Mother Nature gets rough with U.S. East coast in third week of August 2011

On Monday August 22^nd a Virginia earthquake that measured 5.8 rattled the east coast. The effects were felt hundred of miles away from Georgia to Canada. A rare event for East Coast Americans for what is now being called “a once in a century quake” as reported on www.hoffingtonpost.com  .

In Virginia there were structural damages to stores including broken glass and wrecked shelves.  In Washington D.C. the Washington Monument and National Cathedral were recipients of cracks from the quake. However, there is no indication that anybody had died or been seriously injured as a result of the quake.

Now to make things more interesting Hurricane Irene is lurking out in the Atlantic Ocean with her sights set on the East Coast. However, this is a common occurrence unlike the earthquake.  Hurricane Irene is expected (according to www.weather.com) to effect North Carolina to Maine.  Irene is a major category 3 hurricane and could make landfall in North Carolina on Friday evening/night.

If things come in threes what’s next for the East Coast?

North Korea UN Abassador talks Nuclear Arms Race

North Korea’s UN Ambassador said yesterday that “If the U.S. plans to deploy a missile shield to protect Europe against a possible attack by Iran are realized, it will spark a new nuclear arms race”.

North Korea’s withdrew from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (the global anti-nuclear weapons pact) in 2003 and tested nuclear devices in 2006 and 2009. This prompted the U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions on Pyongyang to pressure it to end its missile and nuclear programs.

The Treaty for Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons was created to limit the spread or proliferation of nuclear weapons. The treaty took effect on March 5, 1970 and currently has 189 states party to the treaty, five of which are recognized as nuclear weapon states:

United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, and China   who are also the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

The four non-parties to the treaty are known or suspected to possess nuclear weapons:

India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea.   North Korea violated the treaty and withdrew from it in 2003.

The treaty is sometimes referred to as a three-pillar system with balance among them:  non-proliferation
disarmament
right to peacefully use nuclear technology

The treaty is reviewed every five years by the Parties to the Treaty of Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

H2 Earth Update in the news today

Polar bears and their cubs are in danger from our warming planet according to biologist in Northern Alaska. The sea ice they rely upon to catch seals and to mate from is being lost. Scientists believe adult polar bears have drowned when they’ve been forced to cross vast expanses of open water. Today, new research shows polar bear cubs are also drowning, confirming the dangers of ice loss and the impact on the Polar bears survival.

In the summer of 2008 wildlife biologist in Northern Alaska reported that a female polar bear (that was tagged) swam for nine and half days straight to reach ice.  The ice had receded 427 miles from the Alaska shoreline.

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The UN declared the first Famine in Africa for three decades.  In addition, Somalia who’s biggest funder is the United States is barred from funding money that might be " materially benefiting” terrorists (Somalia’s al-Qaeda linked insurgents). Tens of thousands may have already died.  In 1984 approximately 1 million Ethiopians starved to death.

2011 Year for the Record Books

2011 is already the costliest year on record for property damage according to a report by a leading insurer.  What that means in short is more expensive insurance rates.

January 2011            Australia’s flooding                     $7.3 billion

February 2011          New Zealand's earthquake        $20 billion

March 2011               Japan earthquake and tsunami
at present in 2011 this was the most costly and had the most loss of life

Spring 2011              US Twister Outbreak
$23.5 billion and claimed nearly 600 lives this year

2011 will go down as "the year of the tornado" quote from Carl Hedde a risk analyst
 

Possible climate connection … extreme weather…Global warming
Natural events like La Nina and El Nino and global warming  could be factors

Yellowstone River oil spill may grow

Exxon Mobil Corp. says leak could extend far beyond 10-mile stretch… which was announced due to political pressure.

As cleanup of tens of thousands of gallons of spilled crude, Exxon Mobil Pipeline Co. vowed to do "whatever is necessary" to find and clean up oil from the pipeline that broke at the bottom of the river over the 4^th of July  weekend. 

Company officials said that crews would begin walking the Yellowstone shoreline as soon as the flooding river recedes to look for pooled oil along the bank.

As of Monday, Exxon Mobil said it had received 36 calls to a hotline from landowners concerning oil on their property. In addition, a goat farmer and environmental activist said his partner was sickened by oil fumes and had to be taken to the emergency room.

Los Alamos

The Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory will reopen soon as the threat from a record New Mexico wildfire retreats.  Native American tribes prayed the blaze would not take any more sacred land.  The blaze is now ranked as the largest wildfire blaze in New Mexico.

Firefighters in New Mexico battle to save Los Alamos Nuclear Complex

The facility called in teams to track readings that measure levels of plutonium and uranium in the air.  Tuesday morning firefighters struggled to fight back the out of control blaze at the nuclear weapons complex including its plutonium facility.

Firefighters worked all day at the boundary of the laboratory site, which is the United State largest supply of nuclear weapons.  The laboratory was shut down, and the town of Los Alamos, home to about 12,000 people, were under a mandatory evacuation.

The fire burned part of the site known as the Tech Area, 49, which was used in the early 1960s for a series of underground tests with high explosives and radioactive materials. Authorities said Monday night that radioactive and hazardous material were beyond the fire's reach, and that efforts in previous years to clear dry brush and other ground fuels had paid off in helping firefighters keep the fire under control.

Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety (an anti-nuclear watchdog group) said the fire was about 3.5 miles from a dumpsite where as many as 30,000 55-gallon drums of plutonium-contaminated waste were stored in fabric tents above ground. The group said the drums were awaiting transport to a low-level radiation dump site in southern New Mexico.

Lab spokesman Steve Sandoval would not confirm that there were any such drums currently on the property. He acknowledged that low-level waste is at times put in drums and regularly taken from the lab to the Waste Isolation Pilot Project site in Carlsbad. Sandoval said the fire was "quite a bit away" from that storage area. But he could not say what would happen if drums containing such waste were to burn. As of late Monday, the fire had scorched 44,000 acres. 

Raging Wildfire knocking at Los Alamos National Laboratory door

An out of control wild fire in New Mexico is now within one mile of a United States  nuclear weapons facility, as officials at Los Alamos National Laboratory prepared to make sure that radioactive and hazardous material were protected from the wind driven fire. 

Los Alamos National Laboratory was founded during the Second World War to develop the world's first nuclear weapons. Sunday night New Mexico Governor Susanna Martinez toured the lab’s emergency operations center and ordered the New Mexico National Guard to provide support for Los Alamos.

Today, more than ever greater demands are being placed on Earth’s natural resources.  Unfortunately, humans are to blame for significant changes to the planet Earth.   We have not only reshaped coastlines and waterways, but we also know that global population is a key factor.  The more people the more demand on Earth’s resources such as: mineral & energy resources, plant & animal resources & space.