Informal photo of the April 26, 2011 annual luncheon of the Radiation and Public Health Project. Yes, that's Alec Baldwin.

This morning in his peerless SchwartzReport, long-time friend Stephan A. Schwartz mentioned a study from the nonprofit Radiation and Public Health Project. Their study shows an “extra” 14,000 deaths in the United States are tied to Fukishima. Here’s the Radiation and Public Health Project’s press release announcing the results. From the press release, “The rise in reported deaths after Fukushima was largest among U.S. infants under age one.”

If you nose around at the Radiation and Public Health Project site, you’ll see names mentioned who include Dr. Helen Caldicott, Alec Baldwin and Christie Brinkley. Also take a look at Caldicott’s editorial about Fukushima, “Unsafe at Any Dose,” from the April 30, 2011 New York Times’ Opinion pages. Her lead sentences: “Six weeks ago, when I first heard about the reactor damage at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan, I knew the prognosis: If any of the containment vessels or fuel pools exploded, it would mean millions of new cases of cancer in the Northern Hemisphere.” Caldicott also reminisces: “… it didn’t take long for the early nuclear physicists in the Manhattan Project to recognize the toxicity of radioactive elements. I knew many of them quite well.”

Do you still think we can safely handle nuclear power? The sum total of this scenario should compel you revisit the idea that we – and Gaia – can handle low-level toxicity.

In the distance: Palos Verdes Peninsula left. Catalina Island center.

Someone I’ve yet to meet, but about whom I’ve grown fond, just punctuated their latest missive to me with, “P.S. Holy f*** 4 weeks until we (text removed ;) – I’m scared!” I truly understand that feeling. They teach, as have I. Here’s what I’d reply to them from my own experience, in appreciation and camaraderie:

Lately I’ve been compelled to drive to the tallest nearby mountains on the coast. There’s lots of fairly quiet, open space at the boundary of the two counties I straddle. Some huge, astronomically expensive homes with spectacular views, which I find *very* inspirational. I’ve driven into the sun and air several times in the past few days.

There’s one little road I’ve just found, Cotharin, which meanders across the ridge and valley of one mountain. When I discovered its name derives from old Greek, meaning, “lover of horses,” I wanted even more to explore its length. Moonroof open and windows down in a Prius, I crawled it slowly like a rancher. If you enlarge the map for this Panoramio photo by clicking this link, you can see the road’s location. On my descent an equestrian and I passed and waved at each other. Before I found the summit and took any photos, I drove as far as I could in my Prius.

The photo of Palos Verdes and Catalina, above, was taken at the spot shown below in the road photo. However, it wasn’t a simple matter to get up the side of Clarks Peak (1,965′) and back. The stretch of Cotharin Road I traversed is mostly dirt and quite one-lane. The Prius handles O.K. for a street car. At one point in the ascent I had to drive up onto the outside, dirt shoulder to let a Jeep pass. I tilted the Prius about 15 degrees to do it. Its 6″ wide tires remind me of the skinny fronts on drag cars, and even at a svelte 3,300 lbs. weight with its driver, its tires made furrows in the soft shoulder. Compared to my old, roadrace-prepped Ford Mustang Cobra with 11″ wide tires, the Prius feels much less sure-footed.

The 125′ length of tarmac you see in the photo is past Cotharin’s summit. It’s a small, apparently un-named offshoot of Cotharin after its road sign says quite clearly, “End.” At my furthest point that day, I stopped at the downhill slope shown below; I was quite afraid I’d never be able to turn around. Barely one lane it is. A full-sized luxury Hummer’s wheels would ride on the dirt shoulders. You can also see that the road ahead is blind and looks like it drops into air.  If I were an owner there, I’d want these features, too. Less visitors ;) If a first-time driver wants to ensure a place to turn around, you have to get out, walk and reconnoiter. So I did.

But first – with a steep mountainside next to me of averaging 50 degrees slope – I had to back up for 75 feet to reach a place where I could safely turn around. Yup, it was scary. Yet, to my friend, I’d say it won’t be nearly as scary the second time I go there.

Road's end.

Denial of anthropogenic change is an emotionally retarded behavior, and eventually diminishes your family’s gene pool. Deniers should receive medical treatment for their condition under insurance plans. Here’s an article from the Washington Post, “Virginia residents oppose preparations for climate-related sea-level rise,”  describing the attitudes of a friend’s cretinoid countrymen. The United Nations and environmentalists are out to confiscate their land. ;)

Eva Bulling-Schröter, a Left party politician and chairwoman of the Environment Committee in the German parliament. Photo via Deutsche Welle.

Who allowed North America to fail at the Durban climate talks? Anyone in North America can find that out by looking in the mirror. The Earth is coming to reclaim its children in a most unpleasant manner – yours included – and most of us are acting as if we don’t care.

From this 12-1-11 Deutsche Welle news article: “Eva Bulling-Schröter, a Left party politician and chairwoman of the Environment Committee in the German parliament, said she found the results shameful.

‘The UN conference is being sold as a last-minute success, but it’s really a defeat,’ she said, adding that the roadmap to implementation of a new deal in 2020 is not enough to stop global warming. ‘The peak of emissions has to be overcome by 2017 in order to reach the two-degree goal.’

Bulling-Schröter said the second, extended phase of the Kyoto Protocol is a weak temporary solution, and that without the United States, Canada, Japan, Russia and New Zealand the treaty would only cover a ‘laughable 15 percent’ of worldwide emissions. It will be ordinary people, who carry the least amount of responsibility for climate change, who suffer the consequences of the summit’s ‘grandiose failure,’ she added.”

Kenya. Photo Newstime Africa 2009.

President Obama: while your negotiators block progress for the rest of humanity and the world, anthropogenic change sharpens its teeth on Africa.

Two years ago you said: “We understand the gravity of the climate threat. We are determined to act. And we will meet our responsibility to future generations.”

Instead, you’re a politician like any other, and what you spoke was lip service. You’ve either given up or don’t care. I absolutely regret voting for your campaign, and I’m embarrassed to be native to a country which is acting in such an ignorant, careless manner.

Our kind and the Earth are guaranteed to suffer unless your delegation will lead, follow or get out of the way at the Durban climate talks.

The Arctic. Photo Avaaz.org.

Before

Science Daily’s Science News reports that:

“Metazoan-dominated reefs only took 1.5 million years to recover after the largest species extinction 252 million years ago, an international research team including paleontologists from the University of Zurich has established based on fossils from the southwestern United States.

Harsh living conditions caused by major fluctuations in the carbon content and sea levels, overacidification and oxygen deficiency in the seas triggered the largest mass extinction of all time at the end of the Permian era 252 million years ago.” CLICK HERE and read the rest…

After

We can all rest easier now that we know the recovery time for the worldwide mass extinction of coral reefs – which we’re now creating as you read this – is more than three times shorter than we originally thought. Whew, that was a close one!

Just make sure and set your alarm before you go to bed so you can be there when the coral reefs recover. And, hey, the revivification started here in the good ol’ U.S. of A! Rock on, Republicans!

Photo from Todbaker

From AlterNet.org’s environment section:

“Decisions about whether to allow fracking in NY, PA, NJ and DE may be decided in just a few weeks:

On Nov. 21, the Delaware River Basin Commission, comprising representatives from four states (New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware) and the federal government, will vote on whether to allow the intensive method of natural-gas drilling in the river’s watershed. The watershed, which supplies drinking water for more than 15 million people, overlaps the eastern end of the Marcellus Shale, an underground geological formation touted as the ‘Saudi Arabia of natural gas.’

The commission’s rules, which will apply…” READ MORE BY CLICKING.

Mike Austin

It has been over two years since I began Blue Planet Almanac radio, and over a year since I started weekly environmental reports. It’s now time for an indefinite hiatus for the show and my strictly environmental reporting. (Update 6-21-11: However, I am writing a book. You can expect it to be different from most environmental offerings.)

Appreciating what’s really happening in an environmental sense is upsetting. So I’m compelled to switch gears to maintain my equanimity and make real progress. A grateful nod to Ian McHarg for the heads-up about the contextual definition of equanimity. He’d be surprised and amused that 33 years before this, someone from six degrees had noticed the observations of his 1969 book, Design With Nature, while sifting through the library of a city with the highest per capita heroin usage west of the Mississippi River.

But I also have thanks for Linda Mackenzie’s kind invitation to work with her, to express my understandings, and have also deeply appreciated the time. Linda’s sight made this possible; I was just the latent doingness awaiting a place to happen. Thanks also to the experienced, professional patience my producer, Jay Cruz provided. A special thanks to my ex officio ;) news editor who wants to remain behind the scenes, for her patient, amusing and accurate editing of the news you heard each and every week. There are no plans to delist this site, but HealthyLife.net will, of course, need to change its weekly environmental news and remove Blue Planet Almanac from its offerings.

It’s now time for my periodic leap of faith into my next projects. There are some inklings I have about what I’ll be doing, but one is never sure until the history’s on paper. Environmental concerns are mostly about attitudes and daily actions, instead of unused knowledge about conditions.

So, I’ve revisited my original inclinations as an undergraduate. I took training in environmental studies, but also loved religious studies. These days, religious studies translate into spirituality in a very broad sense. No matter what knowledge they have of their environment, people never do anything unless they want to. There’s always a choice. In turn, it’s the application of quantum mechanics and string theory to humanity’s consciousness and spirituality which I find absolutely enthralling and exciting.

If you’d enjoy a useful and maybe even exciting read about that which interests me most for our sustainability, take a look at Amit Goswami’s book, God Is Not Dead: What Quantum Physics Tells Us about Our Origins and How We Should Live. And if there was ever a time not to judge a book or its contents by its cover, this is it. You’ll be pleasantly surprised when you read it. For those who enjoy tantalizing clues, Goswami makes a case that it’s time to update Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am,” to Goswami’s timely twist, “I choose, therefore I am.”

There has never been a time like this in humanity’s history, with so many challenges and opportunities for growth. I just want to be in the long moment where the growth is occurring most quickly, to help create a nexus of positive events. Over recent months, for example, I’ve started teaching intuition and that has been a great deal of fun. The light in someone’s eyes when they sail across a new hurdle is one of the most pleasant things I’ve ever seen, because I’ve been where they are.

And now, a final bow to your listening and reading while I aired on HealthyLife.net ;)

Honda's 2008 Ridgeline

After we sold our leased 2008 Honda Ridgeline, I took some time to shop other daily drivers. The Ridgeline was an excellent, reliable and comfortable truck created over Honda’s Pilot chassis. Although we very much enjoyed the Ridgeline, its poor mileage and thus energy use were – to me – unconscionable. 17 city miles per gallon’s not inspiring.

For only one example, in Blue Planet Almanac’s second-ever broadcast, legendary biologist and planet doctor Tom Lovejoy reminded us that excessive energy use is our single biggest challenge in leaving a planet habitable for our children. Tom’s one of hundreds of millions of us who share this scientifically validated observation.

Personally, I prefer to be less of an excuse for companies like BP to continue their destructive practices. Of course, it takes time and a little dedication to change anyone’s ways. I’m a good example of that, so I’m not here to bust anyone’s chops about the way they live. I still covet Ford’s fastest Mustangs, but don’t feel good about their energy use. Since 1996 I had owned two V8 Ford Mustangs. One at a time. The first was a leggy, black convertible in which I was known to fly low across Los Angeles’ freeways on Spring or Summer mornings (sometimes at 5 AM en route to work) with its top down. 18 or 19 city miles per gallon.

Flying low at Buttonwillow Raceway

The real reason I owned those fast V8s is that I love speed more than the average American; wind, air, road noise and adrenaline have always been my friends and I still relish every moment I find them.

I eventually had to take my attraction for them to the racetrack so I could maintain my law-abiding ways. ;) God willing, I’ll return to the track in a completely race-prepped, dedicated track car. The second Mustang, a sea green coupe, was taken to Willow Springs International Raceway two months after I got it. It was later modified to handle the triple digit twisties of open-track driving events like those at Willow Springs, Las Vegas Motor Speedway or Fontana’s Auto Club Speedway. 18 city miles per gallon and 25 on the highway when I was a calm citizen. Although I never measured it carefully, on my quickest days at the track I would need to refuel after three, 15 to 20 minute sessions on a 2.4 mile track. I’d figure that was around 15 miles per gallon as fast as I could drive, and not including the tank of gas to get up and back to the track.

After the Mustangs came a 2005 Pontiac GTO as my daily driver. Although it was faster in a straight line than my Mustangs, the GTO was too heavy for my favorite twisty tracks without extensive modifications. With it, I never set tire there.

Pontiac's 05 GTO. They named its color, "Impulse Blue."

But the only thing for which I would have traded my commute down Pacific Coast Highway was to improve my child’s future on our endangered Earth. 16.9 city miles per gallon was what I’d get with my foot planted against the GTO’s firewall, and 19 when I drove serenely. With the mileage numbers of the Ridgeline, the two Mustangs and the cars we owned before that, came my strong interest in cars with newer designs. I was interested in either the best fuel mileage and thus least energy use, and electric cars.

Around a month ago I started shopping hybrids and electrics in earnest. I’d become acquainted with the excellent folk of Plug In America at their Fifth Anniversary event. Through them I had a look at the Chevy Volt, the Nissan Leaf and other electrics before many of us. Although I liked the Leaf, its range is currently limited and it’s on the small side for six foot plus men. And I liked the Chevy Volt in many ways, except for its transparently opportunistic $41K base sticker price. Even with the $7,500 in tax advantages, Chevy wants at least $2,500 drive-off money to lease it for yourself. For many years we’ve preferred to put no money down on cars because they’re such phenomenally bad investments. No, thanks, Generous Motors.

So I began looking at hybrids because they have good driving ranges, and they use two to four times less gasoline than conventional, infernal combustion engines. Taking into account all the usual automotive sources like Edmunds, Kelly Blue Book, Consumer Reports, Road & Track and Motor Trend, I also found the Union of Concerned Scientists has a good scorecard site, their “Hybrid Center.”

And in the course of my research I also found a reference on Wikipedia, under the heading, “Criticisms,” about EMF in the Prius. EMF means electromagnetic field. There are many types, and although most are not dangerous, it’s always worth being aware of them. Even while bearing in mind Wikipedia is frequently – often usually – wrong about many facts, it often has considerable basis in reality. Without giving away the rather surprising ending to this little story, what Wikipedia quoted were some seemingly sensible EMF levels from World Health Organization and the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIR). The ICNIR can also be read, “The Europeans” by many North Americans ;)

Wikipedia’s crowd-sourcing says the Prius was suspect and unsafe in some sections of its cabin for children and adults. It said that ICNIR had determined that levels of around 2 milligauss were safe for kids, but the Prius had considerably higher readings.

Making a longer story short, I then noticed there were no references to EMF at Wikipedia’s page about the Honda Insight. This should make anyone suspicious; while there were criticisms on Wikipedia about the Prius, there were none about the Insight. Any electric or hybrid car should generate a measurable magnetic field: if criticisms would appear anywhere about anything, you’d figure they’d be on a less regulated site like Wikipedia. I eventually found many Web pages, including the New York Times’ article, “Fear, but Few Facts on Hybrid Risk,” most of which had largely unsupported opinions on the EMF being discussed. I made it a point to interview one of the men quoted in the article, Brian Collins. Brian was particularly helpful, unusually articulate and simply a nice guy.

One particularly sensational Website even claimed the Prius’ right rear passenger seat metered at over 2,900 milligauss. Hhmmm, I said to myself – that’s alarming. And then I wondered if it were true.

The milligauss is a thousandth of a Gauss and abbreviated mG. It’s a measurement of a magnetic field. In effect and affect, magnetism is usually considered non-ionizing. It’s nothing like the more dangerous microwaves from your oven or radio isotopes. People aren’t supposed to be able to sense magnetic fields and virtually all of us would never know they were nearby. But, at the same time, you have to remember that we’re not an animal species unaffected by magnetism, or there wouldn’t be agencies like the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection.

In the United States, I couldn’t find convincing, clear agreement anywhere that higher levels of magnetism might be harmful. Most organizations, including the Union of Concerned Scientists explained that higher levels don’t matter. Many references from industrialized countries other than the U.S.A. suggested the magnetic fields from our cars, appliances and homes are far too high. But I still have this uncomfortable feeling that this situation resembles what scientists told us about tobacco until the 1950s. Obviously, a feeling’s not always verifiable in scientific fact, although I always pay attention to both.

And except for my conversation with Brian Collins, no one I talked or corresponded with had information I felt I could trust. Making my way through hundreds of Web pages, including the particularly inhospitable and cronyistic PriusChat forum, I eventually decided the only way I’d get good, inexpensive information about mG readings from the Prius or any other car was if I measured the cars myself. This all boils down to whether or not you trust an automobile manufacturer, your government and the people on their payroll to always look out for your health and best interests. I don’t. Toyota just got itself into the largest recall on the automotive industry’s records with its spin on the truth.

Compare, “We’re from the government, and we’re here to help” with “We’re from the company, and we’re here to help,” and see how you feel about those. Whenever anyone, no matter their credentials, says they’re on a government or corporate payroll, it’s smart to compare their facts with other objective opinions you can find on your own. You can do the same for many millions of verifiable reasons, but your choice is always yours.

So I popped over to Fry’s Electronics, got a TriField 100 XE meter, and started test-driving new cars. Below are my results. Now, remember, I wouldn’t consider this to be useful in a scientific sense. I did quick readings which allowed me to make a personal choice how I spend my money, time and health. Yet I’d sooner trust the combination of my results with a manufacturer’s or government’s any day – rather than rely solely upon their written or spoken word.

To a man, all of the car salesmen with whom we drove had never seen a gaussmeter. But although they didn’t know anything about what I was doing, they were all polite and helpful. To me, the most interesting findings from our tests were:

1. Honda’s 2010 Civic Hybrid had readings high enough that I opted not to further consider their cars. Several areas in the cabin exceeded 50 mG or 100 mG – so high I stopped testing them and just moved on to the next car because I didn’t feel any strongly positive emotion about their styling, mileage or image. They don’t possess the irresistable seduction of a rumbling, throaty, powerful V8. This was also in the context that Brian Collins had conclusive testing done on his 2000 Honda Insight by experienced electrical industry practitioners. They commented to him that they would prefer not to ride in the car because its readings were so high.

2010 Honda Civic Hybrid gaussmeter readings

2. Ford’s 2011 Mustang GT (the new 5.0) had some of the lowest gauss readings of the cars I tested. It’s a good thing their sticker price is north of $35K and their fuel efficiency is abysmal, because I was sorely tempted by the car’s excellent acceleration, braking and handling:

2011 Ford Mustang GT 5.0 gaussmeter readings

3. Ford’s 2010 Fusion Hybrid became the car on which I’d eventually settled. I think they look O.K. and they’re slightly bigger than a Prius. Testing on the TriField 100 XE meter of Ford’s 2011 Fusion Hybrid was acceptable to me. Then I discovered that Ford was banking on the fact you’d purchase it at sticker price.

Ford had only disadvantageous lease deals, and valued the 2011 Fusion’s residual at only 43%, while Toyota and Honda appraise them at well north of 50%. Because of this Ford won’t even consider leasing you a 2010. What finally turned me away was that our dealer’s sales manager tried to talk us into a Mazda’s gasoline engine numbers. I was shopping hybrids. No, thanks. Next.

2011 Ford Fusion Hybrid gaussmeter readings

4. Toyota’s 2011 Camry Hybrid had high readings in its right front and right rear passenger footwells. Higher than I would have felt comfortable if I’m using the car. On our field notes, “pegged” means the meter instantly pressed past its upper measurable limit of 100 milligauss. Since the dash readings were so high, I also tested the middle of its dash which faces the passengers:

2011 Toyota Camry Hybrid gaussmeter readings

5. Toyota’s 2010 Prius had the lowest readings of all the cars I tested, even with its invasive center console, navigation system, audio upgrade and moonroof. Surprise! After all the thin-skinned baloney I had read on the Web about the Prius, none of its naysayers provided any simple science that its electrical fields are any higher than the common cars I tested.

2010 Toyota Prius Hybrid gaussmeter readings

Might you think Toyota anticipated people like me given the content of the Wikipedia page, or even their recently deserved press about having the Earth’s largest-ever automotive safety recall? Maybe. But I’d doubt that. Remember that the U.S. government’s and manufacturer’s stories are that these cars tested safely with a vastly more thorough and accurate process than the one I used.

Now, some quick mileage math for us, considering that my choice for this purchase and article was to balance energy use with a daily driver’s livability.  The sticker on the 2010 Prius quotes 51 city and 48 highway MPG. Compare that with my slightly modified 1997 Mustang Cobra’s highway mileage of 25 without my foot buried in its engine. The Cobra’s mileage would dip to 21 when driven enthusiastically on the highway. The Prius achieves nearly twice either mileage figure. If you used the 2005 GTO’s 23 MPG on the road, again it’s over twice the mileage. Now, take the GTO’s lower city mileage limit with my foot planted, which was 17 MPG. The 2010 Prius’ sticker quotes 43 MPG as its expected lower limit. That’s 2.5 times the mileage of the worst city MPG of the 2005 GTO.

My current choice for personal urban transport.

By now you’ve guessed what kind of car I bought on New Year’s Eve of 2011. No, Toyota’s not paying me. I’ve paid them to own the car they made. Personally, I even think they’re absolutely fugly compared to most other cars on the road. Its seat fabrics, headliners and interior are overly inexpensive.

But this car’s about the condition in which I’d prefer to bequeath the Earth to my child. So, I’m especially happy with it because we cut an awesome deal on what the Union of Concerned Scientists says is most fuel-efficient hybrid on the road.

It's hard for me to resist modifying my cars. This is favorite mod, so far ;)