me, and a small flock of Snow Buntings.

However the sightings that has been most remarkable is of the hares. While I have seen hares before, they have been rare and often at a distance. Here, I have been seeing them more often than I have rabbits. While I was not expecting it though, I have discovered that there is a Badger sett near to me too. It was a pleasant surprise to find that and I may latter in the year go looking and watching, but it takes time to get to understand the layout and dynamics of a Badger Social Group, and it could be that they are more cautious of humans than were the ones I was watching before I moved.

The last sighting that I have had that is worthy of note was possibly an Osprey. I say possibly as I really did not expect to see her and it was at a distance and in poor light. I had gone out before sunrise to watch the passage of the International Space Station. Something had reminded me to look up sighting opportunities and while I had missed one good one, there was an even better one coming up. So I went out and I was in luck as the sky was as clear as a bell, and yes I did see the ISS. I had walked to a hill top close by to view the ISS and I was feeling cold but elated. As the sun cast its early light in the sky I spotted what looked like an Eagle. In the early light I initially thought that it could be a Golden Eagle.

But the more I thought about the location and situation, a Golden Eagle just did not seem likely. The more I thought about the situation, the geography and the likely hood was it would be an Osprey. Even at this distance, I could see she looked like an Osprey. It would have been a female as they are normally the first to migrate and while it seemed a little early, she appeared to be flying between two reservoirs that for her would have been feeding stations. Where was she heading? I just don’t know, but to see one in Early April was remarkable.

The Logic of Hygiene Regulations

As my regular reader, if that person is still there, I was without any real computer connectivity for over five months. Further as I was subscribed to various podcasts via itunes, when I did finally get back online I had stacks of stuff to down load. Including eight thousand emails! But that’s another story.

It was via one of these podcasts that I heard that in the US there was a bill going through the senate that could have effectively killed off small holders (small farmers, homesteaders) selling their produce. With having no access to the net, I was unable to research if this was true or what the facts were. Fortunately, while the bill is now law in the US, it seems that this time the government did listen to the people. As only business with a turn over of half a million Dollars will be effected.

Here in the UK regulations and the way they are implemented, make it increasingly difficult for small farmers and growers to sell excess produce, or make food products.

When I was a child, I lived on a street where there was a regular street market. Current regulations would have prevented many of the then stall holders from trading. It was not that there was anything wrong with the way they sold the food, it was just that the customers knew that the fish from the fishmonger had to be washed, as you would have to do with the fruit. Now often unless the foods are encased in plastic of some form, the sellers at markets, particularly Farmers Markets, just can not sell. Therefore, it adds extra costs upon the framers and growers.

While there has to be regulations regarding food hygiene, there also has to be common sense applied too. At least in the US that appears to have happened. Here I am not so sure, as the local pub wanted to cook and prepare meals for the senior residents in the village but the local environmental health people said that they could not. Even though they were going to be packaging the meals in a way that’s better than most take aways do. There is no sense or logic to this.

Well as I have said before, in my experience Sense is just not common.

Health Guidelines and Food

While health guidance from government health departments can be useful, the messages are often very confusing. Most people take them with a pinch of salt, that's if we are allowed salt this week.

Last month the UK government recommended that we should only eat 70g of Red Meat per day to reduce the risk of Bowel Cancer. While that's a worthy aim, that amount of meat is just one, thin two ounce burger, or one sausage.

The simple fact is that nutritional messages are complex and we being given overly simplified messages. Further, the messages will change from week to week, depending upon the health advice being issued. The perfect example is Red Wine. In moderation it helps, yet as with all foods it has effects upon the body and health. So for someone very fit that moderate drink will do no harm and may even help, but for someone with other risk factors that same moderate drink may trigger or contribute to a problem.

That is the problem as health messages need to be given to individuals not always to the nation as a whole. After all any person who is normal, healthy and eats a good balanced diet can indulge in foods that are officially deemed to be unhealthy without any effect, while someone that has a poor, unbalanced diet will have some effect from eating greater than guidelines say is wise.

While it is very true that there is a serious problem from obesity and the poor diet of some folks, confusing them with unclear and unrealistic messages just does not help. In fact often the way that the health message is delivered often makes people reject or turn off to the messages. Put simply people just don’t like being lectured and criticised.

But also the health messages are just not always as straight forward as the media would like. Take the “Health Message” regarding saturated fats. For years we have been told that saturated fats are bad. However if you exclude all saturated fats from the diet, your health will suffer as the body needs some to function well. An example of this is that there has been a growth in semi skimmed and skimmed milk here in the UK and Europe. It was a message that I even took on myself. However, new research is showing that if you drink raw milk, unpasteurised milk, in Europe known as green top, the fats, saturated fats, are in the right form to benefit the body. Therefore its the processing of the milk that has been changing the fats to make them less beneficial. In my own case it was a degree of lactose intolerance that has been resolved by drinking, using, raw milk.

Interestingly it is why goats milk is has often been recommended to resolve the problem of lacto-intolerance, as often recommended by natural foods advocates. It is the unprocessed nature of the milk that really matters not the species. So while pasteurisation and homogenisation were introduced for reasons of improving health and hygiene, the effect has been to reduce the nutritional value in a very subtle way and a way that is virtually unmeasurable. The difficulty is that when it comes to health messages, there are real vested interests involved. Milk processes like to maintain the status quo as it maintains their profit margins.

Equally, the valid health messages are frequently undermined by the vested interests of the multinational food retailers and manufacturers. The products that are most heavily marketed and promoted by these companies are the high fat, high sugar, calorific foods that the majority of people should be avoiding or reducing their consumption of. It is no coincidence that these foods are the ones that earn the greatest profits. That is why, in the UK, it really defies logic that the current government has turned to these food giants for advice on healthy eating, health and food policy.

It is just one further example of the fundamental lack of understanding that all governments have regarding food and health. After all the celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, had to hector the then government to improve the quality and nutritional value of the food served to children in schools. There have also been similar campaigns to improve the quality and nutritional value of the food served within hospitals, yet even health professionals fail to see or understand that food can help with the healing process.

The major part of this prejudice comes from the lobbying from the pharmaceutical multinationals, who repeatedly reject and systemically “Rubbish” any evidence that shows health benefits for particular types of foods. The main reason always seems to be that the pharmaceutical companies can not patent or otherwise control the use of these natural botanicals.

Therefore the health messages regarding foods are often directly contradictory. On the one hand we are warned that eating to much of one food will cause us some harm. Yet if anyone discovers evidence that a particular food, herb or spice will aid health, these messages are blocked or suppressed. Most often saying that: “You cant say that as it has not been scientifically proved”

In fact in Europe and the US, there are laws in place to prevent anyone from making health claims regarding foods, in particular herbs and spices. Well not for human use, but you can if its for animal treatment and use.

If we really want to get realistic health messages out to people, the vested interests need to be ignored. While we protect the commercial interests of the food and pharmaceutical multinationals, we will all pay much more for good food and directly as well as indirectly for health care.

We really are what we eat.