Practical help for Japan & the environment is developing (Courtesy Lloyd Helferty Biochar Consulting (Canada):
Dear Physicians for Global Survival (PGS),
I was contacted today by Julia Morton-Marr, the founder of the International Holistic Tourism Education Centre [IHTEC] and Vice President Education for the The Council on Global Issues (Science for Peace).
www.ihtec.org
Julia recommended that I contact someone at PGS since your organization works on “Nuclear Issues” and is also “concerned about global energy sustainability and climate change issues” along with health and security.
In consideration of the ongoing Nuclear disaster in Japan — the ongoing multiple Nuclear MELTDOWNS that are now underway (as I write this) — , I noted yesterday that the Japanese government has recently raised the maximum allowable exposure for nuclear workers to 250 millisieverts from 100 millisieverts.
It was described as “unavoidable due to circumstances“. This was back in March:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3475306/Nuclear-nightmare-in-Japan-worsens.html?OTC-RSS&ATTR=News
The damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant has already leaked dangerous radiation into the environment.
There are HUGE fears over food contamination in Japan right now and the entire Pacific food chain is likely to be affected**.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8394963/Japan-nuclear-crisis-fears-over-food-contamination.html
This disaster in Japan could even result in the gross radioactive contamination of the large urban populations of Japan.
If the wind blows the wrong way cities like like Tokyo could be the recipient of a massive cloud of deadly radioactive gasses.
It could become a really horrible crisis. It is actually a wake-up call for nuclear energy.
Incredibly, I also just learned that the World Health Organization actually intends to double the “maximum allowable uranium in drinking water” worldwide and international regulators like the International Commission for Radiological Protection (ICRP) continue to push allowable levels of radiation upwards, forcing the public toward chronic exposures of low levels of radiation. (No level of ionizing radiation is safe.)
Considering that the Japanese are some of the biggest Seafood eaters in the world — and in particular, raw seafood (Sushi and Sashimi) is a staple part of their diet, the fact thatRadioactive water from the Japanese nuclear plant is deliberately being dumped into the sea is already beyond criminal!~
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/east-pacific/Japan-Nuclear-Plant-to-Release-Contaminated-Water-Into-Ocean-119169659.html
As well, they are already halting the sale of vegetables from several areas of Chiba prefecture, which borders Tokyo because they “have tested above the legal limit for radiation”.
I am a Steering Committee member of the Canadian Biochar Initiative (www.biochar.ca), am President and Co-founder of Biochar-Ontario (a not-for-profit organization) and an Advisory Committee Member of the IBI (International Biochar Initiative – http://www.biochar-international.org/).
We have recently learned that is likely that it may be possible to utilize Biochar — along with specialized natural fungi like the ones that have been growing prolifically around the Chernobyl plant in Russia, to soak up (and hopefully permanently “sequester” ~ if harvested and pyrolyzed), the ionizing radiation from radionuclides that are in the soil.
— In other words, we may be able to remove these contaminants directly out of the soil with the use of specialized inoculated Biochar (blends) that promote the growth of these particular strains of natural soil fungi — which will also (coincidentally) promote the regrowth of the coastal forests … which in turn should be able to help protect the Japanese people against future catastrophic events like the Tsunami. (In a similar way to the protection that Mangroves provide to coastal cities against Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and Florida.)
I wished to bring this to your attention because we [certain members of the Canadian Biochar Initiative and Biochar Ontario, including myself], have been involved in an international Public Awareness Programme called “5ivePlanets“.
see: http://5iveplanets.org/ (Japan)
I have been attempting to head up an initiative called, “5ivePlanets Canada“, and one of our first tasks has been to assist with a project to bring the Tokyo Sinfonia[www.tokyosinfonia.com], a highly professional ensemble of 19 Japanese string players conducted by Robert Rÿker in Tokyo, into Canada from Sunday April 24 until Thursday April 28 (with scheduled Performances in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto).
This series of Charity Concerts in Canada is intended to be a Musical Fund-Raising Charity Concert Tour to raise money for the 5ivePlanets Japan initiative, whose mission is to leverage both education and technologies that work in balance with the natural cycles of the earth to increase our capacity to provide for our collective children on the one and only planet we actually have.
They will be establishing a 5ivePlanets Interpretive Center in an eco-restored house in Asahi Ward of Yokohama City and will provide education about managing resources wisely and demonstrating technologies to produce nourishing food without wasting water, depleting soil, or using petroleum based fertilizers. These Biochar concepts can be applied in both urban and rural contexts and are geared toward developing platforms for sustainable communities.
Their Projects will include proof of concept demos of aquaponics systems, biochar humanitarian stoves and urban agricultural techniques, along with explorations of method of utilizing Biochar for the decontamination of radioactive soil using “specialized natural fungi” (with Biochar).
The use of Biochar to prevent radionuclides from entering growing plants and entering the food chain as well as preventing these highly toxic contaminants from entering run-off water from farms and forests and getting into the water supply system will be one of the priority research projects of the emerging Global 5iveplanets Research Network, the founding members of which are Canada and Japan. (With some assistance from our friends at the University of Massachusetts and the Pioneer Valley Biochar Initiative at UMass.)
I was hoping that you might be able to forward this message, along with the attached documents to your members and contacts in order that we might begin to raise awareness about the ongoing critical situation in Japan and our efforts at informing people about one of the possibly critically important technologies that could be utilized in Japan — and elsewhere around there world wherever soil contamination is affecting food security — to begin the long process of “restoration” of the natural ecosystems that have been affected by these (multiple) natural disasters.
See also
“Prescription for Survival”: A Debate on the Future of Nuclear Energy Between Anti-Coal Advocate George Monbiot and Anti-Nuclear Activist Dr. Helen Caldicott
Asian Rural Women’s Coalition (ARWC) Resolution
Adopted on 30 March 2011 in Chennai, India
During the Conference on 100 Years of Women’s Resistance: Rights, Empowerment and Liberation
Decommission the Fukushima nuclear plants and nuclear plans all over the world
The tragic events caused by the earthquakes and Tsunami hit the eastern part of Japan raised international solidarity. The nuclear crisis at Fukushima plants is apparently not under control and continues to be a radiation threat. We are concerned about the people who have been exposed by the radiation in engaging in the operations to suppress the reactors as well as people who might have to shoulder the consequences of radiation exposures.
The nuclear power has been promoted with the false assumption that nuclear is safe and clean alternative energy to fossil fuel in the climate change talks. In Asia, various countries have expressed their interest in building nuclear plants including Thailand, Indonesia, Burma, the Philippines and India. In India, the nuclear power plants were planned to be built in Jaitapur, which has been raising strong concerns and protest among the local people. The Philippines has built a nuclear power plant in Bataan.
This is an issue of central-peripheral, rural-urban disparity in development policy. Hazardous establishments such as nuclear power plants are built in rural or outskirt of capital cities, putting the risks and expenses on the lives of people in those areas. The power generated by the nuclear plants is used to promote industrial and economic growth, materialistic life style of some people and the hegemonic power in the world, which has been maintained at the expense of people in rural areas.
Policy-making and employment in those industries are male-dominated, which widen the gaps in economic capacity and autonomy between women and men and strengthen the patriarchal system in society. Budget cuts in and privatisation of social services, which has been pursued under the global economic framework, make women in rural areas vulnerable particularly in the crisis situations such as natural disaster, disease outbreaks and exposure to the pollution.
Women’s reproductive health particularly pregnant women, fetus and children are the most affected as experienced in Chernobyl. Communities who protest the nuclear plants at the local area are also vulnerable to attacks, displacement and dislocation.
We, Asian Rural Women’s Coalition (ARWC) gathering in Chennai to commemorate 100th international women’s day, express our support for people in Japan and Jaitapur in protesting the nuclear plants. We urge the government of Japan to decommission all nuclear plants in Fukushima and across Japan. We urge the government of India to give up the plan to build the nuclear plants in Jaitapur. We urge the government of the Philippines to junk the efforts to revive the Bataan nuclear power plant. We urge all countries which have existing nuclear plants or have plans to operate to decommission and stop supporting these plans, as these would expose us to unnecessary risks and potentially horrendous consequences. The ARWC calls on governments to expand its radiation monitoring, immediately mobilise resources and implement precautionary measures to prevent or at least mitigate the potential effects of radioactive contamination.
The ARWC, at the same time, rejects the equally destructive agro-fuel production and monocropping for energy which have serious impacts on local communities, health and the environment. The ARWC reiterates the need to reduce current level of energy consumption in society and build sustainable, safe and appropriate sources of energy, which should be the fundamental and priority policy to mitigate worsening global climate crisis. The ARWC calls on governments and international community to increase and ensure full and meaningful participation of rural and indigenous women in planning, implementation and monitoring of all aspects of development, energy and climate change policies.
Asian Rural Women’s Coalition (ARWC)