Radio Show Barcelona

Click here to listen to a recording of me on a recent radio show in Barcelona, Spain. I am featured in the second half of the program, so feel free to fast forward to get to the interview.

Strong new quake strikes Japan

More evacuations urged near crippled nuke plant

Sergey Ponomarev/The Associated Press
SENDAI, JAPAN A strong new earthquake rattled Japan’s northeast Monday as the government urged more people living near a tsunami-crippled nuclear plant to leave, citing concerns about long-term health risks from radiation.

The magnitude 7.0 aftershock came just hours after people bowed their heads and wept in sombre ceremonies to mark a month since a massive earthquake and tsunami that killed up to 25,000 people and set off a crisis of radiation leaks at the nuclear plant by knocking out its cooling systems.

“Even after a month, I still cry when I watch the news,” said Marina Seito, 19, a student at a junior college who recalled being in a basement restaurant in Sendai when the original 9.0-magnitude earthquake hit on March 11. Plates fell and parts of the ceiling crashed down around her.

Officials said Monday’s aftershock did not endanger operations at the tsunami-flooded Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, where power was cut by the aftershock but quickly restored. The epicenter was just inland and about 100 miles (160 kilometres) north of Tokyo.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters that residents of five more communities, some of them more than 20 miles (30 kilometres) from the plant, were urged to evacuate within a month because of high levels of radiation. People living in a 12-mile (20-kilometre) radius around the plant already have been evacuated.

“This is not an emergency measure that people have to evacuate immediately,” he said. “We have decided this measure based on long-term health risks.”

Edano sounded a grave note, acknowledging that “the nuclear accident has not stabilized” and that “we cannot deny the possibility the situation could get worse.”

The latest quake, the second major aftershock in less than a week, spooked people yet again in a disaster-weary northeastern Japan. Customers in a large electronics store in Sendai screamed and ran outside and mothers grabbed their children, but there were no immediate reports of more damage or injuries.

Japanese officials said the quake was a 7.0 magnitude, but the U.S. Geological Survey said it measured magnitude 6.6.

With workers still far from bringing the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant under control, the bodies of thousands of tsunami victims yet to be found and more than 150,000 people living in shelters, there was little time Monday for reflection on Japan’s worst disaster since World War II.

People in hard-hit towns gathered for ceremonies at 2:46 p.m., the exact moment of the massive quake a month earlier.

“My chest has been ripped open by the suffering and pain that this disaster has caused the people of our prefecture,” said Yuhei Sato, the governor of Fukushima, which saw its coastal areas devastated by the tsunami and is home to the damaged plant at the centre of the nuclear crisis. “I have no words to express my sorrow.”

In a devastated coastal neighbourhood in the city of Natori, three dozen firemen and soldiers removed their hats and helmets and joined hands atop a small hill that has become a memorial for the dead. Earlier, four monks in pointed hats rang a prayer bell there as they chanted for those killed.

The noisy clatter of construction equipment ceased briefly as crane operators stood outside their vehicles and bowed their heads.

In the industrial town of Kamaishi, Iwate Gov. Takuya Tasso led a moment of commemoration as a loud siren rang through a high school gymnasium being used as a shelter. He bowed while people who have lived there since the tsunami kneeled on makeshift futons, bowed their heads and clasped their hands.

The school’s students will return to classes Tuesday even though 129 people are living in their gym. Some, like 16-year-old Keisuke Shirato, wore their baseball uniforms for Monday’s ceremony. Shirato’s family was not affected by the tsunami, but about half of his teammates lost their homes.

“A new school year starts tomorrow,” Shirato said. “Hopefully that will help give people hope and allow them to look toward a new start.”

The earthquake and tsunami flattened communities along hundreds of miles (kilometres) of coastline, causing what the government estimates could be as much as $310 billion in damage. About 250,000 are without electricity, although some of them because of the latest two quakes Monday and last Thursday.

Adding to the misery is radiation spewing from the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex, 140 miles (220 kilometres) northeast of Tokyo. The 70,000 to 80,000 people who lived within 12 miles (20 kilometres) of the plant must stay away from their homes indefinitely.

“We have no future plans. We can’t even start to think about it because we don’t know how long this will last or how long we will have to stay in these shelters,” said Atsushi Yanai, a 55-year-old construction worker. The tsunami spared his home, but he has to live in a shelter anyway because it is in the evacuation zone.

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said its president, Masataka Shimizu, went to Fukushima prefecture Monday to relay his gratitude and apologies. Shimizu recently spent eight days in the hospital with dizziness and high blood pressure, but has since returned to work.

Shimizu told reporters in Fukushima that people who live near the plant are “suffering physically and mentally due to the nuclear radiation leak accident,”

“We sincerely apologize for this,” he said.

At TEPCO headquarters in Tokyo, hundreds of employees bowed their heads for a moment of silence at 2:46.

Japan’s government marked the one-month period by putting an ad in newspapers in China, South Korea, Russia, France, the United Kingdom and the United States — a letter from Prime Minister Naoto Kan thanking people for the outpouring of support that followed the tsunami. The Red Cross alone said it has collected $107 million (9.1 billion yen) from overseas.

Kan described the outpouring as “kizuna,” the bond of friendship.

“We deeply appreciate the kizuna our friends from around the world have shown and I want to thank every nation, entity, and you personally, from the bottom of my heart.”

Jay Alabaster, The Associated Press

Mexico hit by 6.5 magnitude earthquake; No initial reports of damage

MEXICO CITY — A magnitude-6.5 earthquake shook a wide area of southern and central Mexico on Thursday, sending people fleeing into the streets, but there were no initial reports of damage.

The epicentre was located near the town of Las Choapas, about 600 kilometres southeast of Mexico City, where it swayed buildings for several seconds. In the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, people ran from their homes and schoolchildren assembled on playgrounds.

But Gov. Javier Duarte de Ochoa there was no damage near the epicentre nor in major cities in the oil-producing state.

“Veracruz is completely quiet without problems,” he told state television. “It was felt all over the state, but nothing major happened. It was only a scare.”

The also was temblor was felt strongly in the state of Chiapas, bordering Guatemala, where there also were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit a depth of 167 kilometres.

7.4 quake hits off Japan coast, no tsunami

Quake hits off Japan coast
Japan was rattled by a strong aftershock and tsunami warning Thursday night nearly a month after a devastating earthquake and tsunami flattened the northeastern coast.

The Japan meteorological agency issued a tsunami warning for a wave of up to two meters, but cancelled the warning after 90 minutes. The warning had been issued for a coastal area already torn apart by last month's tsunami, which is believed to have killed some 25,000 people and has sparked an ongoing crisis at a nuclear power plant.

Officials say Thursday's aftershock was a 7.4-magnitude and hit 40 kilometres under the water and off the coast of Miyagi prefecture. The quake that preceded last month's tsunami was a 9.0-magnitude.

Buildings as far away as Tokyo shook for about a minute.

In Ichinoseki, inland from Japan's eastern coast, buildings shook violently, knocking items from shelves and toppling furniture, but there was no heavy damage to the buildings themselves. Immediately after the quake, all power was cut. The city went dark, but cars drove around normally and people assembled in the streets despite the late hour.

U.S. Geological Survey gave the preliminary magnitude as 7.4 and it struck off the eastern coast 100 kilometres from Sendai and 140 kilometres from Fukushima. It was about 345 kilometres from Tokyo.

The depth was 40 kilometres. Shallower quakes tend to be more destructive.

Hundreds of aftershocks have shaken the northeast region devastated by the March 11 earthquake, but few have been stronger than 7.0.

Weather Patterns Changing - 2 News Articles

Record depletion of ozone recorded over Arctic: UN
Stephanie Nebehay, Reuters · Apr. 5, 2011

GENEVA — Record loss of the ozone, the atmosphere layer that shields life from the sun’s harmful rays, has been observed over the Arctic in recent months, the World Meteorological Organization said on Tuesday.

"Depletion of the ozone...has reached an unprecedented level over the Arctic this spring because of the continuing presence of ozone-depleting substances in the atmosphere and a very cold winter in the stratosphere," the WMO said in a statement.

Observations from the ground, balloons and satellites show that the region has suffered an ozone column loss of about 40 percent from the beginning of the winter to late March, according to the United Nations agency.

The highest ozone loss previously recorded over the Arctic, about 30 percent, occured in several seasons over the past 15 years or so, according to a WMO spokeswoman.

"If the ozone depleted area moves away from the pole and towards lower latitudes one can expect increased ultraviolet (UV) radiation as compared to the normal for the season," WMO said, adding that the public should check their national UV forecasts.

But any increase in UV radiation over lower latitudes away from the Arctic — which could affect parts of Canada, Nordic countries, Russia and Alaska in the United States — would not be of the same intensity as one suffers in the tropics, it said.

UV-B rays have been linked to skin cancer, cataracts and damage to the human immune system. "Some crops and forms of marine life can also suffer adverse effects," the agency said.

Unlike over Antarctica, large ozone loss is not an annually recurring phenomenon in the Arctic stratosphere, where meteorological conditions vary much more each year.

The record ozone loss over the Arctic comes despite the "very successful" Montreal Protocol aimed at cutting production and consumption of ozone-destroying chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and halons, the WMO said.

The substances were once present in refrigerators, spray cans and fire extinguishers, but have been phased out.

Nevertheless, due to the long lifetimes of these compounds in the atmosphere, it will take several decades before their concentrations return to pre-1980 levels, the target laid down in the 1987 pact, it said.

Scientists concerned massive pool of fresh water in Arctic Ocean could alter Atlantic currents

AMSTERDAM - Scientists are monitoring a massive pool of fresh water in the Arctic Ocean that could spill into the Atlantic and potentially alter the ocean currents that bring Western Europe its moderate climate.
The oceanographers said Tuesday the unusual accumulation has been caused by Siberian and Canadian rivers dumping more water into the Arctic, and from melting sea ice. Both are consequences of global warming.
If it flushes into the Atlantic, the infusion of fresh water could, in the worst case, change the ocean current that brings warmth from the tropics to European shores, said Laura De Steur, of the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research.
German researcher Benjamin Rabe, of the Alfred Wegener Institute, said the Arctic’s fresh water content had increased 20 per cent since the 1990s, or by a 8,400 cubic kilometres. That is the equivalent of all the water contained in Lake Michigan and Lake Huron in the U.S. or double the volume of water in Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake.
Increased runoff from the great northern rivers “could potentially impact the large scale ocean circulation in the Atlantic Ocean. This is important for us in Western Europe because our climate is pretty much dictated by the Thermohaline ocean circulation,” said De Steur.
The Thermohaline current loops like a conveyer belt from the tropics to the North Atlantic, driven by the differences in salt content and wind patterns. Warm water from the south gains in salinity and grows heavier as it cools. At its northern end the current is further chilled by cold air and sinks, warming again and rising as it travels south.
That cycle could be affected when the pool of fresh water is released into the Atlantic, said De Steur and Rabe. The icy water has been kept bottled up in the Arctic by wind patterns, which have not shifted their general clockwise direction for the unusually long time of 12 years. Normally, the winds change at intervals of five to 10 years.
The two scientists spoke to The Associated Press as part of a European Union initiative, called Clamer, to collate and publicize information from 300 EU-funded research projects conducted over the last 13 years on climate change and marine ecology. Rabe and colleagues from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, Germany, published their research last year in the journal Deep Sea Research on the effects of higher river runoff on ocean salinity.
De Steur said most of the excess fresh water has collected in the Canada Basin, but in the last three years changes also have been noticed in the Eurasian side of the Arctic Ocean.
“It’s important to monitor this to see if this can be transported to the Atlantic, where it might potentially effect the Gulf Stream and the Thermohaline circulation,” she said.
Rabe cautioned that scientists have not been studying the situation long enough to predict what may happen, and the results of model simulations also were inconclusive.