Infinite Unknown

I should have posted this a few days ago, when I saw this first.

My apologies for that mistake.

At the moment I cannot possibly post even 10% of what is really important.

Added: 30.03.2011

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM9PL6UPLG_index_1.html#subhead2

And yes, there is a movie about this:

Sinking Of Japan Disaster Scenes

Added: 19.01.2007

Remember this?

- Illuminati Symbolism In Movies, Incl. 9/11 Symbolism Years Ahead of The Attack

Tags: Disaster, Environment, ESA, Global News, Japan, Science

Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) — Western Australia’s state premier, Colin Barnett, declared an area near the state capital of Perth a natural disaster zone after a bushfire raging out of control on the fringes of the city destroyed 59 structures.

Homes, sheds and carports have been destroyed by the blaze, Natasha Thorson, a spokeswoman with the Fire & Emergency Services Authority, or FESA, said in a phone interview today.

The fires started yesterday in the Roleystone and Kelmscott areas in Perth’s south-east from sparks by a machinist using an angle grinder, WAToday.com cited a FESA spokesman, which it didn’t identify, as saying.

More than 100 firefighters are battling the blaze, which is moving at 100 meters an hour in numerous directions with flames reaching three meters, FESA said. The bushfire poses a “threat to lives and homes,” the authority said.

The blaze has burned about 440 hectares, has cut power and closed two schools in the area. Two helicopters are assisting, FESA said. There are no reports of injuries.

Continue reading »

Tags: Australia, Disaster, Environment, Global News, Government, Politics, Wildfire

- More rain worsens floods in Australia (AP):

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Almost a foot (300 millimeters) of rain in just a few hours renewed flood fears in Australia’s already waterlogged Queensland state Saturday, sending a surging river over its banks and into another large town.

Officials said about only 20 buildings in Maryborough, where about 22,000 people live, were expected to be flooded after the river burst its banks in the overnight downpour. The waters were expected to peak on Sunday.

“A number of businesses … will have floodwaters in their basements,” Mayor Mick Kruger said.

But the new flooding was a reminder that the state has almost no capacity to absorb more heavy rains after weeks of drenching tropical weather submerged an area the size of Germany and France combined.

- Australia floods: new storms hit flood region (Telegraph):

Heavy rains fell in eastern Australia on Thursday, bringing fresh misery to flood-hit communities as the mayor of the flooded city of Rockhampton warned it could take up to a year to recover from the worst flooding in decades.

- Australian floods raise fears of wheat shortage (Telegraph):

US wheat futures rose heavily yesterday as concerns grew that Australian wheat growers will be unable to deliver their harvests as a result of the devastation. Australia is the world’s fourth largest exporter of wheat after the USA, Canada and Russia.

At the Chicago Board of Trade, the price of wheat for March delivery rose over 3pc, at one point hitting $8.25 (£5.30) a bushel, the highest since last August. Warnings over impending cold weather in the US were also cited as reasons for the rise.

Tags: Australia, Disaster, Environment, Flood, Food, Global News

MATTHEW HINTON / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE Oil was spotted in West Bay just west of the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi River, seen at top left, by the Gulf of Mexico Friday October 22, 2010.

Just three days after the U.S. Coast Guard admiral in charge of the BP oil spill cleanup declared little recoverable surface oil remained in the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana fishers Friday found miles-long strings of weathered oil floating toward fragile marshes on the Mississippi River delta.

The discovery, which comes as millions of birds begin moving toward the region in the fall migration, gave ammunition to groups that have insisted the government has overstated clean-up progress, and could force reclosure of key fishing areas only recently reopened.

The oil was sighted in West Bay, which covers approximately 35 square miles of open water between Southwest Pass, the main shipping channel of the river, and Tiger Pass near Venice. Boat captains working the BP clean-up effort said they have been reporting large areas of surface oil off the delta for more than a week but have seen little response from BP or the Coast Guard, which is in charge of the clean-up. The captains said most of their sightings have occurred during stretches of calm weather, similar to what the area has experienced most of this week.

On Friday reports included accounts of strips of the heavily weathered orange oil that became a signature image of the spill during the summer. One captain said some strips were as much as 400 feet wide and a mile long.

The captains did not want to be named for fear of losing their clean-up jobs with BP.

Continue reading »

Tags: BP, Disaster, Environment, Fishermen, Global News, Gulf of Mexico, U.S.

Toxic flood from ruptured reservoir at alumina plant claims third life amid fears for Raba and Danube rivers

Tunde Erdelyi clings to her cat after toxic sludge from an alumina plant flooded her home in Devecser, Hungary. Photograph: Bela Szandelszky/AP

The Hungarian government has declared a state of emergency after a third person died today in flooding from a ruptured red sludge reservoir at an alumina plant. Six people were missing and 120 injured in what officials said was an ecological disaster.

The sludge, a waste product in aluminum production, contains heavy metals and is toxic if ingested. Many of the injured suffered burns as the sludge seeped through their clothes. Two of the injured were in life-threatening condition. An elderly woman, a young man and a three-year-old child were killed.

The chemical burns could take days to reveal themselves and what may seem like superficial injuries could disguise damage to deeper tissue, Peter Jakabos, a doctor at a hospital in Gyor where several of the injured were taken, said on state television.

The government declared a state of emergency in three western counties affected by the flooding. Several hundred tonnes of plaster were being poured into the Marcal river to bind the toxic sludge and prevent it from flowing on, the national disaster management directorate said.

So far, about 1m cubic metres (35.3m cubic feet) of sludge has leaked from the reservoir and affected an estimated area of 40 sq km (15.4 square miles), the environment secretary, Zoltan Illes, told state news agency MTI.

Illes said the incident was an “ecological catastrophe” and it was feared that the sludge could reach the Raba and Danube rivers.

Continue reading »

Tags: Aluminum, Contamination, Disaster, Environment, Global News, Government, Hungary, Politics, toxic, toxicity

See also:

- Collapsing Marses Dwarf BP Oil Blowout as Ecological Disaster: ‘An International Economic And Ecological Calamity Unequaled In History’

- Bolivia: Over 1 Million of Dead Fish and Thousands of Alligators, Turtles, Dolphins and Other River Wildlife are Floating Dead in Rivers

A 22-mile plume of droplets from BP’s Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico undermines claim that oil has degraded

Images taken during the descent of an underwater vehicle show oil droplets appearing at a depth of 1065-1300m. Photograph: Ho/AFP/Getty Images

Scientists have mapped a 22-mile plume of oil droplets from BP’s rogue well in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico, providing the strongest evidence yet of the fate of the crude that spewed into the sea for months.

The report offers the most authoritative challenge to date to White House assertions that most of the 5m barrels of oil that spewed into the Gulf is gone.

“These results indicate that efforts to book-keep where the oil went must now include this plume,” said Christopher Reddy one of the members of the team from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

The report, which is published in the journal Science, also said the plume was very slow to break down by natural forces, increasing the likelihood that oil could have travelled long distances in the Gulf before it was degraded.

“Many people speculated that subsurface oil droplets were being easily degraded,” said Richard Camilli, the lead author of the paper. “Well we didn’t find that. We found it was still there.”

Continue reading »

Tags: BP, Corexit, Disaster, Environment, Global News, Gulf of Mexico, Oil, Science

See also:

- Pakistan Floods: Cholera Spreads, Water Levels Continue To Rise, 20 Million Made Homeless In Worst Natural Disaster In Pakistan’s History

A displaced family wades through floodwaters in the Muzaffargarh district of Pakistan’s Punjab province. The lives of 20 million people have been disrupted by the worst floods to hit the country (REUTERS)

The world Bank has offered a $900m (£577m) loan to Pakistan to help with the country’s flood recovery programme.

As aid donations to the beleaguered nation fall short of what is needed, the body said that funds would be diverted from ongoing and planned projects in the country. “We are re-prioritising to make the funds immediately available,” said spokeswoman Mariam Altaf.

With widespread destruction of roads, bridges and other vital infrastructure, experts say that rebuilding could take many years and cost billions to complete. There are concerns that millions of people will need food aid, emergency shelter and medicine for weeks, if not months, to come. While the lives of an estimated 20 million people have been disrupted by the floods, agencies say that food and clean water have only so far been provided to 500,000. Anywhere between 3.5 million to 6 million children are said to be at risk from water-borne diseases. Continue reading »

Tags: Disaster, Economy, Environment, Flood, Government, Pakistan, Politics, World Bank

See also:

- Russia and Pakistan: ‘Blocked’ jetstream to blame for freak weather, say scientists

More than 1,600 people are confirmed to have died with millions made homeless as water levels continue to rise

A Pakistani mother carries her children through floodwater in Muzaffargarh, Pakistan. (AP)

Two weeks into the worst natural disaster in its history, Pakistan is braced for further flooding as waters in the upper reaches of the swollen Indus river reach critical levels.

With more than 1,600 people confirmed dead and as many as 20 million made homeless, the country is reeling from the scale of the catastrophe wrought by torrential monsoon rains. The prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, said Pakistan now faced challenges similar to those during the 1947 partition of the subcontinent when as many as 500,000 people were killed.

He called on Pakistanis to rise to the occasion, amid growing fears of social unrest or even a military takeover given the government’s shambolic response to the floods. “The nation faced the situation successfully at that time of the partition and, God willing, we will emerge successful in this test,” he said. Continue reading »

Tags: cholera, Disaster, Environment, Flood, Global News, Pakistan

See also:

- And Now: BP Plans Deep-Water Drilling Off Libya

-  Rachel Maddow: The Gulf Of Mexico Déjà Vu (Must See!)

A fire alarm on the BP oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico that exploded triggering an environmental catastrophe had been turned off, the chief electrician on the rig has alleged.

The oil rig Deepwater Horizon catches fire, Port of Venice, Gulf of Mexico Photo: REX

Michael Williams told a US government investigation that the alarm – which could have detected a build-up in natural gas and closed parts of the rig – was disarmed so it would not wake people up at night.

The BP rig exploded in April, killing 11 people and triggering a leak that released tens of thousands of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Speculation was mounting on Friday that Tony Hayward, BP’s chief excutive, would stand down on Tuesday after facing increasing pressure from the board as a result of the spill.

Sky News reported that the British oil giant – which has seen £46bn wiped from its market value since the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion on April 20 which triggered the spill – may announce its chief executive’s exit as early as Tuesday, when the company is due to publish its interim results.

Mr Williams, who is suing the owners of the rig, claims that he raised his concerns about the alarm and other alleged safety failings with his managers.

“The general alarm was inhibited,” said Mr Williams, who worked for Transocean, the Geneva-based company that owned the rig. He claimed that the system had been disabled because rig managers “did not want people woken up at 3am with false alarms”.

The alarm was designed to automatically shut air vents into engine rooms. During the accident, natural gas is believed to have been sucked into the engines, causing them to speed up and explode.

Mr Williams alleged the system was a “wreck” when he started working on the rig in 2009, with many faulty detectors. He said he tried to repair it, but faced problems with malfunctioning equipment.
Continue reading »

Tags: BP, Disaster, Environment, Global News, Gulf of Mexico, Tony Hayward

More information:

- Matt Simmons: BP Cap Is A Fraud – ‘It’s The Biggest Cover-Up We have Ever Seen’

- Gulf Of Mexico Water Sample EXPLODES! Other Samples Prove To Be Toxic

- Toxicologists: Corexit ‘Ruptures Red Blood Cells, Causes Internal Bleeding’, ‘Allows Crude Oil To Penetrate ‘Into The Cells’ and ‘Every Organ System’

- BP Oil Blowout: All States Along Gulf Of Mexico Affected By Slick

- U.S. Senate Traitors Block Investigative Power for Oil Spill Commission

- And Now: BP admits failing to use industry risk test at any of its deepwater wells in the US

- Warning To Gulf Volunteers: Almost Every Cleanup Worker From The 1989 Exxon Valdez Disaster Is Now Dead

- CNN: 1st Amendment, Free Press Suspended Near Gulf Disaster Area

Continue reading »

Tags: Alaska, BP, Disaster, Economy, Environment, Global News, Gulf of Mexico, Politics, Rachel Maddow, Society