Gary Null, PhD., and Jeremy Stillman - The 12 Tipping Points

The 12 Tipping Points
By Gary Null, PhD., and Jeremy Stillman 

Currently, more than half of the population of the United States does not believe that Global Warming is real or that it is man-made. Most discussions involving our environment rest upon Global Warming as a single issue, however, we are confronted today with multiple environmental crises. Any one of these issues can cause extreme suffering and in some cases, cataclysmic devastation if they were to go so far as to tip. Hence, we present an exploration of these tipping points to better understand the dangers that we face and how to limit their negative consequences.

The Disruption of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (Not yet tipped)

Linking together the southern Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans is the Antarctic circumpolar current (ACC). The current moves west to east around the continent, displacing 34 billion gallons of water per second. Importantly, the ACC circulates nutrients to sustain trillions of phytoplankton near the water’s surface which absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. After soaking up the CO2, the phytoplankton sink to the cold ocean depths, creating what is known as a “carbon sink”. This process helps compensate for excess CO2 levels caused by the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.  Many suspect that Global Warming could disrupt this sensitive cycle, weakening the current’s intensity and leading to an increase in carbon dioxide levels.  Research from 2008 indicated that, while the circumpolar current has shifted farther south over the course of a decade, its strength remains the same.

The Release of Methane Clathrates   (Not yet tipped)

Methane Clathrates refers to the huge supply of frozen methane found below the ocean floor and Arctic permafrost. Holding anywhere from 1- to 2.5-trillion tons of methane, these underground gas chambers continuously release methane into the atmosphere. As Global Warming causes permafrost to melt, the clathrates become more vulnerable to destabilization. Consequently, there is an increased risk of a significant methane discharge being sent into the atmosphere. Models predict that just one good-sized gaseous ejection could accelerate Global Warming by up to 25%.  The signs are there: methane released into the atmosphere has doubled over the last 150 years and recent measurements in clathrate hotspots including Alaska and Siberia showed that levels of the gas were 5 times greater than expected. What makes the situation even more concerning is the fact that methane is 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.  

The Disruption of the Monsoon Season (Not yet tipped)

Global warming-induced changes to the monsoon season could cause dramatic decreases to the food supply for billions of Earth’s inhabitants. As the planet’s temperature rises, many scientists are predicting a shift in the course of monsoons and their accompanying rains.  Scientists predict that such a shift could mean much less rainfall in the Indian subcontinent as well as parts of Africa and Southwest Asia.  Since the agriculture of these areas is largely dependent on monsoon patterns, a disruption to this cycle could have a devastating effect food production. Experts also foresee an increased risk of wildfires as a result of this phenomenon.

El Niño (Not yet tipped)

El Niño refers to the increase in sea-surface temperatures that occurs in the Pacific Ocean approximately every five years.  This rise in sea temperatures has contributed to greater rainfall and flooding in South American nations such Peru and Ecuador and a higher risk of drought in the western Pacific countries including Indonesia and Ausralia.  Since 1976, the magnitude of this phenomenon has been observed to increase in scale, leading many to attribute El Niño to greenhouse warming.  Models indicate that El Niño may eventually become a more severe and persistent event, triggering record floods and blistering droughts year-round.  

The Shrinking of the Sahara Desert (Not yet tipped)

While the notion of the Sahara Desert transforming into a fertile, green territory does have its appeal, scientists warn that such a development – which could be a consequence of Global Warming- could dramatically alter world weather patterns. Transported thousands of miles by wind currents, the mineral-rich sand from Africa’s Sahara Desert is an important fertilizer of phytoplankton in the Atlantic as well as trees located in the Amazon rainforest.  Deprived of the Saharan sand, the phytoplankton and trees would be less efficient at soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In addition, a portion of the sand that is swept up from the desert serves to reflect the sun’s rays and in effect, shields the Earth from the effects of Global Warming.  This airborne sand also works to curb the formation of hurricanes over the Atlantic. Strangely, a Sahara with less sand and more vegetation may in fact catalyze Climate Change, setting off more intense hurricanes and fostering more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Recent investigations using satellite imagery show that the Sahara has become greener over the last few decades. In 2009, a National Geographic article explained that in parts of Egypt and Sudan, trees such as acacias are beginning to thrive.  The report also mentions that nomads in the region have reported unprecedented rainfall in recent years.    

The Collapse of the Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation (Not yet tipped)

The Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation (THC) is another significant oceanographic phenomenon threatened by Climate Change.  Also known as the “conveyor belt”, the THC involves the exchange of dense, cold water from the polar north and warmer water flowing up from the tropics.  It is this circuit that moderates air and water temperatures in Northwestern Europe.  Some scientific models tell us that a collapse of this current due to rising sea temps related to Global Warming is real possibility. A significant THC slowdown could bring more extreme winter weather to England and Scandinavia.   A study from 2005 noted an abrupt 30% decrease in the speed of a central component of the THC.

The Collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (Tipping)

Spanning nearly 14 million square kilometers, the Antarctic Ice Sheet holds more than 90% of the world's surface freshwater. Many experts consider the status of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS), a segment of the ice cap which accounts for 10% for about its mass, as one of the foremost harbingers of Climate Change. Over the last half-century, the WAIS has experienced  an increase in temperature of 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit per decade- the biggest temperature increase on earth during that period. One key ice stream of the WAIS is known as the Pine Island Glacier.  Studies show the glacier at has melted at an accelerated rate over the last four decades.   In late 2011, researchers discovered that a 300 square mile chunk of the Pine Island Glacier is close to breaking off, raising more concern over the stability of the thinning ice sheet. A study published in January 2012 in the journal Nature Geoscience stated that even if all CO2 emissions were to come to a halt by 2100 and the planet's temperatures were to stabilize, regions such as Antarctica would continue to be affected for thousands of years by the circulation of warmer water currents. Another analysis by researchers at the University of Maryland published in 2011 determined that a rise in sea levels by just one tenth of a meter would result in over $2 billion dollars in damage to property and directly affect 68,000 in Washington D.C alone.

The Melting of Greenland’s Ice Sheet (Tipping)

The Greenland ice sheet accounts for 6% of all freshwater on the planet's surface.  If it were to melt entirely- which many scientists see as a real possibility-sea levels worldwide would rise by 23 feet, wreaking havoc on coastal populations around the globe.  As the effects of Global Warming have accelerated, so too has the melting of the ice sheet; one study observed that between 1996-2005, the rate of its disintegration doubled. It is thought that it would take a minimum of 60,000 years for the ice sheet to redevelop if it dissolves completely. A recent study utilizing satellite imagery to chart the loss of global ice mass shed light on the scale how Global Warming affects the planet's ice.  Undertaken by researchers at the University of Colorado-Boulder, the study found that approximately 4.3 trillion tons, or 1000 cubic miles of ice mass was lost between 2003 and 2010. Roughly 75% of this loss could be attributed to the Greenland Ice Sheet and Antarctica. This tipping point is highly interconnected with the Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation, as the water from this dwindling mass of ice could likely weaken the THC.

The Death of the Amazon Rainforest (Tipping)

Covering more than a billion acres with its lush, tropical vegetation, the Amazon rainforest plays a key role in regulating carbon dioxide levels by absorbing about one fifth of all the CO2 produced from the burning of fossil fuels. The compound effects of deforestation and Global Warming pose a major threat to the viability of the rainforest. As temperatures rise, the Amazon could morph into a vastly different landscape defined by much drier, savanna-like climes. Not only would the Amazon no longer absorb CO2, but the dead, rotting trees would release prodigious quantities of carbon into the air and contribute to more environmental upheavals.  The past decade has witnessed some of the driest years on record for the rainforest and one major drought that gripped the Amazon in 2005 resulted in the forest releasing more CO2 into the Earth’s atmosphere than it absorbed.

Deforestation stands out as the other major factor in this tipping point scenario. Models tell us that 20% deforestation could send the Amazon on an irreversible path to destruction. In 2011, the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology estimated that more than 18% of the rainforest has already succumbed to deforestation.  Even if humanity were to cease cutting down vast swaths of Amazon, the effects of Climate Change are likely to significantly transform the Amazon within this century.

The Disintegration of the Ozone Layer (Tipping)

In the 1980s, the widespread use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) was identified as a major culprit in the depletion of the ozone layer. But more than twenty years after the phase-out of CFC’s began in many countries, humanity faces the formidable task of minimizing ozone layer damage to prevent potential calamity.  A depleted ozone layer is leading to an uptick in patterns associated with Global Warming.  As the layer thins, more ultraviolet radiation from the sun’s rays hit Earth’s surface.  Aside from raising temperatures worldwide, the increase in UV radiation damages or kills off the vitally important phytoplankton which act as CO2 storehouses.   
In 1985, researchers identified the massive Antarctic ozone hole as the layer’s most significant vulnerability. Thinning of the hole has been measured to be as much as 65% in some places yet the recent discovery of an even more significant hole in the ozone layer late last year, this time above the Arctic Circle, has raised more concerns.  Scientists found an 80% reduction of the ozone in an area located above the North Pole. They attribute the loss to a colder-than-usual winter which promoted ozone damage by chlorine-based chemicals in the stratosphere.  
Today, it is estimated that the ozone layer is diminishing at about 3% per decade. Researchers with NASA and the NOAA have projected that it will take until 2018 for the protective layer to just begin to repair itself.  


The Decline of Glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau (Tipping)

Covering 1 million square miles across western China, the Tibetan Plateau is a considerable factor in the world’s climate patterns. Blanketed by glaciers and snow, the plateau’s icy surface reflects the sun’s rays back toward space.  This phenomenon has worked to mitigate the effects of Global Warming, but as planetary temperatures continue to rise, the Tibetan plateau may accelerate Climate Change. As more of the plateau’s ice recedes, the exposed dark soil readily soaks up the sunlight and warms the Earth’s surface.  Experts warn that this process is picking up momentum. One study from 2010 revealed that the Tibetan Plateau is warming three times the global average.  Another analysis noted that from 2003-2010, the plateau lost an average of 4 billion tons of ice annually. This process will also present huge challenges to populations that depend on glacial runoff to to cultivate crops.  

The Diminishing of Ocean Salinity (Tipping)

Research indicates that Global Warming may result in significant changes to the salinity content of Earth’s oceans.  Such a phenomenon is predicted to have extensive ramifications on ocean currents and marine life.  As higher global temperatures translate to greater rainfall across the world, more freshwater is being dumped into oceans in a process that dilutes salinity.  Also adding to this dilution is freshwater runoff from melting glaciers.  Reductions in water salinity can interfere with “salinity valves”, or chemically-unique pockets of sea water which serve to buffer two disparate marine ecosystems. One such valve is the Strait of Gibraltar which separates the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. A sudden change in the salinity could overwhelm the delicate balance between different bodies of water and potentially devastate marine life that have adapted to a particular salinity content. Furthermore, fluctuations in salinity have the potential to disrupt major water currents such the Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation.  A 2010 study undertaken by scientists at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation assessing the oceans’ salinity showed ample evidence that Climate Change has triggered obvious shifts in the salinity of not only surface water, but deep sea water as well. These findings suggest that Global Warming has triggered profound shifts in the planet’s oceans that will become more clearly manifest in the years to come.



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Joseph J. Mangano and Janette D. Sherman - An Unexpected Mortality Increase in the United States Follows Arrival of the Radioactive Plume from Fukushima: Is There A Correlation

The multiple nuclear meltdowns at the Fukushima plants beginning on

March 11, 2011, are releasing large amounts of airborne radioactivity that has

spread throughout Japan and to other nations; thus, studies of contamination

and health hazards are merited. In the United States, Fukushima fallout

arrived just six days after the earthquake, tsunami, and meltdowns. Some

samples of radioactivity in precipitation, air, water, and milk, taken by the

U.S. government, showed levels hundreds of times above normal; however,

the small number of samples prohibits any credible analysis of temporal

trends and spatial comparisons. U.S. health officials report weekly deaths by

age in 122 cities, about 25 to 35 percent of the national total. Deaths rose

4.46 percent from 2010 to 2011 in the 14 weeks after the arrival of Japanese

fallout, compared with a 2.34 percent increase in the prior 14 weeks. The

number of infant deaths after Fukushima rose 1.80 percent, compared

with a previous 8.37 percent decrease. Projecting these figures for the entire

United States yields 13,983 total deaths and 822 infant deaths in excess of

the expected. These preliminary data need to be followed up, especially in the

light of similar preliminary U.S. mortality findings for the four months after

Chernobyl fallout arrived in 1986, which approximated final figures.

Read More:

http://www.radiation.org/reading/pubs/HS42_1F.pdf

Harvey Wasserman - 2012 Is the Year to Finally Bury Nuke Power

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harvey-wasserman/2012-is-the-year-to-final_b_1180444.html

The year 2012 has opened with news that Fukushima's radioactive cloud may already have killed some 14,000 Americans, according to a major study just published in the International Journal of Health Services.

Germany and Japan, the world's third and fourth largest economies, along with numerous others countries, have definitively turned away from the "Peaceful Atom."

But it hasn't yet been buried. That's up to us. And 2012 is the year to do it.

We are already very close. The mythical "Nuclear Renaissance" has been gutted by Fukushima, low gas prices and the escalating Solartopian revolution in green energy. Solar panels, wind turbines, sustainable bio-fuels, geo-thermal, ocean thermal, increased efficiency and much more have simply priced atomic energy out of the market.

There is virtually no private money to build new reactors -- except where there are huge government subsidies and guarantees. In 2012 we must make those all go away.

Likewise, there are increasingly powerful grassroots movements focused on shutting reactors that still operate. Germany has shut 7, and the rest will be gone by 2022, if not earlier. In Japan, just 11 of more than 50 reactors now operate. Because local governments can prevent nukes from re-opening once they go down for refueling, Japan could emerge from 2012 without a single nuke on line.

The biggest US battle is at Vermont Yankee. March 21 is D-Day for forcing a nuclear corporation to honor a solemn contract it signed with a sovereign state, agreeing to shut down if the state doesn't approve continued operations. The legislature wants the reactor shut, which Entergy now refuses to do.

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Brian Moench - Utah Doctors Join "Occupy" Movement

Published on Tuesday, December 27, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/12/27-3

by Brian Moench

Taking inspiration from the Occupy Movement, last week a group of doctors and environmental groups in Salt Lake City, Utah announced a law suit against the third largest mining corporation in the world, Rio Tinto, for violating the Clean Air Act in Utah. This is likely the first time ever that physicians have sued industry for harming public health.

Air pollution causes between 1,000 and 2,000 premature deaths every year in Utah. Moreover, medical research in the last ten years has firmly established that air pollution causes the same broad array of diseases well known to result from first and second hand cigarette smoke--strokes, heart attacks, high blood pressure, virtually every kind of lung disease, neurologic diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, loss of intelligence, chromosomal damage, higher rates of diabetes, obesity, adverse birth outcomes and various cancers such as lung cancer, breast cancer and leukemia.

Utah's Bingham Canyon mineMost of Utah’s cities are in violation of many of the EPA's national air quality standards, and for several days during a typical winter Utah is plagued by the worst air pollution in the country. The American Lung Association routinely gives Utah’s largest cities an “F” for our air quality. Last February, Forbes magazine, hardly a cheerleader for excessive environmental protection, rated Salt Lake City as the nineth most toxic city in the country, and the biggest contributor to that ranking was the mining and smelting operations at the Bingham Canyon mine, run by London-based mining conglomerate Rio Tinto/Kennecott (RTK).

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Canadian Medical Association Journal - FUKUSHIMA: Public health Fallout from Japanese Quake

“Culture of cover-up” and inadequate cleanup. Japanese people exposed to “unconscionable” health risks

By Canadian Medical Association Journal

Global Research, December 30, 2011

Canadian Medical Association Journal - 2011-12-21

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28401

A “culture of cover-up” and inadequate cleanup efforts have combined to leave Japanese people exposed to “unconscionable” health risks nine months after last year’s meltdown of nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant, health experts say.

Although the Japanese government has declared the plant virtually stable, some experts are calling for evacuation of people from a wider area, which they say is contaminated with radioactive fallout.

They’re also calling for the Japanese government to reinstate internationally-approved radiation exposure limits for members of the public and are slagging government officials for “extreme lack of transparent, timely and comprehensive communication.”

But temperatures inside the Fukushima power station's three melted cores have achieved a “cold shutdown condition,” while the release of radioactive materials is “under control,” according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/2011/coldshutdown.html).

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Dr. Joseph J. Mangano and Dr. Janette Sherman - An Unexpected Mortality Increase in the US Follows Arrival of Radioactive Plume from Fukushima, Is there a Correlation?

By Dr. Joseph J. Mangano and Dr. Janette Sherman

Global Research, December 20, 2011

International Journal of Health Services, Volume 42, Number 1,

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28301

The multiple nuclear meltdowns at the Fukushima plants beginning on March 11, 2011, are releasing large amounts of airborne radioactivity that has spread throughout Japan and to other nations; thus, studies of contamination and health hazards are merited. In the United States, Fukushima fallout arrived just six days after the earthquake, tsunami, and meltdowns. Some samples of radioactivity in precipitation, air, water, and milk, taken by the U.S. government, showed levels hundreds of times above normal; however, the small number of samples prohibits any credible analysis of temporal trends and spatial comparisons.

U.S. health officials report weekly deaths by age in 122 cities, about 25 to 35 percent of the national total. Deaths rose 4.46 percent from 2010 to 2011 in the 14 weeks after the arrival of Japanese fallout, compared with a 2.34 percent increase in the prior 14 weeks. The number of infant deaths after Fukushima rose 1.80 percent, compared with a previous 8.37 percent decrease. Projecting these figures for the entire United States yields 13,983 total deaths and 822 infant deaths in excess of the expected.

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ScienceDaily - Researchers Assess Effects of a World Awash in Nitrogen

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111215232720.htm

ScienceDaily (Dec. 15, 2011) — Humans are having an effect on Earth's ecosystems but it's not just the depletion of resources and the warming of the planet we are causing. Now you can add an over-abundance of nitrogen as another "footprint" humans are leaving behind. The only question is how large of an impact will be felt.

In a Perspectives piece in the current issue of Science (Dec. 16, 2011), Arizona State University researcher James Elser outlines some recent findings on the increasing abundance of available nitrogen on Earth. In "A World Awash in Nitrogen," Elser, a limnologist, comments on a new study showing that disruption to Earth's nitrogen balance began at the dawn of the industrial era and was further amplified by the development of the Haber-Bosch process to produce nitrogen rich fertilizers.

Until that time nitrogen, an essential building block to life on Earth and a major but inert component of its atmosphere, had cycled at low but balanced levels over millennia. That balance ended around 1895.

"Humans have more than doubled the rate of nitrogen inputs into global ecosystems, relative to pre-industrial periods, and have changed the amounts of circulating phosphorus (like nitrogen, a key limiting ingredient for crops and other plants) by about 400 percent due to mining to produce fertilizers," Elser said.

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Nina Berman - Air Too Dangerous to Breathe: How Gas Drilling Can Turn Rural Communities Into Industrial Wastelands

By Nina Berman, AlterNet

Posted on December 13, 2011, Printed on December 14, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/153417/air_too_dangerous_to_breathe%3A_how_gas_drilling_can_turn_rural_communities_into_industrial_wastelands_%5Bwith_photos%5D

The exploding faucet may have launched the movement against fracking, but it's the unsexy compressor station that is pushing it to maturity.

Last week, more than a hundred activists from Pennsylvania and New York, including actor Mark Ruffalo, brought thousands of gallons of drinking water to 11 families in Dimock, Pa., who had been left dry after Cabot Oil and Gas stopped their water deliveries.

The mess Cabot created in 2009 from shale gas drilling had now been cleaned, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which meant no more water for the Dimock 11, the holdout families in a long-running feud over water contamination and cleanup.

At issue was the safety of well water symbolized by a jug filled with brown fluid taken from Dimock resident Scott Ely's well. Held aloft by Ruffalo, who was flanked by families andGasland director Josh Fox, the crowd challenged officials to come and take a swig if the water was so safe. Paul Rubin, a hydrogeologist, painted a grim picture, laying out a future of continued water contamination. The Ely water had arsenic, manganese, aluminum, iron, and lead at several times the maximum contaminant level (MCL) for safe drinking water.

The visuals were dramatic, and the anti-frack action ended with supporters triumphantly holding a huge water line that snaked from a tanker truck on Carter Road to a family's "water buffalo" — a large storage tank. The Dimock 11 were now supplied.

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory - Carbon dioxide emissions rebound quickly after global financial crisis

Oak Ridge National Laboratory, December 5, 2011

http://www.ornl.gov/info/press_releases/get_press_release.cfm?ReleaseNumber=mr20111205-00

OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY, Tenn., Dec. 5, 2011 — The sharp decrease in global carbon dioxide emissions attributed to the worldwide financial crisis in 2009 quickly rebounded in 2010, according to research supported by the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

In 2010, emissions reached an all-time high of 9.1 billion tons of carbon, compared with 8.6 billion tons in 2009. The downturn was also followed by milestone carbon dioxide emissions from the developing world's emerging economies. In developing countries, consumption-based emissions, or those emissions associated with the consumption of goods and services, increased 6.1 percent over 2009 and 2010.

As a result, 2009 marked the first time that developing countries had higher consumption-based emissions than developed countries.

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Global Carbon Project - Annual emissions summary

Global carbon dioxide emissions increased by a record 5.9 per cent in 2010 following the dampening effect of the 2008-2009 Global Financial Crisis (GFC), according to scientists working with the Global Carbon Project.

·         Global Carbon Project, 5 December 2011

·         http://www.csiro.au/en/Portals/Media/Global-Carbon-Project.aspx

The Global Carbon Project (GCP) published its annual analysis today in the journal Nature Climate Change, reporting that the impact of the GFC on emissions has been short-lived owing to strong emissions growth in emerging economies and a return to emissions growth in developed economies.

Contributions to global emissions growth in 2010 were largest from China, USA, India, the Russian Federation, and the European Union, with a continuously growing global share from emerging economies. Coal burning was at the heart of the growth in fossil fuel and cement emissions accounting for 52% of the total growth.

Coal burning was at the heart of the growth in fossil fuel and cement emissions accounting for 52% of the total growth.

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Adam Federman - What Killed Dunkard Creek? Residents in Pennsylvania and West Virginia Say Fracking

Published on Thursday, December 1, 2011 by Earth Island Journal

http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/eij/article/what_killed_dunkard_creek/

by Adam Federman

On August 27, 2009, Dan Cincotta, a fisheries biologist with West Virginia’s Department of Natural Resources, was conducting a routine inventory of Dunkard Creek, a small river that runs through West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania. He was accompanied by a consultant and an environmental engineer from the state’s largest coal and gas company, Consol Energy, which operates a coalmine, Blacksville #2, just outside of Wana, West Virginia. Cincotta was supposed to do electro-fish surveys, whereby the fish are temporarily stunned in order to assess populations, and to take a series of conductivity readings – a basic measure of how much salt is dissolved in water.

When his first reading measured 20,000 micro siemens per centimeter squared (µS/cm), Cincotta thought his equipment was broken; he had never seen readings above 5,000. The Consol consultant took her own reading in the same location but farther from the riverbank. It registered 40,000 µS/cm. Still in disbelief, Cincotta says, “we wandered upstream and found [Consol’s mining] discharge. And in the discharge alone, straight out of the pipe our equipment registered over 50,000 µS/cm,” roughly the equivalent of seawater. Untreated acid mine discharges typically have conductance values of between 1,000 and 1,500 µS/cm.

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Mizuho Aoki - Cesium Fallout From Fukushima Plant Widespread

Published on Thursday, November 17, 2011 by the Japan Times

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20111117x2.html

by Mizuho Aoki

Radioactive cesium from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant may have reached as far as Hokkaido, Shikoku and the Chugoku region in the west, according to a recent simulation by an international research team.

Large areas of eastern and northeastern Japan were likely contaminated by the plant, with concentrations of cesium-137 exceeding 1,000 becquerels per kilogram of soil in some places, says the study, which was posted Monday on the website of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers for the U.S.-based organization said the study, which was based on partial data readings, is the first to estimate potential cesium contamination across the country. But they also played down the incident's impact on the three distant regions.

"The levels are not something that should raise concerns over agricultural production or human health," Ryugo Hayano, chairman of the physics department at the University of Tokyo, said in an email interview with The Japan Times.

The simulation indicated that eastern Hokkaido may have been contaminated with up to 250 becquerels per kilogram of cesium-137, while Shikoku and Chugoku were likely tainted with up to 25 becquerels .

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Jennifer Carpenter - Fukushima Fallout Fears Over Japan Farms

Published on Tuesday, November 15, 2011 by BBC News

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15691571

by Jennifer Carpenter

New research has found that radioactive material in parts of north-eastern Japan exceeds levels considered safe for farming.

The findings provide the first comprehensive estimates of contamination across Japan following the nuclear accident in 2011.

Food production is likely to be affected, the researchers suggest.

The results are reported in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal.

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